New survey regarding Transit-Oriented Development on the S-Line (future rail service between Sanford and Norlina via Apex, Cary, Raleigh, Wake Forest, Youngsville, Franklinton, and Henderson).
https://community.dtraleigh.com/t/commuter-rail-garner-to-west-durham/899/951
I’m going to bump this one. If you haven’t filled this in, please do take a look.
If you read some of the comments, it’s like Nextdoor infiltrated the survey.
The City Council Terms and Compensation one, David Cox and LivableRaleigh put out a newsletter on what to vote for and what to say. So most of the comments on that one are just from a narrow group of people. That engagement is next to useless.
Totally agree and fully expected. The comments are still influential to those that aren’t as aware and close to things as we are. I’ve tried to upvote/like the comments that are clearly in support of what I want.
There’s a new survey regarding station area planning along the New Bern BRT corridor. The NIMBYs are already descending upon it with inaccurate speculation. Lets get some more informed comments in there.
For those that may not be interested in adding comments or knowledgable enough to add content, “upvoting” existing comments is also very helpful. For instance, I see what I believe is one of Colby’s comments replying to what he’s referring to as inaccurate speculation and he’s got 10 “Agree” upvotes. The initial comment has 1. 
Yep, that was me!
Question, for whoever might be reading this: what do you gather regarding all the negative comments on this survey surrounding the term “Black Main Street”? I have a feeling that it may just be white NIMBYs masquerading as a social justice warriors, but I’m really not sure. I’m white myself, so I try not speak on the behalf of BIPOC groups unless I’m very, very confident that I have a clear understanding of their position. I don’t ever want to pretend I understand someone else’s experience and perspective.
I did see one comment a bit further down suggesting that members of the community were using those exact terms in in-person meetings, but I cannot personally attest to that. I also know that there is a lot of historical significance for those terms in this particular neighborhood. But I also know the City is going to be walking a very fine line with this project: celebrating cultural and historical significance and working to prevent displacement while simultaneously trying to spur growth and investment in the neighborhood. It’s a very difficult, sensitive subject, and I want to make sure I’m supporting initiatives that are beneficial to the community as a whole and not just folks that share my socio-economic status.
Edit: A more concise way to phrase this question: is “Black Main Street” a mere virtue-signaling effort, or is it an honest endeavor to create a thriving neighborhood that celebrates and elevates Black culture and history in the City of Raleigh?
Great question and one I was pondering myself reading through the comments. I like to hear as many perspectives and sides as I can before forming my own opinion (in a perfect scenario) and I really don’t know enough, nor do I have the ethnic nor cultural background to chime in. I’m only chiming in here to say I agree with your inquiry and I’d love to know more vs blindly condemning as some of the comments seem to be doing.
I’m not even sure if it’s NIMBYs masquerading as social justice warriors, as you indicated. Some of the comments come off as the equivalent of “why isn’t there a White Main Street?”
“Poor idea about a Black Main Street. Excludes others. This is a ridiculous idea.”
“Black Main Street…who comes up with these ideas?”
“Black Main Street? Segregation all over again……make it equitable for everyone”
Yeah, I was trying to give benefit of the doubt, but there’s definitely some people on there who don’t understand the concept of privilege.
I’ll share my initial reaction to that. I want to think folks may just be overthinking it really.
A Black Main Street to me sounds like a district, similar to a Chinatown, Little Italy, or Greektown. Maybe it’s also similar to a college main street. The point is that there is this area that has a name and it has a positive vibe about a culture.
That is all. No need to overthink it here.
At the same time, creating one of these on purpose is probably very hard. I’m just not sure that those can be done on purpose, I always thought of them as naturally occurring districts. But hey, I’m not against it and in fact think it would be great. I’m in!
Yes, can attest that term was used by community members in multiple settings. However, I’m unclear if it was coming from one or two business owners that are trying to be more defensive and may want money or land from the City, or if it was coming from a more broad based group, I know at least one business owner (Lyons) in particular that was at the meetings and has been very vocal about his concern with BRT, going so far as to contact David Price’s office (backer of this BRT project) to complain and ask for land. I do remember something along the lines of this section of New Bern supposedly being the landing place for some of the businesses on the original Black Main Street on E Hargett once they were displaced from that area.
I was coming to try to put some thoughts to it but I think @colbyjd3 @dtraleigh pretty much hit it on the head.
Every city has their districts geared toward every ethnicity, whether it’s noted or not. And let’s face it, most districts of the city are geared toward white people whether they want to be or not, that’s just America. Could we not say for instance that the Village District could be considered a stereotypical “White Main Street”? Doesn’t mean I can’t go, just means the businesses there are typically geared toward middle upper class people. Same with Chinatown, the Mexican area etc.
Black Main Street to me, just means, “hey let’s try to keep this a selection of businesses that are typically geared toward the Black history of this city”. Doesn’t mean everyone isn’t invited.
But those comments pretty much sum up why I stay away from any comment board. People really don’t understand what it’s like to be Black in America. Can’t have anything it seems. Anyways, off my soapbox about that. I think it’s a good idea, but I do straddle the fence on if it’s even worth actually promoting as “Black Main Street” because of the ignorance that exists - maybe if they had a little more diversity on the planning staff they could have come up with a better name.
Please see above about where the term came from. It wasn’t city staff. And some of the criticism on the board came from AA ‘elders’. I do think there were some racist trolls going in on the name, but there were also people from the community as well.
I understanding that they used it but didn’t it come from the city? Unless I’m misunderstanding.
At least one African American business owner on that stretch, Lyons, that was at the meeting used that term. And there was someone else that used it, but I’m not sure if they were an affected business owner, a resident, or passerby. From what I’ve seen between the some of the names on the comment board and those that were at the meeting, there’s a big difference of opinion on this generationally within the same community.
Interesting. At the end of the day, while I don’t LOVE the term - the biggest tragedy of all would be just going in, razing everything and just letting it be gentrified uncontrollably with no respect to it’s past.
Everything you’ve said here makes sense to me. There’s really not a neighborhood in Raleigh where the Black community feels celebrated (to my knowledge), so ultimately, this is a win, even if it’s a clumsy win.
If you didn’t see these links where they first appeared, there’s some new surveys that could be interesting to people.
First is from this post about the latest designs for Devereux Meadow Park (including feedback on whether to formally name it for someone/something that didn’t own other people):
Then there’s this post on new zoning laws that could make it much easier to build more affordable, walkable “missing middle” housing: