Raleigh
Meeker’s Double Standard
Here’s the latest example of Mayor Meeker’s double standard. Concord-Empire Davie Street, LLC wants to build a mixed-use development downtown and it wants the mayor to build a parking deck to help. John Kane also wants the city to build a deck to help his new project at North Hills. The Mayor gave Kane’s project…
Read MoreOver-Downtowned, Part 2
A blog I wrote about Mayor Meeker’s focus on downtown stirred up some heated comments. So I have another question. A reader regularly forwards me copies of an online publication from the city called the “Livable Streets Newsletter.” And it’s all about downtown. You would think the only livable streets in Raleigh are downtown. My…
Read MoreMayor of One Raleigh — or Two?
Raleigh Mayor Charles Meeker must decide whether he wants to be mayor of all Raleigh – or just part. Tom Fetzer got elected mayor in the 90s by mobilizing North Raleigh against Inside the Beltline. With Carter Wrenn’s help, Fetzer tapped into a feeling that the city was spending too much money downtown and paying…
Read MoreIn the Soup
There’s a sad sequel to Mayor Meeker’s failed obsession with Lite-Rail. The News and Observer reports the Mayor’s Triangle Transit Authority is having a tough time keeping its fleet of buses afloat. The TTA has maintenance problems. Big maintenance problems. Problems so bad the City has filed a lawsuit to make the bus makers take…
Read MoreThe Lambs at Enloe
The massed armadas of political correctness have descended on the head of a hapless social studies teacher at Enloe High. Robert Escamilla, the ACLU says, has strayed and must be pummeled. His crime: Inviting an Egyptian Christian – who was tortured in Egypt for his beliefs – to speak to his class. The greater crime:…
Read MoreA Shock: The Mayor Says No
Mayor Meeker just stood City government on its head. For six years, he’s been on a spending spree, giving taxpayer subsidies to all types of corporations – hotels, restaurants and supermarkets. Now, suddenly, he’s stopped. Or, at least, he’s finally found one corporation he doesn’t want to subsidize. The Mayor and his bosom-buddy-allies on the…
Read MoreMeeker’s Case of Myopia
Well, Mayor Meeker cracked the whip, twisted a few arms and the City Council snapped back into line and voted for his roundabouts. It even voted to spend twice as much as he asked for. “It’s a new day,” Meeker proclaimed, “for Hillsborough Street.” But just a few blocks away it’s not a new day.…
Read MoreA Black Mark
Robert Penn Warren said it best in All the King’s Men: “Man is conceived in sin and born in corruption and he passeth from the stink of the didie to the stench of the shroud. There is always something.” There was something on Jim Black. And, as Warren’s Willie Stark would say, it stuck. So…
Read MoreSpending Like a Drunken Sailor
Looking out the window as he gave his state of the city address, Mayor Meeker noted the four cranes hovering over his $221 million convention center, his $20 million downtown hotel and his $40 million underground parking lot. (News and Observer; 1-23-07). Then the Mayor proposed building a 28 mile adventure trail along the banks…
Read MoreNew Threat to the Schools
The right-wing, anti-school crowd lost in November when the Wake County school bonds won, but they’re taking aim again. One of our readers emailed: “Looks to me like the County Commissioners are trying to take over the school board – a Billion dollar school bond with 4 school board seats on the same ballot.” Bingo,…
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