Just to clarify - Jane Harrison is not initiating this group, maybe bringing it back to life. I have emails from the old DDNA listserv going back to 2013.
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Who’s the one with the black curly hair? She already seems bored with the job but was deflated when she found out she couldn’t halt the Hayes Barton townhome project because the city can’t retroactively apply changes the UDO to projects that have already submitted based on an older UDO.
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Christina Jones . . . extra characters.
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Whats the rationale for despising her?
She doesn’t know anything about the job, either.
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She just a NIMBY plain and simple. She I remember the first council she was auditioning the mayor job almost.
Do you have specific instances of NIMBYism? I interpreted her election stance as more anti development than Jennifer Truman, but for environmental reasons.
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Is it there’s something about city counselors and it not being legal for them to block people? Maybe I’m just not awake yet.
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You are not accomplishing what you think you are accomplishing lmao. And @OakCityDylan, Yimby Boy has repeatedly admitted to purposefully “trolling” (read: harassing) these councilmembers online; they are human beings too, and when someone is clearly acting in bad faith in an anonymous online forum, I think they completely reserve the right to block said troll accounts (which, for all they know, is what Yimby Boy’s account is if that’s truly his main interactions with these people online). All he is doing here is ensuring that he won’t have that method of communication with these elected officials now and going forward 
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Couldn’t agree more here. These council members do not agree with what most of us want. However, they absolutely believe they are doing the right thing. Harassing them won’t change their opinion. If anything, it will solidify their beliefs that they’re right and we’re wrong.
The goal should be to find out why they are aligned with their underlying beliefs and see if we can find some common ground so they’re able to see things differently (and possibly us as well). This is how minds change.
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Completely agree with you and I wasn’t suggesting counsel members should have to put up with senseless trolling (there’s too many of those out there) but, that doesn’t change my question. I remember there being some controversy about this a couple of years ago with David Cox. Again, I may be way off with my recollection of the situation.
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I think its a great question. I believe counsel members should be able to temporarily block people. Just as in an in person, public forum if you are being belligerent, you should be escorted out but able to attend future forums. Same thing as twitter. If it is the only way to end the conversation then so be it.
I’m nervous at the prospect of backwards progress in years to come. I think the key in this past election was the Wake Dem party endorsements. We need to figure out how urbanist candidates can get their ears.
Though, my glass half full take is that this council may still end up much better than the old one. I don’t think some of this stuff will be stuck forever. I’ve spoken with Harrison and Black personally, for example, and neither seem inherently anti-growth, but instead focused on environmental and racial justice, respectively. They’ve indicated to me that they understand/agree with my view that density == optional car-free mobility == environmental and social justice.
Maybe less willing than the most recent council, sure, but I’ve found many of them open to listening to – if not generally supportive of --urbanist principles.
But like I said, I think we need to be careful about where WCDP endorsements go next election cycle. It could get worse. Livable Raleigh seems to have some clout within the party.
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I volunteered for Jenn Truman at my polling place last election. I saw many people relying on the WCDP’s list of endorsed candidates. I think it’s near impossible to be elected to council without that endorsement - at least in District D.
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I 100 percent agree with Brian’s take here. The problem was that the WCDP got commandeered by anti-growth activists, and their endorsement was decisive in at least one race (David Knight’s seat, without question), and possibly others. Pro-growth Democrats got caught flat-footed because the WCDP had not previously offered endorsements in Raleigh city council races, which are non-partisan.
Setting aside partisan preferences for the moment, if you’re running for election in Raleigh, the Democratic Party endorsement is obviously the one you want. Now that city council elections are concurrent with general elections, this endorsement is more important that ever. By far the most important project for Raleigh YIMBYs over the next two years is to wrest control of the WCDP endorsement process away from the anti-growth crowd and make sure that in 2024 the party endorses a slate of YIMBY candidates who will advocate for policies that are more in keeping with the principles that the Democratic Party generally espouses.
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There’s a reason the “progressive NIMBY” is a stereotype throughout the country. Everyone loves visiting dense, vibrant downtowns, then these groups shudder when they have to deal with the smallest tradeoffs to create one. So much of what they consider the things they care about turn out to be just hot air.
Especially that Mordecai one - it’s literally a parking lot next to a bus stop on a busy road! There’s virtually no tradeoff!
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100% agree. Need to figure out how to make that happen.
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I worked for Mayor Baldwin at a Brooks Avenue polling place, during the November election. Russ Stephenson, one of the ousted councilors from the previous election and a NIMBY, raced to voters leaving their vehicles, handing them a WCDP endorsement card; and emphasizing, to perceived college age voters, that tRuth is a NCS professor. This was an intentional, planned, method of influencing voters by Livable Raleigh. Nearly all voters took the endorsement card.
Perfectly legal - to co-opt the county party. I get it, those Party Conventions are such a good ole boys/girls club, that I run for the exit at the first break.
LR sticks it out and gets their endorsements 
It takes people of like mind to attend and influence or abolish endorsements in nonpartisan elections, where nearly all candidates ar fellow Dems.
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It’s the same ole same ole that you see everywhere. The progressive visionaries versus those that want to go back to Mayberry or at least see things stay stagnate. Having vibrant cities requires density. No one is going to risk an investment in retail, restaurants and the like if there are not enough peeps to make it viable. Land cost make it nearly impossible for anything ISB to be “affordable”. It is a whole lot easier to be on the outside pointing fingers. But once you are an elected official, the reality of “fixing” these things ain’t so easy.
There are future land use plans, comp plans, and precedent for dense projects that can’t be undone (easily). If I am a developer, I have a reasonable expectation to develop my land in accordance with what is allowable and within the scope of those municipal plans. Short of changing all those plans, adding conditions, and delays - at some point as an elected official, that project is going to move forward.
I see things slowing down, but hopefully not stopping. At the end of the day I think more people want a great city. Do we care about affordable housing, the homeless, and pushing people out? Yes, of course, we all should. Partnerships between developers and government? Maybe? Using tax money to be creative with housing? Maybe? But stopping the free market is not the entire answer to that question.
That’s why I am not an elected official. Those are hard questions with even harder answers. It’s gonna be interesting to see where the chips fall. I am betting we end up somewhere in the middle and not on the extreme ends. Time will tell.
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I do tend to think that Raleigh city councils swing back and forth. A little slow down now may be best for the long term as I’d want to prevent a complete swing the other way where no progress is made for who knows how many councils after.
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