Save our parades
Wouldn’t you like to be seen as the heroes who saved our parades, rather than the Grinches who canceled them. Please direct staff to allow vehicles.
December 5, 2023 City Council Meetings
Highlights from December 5, 2023 Council Meetings
The UDO opens a Pandora’s Box
In my view, the UDO adopted in 2013, perhaps inadvertently, opens a back door to undercut the zoning rules.
Sloppy reporting leads to confused Raleigh residents
In the recent N&O article “Missing Middle, median income and more: The housing jargon you need to know” a mistake was made in the description of missing middle housing. The article conflated housing types with housing prices.
Density does NOT create affordability
You could have negotiated to include the same number of 56 affordable units as a community benefit for the increased entitlement given to the applicant while allowing them to benefit financially from 254 additional market rate units. Maybe even go crazy and ask them to increase from 56 to 60 affordable units while still gaining 250 units at market rate. A WIN-WIN for everyone.
Benefits of affordable housing extend beyond providing a roof over one’s head
Ultimately, the transformative capacity of affordable housing extends beyond providing a roof over one’s head. It acts as a catalyst for community wide improvements, positively impacting crime rates, mental health, incarceration rates and childhood learning. This isn’t a nice-to-have. It’s essential and it’s a key requirement for a thriving community.
Former Planning Director Mitch Silver is back – now as a lobbyist paid to undercut Raleigh’s planning rules.
Speaking before Council Tuesday, Nov 7, Mitchell Silver repeated a false claim he previously made at the Planning Commission – that the Glenwood-Brooklyn neighborhood cannot have Transition Area protection from 30-40 story buildings without first completing an expensive city-mandated Area Plan. But when a Councilor asked city staff if Silver’s Area Plan requirement was true, the simple answer was ‘No’.
Raleigh is underreporting noise complaints to the residents and the media
I am here tonight to talk about noise. In Glenwood South we have been very suspect about the numbers being reported by the city. And we were right to be suspect as we now have evidence that the city has downplayed and grossly under-reported noise complaint calls. Every citizen and every news outlet who unwittingly reported the city provided incorrect statistics to the public should be outraged.
NOVEMBER 21, 2023 CITY COUNCIL MEETINGS
Highlights from the November 21, 2023 Work Session and Afternoon Session
BRT Must Benefit New Bern residents as Promised and NOT Displace them
Counselors: You are the responsible party. The ability and duty are yours. YOU are the key players in insuring that the history of Raleigh, its culture, its communities, its monuments, and its traditions survive for the benefit, edification, and pleasure of future generations.
The Christmas Parade that should have been.
If this work can start now and be completed before March, why wasn’t it started last December and completed in time for this year’s parades? There’s been no answer.
Event Materials – Don’t Break Raleigh’s Transit Promises
If you weren’t able to attend our Community Conversation on November 16, 2023 for the discussion of Raleigh’s BRT Promises, the video and slides are now available on our “Community Conversations” page where you can find all of our previous events as well.
Show the Voters Where You Stand
One year into the terms of the four newly elected Councilors, and with Mayor Pro Tem Branch having filed to run for Mayor, I offer the following thoughts. By now, even our new Councilors own the positions by which Raleigh is currently governed. Your current record and what you do to distinguish yourself over the coming year will determine your perception by the voters in the election one year from now.
November 14, 2023 City Council Meetings
Highlights from the November 14 City Council meeting.
Reinstate Raleigh’s BRT promise: Use transit to strengthen New Bern households and families, not displace them.
In 2016 Raleigh’s Planning Director promised Raleigh’s BRT would serve “some of Raleigh’s lowest-wealth communities .. [and] ensure that these investments benefit rather than displace households and families.” At the New Bern BRT Kickoff Meeting, a senior city planner pledged the city would “make sure the BRT benefits … are shared equitably … so that existing residents of the New Bern corridor … are going to be there to benefit”
Raleigh declines under the leadership of the Mayor of DrunkTown
I’d like to talk to you tonight about how the city of Raleigh has declined under the leadership, or lack of leadership, with Mary-Ann Baldwin.
City Council Meetings – November 7, 2023
Highlights from November 7, 2023 City Council Meeting
Council didn’t like your election survey answers. So this time they’re ‘helping’ you get them ‘right’.
Raleigh City Council is doing another survey about election reform. We say another because they did a survey on the topic and published those results in January 2022. But, they didn’t like your answers. So, they are commissioning another survey and this time they are wording the questions differently to try to get answers they like.
RALEIGH PARADE ROLLERCOASTER: Did the Mayor Make Thousands Suffer Because She Was Criticized?
Let’s all remember the City has had nearly a full year to create new safety protocols so that these parade cancellations could have been avoided. And, to-date they have made no public statements about what work they have done to develop the new procedures. Or, if they have even started the process. This debacle and the lack of transparency should be an issue in next year’s City Council election.
New Bern BRT: Bait & Switch or Just Action?
In 2017, ‘The Color of Law’ landed like a bombshell in progressive housing policy circles. In Raleigh, powerful development interests saw the opportunity to adopt — some would say co-opt — Richard Rothstein’s anti-segregation message by promoting pro-density zoning rules that not only lifted exclusionary zoning rules, but went much further. By 2020, a new alliance of developer money, self-righteous Council aspirants and their white privileged adherents provided the lubrication to fast track pro-density zoning proposals. Novice Councilors were assured that pesky public input needn’t impede this sweet deal to meld profits and equity.