RALEIGH -- Concentrated in Southeast Raleigh, District C mixes some of the city's oldest streets with some of its newest, some of its most glaring problems with some of its newest fixes.
The district's traditional center lies just to the south and east of downtown, where candidates often wonder when the millions of dollars poured into Raleigh's center will spread out into their streets.
Some of the older housing stock is crumbling, and many of the poorer, working-class residents wait an hour for crowded buses, standing at stops with no shelters or benches in the rain or intense heat.
But Southeast Raleigh has spread far down Rock Quarry Road, and many new homes have been shoehorned into the district through redevelopment zones, and the mix of needs between old and new residents sometimes turns controversial. The word gentrification comes up often in District C.
This will be the first election in District C since longtime Councilman James West left to fill a vacant spot on the Wake County Board of Commissioners last year. Councilman Eugene Weeks, the incumbent who was appointed to replace West, is seeking re-election in a field of four challengers.
While support for both housing and transit bonds is widespread among the District C candidates, who want quality busing and sidewalks for their neighborhoods, they differ on the future of the Dorothea Dix property and the strategy for building a new home for Raleigh's public safety agencies.
