Letters: Raleigh City Council should stop dithering on many issues
Decide already
The decisions and opportunities that are coming before City Council right now aren’t unique to Raleigh at all. Dockless scooters, accessory dwelling units, interactive kiosks, rooftop bars and sidewalk dining, you name it, are being addressed by cities around the country. Unlike Raleigh, they are adopting rules and creating processes, in a reasonable amount of time, to accommodate emerging ideas and innovations. Raleigh’s leaders should be looking to other cities to make sound decisions based on data and actual experiences, instead of digging their heels to resist change.
Take dockless scooters, for example. They are being operated in cities far and wide. Why not look to other cities and experts for guidance, put a reasonable process in place, keep track of the impacts, and reassess over time? Not every new technology or idea has to be painfully deliberated for months on end and result in a burdensome process, like we’ve seen proposed for accessory dwelling units.
I recently moved to Denver for a bit, but after being invested in Raleigh for eight years, I can’t help but keep an eye on Raleigh City Council. I hope that Raleigh lives up to being the progressive, innovative city it can be and I don’t come back in a couple of years to the same drawn out discussions about some of the very things that were on the table when I left.
Molly McKinley
Denver. Col.
Natural gas
In the aftermath of Hurricane Florence, the N&O published an op-ed by Jim Warren of NC Warn. The editorial was soon followed by a letter to the editor by an officer of Duke Energy, who pointed with pride to the company’s clean energy record, “our expanded use of natural gas.” Natural gas is not the solution to climate change as was widely believed in the early days of the energy boom. Methane, of which natural gas is largely composed, is a powerful greenhouse gas, burning hotter than carbon dioxide.
During the storm I was impressed by the courage and resilience of first responders, including line repairmen, and ordinary citizens. If nothing is done to reduce our dependence on fossil fuels, we will continue to need courage and resilience in the future. I hope Duke Energy will begin the transition to renewables, starting now. It’s no longer a matter of “after us, the deluge.” Change is happening now, and it’s happening fast.
Lynn Mitchell Kohn
Durham
Flooded farms
In response to Heidi Cope’s Sept. 29 letter, I believe that what she described as lack of empathy for the farm animals that drowned after Hurricane Florence is partly a feeling of powerlessness because many don’t know how to respond.
Practically, how can we prevent farm animals from dying during such a disaster next time? It makes sense that animals with access to the outdoors would fare better during many disasters. A discussion of the dangers of confinement systems is needed. Animal welfare agencies, in addition to the USDA, should weigh in on this matter.
I would like to see our state’s factory farms turned into more humane large farms.
Raising animals for food under conditions that allow them to mingle and experience grass and sunlight is the most important way that we can benefit all farm animals. Moving towards more humane farms that value the lives and needs of farm animals may also make our farms less prone to complete loss during our next hurricane.
Eva Schmoock
Carrboro
Appointing judges
If we allow the North Carolina legislature to appoint judges, it will change the role of judges. They’re function will shift from finding and knowing the truth to political gamesmanship that sometimes hides the truth. We can’t afford to lose the capacity for truth in our judicial system. We have lost it in the executive branch, we’ve lost it in the legislative branch and we will lose it in the judicial branch if the state legislature chooses judges. Having no barometer to judge “truth” through our judicial system is a dangerous place for our state to be in regardless of the party in power.
Phyllis Moore
Raleigh