Politics News in Raleigh

Last Week’s Independent article by Bob Geary has some nice profiles that compliment our own city council candidate profiles. Geary gets black and white and it comes down to development.  While I think “pro-development” is a weighted term as it implies that the alternative is “anti-development.” I think the alternative is responsible development while the incumbents are supportive of any developer that pays them. But really that is my two cents and Geary does a better job of staying neutral. 

Bob Geary on the Council Race and Raleigh Development.

September 14th is the last day to register to vote for October 9th Wake County Elections. Included below is a downloadable registration form as well as other important voting information.

Click here to download a North Carolina Voter Application Form.

More below the fold...

The next installment of interviews with the at-Large City Council candidates is here.

I sat down with Helen Tart at the new Oakwood Dog Park, one of the many projects she has helped engineer in her active career of community involvement. Some of the other accomplishments include: using federal funding to get bike racks placed on all CAT buses, neighborhood organization to combat irresponsible development and crime reduction, and participation in the creation of the 2003 Five Year Transit Plan. Her past careers have included work at North Carolina State University’s Technician newspaper as well as the News and Observer as a proofreader.

Tart and her husband have lived in the Oakwood neighborhood since 1989, and have worked hard to preserve the character of their community.

More on Helen Tart Below the Fold

On Monday new water restrictions start for our very dry city. Under the new rules watering is limited to once weekly and car washing is only allowed on weekends.  Restaurants wont be bringing you water unless you ask for it either.  These rules come with some heavy penalties $200 for the first violation and $1000 for the second with you water prvilidges being revoked on your third violation (is that legal?).

The full ordinance is below the fold.

Raleigh seems to be a very safe city, at least in my opinion.  Walking the streets of downtown is very rarely a problem.  But if you do want to know where or when (in the past 30 days) a certain crime has been committed, just click HERE for a newly unveiled Crime Map from the IT department of The Raleigh Police Department. 

Various layers can be turned on and off relative to the corresponding crime, from arson to homicide with data being updated twice a week.  At first the tool seems a bit slow and somewhat confusing to navigate (zooming tending to be a tedious task, which should be one of the easiest).  I am not sure what this will help in the city, it may even create more segregation of neighborhoods, which is something any growing American city does not need more, especially Raleigh.  Let’s hope it proves to be a useful tool for the city but to me, it feeds a similar fire/fear that the Family Watchdog approach does again causing fear led segregation.

View Video of the Map HERE