this is a great response, I should use it for literally every other comment in this thread. I am simply suggesting that our city council should not take into account emails for obvious reasons
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NIMBYs are a very concerted organized minority. They own property and they don’t speak for those who don’t. In fact they speak directly against those interests because they aim to take away other peoples’ chances to get in that club. They elevate their personal interests above the community.
There is tremendous demand for walkabe spaces served by transit in the Triangle but the only places that can do that realistically are less than 1% of the housing stock in a 2 million metro. The single family neighborhoods adjacent to those downtowns are often the most hostile to the expansion of those downtowns. But the unused spaces on the edges of downtowns are also the best places to increase urban housing stock.
So we have a situation where many people want something but cannot advocate for it on the ground to the degree that cozy pensioners can because they are too busy commuting 40 minutes away, holding down actual jobs, dealing with everyday life.
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Hey I’ll just jump in here to provide some clarity: emails matter. Showing up to the public hearing really matters. Going to the neighbor meetings matters. Inserting a multitude of opinions during the process matters; a lot more than being keyboard warriors on a forum. Hope that helps! 
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Great question. Won’t make that mistake again. 
y’all.
duuuuude. not chill, prettychill.
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Lol…make a fair criticism of council behavior, council member calls me a keyboard warrior. And I am the one that is not chill 
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I thought it was pretty clear that he’s not speaking for himself, but for the city council, and how politics works as a whole.
When you’re a politician, you use things like message ratios and public displays of support as a sign of what the will of the people is. Maybe you don’t think that it should matter, but when WRAL is reporting the ratios and you are directly asked why you’re violating the will of the people, it absolutely matters.
That leads to you not getting elected. That leads to pro-NIMBY people getting control of the city council. That leads directly to you not getting what you want. That leads to our city being worse off in the long-run. It doesn’t matter whether or not you agree with it or like it, that’s the way it is.
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Yes, to clean this up:
I commented here initially to let you know that we are hearing mostly from folks opposed to this project, so if you support this project, it would be helpful to bring your support out of this forum and into some setting that can actually help impact the direction of the case; whether that’s an email or showing up to the public hearing, etc.
I apologize for using the term “keyboard warrior” but I meant that in the sense that there are more productive ways to help advance this (or any issue) you care about. However, some folks just like to vent and this seems like a good space to do that too.
That said, I do want to let you all know that I will be taking a step back from this forum, and I’ve asked Leo to disable my account. I do not find my contributions to be very productive at this time and even when I’m trying to help I often feel like I’m getting jumped on. I hope you can appreciate that after several years of service through some very difficult times I am very burned out and I need to make efforts to manage my engagement. You can always reach me on social media or via email. All the best!
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I am sorry to see you stepping back from the form, I’ve always appreciated your participation and insights. I do, however, certainly understand the burnout factor. I enjoy this form for its overall collegial manner, and I am sorry that graciousness was often not extended to you. Good luck, and I appreciate your public service.
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It’s been great having you in this forum and I’m sorry someone who doesn’t understand the actual reality of governing on a city council put you over the edge, but I’m sure stepping back will help your mental health and sense of perspective.
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Hate to see a few grumpy apples run you off this forum. I always enjoy your insights on things and have appreciated your participation on this site.
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You need to change your username, it’s not accurate.
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What. Happened here today? I’ve been busy all day and now see this when I come home? Bad Community!! Very Bad!!
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Hah, just my thoughts as I pulled up the forum this evening.
That said, it feels kind of like a natural progression. Having direct access to a council member is too tempting to try to turn into influence or armchair politics. I’m glad Jonathan put up with it for so long and continued to bring some perspective here.
Speaking of armchair politicking, if I had to think of a way we could avoid this as a community in the future, maybe explicit rules around engagement with government officials would be helpful. Something to protect them from feedback which should be delivered non-anonymously through normal civic channels, so we can benefit from their insights without burning them. Haven’t considered second order effects but I think some sort of rule would need to exist to make such asymmetrical engagement sustainable.
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I wanted to clarify some points regarding the recent discussion…
I never made any comment about Jonathan specifically but rather that it is unsettling that city council as a whole is clearly monitoring the ratio of yes/no emails. The reason I find this unsettling is because it is in no form a true view of the downtown population, just the folks who disagree. This is not a controvertial opinion and had clearly been stated by many others before me even in this thread.
Other posters pulled Jonathan in by name to jump to his defense, and I repeated that this is not about him, it is about the state of city council valuing something that is so easily manipulated.
At some point folks became hostile to me and insinuate that I have no idea how policitics work etc. I never said anything disparaging about Jonathan at all, and am actually a large supporter of his.
Eventually Jonathan responsed saying that I am simply a keyboard warrior. Personally I found that to be kind of childish and so I responded in kind. Obviously I misinterpreted this (he apologized).
I clearly took the keyboard warrior comment the wrong way in the same way my comment “if that is not the case then why are you hanging out here” was taken the wrong way. This is now deleted because I guess mods thought that it was not valuable. My comment was intended to express that Jonathan was obviously in agreement that the discourse here is valuable, because why else would he be engaging here. This clearly did not translate over the internet which is okay. I will apologize in person and I appreciate him apologizing here before he nuked his account.
In general I find it strange to recieve so much criticism for simply having a basic opinion about how city council works from this forum. I am not surprised that the community here would respond like I am the reason Jonathan is leaving, but it is simply not true. Read his comment. Then go look how much criticism is in many many threads in this forum of the city council. And many of his comments are met with long form questions and insinuations of how things could be better. I wouldn’t want to sit around arm chair council members either.
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You are absolutely not the reason Jonathan decided to step away from the forum. I think it’s all good. Everyone else needs to chill. Let’s roast some marshmallows and get a drum circle going.
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I don’t think anyone is or should point a finger at you specifically. Seems to me like over the last few days, between this zoning and the BRT thread, there were enough straws to break a camel’s back, so to speak. You happened to be the last one to chime in.
(Just to be clear, the rest is not a reply to you)
I can’t imagine what it’s like to be on the council and deal with the public face to face, on the phone, in deluges of emails, and then hop on what seems like a friendly space to be helpful and get inundated with even more criticism. Lots of respect for Jonathan both in his willingness to engage and how gracefully he stepped away.
Hope to see some other council members chime in here in the future but we need to make sure their reply inboxes are not 70% armchairing, even if well intentioned!
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I’ll echo @grant s last post. It’s not you and your points are valid and worth discussing. Carry on.
not trying to flame, im not an expert. 1. are many newcomers into raleigh used to far worse traffic and so “blah…i did urbanization elsewhere, just give me avg commute time und 35 min in my car?” 2. " I did box living in an expensive metro…some housing is not the same as other housing. ill accept that I can reach out my window and touch my neighbors house is way above the 4th floor of a 5 over 1 elsewhere?" 3. I guess this seem right? taxi cutouts in front of a building for taxis to pick up people? more tennis/pickleball courts scattered around? in an older kane video he stated that once the values of the houses shot up significantly…many began to be ok what what he did there despite earlier reservations.