Raleigh’s underground water infrastructure, mainly pipes in the ground, needs more than $7 billion in repairs, according to City Public Utilities Director John Carman. These are not immediate costs, he said, but now is when Raleigh should be planning to replace pipes that will age out during the coming decades.
Carman told the Record the current financial model for the system does not put away any money to pay for replacing pipes that have a lifespan of anywhere from 60 to 100 years.
“We have $500 million worth of pipe that was installed before World War II,” Carman said.
Kudos to the Raleigh Public Record for raising awareness about this issue.
Lt. Gov. Walter Dalton canceled a Thursday morning appearance at the Leadership North Carolina Forum in Raleigh after news of Perdue’s plans spread. He was supposed to speak on the state’s transportation planning and policy.
The LNC mention was posted long enough for me to show it to Kelly. Dalton later convened a press conference and formally announced, after which the LNC reference was removed.
Many parks fees had not been raised for several years, parks board members noted. For example, the citywide youth sports registration fee has been $12 since 2004.
“This is an opportunity to make adjustments that have been needed for a while,” said board chairman Mark Turner. “I didn’t feel they were necessarily drastic … The variety of programs and offerings are still a very good deal for the public.”
An earlier proposal involved using part of the park’s main lawn for a contemporary, window-lined building to house the center. Opponents banded together to fight the proposal, saying the building would clash with the historic charm of the park, home to Raleigh’s most significant antebellum plantation.
“We heard it loud and clear: Nobody wanted to put more buildings on the property,” said Mark Turner, chairman of the city parks board. “This solves that problem.”
Gizmodo points out the obvious: if the US DOJ can bust Megaupload in New Zealand, why does it need SOPA/PIPA?
The feds—those tasked as intellectual property sentinels in particular—want more power to kill sites like Megaupload. It looks like they’re not going to get their way through legislation, so setting a prominent target ablaze in a very public and dramatic manner is a great screw you to SOPA’s foes.
If that’s the case, the Department of Justice should be gagging on irony: their swift destruction of Megaupload sans SOPA proves how gratuitous the bill was in the first place. This week has been the week of copyright warfare, but the decision to nuke the king copyright violator so spectacularly only goes to show how little the feds need bigger bombs.
Interesting look at the continuing dispute between Britain and Argentina over the Falkland Islands. I was not aware that the British Navy currently lacks an aircraft carrier.
As Prince William prepares to head 8,000 miles from home to serve as a helicopter pilot in the remote Falkland Islands, the traditional "Rule Britannia, Britannia rules the waves!" refrain seems rather far-fetched.
Britain’s naval fleet was once twice the combined size of its two closest rivals. But austerity cuts have seen billions of pounds vanish from military budgets. Even the Royal Navy’s flagship aircraft carrier hasn’t been spared — HMS Ark Royal was sent to the scrapyard last year.
Tensions have been increasing between Argentina and the U.K. as the 30th anniversary of their 10-week war over the Falklands approaches. Argentina claims sovereignty over the British-ruled islands, which are about 300 miles off its coast in the South Atlantic.
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 →
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.
