Even though Shelley Lake neighbors were joined by literally thousands of Raleigh residents in petitioning the Council to protect Shelley Lake Park, Council, by a 7 to 1 vote, continued its pursuit of density wherever profitable, regardless of the impacts. Here are 5 lessons the Shelley Lake neighbors learned, and what neighbors of future upzonings can expect from this Council:
Let’s be very clear. There is one and only one reason the council abolished CACs. They wanted to eliminate the independent voices of citizens involved in rezoning cases as payment to the developers who paid for their campaigns.
Hillsborough-Wade CAC Chair Donna Bailey spoke at the July 7 Raleigh City Council meeting on Mayor Baldwin’s conflicts of interest.
We at Livable Raleigh are very pleased that the Raleigh City Council wants a more powerful Police Advisory Board. On Tuesday, the Council voted unanimously for a letter to be sent to all three branches of state government asking for additional powers. The Council wants authority to provide more transparency, oversight, and power to our community.
Nicole Stewart consistently uses coded language such as ‘right-sizing’ voices to find ‘the right voices’. Her code words sound vaguely progressive, but her motive is not to expand and empower all voices, but to conceal and distract from her real political motive: to silence voices she doesn’t agree with.
A comparison of Durham’s successful $95M Affordable Housing Bond in 2019 with Raleigh’s proposed 2020 Bond reveals stark differences: Unlike Durham’s precise commitments, Raleigh’s bond lacks details required for accountability and for judging if the spending will address Raleigh’s most pressing needs.
When Mary-Ann Baldwin recently called for “flexibility” in spending Raleigh’s proposed Affordable Housing Bond funds, what she really wants are fewer constraints on how the money will be spent, thereby creating more opportunities to parley taxpayer-funded development deals with supplicants in Barnhill’s back office.
It is the job of a conscientious City Council to mediate between profit-seeking developers and neighbors whose property rights — and quality of life — are in danger of being trampled.
This is likely your last chance to speak out and help save Umstead Park from the RDU Quarry.
The bond proposal is full of holes where the details should be. Still, we haven’t given up hope that we can persuade Council to focus on the real needs and fight gentrification in our historic African-American communities.
We are two cities in one: A surging city for whites and the highly educated. A city in crisis for many African-Americans and other people of color.
Midtown Raleigh resident Larry Helfant recently emailed the Raleigh City Council to share his concerns about a rezoning (Z-41-19) near Shelley Lake. The Public Hearing is June 2nd. Apparently the City Council plans to go ahead with public hearings and other business as usual, despite a pandemic and civil crisis.
What we need is a real moonshot budget that prioritizes Raleigh Human Services and an Affordable Housing bond that deals directly and effectively with the horrifying impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, which are tearing at the fabric of so many Raleigh lives, particularly the lives of homeless mothers and their children.
Livable Raleigh offers some suggestions for improving community engagement at Council meetings.
Since Baldwin & Co’s election, early dismissals from the Planning Commission have come at a rapid pace. Who’s getting dismissed? Anyone not employed by the development industry or beholden to the Baldwin bloc on Council.
Although Councilor Buffkin did share the concern that citizens weren’t provided alternate methods to access CAC meetings as justification to abolish that system, he is MISSING IN ACTION when it comes to providing access to his own district meetings.
The network of CACs benefited the Black community. It was an opportunity for Black people to voice their concerns on City issues. Also, it empowered the Black community to organize against gentrification. This is why it was dismantled.
This just-unearthed video, produced by the city BEFORE Baldwin took office, shows the CACs for what they were really were. Take a look and if you like, share it before the secret is buried again!
Raleigh’s affordable housing bond survey lacks important sampling methods and validation techniques required to produce an unbiased picture of public sentiment. Intentionally or not, the survey ignores low-wealth residents and confuses the public’s true feelings about the affordable housing bond.
Councilor Nicole Stewart expressed frustration during the May 5 council meeting that Councilor David Cox hadn’t provided advance notice to her that he would raise the issue of the RDU quarry, though of course he didn’t bring it up; three citizens did.