In mid-February Burns surprised the board with his resignation, effective June 30, at a public meeting citing his inability to move forward with the new board majority in “good conscience.”

School Board Chair Ron Margiotta (left) and Superintendent Del Burns (right) at the controversial meeting where the majority, led by Margiotta, voted to end the diversity policy. Photo by Will Huntsberry.

Del Burns took the helm of the Wake County Public School System in 2006 from Bill McNeal. In 2003, when Burns was working under McNeal, Wake County achieved what many thought unimaginable: a 91 percent end-of-grade test pass rate in grades 3 through 8 county wide.

Many opponents of Wake’s former diversity policy say it masks poor performance among minority students. But, in 2003 81 percent of black students grades 3 through 8 passed their end-of-grade tests, as did 85 percent of Hispanic students. Both of these percentages were well above national average.

Many attributed this success directly to the diversity policy, which was essentially ended by last weeks vote in favor of “community based” school assignments.

Since 2003 Wake County has continued to grow and maintaining socio-economic balance in schools has been a problem. Wake identifies a school as “balanced” if it has less than 40 percent of its students on free or reduced price lunch.

In grades 3-8 the number of “out-of-balance” schools has doubled from 22 to 44 and test scores have declined since that time. Many schools now have percentages of free and reduced price lunch students in the 60s and 70s, which was not the case in 2003.

The decision to end the county’s diversity policy will be up for a final vote on March 23.

Monday

1 p.m. Board of Adjustment

City council chambers, Municipal Building, 222 W. Hargett St.

The board has five special use permits on the agenda:

• A-15-09 – A request from the Joyner Realty Co. for a storage yard for towed vehicles at 7324 Capital Blvd.
• A-30-09 – A request for a daycare at 838 Belmont Dr.
• A-4-10  – A request for an exception from off-street parking rules at 111 Friendly Dr.
• A-6-10 – A request for three variances for a property at 527 Haywood St. Jordan Investors LLC wants variances on parking and setbacks.
• A-11-10 – A request for a variance on the street side yard setback for a property at 2315 Fairview Rd.

5:30 p.m. Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Commission

Room 305, Municipal Building, 222 W. Hargett St.

The BPAC has four items on its agenda for this week:

• Finalizing ideas for Bike to Work Week, scheduled for May 17-21.
• An update on sidewalk priorities.
• Creating the commission’s website. Members will make recommendations on what to include in the initial website.
• Setting the 2010 meeting schedule.

5:30 p.m. Historic Cemeteries Advisory Board

820 Clay St.

Tuesday

9 a.m. City Council Law & Public Safety Committee

Room 305, Municipal Building, 222 W. Hargett St.

The committee has three items on its agenda this week. The first is about a sewer backup at 5309 North Hills Dr. The second is about a fallen tree at 309 Angier Ave. And the third is the continuing discussion over the amplified entertainment ordinance.

10 a.m. Planning Commission

City council chambers, Municipal Building, 222 W. Hargett St.

Planning Commission has two items on its agenda. The first is a subdivision request for a property on Kent Road. The second is an update on the new zoning code. Commissioners will get more information on the diagnostics and approach to the Unified Development Ordinance, also known as the total rewrite to the city’s zoning code.

12 p.m. Convention Center Commission

Progress Energy Center for Performing Arts

5 p.m. City Council Public Works Committee

City council chambers, Municipal Building, 222 W. Hargett St.

Members of the public works committee will continue talking about the Honeycutt Greenway. Residents around the greenway say they are concerned about taking the trail through neighborhoods. The city council approved the plan last week, but the committee will continue trying to address issues with street crossings and cutting through neighborhoods. The committee will also talk about a proposed no parking zone for Manorbrook Road.

7 p.m. Arts Commission

Room 305, Municipal Building, 222 W. Hargett St.

Wednesday

12 p.m. Substance Abuse Advisory Commission

1 p.m. City Council Comprehensive Planning Committee

City council chambers, Municipal Building, 222 W. Harget St.

Only one item on the comp planning agenda for this week. Committee members will be talking about a text change on soil and erosion control rules.

4 p.m. Appearance Commission

Room 305, Municipal Building, 222 W. Hargett St.

Commissioners will spend most of their time this week talking about the new Unified Development Ordinance, the new zoning code. They will get the same update on diagnostics and approach as the planning commission. The commission will also talk about the 2010 Sir Walter Raleigh Awards and possible interim aesthetic improvements for the new Wake County parking deck downtown near the convention center.

Thursday

12 p.m. Mayor’s Committee for Persons with Disabilities

3:30 p.m. Transit Authority

5 p.m. Environmental Advisory Board

6 p.m. Mordecai Historical Park Advisory Board

6 p.m. Human Relations Commission

Friday

Detectives from the two departments say they suspect one person is responsible for the robberies. A Raleigh Police Department press release says they think the same man was responsible for robberies on November 25 at the SunTrust Bank at 910 Kildaire Farm Road, Cary, December 29 and January 21 at the Wachovia Bank at 6623 Falls of Neuse Road, Raleigh, and February 26 at the SunTrust located at 3620 Six Forks Road, Raleigh.

From the RPD:

In each of the robberies, the suspect was described as a masked black male with a slender to medium build who stands about 5 feet 8-11 inches tall that has noticeably misshapen teeth and armed with a handgun. In the most recent case, a teller was injured.

Anyone with information that might assist the investigation of these cases is asked to call the Raleigh Police Department’s Detective Division at (919) 996-3555.

Though, the new majority was elected by a vocal, well-funded faction of Wake County parents, supporters of the diversity policy toted the biggest signs at yesterday’s meeting. And they represented a majority of the voices during what’s become almost the standard 2-hour public comment period.

Photo by Will Huntsberry.

The board agenda listed the fiscal implications of the new neighborhood schools policy “to be determined.” Board member Keith Sutton requested that the vote on community schools be deemed “out of order” at this time on the grounds that its fiscal implications have yet to be presented. Another board member, Kevin Hill, asked for a “work session” on the matter before the vote.

36 of the 55 speakers spoke out in support of the Wake County diversity policy at yesterday’s meeting and one of those speakers was on the verge of being forced out by police.

Police almost ejected Curtis Gatewood of Granville County, right, from the meeting. Rev. William Barber of the North Carolina NAACP, center, intervened. Photo by Will Huntsberry.

Several other parents asked how equity could be achieved by uprooting current policy in a recession. Creating a majority of high poverty schools within the Beltline, as many think the neighborhood policy would achieve, would require additional funding to provide equal education in those areas.

This has lead many to deem the new policy “re-segregation” or a return to “separate but equal.”

Yesterday’s meeting reported a negative increase in county appropriations per student. The number went down this school year by $37 per student and in 2010-11 will go down another $63 per student.

The public comment session was cut short to proceed with the agenda, but not before one commenter was allowed to cede her two minutes at the podium to North Carolina NAACP President William Barber.

Barber spoke of “data and morality not supporting” the new school board majority’s direction and then asked the crowd to join “an old country preacher” in singing the hymn, “We Shall Overcome.” While the crowd sang, Barber resumed making his comments to the school board, asking why it wouldn’t allow the NAACP, “an expert on high poverty schools, 45 minutes to give a presentation to the board?” He answered, “it’s because you know you’re wrong.”

Before Dr. Barber stepped down over three-quarters of the room was standing after he asked for those in favor of Wake’s diversity policy to rise.

As a mix of snow, rain, and ice fell outside Wake County schools four-story building, the school board minority, lead by Carolyn Morrison, desperately sought for half an hour more time before a vote should take place. Finally, a last-ditch attempt to recess was voted down 5-4, as the audience nervously chuckled.

After the monumental vote took place, a large crowd gathered in the center of the room at the the urging of Rev. Barber. He lead the congested and tearful mass in chanting, “We’re not going anywhere! We’re not going anywhere!”

Until council can reach a majority on the issue, spending on the project will come to a halt at a time when the council acknowledges a prime lending atmosphere.

Mayor Charles Meeker, Mary-Ann Baldwin (at-large), James West (District C) and Nancy McFarlane (District A) all voted in favor of the Lightner Center, with Russ Stephenson (at-large), Bonner Gaylord (District E), Thomas Crowder (District D) and John Odom (District B) voting against.

“It is time to move forward on this,” said Mayor Charles Meeker, who pushed for the vote.

At the last two council sessions Stephenson, Gaylord and Crowder outlined a new plan that would involve splitting up the safety center in different locations as opposed to the current, centralized location on Raleigh’s historic Nash Square. Council will have to reach a majority on either plan to move forward.

“If you had concerns, you should have brought them up years ago,” said Baldwin.

The Lightner Center as proposed would require less than a half percent tax increase in 2011, Meeker said during the debate Tuesday.

Stephenson asked city staff to determine how much could be borrowed without the increase.

Gaylord said council needs to “determine how much we can spend, and then go fund those priorities.” Earlier, he had made a point that the city was over-prioritizing the center and ignoring other projects.

During the discussion, Stephenson motioned for council to “borrow the money now, put it in the bank and accrue interest,” but was quickly withdrawn.

“If we’re not going to do this comprehensively, I think we need to take a step back,” said James West, calling the motion “reactionary.”

The safety of the center, which includes a publicly accessible area on the first floor, has been at the forefront of the debate. City Manager Russel Allen used other cities as pro-Lightner examples, noting other high-rise style safety centers, including one being constructed in New York City.

Stephenson said he had also researched other cities and specifically said that New York was “decentralizing” its emergency centers since the September 11 terrorist attack.

Currently, police and fire operations are scattered in temporary locations around the city. “Our police are in a building that was built to house city hall,” McFarlane said. James West called the center “a vote of confidence to our public safety department.”

David Eichenberger’s take on the new Wake County School Board’s proposed neighborhood schools policy. David’s opinions are his own. Have an opinion you want to share? Send a message to the editor from the Contact page.

The Raleigh City Council’s agenda for next week is a short one, but councilors once again will tackle the ongoing debate over the proposed public safety center for downtown.

Mayor Charles Meeker, the center’s most outspoken proponent on council, has modified the proposal for the $140-million Clarence E. Lightner Public Safety Center. Meeker dropped several other capital projects from the budget recently and modified the proposal to require less of a tax increase.

Council members have been negotiating over the new public safety center since late last year. City Manager Russ Allen and the mayor have been pushing to move ahead with the proposal, while half of the council has said the building costs too much during the recession.

Bonner Gaylord (District E), Russ Stephenson (at-large) and Thomas Crowder (District D) argued strongly at the last meeting to scrap the plan and renovate existing buildings.

Council has not been able to get to a vote on the plans since December.

Honeycutt Park Greenway

City council’s public works committee says the Honeycutt Park Greenway should go ahead as proposed. At its regular meeting last week, the committee heard comments from almost a dozen people unhappy with the proposed route.

The people concerned with the route did not want it going through the Summerfield North neighborhood.

Stephenson and Gaylord voted to approve the route, District B’s John Odom voted against.

The committee did make one change to the plan. Members asked to have a full crosswalk installed at a crossing on Strickland Road instead of just a pedestrian warning light.

From the consent agenda:

Items on the consent agenda can be passed with one motion or pulled for debate and a separate vote.

NCSU cops get more powers

N.C. State University’s police officers could get new powers though an agreement with the Raleigh Police Department up for approval by city council this week.

If approved, NCSU police would have jurisdiction on the streets around campus and some off campus housing. Officers will also be able to make arrests across the city if they see a crime being committed.

Currently, the department can only work off campus when it gets a request from the Raleigh Police Department or the Wake County Sheriff’s Department.

Read the resolution and see a better map below.

Public arts

Members of the Public Art and Design Board want to dedicate $103,000 for art at the new Buffaloe Road Aquatic Center and the Halifax Park and Community Center. This is part of a city program that says new municipal buildings should use a half percent of their budget for public art at the sites.

The funding would come from the 2007 Parks and Recreation Bond. The board proposes giving $71,500 to the Buffalow Road pool and $32,100 for Halifax Park.

In it’s memo to council, the board says it hopes for approval this week so it can hire artists to start working.

City Council Agenda March 2 2010

03POLICENCSUPoliceJurisdictionExpansion

The recession continues and the news is rife with stories of struggles from board rooms to homeless shelters. Corporate cutbacks, unemployment extension and insurance losses abound, but how’s the recession impacting those who never had much to start with?

The Department of Housing and Urban Development’s last report to Congress showed the nation’s total homeless numbers were relatively steady from 2007 to 2008, but noted a 9 percent increase in homeless persons with families.  Raleigh and Wake County’s picture is a bit different.

Who they are

To start, let’s lose some common misconceptions. According to the current 10-Year Plan to End Homelessness, homeless does not always equal jobless. In fact, most work full- or part-time jobs, but can’t afford a place to stay. At best, a two-bedroom Raleigh apartment rents for $799. Minimum wage is $7.25 per hour, leaving area waitresses, child care workers and clerks without many housing options.

Homeless doesn’t always equal substance abuse and mental illness, either, according to Ken Maness, the Raleigh representative for Raleigh-Wake’s 10-Year Plan to end homelessness.  That’s part of it, but more than 80 percent of homeless woman suffered domestic violence and take their kids with them.

Maness also said that foster kids leaving the system without any support find they can’t afford to work and pay rent. Living paycheck to paycheck means vehicle breakdowns, illness and job loss force many into eviction. Criminal records prevent some from finding jobs and our nation’s veterans, badly needing re-entry assistance, often end up homeless.

How many there are

To qualify for federal aid, communities must create a Continuum of Care, a local or regional system for helping people who are homeless, and a 10-year plan to organize agency, community and business efforts to address the problem. Local governments use Point in Time Counts to tally community homeless populations.

Like many working with the population, Jean Williams, executive director of Women’s Shelter of Wake County, acknowledges the method lacks precision and leaves many uncounted, but the method remains a national best practice for the simple reason no better method has been found.

The counts also loosely categorize the population into subgroups labeled chronically homeless, homeless families with kids and unsheltered homeless to help project the resources needed.

Raleigh-Wake’s 2009 count found more than 1,100 are homeless in Raleigh/Wake County every day. From 2005 to 2009, Wake’s total homeless population grew just 4 percent compared to the state’s overall growth of 52 percent.

The number of chronic homeless person declined 54 percent compared to the state’s 25 percent drop. Williams explains the disparity, “Strides have been made with those who are chronically homeless by implementing Housing First vouchers.” The vouchers assist very low-income families, the elderly, and the disabled to afford decent, safe, and sanitary housing in the private market.

Despite HUD’s findings, Wake’s number of homeless families with children dropped 26 percent as the state’s total increased 46 percent. Williams attributes the difference to women’s ingenuity in finding alternate housing, such as being doubling up in housing, sleeping in cars and other alternatives that prevent them from being counted. Homeless Prevention and Raid Re-Housing stimulus funds also played a preventive role. Received in October 2009, the funds can last for up to 18 months per family, but as Williams states, “once it’s gone, it’s gone.”

The term “unsheltered,” refers to “people counted living in the woods, on the streets and on your doorstep,” says Maness. The bad news? Wake’s unsheltered population grew a whopping 221 percent compared to the state’s 39 percent gain.

Why the explosive growth in this category? “Our shelter bed capacity has been relatively static over that time period,” stated Williams. “That has been intentional as we have focused on ending homelessness, which means we want to work toward more affordable housing. However, as a community, we have not really made a dent in that need and have actually lost units—Housing Authority Hope VI projects, low cost apartment complexes sold and replaced with high end condos during the housing boom.”

The 10-year plan

City and county officials adopted to Raleigh-Wake 10-Year Plan to End Homelessness in 2005. Created to coordinate efforts by related agencies and groups that each have a piece of the solution, the plans are designed to change as new data and opportunities arise. Some examples include new data from Housing and Urban Development research showing housing, not supportive services and a focus on the chronically homeless (who are often mentally ill) yield best results along with creating centers that offer 24-7 assistance centralized in a single location.  So what’s our progress in these key areas?

Affordable housing.

Given our high-priced housing market, over 25,000 additional housing units are needed for people earning less than 40% of median income, a total of 23,475 per year (Source: 10-Year Plan).  As Williamson stated, we’ve lost ground in that area.

24-7 center

Cornerstone Center, a joint city-county operation on Snow Avenue, was the original destination, but local budget cuts stripped services leaving only services with federal funds. Cornerstone continues its day shelter and soon may offer more.”

Instead of building a single center, an expensive and time-consuming effort, Williamson says efforts are now geared to “taking three existing ‘one stop shops’ and expanding them so each will serve a specific target population of the homeless.”

The plan would steer, single homeless men to Cornerstone, youth (mid-teens to 21) to Haven House and the Women’s Center of Wake County would serve women and families. “Dividing the population has advantages. We often have single mothers with children who have experienced great trauma with histories of domestic violence and encountering a larger number of single males while trying to access services would be re-traumatizing them,” said Williams.

Chronically homeless

Although the Raleigh-Wake area has failed to create affordable housing, the federal government’s Housing First program supplies vouchers to chronically homeless folks who need housing and services. Should that support decline, this population will grow unless the city and county figure out a way to add low-cost rental units to the market.

What’s ahead?

New life has been breathed into the effort lately as The Raleigh/Wake Partnership to End and Prevent Homelessness just hired Ruth Peebles, a new part-time Executive Director. Peebles describes the job as helping to” improve coordination and to engage and re-engage community members from all sectors – business, faith communities, service providers and more.”

The Continuum of Care recently re-organized into a nonprofit for so that they could receive tax deductible donations. The plan is being updated to include changes outside the community and changes within. Peebles said, “One of our priorities will be affordable housing specifically for low-income homeless special needs population, such as those suffering from substance abuse and mental health issues.”

Only time will tell if the new emphasis on housing, service centers and prioritizing efforts with the chronically homeless will help, but cutting the budgets that support the efforts seems penny wise and pound foolish. On average a chronically homeless person costs the community $5,500/month (including 23 nights in a shelter, police and emergency transport, medical care and professional crisis assessment) and that doesn’t include the cost of those who seek arrest for a warm spot to sleep.

Raleigh alone is projected grow by 10,000 persons yearly and the city will soon see an additional 300 new households per year, or one third of the growing population, expected to raise their families while working at jobs that pay at the poverty level.

PIT_07!08!09 Statewide Comparisons

PIT_05!07!09 Statewide Comparisons

The service celebrated its anniversary Feb. 13, and through the end of January, about 178,000 people have boarded the hybrid-electric buses at an average clip of 521 per day.

“The route was certainly performing at pretty much system-wide average for our entire CAT system, which is somewhere around 20 passengers an hour,” said David Eatman, transit administrator for Capital Area Transit.

Cost per rider for the R-Line is also comparable to other bus services in the Triangle — each passenger costs the city about $2.86. Cost for CAT riders overall is a little higher at $3.33 each.

But to downtown residents like Leo Suarez, there are other aspects of the R-Line that justify its $544,400 operating budget. Suarez, who chronicles downtown life on the blog The Raleigh Connoisseur, says the R-Line represents a good public-private partnership that can promote downtown business.

“There are some business owners that take the risk and come downtown,” Suarez said. “It’s good to see the city make the investment too.”

Eatman said the return on that investment is reflected in the ridership figures, which peak toward the nighttime hours and on the weekend, when the bus runs until 2:15 a.m.

That late-night schedule was one of the major draws for Suarez, who uses the service often.

“It was like, ‘Finally, they’re pushing something useful,’” he said.

Although he said the R-Line doesn’t do much to attract those who travel from other parts of Raleigh to spend time downtown, he’s noted it’s often “slammed” during big events like First Friday.

“They only value add for that is that you only have to park once,” Suarez said.

Looking forward, Eatman said there won’t be any major changes to the service. He said that’s because the R-Line avoided a typical pitfall of new routes like these.

“One of the challenges of this type of service is that many people want to try to put a very limited service out to see how it will perform,” Eatman said. “The problem is that many times, that very limited service doesn’t have enough frequency or isn’t nice enough to draw ridership.”

Instead, transit began the R-Line with high-quality service and an “aggressive schedule.”

“That’s a major commitment, but the public has responded by using the service,” Eatman said.

But he pointed out CAT is looking at planning bus shelters for the R-Line, as well as new signage featuring the recently implemented real-time GPS tracking.

Eatman also said he doesn’t think ridership has peaked yet on the year-old route, especially as winter retreats.

“We’ve got a very bright spring and summer ahead of us,” he said.

By spring 2011, however, he said the R-Line will be more established and well known in the community, a fact that may stabilize its numbers and slow gains in ridership.

“That’s when you’re really probably going to test yourself of, can you keep the momentum going, can you continue to grow the ridership,” Eatman said. “Personally I think we can, and at a minimum, we can sustain it.”