Sure. Those can go in the Municipal Services in DTR thread.
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Hi everyone. Hope you don’t mind me posting again about another safety meeting for the Martin Street neighborhood. Just had to call 911 today on two guys beating up a half naked, drugged out woman two houses down from me, so I feel like this is still relevant…
Our meeting last month was a huge success. Over 30 of you showed up to speak up, voice your concerns, and share your ideas with Corey Branch and the RPD. And they listened! But we still have to work to keep their attention.
You don’t need to see the stats to know that the Martin Street community has one of the highest rates of drug and gun crimes in Raleigh. But it doesn’t have to be this way. We can work together to make sure that our city is paying attention to our needs, that they’re investing the resources we need to grow and serve everyone who lives here, that we don’t remain invisible.
So come out again to hear what kind of progress Branch and the RPD has made since we last heard from them. Then stay to make sure they know that we care about turning our neighborhood into a safe, friendly, and inclusive space for everyone!
THURSDAY, MARCH 14th, 7PM
ROBERTS PARK COMMUNITY CENTER
Get more info at http://www.martinstreetcommunity.org
We have their ear! But we still need your voice!
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Best is a relative term. Can we see who the other options were?
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Haven’t even heard of the other 2. It’s like asking what is the best car company.
Chevy
Vinfast
Yugo
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I choose McDonald’s in the category of fast food restaurant that has the largest M logo.
The Indy is a once-relevant/now-ridiculed local rag. Nothing more.
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Are there currently any groups supporting better urbanism? I’m looking to get involved, but really have no idea where to start.
Well, dylan, since you stole my name (jk) I’m happy to chime in here. 
There has been talks at various levels about creating a more YIMBY type group to effectively counter the LR crowd. Raleigh Forward was formed to provide facts where LR operates often on emotion but RF isn’t trying to necessarily take a side and be identified as YIMBY. We do need a more aggressive approach but I’m not aware of a group that’s focusing there, yet.
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Thanks for the insight! It seems like there is a fairly active group of people here who share a passion for urban planning and development. Is this the main platform where the talks you referred to have taken place?
I’d like to gain an understanding of past efforts and what’s succeeded/failed.
In addition to Raleigh Forward, I’m also aware of (but not super familiar with) WakeUP Wake County. From what I can tell, their policy positions start from a premise of “growth is happening, let’s try to shape how and where we grow in a smart way”. They advocate for growth around transit (BRT and regional rail), walkability/bikeability, housing affordability, green spaces, etc.
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I don’t think you’ll see this forum being the official home of such a group, but once a group does exist, I would expect a good number of members of this forum to be involved.
I forgot, there is a Strong Towns Raleigh Slack group but it’s been fairly quiet lately.
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Thanks for the question, @dylan. As others have said, Wake Up Wake County is probably the longest running advocacy group for sustainable changes including transit, infill development, and some environmental causes. They are a small non-profit that advocates on issues but not candidates. (from my experience anyway)
Raleigh Forward has started recently and is also a topics-focused website/newsletter that I recommend you subscribe to. Housing has been their biggest topic lately.
Livable Raleigh, again as mentioned earlier, is very active but more “growth skeptical” AKA NIMBY and status quo. They tend to block proposals and criticize rather than show up and help propose solutions. You’ll see recommendations and solution-type thinking from Raleigh Forward and Wake Up.
Other than that, I like to think that this forum here, and whatever else I do, tends to be the groupies of urban Raleigh. We just chit chat and meet up every now and then. Sometimes, someone who’s actually on a board or commission, which we have some on this forum, will help out and join the conversation.
To me, that’s the scene right now as far as groups involved in the “Raleigh Urban Conversation”.
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Awesome, thanks for the info!
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Hi everyone! If you’ve seen my posts here before, you may know that I run the Martin Street Community Group. We’ve had a handful of meetings so far and have even generated a little bit of press, but things have been relatively quiet over the summer.
However, the RPD recently reached out to me wanting to schedule another meeting between our neighborhood (East Raleigh) and the Chief of Police. Apparently, Chief Patterson wants to do some more outreach and the RPD identified our community group (and larger neighborhood) as a great place to start. To me, this is proof that we’ve been able to make an impact with our meetings. We’ve spoken up and our voices are getting heard.
So when’s all this happening? Thursday, August 15th, 6pm at the Roberts Park Community Center. Here’s an easy link to put it on your calendar. And if you want more info, head on over to our website!
PS - I’m also looking for a little help getting the word out for this meeting and future ones, as well as organizing other events. It’s hard doing this all on my own! If you’d like to pitch in, go ahead and reach out to me at dfyoung@gmail.com. Thanks!
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Just wanted to put up the poster we have for the upcoming Meet the Chief event. Hope to see y’all there!
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Not surprising to me at all that LR picks Nextdoor to collaborate with the community. What a trash platform.
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Trash platform, yes…but remarkably active. Other groups that provide a counter-message to LR really should take advantage of it because having that many people hear only one side of an issue is not gonna help us in the long run.
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And it’s that name - who wouldn’t want to be part of a Livable Raleigh?? Except it isn’t what it says it is…
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If Livable Raleigh were left to name our future Baseball team, it would certainly be the Raleigh Pearl Clutchers.
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