Great letter in the Cary News Opinion section today from one of the P&Z board members. The last vote I cast in Cary was for Glen Lang, coincidentally the last worthy candidate that ran for office. If I have Cary administrators researching my voting record, then I guess the Money Magazine letter campaign has even more impact than I first thought. My credibility was attacked, but the credible impact of being de-listed from Money Magazine's Top Ten was endorsed. Keep the letters coming. They also have a blog for people to share thoughts on Cary. People looking to move here do check the blog, and it is a good place to tell them what to expect. Some positive comments there, some negative. Here's an excellent comment posted by someone from Cary which summarizes the school system's issues quite nicely:
Please do your research on the Wake County Public school system before you decide to move to Cary. There are huge problems with the system. You don't know from year to year what school your children will be going to. Some children are moved every year. They bus your children anywhere they see fit to make sure that every school is "balanced" economically. They do not guarantee that your child will attend the nearest school to your home. As a matter of fact they have reassigned my middle schooler to a school 9 miles away when we have one that is less than a mile from our home. They are also forcing 19 elementary schools onto a multi-track mandatory year round calendar. For those of you unfamiliar with this concept, it means that the school is split up into 4 tracks, 3 of which are in school at a time. The kids go to school for 9 weeks and are off for 3 weeks. 3 of the tracks start school in early July. 1 starts in late July. If you have more than one child this system is very family un-friendly as your younger children will not be on the same school calendar as your older children. If your child is in a YR middle school and they play sports or are in the band, they will have to go to practice when they are out of school, so there is no time to fit in a family vacation. They are also mandating that YR schools attend on Memorial Day. This is a system run amuck. Please do your homework before you move here. We are moving out of Cary as soon as we can (if we can sell our house--mandatory year round has lowered our property values.)
Update: While I still believe it is wrong to publicize an individual's voting record, I couldn't resist hitting the same website used to lampoon me and see what other prominent citizens are up to. I won't use names, but it is nice to know I'm not the only one fighting for a cause despite a poor voting record. Some of our Friends of Wake County have opted not to vote on school bond issues (except the last time when we all got a rude awakening).
The more honest postings like this the better !
A little anarchy goes a long way
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worse. To the hopeful it is
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because the challenge exists
to make things
better." - King Whitney Jr.
As quoted by Marla Dorrel in
the ceremonial opening of
the 10/11/07 CTC meeting
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About Me
- Joe Ciulla
- 15 years in Cary, much has changed
3 comments:
Joe's voting records:
local
State
as anyone can see while registered to vote you have not voted in any Town of Cary or school board election. You did vote in 1999 in a School Bond issue, but that ballot did not include any candidates for office.
Joe the activism in our town politics is appreciated and much needed. I don't care if you and I see issues in the same light, I care that people get involved. The more people that get involved the better chance the electorate has of being in control of the direction that we take. There are more voters in town than developers. I for one would love to see two very strong candidates run for every seat in the CTC and the Wake Board of Education. When candidates have to take the electorate seriously because they vote on a consistent basis then every voter wins. Elected office should be earned, not expected by a candidate.
What I have a problem with is the path you have chosen. Instead of helping people like me, the electorate by either voting or participating in the direction of our town, you have chosen to malign and destroy the work of your fellow citizens. Ultimately its me an you that suffer when Cary's Image is degraded nationally.
Once again I renew my call for you to encourage your neighbors and your friends to come out to every municipal election, not just the one's that personally affect you.
I am the first to admit I should have been more involved in local politics. When the welfare of my family was threatened, I chose to take action. People may not like the actions I take, but I'm not going to stop doing the right thing now just because I didn't in the past. Unfortunately I have no faith in our CTC's ability to curb growth, and I don't know yet who will oppose them and how much they can be counted on to restore order. I likewise hope we have strong candidates -- they will receive all the support I can give.
The welfare of my family was directly impacted, before we had a chance to do anything to stop it. We had 26 habitat for humanity houses built right next to our neighborhood. No one in our neighborhood was notified except the two closest houses, which happened to be rental homes. Think they cared about a development beside them?
I think Habitat is a neat concept, but when you stick 26 houses in an area without providing some sort of outlet for the kids in those homes to be entertained or to have something to do the results for my neighborhood have been tragic.
Couple that with a developer that originally approached us with a plan to add an additional 200 apartment units and another development to add a bank and a drive thru restaurant my neighborhood was getting hammered from every side. It has been a real struggle, and it has only been because of the greatness of the Cary Police that we have to some extent taken back the neighborhood.
When all this was going down, I got involved. I started participating in Cary Politics. I truly understand how you feel, I just hope you can understand that while you may be pissed off at the entire council, p&z and board of education, the Money Magazine stuff is really a reward to you and me. You and I make the town what it is as much as the 7 people on the council. Make that 6 :-)
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