Also, I reiterate these thoughts:
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Cancelled before you even speak!
I know this person. She’s a wannabe politician. Failed attempt at a City Council run last election with no prior experience. Tons of virtue signaling and “look at me and how progressive and wholesome I am” FB posts. Very nice person IRL but insufferable online presence.
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she added her response to that video, stating “While public transit is important, this plan is not the right way to do it” - Please do share your fail-proof plan to improve public transit that makes 100% of everyone happy and satisfied then?
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I agree. Nothing in life is perfect. I feel this is human. Whether it’s this, the workplace, friends even, some people seem to stall on things when there is doubt or a single concern. I get it but no action can be just as, or even more, damaging than doing something mediocre.
I love that photo from the council meeting, not sure why, but these days, trying to make a scene and go viral is a strategy that activists seem to be using to amplify their case/voice. It’s noisy but doesn’t stick around. It would be better to come up to the table and work with people who are actually trying to solve problems.
Side note, I wish we could all tip, buy a beer, buy a lunch, to the city staffers that have to present with that around them. It has got to take a little extra work, deal with a little extra stress, to have to present with all those signs and people around you like that so cheers to any of you reading. 
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It’s less likely for an area to be gentrified if there’s no water and electric utilities in the area so maybe we should shut those services off too
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Right. If you keep blocking every attempt to make a city more equitable and livable because the project in question “isn’t progressive enough,” are you really that progressive? You might think you’re doing the right thing, and I can be sympathetic to that, but, at the end of the day, you’re blocking progress on all fronts.
There’s a balance. We want parameters and guidelines around these types of projects to ensure that we’re not leaving people out of the process, but we don’t want to be so particular that we ultimately accomplish nothing.
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It’s the San Francisco paradox. If you fight everything tooth and nail for not being progressive enough, you end up with a city only the very wealthy or the homeless can actually live in.
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There was a DC freeway-revolt slogan of “no white men’s roads through Black men’s homes.” So this handful of people is trying to say… “no white men’s buses” ( 
) through… “white men’s homes” (hardly any homes are being taken?!).
Per alternatives analysis, the chosen Western BRT alignment corridor is… much whiter than Raleigh on average. The Western Blvd. segment from downtown to Jones Franklin is 38.4% minority. The Cary end is more diverse, so the chosen combined route corridor is 45% minority. Raleigh as a whole is 47% minority.
Actual demographics of bus riders in America (Census, APTA) shows transit riders are majority people of color. You are almost 3X more likely to find a Black person aboard a bus in America (30% of bus riders) than in the general public (13%), vs. 1/2 as likely to find a White person (35% of bus riders, 62% of public). Similarly, Black people are 234% MORE likely to take transit to work in small/mid-sized cities, whereas White people are 54% more likely to NOT take transit to work.
All the meanwhile, NCDOT is spending $750M to pump more cars and more pollution on the Beltline right through this very area, but… 
. Looks to me like an attempt to woke-wash plain ol’ NIMBYism.
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They always seem to forget that part! Oopsy daisy.
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I don’t understand the push back on BRT, or improving any public transit due to to passing through minority communities. Improved transportation options would be a huge benefit I would think. It’s very much not like plowing a freeway through the neighborhood…
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I zoomed way in on that photo and I’m 99% sure that’s Wake County Housing Justice Coalition behind those signs. Here’s what they had to say about BRT. Incredibly vague and unconvincing, almost comically so. There’s a complaint about urban heat island effect (caused by traffic and pollution, which public transit in theory should help address?) and then a list of other communities that would be “affected,” but little specifics on how.
Also interesting to see that Zainab Baloch attended the WCHJC meeting to speak about the impact of the BRT proposal on the Muslim community that has a large presence around Method. This is what she had to say about transit during her run for mayor in 2019:
Raleigh was and is continuing to be a car city - it is nearly impossible to get around the city without a car. The first barrier is the lack of urgency in prioritizing sustainable public transit by our leaders. We need our local government to take the lead and prioritize safe bike lanes, reliable and efficient public transit and the infrastructure to support it, and walkable communities. Raleigh is decades behind on addressing non-car mobility options and with the current climate crisis and rapidly growing population, we don’t have the time to wait anymore.
hmmmm.
For what it’s worth, the Islamic Association of Raleigh put out a statement that’s a lot more measured in stating their concerns about impacts from the project. I would like to see where they landed with this and if they spoke at the council meeting. I wish I’d known earlier because I grew up in that community and would’ve voiced my support for BRT.
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Thanks for the sleuthing. I did see on Twitter that Zainab basically stormed out after they voted in support of the BRT study saying something along the lines of “you’ve destroyed the community”.
Some people are really angry, and also really out of touch with reality. It’s an unbecoming combination.
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I think everyone is waiting for the George Jetson-style flying cars that 1) don’t make pollution 2) fold up into your briefcase because we all need on-street parking 3) won’t displace anyone
Even then though people would still find something to complain about.
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The hyperbole is strong! LMAO. Truly confused by her stance though. “We need to focus on better public transportation!” … “No not like that!!!” Ok - HOW then? What’s your solution? Zainab is another wonderful person IRL with an insufferable, impossible online political presence. Also another failed wannabe politician - first with a failed campaign for City Council, then inexplicably a failed run for MAYOR after the failed CC run. So given that she’s desperately tried to gain some political power in the city, you’d think she’d be offering her fail-proof public transpo plan to counter argue against the BRT that she is so dramatically against?
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ALSO to those anti-BRT that talk up the need for light-rail instead (which hey, I agree that would be so much better in the long, long run - just WAY more expensive in the short-term) - do they realize how much MORE ROW would be utilized by the city to build light-rail?? I mean that shit would DESTROY tons of properties in order to make it work LMAO.
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Light rail is also much more of a magnet for development because of the higher certainty in the permanence of the investment IIRC - it was one of the arguments for light rail in chapel hill over BRT in terms of shaping future land jse
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That aligns with my perception too. She seems like a lovely person, and definitely capable and passionate. But of all the people I knew in our community, I never would’ve pegged her as an outstanding candidate for a political career. It’s also incredible to me how easy it is to build a profile/platform for one’s self these days through using campaigns as resume builders.
For example, In Situ Studio holds an annual conference on issues of design/urbanism in Raleigh, and they had a panel of expert speakers from all over to discuss affordable housing. They invited her to be on the panel, and like… what qualifies her to speak on that other than having a failed run for mayor? The extent of her statements about affordable housing during her campaign run were like… “affordable housing is good! we need it! let’s build it!” like, thanks… It’s very easy to express support for popular issues but a LOT more complex to actually understand the policy involved in accomplishing things like this. Seems like her support for public transit may have been similarly surface-level.
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This statement seems both genuine and reasonable. It raises specific concerns in a concrete way, taking a tone that seems open to cooperation. They single out the rezoning, not the transit itself - which is the right idea. It is not hyperbolic, nor does it come across as political posturing. Not all of the demands are clearly acceptable (eg min 50% affordable seems high to the point of being prohibitive - and may wind up being counter-productive in terms of actual affordability) but it seems like a very reasonable stance for starting negotiation. I think the city should assume good faith here and work with them in earnest.
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That was my impression of it too. I appreciated that they also didn’t ask people to take a position for or against, but rather requested to hear community members’ perspectives so they could be relayed at the meeting. We’ve got some good PR folks at IAR 
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