The Chrismukkah season is officially upon us.

Newly elected District B City Councilor John Odom, in his capacity as organizer of the Raleigh Merchant’s Association Christmas Parade, barred Mrs. Claus from marching.  Some think that Grandpa Odom is concerned that the youth of Raleigh might be afflicted with gender dysphoria if the appropriate roles of males and females are not clearly delineated, others wonder why Mrs. Claus is such an attention whore.

Now Ms. Goldman is trying to get her plight aired on The Daily Show, but apparently the show is having none of it.

If she were on that show, you just know that John Stewart would wonder aloud, “Debra Goldman.  Married to Steven Goldman.  Are you telling me that Mrs. Claus and the Easter Bunny are….. Jewish ????”

Whoa Moshe! Whoa Herschel! Whoa Shlomo!

Oye vey, this is giving me a Judeo-Christian migraine. I think I’ll become a Buddhist.

North Carolina State College’s “City of Trailers.” More than 75 trailers shared the central bath house and laundry shown at the extreme right. (Click on photo to see full size.)

In the late ’40’s, NC State College (now University) was flooded with returning war veterans and didn’t have adequate housing for them. So temporary villages of trailers and prefab units - Vetvilles - were established, particularly for married students who couldn’t be housed in the conventional dormitories. The first residents moved into their units in November 1946, and the final residents, veterans of Korea, moved out in the late 1950s. Rents were scaled to income, residents could take classes on marriage and sex education, and the local branch of the YMCA claimed to be the first coed “Y” in the country. Vetville was disbanded to make room for Bragaw dorm and E. S. King Village.

Take some time on this Veterans’ Day to learn more about the history of servicing the servicmen and women in Our Fair City.

“City of Trailers”

And so many college kids today complain if they don’t have their own apartment off campus with their own room with private bath. Wimps.

Governor Purdue flew back home last night from her trade mission to China. She was accompanied in China by a planeload of state and local government pols, who helped her with her business of “building and sustaining relationships that create jobs for North Carolinians.”

Much has been said recently about At-Large City Councilor Mary-Ann Baldwin’s trip to China. Baldwin was not a part of the Governor’s mission, her’s “is an economic development trip sponsored by the Chamber to promote Raleigh as a great city in which to invest, hire, and do business, so of course it is related to my Council duties.”

She paid for the trip with campaign funds. I told y’all a few weeks ago that At-Large City Councilor Mary-Ann Baldwin likes to travel on her campaign’s nickel.

An elected official is allowed to spend her campaign funds for “Expenditures resulting from holding public office… if the expenditure would have been made absent the candidate holding public office, then the candidate should not use campaign funds to make the expenditure. If the expenditure would only be made due to the fact the candidate is holding office, then the expenditure would be permitted.”

So if Baldwin is representing the City of Raleigh on some official business in China, then it was legitimate for her to spend $1,799 of her campaign funds to travel there. But Lee Sartain, one of her unsuccessful challengers in the recent election, said the trip is just for sight-seeing. So who’s right?

The trip she bought is sponsored by the Greater Raleigh Chamber of Commerce. The Chamber is sponsoring a series of trips to feed the Hungry Dragon: a 9-day, all-inclusive trip to experience the wonders of China.

• Roundtrip international airfare (does not include travel to and from JFK)
• 5-star hotel accommodations
• 3 meals each day
• Deluxe bus tours
• Fluent English-speaking tour guides
• Entrance fees into tourist attractions

Hmm… that doesn’t sound much like official City business. What does the Chamber of Commerce have to say about it?

“It’s more of a cultural and familiarization tour than a business tour, and we are not trying to sell it for more than it actually is,” [Chamber President Harvey] Schmitt says. “It will be a good introduction to China but not something to build a platform for business.”

The Triangle Business Journal also tells us:

Those who have made similar trips… are exhausted by the time they return because of a busy itinerary that keeps them going from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m. each day.

Besides visiting popular tourist attractions, including Tiananmen Square and The Great Wall, travelers say they are taken to factories, where they are offered goods for sale.

“You will stop at 2-3 ‘factory tours’ or other selling venues each day,” … “This will take up 3-5 hours of each day. When not being sold ’stuff’ at gift shops, you will be sold ’stuff’ on your bus or at restaurants.”

…”Know that you will be exhausted during and after the trip. Know that you will have very little free time and very little opportunity to disconnect with the tour.”

Got it? Very little opportunity to disconnect from the shopping tour “to promote Raleigh as a great city in which to invest, hire, and do business.”

That’s right boys and girls, it’s a shopping spree pure and simple with some sightseeing thrown in for good measure. If Baldwin wanted to represent Raleigh on a legitimate trade mission, she could have gotten on the airbus with the Governor. But then she would have missed out on a once-in-a-lifetime shopping extravaganza.

And why not shop on your campaign’s dime? Even Mao recognized that, “There is a serious tendency toward capitalism among the well-to-do peasants.”

B-BALLED

Two districts left, let’s tackle the easy one first – District B, where John Odom cleaned incumbent Rodger Koopman’s clock.  Lots of talk on the street about how this happened, all of it wrong.

Most often heard is that Koopman was the victim of a high turnout by Republicans motivated to vote for the County School Board. But only 3 precincts out of 26 had school board elections - only 7% of those who showed up to District B polls could vote for school board.  Koopman didn’t fare any worse in those three precincts than he did in the rest of the district (he only won three precincts (a different three)).

Then there’s the blather about his vote to ban garbage disposals from the City.  Odom made light of this by raffling off a disposal.  It was good humor on Odom’s part, but it didn’t buy him a single vote.  Indeed, every sitting Councilor except retiring Councilor Philip Isley voted for the ban.  And it didn’t hurt a single other incumbent who sought re-election.

Three factors killed Koopman. First, he was a lackluster Councilor – no initiatives to call his own, too often absent, too little face time with the voters, not able to appoint district citizens to important boards and commissions, yada yada.

Second, he was a lackluster campaigner backed by an almost non-existent campaign.  First time around, Koopman supporters were motivated by the prospect of ousting Jessie Taliaferro.  They rallied their troops, got the vote out.  This time around, they sat on their laurels and let Odom worry about getting the vote out.  Odom was able to turn out just over 1,200 more than Koopman.  Which is a pittance when you consider that there are 68,917 registered voters in the district. Getting out another 1,200 voters for Koopman would be doable for an organized and active campaign.

Finally, District B knows Odom from his ten years of prior service on the Council, which meant his campaign didn’t have to spend time and money building name recognition.

We fret the loss of Koopman, we here at BTB.org still believe that his heart was and is in the right place, that he has the best interests of Raleigh at heart.  But he never converted good intent into good action, and the entire City will now suffer with the return of Odom.

D-STROYED

In the only real race in the City, it was Extreme Fight Night Raleigh Style pitting incumbent Councilor Thomas Crowder against the tag team of wannabe Democratic kingmakers Dean Debnam and Stephanie Fanjul.  Debnam and Fanjul showed up with a bunch of other big kids, but Crowder managed to send them all running for their mommies by winning every precinct in the district.  Let’s recount the damaged:

First, there’s Debnam and Fanjul.  As I’ve already explained to you, these two are out to get Crowder.  They’ve been fighting it out in the courts, with Crowder winning each match there as well.  When The Intern was reading the stacks of documents from Debnam and Fanjul’s lawsuits (four of them) against Crowder, she came across this little gem in the “Respondent’s Summary of Undisputed Facts:”

Mr. Debnam adheres to the adage, “All it takes to win are balls and a little smart money.”

That fact has now been thoroughly disputed.  Debnam and Fanjul will never again be taken seriously in local politics.

Then there’s their proxy candidate Ted Van Dyk.  As an architect, Van Dyk has often pushed projects for developers that were not favored by the residents of the district.  So it is not unusual for him to be in an antagonist relationship with citizens.  But he was foolish enough to develop similar hostile relations with large blocks of District D voters.  A good example was his support for rezoning much of the West Morgan neighborhood to Central Business District (the infamous Monster’s head).  Van Dyk even tried to organize local business owners to fight against the will of the people, who were having none of it.

With few committed voters, a pot of money provided by Big Real Estate, and just two weeks left in the campaign, Van Dyk went negative.  But he didn’t attack his opponent, rather he went straight for his opponent’s supporters.  His accusations were so ridiculous as to be comical, but Crowder’s crew wasn’t chuckling.  They were ticked, and they turbo-charged the Crowder campaign.

Van Dyk never knew what hit him.  Had he run an honorable campaign, perhaps he would have lived to run another day.  But by going so negative and cutting so deep, he destroyed any chance of a future political career in Raleigh.  Debnam’s stupid money didn’t buy Van Dyk anything but misery.

Van Dyk paid big bucks to Nexus Strategies to design his campaign (Crowder didn’t hire consultants). Nexus says, ”It’s about experience, expertise and relationships. It’s about winning.” What kind of political consultanting firm has its candidate attack his opponent’s constituents en masse? Only one that isn’t about winning. Van Dyk should demand that Nexus refund every last penny he paid them. No, you can’t expect a political consultant to guarantee that you’ll win. But you should expect that the consultant won’t cook up an idiotic campaign strategy that guarantees your loss.

There’s the other City Councilors who worked against Crowder.  At-Large Councilor Mary-Ann Baldwin, who ticked off a lot of District D voters whose support she will wish she had when she eventually runs for Mayor. Former Councilor Joyce Kekas, who spent election day at the polls stumping for Van Dyk.  Other prominent Democrats who actively supported Van Dyk – former Mayor Smedes York, perennial wannabe politician but wholly unelectable commercial real estate broker Carter Worthy, political consultant Brad Crone to name just a few.

And who can forget former Dem Party Chair Jerry Meek and his gang of Democrat lawyers of Poyner and Spruill who donated to the Van Dyk campaign without their their employment identified as required by law?  Meek insisted to the Wake Board of Elections that his client Jerome Goldberg had moved to District D with every intent of making it his permanent home.  Turns out that Goldberg has abandoned his former slum rental turned retirement dreamhome in District D and moved back in with his wife outside the City.  The dreamhouse is for sale – if you’ve always dreamed of being a slumlord, this is your opportunity.  Call Remax Realty, ask for the BTB.org PROP special.  Then call Jerry Meek – he’ll give you a coupon for 20% off on closings for slumlords when they use a Poyner and Spruill attorney.

But there’s no need to worry about Jerry Goldberg – he’ll be fine. He’s bound to make a pile of money operating his development business out of City Hall (I kid you not, go here, skip ahead to 3:20, and listen for just a minute - Jerry Meek put his seal of approval on a  Council candidate who is a City employee that runs his private development business out of his city office).

It’s been a couple of weeks since the City Council elections. I intended to post my retrospective within 48 hours of the polls closing, but after writing the first draft decided I needed to let the dust settle and mull over the numbers a bit. Here at BTB.org Central we still don’t have final reports from the Board of Elections on who spent what, but we know at least 90% of what we need to know, so here goes.

AMERICAN MAYOR

Conan O’Brien once joked,“In New York, we had primary elections for mayor. To improve their chances, all five candidates changed their name to Rudy Giuliani.”

Nothing more really needs to be said about our race for Mayor here in Raleigh.

LIVIN’ LARGE

No real surprises here, with both incumbents Mary-Ann Baldwin and Russ Stephenson winning as handily as expected. Baldwin took about 1,500 more votes than Stephenson did, with almost all the difference coming from one District. Baldwin got 34-36% of the vote in all districts but C, where she got a whooping one out of every two votes.

In 2007, District C favored Baldwin and (failed) candidate Paul Anderson heavily over Stephenson. This year, without an African-American candidate in the race (Anderson), Stephenson faired better in C, primarily because Champ Claris and Lee Sartain did so poorly there. It’s an odd phenomenon – there isn’t a hill of beans difference between Claris and Baldwin aside from age and gender, and there isn’t a Baldwin policy that benefits the predominately African-American district, but to Baldwin’s credit she has established herself as the darling of Southeast Raleigh. Of course, this is the district that has elected James West to five consecutive terms in office, despite having proven wholly ineffective at improving the lot of the District.

Expect Baldwin to run for Mayor at her first opportunity, which will be when Meeker decides to call it quits. She has proven that she can raise big money from Big Real Estate, and that she can fool some of the people all of the time. She will be a formidable opponent against any candidate, Democrat or Republican. There’s constant prattle about Stephenson and District A Councilor Nancy McFarlane both wanting to succeed Meeker, and the occasional call from the streets that District D’s populist Thomas Crowder should take his rightful place in the catbird seat. But only Crowder could put up a real fight against Baldwin’s Big Real Estate Money Machine, and even he would likely get crushed by its weight.

Baldwin’s Achilles heel is that she can be her own worst enemy, but so far she has only stubbed  a couple of toes and not ripped a tendon. Take the recent flap about using $1700 of her campaign funds to take a trip to China. The N&O reported that “Baldwin said the trip offers chances to learn about the Chinese economy and viewed the trip as an extension of her council duties.” Yeah, right. With no serious opposition this year, it didn’t become an issue in the campaign. But raise the stakes a few notches in a contentious race for Mayor, and if Baldwin is not considerably more careful she could be her own undoing.

Champ Claris never got his campaign going out of North Raleigh, and out of the Big Real Estate community. He won 24-25% of the vote in Districts A, B, and E (North Raleigh), but only 7% in C and 10% in D (Central and South Raleigh). He essentially ran on the classic Republican platform that government is hugely wasteful and the solution to all our problems is as simple as making “our City Government as efficient as possible by trimming waste and focusing on accountability, top to bottom.”

As weak as Claris’ message was, he still got almost 4x as many votes as Lee Sartain. Sartain came out of the gate looking like a serious candidate, but it didn’t take him long to demonstrate that he had no clue what this City is about. The cornerstone of his campaign was a City drive to encourage businesses to use State tax incentives to locate in a very small area in Central Raleigh. Uh, Earth to Sartain, businessfolk know all about tax incentives, they don’t want to take a course in Economics 101 from a City Councilor. On several occasions, Sartain attacked Baldwin for being a shill of Big Real Estate (which she is), then came out with the idea to strip away the recently initiated PROP program and related legislation that has helped at-risk neighborhoods – something only a shill of Big Real Estate would propose. In place of the PROP, he proposed a Blue Ribbon Commission that would recommend reform.

Pssst, Lee, over here buddy, this is your pal Earth again - the PROP was the result of recommendations put forward by a Council-appointed Blue Ribbon Commission of stakeholders from both neighborhoods and the real estate industry.

There was a core of liberal Raleigh politicos who were touting Sartain as the City’s next Redeemer. He got 7-9% of the vote in every District except D, where he polled over 15%.  He even managed almost 25% in one precinct there, and 22% and 19% in two others. There is no doubt that these folks were primarily wooed by the prospect of the first openly gay Councilor. That clouded their thinking, and they never looked clearly at what Sartain was really offering, which wasn’t much else. Sartain is young and inexperienced in politics, so if they want to stick with him, they are going to have to groom him. A lot. A whole lot.

DISTRICT 9

Nancy McFarlane gets an A-minus, as the incumbent minus an opponent in District A. It is a blow for liberal democracy everywhere when only 10% of our citizens even turn out to vote, and only two of eight seats in a City as large and vibrant as Raleigh are practicably contested.

And a C-minus for James West, who won handily in C. Which guarantees that District C will continue its long slow rot for at least another two years. West had an opponent on paper only, and could only muster just over 5.5% voter turnout.

In District E, there was never any question that North Hills Manager Bonner Gaylord was going to smash his fellow Planning Commissioner Waheed Haq. As I already told y’all, everybody who is anybody in Big Real Estate was throwing money at Gaylord. On the other hand Haq, as of the last campaign report filed, had only two donors that live in the City of Raleigh, and only one of those lives in his district and could vote for him. The other ten donors scattered around the country: Cary ($300), Morrisville ($500), Knightdale ($200), Goldsboro ($250), Siler City ($1,000), Ramseur ($500), Kentucky ($1000), West Virginia ($500), and the left coast (San Fran for $300). The one kafir who donated gave $200 - he owns a pawn shop and ran an subterranean campaign again District D’s Thomas Crowder (Crowder spearheaded recent legislation that limits where in the City new pawn shops can operate).

Gaylord is what he is, a nice enough fella whose interests extend as far as his boss’ investment opportunities. Like Claris, he wants to cut City spending and trim government. That’s literally all he has in the idea department – less spending, more North Hills.

Haq, a sad excuse for a planning commissioner, would have made an even worse City Councilor than Gaylord. I do give him some credit for at least making a showing. Over the past few years, the local Muslim community has been making some efforts to participate in the democratic process. It’s not gone particularly well, and at more times than not the community is its own worst political enemy.

But no way no how is District E - the District that followed up Councilor Coble with Councilor Isley and will now install the manager of North Hills as its leader - is going to elect a Pakistani immigrant that frequents a mosque that is also home to several alleged terrorists. The mosque’s recent clampdown on its historically insular interactions with the larger and largely Judeo-Christian community insures that a muslim City Councilor will be a long time in coming. But Haq continues to put on a happy face and offer himself up for public service, which takes some measure of courage that has to be respected. For that, Khalilah Sabra, Assalamu Alilkum aa Rahmatulah aa Barakatuh.

But the campaign is not behind Haq yet. Haq likes to hold himself out as an engineer, though he is not. His campaign website says he is the president of Associated Environmental Consultants & Engineers. IndyWeek refers to him as a Civil Engineer. The N&O calls him an “engineering consultant.” Even the North Carolina Board of Ethics says he got a masters in engineering from NC State.

In North Carolina, you have to be licensed by the State, through the NC Board of Examiners for Engineers and Surveyors, to call yourself an engineer. Furthermore, any firm referring to itself as an engineering business must have a license from the same board.

Haq does not have a license to practice engineering. Associated Environmental Consultants & Engineers does not have a license to sell engineering services.

To pile weird atop artifice, the NC Secretary of State says that Associated Environmental Consultants & Engineers, Inc. was dissolved in 1991. Haq has several other corporations registered with the State, including Ace Engineering Consultants, Inc., Rana, LLC, and A&M Ventures, Inc. (none of which are licensed to sell engineering services).

So how does Haq sell engineering and contracting services (he doesn’t have a contractor’s license either)?

A little bird tells us that he hides behind the licenses of a friend, Siraj Chohan. Chohan is a state employee who works for DENR .

We’ll let you know what the NC Board of Examiners for Engineers and Surveyors has to say about Haq, and what NC DENR has to say about Chohan.

Earth to the Muslim Community of Raleigh – next time you choose a public face, don’t pick someone who was appointed by Governor Easley to the NC Board of Ethics, ‘cause you gotta know that chances are that such a character is morally corrupt.

Tomorrow – the two real races, Districts B and D.

A DEMONSTRATION AT THE NC STATE FAIR, 1922

(click on image for full size, from NCSU Libraries Collection)

That was the same year that Maytag introduced the first agitator in a washing machine. Note the big tubs to the right of the ringer (that the laundress is running a piece of clothing through) - back then folks used to boil their clothes in bluing after washing them. 

At about the same time, marketing campaigns in magazines began touting the virtues of smelling good and making a good impression on the opposite sex, to create demand for deodorant, mouthwash, and soap for daily bathing.

Had they only forseen back then that all this cleanliness would ultimately lead to the development of AXE, perhaps they would have thought twice about all of this “smelling good.”

ACROSS FROM STATE COLLEGE, 1922

(click on image for full size, from NCSU Libraries Collection)

Clink on image to view full size.

I’m still chuckling over that email rant that disgraced and disqualified District D candidate Jerome Goldberg sent out by the thousands last week. It’s not the lies he tells, it’s how he tells them – I’m not cruel enough to hope that his blood pressure was high enough to induce a stroke. But I really couldn’t believe that it actually went out, as it was so apparently coordinated with qualified District D candidate Ted Van Dyk’s campaign.

Now I can.  Friday afternoon my old maid aunt calls me from her rest home down on Wade Avenue.  “Lenny,” she says excitedly (and NOBODY else gets to call me that), “There’s something wrong with that Councilman Crowder’s DNA.” I tell her to take to take two Geritol and call me in the morning.  “No, Lenny, I got this letter in the mail today, and it says that there is something wrong with that young man’s DNA.”  So I call the front desk, and one of the attendants fetches the letter, actually a large postcard, and faxes it to me (I’d post it but the fax is too poor quality).  It’s the latest mailer from the Van Dyk campaign. 

District D incumbent Thomas Crowder meets once a month with his constituents that loosely form what they call DDNA.  That’s with two D’s, Auntie Dear, as in District D Neighborhood Alliance. Anyone from the district is invited to attend – the meetings are once a month on Saturday mornings at the Whole Food Grocery on Wade Avenue – and scanning the meeting notes it seems that a fair percentage of participants are from neighborhood associations and CAC leadership. It’s quite an interesting exercise in citizen empowerment – kudos to Crowder.

In his Friday mailer, Van Dyk attacks these constituents, quite viciously actually. Says their meetings are top secret, invitation only for a privileged few, that they got Crowder to single-handedly drastically alter the new Comprehensive Plan (that the Council approved unanimously? go figure) so that the historic Caraleigh neighborhood could be razed for the next shopping mall to be built in Raleigh (Earth to Van Dyk, follow the money - the next mall is likely to be out past Brier Creek).

The cardinal rule in politics is that you don’t go negative until the polls say you lose the race if you just put on a positive face and stick with the facts. We have already established that one of the biggest democratic pollsters is feeding Van Dyk data, and his data tend to be clean. The big surprise here is not that Van Dyk has resorted to telling packs of lies, but that he is telling most of them about the candidate’s supporters rather than about the actual candidate. This is a recipe for disaster and, like the Goldberg email, can only turn reasonable but undecided voters against him. The biggest joke of all is that the front of Van Dyk’s flier says “A Positive Voice For Raleigh,” while the message on the rear would have made Jesse Helms proud.

Instead of playing to the voters, Van Dyk is playing to the business interests of the district. Again, follow the money. The usual BTB.org rules for analyzing campaign contributions apply: Donations are taken from the campaign reports filed with the Board of Elections, donations from family members don’t count, and anyone whose living is made primarily from the real estate development trade gets thrown into the real estate pool.

The numbers don’t lie – Crowder gets most of his money from voters in his District, while Van Dyk is bought and paid for by Big Real Estate.

Van Dyk didn’t file his campaign report until the middle of last week, more than three weeks past the deadline. One thing that immediately caught our attention as we read it over is how many contributors are missing information on job title and profession, information that candidates must collect from all of their contributors and report to the Board of Elections. Even more curiously, five of those names are attorneys at Poyner and Spruill who know better than to do this.

Just try to imagine this if you can: Jerry Meek, Poyner and Spruill Attorney and Democrat Operative Extraordinaire, frustrated by his unsuccessful efforts to keep Goldberg on the ballot, inserts himself into every office in his wing at the law firm - I gotta have something, give me something, I have a popular, loyal, successful Democrat politician that I just MUST take down. At least nine of his colleagues say, “Look, here’s a hundred bucks, just take it and leave me alone, I’ve got real legal work to do.” And most of them say, “And don’t tell where you got that from, I don’t need the aggravation.” So the campaign fails to fully identify these donors. I for one would have never known who they are but for The Intern, faithful student of the law in Meredith paralegal program that she is. She knows attorneys or at least how to find them.

This from a campaign that accuses its rival of holding secret meetings in the middle of a crowded grocery store. Expect the Van Dyk campaign to spew out the vitriol wholesale over the next eight days, as it really is that desperate for voters.

It’s one helluva day in the neighborhood, a helluva day for a neighbor. Would you be my? Could you be my?

I hope I get to move in your neighborhood some day.

The problem is, when I move in, y’all move away!

Will you be my, won’t you be my, won’t you be my neighbor?

Who could that be? Let’s see. This is how you answer a door in my neighborhood- WHO IS IT?

It’s Mr. Landlord! Hello, Mr. Landlord.

Oh look, an eviction notice, brought by Mr. Landlord.

Can you say scumbucket? That’s our special word for today, boys and girls. Do you know any scumbuckets? I bet you do.

From: “Jerome Goldberg”
Date: September 23, 2009 12:11:23 AM EDT
To: Every Landlord in Raleigh
Subject: URGENT!! LANDLORDS MUST DEFEAT CROWDER IN RALEIGH COUNCIL ELECTION OCT 6

TAKE BACK CONTROL OF YOUR NEIGHBORHOODS AND RENTAL PROPERTIES ON ELECTION DAY, OCTOBER 6, 2009
DEFEAT INCUMBENT COUNCILMAN CROWDER!!!

DO NOT LET THIS COUNCILMAN CROWDER AND HIS CRONIES CONTINUE TO CONTROL YOUR NEIGHBORHOODS TO THE DETRIMENT OF LANDLORDS, STUDENTS AND RENTERS!

I AM URGENTLY REQUESTING THAT YOU HELP ME HELP YOU TO ACCOMPLISH THIS. I AM ALSO A LANDLORD AND DEVELOPER OF SMALL RENTAL PROPERTIES IN RALEIGH. I HAVE RECENTLY SENT OUT A MASSIVE MAILING TO OTHER CONSTITUENTS ENCOURAGING VOTER REGISTRATION AND CROWDER’S DEFEAT AT MY OWN EXPENSE. BUT NOW I NEED TO ASK YOU FOR A FINANCIAL CONTRIBUTION TO OFFSET THE COST OF MAILING A LAST MINUTE APPEAL TO REGISTERED RENTAL HOUSEHOLD VOTERS IN DISTRICT ‘D’ TO GET THEM TO VOTE AND VOTE AGAINST CROWDER BY VOTING FOR TED VAN DYK.

BOARD OF ELECTIONS REGULATIONS ALLOWS ONLY PERSONAL CHECKS AS CONTRIBUTIONS. YOU HAVE TO ACT NOW AND MAIL A CHECK BY FRIDAY, SEPT 25 MAKE THE CHECK PAYABLE TO:
JEROME GOLDBERG
P.O. BOX  —
RALEIGH, NC 27602

You may ask why this is so important!

This is your opportunity to show your collective political muscle and take your neighborhoods back. In past City elections, there was a very poor turnout of registered RENTERS AND STUDENTS and the candidates could ignore your wants and desires and, in fact, pass legislation to your detriment. What they do not want you to know is that in District D which encompasses NCSU and most of the rental housing area servicing NCSU, there are approximately 35,000 registered voters BUT ONLY 3500 VOTERS will normally turn out for the City Elections on October 6th!! THERE ARE 28,000 NCSU STUDENTS!! THERE ARE OVER 6,200 LANDLORDS ACROSS THE CITY!!!

You can make the difference!!

WHY DEFEAT INCUMBENT CROWDER AND HIS CRONIES?

Crowder and his cronies’ actions and proposals affect the whole City, not just District D.

Consider Crowder’s record against students and renters AND LANDLORDS and his manipulation and use of the Raleigh Citizens Advisory Committee (paid for by tax dollars) and his District D Neighborhood Alliance group. Only his residents can vote on the issues before the CAC and influence all Planning issues in the neighborhood; NOT Landlords who own the property and pay taxes in his neighborhood!

He is the one that proposed to limit rentals from 4 to 2 unrelated persons!! His rental registration program, his P.R.O.P. ordinances, and his zoning proposals push landlords to raise rents. His PROP ordinances make Landlords responsible for their tenant’s actions when, in fact, the landlord has neither knowledge nor control of these tenant actions. He proposed punitive action against landlords based on alleged ordinance and criminal violations brought against tenants, not convictions. He now has City Police searching for alleged violations (including lawn length). Shouldn’t the Police be out there doing something important?

He proposed and passed the Landlord Registration Ordinance which costs you $30.00 for a single family and $10.00 per additional dwelling unit in the same building. This money is to be used for his enforcement efforts against you.

He is arrogant and divisive. He uses his influence and arrogance to further his personal business agenda when he applies for personal permit approvals at the City. He claims to support “unity of development” styles in neighborhoods, yet his house that he designed and built recently is a “modern contemporary” while all his neighbors have “1960’s ranches”.

He and his cronies just approved many (50) amendments to the City Comprehensive Plan at the last minute without allowing any public input as the rest of the Plan required. He even exempted two major areas in his District from the rules of the adopted Comprehensive Plan until he was ready to restudy them. Amazing enough, one of these exempted areas includes his Business Office space!!

He recently passed legislation to require new duplex residences to now come additionally before the City Council for approval.

He proposed new parking regulations for single family homes (BOTH NEW AND EXISTING) that would limit front yard parking and require existing property owners across the City to now resurface their parking and driveway areas and landscape at their own expense in this recession economy. This is another ploy to reduce rental properties and renters in the neighborhoods with his single family residence supporters. THEY WANT TO KEEP RENTERS AWAY FROM THE NEIGHBORHOOD. THIS IS AMERICA! DON’T LET THEM DO IT!!!

WE HAVE TO STOP CROWDER’S INJUSTICES NOW! PLEASE SEND ME A CONTRIBUTION TOWARDS A LAST MINUTE MAILING.

PAID FOR BY JEROME GOLDBERG (per NCGS 163-278.12). Not authorized by a candidate.