Raleigh’s mayor had ambitious projects planned. COVID-19 is changing some

Correction: An earlier version of this column gave an incorrect amount of city seed money for the Compassion Fund. It is $25,000, not $25 million.

Raleigh Mayor Mary-Ann Baldwin was elected last fall along with a mostly new slate of City Council members and quickly set about raising the city’s ambitions for what she called “a moonshot” — big bond issues to create affordable housing and enhance the city’s already appealing quality of life with an expansion of parks.

Now April arrives to find that moon eclipsed by a crisis. COVID-19 has shut down the economy and turned the state capital’s vibrant downtown into a ghost town. Bars, museums and offices are closed. Restaurants are shuttered or serving takeout only. Sales tax revenue is drying up and interlocal revenue from a special tax on Wake County hotels, restaurants, and bars — the fuel for civic projects — is as low as the city is quiet.

“We are preparing for a recession budget,” Baldwin told me when I checked in with her Monday. “We’ll be cutting back on maintenance and other projects. Supporting new programs is difficult.”

Some projects now in jeopardy are those that would be paid for by the interlocal tax revenue, usually about $60 million annually. Those projects include a planned renovation of the PNC Arena, an expansion of the Raleigh Convention Center, an addition to the Marbles Kids Museum, a proposed soccer stadium in south Raleigh and a recreational complex at Brier Creek.

One measure of how the city’s ambitions have changed can be seen in its effort to move the homeless out of hotels and motels and into permanent housing through a public-private Compassion Fund seeded with $25,000 in city funding. Now, with the economy diving and unemployment rising, the effort will be refocused to ensure that the homeless will be able to stay in hotels and motels.

Baldwin still wants a $75 million affordable housing bond on the November ballot, which she described as “more important than ever,” but she’s reevaluating the idea of a $100 million to $200 million bond issue for Dix Park improvements and investment in parks citywide.

“We’re going to have to rethink a parks bond,” she said. “It pains me to say that because parks have been the lifeblood of activity during this (COVID-19 crisis), but, with the economy tanking, I think people will be reluctant to support a parks bond.”

The mayor has moved from stoking ambitions to adjusting to a suddenly limited reality.

“Now our moonshot is getting through this and coming out stronger. We are all adjusting our expectations and aspirations.,” she said.

There are also practical adjustments brought on by the coronavirus. How does a city council meet when people are not supposed to be congregating? How does a democracy work without the freedom to assemble and address the government?

For now, the city is coping like every other organization, using technology to bridge social distancing. The plan for the next city council meeting on April 7 is to have each council member seated in their City Hall office and linked into an online meeting. Disputed rezoning proposals will be put off until at least May. The public will be able to comment on other issues by phoning in.

Baldwin ventured out to the N.C. Museum of Art’s grounds last Sunday and was inspired by the sight of many people walking the paths, though staying safely apart. Otherwise, the mayor, like her constituents, is laying low.

“I have to set a good example for everybody else,” she said. “If we are asking people to stay at home, I have to stay at home, too, not seeing family and friends. I have to tell you that for an extrovert this is really hard. On the other hand, I’m getting very good at Zoom and Microsoft Teams.”

Baldwin’s high ambitions have been brought low by a virus one-one thousandth the width of a hair. But leadership isn’t only about moving forward. It’s also about dealing with what comes at you, even if it’s too small to see. That’s where Baldwin is now. She has had to trade her telescope for a microscope, but keen vision will still matter.

This story was originally published March 31, 2020 at 2:47 PM.