Tuesday, August 21, 2007

Legislature to Raleigh: Drop dead

There’s a perception that the city of Raleigh and the county of Wake usually get their way before the General Assembly– at least in comparison to the state’s largest city and most populous county, Charlotte and Mecklenburg.
And there’s some evidence to back that up. But something happened the other day that’s just now getting a lot of attention.
The General Assembly sent a message to Raleigh: Drop dead.
Well, not really, but the message was pretty pointed.
When legislative leaders realized the state was having a little trouble getting local approval for a new state-owned parking deck in downtown Raleigh and became aware of concerns about a new extension of the Museum of Natural Sciences, the legislature simply co-opted local zoning ordinances regarding state property within six-blocks of the Capitol.
Raleigh Mayor Charles Meeker found out about it a couple days after the bill passed. Local Wake County legislators had supported the bill. It was, Raleigh City Councilman Philip Isley told The News & Observer, “the typical finger in the eye to the city of Raleigh.”
It was a finger, all right, but not to the eye.
Here’s a link to David Bracken's N&O story.
http://www.newsobserver.com/politics/story/673608.html
And here’s a link to the bill preempting local zoning on state property.
http://www.ncleg.net/gascripts/BillLookUp/BillLookUp.pl?Session=2007&BillID=s1313&submitButton=Go

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

MASONs are in town this week look out everyone! If anyone sees a clown in a car riding around watch out because something is doomed to happen.

Anonymous said...

The Legislature is leading us to believe:
All is not well in the City of Oaks.
The significance of this is not hard to retrieve:
The Honorables would just as soon be meeting in Stokes.

Yes, as Mr. Betts opined,
Raleigh and Wake oft get their way.
But because a certain somebody whined,
The Honorables declared a new day.

And if anyone ventures to Jones Street
To go pitch a royal fittee,
Then their next bill will lack feet
To make it out of committee.