Last year was the year I became chair of Raleigh’s Parks board after three years serving on the board. It was something I could not have imagined when I started out and yet here I am.
Looking back, I did have some preparation for the role. As a boardmember I attended many of the ribbon-cutting ceremonies, I chaired my first meeting right after my election as vice-chair, and I filled in for the chair to speak at other park dedications the times he could not be present. I figured I could do the job, so why not take the next step and do it? Continue reading →
Also, a Facebook visitor named Adul Siler posted this as a comment on the church’s page:
“thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself! Has anyone thought about it being 10:30 at night that it is not acceptable to have loud noise blazing in a residential neighborhood. Christians are not to do of this world but yet churches have service when it is clubbing time and when the freaks come out. Then get upset when folks complain. Not even is St Aug down the street immune from having late night functions. They must get a permit to have any loud or sport events at night. Remember that St Aug had to make their football field smaller due to noise restrictions. So all those false comments being made about the cops and all is basically making all of us christian folks look bad. How would you like it if someone blasted rap or even hard rock during service on Sunday morning? You’d call the cops too to stop all the noise. Watch how you make accusations for most of the advertising out there is not for MLK on that day but for what you all and who were in the church advertised the event for. Ya’ll making yourselves look bad and everyonre else not involved. Also remember 10 or so years ago that area was drug, prostitute, and crime infested being mainly a black neighborhood. The city and private companies cleaned that area up when they began working on downtown. The only racist thing that happen was they moved many of us out of the area which was blighted, cleaned it up and gave the white folks tax incentives to move in the new or refurbished homes.Doubt ya’ll be having any kind of service late at night if it was like it use to be in that area all the way to Shaw. Admit someone made a mistake in church,everyone got carried away, and things got noisy like in the past. Don’t be surprised karma might come your way while your preaching on Sunday morning and you hear loud music outside. Sometimes its not the devil but just plain ignorance. God bless and be an example for the Lord………..”
The moment City of Raleigh Public Utilities Director John Carmen mentioned the book The Big Thirst during a recent CAC meeting, I logged onto the library webpage and requested it. It arrived yesterday and surprisingly I can’t put it down.
Water is fascinating. We take it for granted, but as author Charles Fishman says, water is becoming more scarce and it will soon create conflicts.
I’m just cracking the book now and I’m sure to have more to say about it, but if you’ve ever wondered what goes into making water appear at your tap you should read this book!
A church behind my home has been making a exceedingly-joyful noise unto the Lord for many years now, to the dismay of sleepy neighbors. For years, neighbors have made repeated calls to police to get the church to keep the peace but police have been understandably reluctant to get involved.
At a police-organized community meeting with church leaders Friday evening, neighbors aired their concerns about the noise and church leaders offered solutions. Neighbors even offered to help raise money. It seemed everything was on track to work together.
It didn’t last long, though. The very next night, a group renting the church blasted the neighborhood with music again, causing neighbors to call police again. This time, police entered the church and shut the celebration down. It was 10:30 PM.
The pastor of the group renting the church blasted the police response as racist, and characterized the neighborhood as a “white neighborhood,” though neither is true. Among others, she sent her response to WTVD, which did a story. Reporter Ed Crump asked for a neighbor to be interviewed and I accepted his offer.
I thought Mr. Crump did a fine job with the story and his point about the visiting pastor not being notified is probably true. Since the story ran, the inflammatory post from the visiting pastor has been removed from the church’s Facebook page. I see tonight the story’s headline has also been changed to remove the racist charges and stick more to the facts.
I’m hopeful the church and neighbors can continue to work out our differences and become good neighbors again.
People attending a celebration on the eve of Martin Luther King Junior’s birthday say actions by a Raleigh police officer were racist and violated their civil rights.
It happened at the Glorious Church just northeast of downtown Raleigh Saturday night. A group had rented the church but didn’t know about an ongoing dispute with neighbors over loud music late at night.
Just the night before, church leaders and neighbors had met and begun working out their differences. So, when neighbors heard loud music the next night they called police.
As I hinted in my post from earlier this week, today the Raleigh City Council approved moving forward with the purchase of a home that may one day become the Mordecai Historic Park Interpretive Center. The plans were announced during the council’s Budget and Economic Development real estate report.
The plan is for the city to renovate the home of the late Arthur Danielson, who lived at the corner of Wake Forest Road and Cedar Street up until his death in April of 2011. The home dates from 1913, provides almost 5,000 square feet, fronts Wake Forest Road, and is directly adjacent to the park. Continue reading →
Today marks the ten year anniversary of my blog, MT.Net, with the first post being added 17 January 2002. I couldn’t have possibly known on that day how active I would become at blogging, with over 5,304 posts logged. That’s an average of almost 1.5 per day for ten years. Not too shabby!
Besides all the obvious fame and fortune, blogging has made me a better writer and speaker. It has led to lasting friendships. It has emboldened me to have an opinion on things – any things – and be able to defend my position. It has shown me that there are others who think like I do but might have not have been brave enough to say so until I did. It has changed minds and made me a better leader. But to put it in simple terms, it has provided me a platform with which I can help form my world through my thoughts and the words that convey them. Continue reading →
This evening I chaired my last meeting of Raleigh’s East Citizens Advisory Council (East CAC). It was a bittersweet moment for me, knowing how much work I’ve put into it over the past three and a half years.
And yet, I leave it in very good shape. I accomplished almost everything I set out to do. The new leaders are engaged and ready to take it to new levels, too. It’s time for me to turn over the reins and let some of my fantastic neighbors take over.
As I said last night, I don’t know what the future holds in store for me but I don’t know if I’ll ever do anything more rewarding than what I’ve done with the CAC.
Last year saw some transitions with my work with Raleigh’s Citizens Advisory Councils. After seeing how energized neighbors in the East CAC had become over a noise issue with Enloe High School’s air conditioning unit, I decided it might be a good time to turn over the reins to new leadership. When you identify leaders, the next step is to put them to work, right?
My decision did not come lightly. For over three years, I’ve been planning meetings, coordinating speakers, conducting meetings, and streaming live video from the meetings, to keep my neighbors informed and engaged. In between, I met with neighbors who needed help navigating the city departments to get something done. I also administered neighborhood email lists so that people could stay connected. Continue reading →
The year 2011 was an election year for Raleigh and I was right in the thick of things again.
For a while now I’ve been wondering what it might take to play a bigger role in Raleigh government. In February of last year I quietly took a day off from work and drove to DC to attend a Veterans Campaign workshop aimed at getting more military veterans to run for office. It provided an eye-opening education to what it takes to win an election, some of which isn’t particularly pleasant. Continue reading →
