This is a big issue in District D. It would be nice to see the challengers all coalesce behind one person but I don’t know how likely that is.
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Have the council elections always been in off years? Why do I remember voting for city council in the '16 presidential election?
Seem like they would get a lot more turnout if they went to even year election cycles.
It’s because we vote every 2 years.
Maybe you’re thinking about County Commission?
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Maybe turnout is not what they want? It seems like there would be more participation if we voted on even years.
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Does anyone have access to voting numbers for the City of Raleigh?
I was thinking more in the lines of something like, only 20% of eligible youth actually vote, or of the eligible voters in Raleigh, only 32% do so…something to those effects?
It was definitely city. Because I remember voting for Mayor. But maybe that was 2017 and I’m just getting things mixed up.
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It was 2017.
@RobertSanderlin Ballotpedia provides some voting stats, e.g. in 2017 8,409 votes were cast for District D councilor. Only 6,857 in 2015.
Maybe the larger number of candidates this time around won’t be such a bad thing? If Crowder gets the ~7,500 votes she got in 2017 then each of the other candidates would only need ~2,500 votes to push this to a run off. If that happened maybe there’d be some consolidation of votes opposing Crowder?
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To be fair, parking in downtown isn’t convenient for many workers. We do need parking if we want more businesses to relocate downtown. I worked down there for years and walked or biked in daily, but I know for a fact that we had trouble hiring some candidates because we had to tell them there wasn’t available parking in nearby decks. I don’t understand her comment about increasing offstreet parking since, if I remember correctly, she assisted in removing street parking that DT employees were using along Cabarrus (in her district). I still cycle to work outside of downtown, so I’m all for getting more cars off the road, but I’m also pro-business. If the lack of parking is a hindrance to new downtown businesses, then a net decrease in parking spots isn’t going to fix that. Maybe someone that knows more about this can correct me if I’m wrong. On the McLaurin Parking site I’m seeing about 32 full decks and 2 decks with availability (both in Glenwood South).
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Only street parking directly adjacent to residences along Cabarrus was converted to neighborhood permit (anyone can park for 2 hours M-F 8-5 and anytime outside those hours). This was done by the residents, not Kay Crowder, because people without off street parking couldn’t park within 3 blocks of their house on weekdays. I think it’s a citizen-initiated process and doesn’t go through City Council.
Other street parking along Cabarrus and Florence was removed because it never should have been there and was dangerous for line of sight or made 2-way traffic dangerous (Florence). Not to mention the idiots who parked in those areas were literally parking around the corners, alongside stop signs, and in front of fire hydrants (all illegal). The city finally realized this was happening once the neighborhood district was created and they stopped the madness.
Anyone can still park all day for free on W Cabarrus, you just have to arrive early.
Incidentally, I’ve noticed more formerly private lots opening up to paid parking via the Secure P app. Examples are the old Amtrak station, HQ behind Humble Pie, former Deep South, gravel lot in the wye off Hargett, etc.
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It’s true, we are in a desperation for more parking as stupid as it sounds. Our office attempted to relocate downtown and besides Charter Square, PNC and the Dillon, parking isn’t provided. The listing agent suggest we get in line with McLaurin parking to get a spot, but the wait was a minimum of 3 months for 1 spot!
This is why I think in the Hotels section someone mentioned the city is willing to use interlocal funding to build a new parking deck in conjunction with a new hotel development.
I think its a two-edged sword of not having enough housing downtown and poor public transit.
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I have been hearing from a few people that there is a wait to get an official spot and pass, but I am not sure that is the same as being out of parking spots. The deck next to Red Hat has only been full 2 days out of the last three years. If I were a younger company trying to get reserved parking I would go to a cash out system. Pay your employees in cash for parking expense up front then they pay each day as they enter a deck or decide to take public transit and pocket the money.
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I’m a volunteer on Brittany’s campaign, and I’ve always been of the view that having both Brittany and Saige (and now April Parker, although she’s probably not going to get many votes) in the race makes Kay’s re-election more difficult than it would be if she had just one challenger and one election day on Oct. 8. The electorate that will show up for the runoff will likely be more favorable to the challengers than the primary electorate, and having two strong challengers makes it very likely that there’s going to be a runoff. It is definitely true that whoever makes the runoff is going to need to consolidate all of the anti-Kay vote, though.
The reason you don’t see any yard signs for Brittany is that she hasn’t spent any money on them, which is wise decision, IMO. Yard signs don’t vote and are a waste of money. I can’t tell you what Saige’s thinking on this is, but it wouldn’t surprise me at all if they’ve made the same calculation. I can tell you that Brittany was out canvassing all this weekend and had some really, really great interactions with voters who were delighted to have a candidate come knock on their doors because they’ve never once seen Kay canvassing in their neighborhood.
It is absolutely true that Mendell and Cox are both in a lot more trouble than Kay is, but that’s simply a function of the fact that Mendell and Cox are both in a heck of a lot of trouble.
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I saw a “Re-elect Kay Crowder” yard sign on a run the other day and gave it a good kick. Call me petty, IDC. She wasn’t even elected to begin with. And yes, I know she took the place of her late husband per Raleigh tradition, but I’m just here to say I think that’s a dumb, way-too-old-fashioned tradition.
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I’ve seen a few Saige signs in Boylan Heights in the past few days. But not as many as Crowder.
So far, I’ve seen a lot of Francis, Crowder, Stephenson groupings and a stray Mary Ann Baldwin and Caroline Sullivan, but not many.
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I’ve had about the same experience over the last few days. Saw one Saige sign in BH, lots of Crowder in my own neighborhood, several Francis signs and a smattering of MAB and Sullivan.
@daviddonovan - I get it that yard signs don’t vote so maybe not the best use of funds. But unless you’re working for one of the candidates you don’t have any sense of their level of support. Yard signs are an indicator of support - albeit a very unreliable indicator.
I think Francis just has name recognition from the last go-round, I’ve seen a lot of his too. Saw some Stef yard signs on my way into work this morning (North Raleigh), the first time seeing them. Way too many Crowder signs all over Cameron Village.
Oh, yeah, I’ve gone round and round with candidates about this in past campaigns. Candidates usually love yard signs, for those reasons, and spend way too much money on them. But they’re a very, very unreliable indicator, not least because generally the only people who can make use of them are people who live in single family detached homes. People who live in apartments generally can’t put up yard signs, but they sure as heck can vote.
Without question, the Council of No crowd is going to win the lawn sign battle, but that tells us very little about how the actual vote is going to go.
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Candidates I have heard from in the past HATE yard signs because people put yard signs in and think their work is done.
“No phone banking, no canvassing… (points at yard sign)”
Some HOAs have restrictions against yard signs. I forget what Inside Wade’s was. Either one or none … this race will be really interesting bc I think a lot of challengers have a lot of high intensity supporters whereas the incumbents mainly have name recognition. In District D, one big issue is that there appear to be too many challengers. They could end up splitting the opposition vote. … I wonder if anyone has bothered to put any polls out into the field or if they’ll do so around a few weeks out …
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I can honestly tell you that we have seen zero polling and I don’t expect to see any before election day. Yeah, I definitely hear what you’re saying, and those are some savvy candidates that you’re talking to. Most the campaigns I’ve been affiliated with in the past have taken the opposite view. I remember some years ago riding in a vehicle with a candidate who shall remain nameless, and there were a bunch of her yard signs in a public right-of-way, and she actually said, out loud, “I sure do love all those yard signs.” 
(She ended up winning, but certainly not because of the yard signs.)
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I see a lot of Sullivan signs on Oberlin. I don’t think yard signs sway voters who actually follow the election, but I think they probably do influence the uninformed voters. If someone shows up to vote for Crowder and they’ve seen Francis signs in their neighborhood that might be enough to nudge them to vote for Francis as well. I think that’s particularly true in non-partisian and the open seat elections. If someone goes in with the mindset that they’re going to vote for one party or another and the affiliation isn’t listed, the yard signs they’ve seen might be all they have to go by. The person you didn’t even know was running, or the name you’ve seen on the signs for the last month.
Maybe the electorate is more educated than I give them credit for.
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