The Downtown Raleigh Alliance has weighed in with Gov. Bev Perdue and other state officials on the idea of transforming the Dorothea Dix property into an urban park.
The group alliance hand-delivered copies of a resolution supporting the idea to Perdue's office, Cabinet members and elected officials on the Council of State.
David Diaz, president and CEO of the alliance, said a central park "would attract businesses, increase tourism, enhance recreational opportunities for downtown residents and students, and become a treasured landmark for North Carolina."
The alliance board approved the resolution after a presentation by Greg Poole Jr., chairman of the Dix Visionaries, a group of business and community leaders working to raise money for the park plan.
State officials recently announced plans to close most of Dorothea Dix Hospital by the end of the year and move most psychiatric patients to a state hospital in Butner. A spokesman for Perdue said last week that she has no immediate plans to take a position on the park issue.
The park supporters have set up a website, www.dix www.dixlegacypark.com , to advocate for the park.
'Down-home' Burr ad
Sen. Richard Burr's first TV ad of the fall campaign is a positive commercial that champions the Winston-Salem Republican as a down-home fiscal conservative.
The commercial, which began airing Monday, shows Burr campaigning across the state.
"He's down home North Carolina," says the announcer. "Home nearly every weekend, listening, working for us. Been named a hero for taxpayers. You see, Richard Burr is willing to cut spending, while others spend more. Believes growing the economy and creating jobs starts with limiting government. Supporting hard working people, he's tight with our tax dollars. Heck, that's just common sense."
The ad concludes with Burr saying: "That's the North Carolina way."
The campaign of Burr's Democratic opponent, Elaine Marshall, immediately took aim at the ad with a creative news release made to look like a child's bedtime story, titled, "Senator Richard Burr's 'Main Street': A Grim Fairy Tale."
"Once upon a time, there lived a senator named Richard Burr who spent 16 years in Washington," the news release said. "Like many people who spend too much time in Washington, he lost his way."
Marshall's campaign went on to dispute the notion of Burr being a down-home North Carolinian, saying that he is a large recipient of special interest money in Washington and that he voted to bail out Wall Street banks and to send North Carolina jobs overseas.
Unaffiliated prefer Burr
Burr holds a 39 percent to 32 percent lead over Marshall among unaffiliated voters, a key swing group, according to a survey.
The poll, released by the conservative Civitas Institute, also found that 7 percent of independent voters would vote for Libertarian candidate Michael Beitler and 21 percent were undecided.
Among the unaffiliated voters, Burr had a favorable rating of 37 percent and unfavorable rating of 31 percent, with 31 percent either having no opinion or having never heard of him.
For Marshall, the secretary of state, 23 percent of the unaffiliated voters had a favorable opinion, 17 percent had an unfavorable opinion, with 60 percent having no opinion or never having heard of her.
The poll of 400 unaffiliated voters was conducted Aug. 16 through Aug. 18 by National Research Inc. of Holmdel, N.J., and had a margin of error of plus or minus 4.9 percentage points.
By staff writers Jane Stancill and Rob Christensen
