Vote for local lawmakers who will prioritize affordable housing

Affordable housing

While worsened by COVID-19, our affordable housing crisis is nothing new. Before the pandemic, one in four Wake County households were burdened by the cost of housing. Local governments must create new partnerships and innovate new approaches to improve housing opportunity. Examples include setting aside public land for affordable development, adjusting zoning for greater density and housing types, reducing fees for affordable builders, and increasing local investment. Vote Nov. 2 for local lawmakers who will prioritize affordable housing for everyone in our community.

Bob Kucab, Raleigh

Bus drivers

Man am I disappointed in our school bus drivers. I understand they deserve more pay and more help, but really! Think about the children who depend on them daily. Some kids did not get to school. Special needs children didn’t have help they needed, and parents who could get kids to school were late to their jobs. The bus drivers should not use the children to promote their needs.

Debbie Harmon, Raleigh

Two extremes

It’s time for Democrats and Republicans to move back to the center. The stubbornness and naivete of the far left Democrats just harpooned a chance to pass historic legislation. The far right insurrectionists added another nail to the Republican coffin with their Jan. 6 attempt to overthrow our democratic constitutional republic. Neither extreme is capable of governing our country and addressing the broad range of needs and challenges that are sure to surface.

George Brooks, Durham

Caution on COVID

In his Oct. 27 comments on COVID-19 trends in North Carolina, Gov. Roy Cooper paints a rosy picture, declaring “good news” as cases decline.

However, I would urge him to refrain from recommending a relaxation of COVID protections such as masking and social distancing. A glimmer of hope and a downward turn in cases do not signal that the pandemic is coming to an end.

His statement that “People are eating at restaurants and going to concerts and ballgames again. People are traveling again. And most people are back at work...” acknowledges such still-risky behaviors. Better to err on the side of caution, particularly in light of the upcoming holidays.

Nancy Swisher, Raleigh

Pardons too slow

For weeks Rev. T. Anthony Spearman of the N.C. NAACP has maintained a 24/7 vigil across from the Executive Mansion, demanding long overdue pardons for Dontae Sharpe and others who served time before being exonerated by the courts. These men cannot have felony convictions cleared from their records or receive monetary compensation owed by the state until the governor grants pardons. These men are innocent and have been waiting years for these pardons. We should be able to provide justice for innocent men.

John Chase, Durham

NC and Medicaid

I’ve been in favor of Medicaid expansion as a Christian justice issue for a long time, but it’s always been theoretical. However, it now has a face, that of the brother of a friend of mine. This man receives income from Social Security of about $24,000 a year. He has health problems that landed him in the hospital and then in rehab which Medicare pays for. Now he is to be discharged from rehab and is not capable of living on his own. His income won’t pay for assisted living and he makes more than the maximum for a single adult for Medicaid. He is faced with becoming homeless.

It’s time for North Carolina to expand Medicaid, so that our fellow citizens, such as this man, won’t be faced with this dilemma.

Jim Smith, Raleigh

Local monuments

Silent Sam is gone from the UNC-Chapel Hill campus, presumably to be preserved in a museum. I propose a replacement in about the same place. It would be a statue of Gens. William Tecumseh Sherman and Joseph E. Johnston seated at a little table signing the surrender document that ended the Civil War. This is only a few miles from Bennett Place in Durham where they signed the document. Such a reconciliation monument should be acceptable to everyone. It could be surrounded with a low sitting wall for students and others.

David F. Freeman, Chapel Hill