Comp Plan Kickoff tomorrow

Remember that the City of Raleigh is kicking off the public participation portion of its Comprehensive Plan update tomorrow starting at 7p. See the city website for details.

Hybrid bus report

It was so quiet you could hardly hear it run, but the hybrid portion adds $200,000 to the cost of a $500,000 plus bus purchase. The bus is American-made manufactured by Gillig Corporation in California. The new CAT buses arriving in Feb 2008 are made by the same company.

Councilor Stephenson and Crowder took a ride on it, along with members of the Raleigh Transit Authority, transit staff and a few citizens. The City Manager and few other staff members stopped by while it was parked on Hargett Street across from the Municipal Building.

Then it headed over to TTA for them to take a look at it as well.

Hybrid bus tomorrow!

From: Eatman, David

Sent: Wednesday, October 10, 2007 11:53 AM

Subject: BRT Hybrid Electric Bus

The City of Raleigh Public Works Department, Transportation Operations

Division, would like to invite you to view one of the most technologically

advanced buses in production today. A 40 Foot Gillig, Low Floor, Hybrid

Electric Bus will be available for viewing and test rides between the hours

of 10:00 A.M. and 2:00 P.M. on Thursday October 11, 2007. The bus will be

parked on the eastbound side of Hargett Street by the City of Raleigh

Administrative Complex, 222 West Hargett Street. The City of Raleigh¹s

transit program is considering the use of this vehicle for special transit

services. Test rides will be available at 10:00 A.M. and 12:00 Noon.

A flyer displaying the vehicle that will be present is attached. Please

join us as we evaluate our bus procurement options.

David Eatman

Transit Administrator

Public Works Department

City of Raleigh

For questions regarding this event please call 890-3030.

I'll still be commenting on the issues

I hope you'll join me.

One of our first chances to will be at the Kickoff for the update of the Comprehensive Plan on October 25.
Go to

www.planningraleigh2030.com

to register.

Hope to see you there

Now or never

It's time to vote for your choices for Raleigh City Council.

I hope you'll choose me as your 2nd choice for the At-Large opening based my positions on the issues:
Impact fees: Increase them
North Hills TIF: No
Dix Park: Yes
Teardowns: Stop them unless the neighborhood has a Neighborhood Plan that protects its character.
Growth: Manage it, with the help of the updated Comprehensive Plan.
Parks bond: Pass it
Transit: Make the CAT system more reliable and support TTA rail.
CACs: Market them and revise the boundaries to better reflect population.
Environment: Protect water and air quality by reducing miles traveled in personal cars and increasing forested open space.
Drought: If it doesn’t rain, go to Stage 2 water restrictions. And from now on, start going to water restrictions earlier.
Comprehensive plan: Make sure it protects our natural systems and encourages transit-oriented land use, and includes wide public participation.

And on my pledge to increase citizen involvement, neighborhood preservation, and environmental stewardship in the city of Raleigh.

You have from 6:30am until 7:30pm Tuesday to vote. Go to: http://msweb03.co.wake.nc.us/bordelec/Waves/WavesSearch.asp
to find your polling place.

Publicly financed elections

I've gotten several questions lately on publicly financed local elections.

There appears to be an organized push to expand the public financing of candidates running for offices beyond the judicial races. I think that would be a great thing. Since the candidates would have to have a certain number(to be decided) of small donations, it would actually make it easier to ask people to support you. Most folks don't think that their $10 is worth much. But if it will help their candidate qualify for public funds, that makes every donation worth more. It also makes the person who can spare $10 as important as the person that can spare $100. That is a very nice thought.

Last chance to vote early

The Board of Elections is open on Saturday to allow people to vote at their leisure. Make it worth their while -- if you haven't voted yet, here's your chance!

If you aren't registered to vote, this is your last chance. You can't register and vote on Election Day.

See me on Time Warner Cable 24

...plus all the rest of the candidates --- Friday at 8pm, 9am Saturday and Monday at 8pm.

I didn't talk a lot about the issues because the candidates only get 3 minutes. However I did introduce a new concept: Vote for me because I have the time to do the job the way it needs to be done.

I guess we'll see how well that worked on Tuesday evening....

Indy questionnaire

With the election just 6 days away, I'm not going to be have time to do much writing here.

Just check the Indy questionnaire : http://www.indyweek.com/gyrobase/Content?oid=oid%3A160789

and the N&O questionnaire :
http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=6236463733033728748

and audio interview with different questions:
http://www.newsobserver.com/1181/story/715425.html