Raleigh City Council: Jonathan Melton AMA

[JonathanMelton]

@John

How can the city do a better job of managing its own brand? It seems to me that Raleigh has woefully neglected its brand by letting others define it.

Interesting. Do you have examples? I feel like the perception of Raleigh is an innovative, young, diverse city. I think the Chamber of Commerce does a good job marketing our city (and region). I also know the City did a redesign of the logo, website, etc. not too far before my time.

[JonathanMelton]

@keita

Do you have any thoughts on better synchronization between Triangle cities’ policies (should we do that, how you’d ideally go about it, etc.)?

It’s starting to strike me that there can be negative feedback loops that can emerge at a regional level because different municipalities approach things differently. For example, Orange County has a rural buffer that puts a geographic barrier for how much new housing can be built without very targeted and drawn-out rezoning cases, which has the downstream effect of straining housing supplies in Chatham and Durham counties. And now that Durham’s mayor is acknowledging her hesitance (bias?) against approving new single-family homes in southeastern Durham, it’s not a stretch to expect that this can also impact housing developments in Raleigh, too.

As a non-public servant who still loves policy issues, my first instinct is that our cities’ planning agendas, standards, and incentives need to be harmonized across our borders. Do you think the city-by-city approach (plus informal, working relationships between select agencies) is enough, or could there be more done?

A great question and one I think about a lot because decisions we make here have a direct impact “downstream” in places like Smithfield, etc. I’m encouraged to see that Chapel Hill is considering their own missing middle policy this week. But there’s really no direct link on policy as we’re all separate municipalities with separate elections, etc. I think we do a good job taking a regional approach on business issues (the Chamber helps a lot with that) but there’s division on other issues (and political differences too- there was a real struggle on forming county-wide consensus on mask mandates, for example!)

[John]

I am glad to hear that they are constantly working on it, and I hope that also includes keeping the data for downtown, the city, the MSA and CSA updated on various platforms like Wikipedia, etc. We have to actively manage our social media and platform presence. If density of residents is important to retailers, then keeping that data updated should be of utmost importance.

[JonathanMelton]

@John

I am glad to hear that they are constantly working on it, and I hope that also includes keeping the data for downtown, the city, the MSA and CSA updated on various platforms like Wikipedia, etc. We have to actively manage our social media and platform presence. If density of residents is important to retailers, then keeping that data updated should be of utmost importance.

Yes! Check out the DRA updates. Do Business | Downtown Raleigh, NC

[John]

Jonathan, Thank you for taking your lunch hour to be with us. Even if in the background, it’s my hope that you can continue to reference this community and the various topics. Through Leo’s amazing efforts, this is a wealth of ideas consolidated into a single source. There are a lot of interesting ideas discussed here and some really engaged and competent voices. Again, thank you!

[JonathanMelton]

Always good to chat with y’all, and I do read the forum from time to time! Feel free to send follow up questions to my city email: jonathan.melton@raleighnc.gov

[Yimbyforlife]

I might not be up to you the Feds will have their say.

[Francisco]

@JonathanMelton

This is really a question for the County/a County Commissioner as they build and maintain our library system. They do have a library in the County Building on Fayetteville Street next to the courthouse, but it’s not very big.

Yeah that’s part of the problem why downtown is suffering from lack of services. Devolution of responsibility of services is unclear so neither CoR nor Wake BoC have invested in downtown much other than legal/courthouse needs.