Although odd year elections turn out more informed voters, it would end up just being Us vs the NIMBYhoods.
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on just a brief visit back to raleigh….i biked past the 'HUB’ at night. in excess of 600 units (558-stall parking garage) . out on glenwood i happend to notice the 200 units at Clairemont (been a while since i have been to raleigh and looked around), i assume with a parking space for each unit. i guess where the old hotel at Capital and Highwoods was, Broadstone, has 300 plus units, 400 plus parking spaces., and apparently a rather large senior living complex is underway on Whittaker Mill, likely with many parking spaces for cars. to me it seems the density is ‘rapidly’ occurring. unless i am unaware of the capacity of these roads. cameron may be right on getting the transit thing down. certainly right on bikes and connectivity.
I think I know a way to reimagine community engagement and this is a Zohran Mamdani like idea.
I tuned in to the Hillsborough CAC zoom last night for intros and questions to all 6 at large candidates for city council. I would really advise everyone to do their research on the candidates. As someone who ran for public office in the past, I commend anyone who runs. It’s not for the weak and especially this day and age. However, that being said John Melton’s shoes will be hard to fill and getting a good candidate may be tricky. I came out of that meeting understanding who I would most likely vote for. Stormie Forte is a no brainer. Just crossing my fingers we get someone reasonable for that second seat. My two cents.
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Is there a recording of this zoom somewhere? Just went looking but couldn’t find anything.
I do not think they recorded the meeting. Missed opportunity maybe but they didn’t say anything about recording it and I didn’t see the or hear anything that led me to believe it was being recorded.
You can catch last night’s forum here! (https://youtu.be/NejekbM3Vjc?si=y1JWAkXzKspX4xgI)
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Yeah, I think Stormie will make it past the primary thanks to incumbency & name recognition.
The rest is all up in the air, and I haven’t heard enough about the others to narrow it down.
I did see an ad on Instagram a couple times for Cameron, which was good—but it was mostly about bicycle & pedestrian issues. Not a bad ad—if he were running for District D, he’d probably be a shoo-in. But for Citywide at large? I dunno…most folks OTB barely think about those issues at all. He’ll certainly wanna find a way to also appeal to the suburbanites to win, IMHO.
At this point, I’m “anyone but Bledsoe” though—that’s for sure.
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Interesting that even downtown the city prioritizes clearing streets not sidewalks.
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Very fair comment. The snow plow literally plowed Lenoir Street in the 400 block until sparks were flying off the plow as they hit the pavement. Meanwhile sidewalk on said block was not fit to walk for two weeks.
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They framed it as just inconveniencing businesses, but this is a huge safety issue. My brother, who is in a wheelchair, relies on sidewalks to be able to safely move around downtown. It’s literally impossible for him to just hop into the street when there is an obstacle. He has to backtrack to the previous block and try to dodge cars in the street.
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In many/most cities with lots of snow, it’s a city requirement to shovel the snow that’s on the sidewalk in front of your house or business. There’s usually a set amount of time following a snow within which it must be cleared.
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Your Municipal Service District taxes…not at work.
EDIT: did not notice this was also posted above
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Reminds me of city leaf collection - or the lack of it, I mean lmao
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Let’s be fair folks. Snow doesn’t happen all that often, and sometimes we go seasons without any of it. While I want the city to be able to respond, I think we need some balance to what is expected vis-a-vis our annual investment. There’s no way on God’s green earth that the city is going to clear all the sidewalks when they don’t even clear all of the roads. Like I said in a previous post, other snowbound cities have ordinances in effect that put the sidewalk clearing on the adjacent property owners. Maybe this is something that should be considered before creating a more comprehensive snow removal program when it’s not the most needed thing in our city?
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My cousin used to live in Denver and I forget if it was 12 or 24 hours after a snow, you had to have the sidewalks cleared in front of your property or you could get a fine from the City.
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Regardless of the frequency, there should be an ordinance in effect that requires mid-to-large developments to put salt on their sidewalks. That would be the best approach for the city given the large amount of roadways. It has snowed multiple times in the past few decades, warranting this kind of action.
There is no reason for heavily trafficked sidewalks in front of places like the Hillsborough St. YMCA to be completely impassable for pedestrians with accessibility needs due to ice for two blocks. It was in that condition for a week before last weekend’s storm.
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Fair point. And we could see winter weather increase in the future. Who knows? This year has shown us just how brutal a winter in Raleigh can be.
Clearly the city could leverage Raleigh’s large quantity of neighborhoods that have HOAs and put that burden on them. However, there are still neighborhoods without HOAs, and a different mechanism needs to address those sidewalks.
I wouldn’t say that suburban area sidewalks aren’t important but denser neighborhoods with more pedestrian traffic and other active modes of travel should be prioritized. It would be a lot harder for the city to enforce an ordinance on 500-1,000 home neighborhoods.
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