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. In South Park, at the corner of Bragg and South East
Streets, the News and Observer reports, “Residents watch despairingly as drug
sales flourish, alcohol is openly consumed on the street and prostitutes ply
their trade morning, noon, and night.”

Last fall two young
men were killed in the neighborhood in what police called a “gang-related”
shooting. (News and Observer; 11-12-06).

“It is the best of times for some and the
worst of times for others,” says Raleigh
City Councilman James West who
represents South Park.

Charles Meeker has a
strange case of Myopia. He’s poured hundreds of millions into his downtown
enclave, but can’t see a few blocks away to South Park.
Think that’s unfair? Consider this: What would the Mayor’s reaction be if the
drug pushers and prostitutes relocated to Hillsborough Street?