If you’ve driven down Western Boulevard or across the Boylan Bridge in the past few days, you may have seen the state of North Carolina demolishing several buildings and digging a gigantic hole next to Central Prison. Property owners in Boylan Heights have taken notice to this as well. The neighborhood has formed an ad hoc committee to explore the impacts of an impending 360,000+ square foot prison medical facility--a facility funded by tax dollars that neighboring property owners weren’t notified about by anyone.
The News and Observer and WRAL have been made aware of the situation, but as of right now, neither have touched this story. The neighborhood has organized a meeting for tonight which will include Mayor Charles Meeker, Councilman Thomas Crowder and representatives from the Department of Correction. Still nothing.
I spoke on the phone yesterday with Larry Wann, project manager with the Department of Correction, and he confirmed that there was in fact a public meeting and public presentation for the project in June of last year. I would like the think that an organization such as the N&O is smart enough to have someone reading the Council’s agenda and attending its meetings.
I can’t wait to hear the explanation from John Drescher on this one. From what I can gather, the News & Observer has but one choice: apologize to its readers, and claim that it had no knowledge of the project.
I’m going ahead and calling bullshit right now. The News & Observer’s lack of coverage on this is unacceptable. City and state politicians knew about the project. The media knew about it, but no one was allowed to say anything. Taxpayers and property owners deserved to know about this project. Where’s big media when informing the public really matters? (Probably off hashing out the gory details of Eve Carson’s autopsy.)
