If private developers are forced to include AH in new projects, then the city must be prepared to subsidize such units ad infinitum. Otherwise, the cost of those AH’s is going to fall in the laps of the market rate residents and tenants. If we do this only for downtown, we can then presume that the city has decided to take the resources available to them for AH, and put it into the most expensive building type in the city inclusive of both land and construction costs.
The city should be assembling land with their current financial resources, along future BRT and rail transit lines, to best position it for the future needs of affordable housing. The city should also implement an impact fee for ALL development, not just cherry pick high profile projects for their own political gain.
Totally agree! I’ve never understood the economics of a private developer taking it on the chin to provide affordable housing. I’m open to understanding if there’s something I’m missing but seems subsidies and other programs make more sense. I also couldn’t agree more about focusing on outskirts of DTR along BRT. New Bern out near 440 is going to be a hot spot for that kind of development in the next 5 years IMO.
April Parker is a new candidate in District D. Does anyone know much about her? I’m happy to see so many good alternatives to the incumbent in my district.
I’m in the same district and I guess I have a different perspective. Kay Crowder is the name people recognize and she’ll get votes simply for that reason. If we take the voters that know her and don’t want her and split those votes among the remaining candidates, we lose every time. We need at least 1 or 2 of the District D candidates to do what Robbie did and bail/pass along support so we have a fighting chance against the incumbent. My 2 cents.
Interestingly, if you look at the results of the Raleigh survey, residents of the southeast side of the city are most disappointed with available parking downtown. If we agree that southeast Raleigh is less economically advantaged than other parts of the city, and we presume (as some on the council seem to do) that AH has to be downtown and walkable because those in need of AH don’t have cars, then why do we see such results? It would seem to me that we may have an affordable parking issue in addition to an affordable housing issue. I haven’t heard a single current council member or candidate talk about this issue.
I guess I was thinking more about a runoff. If all of these candidates are drawing from the same pool of voters then more candidates doesn’t really help.
Parking seems to be an awareness issue, imo.
Do we need an affordable parking solution? Do other cities have subsidized parking based on income?
Not challenging it. This actually is a concept I’ve never thought of so more reading on the topic would be welcome. At first thought, my gut says it would be a distraction for the upcoming transit improvements.
There is such an abundance of FREE on-street parking all over this city, people just need to be willing to walk more than 6 feet to their destination.
Bear in mind that some people are elderly or have circumstances that make a half-mile hike infeasible.
@dtraleigh & @Jake
My comments about parking are intended to be provocative because a prevailing narrative about AH is that it needs to be walkable, and arguably the section of the city where there’s likely to be the highest need for affordable housing is the section of the city that’s telling us that they are most disappointed with parking downtown.
The disappointment about parking might be a symptom because: A: parking downtown for lower wage earners may be unaffordable, or B: there may not be viable options for low wage earners to avoid driving, or C: a combination of both. I suspect that it’s C.
It’s not difficult to imagine that working class employees downtown are commuting significant distances where housing is cheaper and where BRT will not be going.
If the combination of the two issues is what’s needed to be solved, then let’s talk about them together. Abundant free parking downtown doesn’t exist like it us to be. More an more street parking is becoming metered, and free parking is increasingly being limited by time.
In the end, I think that exploring the affordability of parking is worth the effort because it’s a lot cheaper than presuming that it’s just the housing that is needed to be provided in the city center. The former is a lot less expensive to implement than the later, and many of those of modest means might not even want to live in the city center.
It’s not necessarily affordable housing that’s the issue, it’s affordability in general and a probably even more so about living wages and people having the dignity of even limited choices in their lives that’s afforded to those with greater means than is to those of lesser means. I don’t see candidates talking about this holistically.
And there is designated parking for those folks.
Imagine all the possibilities if we have pro density/development council in office in fall - rezone 60 stories anybody? 
I assume you’re referring to https://www.newsobserver.com/news/local/article222573625.html. Yes, this helps people who qualify for DMV disability placards or plates. The criteria set under NC law to qualify are rather stringent (https://www.ncleg.gov/EnactedLegislation/Statutes/HTML/BySection/Chapter_20/GS_20-37.5.html). I know because I applied for one after having a knee problem. And to demonstrate how sympathetic DMV is, I had to stand in line (on one leg, actually) for 45 minutes before I could hand in my application.
Dylan already knows this, but just in case anyone doesn’t, I support Brittany Bryan in this race, and I’ve been doing a lot of volunteering for her, and I just wanted to make that transparent while also clarifying that I speak only for myself here.
If no candidate gets more than 50 percent of the vote in October, the two top candidates will go to a runoff in November. It was already my expectation that this race would go to a runoff, even with just three candidates, and candidly, Kay is going to be one of the two candidates to make the runoff. So I don’t see the entry of other candidates into the District D race as being a bad thing. In 2017, turnout for the runoff was actually higher than for the October election, and so the runoff might actually be the election in which we see the more diverse electorate that wants to see change.
I think that the important thing is that, whatever happens in the October election, the folks who want to see change in this district all unite behind one candidate in the runoff, whomever that candidate might be.
Robbie’s situation was a lot of different because he was running for one of two at-large seats, and we already have one really great at-large councilor that deserves to be re-elected, and so unfortunately I think Robbie’s analysis of his situation was spot-on. But I like Robbie a lot, and I hope he gets another chance again soon.
We have our candidate list as we are past the filing deadline. I kept the incumbents who are not running in the list for reference.
Mayor
- Nancy McFarlane (not running)
- Mary-Ann Baldwin
- Caroline Sullivan
- Charles Francis
- Zainab Baloch
- George Knott
- Justin L. Sutton
District A
- Dickie Thompson (incumbent will not run)
- Patrick Buffkin
- Sam Hershey
- Joshua Bradley
District B
- David Cox (incumbent)
- Brian Fitzsimmons
District C
- Corey Branch (incumbent)
- Wanda Hunter
- Ricky Scott
- Shelia Alamin-Khashoggi
District D
- Kay C. Crowder (incumbent)
- Saige Martin
- Brittany Bryan
- April Parker
District E
- Stef Mendell (incumbent)
- David Knight
At-Large Seats
- Russ Stephenson (incumbent)
- Nicole Stewart (incumbent)
- Jonathan Melton
- James Garland Bledsoe
- Portia Wilson Rochelle
- Carlie Allison Spencer
If you could make a list of whom to vote for and hand them out at polling stations (and give one to me), that’d be great. Hi, friend, do you like having stuff to do in your city and not have it regress to a sleepy backwater? Then vote for these folks!
Some of the districts (D in particular) might be hard to pick a clear ideal candidate. What if we held a mock election to see who the Community as a whole prefers?
Really interesting stuff to see here so far.
Looks like:
- David Knight is significantly out raising Stef Mendell
- Saige Martin has a nice margin over Kay Crowder
- Brian Fitzsimmons has raised more than David Cox so far with more donors
- Nicole Stewart and Jonathan Melton are the top fundraisers for at large with Russ Stephenson at third. (And with way less donors)
Great news. Sounds like people are energized to shake things up.