To this day people at city council meetings and public hearings still bring up the vape pen picture from Covid.
I’m not sure it was even hers, but who cares if it was. People are just unhappy in their personal lives looking at their phone all day, then project their bad attitudes towards others whenever they get the chance.
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The potential evidence that she rips a weed pen in her free time only made me like her more.
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City officials and police departments work together on the degree of enforcement of Cannabis laws in their jurisdictions, so we good.
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I attended a Governmental Affairs Committee meeting at the Wake/Raleigh Home Builders Association yesterday which included a panel Q&A with council members Patton, Black, and Jones. I must say I was pleasantly surprised at some of their comments, although I don’t agree with some of the decisions.
Jones is focused on district appeasement. Hers includes Hayes Barton and many of the wealthy neighborhoods in NW ITB. She says she agrees with Missing Middle and understands that we need infill housing, but believes it is her duty to stand with concerned residents and slow down the process until they feel comfortable. Personally I don’t agree with this sentiment. You get elected to make changes for the betterment of the district from your highest judgement, and that means going against some people in your district. But it sounds like she has arranged some meetings between concerned residents, real estate attorneys, city staff, and developers to the effect of pacifying residents and building approvals where there wasn’t one. She mentioned one particular rezoning near Crabtree that is coming up soon…?
Patton is an ex teacher and academic thinker. She seems to be interested in understanding the details of particular issues before voting on them, whether that’s the cost of a new ladder truck or stormwater calculations under existing and proposed rules. At least from her words, It seems she is a rational thinker and decision maker once understanding the details. To be honest I don’t know her voting record very well from the last 6 months.
Black is young and the only renter on council. Her perspective is very much shaped by her own experience of being priced out of the housing market while working to afford rent. She said her rent has increased every year for the last (X) years. (I think she said 9…?) All three of them, and especially Mary Black, admit that they’ve been drinking from a fire hose trying to learn as much as possible over the last 6 months, which is cool but also frustrating when votes are continued on rezoning cases that have a ticking interest clock, driving up the cost basis of projects. For perspective, the Hayes Barton townhomes that are caught in a lawsuit with the city are accruing $25k in interest charges every month, plus legal fees!
I don’t know if Mary Black will vote in favor of a rezoning / redevelopment unless it contains AH or a contribution to an AH fund, which is somewhat understandable given her life story. Nevertheless, I personally invited her to attend the Housing and Development Summit Session #2 coming up August 3rd, along with all members of council. Housing & Development Summit Series #2 - Aug 3, 2023
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I’m not sure that I agree that Jones’ duty isn’t to her district voters. She represents them specifically, not the city at large like other councilors. She certainly needs to focus on the betterment of her district, but I am not so sure what “from your highest judgment” is supposed to mean. Aren’t the folks that she represents at the pinnacle?
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For example:
Listening to the complaints of SFH neighborhood about a proposed 28 unit townhome neighborhood, ignoring the renters in her district that may be able to buy one of the proposed townhomes.
My disagreement is with the excuse “On principle I support XX and would vote for XX, but I have some [wealthy home owning constituents] that are opposed, so I’m going to side with them and vote against my own conscious.” Paraphrasing
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She says she wants to slow it down. How long is she going to give her constituents to learn why these things are important? Is there anything measurable she’s doing to track the understanding of her constituents?
If not, then she’s just trying to have her cake and eat it too. Elections are where the teaching is supposed to take place. You run on a platform that you believe in, educate your voters on why you believe in those things, and then hope they agree with you and vote for you.
Fully understand that she’s drinking from a firehose right now, but I’d be very interested in hearing what her plan is.
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Unfortunately the #1 item on platforms for a lot of municipal electeds is “I will listen to you”
Fully agree with you though. We need leadership, not politicking.
So far, the only councilor that genuinely seems to take that “I will listen to you” stance to heart is Jonathan Melton - dude walks the walk, too.
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Not sure what thread to put this in so picking this one and will ensure I tie it back to this thread when I wrap up my post.
For those living under a rock, there’s a new platform (Threads), you may want to adopt to consume city information, including Mr. Jonathan Melton!
Also my profile. 
See, a City Council reference to make it thread appropriate.
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Saw this on WRAL:
Rob Steele, the fiancé of Mary Marshall – who was killed in the Hedingham shooting – announced Monday he is running for city council in 2024.
Interesting. I’ll reserve comments until he shares more information.
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I’ll only comment that he’s likely (definitely) coming in from a position of extreme emotional bias - for good reason - but I don’t know if that ever leads to good governing. Curious what his positions will be though, because his bias would probably largely deal with gun violence (obviously) but there’s not a whole lot (read: nothing) that a City Council has to do with that.
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mmmmhmmmm
This is quite the hyperbole
Fearmongering and feels like he’s playing to the Livable Raleigh talking points. Tough start for me.
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I think he diagnoses a lot of similar problems to this board (he’s probably more anxious about violent crime, which is understandable), but we’ve got enough strong differences on solving them that I’d almost certainly vote in a different direction.
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Or we could implement a solution that allows people to stop paying increased property taxes as a result of up-zoning? The same problem that causes empty parking lots to sit vacant in the middle of vibrant communities? Just a thought. It’s like treating the symptoms of the bullet would without addressing the hole.
In the same boat as everyone else here. Governing from emotion instead of logic is likely to work against the community in the long-run.
D.O.A. lmao:
Homie, if you want to run for CITY council… start by focusing on things the CITY can do. I will never understand when people running for City positions include things that they absolutely cannot change nor will ever “make” the state change. Guy needs to keep grieving and NOT inject himself into politics after such a life-altering, devastating event. And I swear if he uses said event for sympathy points, I’ll just be flat out disgusted.
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If you want to make the state change that, then you should run for a state office. Not a local city council.
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