We should definitely try to set up something like that if he’s willing.
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Hey there!
I’m working on a list of questions to ask Raleigh Mayor and City Council candidates in our candidate questionnaire.
What are the issues you’d like Raleigh leaders to focus on? What do you want to know about the people looking to lead the city?
Questions can be open-ended but I’m specifically looking for yes/no questions. And bonus points for district-specific questions.
Please feel free to email me at ajohnson@newsobserver.com or reply to this post.
FWIW, I did something similar in 2019 and got over 150 questions. I’d love to beat that this year.
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could local news perhaps boradcast when specific cac meetings would occur?
As a non-Raleigh resident, I only have citywide questions. But I hope these are useful in that they’re wonky enough to weed out the unprepared candidates while they differentiate the good ones.
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How will you work to gain the trust of your constituents and involve them in decision-making? Now that boards and commissions convened by the Office of Community Engagement, will replace the CAC system, do you support this approach? - Test candidates’ sincerity about engaging the public, understanding of new systems, and their philosophies on how they should work with their constituents to make meaningful decisions.
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Should Raleigh work together with neighboring cities like Cary, Durham, and Chapel Hill more closely to tackle regional issues like housing and transportation? How will you do that? - Assess candidates’ views on regionalism (or identify their outdated biases towards viewing the Triangle’s cities as individual parts), and gauge whether they understand that the Triangle’s economic and basic needs-related challenges are actually interconnected and complex.
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Do you support Raleigh’s efforts in BRT and commuter rail? What are your thoughts on their studies’ details on housing affordability and business cases? What would you do differently? - Discern if candidates truly care about mass transit in Raleigh and whether they’ve paid attention to their equity analyses. Candidates and readers alike may not recognize that GoRaleigh, GoTriangle etc. have worked hard to address obvious questions about impacts on gentrification, displacement, racial disparity, and housing market impacts; I think it’s important to really test the candidates’ knowledge on that and to test whether they can truly defend their platforms in the face of published data.
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What is Raleigh doing that other cities could learn from? What specific things are other cities doing that Raleigh could do? - Discern if candidates just like to preach about hand-wavy idealism, or whether they have specific ideas, policies, projects etc. that truly inspire them. For example, I personally hope they’d think about UDO amendments to allow for building under rail bridges (more retail or restaurant space!) like they do in places like Tokyo and London.
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My questions may seem simple to regular users of this forum but I think it’ll be relevant to the broader population:
- Is Raleigh growing too fast? If they answer yes, ask them if it’s because they think it’s growing in the wrong way, and if they are more in favor of growth if it’s planned properly.
I think, similar to @keita’s questions above, this will weed out those who have thought holistically about the city’s growth and support ways to make it more sustainable, equitable, etc., from those who have a reactionary mindset regarding our growth. Because remember, if Raleigh stops growing, it’ll just go to Wake Forest, JoCo, etc. and our problems with sprawl, housing affordability, transit, etc. will continue and be exacerbated.
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Here are a few thoughts, all housing/development related.
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What do you think is the main cause of homelessness in Raleigh? What do you personally believe is the best solution to the homelessness problem, and what do you believe you can realistically accomplish as mayor/city councilor?
(I want an open-ended question on what a person actually believes. If somebody goes back to “Well, when Reagan closed the asylums…” that’s more informative than anything they say afterwards.) -
What do you think about rising housing prices in Raleigh? Is it a good thing, a bad thing, or a mixed bag?
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What is the best way to make housing affordable for lower-income residents?
(Again, I want some philosophical answers because I want to know what a person actually believes, not just what they plan to do.) -
Do you believe it is necessary for every new development proposal to include a certain number of “affordable” or below-market-rate units to earn approval, or is there a way to incentivize the development of affordable housing that doesn’t require every project to include such specific set-asides? What benefit do you think such set-asides actually provide to overall housing affordability?
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Raleigh is the center of one of the fastest-growing metro areas in the country, and it seems to be a given that people want to move here. How do you personally feel about that?
(Again I really want the person’s underlying philosophy. It will inform everything they do whether explicitly or not.) -
If we accept that people will continue to want to move to Raleigh because of its economic strength, do you think it is preferable to encourage the city to densify in order to accomodate growth, or to encourage new residents to settle in outlying areas and limit additional density in the city limits? Should Raleigh as the central city of an important metropolitan region be ready to grow vertically across more of the city, or should the region as a whole maintain a low-density, suburban feel with additional wild and agricultural land brought under development so that existing developed parts of the city don’t have to change?
(This was my attempt to be diplomatic in my wording here, but really, I just want to know, do you think it’s time we upzone a lot more of the city to permit denser development here, or do you actually believe continued outward sprawl is the best way to go forward? Are you willing to tell the NIMBYs to move out to Zebulon if they want that suburban lifestyle so we can create a deliberate urban future here in the central city, or are you gonna cry yourself to bed at night because there aren’t enough 6/4 mansions on a quarter acre left inside the beltway? But I don’t want to bias the question.)
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In reality, Raleigh proper’s growth has slowed to a trickle in comparison to the past and to our burbs in Wake Co. today. Anyone who would say that the city is growing too fast would be making that statement without the actual data.
That said, I think that the NIMBYism we see is less about growth and more about change.
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I’d like to know if the candidates actually support Livable Raleigh and their anti-developer theme.
I’d also like to know if the candidate has any ideas on how to encourage/incentivize/whatever organizations like Highwoods to develop their parking lots and on the flip side, ideas on how to discourage development of some of Raleigh’s character like the Goodnights building, The Depot, Seaboard Station and Berkeley Cafe to name a few. Obv if they’re building by right, not much can be done.
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Just got this email from WakeUP Wake County for a planned candidate forum series. See below the locations and dates!
- Mayoral forum at the Muslim Youth and Community Center on October 1st, 2-4:30pm,
- At-Large forum at Artspace in Downtown Raleigh on September 27th, 6-8pm,
- District A forum at Compass Rose Brewery on September 12th, 6-8pm,
- District B forum at Green Road Community Center on September 10th, 5-7pm,
- District C forum at Chavis Community Center on September 18th, 5-7pm,
- District D forum at Trophy Brewing on Morgan Street on September 21st, 6-8pm,
- District E forum at Clouds Brewing on Front Street on September 29th, 6-8pm.
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Not familiar with WakeUP. I see their Mission Statement and their Vision, but, how have they put those into practice the last few years? Do they support things that actually advance the cause of sustainable living or are they just basically anti-development?
Sounds like someone found out he’s being excluded because everyone hates his ass, and is salty about it 
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I think they’re pretty on board with dense(r) development and walkable/bikeable/transit-rich cities. Check out the blog link on their page if you care to see what they’ve posted. I don’t follow them closely so I really don’t know that much about them, but regardless, candidate forums are one of our best tools to help us vote 
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LR have announced their candidates. Is this what Terrance Ruth really wants? I’m not convinced he’s a “Livable Raleigh” kind of guy. If he is, I’m out. I’m trying not to judge him based on this endorsement. Need more info.
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I now know who I am not voting for. Thanks Livable Raleigh.
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Honestly, his lack of policy ideals and clear vision on his website, in any of the interviews he’s given thus far, etc… yeah this tracks.
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I expect to hear from Terrance Ruth’s campaign soon on scheduling an AMA for the DTRaleigh Community, so hopefully we’ll be able to determine that for ourselves. I do know he’s planning on updating his website with specific information this month.
On a purely political aspect, I doubt he’s a huge fan of the endorsement, simply because he needs a wide range of support to defeat an incumbent. When I had the chance to meet him he said he’s avoiding endorsing a slate of candidates for that reason.
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This reminds me of when the GOP would hand out judicial candidate endorsements outside of the polling locations when judicial elections were non-partisan, and I’d know who exactly not to vote for. Thanks for sharing Dylan!
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Very interesting! We’ll need to see who embraces this endorsement and who doesn’t (or even runs away from it)
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He honestly would be smarter to distance himself from the endorsement. It seems like over time, more and more people are realizing that “Livable Raleigh” is just rich old while ppl that have lived here for a long time and don’t want anything to change, and the city is becoming younger, more educated, and more diverse as we grow.
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