It’s election season in North Carolina, as municipalities across the state elect their governing council members, including Raleigh and Cary. This year, the race for Raleigh’s mayor has become thoroughly contested, as the incumbent Nancy McFarlane is not seeking reelection. In total, six candidates are vying for the office from a variety of backgrounds: Mary-Ann Baldwin, Zainab Baloch, Charles Francis, George Knott, Caroline Sullivan and Justin Sutton.
The diversity among the candidates, combined with the fact that the race is open for anyone to win, means voters have an excellent opportunity to choose someone who aligns with their views or who they feel represents them well. Technician conducted interviews with all six hopefuls, and in doing so it demonstrated the wide array of strategies the candidates are promising to employ in improving Raleigh’s quality of life.
The direction the next mayor pushes could substantially vary what projects are launched, modified or cancelled. Although they have only one vote on the city council, they are the spokesperson for the city, which grants them the publicity to advocate for specific changes. As such, students should really study what these candidates are saying and make an informed choice.
This campaign centers on a few key questions, all of which have powerful implications for the student body. First on everyone’s mind is housing. Raleigh is a booming city, and with those growing pains comes the requirement to dramatically increase the amount of housing it can provide in order to accommodate residents.
As many NC State students know, access to housing can be unreliable. With freshmen receiving guaranteed housing, upperclassmen are pushed into off-campus housing, which depends strongly on the broader Raleigh market. The News & Observer also published candidate interviews, including questions about property taxes — which can influence rent — and various strategies they have to preserve affordable housing for existing low-income communities.
One key question that split the candidates was on single-family zoning, asking if they support ending it. This isn’t a technical term; it simply prohibits anything other than homes meant for one family to be built in certain areas, and it predominantly applies to R-4 residential districts, which cover a large portion of the land in Raleigh. Half the candidates (Baloch, Sullivan and Knott) support ending it in order to increase the density and thus supply of housing, while the other half support more gradual or mixed zoning to address the issue.
This question is important to consider because it will fundamentally determine whether Raleigh sees tall apartments and condos as the norm, or whether it continues in its current strategy of limiting housing to a few stories. Either option will shape what Raleigh looks and feels like, as well as the number of people it is capable of supporting.
In addition to housing, the candidates differ on transportation, although all wish it were better. In their Technician interviews, Francis advocated for increasing ridership through both expanding offerings and potentially eliminating fares. Sullivan praised the Wolfline and expressed support for currently planned projects to increase the range and frequency of buses. Meanwhile, Knott expressed some dismay for current projects, citing concerns over gentrification and accessibility.
For NC State students who can’t afford or don’t want to buy a parking pass, Raleigh’s transportation system can greatly impact where they’re able to travel off campus. Ease of transport is also a crucial criterion in selling Raleigh to high-paying employers. Longtime readers will recall Technician’s coverage of Raleigh’s Amazon HQ2 bid, for which our transportation system was most likely a negative, as Wake County promised to allocated $1 billion toward transportation over the next 10 years during the decision-making process. Regardless of one’s opinion of Amazon itself, it’s difficult to argue that employers and workers won’t demand more and better options for transportation.
As I like to point out whenever I cover Raleigh elections, NC State students can have an enormous impact on this race, as we have more students than Mayor McFarlane had voters in 2017! For those of us trying to avoid the hopelessness of national politics for a while, local politics is a place where hope is real and our voices are tangible. The race for Raleigh’s mayor is wide open: Let’s get involved and fill the seat with someone who will work for our interests.
