I can see it both ways in terms of the name. I suppose it depends on what end-game we’d like to see. IMO, that end game is an actual downtown CAC where the voice of DT isn’t diluted by the periphery of first ring suburbia.
If the goal isn’t to have a real downtown CAC, then why not change it? Maybe it could be the DAC for Downtown Advisory Council? Maybe we could get the CAC’s behind that if a DAC voice was allowed as an overlay to the CAC process? I don’t know…
A Downtown CAC may make sense logistically or not. That would be up for a team that is working on redrawing CACs in the future, if that ever comes about.
Right now, it’s about getting attendance. We just can’t find a better name that helps that end goal.
2 Likes
I would encourage us all to keep thinking on it.
First, we are a Community Activation Committee. We are not trying to be what they are.
Second, IMO, we don’t consider changing the name unless there’s legal pressure or a branding reason to.
4 Likes
The October DTR CAC Social has been scheduled for October 23! Please consider coming and hanging out with us at Transfer Co.!
Facebook: http://rlgh.life/social1023fb
MeetUp: http://rlgh.life/social1023mu
Also, it would be immensely helpful if everybody on this board that has Twitter would follow and set up Tweet alerts for @dtrcac and one step further, retweet us! If you consider the typical demographic of the DTR resident, they’re heavily into social media and the more exposure we get, the more impact we will have. Conversely, if you have Facebook and can like our page facebook.com/dtrcac and show “interest” in our event even if you can’t go, that would also be fantastic! Thanks for all the help, DTR peeps!
5 Likes
guess this is good place to post this’ N&O is having a meeting to talk about growth.
we’re inviting you to come to a community forum in our downtown Raleigh newsroom, 421 Fayetteville St., on Monday, Oct. 14, from 6:30-8 p.m. Here’s a chance to let our journalists know what topics are most important to you in this era of unprecedented growth.
Read more here: https://www.newsobserver.com/news/business/article235608287.html#storylink=cpy
3 Likes
Anyone who’d call the Triangle’s recent growth unprecedented hasn’t been here very long. Growth in the Triangle has nothing but precedent for growth for many decades.
Also, I resent that they are clearly setting up this session for NIMBYs to come and bitch by clearly asking people to come and share their concerns.
3 Likes
We’ll get this posted up on social media here shortly. Thanks for the heads up!
1 Like
All the more reason for us to attend!!
2 Likes
It goes down like this: “My concern is with the NIMBYs”…
We now have an opportunity to have another social before the election! Our October 23rd social at Transfer should be huge, but we need your help! Please refer back to the post I replied to and share the Facebook event, invite your friends and Tweet! We have a good thing going and we should take advantage of the current excitement with the elections to activate more residents! Even if you don’t live downtown, I bet you know people that do. Please help us reach them.
Thank you in advance!
3 Likes
Now with the election out of the way, so to speak, were to go from here? Is it the City Council that decides on CACS and how they vote/run/area of? And if so, wouldn’t beginning Jan 3rd be a good time to start thinking about making THIS DTR CAC a reality?
I think our work has just started. Trying to bring awareness to the election was our immediate goal given the timing. Our long term goal is to increase awareness of resident participation in their local government and activate as many people as possible. We haven’t even scratched the surface on that effort.
IF the CACs were to remap and a “Downtown CAC” were to be established, it wouldn’t evolve from our organization, we’d have to change our name and continue making people aware of that CAC. At least we could then focus on one CAC.
6 Likes
I wonder if this video they just put up is a response to Downtown CAC being formed and the city council elections:
1 Like
Hey Leo, I would love to get involved. I am a local attorney, but I do live in the Durham area. I am not sure how that can help, but let me know.
2 Likes
An idea I had the other day was is they made it mandatory for CAC meetings to be recorded and put on the city Youtube page. Would help with a lot of the “no one is involved” problem they have. Would not solve CAC problems, but would go a long way on making them more inclusive.
No, that’s just timing of the two efforts. I believe the RCAC asked staff to make that video some time this summer.
1 Like
Thanks a lot @RobertB. I’ll keep a note and see if there’s a need but right now, ideas and volunteering around social media and outreach are the biggest needs. If the end goal is to raise attendence at CAC meetings, we want to approach that with social mixers to build community, we tried facebook ads, we’re curating posts on facebook and twitter.
What else? That’s where we’re at right now.
For everyone, the planning team has a Slack channel for discussion. Let me know if you want to join and chat.
Nice write-up by Raleigh Magazine about the Downtown CAC, let’s hope others who don’t visit this forum become aware and participate.
11 Likes
@dtraleigh and @OakCityDylan representing!
They talked around the edges of the “gerrymandering” issue regarding the official CACs, but I wish it was more strongly communicated in the article. Simply put, the voices of downtown’s residents are muted because they are overrun by voices coming from outside downtown proper regarding downtown related issues. If there’s anything that we could get the new council to do with the CACs, redrawing all of them while creating an official downtown CAC would be ideal.
4 Likes