Earlier this month, we published the first story in a series of four about the upcoming Raleigh City Council elections. We took a look back at Mayor Mary-Ann Baldwin’s eventful five years in the city’s top seat and speculated a bit about what her legacy will look like. While some readers said the story was balanced and did Baldwin’s tenure justice, others thought we could have taken a more critical view.

From reader Larry Helfant via email:

The article about Mayor Baldwin missed so much.

She got off to a great start in 2020 but it was downhill from there.

She started with a back door exclusionary discussion on removing support for CACs.

Then let the City burn during the riots of 2020, for which, as usual, never took any responsibility for. She has always said there were things occurring that could not be released to the public. This set the theme for continued loss of businesses due to lack of local financial or safety support.

Her intent has always been to support development first and ignore public engagement.

Can anyone really make an impact with only one minute to speak? The Mayor has been more concerned about time than content during public comment.

And from reader Lewis Beale, via email:

…everyone I know here in the City of Oaks thinks [Baldwin] has done a terrible job.

Baldwin and the City Council have basically been in thrall to real estate developers, who have covered the city with aesthetically boring, if not downright ugly, high rises filled with overpriced apartments and bougie retail outlets. Affordable housing? What’s that?

In addition, the mayor’s work around public transportation has been so inept, it’s made the city the next candidate for Gridlock Capital, USA – no light rail, and a Bus Rapid Transit line so behind schedule it will be obsolete by the time it’s finally functional. Plus, some of the street ‘repair’ projects are so poorly thought out they are accidents waiting to happen (residents of the Village District will know what I’m referring to).

The bottom line is that Baldwin and her enablers have gone into the development process willy-nilly, with no plan other than to make the developers happy. The mess they have created will take years to correct, and in fact, may be with us into the next century. She has been a disaster.

Read our second story in the series here.

We also wrote about Flagstock, the promised “rager” thrown for UNC-Chapel Hill fraternity brothers who protected a US flag during the pro-Palestine demonstrations on campus. Our verdict? Not very fun, but readers had thoughts.

From reader Mike Collins via email:

The fraternity guys understood from the get-go that Flagstock and the money raised was not about their efforts.

It was about using their wonderfully patriotic gesture as a political tool. That’s why the guys from Pi Kappa Phi didn’t attend the RNC nor Flagstock.

And from reader Diane Volkers, via email:

Why not use the money as a donation to TABLE that supplies food to hungry families. 

As a woman that grew up in the 60’s your [Flagstock] was a far cry from Woodstock.

What a waste.

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