Apex
Fuquay-Varina
Garner
Morrisville
I attended a fundraiser for MAB Tuesday night outside at Mulino. There was a boisterous crowd of protesters, heckling and completely drowning out the speakers gathered in the restaurant courtyard. The protesters, mostly black, called the mostly white MAB supporters “slave owners & white privilege….”. They called for removing MAB, They used a continuous blaring siren and amplified megaphone. I am still confused by this totally disruptive 2 hour protest. Supporters eventually endured and departed. I have since heard that this protest was put on by One Wake. Didn’t see this in the news, nothing confirmed. These Trumpian tactics of divide and disrupt seem to becoming the norm. Is there more info on this group and their involvement Tuesday night. Very sad scene.
Durham-based One Wake. They don’t even care to be based in the county they say they represent.
4907 Garrett Rd, Durham, NC 27707, United States
Wow. I’m not even sure I have words to respond to that. I had heard there were protests during the fundraiser and just assumed Livable Raleigh desperate tactics but to make claims of “slave owners” is just….you lose me quickly with that. I understand white privilege and I can’t change who I am anymore than the next guy/gal. But did they really think that message was going to resonate?
I did read about it in the N&O a few days ago. Article below but I feel like this tactic won’t work cause a challenger to MAB could be associated with them and that might be a negative to their campaign.
I’m intrigued by what Terrance Ruth has for mayor but if he’s associated with these groups, you’ve lost me.
https://www.newsobserver.com/news/local/counties/wake-county/article255686661.html
Interesting that you chose to bring Trump / Trumpian tactics into your post.
I don’t think this was associated with One Wake at all. I am on their email distro and they talked about a candidate forum in Cary last week but not this. They had an affordable housing things just a week or two ago that the mayor went to and no one did anything like this protest.
There is a certain social media personality who seems to have been the person with the loud speaker at that protest and she seems to just be loosely connected with the Livable Raleigh folks.
I agree with you that it doesn’t seem like One Wake as involved. Bringing out the pitchforks at a fundraiser seems too different and counterproductive to their lobbying efforts and community outreach events. Maybe there are overlaps in who’s loyal to what, but that’s different from the organization itself being involved.
Want to go in more detail about who she is? Sounds like she’s trying to be a public figure of sorts, so I think it’s fair game to go into more detail if you feel comfortable.
EDIT: Were y’all thinking of the Wake Co. Housing Justice Coalition? They’ve tagged Livable on more than one tweet, and one of their very visible members seems to include former City Council candidate Wanda Hunter.
Ole tactic of call others what you are, try and throw you off the trail and put you on defense.
Can someone further explain the “One Wake is based in Durham” assertion?
I’m curious, too. Like… @Francisco et al., why does it matter that OneWake is based in Durham?
If the Triangle is all one region and we benefit from Durham, Cary, and Chapel Hill learning from and being impacted by Raleigh’s decisions, what’s wrong with that going the other way around? I think it would be different if some housing advocate from New York were to butt into our local affairs, but that’s not what’s going on here.
It’s not one region atm, if so there we wouldn’t have multiple chamber of commerce competing with each other. It’s no secret that Durham has especially loyal citizens, especially compared to Raleigh. They would not stand having someone from Raleigh tell them what to do. I mean just look at how Durham treats the current the Commuter Rail project–low priority.
So I bet Amazon was not happy about having to make a statement when Durham CoC and RTP representatives complained when Raleigh made the short-list. I bet they just wanted a simple development pipe line and not navigate a local political/commerce battlefield. Nashville was an easier choice. It’s one solid metro.
The tactics described may or may not be similar to a right-wing rally, but the underlying message is rooted in critical theory and has been brewing much longer than Trump’s political movement. It starts in university classrooms. I experienced it directly at UNCW '09-'12. Trump just poured gasoline on the already burning fire. It’s sad to hear that this is happening but I’m not surprised, and it will continue and likely worsen in coming years.
Are we really using the term cultural marxism non-ironically? We’re getting off the rails here a bit.
Personally, I think these groups are sometimes a little shady, especially the ones like One Wake or the Housing Justice Coalition where you don’t even know who’s involved. They’re also deluding themselves if they think Livable Raleigh actually cares about the social justice issues they bring up. For Livable Raleigh it’s just a smokescreen to prevent any kind of development…market, affordable, or otherwise.
Sorry wrong terminology. Whatever you want to call it, it’s borderline brainwashing and I’ve been party to it first hand. It makes for a miserable outlook on society.
I don’t think that’s a useful metric. San Francisco, Oakland, San Jose, Palo Alto etc. all have their own chambers, too, even though the Bay Area thrives off of regional cooperation. Even the group that calls itself “central Silicon Valley” is mostly just San Jose and Santa Clara.
That’s not true. Durham’s been going out of their way to make marginalized people’s opinions a bigger part of their transit plan update, and they want sidewalk and local bus improvements first. That’s different from an outright rejection by decision-makers (even though it does make it easier for that to happen). It’s a subtle difference in words, but it implies Durham’s City Council still has the power to support commuter rail funding.
To link my question (why does it matter that One Wake is from Durham?) to what you wrote, I felt like I had to assume you believe the following things:
Cities and towns in the Triangle are separate communities with separate cultures. What they do and how they govern should stay in their own borders (though regional cooperation could be nice).
Durham residents seem to want to take care of its own internal needs even if it sacrifices regional interests.
Given 1 and 2, Durham residents should stay in their own lane. As long as our cities aren’t truly sharing policies and looking out for each other, its citizens should respect the autonomy of others.
Is that where you’re coming from?
I don’t think One Wake and the Housing Justice Coalition are two peas in a pod, though. They might have overlapping members and motivations, but it sounds like only one of them is drunk on political ideology.
Judging from the WCHJC’s Twitter posts, I can’t tell if they actually think all development inherently and unavoidably brings about racially skewed harm. If they do think that, though, I think that their alignment is actually perfect: Livable is motivated by protecting neighborhood character while the Housing Justice Coalition is about racial justice, but otherwise, they seem like natural allies.
One Wake seems different, though. They’re asking Cary to levy a one cent-per-$100 property tax to help build and subsidize affordable housing units and lobbying Wake County to invoke a county-wide property tax relief. These don’t sound like explicitly NIMBY moves.
It seems like no overlap in leadership between One Wake and Wake County Justice Co. Maybe the Wake County Justice Co. people shared something that One Wake put out there, but I would say that if you asked One Wake they would be clear that they have nothing to do with Wake County Justice Co, which seems like it’s own, fairly small, thing.
0 - the amount I care about either group. Being an old school capitalist and letting the market decide who stays or goes is tough nowadays.
It matters because the prevailing narrative that comes out of the western side of the Triangle is that we aren’t one region.
If there was a group called OneDurham that was based out of Wake County, you can bet your life that the folks in Durham would go berzerk over it.