I watched the council discussion over the wayfinding kiosks and found a subset of the council to be antagonistic with the DRA, folks that should be seen as thought leaders, in my opinion. I’m concerned that we have a growing anti-downtown council.
What are your thoughts on the state of the council’s support of downtown?
Here’s my post with more thoughts mainly related to the kiosks.
https://dtraleigh.com/2018/10/municipography-downtown-wayfinding-kiosks/
Before we figure that out, is there something like a who’s who list of where each council member seem to stand when it comes to downtown policies? (and other relevant indicators)
…just to make sure all of us have the same baseline understanding of what’s going on before the political mud-slinging starts…
Edit: spelling
@dtraleigh, I like the kiosks and think we should at least give them a shot. I do think the sign ordinance is a legitimate issue that needs to be resolved first. The kiosk policy would have made pretty dramatic changes to the regulations for digital advertisements city-wide.
City Attorney said it would be difficult to craft a narrow resolution that wouldn’t allow flashing signs to proliferate. We could dictate what kind of ads go on the IKE kiosks, but have no say over content on other private systems. I think we should have tried to work out a compromise there, but many people remember how contentious our sign ordinance was when it was enacted (90s?) and are concerned about that aspect.
Didn’t we already deal with the “light/sign” issue when the city dealt with that electronic sign in the window of that house on the corner of Peace st and Glenwood ave?
I don’t remember the resolution of that case, but I remember that being an issue.
To allow the IKEs, the policy would have to change again. I think they’d need to increase the ads/minute that can be displayed?
Right. The IKEs would show a new ad every 10 seconds (could be decreased to 15 seconds) and I believe the issue comes from the city’s policy around billboards which need to change much less frequently.
I don’t think it’s DTR in particular that this subset of the Council is hostile to. I think it’s change in general. Air BnB, ADUs, scooters, roof decks…and now kiosks. Yes, some of these issues affect downtown more than other regions of the city, but I think Council’s hostility stems more from a fear of change than anything else.
I’m pretty sure that this site has a policy against using dirty language, so I will just say that my thoughts are that this city council’s support of downtown has been … not good at all!
I would also say that there are five members of the council (and two in particular) who are very anti-downtown and ought to be replaced in 2019.
I will go a step further and say one of those names directly- Kay Crowder never should have been on the Council to begin with (was she even voted on by citizens, or wasn’t she just thrown on when her husband passed? please correct me if wrong) - she has shot down just about every progressive and interesting idea brought forth.
I also found the hostility to change alarming by some of the Council members. I don’t agree with the characterization it’s a “20th century glass steel box”. After watching their promotional video, it’s far more than that. It’s got everything a cell phone has–text messaging, geo-location awareness, apps, etc. etc.
I do appreciate the question raised about the sign ordinance. It seems to me this is an interactive tool more than an advertisement–like a drinking fountain with an advertisement on it. How to distinguish between the two as a matter of ordinance is what the City Attorney needs to figure out. And Council should support such innovations.
I only read just a bit of this kiosk that they want to have for DTR…But shouldn’t our city council leaders focus more on affordable housing…transit…retail/hotel in the DTR area. Not trying to step on toes and I’m sure that this would be a nice thing to have for visitors to see and get info of the DTR area, But I feel that it is a waste for right now. Just me I guess. Maybe I better finish reading more of the post and video provided and give a better reason Why.
From what I’ve seen, admittedly not a ton but enough to have an opinion, Cox and Mendell seem very anti-urban and somewhat out of their depth in general. Curious as to what others think.
Any time a city councilperson dies or resigns mid-term, the council chooses a replacement to serve the rest of the term. When Thomas Crowder died in 2014, the board unanimously picked Kay to fill the seat. Appointing the spouses of deceased elected officials to serve out the remainder of their terms is a terrible tradition, but it’s a pretty venerable political tradition.
Kay was then re-elected in her own right in 2015 and 2017. Obviously, being the incumbent certainly no doubt helped, as did the goodwill associated with the name. Last year she was for all practical purposes running unopposed.
This is all personal opinion of course but I think Cox is bad. He asks for his constituents’ opinions on things like DT Rezoning via social media, but he leads the witness to say what he wanted them to say. Stef works hard and responds, in detail, to emails but she follows Russ and I can’t stand it. And her email blast after they “approved” SmoHo P3 and said this is the way this should work is unforgivable to me.
Stef mendell is terrible. She has no clue what she is doing. She panders to the small but loud NIMBY contingent. She will listen to the moron who claims a 40 story tower on Capital Blvd will “cast a shadow on Oakeood”. Anyone on this site who cares about downtown Raleigh’s progress should vote for David Knight.
Oh, contra, I believe that she knows EXACTLY what she is doing. She has learned how and has become a true politician in the most freighting of ways…scary and sad! 
She & others are “solving” the affordable housing problem so that it doesn’t get to their unaffordable neighborhoods.
Anyone else see the recall effort for the Mayor of Raleigh? 
https://www.newsobserver.com/news/local/counties/wake-county/article252780038.html
I did. I posted that link in the Raleigh Elections thread. 
Let’s close this thread as anything here can go in the general council thread.