The Facts: The Raleigh city council elections take place today. The mayor position, along with other council seats, will be filled. There are three candidates for mayor: Nancy McFarlane , Billie Redmond, and Randell Williams.
Our Opinion: Students care about jobs, public transportation, and city attractions. Students will invest in Raleigh’s economy if Raleigh markets more toward college students. Nancy McFarlane is the mayor candidate who will best serve student interests.
Forbes.com recently rated Raleigh the number one city overall, and the top place for businesses and careers. Over the last decade, Raleigh has come a long way. Raleigh’s direction is commendable, and the new city council should ensure that Raleigh’s positive development continue.
The mayor elected will hold the most power in the counsel over the direction of Raleigh, and the candidate who will serve this University’s student interests best is Nancy McFarlane .
McFarlane has been on city council for four years. She is an entrepreneur and a parent, and plans to tackle three big issues of the city if elected. Her platform focuses on planning for growth and public transportation, and she says that money should go to small business because this is what is going to bring us out of recession.
As students of this University, we are less concerned with issues of growth in terms of education, but we are very interested in how growth will impact our job prospects. If Forbes rates Raleigh as the best place for businesses and careers, University students should find increased job prospects upon graduation. This could be remedied by promoting Raleigh to attract large businesses, as well as supporting small businesses and their development.
Obviously jobs are important to N.C . State students, but there are other issues we care about as well. Transportation is a big issue to college students — the Wolfline exists around campus, but there isn’t really a great alternative for transportation around the city. Many State students don’t have a car and Raleigh is not a friendly city to public transit.
The bus system doesn’t market well to students; it is ineffective, poorly advertised, and often inaccessible. It also doesn’t go to the places students want to go to — if it does, the bus schedule makes it hard to get back to campus. The bus system is also an unsafe alternative for many students who do not wish to wait for hours in a sketchy downtown at odd hours of the morning. Increased safety of bus systems would attract many additional users.
Students would travel to and invest in downtown if downtown was easily accessible and contained more attractions. Raleigh’s events like First Friday and MLG resulted in stuffed restaurants and high revenue gain. More events like these, or at least more attractions for college students — shopping and restaurants — would go a long way.
The new mayor should serve these interests. We endorse Nancy McFarlane because she will invest in small businesses, improve transportation, and hopefully revitalize downtown and access to it in the process.
