What goes up, must come down. It's called Karma baby.
Dr. Walter de Gama and Lunsford Lane
October 12, 2005

Mayor Meeker, for carrying the day with an agenda clearly his own. He's got coattails, and he was quick to let fellow Dems hang on and enjoy the ride. His support was crucial for Stephenson, and his role in electing Kekas should not be underestimated. He got a resounding affirmation that his downtown redevelopment plans don't rattle the electorate, impact fees play well, and he's always got them crazy trees trees trees. He's the big winner of this election cycle.

Raleigh Neighborhoods, which deserve and can expect more consideration when the Council makes planning and zoning conditions, and which can now thumb their nose at the TrianglePMG, the Big Real Estate front that attacks neighborhood associations and protects slum landlords.

Big Real Estate lost its edge at the Council table. So sorry, TrianglePMG, but the PROP is here to stay. Planning time! Excellent!

Big Real Estate got its road bonds. So don't turn your back on these guys now, they get mean when they're injured. Sprawl on, Wayne. Sprawl on, Garth!

BTB.org, for unwavering faith in the newly elected Russ Stephenson.

BTB.org, for underestimating the almost elected Paul Anderson.

Wake County Democratic Party, for recognizing the pendulum is swinging back their way. We've done more than our fair share of ragging on the Dem Party here, and we have to admit, they look to be getting their act together. The Mayor seems to be getting the City Council in shape, and props to the local Party for already starting the search for good candidates for elections next year. Strike while the iron is hot - local Progressives are thinking like winners!

Republican Party, locally and nationally, for having gotten WAY off course. From Bush II to local yokels Capps, Regan, Ross, and the rest of their ilk, they'e spoiling it for the Isleys and Cravens. We support a big tent too, fellows, but you don't empty the town's looney bin just to fill that tent.

Paul Anderson, for evolving into a credible candidate! We can’t help but believe that if he’d campaigned a smidgen sooner and tad smarter, he’d be taking a victory lap right now. We were always for him, but we never saw him making it as close as he did - thanks for far exceeding our expectations!

Paul Anderson, for underestimating Paul Anderson, 'cause a loss is a loss, no matter the margin.

At-large Councilor Tommy Craven, 'cause a win's a win, no matter the margin.

The John Odomobile is a rusted out jalopy finally scrapped to the political junkyard.

District A Councilor Mike Regan, for hightailing it down the Highway to Heaven while he still had a shred of dignity left.

District C Councilor James West , who wanted another African-American on the Council, but never rallied enough campaign support from the City's many African-American communities to get the resources to get the job done. Craven will be decidely less sympathetic to West's causes than Anderson would have been.

District D Councilor Thomas Crowder, who is likely to find much more common ground with Stephenson than he could with fellow Dems Taliaferro and West.

District E Councilor Philip Isley, who must bear most of the burden of providing GOP opposition to Mayor Meeker. Fellow Republican Craven just squeeked by, so he has to step gingerly. Isley relishes the role of contrarian, but he doesn't play it well, And he's kicking himself for blowing so much dough on cheesy TV commercials, as he expected that Odom would win and he could tag along on the GOP wave. But that wave broke before Isley ever got up on his board, and his chance to be Mayor washed out with the tide. He'll need a rouge wave to push him back in now.

At-large Councilor Joyce Kekas, who can chug-a-lug with the best of 'em - You Go, Girl!

District B Councilor Jessie Taliaferro, who was AWOL from all the Democratic celebrations last night. We haven’t heard her excuse yet, but we know that she's MIA because the glares she gets from party faithul are just too irritating.

Readers tell us that Lunsford Lane was a top choice among those who decided to write in a candidate rather than check off an uncontested incumbent. If one of y’all could verify that with the Board of Elections, we’d love to know! (Note on 10/13 - WakePol says no, voters say yes, I don't care either way, just would be fun to know! - LL)

Given the fickleness of polls, Dean Debnam's telephone surveys weren't that far off.

Perry Woods, local Democratic campaign consultant, for having two winners this year - Meeker and Stephenson. Both candidates stayed on message. And those SEIU campaign mailers, they worked! Very much a behind-the-scenes guy, like all hired guns his star rises and falls according to his wins and losses. He won big, and can ride high for awhile.

The Raleigh Electorate, who for the most part sat on its collective hands at home. If every voter in this City who supports the war to make Iraq safe for democracy had bothered to vote in their own election, we'd have had record turnout. Pitiful. Shameful. Of course, they'd have also put Odom on the Council, so on second thought, thanks for the hypocrisy!

BTB.org Readers, y'all set new records for hits on our site! We hope all of ya'll stick with us as we go back to our normal postings on Raleigh politics once or twice a week. Thanks a gazillion! And the same props to the local bloggers and websites who linked to us.

IndyWeek's Bob Geary, for getting a blog up just in the nick of time for the elections. Trouble is, we're told the dude tools around town in a very dowdy '80's Nissan pickup. If he's wanting to burn rubber with the Big Bloggers on the Information Superhighway, he's gonna have to score some better wheels. If he does good blogging, maybe we'll lift that truck and pimp his ride. Of course, we're Ol' Skool, so we still call it "souping up the rod", and since he's no spring chicken hisself, nothing too extreme, so he won't get hurt, maybe something like this:

(Note on 10/13 - We sent an email to someone who we thought might know, and she said Nissan truck, but a trusted reader says the truck belongs to Geary's wife . We could feminize it just a bit and still make a great rod, 'cause any truck is a good start. But if we find out he drives some rickety Plymouth Reliant or Lord forbid an old VW bus, he's probably beyond our capacity to help - just pick up one of those tricked out Rexes the kids love and be done with it. - LL)

ELECTION EVE ROUNDUP
Dr. Walter de Gama and Lunsford Lane
October 10, 2005

Don’t Bring Me Tulips

It just about kills us to admit this, but President George Bush, in a rare press conference said last week, said something that really makes sense.

A reporter asked :

... how are we going to bridge the divide of poverty and race in this country, beyond economics and homeownership...

As part of a longer answer, the President said:

... I don't think you can divorce bridging divides from ownership. In other words, I think it's essential that people own something if they're going to have a stake in the future of the country. I think part of the divide occurs because some people own a home and others don't.

I think there's something so powerfully healing about a society in which more and more people have ownership.

We agree!

All over Raleigh, unscrupulous landlords are renting single family homes to Mexican laborers. Often 12-15 per house (yes, of course that’s illegal, but they coach los Mexicanos to tell zoning inspectors that they are all cousins - think not? then call the City inspections dept.). $100 cash money per week from each. Do the math. That’s an incredible income stream off of a dilapidated house. Most of it unreported to the IRS. Just think how much better off those hombres would be if they formed a partnership and bought shares in the house? They’d have the mortgage paid off in less than two years!

This is of course the extreme of renter abuse; for many more, the problems start when they realize after renting for several years that their money is going out the window so they decide to invest in Home Sweet Home, but are too poor to do it. And the real problems start when First Time Buyers get squeezed out of the market because the average cost of a home pushes 200K. Heck, they were getting squeezed out when the prices were at 120K. So what can people do but continue to rent and save until they can get a substantial down payment together? Some will drive 40 or more miles out to Johnston county to get their foot in the door for under 100K, but this too is old news…

Affordable housing is a critically important piece of the overall housing stock puzzle in any city. This includes programs and loans and grants - meaning Market Forces and the Invisible Hand don’t get the job done of providing housing for everybody. So government, meaning you and me, has to intervene.

Yes, we wish the City had its priorities straight, and wanted to issue $60 million in Affordable Housing Bonds and $20 million in Road Bonds rather than the other way around.

Yes, we wish more of the housing bond money was going to promoting home ownership rather than rental.

Yes, we wish that some another department rather than the City's corrupt Community Services Department would be overseeing the spending,

But at the end of the day, yes, we support the Affordable Housing Bonds.

Sense of Community

Ever heard of the Triangle Community Coalition? Sound to you like a potpourri of wealthy liberal do-gooders, downtrodden minorities, and past-their-prime hippies holding hands and singing kumbaya - you know, maybe something like a local well-known Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now?

Well, think again - it’s the intentionally misleading pseudonym of Triangle Big Real Estate, what Geary at the Independent aptly calls the Sprawl Lobby. They desperately want to continue business as usual, so they spent the weekend blitzing for John Odom and Joyce Kekas. Two slick campaign mailers for Odom and Kekas, and lots of automated phone calling for Odom. They know, as we here at BTB.org know, that the only real differences between Odom and Kekas are gender and party affiliation.

But local Dems, particularly Democratic woman, so ache for another female Councilor that they are willing to overlook the real Kekas. The local Sierra Club exemplifies this attitude best - their Political Committee recognizes that Kekas’ record is strongly pro-development (aka anti-Sierra Club), but they endorse her because “her heart’s in the right place.” Think they’d give the same break to Councilor Mike Regan if he'd stayed in the race for Mayor? Take notice, Sierra Club - according to the N&O, even the way-right lunatic-fringe Wake County Taxpayers Association is supporting Kekas (they’re also supporting Ross for Mayor, they must buy his Magic (Flying) Bus).

We know Kekas is going to win, bigtime. We only point these endorsements out now so we can say we-told-you-so later when Kekas lines up not with her constituents, but directly behind fellow pseudo-Democratic Councilor Jessie Taliaferro.

REAL AMERICAN HEROES
Dr. Walter de Gama
October 6, 2005

Now we don't want to go counting our little chickadees before they hatch, but look at this news hot off the Indy Blog this morning. Could the tide be turning?!

How 'bout them potatoes, Mr. and Ms. Going-To-A-Million-Meetings-Citizen? You’re on several email lists of 25-50 people. You have attended City Council meetings and committee meetings and have haunted City Hall and have talked to City Staffers. You watch the proceedings on television on a fairly regular basis and check the City website and read the minutes of meetings. You’re active in your neighborhood, or your Citizens Advisory Council, or your District, or some task force or study group, or maybe one of numerous local niche issue groups like the folks trying to turn the Dorothea Dix grounds into a park or preserve the quality of the King Charles neighborhood. Maybe you have fought zoning battles, meeting with developers, doing your homework, finding common ground and alliances with new people who share your values. No doubt you have spent countless hours talking on the phone, writing letters and emails, and attending meetings - and it all adds up to trying to improve the Quality of Life in Raleigh. Some of you are Icons in this game, having been active in local politics for years, if not decades, and to you we all owe a special debt of appreciation.

And now in the last weekend running up to the election you are out there stumping for candidates by knocking on doors, distributing flyers, putting up signs, and meeting with like-minded folks. It can be a lonely task at times…

You know who you are, and we know, too. Lunsford and I salute you and you have our sincere gratitude for all of the volunteer work you have done over the years. This is called Fighting the Good Fight - making incremental steps forward towards a more progressive community, knowing that all of your energy may be for naught if the Bozos, er, wrong candidates, are elected, knowing that your sacrifices go mostly unnoticed. If you burn out or get buffeted by the vicissitudes of life, we understand. We wish you well, and truly, thank you for everything.

So Kids, are you Ready to Kick Some Sorry Special Interest (aka Big Real Estate) Non-Partisan (aka Republican) Ass here? Are you not gonna take their smoke and mirrors anymore? Do you have a final weekend’s worth of fight left? Then get off the computer and get on the phone and call everybody you know and tell them to vote for Russ Stephenson next Tuesday. And then call everybody you know in District A and tell them to vote for Paul Anderson. Call 20 people tonight and gab about the future. Don’t forget to vote for Mayor Meeker. And of course, get yourself to the voting booth next Tuesday - and take all of your friends with you.

We’re Not on the Map
Lunsford Lane
October 7, 2005

I promised in my last blog that I would explain my assertion that the roads that would be built if we approve the Road Bonds package on Tuesday would primarily benefit developers.

Look at the maps of the proposed projects:

Notice anything similar about these projects?

How about, with the exception of Hillsborough Street, they’re all at the fringes of the City limits? Why is that? Because the City is sprawling uncontrollably. Developers push further and further out of town. Roads out of town get jammed. Developers refuse to pay their fair share of new improvements in impact fees. So the City has to hit up you and me to widen the roads. So developers can sprawl even more. In an apparently never ending cycle that continues to pull tax money out of your pocket and mine.

So what’s mid-town Hillsborough Street doing stuck in there? That stretch of Hillsborough Street along the NC State campus has one of the highest traffic and pedestrian accident rates in North Carolina - the DOT calls it at about 10 pedestrian crashes per mile per year, 5 bike crashes per mile per year, and something around 300 vehicle crashes in a typical year. That puts that stretch of road in the top five most dangerous in the entire State!

I think all of us, Democratic or Republican, liberal or conservative, can agree that a basic function of government is to provide for safety of its citizens. It’s going to cost somewhere between 10 and 25 million dollars to improve Hillsborough Street. So why then is only $3 million allocated to the project, while projects whose primary purpose is to get Caryites or Wake Foresters home faster from their jobs downtown or at the university get millions and millions more? Because Big Real Estate needs those roads in order to keep enticing folks to buy homes further and further out of town. If Big Real Estate, let’s say for example, Wakefield Development Company, had paid a FAIR share in impact fees, there’d be money in the City’s bank account to make those road improvements. And Big Real Estate owns the City Council, so when given a choice between taking our money to save lives or to provide new business opportunities for Big Real Estate, the Council chooses business as usual.

What’s a few kids knocked off of Hillsborough Street now and then? We’ve got homes to sell in Cary and Wake Forest!

The City leaders threw in the $3 million dollars for Hillsborough Street - a measley 5% of the money slated for road improvement - as a bone to in-towners to entice them to vote for the bonds. But if our priorities were straight, we’d do projects like Hillsborough Street first. That project will save lives, reinvigorate a deteriorating part of town, promote liveable walkable development. And did I mention save lives? Widening Tryon Road to the Cary city limit so that Caryites can get home faster would come later, if at all.

I think all of us, Democratic or Republican, liberal or conservative, can agree that there are no second class Citizens of Raleigh. No doubt, there are traffic problems at the fringes, and the Citizens living at the fringes need and deserve help with transportation. But as I’ve said before, a tax plan that overlooks those who benefit most (Big Real Estate) and puts the priorities of others (Big Real Estate) over those of Citizens is no plan at all.

Raise impact fees, reform the Planning Commission, and presto whammo just like magic, suddenly I am all for the road bonds.

Between the Hammer and the Anvil
Dr. Walter de Gama
October 7, 2005

The Democratic Party has At-Large City Councilor Joyce Kekas absolutely crawling in her skin today.

Remember the Service Employees International Union’s Committee on Political Education, the group that mailed out that take-off of my cheesy cartoon to Raleigh voters last Monday? The Union fired its second volley at Council Candidates John Odom and Tommy Craven yesterday. The latest mailer says:

And right there smack dab in the middle of the page is a rather flattering portrait of Joyce Kekas! Above mug shots of At-Large Candidate Russ Stephenson and District A Candidate Paul Anderson.

We've been snooping around (a lot!) and we are confident that not a one of these candidates is affliated with these mailers. And like all good candidates would, they are disavowing them.

For Stephenson and Anderson, it’s really not so bad, because they are firmly on the record supporting increased impact fees. But Kekas isn’t so firm, and the Democrats are forcing her hand.

In fact, Kekas sent her own flyer yesterday, claiming that she is:

The Choice of All of Raleigh
Endorsed By:
NC Police Benevolent Association
Raleigh Professional Firefighters Association
The Sierra Club
Raleigh Regional Association of Realtors
Raleigh-Wake Citizens Association
The Independent

She includes endorsements from Mayor Meeker, Smedes York, Representative Bernie Allen. But what her mailer glosses over is that she is the choice of Big Real Estate. She oh so conveniently forgets to tell us that she is endorsed by the Home Builders Association (don’t forget to visit their offices to get your free Kekas for Council yard sign). Excluding the Raleigh Regional Association of Realtors, all of the supporters in the list above combined have contributed a few hundred dollars to her campaign. The Realtors and the Home Builders don't even count their hundred dollar bills, and combined have thrown Kekas at least ten times that ($5,000 plus). And they don’t want impact fees. So Kekas doesn't really want them either.

Kekas is trying her level best to be a successful Jessiecrat - that’s Jessie as in Taliaferro, not Jesse as in Helms. A DINO -Democrat in Name Only. But some Democrats are finally wising up to local Jessiecrats. If Joyce wants to run with Dem dogs, then they’re gonna make her bark their call. So they’re boxing her in on impact fees. She’s feeling the heat, and giving weasely answers, like this in the News and Observer on September 30:

The city has contracted a consultant to put together a report, due in November on impact fees.

"We should have that report before the election, not after," said Anderson.

Democrat Joyce Kekas, who is also running for one of the two at-large seats, said she'd wait until she can read the report before forming an opinion.

"If it looks like the fees need to be increased, we need to get the stakeholders together and find a solution," said Kekas.

Not very committal. We’ve said it here many times before, I'll say it again. Joyce, decide if you're progressive or not. But if you weasel and choose Jessiecrat, you ultimately lose.

These things always come in threes, so we can't wait to see the next flier from SEIU-COPE. Hopefully the Dems will soon try some of their strong-arm tactics on Taliaferro.

As Conservative As It Gets
Lunsford Lane
October 6, 2005

At first glance I thought I misread today’s story in the News and Observer today about the hard-hitting political mailer Dr. de Gama told you about two days ago that nails Council candidates Odom and Craven on impact fees:

It's the first negative advertisement in an otherwise tame campaign season. It isn't true -- neither Craven nor Odom backs tax increases -- and its origin has turned a friendly campaign nasty.

It isn't true? Not true??!!! Of course it’s true, as the N&O reported about Craven just last Friday:

He supports two bonds on the ballot next month, which would put $80 million toward wider streets and affordable housing. But he resents the fact that the city wants to pay for those projects with a 2-cent increase in the property tax rather than with available money.

He supports the bonds knowing full well he will have to raise property taxes to pay for them. Yes, he resents having to raise property taxes - which politician doesn’t? - but he’s gonna do it anyway because he wants the bonds more than he doesn’t want higher taxes.

Same line for Odom. So why would two self-proclaimed staunch fiscal conservatives choose higher taxes over less road work? For the same reason they won’t support impact fees, a very conservative revenue stream. Because, if they are conservatives at all, they are first and foremost special interest candidates. And their special interest is Big Real Estate.

Both Craven and Odom claim that impact fees are economically destructive. Do a Google search on “impact fees”, and you’ll get thousands of hits, almost all for unsupported diatribes for and against the fees. Typical is this piece from the local John Locke Foundation which proffers a slew of negative impacts brought on by impact fees, but doesn't give a single shred of evidence that any of these impacts actually transpire.

In fact, we here at BTB.org have only found a single study that actually examines the effects of impact fees on economic development - you can get it here. These two dudes start with the following premise:

If impact fees are perceived as a deadweight tax, communities with impact fees will tend to develop more slowly than communities that do not use them.

In other words:

Between communities that are identical in every respect except for impact fees, are those with impact fees associated with the generation of more jobs at the margin than those without, all things considered?

The conventional measure of economic development used by economists is job growth, so that is the metric they use. Data were collected from 67 counties in Florida, from 1993 to 1999. Only 34 of those 67 collected impact fees - $1.22 billion (with a b) over the study period.

So what do they find?

... a significant positive association between impact fees collected per building permit in one year and job growth over the next two years. This finding holds even when controlling for base year employment growth, prior decade employment growth, property taxes per capita, the value of local building permit activity, regional, temporal, and other factors. This finding is consistent with our hypothesis that impact fees spent on infrastructure development are not a drag on local economies with respect to job growth but, instead, can be beneficial to them. A conservative interpretation would at least claim that no discernable adverse economic impacts from impact fees could be found. A liberal interpretation of these model results would argue that the imposition of impact fees typically results in positive effects on local employment, at least in Florida during the 1990s...

Impact fees may certainly be unpopular to influential interests, but our findings suggest that without them economic growth may be compromised. Given tax limitations and growing demand for infrastructure investment, communities in growing regions that have impact fees may become more prosperous in the long run than communities in such regions without them.

Got it? The only objective non-partisan ACTUAL STUDY of impact fees finds that fast-growing communities actually suffer without them!

In other words, impact fees are about as conservative as revenue sources get - the beneficiaries pay the freight, general taxes are held to a minimum, positive economic growth is the result. It’s a topsy-turvy political world in which avowed paleoconservatives like Odom and Craven reject such a conservative approach to economic development, while what Craven calls an “ultra-liberal’ union embraces it.

That is because with the exception of District A Councilor Mike Regan (on his few good days anyway, and the Republicans are tossing him off like a hot potato), those on the City Council who call themselves conservatives are actually Big Real Estate special interest sycophants. They are against impact fees and for Developer Welfare because that’s what Big Real Estate wants.

And they support the road bonds even as they resent the inevitable increase in property taxes that will result, because the new roads primarily help developers, and the property tax increases primarily hurt little ol' you and me. I’ll explain that tomorrow (I promise!).

All's Fair in Love and Taxes
Lunsford Lane
October 5, 2005

I said earlier that I would write yesterday on how the Raleigh Planning Commission might be reformed, but I spent so much time laughing at the campaign flier that Dr. de Gama posted that I never got around to it. So here we go, a day late...

One way to restructure the Planning Commission would be to assign seats to different stakeholder groups. In the crudest split, half the seats could go to development interests, and half the seats could go to what are generally called “neighborhood” interests. All Commissioners would continue to be appointed by majority vote of the City Council or the Wake County Board of Commissioners. Finer splits would result from further defining stakeholder groups.

Though not my personal favorite, this method is familiar to City Councilors, who often populate ad hoc Task Forces with representatives of a multitude of stakeholders groups.

My preferred method would be to let each City Councilor and the Mayor appoint a single Planning Commissioner. Each Commissioner would serve at the pleasure of the Councilor that made the appointment, and could be replaced at will by that Councilor. This would assure that the Commission, ostensibly constituted to advice the Council, fairly represents the interests of the Council. There could be a rule that the Councilor had to appoint a resident of his or her Council District. The Mayor and the two At-Large Councilors could appoint anyone who lives within the City limits. The County Board of Commissioners would still appoint three Commissioners that live in the Extraterritorial Jurisdiction. This would insure that all areas of the City are represented on the Planning Commission, which is certainly not the case with the current Planning Commission.

Hardball
Dr. Walter de Gama
October 4, 2005

When I posted this cheesy cartoon in this blog on Opening Day of BTB.org so many months ago, I surely didn't expect others to pick up the image and run with it. Then, out from the piles of campaign propaganda crammed into the mailbox this afternoon slips this subtle reminder:

Holy cow, I just about had a cow! Lunsford's gonna love this, as he has been on his high horse for some time now about what he calls Developer Welfare. Talk about hardball, that fat cat even looks like cool cat Chris Matthews on Hardball (no? then maybe like his older brother?).

If we are BelowTheBeltline.org, then the folks who sent out this mailer must be from OverTheTop.tko.

Roadhouse Blues
Dr. Walter de Gama & Lunsford Lane
October 3, 2005

A. de Gama Paves the Way

So put me on a highway,
And show me a sign,
And take it to the limit one more time.

Lunsford and I have been having an internal "dialogue" about the Road Bond referendum that you will vote on next Tuesday, October 11. Lunsford and I agree on most things political, but we thought we would do a point/counterpoint here and let you decide.

Okay, Big Picture first. Face it, this place called The Triangle is going to boom for a long, long time. There are predictable elements to this growth; the best example of this is not the sprawl we are seeing on the fringe, but the continual construction at RDU airport. Terminal C is being rebuilt, and over the next 20 years you will watch as the corridors for aircraft gates are extended further and further down the runway, just like what happened at Terminal A. At some point in the distant future there will be serious talk of a new airport further out, say in Zebulon, because all the land south, west, and north of Raleigh will be built out or boxed in.

Another example is the TTA light rail. Sure, the statistical model is like a yo yo showing too many riders one day and not enough the next and the project costs more than a gallon of gas. Whatever, I don't need numbers to know that in cities all over the planet mass transit makes more sense than nothing but car travel and gets utilized by all classes of people - even if it means running in the red. Hell, you can't drive a car into London proper without paying through the nose for a permit (just to get into town,) much less find a parking space - and that is in one of the best subway/bus/taxi/walkable cities on earth. Imagine having to pay $100 just for the privilege of driving into downtown Raleigh! The truth is that the TTA will probably take 20 years to build, we'll get hindered by the Feds purse strings and the local anti-tax/pro-car crowd, and it in the end it will be worth every penny and people will say "we should have built it 20 years ago." And yes, there will be a connection to the airport.

Hindsight may be 20/20, but financing all of this growth is problematic. I don't have a knee jerk reflex to vote for spending money, and I don't want to be taxed "any more than necessary" (a loaded phrase,) but I racked what is left of my aging brain and couldn't recall a bond issue that I voted against. Schools? Yep. Parks? Yep.

Why? Because when municipalities float bonds it is because they are desperate for a remedy, or reaching for some kind of grand vision, not just fishing for dough - and the normal revenue streams aren't getting the job done. The reasons usually revolve around maintaining a high quality of life.

Which brings us to our need for Road Bonds in order to mostly retrofit a bunch of existing roads to meet increased demand. Sure, we could survive without the bonds, and everybody wedded to their cars could just sit in traffic and mull their good fortune. But that frustration level is the crux of the matter for voters, anything but bumper to bumper... and they will want immediate gratification. If you ask Lunsford, he wants to see that frustration level crank up to a Fever Pitch bordering on road rage because it will force change in the way that taxation and funding support growth. I don't see the voters anticipating that by killing the road bonds they would force the real estate industry to accept impact fees as a concession for unlimited growth. Too complicated, and that takes time, and why am I always sitting in traffic? Look, people essentially want to drive to and fro at high speed uninhibited - and to hell with everybody else.

As usual, the glitch in all this is that Politics always gets in the way, and in the case of roadbuilding in North Carolina, politics is issue number one. This originates at the State level, but I noticed in the paper that local At-Large candidate John Odom (R) mentioned improving roads in his old District B so look for him and Jessie Taliaferro (D/R) to tagteam and weasel more money for their side of town (most likely making by making more grabs at monies slated for Crowder’s District D).

Without belaboring the argument, we are going to have to just get over the fact that we got stiffed by the State - and it is up to our local elected officials to prevent that from happening again. With booming growth, Raleigh can't afford to wait in line for dough like some of the outlying rural counties - and growth means constantly improving infrastructure. Naturally I want to see roads that are built wider than necessary with sidewalks and bike lanes, and all sectors of the city should get the same pragmatic treatment since sprawl knows no boundary. So bring on the bonds, full speed ahead. (Two small caveats before Lunsford shreds my argument: there is this word called Planning, but it is like poison to local short-sighted profit driven interests who have political players at the table. Two, the Home Builders Association loves this bond issue because it promotes business as usual and lets them off the hook for impact fees for a while longer.)

When I'm drivin' free, the world's my home
When I'm mobile.
Play the tape machine
Make the toast and tea
When I'm mobile.
Well I can lay in bed
With only highway ahead
When I'm mobile.
Keep me movin' ...

B. Lane Stops Short

Arrows of neon and flashing marquees out on Main Street,
Chicago, New York, Detroit, and it's all on the same street.
Your typical city involved in a typical daydream,
Hang it up and see what tomorrow brings.

Our City leaders have a long history of blaming Raleigh’s road mess on the misnomered “equity” formula created by the N.C. Legislature years ago to distribute transportation funds across the state. That we can’t wait for the State to fix our roads is a powerful argument, but truth be told, there’s plenty of blame to go around this town for our traffic woes. As some of the causes are local and easy to fix, I for one cannot support selling bonds and raising property taxes for the average homeowner, while others in town who share the burdens and benefits of the roads get off scot free.

$60 million for road upgrades in a City this size isn’t all that much, we can afford it, and, unlike the mean-spirited folks over at the Wake County Taxpayer’s Association, we here at BTB.org normally aren’t miserly when it comes to paying for City services. There is no free lunch. Except for developers. Well, their lunch ain’t quite free, but it’s so heavily subsidized that they pay about twenty cents for a buck sandwich.

Firstly, the facility (aka impact) fees developers pay for new development are ridiculously low, as I have discussed in great detail in recent blogs. Former Councilor John Odom and current Councilor Tom Craven are both likely to sit on the next City Council, and both are campaigning against increasing these fees - Craven recently said that he’s seen no evidence that developers only pay 20% of the costs of the new facilities their developments necessitate, with the remaining 80% being picked up by the taxpayers (aka you and me). Yet the City has a current Facility Fee Analysis from a high-dollar consultant that plainly states that “funds from fee revenues are paying less than 20% of fee-eligible parks and road projects.”

What’s the point of spending taxpayer dollars on expensive reports if those sitting at the Council table won’t bother reading them? But I digress...

I’m not against paying for my fair share, but I don’t want to pay Developer Welfare on top of that. That recent report outlines a strategy for getting closer to equitable sharing of costs between taxpayers and developers, and more reports are coming. But this City Council has taken no action, and it’s better than even money that the next City Council won’t either. So you and I will be doing more, while the developers continue to laugh their way to the bank.

Secondly, Raleigh has a pretty reasonable Comprehensive Plan that was created to guide growth so that it matches reasonably well with current and planned infrastructure. But the Raleigh Planning Commission, owned and operated by a consortium of local development companies, routinely ignores that plan. The consequence has been years and years of inappropriate development in inappropriate places, which in turn has overloaded roads never intended to handle the resulting traffic loads.

It is a relatively simple matter for the City Council to fix both of these problems.

The Facility Fee Report lays out several straightforward recommendations for updating impact fees in a fair and equitable manner - all it takes to implement them is a motion at the Council table. But that’s not likely. The Wake County Democratic Party is telephoning the faithful (we got the call here at BTB.org headquarters), telling them that both Stephenson and Kekas support making Big Real Estate pay for its own lunch. But truth be told, as the N&O told just two days ago, “Kekas said she wants to wait for the study this fall, followed by meetings with developers and others, before she decides whether they need to be increased.”

That's right folks, Kekas the supposedly populist Democrat endorsed by Big Real Estate is upfront about who she's going to be getting her advice from. And when she meets with those developers, do you really expect them to say sure, go right ahead, take away our welfare? So it’ll be at least Kekas, Taliaferro, Isley, and Craven voting no on increasing impact fees. If Odom wins, that’s another no vote, so there’s not a snowball’s chance in hell of loosening the developers' grip on our wallets.

Likewise, it's a simple task to reconstitute the Planning Commission in such a way to represent all stakeholders in the City. I've rambled enough for today, so I’ll throw out a couple of ways to do that tomorrow.

For me it’s a package deal - we’re all in this together, or not at all. Sell the road bonds and raise the property taxes, raise the impact fees, and reform the Planning Commission. So I’ll be voting no this time around for the road bonds, and I encourage you to do the same. If the City Council gets the message and comes back with a plan that spreads the costs fairly, I’ll be glad to support the bonds.

It’s only a year before we return to the polls again, we can suffer with our jammed roads just a little while longer while the Council comes up with a fair plan.

So goodbye yellow brick road
Where the dogs of society howl.
You can't plant me in your penthouse
I'm going back to my plough.

VOTE OF NO CONFIDENCE
Dr. Walter de Gama
September 30, 2005

Lunsford can be pretty gloomy around here lately. He’s trying his damnedest to prosecute a war against District B Councilor Jessie Taliaferro, and well, to be frank, he’s been stalled in the trenches for awhile, feeling a bit like an Army of One.

We know that Taliaferro is running unopposed for the District B Council seat. And we are sorry there isn’t a viable Democrat (or even moderate Republican) candidate among the umpteen business owners that line Capital Boulevard who would step up and give her a run for the money. Oh well, two more years to get organized and get rid of Taliaferro.

So, District B’ers, wanna Be All That You Can Be by helping out Lunsford a bit in his war efforts? Considering that voter turnout will be miniscule, I thought we would encourage those District B voters dutifully going to the polls to NOT vote for Taliaferro and to WRITE IN somebody else instead.

Ask your District B pals who absolutely hate politics to go with you, just for the heck of it. Even if they don’t vote for anything or anybody else (well, we’d like a vote for Russ Stephenson), we’d like the politics-hating crowd to write in the name of somebody.

You heard right, we want you District B folks to write in Porky Pig, Captain Beefheart, Lunsford Lane, your pet pooch - ANYBODY. (Editorial note from Lunsford - what did I do to deserve being thrown into that cast of characters?)

Wouldn’t that be a slap at Taliaferro if we could generate 1,000 write-in votes?

Savor that thought, a real honest to goodness Vote of No Confidence… that District B will be on hold for the next two years while Taliaferro plots her next career move on the political ladder.

We have thought for some time that Taliaferro wants the Mayor’s job, and we have gnashed our teeth at the thought that if Mayor Meeker stepped down we would have a Taliaferro vs. Philip Isley race. Lunsford and I would have to fold our tent in disgust.

But lo and behold, there is a new wrinkle in this scenario, namely that if (when) current At-Large Councilor Tommy Craven wins the District A seat, he immediately vaults to the head of the pack when Meeker has had enough. Say what? Yeah, neither Jessie the Librarian nor Isley the Lawyer could hope to be the Real Estate Insider that Craven is.

I mean, the dude is running in District A and we know the Big Real Estate crowd wants to hold that seat desperately, but by the end of August he’d already collected almost $57,000! For a district race? Against a virtual unknown? Who has almost no money and even less of a campaign?

Ho ho, that is impressive by any standard, and believe me, when it comes time to collect money for a mayoral run, Craven will just take off his hat and the Big Real Estate campaign contributions will just fall out of the sky. Taliaferro will be left standing at the altar jilted and penniless, all dressed up (one can hope) and nowhere to go, and Isley will be begging for pennies in front of the Rialto Theater at Five Points. Taliaferro might be Craven’s opposition in 2007, and Isley might move on to other political hunting grounds, but it will be the end of Taliaferro’s political aspirations when it comes to monetary support.

What is Taliaferro going to say, that she wants you to support her to fight against developer interests? So march on the polls, all you Citizen Soldiers in the District B battalion of Lunsford’s Army of Darkness, and write in whomever is your favorite alternative to Jessie Taliaferro.

As for me, I'm no Army brat - let’s just say I’m

In the navy
Yes, you can sail the seven seas
In the navy
Yes, you can put your mind at ease
In the navy
Come on now, people, make a stand
In the navy, in the navy
Can't you see we need a hand
In the navy
Come on, protect the motherland
In the navy
Come on and join your fellow man
In the navy
Come on people, and make a stand
In the navy, in the navy, in the navy.

GET YOUR JOYCE KEKAS YARD SIGN!
Lunsford Lane
September 29, 2005

NOW, FOR A LIMITED TIME ONLY, YOU TOO CAN HAVE YOUR VERY OWN
JOYCE KEKAS FOR RALEIGH CITY COUNCIL YARD SIGN.

THIS IS A LIMITED EDITION OFFER, AND WHEN THEY’RE GONE, THEY’RE GONE - SO ACT NOW, DON’T DELAY.

AND NOW, AS A VERY SPECIAL OFFER FROM THE
HOME BUILDERS ASSOCIATION OF RALEIGH-WAKE COUNTY
THE LIMITED EDITION JOYCE KEKAS YARD SIGN IS NOT $100, IT'S NOT $50, IT'S NOT EVEN 50¢, IT’S FREE!

SO CALL OR DROP BY THE HBA OFFICE NOW FOR YOUR FREE SIGN, BECAUSE WHEN THEY’RE GONE, THEY’RE GONE!

Get your free sign at:

Home Builders Association of Raleigh-Wake County
6510 Chapel Hill Rd, Raleigh, NC 27607
Phone 233-2033

We're Big Real Estate, Proud Sponsors of Kekas for Council 2005
-----------

Footnote: Yes, folks, that is an actual unstaged, unretouched photo of the lobby of the Homebuilders Association office, big ol' stacka Kekas signs ready for the taking - ok, the inset of the text from the Kekas sign might have been tinkered with a bit :). For signs for the other Democrat running for City Councilor at Large, contact his campaign directly.

THE SINGLE BULLET THEORY
Dr. Walter de Gama
September 28, 2005

It’s October 11, 2005. Election Day. Voter turnout is low. Less than 10%. Downright pathetic.

Voter A is in the polling booth. She is Republican as a general rule. Looks over the ballot, sees the three viable candidates for the At-Large Council seats: John Odom (R), Joyce Kekas (D?), and Russ Stephenson (D!). She can vote for two of them, so she will do one of two things: cast a single vote for Odom alone, or vote for both Odom and Joyce Kekas. Why?

A single vote for Odom means that there will be no “dilution” of the total vote by giving anybody else a vote - thus assisting Odom in gathering enough votes to win in the first round.

A vote each for Odom and Kekas satisfies the real estate industry. The Home Builders Association is openly supporting both Odom and Kekas. No surprise, given Kekas' record on the Planning Commission, and the HBA can be effective in convincing Republicans that they should vote for Democrat Kekas because she ostensibly shares so-called “Republican” values. In other words, she can be influenced on Big Real Estate decisions made at the Council table, so vote her in.

Voter B goes into the polling place. She is a Democrat by nature. She decides to toe the party line and vote for the two Democrats, Kekas and Russ Stephenson. She’s obviously not gonna vote for recycled material like Odom. She’s likely been around Raleigh politics for a while, knows that Kekas appeals to older females and longtime insiders who like drinks and snacks in swanky digs, and that Joyce is a female with some political experience and a bit of brand name recognition. In other words, the right voter demographic despite no firm base of supporters, she is a lock to win.

Her second mark on the ballot is for Russ Stephenson, because she figures he is a solid Democratic vote and not in the pocket of the real estate industry. Plus he is an architect, shares the same sort of experience as Joyce on the Planning Commission, knows the issues cold, and, what the heck, is young enough and handsome enough. As of last week, both candidates had about the same amount of campaign dough, around $27,000, but now Joyce is around 31K. So they’re neck and neck.

Voter C goes into the polling booth. C is not she, C is me, Dr. W de G. I have no use for Odom, having listened to his broken record “business first” mantra for ten years on the City Council. I wonder about Kekas, I am not sure she knows the issues as well as I’d like. In fact, her campaign planks are vague and I haven’t been able to hear or read enough to be convinced that she knows what she really wants. Sorry, I don’t want somebody who will “study the issues” - I want somebody informed with a position. Plus on the Big Real Estate questions, I really worry that Joyce won’t be able to withstand the pressure from her Big Real Estate pals and the likes of District B Councilor Jessie Taliaferro, who is a lock vote for the industry. Consider the support of the HBA for Joyce like membership in La Costra Nostra: tough to get out of once you’re in. Will Joyce’s votes flip back and forth like a giant catfish on sand depending on the issues? Tough to say.

So here's the deal, gang: I pull the trigger once, fire a single bullet, for Russ Stephenson and Russ Stephenson only. Got that?

I VOTE FOR RUSS STEPHENSON ONLY.

A Single Vote to Russ means no dilution of the overall vote, same as Odom. An additional vote for Kekas from me, as a good Democrat, only strengthens her position in conjunction with the Republican/real estate vote. I want Russ first, and then will work for Joyce if there is a runoff with Odom. End of story.

In other words, I vote for Stephenson to win.

Why?

Because his ideas about growth line up with mine and his vote isn’t in play. If you have been reading us for a while you aren’t surprised, are you? He’s the only candidate that has taken a stand on important issues: respect the efforts Raleigh has made to plan for growth, raise impact fees so that new development pays its fair share, yes to a new vision for urban development; you read our blogs, you know what we harp on.

I am not playing “not to lose” by voting for Russ and Joyce. Trust me, the other campaigns are also mulling this and they will think hard about the single vs. double voting angle. Republicans and the real estate crowd both realize that Joyce only gets stronger by voting for her plus Odom. What if she gets in on the first ballot and Russ and Odom have to have a runoff and Russ wins? The Republicans and real estate crowd don’t want that total nightmare, so they have to think hard about voting only for Odom to ensure possible victory since they poured so much money into his kitty. In this context, our Voters A and B above are possibly making serious tactical errors, and there will be those who, after reading this, will now only vote for Kekas. Armed camps all around, heh heh.

Again, Stephenson is the sharpest knife in this drawer, and in the days running up to the vote I will casually say to anybody who will listen to vote the same and explain why. But you didn’t hear this from me.