d [Music] oh he [Music] m [Music] [Laughter] [Music] a [Music] oh o [Music] oh o [Music] oh oh oh [Music] oh [Music] oh oh oh oh [Music] [Music] a n [Music] he [Music] welcome everybody to the public comment this evening um councelor Lambert Melton is under the weather and so he has an excused absence and then I also um one of the things we wanted to do is just thank everybody for signing up but also share that these are sessions intended solely for us to receive information from you so if you ask us questions or want to engage uh we will simply listen tonight um and not answer questions but if uh there is someone who um has a city related issue and has not contacted the city staff might reach out to you if they think it's something they could you know resolve quickly um after the meeting so um with that uh notification uh we will call up the first Speaker who is Miss Octavia Rainey I have three minutes correct you do oh my God good afternoon yes three minutes per speaker first of all I want to address my mayor which is Janet Janet I think the most important thing of the mayor's office is constituent service I think that you should have two people in your office to do constituent service when the people come down to speak at a public meeting it would be nice to get a letter from you it goes a long way it improves constituent service and that's what you should be all about is constituent service the second thing I'm recommending is that under your office you need the office of public affairs again we had the office of public affairs which was ran by Jane kpatrick and Jane did an excellent job with that office because I know when I had my concern 20 years ago about my penny tax and I wanted to know where it was going she put it in the newsletter so Jane was very helpful and the citizens of Raleigh went really went to Jane you need that office back the third thing I want to address is Dr Harrison we have had a lot of issue with with with gun violence and that is a problem across the city it's not only Southeast Raleigh now so we need to stop that when we have a problem with gun violence it need to be address Dr Jane I hear you the issue that happened in your District was domestic violence it really was how much are we giving interact for domestic violence and we really need to take a deep deep dive in what we're giving them 20 years ago I had a gun violence campaign and I learned a lot we need to get away from talking about really really how do you do what we guns the subject we should talk about is guns in the wrong hands and that go a long way it would bring more people to the table and I guarantee you you could get some compromise at the general assembly I did it 20 years ago I didn't go anywhere because I stuck to the topic of gun violence but now that I take a step back and really look at it it's guns in the wrong hand what can we do to to tighten up on that domestic violence law so we have to look at that law now and then we have to go in and tighten it up but our issue should be guns in the wrong hands and I guarantee you the conversation at the general assembly you will have more conversation take my experience from 20 years but my mayor I'm encouraging you to really improve constituent service from your office and create the office of public affairs thank you okay next we have Nikki Fontana good afternoon mayor and Council it's a pleasure and a privilege to be here tonight I am the councilwoman for the city of North Myrtle Beach South Carolina and I was asked by a group of your constituents that are actually present here today just to come present our pet ordinance in front of you today I've put copies in the basket and the folder for you and my business card in there in case you have any questions and want to email or call after I've already presented last month in front of the Wilmington city council um back in 2019 I spearheaded a pet ordinance to stop the sales of pets through puppy mills and and the sales of pet boutiques we do not allow those in our city now we came up with code section 4-6 of the mun code for our city two years later after the city our city of North Myrtle Beach pass this we actually had the county um pass a similar ordinance to follow suit with us because we were having some issues with pet hoarding um some issues with the puppy mills and the s of um dogs that were being sick in a store down in Surfside Beach so our city and myself wanted to be proactive and actually pass this so that we would not have to deal with that I know you've already kind of already dealt with a situation here in downtown Raleigh and that's actually why I was asked tonight to speak in front of you guys and I know that that has been success ful now and that business has been removed and it will be something else um so congratulations on that and I would hope that you guys would just look into this at least listen to your constituents I do appreciate everything you guys do I've been on Council for 12 years so I get it and I thank you for your service and I just want you to spend some time looking and thinking about it how it affects your city how it makes you look and just be proactive and just think about doing things a little differently and get ahead of things and that's all I really have today I just want to put it on your radar that your constituents are in favor of you guys doing this I've had numerous ones reach out to me so if you have any questions I would love for you to give me a call or you can talk to our City attorney he's also available if you need anything help okay right thank you thank you uh next we have Robert courts I lost half my [Laughter] audience honorable mayor esteemed city council I stand before you today because democracy depends on the voices of its citizens and public comment is the one of the most direct ways we the people can engage with our local government the proposal to limit public comment time is not just about minutes on a clock it's about fundamental principles of representation US Supreme Court Justice Lewis Brandis once said the most important political office is that of the private citizen limiting public comment sends a dangerous message that the voices of ry's residents your constituents are an inconvenience rather than an asset that our concerns ideas and lived experiences should fit neatly into a smaller time slot making Civic engagement a privilege for the few rather than a right for all public comment is not a formality it is a safeguard it is how we hold power accountable how we bring real life experiences into the policy discussions and how we ensure that decisions are not not made in a vacuum but with the wisdom and perspective of the people who call Raleigh home I urge you to reconsider expanding public participation strengthens democracy restricting it weakens trust do not let Raleigh become a place where government talks at the people instead of listening to them thank you thank you Hannah D Ali okay uh Mindy Taylor good evening mayor mayor PRM members of council my name is Mindy Taylor I live on East Martin Street with my husband Derek my 5-year-old son Charlie and my two-year-old son Billy I'm here tonight on behalf of my family and my neighbors in the battery Heights Community to follow up on our previous calls and emails regarding the urgent need for pedestrian safety improvements at the intersection of Tarboro and East Martin streets we appreciate the initial responses we've received from our elected officials and from staff but I'm here to stress the critical need for immediate and specific action every day my family and my neighbor families face serious danger Crossing this intersection as we walk our children to and from Hunter Elementary School the issues including faded crosswalk markings dangerously timed traffic and pedestrian signals inadequate signage and Reckless speed continue to put our lives at risk this intersection serves as a key thoroughfare and vital link for residents providing pedestrian access to Transit workplaces and recre recreational areas including several City Parks for months my neighbors have observed and reported frequent close calls including um but on January 29th our worst fear became reality um as you know from the emails that we've exchanged my son Charlie was struck by a Chevy Silverado while walking home from kindergarten with his grandfather thankfully he survived with only minor injuries but every day he continues to carry with him the fear of getting hit by another vehicle on his way to school we understand that larger infrastructure improvements take time but simple measures repairing the crosswalk markings installing flexible delineator posts correcting the timing of the traffic in pedestrian signals adding signage with solar powered flashers and increasing speed enforcement increasing speed enforcement in particular can make a meaningful difference right away with minimal expense longer term traffic calming measures such as speed bumps and Road diets would dramatically improve safety with minimal Capital outlay at this point we need a clear and specific response that includes the following elements a timeline for completion of the safety study at this intersection a plan for increased speed enforcement on Tarboro and East Mar streets a timeline for the implementation of immediate smaller scale safety improvements and a commit to add this intersection as project in the city's Capital Improvement program to achieve more lasting traffic calming and pedestrian safety improvements um thank you for your time and attention my neighbors and I will continue to engage with the vision zero program transportation department by school and pedestrian advisory committee and City Council on this issue until we can assure our kids that they have a safe route to school thank you thank you next we have Mesa salari [Music] I should have a video mayor you want to respond to you yeah I mean we so we passed a law I mean ordinance right changing that we would accept digital video so we can see it but we're not broadcasting video anymore great okay hello good evening everybody um this is m s um I'm here to speak today about a couple of things uh most I want to start with Trump plan to take over Gaza and forceably remove Palestinians is called Ethnic Cleansing um this is a criminal and violation of international law and disgraceful to attempt to raise an entire people from their own land Palestinians are not objects to be relocated they are human beings with rightful claims to their own homelands the word must reject this genocidal rrotic and hold those advocating for such horrible and be accountable Gaza is not for Trump to own it or to take gazans out of Gaza this is their own Homeland you cannot be killing them for the last 15 months with our own bombs sent from here with our tax money and then asking other countries to take them uh well I have a question on my hand what what happened they say like it's unlivable and they want they're very scared about Palestinians over there so they want to relocate them and force them to go to another countries and he said they're not going to be allowed to go back their own their own land um what about La what about North Carolina what about part of Tennessee we had natural disasters and it's unlivable for the citizens of there um should another country come and say get out of there and we're going to take over it and make it liveable for the other countries around um I'm a product of nakba 1948 and I'm still coming here after generations and my kids going to come and my grant is gonna keep coming and say free Palestine free America from Israel stop allying with with the devil and uh regarding reducing the comment uh for the constituents it's very important for you to be able to serve this city the best is for you to listen to everybody and their concerns it's mandatory it's not something should be discussed or have discussion about it thank you so much thank you next we have Shane Collins good evening councel and mayor thank you for stilling allowing us time at public comment um I implore you not to take away public comment as it's a bridge from your community to you a direct Bridge we get to see you we get to talk with you we get to have a conversation without maybe two ways but at least we can let you know how we feel I hope we continue to have time um to voice our comments in public tonight I'd like to talk about pay public comment puppies and public housing I would also like to speak for increasing public housing affordable public housing um speaking of affordable public housing let's increase the pay and benefits of our public workers including fire police and emergency workers so they can afford to live in the city where they work and pay taxes to the city where they work and live lastly puppies there was a large group here they didn't stand but they did leave in forc they came and then they left en forc shortly after the uh council member from South Carolina spoke um the puppy store downtown Petopia um which is now apparently closed but may pop up again as they do um let's keep the puppies safe and not allow puppy mills to sell in our downtown um lastly I want to thank you for your time these past few years this may be my last night before you uh so I'll leave you with a little quote from Edna St Vincent Malay my candle burns at both ends it will not last tonight but all my foes and oh my friends it gives a lovely light thank you thank you and next we have Chris crew okay uh mamai Sanders all righty good evening y'all it's another amazing day in paradise thank you so much for your Collective continued service to our city I'm back with more ideas and some feedback to some of the recent Council conversations that have come to my attention this is not why what I intended to speak on but that can wait for another day first of all thank you for the decision to be mindful of what's being played to mixed audiences not everything is for everyone but I'm going to admit the way this decision has been brought about and executed is disappointing let me be clear that what has happened is being disguised as predictability and preservation of staff and and and but what is actually happening is a nervous system reaction to people attempting to use shock value guilt and or shame as an impetus for change to me the fight response engaging then use to me that's the fight response engaging then using the potential for lawsuits to back it up in order to protect the city I want to point out that the war started in October of 2023 there have been speakers for about 15 months and there has yet to be a lawsuit that I know of so this being presented now seems like a move to silence the last few who are still attempting to bring visibility to an international issue because let's be clear and honest this policy change didn't come about when the differently abled Community came out over a period of two meetings when their transportation service was interrupted that situation was addressed and handled immediately so my message for you today goes back to something I started talking about last year the idea that council is more punitive than collaborative this is another attempt to silence those you don't want to hear from but I'm going to warn you that an attempt to silence one group affects all groups this is why the vast majority of council is showing us that no matter who we see present on this panel doesn't actually show us who in the community is being represented I'll be clear that if this was an issue of the the lgbtq plus Community they would have had some movement on whatever it is so please understand that if that Community does have something come up in the future with two people who identify as such sitting on the stand then you're silencing their voices too if something comes up with the police or bus drivers or any other City fa staff who make this city work you're silencing their voices if any of our children youth or college students want to speak about something in Mass you're silencing their voices too to help you out let me tell you how the presentation situ sitation should be handled because it's not like you're getting 100 presentations in a meeting the guideline should be as follows presentation should be G-rated all presentations will be reviewed in advance to determine eligibility and if they not are not acceptable the presenter will be notified at least a day in advance the time could be changed to reflect when presentations are due so people can find out before the weekend this allows people who would magnify their comments with a presentation to show them in regards to the war or any other International issue you could have and still can make a statement of your neutrality you also have the human relations commissions to refer people to and if you ever reestablished a commission on compassion like I suggested long before the war started you probably wouldn't be attempting to shut people's voices down thank you thank you Sandy Alford Miss Harrison we missed you at the PCB teach in on January 30th at the teach in we learned from Dr Linda burn bomb once pcbs enter the environment and your body they don't go away my focus tonight is on a public health issue in our city that needs your leadership it's not about toxic buildings it's about Raleigh citizens being exposed to carcinogens see the white Dusty looking stuff on the presentation that I sent in the picture down in the corner that's PCB Laden that seals hundreds of concrete and Stone panels on a seven-story building those panels don't lift off they don't unscrew they have to be jacked hammered off and the plume of toxic dust that removing them will cause is a potential environmental disaster no magic bubble separates the University from the city and keeps pcbs on campus it seems the council trusts that NCSU will do the right thing when they go they decide to remediate their buildings well here's a bad fact about trust in NCSU on April 16th 2024 NCSU employees and representatives went into po Hall no one was supposed to be in the building it had been closed for 5 months yet NCSU went inside and activated the hva system and told no one only when NCSU administrators actions were exposed in civil court before judge hoit tesner did they admit their actions by entering they had potentially destroyed and removed evidence another bad fact in six years no steps have been taken to mitigate caul the PCB Laden CA on PO the EPA recommends at a minimum using duct tape and plastic to keep this mitigation strategy so for 6 years pcbs have migrated into the city the intersection of Hillsboro and Chamberlain on my presentation is accessed by thousands of citizens daily they dine Outdoors they shop they do businesses on Hillsboro Street and they are 750 ft away from a toxic building the village dist District 6/10 of a mile more outdoor dining high-rise apartments with balconies leisurely outdoor shopping and the city is considering that a sip and stroll District and 1.2 miles away from that 2,200 students and 125 staff at needen Bron high school they work and study there I'll remind the citizens of Raleigh that Jane Harrison is employed by NCSU she's a faculty member in the College of Natural Resources she lists environmental stewardship as a key priority on her website there she says we all should benefit from clean air and water and we have a duty to be environmental stewards I agree and yet despite being made aware of the problem between po Hall and pcbs in District D Miss Harrison's taken no action or made any statements on behalf of her constituents and finally when NCSU does reate its toxic buildings those materials will be transported to a dump more than likely a toxic waste will go to Warren County where Reverend Bill Kerney has been fighting enironmental Injustice since 1982 and to get those materials to Warren County trucks and dumpsters have to go through your districts Mr Silver yours Mr branch and yours Miss Jones and when they do when they roll through your District those particles that don't go away once they get inside they're going to get you they're going to be exposed to your citizens thank you Mary Dishman okay ingred thorand okay lyia Baker Ona Jones Jazz Jones and then I have Nikki w [Music] good evening and happy Black History Month in a time when attempts are being made to erase our history I encourage you to find an educational event at triangle onth che.com tonight I like to address a few issues with overnight Shel and Raleigh White Flag occurs when the temperature is 34 or below just 2° above freezing this should be raised hypothermia the state of the body being below body temperature your heart your nervous system your organs can't function properly and your body can't produce the heat it loses fast enough it can set in when weather conditions are in the mid-50s with wind chill and precipitation exhausted people older people children people with mental illness or medical conditions and people with drug and alcohol use are at higher risk all primary situations of the unhoused when white flag is declared more beds are made available for overnight needs though still an insufficient number when a city does not surrender to the cold temperatures individuals are options are the Brian Center an overnight shelter that reduced their number of beds from 200 to 98 a night healing transitions for men which went from hosting 100 to 30 men a night and healing transitions for women which may have beds available but are not fre is not frequented because it's very far out and women get confused trying to get there women's purses are confiscated upon entry when women violate a policy they are penalized to produce an essay of up to 4,000 words without repetition to regain entry of which most cannot and are banned from overnight stay to the facility this is unreasonable as most women when who are unhoused suffer from mental disabilities and or drug alcohol addictions which may not allow them the focus concentration or aptitude to produce an essay of 200 words these situations leave many people to the elements last night a night that should have been declared White Flag was not many of our sisters and brothers were forced to survive outside in freezing temperatures in addition for anxiety of being left in these temperatures many sit in a line a waiting a number for a bed since 1 or 2 pm for a shelter that opens at 7 forfeiting their opportunity to a lunch or and or dinner the droping center does not supply meals upon entry and they do not supply showers these are my ask one as we witnessed five deaths dur during uh January's freezing temperatures that you support the required temperature for White Flag be raised to 45° two that churches in our community become involved and help host individuals on White Flag night Charlotte has a program a room in the end that we might mimic in the area three that Raley wake Implement a program to assist more people to shower Oak City is not enough Durham has a mobile shower called Fresh Start we might use them as a model the city county and Community build on a program to further eradicate hunger if interested to feed those continue to go without please visit signup genius and search email the the number 52good Shepards icloud.com thank you thank you Cole MCM Cole McMullen democracy is more than voting in elections and requires lengthy thoughtful discussion local government is generally more democratic than other levels of government and that is largely due to public comment which Pro which provides the chance for residents to publicly share thoughts and ideas and conversely to listen to the to the thoughts and ideas of other ordinary residents this structured public discussion helps Foster an indirect exchange of ideas that have the potential to build consensus around Solutions and future directions for our community in the past there have been several issues that residents have spoken to during public comment proposing various Alternatives and solutions public policy requires nuance and attention to details both of which require time for residents to make meaningful statements about the solutions they would like to see implemented in our community by limiting the time allotted for public comment the amount per speaker will inevitably be reduced which hampers the ability for an individual to contribute in the process of building much needed consensus in other words an attack on public comment is an attack on Democracy itself it may not be as egregious as the Litany of attacks on Democracy at the state and federal level but that does not make it any less of an attack at a time when our nation's Democratic institutions are actively being threatened the last thing we need is to have our local Democratic institutions withered away to vote in favor of such a Time reduction means that you a Raleigh City councelor voted to strip people of what little power they may have and have actively contributed to the dismantling of Grassroots democracy please do the job that you elected to do which is to listen to your constituents and make the time just one more hour to foster a stronger Democratic consensus for R's future separately I'd like to once again express my strong support for the Raley firefighters to have separation allowance thank you thank you all right next we have Alex lefant hello good evening everyone uh just quickly I won't take the full three minutes here um thank you for not changing the time uh to 6 p.m. start I get out of work at 6:30 so that 30 minutes allowed me to get here in time to speak uh in favor of you know keeping the public comment the same time that it is now um I just think that it's important that we keep this going um simply because when everybody's done speaking you just adjourn the meeting so even if it does run a few minutes past 8:00 you're still out of here in the normal time um if it goes till 9 then it goes till 9 I'm I know mayor C you've mentioned at The Retreat that you feel it's taking away from other things you could be doing part of my thing is well what would you fill that time with do we need to become a full-time city council to accommodate all that work that you're doing you know I know that there's a lot of issues the city's facing I don't think a part-time council is sufficient to face those needs so I'm in strong support of that so that's what I've got to say about public comment uh other thing I've got separately uh to uh Echo Mr McMullen uh strong support for seeing separation allowance funded in this budget uh the quarter percent in the sales tax that's required to fund separation allowance I think is something that the city would support I know our citizens strongly support our City Firefighters so I look forward to seeing that presentation on March 10th when presented by the city manager thank you very much thank you Hugo utov trying my Dutch or it sounds Dutch honorable mayor and council members that was pretty good it's out and H but that's close enough it's Flemish same language as Dutch uh with that said uh I'm the president of uh the Raley lace Museum it's a new Museum on faville Street we're really excited about it because uh we bring something new and something exciting for a lot of people First Fridays we have over a 100 people that want to see crafts one problem that we have is that several people cannot come to the museum because they're handicapped and they're looking for a handicap parking space so this is my only topic tonight what I have seen over the years um in preparation for getting a place downtown is that uh handicap parking spaces in near 133 faville street is almost within 200 yards there is nothing the problem with I observe is that what's happening is that basically restaurants and bars on the side streets not on faville Street itself have taken over parking spaces with um seeding and uh that's all fun especially in the summer and stuff but people who need to come to the museum have to park in one of the parking garages uh which is fine at least it's a safe place to park I assume and consequently there is handicap spaces there unfortunately it's a long walk 150 yards is a lot with a walker um there seems to be some space in front of uh the museum uh right now it's uh ear Mark for loading and unloading uh maybe one parking space for handicapp people who can park there for an hour maybe even free that would be great that's it thanks come and visit us thank you next we have Michael Richardson got here I Hello nice to meet y'all I'm from Rocky Mount North Carolina and um I'm an air to the prop 605 um brag Street and um I came talk to y'all about uh I I'm I'm in rock my my cousins up here but I came and seeing the paperwork and everything on the house on 605 and uh I'm I'm willing to um I'm up here now I was in a homeless shelter but since I'm saying I seeing nobody fight for the property I'm just asking now can I get four five months just get it renovated and um and um let's see I'm inan right now I'm I'm in a shelter up here and I'm I really I know electrici work and everything but I got electricians and everything but I know about air property and how people treat air property and and then got to the last resort you know because cuz they pussing must be you know fighting or whatever but I'm I and I just want if y'all would give me like four five months that house a little brand new cuz I know how to do most of it but I know people that's professional that got to sign off on it but um I'm trying to stop the demolition of the property and um I'm a homeless man so if you give me a chance I'm going to do it I mean I'm just saying I'm just I just came I said what should I say I'm just speaking from the heart and I said I ain't going to do deal with the family members cuz they they going to let it get knocked over so uh anyway um the property you know you'll know the ID number 605 brag Street the ID and everything but anyway um that's why I came to ask y'all and I like Raleigh I never stay here I'm from Rocky Mountain North Carolina but I know I like Raleigh but I ain't never seen folks you know I it's a little wild to me a little bit you know rocking out wild but R got you know but but it's good I love Raleigh I love the town of Raleigh I love the positive and the bus R and everything y doing cuz our bus rout stops at 5:00 y'all bus routs go to you know 11: or 12 and it just I see more positive that I see negative and if I I'm a dreamer I mean I'm a citizen but I'm not from overseas but I'm a dream and I feel if I can get this I want to go into real estate but but I learn over the years of what I've been doing and sitting around and I talking about I'm tell you how it came up just in little Street a little bit and going to jail a little bit but I I I thought over the time deal my pastors in the church now I said well I'm see can I grab me a piece of property and I appreciate it if y'all so miss this might be an opportunity after the session maybe talk to staff Mr Richardson yeah thank you right Donna Bailey good evening everyone nice to be here I haven't been here in a while it's so nice to be called by our names thank you so much for doing that it is a real show of respect thank you for the opportunity to speak regarding public comments I think this evening public com comment time is a very special opportunity for residents to know that they can come before Council once a month and be heard the community engagement board spent a huge amount of time on this issue I know I was on the board when this happened it was sent back to council numerous times to fine-tune it and these parameters were unanimously adopted by Council even Maryann Baldwin which is pretty shocking now that is saying a lot the CB did give you the information that you were asking for last week if you're not going to follow the recommendations of the board get rid of it and save everyone's time this is the one thing that the CB produced that actually expands community the engagement almost all roughly 95% of the public comment meetings that took place last year were finished before a 2-hour time limit and I sent you all a graph that showed you that same thing's going to happen tonight many of the meetings where a large number of people did sign up did not actually show up to speak yet the ones who did show up to speak had their time Limited not all of you have regular hours for meetings with the public this is a great opportunity for you to all hear what is on the minds of the residents there are a lot there are not a lot of opportunities for you to be out in the community to actually listen so I would think that this would be a very valuable time for all of you Raleigh is the capital city and we should be setting the standard the example for the rest of North Carolina I encourage you to keep the 3-hour time Li limit starting at 7 pm and review it in a year if you need to make CH make to make uh changes on another topic councelor silver I have spoken to you about any potential conflicts of interest you represented the applicant when Z 5422 was presented to the council two years ago it's coming back you still work for McAdams and they may have business with this developer I am going to hold you to your word that you will recuse yourself from this resoning case when it comes back to councel even next we have Tim Nile good evening I'm Tim Niles I was going to talk about missing middle reform I wanted to show a picture of a quaint two-story woodframe duplex the city uses to promote missing middle as quote gentle incremental context sensitive housing diversity in existing neighborhoods end quote I wanted to compare it to pictures of what is actually built the ugly reality is that the structures are three and four story metalclad rectangular boxes placed perpendicular to the street with 12 or more units crammed between two existing single story homes it's a dishonest bait and switch since my presentation cannot be shown for the audience tonight it would make no sense to those here so I will talk about the speed at which this Council can act when they want to one week ago you voted to ban showing presentations at public comments that ban was made after there had already been six full days to sign up to speak today with speakers understanding their presentations would be shown by the end of the sign up period no changes were made to the city website website signup page or the council chamber video presentation page to notify the public of this new ban the acknowledgement I received when I sent my presentation to the city on Friday said it would be displayed for the audience to see when I tried to confirm this with every one of you I the only reply I received was from the mayor passing my question to the city clerk while acknowledging the affirmative email I received the clerk said the presentation would not be displayed basically saying that's a nice confirmation you got there sure would be a shame if anything happened to it so in less than three days the city fully implemented the presentation ban without bothering to update the multiple City website Pages or the email confirmation to make the public aware of the ban the website still hasn't been updated today compare this to missing middle reform two years ago in March 2023 planning told you you could reform missing middle in August 2023 the former City attorney told you you could amend missing middle in June 2024 you directed planning to create a text change for scale and massing of missing middle in October 2024 you directed planning to move forward text changes for missing middle infill compatibility and tree conservation two years and nothing has happened when you vote to take something away from the people like the right to show presentations you do it with lightning speed when you vote to reform missing middle nothing happens the people of Raleigh deserve better thank you anaza laughing house peace everybody peace I'm a member of the Raleigh people's budget assembly we've been coming for the past few years asking for a few real basic expectations a Mee and conferred policy with city workers affordable housing a crisis response unit that's separate from the police and a participatory budget process so that community members can give their input into the budget process now on those last two points the crisis response and Community input the city does a wonderful job getting Community input when it wants to on issues and topics that it wants to a lot of US helped the city collect feedback for the cares program and overwhelmingly respondents told us that they want a community Response Team crisis response team that's decoupled from the police yet you didn't even fund that in your budget we haven't forgotten that and as we Shi Focus to affordable housing we have to examine the fact that since 2021 the police budget has grown by 30 million yet the housing and neighborhood budgets during that time has only grown by 4 million I know in 2016 the city said it was committed to building 570 affordable housing units every year for 10 years so that by 2026 we will have 5,700 new affordable housing units available I looked at your dashboard I saw it since that time 9 years later you haven't even completed 2,000 new homes even when Maple Ridge and mo square and strickling apartments are done you won't even be close to honoring that commitment and the question is do y'all leave care and with this meet and confer policy it's simple we just asking that unionized city workers be able to meet just quarterly with the city manager that's not that much to ask Cory you done met with UI 150 before and even when the moments were tense we can respect the fact that you willing to come sit with a room full of workers and talk to us about issues we can't even get stormy to do that but we're hopeful that she will though you see this illustrates why we need this established meet and confirmed policy community members like Donna just said never know who we can talk with when we can talk to you or who you're willing to talk with so we need this policy it's not hard the manager is right there just tell her what you wanted to do so again these are some real basic demands we're hopeful that a few of you the majority of you will step up help us see these demands through the community will remember it and we'll appreciate you for it thank you thank you all right next have Sarah quadri all right and then I have Zara quadri okay hi good evening sorry I haven't seen some some of you in a while um just want to say good evening to everyone and some of the new members who might not know me my name is Sarah quadri um I've been a Raleigh resident for the past 13 oh now 14 years and I'm also a Girl Scout Troop leader to a Muslim girl scout troop here here and we have obviously been heavily affected and have mobilized but I've always organized with the community and sadly one thing that city council needs to do as many members have stated today is open more Communications with the community members and not just take our ideas but actually help Implement them I've hit brick wall and trying to get a community fridge should not be that hard to help feed the people within our community when we have so many restaurants grocery stores willing to help but there's so much red tape I want to thank all the mutual Aid organizations who have been very helpful um organizations like Durham eats who I will continue to work with to try to get that implemented in rally and um this month is a very somber month for our community as three young college students within our Muslim Community were murdered in their home and sorry and it still hurts that the narrative that came out was it was a parking dispute the propaganda in the media just gets worse and worse and sometimes we get disenfranchised but we can't forget the education and the knowledge we have and to com and to continue to be with our neighbors so I offer my from our community for the Interfaith Food Drive we always have this year and honoring the three winners as we have called them as they have won in life with the exemplary life they LED in service and um we have a Col we are collecting food drive items for um the food bank and our last collection will also be sorting it on February 22nd I'll email all of you information if you would like to come to it and I just want to thank all the community members who have continuously showed up and I know I haven't been in a while but I'll be coming back again more thank you have a good evening thank you all right so now Zara hi my name is Zara and I wanted to say thank you for being here and I want to say thank you for all of you being here and I also want to say I'm also a Girl Scout I go to 24438 and that I want to say thank you for all of you being here and listening and I wanted to say thank you for everybody who's been doing so much thank you okay never one all right next I have Laura Harris good evening um in coordination with the Raleigh people's budget assembly um I ask uh one that you do not reduce public comment as many others have also said tonight um you know we realize y'all don't want to listen to us and y'all want to have the lowest legally allowable uh public comment uh length per month but you know this is part of your job number two um we asked that you uh fund uh a community Response Team separate from the police as it's already been stated you know this is a continued yearslong long demand that y all have not upheld number three establish meet and confir policy between city workers and the city manager number four establish a participatory budget process you know a handful of input meetings you know early in the year and then one public comment maybe after the budget has come out you know is not enough and then um as a member of Mills for the masses um we demand that the White Flag shelters uh well my friend Nicole has said that they should be open every night 45° I would even up that and say every night at least through the winter you know um tomorrow night it's just going to be a couple degrees warmer than it is tonight but it's basically going to be the same conditions very cold almost freezing rainy you know even just walking to your car is not fun and like having to you know stay out all night is miserable and you know potentially conditions of death if you don't have enough blankets um I would also invite y'all two meals for the masses food program that I'm a part of um in Raleigh we serve every Sunday 3 p.m. at the corner of Persson Street and Martin Street in downtown Raleigh um I realize you know y'all don't want to actually uh speak with homeless constituents face to face um because it's difficult to justify yourself um in front of people to the faces of people that you fail over and over and over again but again it's part of your job thank you thank you uh next we have Natalie Lou timer good evening tonight tonight I want to inform you as to critical history regarding how RDU Airport knowingly fleece public Parkland planned public Parkland Umstead State Park existed before the airport and the seeds for Lake crab chry Park were planted in the 1950s the developer Centric RDU knew the state's plans for Umstead and the location of the planned Lakes along Crabtree Creek as did many of the prominent developers including head of the NCC and who eventually became an ruaa member these people knew that the land around the Lakes was targeted for recreation and of the planned location for I40 in the 1960s RDU was in need of a second runway for the 1941 master plan the new Runway should be built away from Lake Crabtree and Umstead but instead of following this original plan RDU pursued two planned runways that were doomed because they took the planned Parkland in this process RDU collaborated with politicians and development developers and got management control of a large swath of land that was remote to the terminals on the opposite side of where the new Runway was actually built not contiguous with airport property and is where Lake Crabtree Park and I40 were actually built these well finan people were basically speculating at the Public's expense Ru took management control of these lands knowing they were already planned for for Lake and Recreation and then they kept these lands even though they were not needed for airport use for ru's 1974 master plan the final uh property boundary for RDU shows all of Lake Crabtree and all of Oddfellows outside of the property boundary same for the 1975 FAA approved property boundary for RDU in 1976 RDU then took control of Oddfellows after the fa said it was not needed if RDU didn't need these lands in the 1970s with the plan B Runway they didn't need need them for plan C which is today's runway in 1980 the FAA approved the same property boundary for RDU that did not include any of Lake Crabtree park or oddfellas in 1981 Wake County actually asked to purchase the Lake Crabtree Parkland the sale was blocked by the chairman of ru's land committee the same major local developer who was chairman of the NCC and in the 60s orchestrated the RDU acquisition of the land thankfully 1985 Wake County leas the land RDU is obscuring the amount of deforestation that they are doing by menting projects and presenting each individual project as if all the other tracks remain forested RDU takes our planned forested Recreation district and turns it into a concrete jungle of CopyCat development that isolates Umstead State Park RDU does not have to develop the planned Parkland unless you cherry pick some FAA statements out of context policies are not laws a compromised concept was proposed in 2017 but RDU ignored it claiming they weren't in the De Land Development business RDU is part owner of the RDU airport you have two Representatives on the airport Authority please tell your Airport Authority members to end ru's exploitation of this public land and to develop a land use master plan that is consistent and complimentary to the publicly funded plans land use plans that already exist thank you thank you next I have yeah hu Wang y thank for the three minutes um really appreciating that I will prefer first by following with what Natalie said about the issue with Lake craft Cony Park just letting you know that Lake craftree also is known to be a super fun site for PCB contamination so the city being the city council is not acting on the issue regarding PCB whether that's a lake craftree or with NC State University you're missing out an opportunity to act on behalf of your people big time right there um something to add to that I mean with regard to NC State University I know a number of you who are either alumni or have other affiliation of NC State so I know that if you have any affiliation with the admin anyway please use those relationship and try to get the school admin to address the demands from the Campus Community who's been calling for environmental justice for the past couple years now um I mean it's not just alarm I know that there some I know at least one of you had received $2,500 from one of our border trustee members so that's relationship right there um moving on to the next thing I want to talk about which is what everyone has brought up the public comment um issue I know that one of you the council member wanted to have just one hour per month how many people are in the city of Raleigh that you think that it is enough to do one hour a month and meanwhile I know that you I know you all have we give unlimited time to big money people who want to make business deals with the city when we only have like this kind of we only know this opportunity to show up to speak so please preserve the amount of this public comment period because as Donald has said is very precious to the people who may not know other way to reach out to you lastly in this last minute I have with you all I want to bring up that as a member of the UE Local 150 um please establish me and confir policy with city workers and city manager as um as brother angaza said this is um he just asking me quarterly I will spare the person from humiliation but I will point out that one of you have consistent ly delay meeting with them to and up to a point where you just completely decided to not meet with a city worker and someone having a substitute to meet with them instead that's not acceptable the city workers remember the city workers of solid ways and water remember what you did so please consider actually meeting with them thank you thank you next we have Franklin Robinson hello hello everybody city council mayor my name is Franklin Robertson and I want to talk to you about a concern that I have about a traffic stop that happened to me and a Raleigh Police Officer tried to falsify evidence he tried to falsify uh a Narcotics drug test speak closer to the microphone tried to falsify an alcoholics drug test and then got in the car to proceed the call a magistry to try to get a warrant to raid my house cuz him and my son had something going on and I went to Internal Affairs they they my complaint was sustained but they said that they're not going to take a stand on him falsifying a drug test and I I know that that's like an Integrity issue so if they're not going to take a stand who is cuz he's still police officer right now running around locking people up he's riding around with a false drug test in the back of his car he'll pull you over on a traffic stop and then go to the back of the car and say you stand in the front of the car and then he go to the back and mash your drug test together and come out there and say oh yeah you had you had cocaine in that bag there was never no cocaine in the bag and then the City attorney say oh well we not taking a stand on that I don't understand that I don't have I don't I don't understand how he can still be running around arresting people doing everything he's doing and he he has no Integrity if if if he will falsify a drug test he'll shoot somebody and say they had a gun so I I I just I just want to know who do I talk to to try to get some resolve for my life cuz my my life been in pieces since it happened ever since it happened they've been harass me he said I had drugs in front of other officers now every time they see me they pull me over I'm not doing anything but I I I don't went to jail for it I I'm I'm just I just want to know who do I talk to cuz at this point I didn't talk to the City attorney I filed a complaint you're the head of the city I figured that you could help me that's all I have to say thank you all right thank you all right Joshua Bradley three minutes and somebody wrote please on it Joshua Bradley 1324 spring LA court man these glasses make me see but made me sound funny sorry uh it has come to my attention that there's a desire for some of y'all to cut down the public comments listening to the public is part of your job if listening to the public is a hardship feel free to resign I am fairly sure that there are others that would be willing to fill your position I know the Developers paid a lot of money to get you elected and they are counting on you to accelerate gentrification of our city but if the job is too much please resign speaking of donors as John Kane and other Trump supporters donated several of your campaigns uh are you going to be onside and protecting the city from the fascism that's on the rise at the federal or state level I know most of most if not all of y'all are Democrats y'all are all members of a political party that threw an election to a fascist demagogue just so they could continue to fund a genocide in Gaza as a socialist in a green I've heard from Democrat heard Democrats blame us and the left for their loss but the all the evidence points the fact that a large number of Democrats sat out the election because of the large scale moneyed support for the killing of north of 20,000 women and children in Gaza maybe now is the time to pass a resolution to cut military aid to Israel in such time as they leave off the genocide of par heid and settler colonialism it's de past time for Palestine to be free um uh also uh I ask that all of y'all that were elected please visit at least one encampment in your District at least once a month to ensure that you know the needs of the people who are living there public housing should be your number one priority because the goal of the city isn't to create revenue for businesses the the the municipalities are designed to help the people and that's all the people and if we keep spending our time making john Kane and all the other developers happy and ignoring the workforce then then we're not doing it right and it's important that instead of having a focus on things like Parks which are nice but we got to look at the effects of this development has on uh the rest of the community um dicks Park it's going to be an nice park there's houses there that they say that they're they've got ASB best so they're going to be expensive to to uh rehab and and give to people that need them but it's going to be expensive to tear them down too because that's a Hazmat issue as well so I would like somebody to look in the price difference between refurbing and demolishing um and last I just want to say the comrades that spoke before regarding uh RDU uh and uh and people's budget assembly uh comrad and Gaza and and others um their demands are easy easy to me let's get it done thank you thank you next we have Alex Bret good evening uh I live on Brookside Drive um I have a demand that is easy to meet please install the bike lanes that have been voted to uh be installed um last September or October I believe the vote was taken unanimous unanimously decided to put in two-way protected bike Lanes on Brookside Drive between Glascock and Frank Street that still has not been done all this time later uh council member Harrison you specifically wanted to see it done quickly uh to be used as a model for fast installation at other parts you know other neighborhoods around town and it it has not been done I don't know why um we have been dithering to see if there's a compromise to put parking on the street parking is not needed parking will not improve safety bike Lanes will improve safety the opportunity to compromise with parking has passed parking was proposed in the meeting I was here the two-way bike lanes were voted on instead and they still have not been installed so uh I would like the city council to please ask Transportation staff to move forward with that project as soon as possible possible um it's not just about the bike Lanes too it is a safety issue there is an elementary school on that street I would hate for something like what happened to the woman who also spoke uh happened there and uh unlike in her case you know the decision has been made to put in those bike lanes and improve safety so let's please move ahead with that um the other thing I wanted to talk about is uh Crabtree Park um this is slightly related uh uh because um Crabtree County Park is very often used for cycling um there are lots of bike trails there mountain bike trails um that's probably its most popular use um what I worry about as you hear and I'm sure you're going to hear a lot about Crabtree County Park is uh you're going to hear about how often it's used for mountain biking I'm worried that it might be easy to dismiss it's just a group of mountain bikers who want to see the park preserved um that's a small constituency and I know that you care about who your voters are who your constituents are who is the constituency for the plan development it does not exist it is for no one please preserve the park it is a cherish resource and it can benefit rally for generation to come unlike the proposed development you have the authority you have the leverage as people have pointed out and I ask you to please use it thank you thank you Athena Wallen my name is Athena Wallen uh I am a Brookside Drive resident and I am advocating for all my Brookside Drive neighbors uh requesting that the City of Raleigh acknowledged the corridor's need for cohesive infrastructure improvements both as a Creek Street and a school street we have a lot going on we are continuously let down by the lack of support um our ups sloped Neighbors on noristry are getting improved drainage and storm water infrastructure us Downs slope Brookside residents are at the mercy of our failing Creek system and its inability to keep up with the current demand let alone future demand there are two sides to every Creek with Decades of documented flooding issues and failing infrastructure and the volumes of complaints provided from us Brookside residents why would the city Only address one side without immediately looking at the other side as well it's a system that is connected we can't keep patchworking based off of Resident feedback only that is an inequity issue because if neighborhoods cannot have a voice to submit to the to the city for your consideration of improvement that neighborhood goes without it and now I feel like I wasted my neighborhood's time because I didn't start 10 years ago advocating for the things I I'm seeing the problems bubbling up now for so anyway sorry do last year alone uh the UPS slope bank across from my property has been rapidly eroding and the bed of the creek has risen significantly and the center of the creek has shifted considerably my property line is the center of the creek please tell me how my property line is subject to everyone else's neglect of that Creek system and how that affects those neighborhoods that don't have people paying attention because they're just too busy it's just too out there for them we need to address this as a Citywide issue we have necessity in our storm Creek systems that that gives us resiliency Brookside was established with the sewer line in the creek in the 50s in the 70s we paid a lot of money to move that sewer line into the backyards of Brookside residents and then a 50ft buffer was put in that buffer if I don't rebuild it every year with the nothing that I have I don't know what happens and I don't want it to be my fault that the creek met with the sewer pipe again thank you thank you right next Kim Robert okay Ryan Reed hey everybody uh first time here this is fun thanks for all that you do um I have a pretty specific request I'm a private land owner of some property action near Brookside Drive at 701 edman Street I've put together a street closing petition to close a dead end unimproved right of way at will Street um there are three abing Property Owners myself and my wife um the con Elementary is the back end of that property and then one other private land owner on the other side of the property um for the street closing petition we have signed KH Elementary awake County public schools has signed and supported closing the street as well the third private land owner um is unwilling to sign at this point they're open to potentially hearing more information but they're not ready to sign and support the petition the current process with the city of trans or the transfer a department requires all AB budding land owners to sign the petition to even have it heard um I don't think that one private land owner should prevent city council and the City of Raleigh for reviewing what to do with public land um I would ask that city council address transportation to review the street closing petition with two of the three signatures um I think there's a lot of valid reasons to close the street um in public interest we'll get to those whenever you guys decide to review it um for now we just ask that you actually do to review it um I did have a buddy who knows the process is a lot more than me um reach out to city council to ask them about the process um or the City attorney they did confirm that city council could direct Transportation staff to review it without all signatures the only impediment now of not having all signatures is for transportation to bring it to you all but you could all direct them to review it so that's all I ask you know to give it a more drastic look if there were 100 land owners that abutted the street 99 of them could um be in support of closing the city right away one of them could be against it by simply ignoring and not signing petition that one person would prevent anybody from reviewing at all um I'm not saying that minorities shouldn't have their voice heard they definitely should but they shouldn't be able to shut down the majority just by not signing or ignoring a petition so i' would ask that you direct um City staff to review the petition they have it it's ready to go that just needs you to direct them to do it thank you thank you and just a quick question for the clerk did we have a voicemail uh public comment on that issue yeah there was one voice mail public comment was received today was on the same uh yeah I think it was the opponent right yes I believe so yeah okay uh okay so next we have Farah con good evening I had a job interview today the interview lasted approxim imely 40 minutes at least 33 minutes of which was me speaking imagine that dear mayor and City councilors a group of people wanted to spend 33 minutes listening to me share my experiences thoughts ideas hopes and dreams that's 11 times the time that you have granted me today and horrifyingly 33 times I don't have the fingers more than what you plan to do why did they give me this time because they believe in the value of the experiences thoughts ideas hopes dreams and the skills I would bring they had the humility to recognize that they don't know it all and that they need other people's experiences thoughts ideas hopes and dreams and skills why because it would make them better so why does Raleigh city council not recognize the benefit of people why do some of our counselors feel they know it all do they not want to make Raleigh better or do they find that their donor base makes the people of Raleigh's experiences thoughts ideas hopes and dreams irrelevant much of our state and Country and even the world is trending away from democracy towards fascism incidentally democracy is from the Greek word demos the people however I in these demos these people are here to remind you that you do not have to follow this fascist Trend allow us our democracy and the right to speak listen to us people recognize that the people of Raleigh make Raleigh better oh and as a little boy said to the newcaster newscaster one more thing free Palestine some of you might feel that this is not a Raleigh issue explain to me then why Raleigh allows elbet systems within this city elet systems is the primary provider of the Israeli military's land-based equipment and unmanned aerial Vehicles which we can read as drones which we've seen eviscerate little children and babies I will not take up any more of your time as we're already getting close to the 9:00 hour but I would ask that the City of Raleigh do not shut us [Applause] up um next have Erica r hi um I was on fire this morning and wrote down a bunch of stuff but I know I was going to go off strip script so uh I was waiting to see what other people said I checked with uh uh with staff and I wasn't first so that at the beginning so that's great uh I am actually um really didn't know that elate had Offices here um they were basically chased out of Scotland and some other countries um this is an ad lib now because I had no idea um I know people that were responsible for getting them out of Scotland um and other countries are are following suit and um as a result they're going to make a lot of money selling their technology and their equipment to Israel directly to kill children so I mean that's something that should be looked into I don't know how much Council has to say on that so I'm going to address what some other people said I thought if somebody tick me off I might address back there a little bit more but um but first oh um the gentleman oh this is I what he said everything that Mama Kai said I don't know who she is but everything she said didto and this gentleman and somebody else was talking about the 45 degrees now um I wrote notes while people were talking um in Gaza babies died at 50 and I check was I have on my phone the weather in Gaza it was never below 50 so maybe you can consider if they're living in tents and things that should up the degrees to 50 as if there's a stained cold especially um it's it's miserable I don't know if anybody's been in the in the damp in the in the rain and 50 degree weather moving with no place to go um what else did I all right now I've been looking up I I was told um that you don't have much control over the ice um um proposal the thing that that you have to cooperate that that's the sheriff's office but you do seem to have some control over the Raleigh Police Department and like at the beginning when uh Chief Patterson who I really like is I won't be here uh I spoke to her and her leaz on was very Pro exchanges with Israel um she didn't really know that anything about it at the time so I'm I'm hoping that if that is proposed at any time you listen to the voices that ask you not to allow that because they it's basically Jim Crow on steroids what they do okay I don't know whether you have uh say over the universities um I don't know where my time is am I out of time um but um that's something you can do anyway I'm going to be sending an email um so basically I think everybody here should have respect for you guys I think a lot of this getting rid of speaking isus speak thank you all right Katie [Applause] stanet Katie here okay uh Nick Williams Nick way hey y'all good evening happy Black History Month I am nqu Williams I'm a member of refund Raleigh as well as the Raleigh people's budget assembly and I'm just going to reiterate some of the demands that have already been shared first the city must establish an adequate participatory budgeting process the pilot program implemented by the city is flawed and does not reflect true participatory budgeting because it restricts community control over the project designs and budget decisions let 2025 be the year Raleigh residents have real power over our money second the city must protect public comment time public engagement should be expanded and not restricted recommendations to limit public comment to one or two hours only benefits those in power and overlooks the purpose of public comment which is to inform decision-making if council members are not taking time to listen to a full range of perspectives you all risk making uninformed decisions that do not reflect the needs of the community let 2025 be the year you become a leading jurisdiction that prioritizes Community input for every decision next the city must invest in a community Response Team independent from the police essential services for Community safety should be community-led not dictated by police policing systems with a history of brutal izing community members as you all recall in a 2024 survey for an alternative response program 92% of survey respondents made it clear they do not want to interact with the police and supported the creation of the community response team please let 2025 be the year that is actually funded lastly the city must Implement a meet and confirm policy for city workers city workers deserve respect and appreciation and should never be ignored by city leaders we've already heard testimony of how some folks have ignored our essential workers please don't let it happen again let 2025 be the year you honor the individuals that keep our city running now our demands are not extreme they are very reasonable and they are necessary steps toward a city that truly serves Raleigh residents but please let me be clear we are not asking we are holding you accountable we're paying attention and we'll be back here next Tuesday the next second Tuesday the next third Tuesday to ensure accountability thank you thank you um next we have Katie bner okay not hearing from Katie Hala asfari good evening mayor city council members and community members thank you for your time today my name is hel asfari I'm a broy city resident I'm here tonight because I've heard that there were plans to cut time for the public comment sessions I want to ask you to please reconsider this decision Raleigh is a growing city uh with the growing population and as we heard so many important things that um our residents have to share during this public comment session um as I um in my line of foric feedback is a gift and it is a tool for growth so we need to listen to each other um this session might not seem like a lot to you or some of you um but there are opportunities for us to listen to one another and for you to listen to the things are important for all of us um I have learned about many happenings in the City by attending in these sessions so it's not only good for you to hear the feedback but also for us as community members um things that are otherwise I wasn't aware aware of um things like little Charlie getting hurt this is a very important thing the children are you know the future of us and our um best and most precious assets so um clearly there was an important thing to be shared today uh we are in desperate need to listen to one another um at this time we hear about one executive order after another president Trump has a magic marker and he keeps signing them they after day today I looked over um Google that and it seems that he's uh signed um a record of executive orders in the past less than a month um so one day he wants to bend paper straws the next day he's renaming a body of water the next day he's um um you know allowing some Free Speech but taking away others especially on college campuses penalizing students for using their free speech uh the right for their free speech um holding migrant children in abhorent situations reopening Guantanamo I mean we are worried about what's going to come up next um we need first he pulled us out of the World Health Organization and now he's threatening to dissolve the um Department of Education after other very important entities in our federal government um the president is taking um is talking of taking away uh Federal funding for things like disaster relief and putting it on the states I mean we all pay federal taxes I got a $1,500 bonus uh the other day from work more than $500 of it went into taxes that's more than it's about 35% I don't understand how can the federal government pull out of something like rebuilding the homes uh the disappeared in Western North Carolina um [Music] sorry thank you Eric Martino hello uh good evening everyone uh I am a student at NC State I am a senior and I'll be graduating in the spring with an environmental science degree so CNR uh councilwoman Harrison or should I say Professor Harrison I'm here to talk about the pcbs in poal as well as other buildings on campus uh it's unfortunate you not able to join us last Thursday and hopefully today uh you'll be able to um begin to focus a little bit more on NC State uh as well as all the other Council people up here today I lived in Gold Hall my freshman year this was not my dream dorm it's a small little one on the uh east side of Campus it holds about 50 individuals and in 2019 it was uh tested positive above the EPA limit for pcbs um on the inside it is the only dorm as we know of that has tested positive on the interior I lived there for uh almost uh 9 months I am very scared it's a bit it's a bit terrifying to know that you have been exposed to a class one carcinogen this is the same level as plutonium tobacco smoke uh smoke and asbest for uh 9 months of your life life and you don't know how much or if there's any resources for you if there's anything you can do about it as soon as I graduate I will not have any resources such as workers comp the only thing I can do is get an attorney if I do test positive for uh pcbs in my bloodstream if I uh uh diagnosed with cancer or an autoimmune disease or lupus or any other mental disorder you know pcbs are really versatile uh chemical in the sense that they can cause about almost any malady in one form or another so uh Dr Harrison Professor Harrison I ask that you use your political power as a councilwoman uh and as a professor at NC State to advocate for us you understand environmental justice you understand the the consequences of pollution you understand what it's like to be on NC State's campus please help me please help my friends please help the alumni and the professors here on campus not everyone can join me here today but trust we are just beginning to talk about this we are not going to get quiet I I let NC State take care of it on its own for a year and then a year passed and we heard nothing and only worst news came out and so I really wish for the Raleigh city council to do what they need to do and protect the thousands of students who live in Raleigh whether they are from out of state or they were born here in Raleigh um please please please help us thank you so much for your job uh for your time and I hope you guys enjoy your evening thank you all right we have Denise Fitzpatrick sorry I am Denise Fitzpatrick and it's my first time being here under the new mayor I am a former member of the Raleigh task force for the homeless uh as well as an activist with the ACLU a people power action leader uh I am a fighter for civil and human rights my passion is the unhoused I don't need to read from a piece of paper or anything like that because it's in my heart and it's in my mind I am concerned with the uh dangerous conditions and the uh shelters here at Raleigh here at Raleigh I don't know if this issue goes to the Board of Commissioners on What county or city or what but I know there's a shelter here at Second Street and that shelter is very dangerous I believe in preventive measures I would hate to see some of these people killed we've got people as you know from all walks of life we got alcoholics we got a drug addicts we've got people that are uh mentally ill we're seeing their disorders being exacerbated from standing in these long lines 4 hours 3 hours to get into a shelter that doesn't open at till 700 p.m. it doesn't matter what the weather is or out there and then they start arguing you have people that are jumping each other and they're cursing and they're and I said do we need to wait until someone gets killed there's no police officers out there there's no staff there's no volunteers but a bunch about a hundred people that are in that line that need shelter I don't they got guns or when a knife or what's going to go off but we need preventive measures so we can save some lives and then according to my knowledge of the um integration Mandate of title 2 of the Ada uh it says that if you're taking in people with serious mental illnesses there needs to be somebody in their staff or volunteer that is trained in mental illness so you can know how to deal with them they have meltdowns or what have you we got schizophren you got people talking onl we got them pacing we got them agitated because they're mentally ill I a something has schizophrenia so have a passion for that and and and the people that are there that they have some kind of disorder too but they're laughing at these people and threatening them sit down you better do I'm going to jump there a big argument these people have serious mental illness they need people that know how to deal with them what happens this is a killer when it gets out of hand what the staff does is put them out you put out people in wheelchairs elderly people people that are very disturbed you put them out in the street they're members of a protected class the middle H you put them out in the street 2:00 help us thank you Kelly H Kelly here okay hi I'm Kelly I'm from Raleigh I'm here today because silence is complicity because 15 months into a genocide after more than a 100,000 Palestinians have been killed and many more wounded after entire families have been wiped from civil records after famine has been deliberately manufactured and hospitals turned into execution sites this Council still refuses to call for an arms and Bargo you refuseed to take meaningful action while an apartheid state uses American weapons to bomb children starve families and erase a people from their land let's be clear a ceasefire was supposed to mean an end to the killing and a chance to rebuild but the Zionist entity has never abided to the to these agreements in terms of Aid they promised 12,000 trucks of food only 8,500 have entered they promised 200,000 tents only 10% have arrived they agreed to let 50 injured or sick Palestinians leave Gaza every day so far only 120 have been allowed out when it should have been over 1,000 they blocked people from returning to the north and they are still slaughtering civilians in Kaza and in West Bank while the world pretends not to see and for what after all the billions of dollars the surveillance the air strikes the 2,000 pound bombs the massacres what did they accomplish did they take North Gaza no did they eliminate Hamas no did they retrieve their hostages by force no all they did was expose themselves to the world for what they are Fascist terrorist cowards because even under the heaviest Siege even in the face of unspeakable violence the Palestinian people have endured the resistance is still standing and Gaza is still standing and yet the American government this government keeps funding their suffering keeps giving the occupation weapons keeps trying to convince us that genocide is self-defense it is Criminal it is absurd and is shameful that Palestinians who have lived on their land for centuries are being told they must leave how dare you how dare you look at a people who have lost everything who have been displaced starved bombed brutalized and still find a way to blame them how dare you ignore the children being executed the families searching for lost loved ones under the reubel the mothers clutching their starving babies and then you call yourselves leaders I trust that God is with the Palestinian people I trust in their steadfastness their strength and their determination but I fear for you the so-called Representatives the ones who have stood by and done nothing the ones who have chosen to align themselves with genocide I fear for the grave moral injury you will carry when history remembers you not as Leaders but as enablers of war crimes so today I'm not asking I'm demanding pass a resolution calling for an arms embargo call for an end to the flow of American tax dollars into the hands of war criminals because the Palestinian people will never leave their land they will live on it with pride and dignity because Palestine is not just a place it is their soul their history and their home and no amount of bombs will change that long live Gaza Long Live Palestine thank you I signed up to speak but I don't see my name up there may I please have my three minutes I have confirmation email right here that's I mean it's fine yep thank you just give give us your name since I don't have it on the page uh my name is cat unfortunately for you all I'm back I back the demands of the Raleigh people's budget assembly uh I am with meals for the masses a local Mutual Aid organization that does a free food free meal distribution program every Sunday at 300 p.m. on the corner of Martin Street and person Street we serve the workingclass and unhoused Community here in Raleigh something I know y'all aren't familiar with since y'all are so out of touch with the working class in attempting to suppress the people's voice by reducing public comment I would like to personally invite you to our weekly food distribution if you won't allow the masses to come here to be heard then you dang sure better bring yourselves to hear the masses there you will have the opportunity to look the people who are most impacted by your gentrifying policies in the eyes and explain to them why big developer campaign donations are more important to you than S than providing affordable safe housing you can feed the children that you displace and make homeless by rezoning workingclass neighborhoods for developers to build luxury apartments that sit half empty while while our people freeze and starve in the streets have a one-on-one with people that have been brutalized and dehumanized by the pig farm y'all gave 139 million to in this year's budget while only giving 51 million for housing and transportation combined leave public comment policy as it as it currently stands or be prepared to face Us in the streets also I'm an NC State Alum I spent two years as a psychology minor in poal between the ages of 18 and 19 between 19 and 22 I had every single one of my reproductive organs removed due to emergency medical situations the only thing I can think of that would have caused this are the pcbs that I was exposed to for two years straight in po Hall I had choices taken away from me because of the city's inaction and NC State's inaction please take this seriously before the next person loses an entire organ system oh yeah and free [Applause] Palestine thank you that is everyone I had on the list appreciate it thank you we are adjourned see [Music]