A glimpse of the Future

A well-informed person was kind enough to spend some time with me to discuss Cary's growth issues. A few (of the many) things I did not know.... Cary is down to about 8,000 buildable acres left, that is, unless we continue to annex our way to the Atlantic ocean. Look for more developers' proposals to build up with high-density projects as the land gets scarce. I used to live in Manassas, VA, which went through the same unchecked growth experience as Cary. I just perused the local Manassas paper, here are a few bits from today's edition:

Budget calls for higher utility rates
Police blotter for March 27
M. Park balances its budget
Local officials: Veto road plan
Potomac Parkway is now regrettably needed

Take a few minutes and read these articles and letters... The stories will sound all too familiar, and give an all too scary picture of what uncontrolled development can do to ruin a nice town.

Paying the Piper

Impact fees and property transfer taxes are being considered to increase funding for schools. I'm all for impact fees, although I'd bet whatever taxes are collected will be used by our county officials to pour the same amount into other pet projects. Transfer taxes are a bit more troublesome.

The N&O ran a story today describing the ad campaign which is being launched by local reators to fight this tax. I got the easy answer... implement the 1% tax and have the realtors lower their commissions from 6% to 5%.

Real estate sales is one of the last market sectors in which a true monopoly exists. Simply, if you are not listing your house in the network of realtors, you have a slim chance of selling. There are a few discount brokers out there, I tried one once. I watched realtors drive their clients right by my house to show them other similar homes on the same street.

Don't get me wrong, real estate agents do work hard. But, when they sell a house for $400K, the seller pays $24,000 in commissions. Those are split between buying and listing agencies, but 3 or 4 transactions and you've made what a Wake County teacher does.

Here's a chance to give a little back, show us the money.

Money Magazine

Here's an interesting entry from the Money Magazine Best Places to Live blog:

We moved here in 2005, in part due to Money magazines favorable reviews. We have found the people to be fantastic, the jobs to be plentiful, and the safety to be top-notch. However, the current city council is letting growth get out of control. If you have school-aged children I would steer clear of Wake County schools for at least a few years while they convert many Cary schools to Mandatory Year Round schedules - a proven failure in many other parts of the country. Wait to see if a new school board gets elected that will actually listen to their constituents and not tear families apart. Wait to see if we elect a Cary Mayor who will get involved in this major problem with our schools and not just say 'not my jurisdiction, nothing I can do.' Cary can be great - but it is currently spiraling out of control.

Posted By Betsy, Cary, NC : 9:31 AM

I pissed off a few people on this subject a while back, but every once in a while I go back to the blog to see what people are saying. Encouraging to see other people who share the same dissatisfaction with our mayor's leadership in resolving the schools crisis.

Off the Beaten Path

Today's N&O featured a story about a troubled young man who hanged himself in a youth detention facility. This yout had a police record of breaking and entering, and theft of a handgun. While in the detention center, he used a bedsheet to hang himself from one of the bars in the cell window.

The facility superintendent admitted that this might have been prevented if his personnel had performed their bedchecks, and since the incident they have had plexiglass installed over all the windows to prevent another incident.

According to the young man's mother, "There's nothing in the world that can replace him. No amount of money." So, she sued the state and obtained a $500,000 settlement.

The death of this young man is sad, despite his apparently predestined path to self-destruction. I doubt anyone will write a letter to the N&O questioning why any financial settlement was granted when 'no amount of money' could replace him.

Yet many parents have taken time to write the N&O criticizing WakeCARES for their lawsuit representing the INNOCENT children of wake county. The kids they are defending are on the right track and have no criminal records. None of them will die because of MYR, but how do you put a price on the stress inflicted on their families, on the additional costs of after-school care, or on the loss of equal access to extra-curricular activities?

The BoE/WCC/CTC are no less culpable than this facility superintendent, but the damage they are causing is much more widespread. If you want to criticize someone for suing the government, start in the right place.

WakeCARES (They Really Do)

Now that their lawsuit has been filed, Wake County residents have run to their computers to send letters condemning this group's actions and mischaractarizing them generally along the following lines:

1. The are a bunch of soccer moms with too much time on their hands that should just run to Starbuck's for another Latte instead.
2. They are selfish people who are upset that they won't be able to spend 2 months at the beach in the summer.
3. They can't think beyond their own self-serving needs, and are exposing the rest of Wake County's children to further educational turmoil.
4. This lawsuit will only consume taxpayer dollars which could be used for education.
   
5. They should just shut up and get along.

I'm not on the WakeCARES membership rolls, but do support them any way I can including financially. I know some of the people who run the group, so I'll comment here on how wrong the above arguments are...

1. [Soccer moms with too much time]. Wrong! These people put in 50-60 hours a week working on this cause, and have spent thousands of dollars of their own money. They probably wish they had too much time on their hands and could run up to Starbucks for a latte.
2. [Shortened beach week]. Wrong! The people who believe this is the basis of the lawsuit are just plain stupid, and have not thought out how deeply MYR can affect a family. It takes ten minutes to write a critical letter to the N&O. It takes a lot longer to fully understand the subject. Children and families suffer under MYR. Students in extra-curricular activities like band, sports and science club are either left out of key events, or must attend them while they are on break (Instead of going to all those great enrichment programs which are going to be available in January?). Special needs children who suffer with transition will have their problems multiplied by four. Families who cherish together time will find half as much to enjoy. One blogger on the N&O went as far as saying her kids were happier to be on different schedules so that her kids did not have to spend as much time together. That person should know that family counseling services are only a phone call away.
3. [These people are selfish]. Wrong. A number of WakeCARES members do not even have children who have been sentenced to MYR. They are not fighting against the rest of Wake County parents, they are fighting FOR them. We live in the most affluent county in the state. If our town/city/council government did their jobs, there is no reason we cannot afford a traditional school solution for all students. Instead, our government's collective inattention and ineptitude has led us to MYR. Do you really think that MYR is done after this year. Until the system is fixed, look for more MYR redistricting every year. Not all, but a lot of the WakeCARES critics are in the camp of lucky ones not affected by MYR, and just want this to go away. To those people, I'd suggest they not delude themselves -- MYR will find you. Other critics are people who are voluntarily in YR schools because it works well for them, or people who have learned to live on a MYR schedule. We can do better than 'learning to live' with MYR.
4. [Legal costs]. Wrong. If a judge finds no basis in the lawsuit, then it will quickly be dismissed at little legal expense. When the BoE submits a budget with $11M worth of overstated project management cost and rounding errors, I'm less worried about their legal fees than their fiscal competence.
5. [Shut up and row]. Wrong. Taking no action would condone the BoE's actions. Aside from the fact that the BoE has been in love with YR calendars for 15 years, they now are caught up in the Wake County Money Grinder. We all (I hope) understand how this works...
1. Developers buy large tracts of land.
2. Developers contribute to grow-friendly candidates' campaigns.
3. Thousands of homes get built, without enough schools to go with them.
4. Towns issue the building permits, and the mayors say schools are a county problem.
5. County commisioners don't want to raise tax rates.
6. BoE's need for money is not taken seriously, their credibility is low given the amount of waste and fraud.
   
7. Developers pump money into funds to promote issue of $1B bond for schools.
8. Tax rates go up anyway and we still don't have enough schools
9. Repeat as necessary.

By attacking WakeCARES you are giving your approval of the way our county's development chain is run. Think about it.

Where's Ernie ????????

Yesterday, WakeCARES filed their lawsuit against WCPSS's unequal provision of educational opportunities for our children. At their press conference, the towns of Apex, Garner and Holly Springs were in attendance to offer support and represent their constituents. I'm sure Ernie had all the best intentions of being there to represent us, but was unavoidably detained by another pressing engagement. I'm wondering what our Mayor could have felt was more important than advocating for Cary citizens, here are a few thoughts on where he might have spent his time:

1. Having brunch with some developers.
2. Getting a pedicure (A mayor needs good feet to stand on the soap-box and tell us how wonderful everything is).
3. Golfing with some developers.
4. At the bank, depositing developers' contributions to his '07 campaign.
5. Having his picture taken again with Martha Stewart as she breaks ground on the next phase of her development .... Priced from the low $400's with good behavior.
6. Packing sunblock and glasses for his beach trip.
7. Working on his '07 acceptance speech.
8. Working on his '07 concession speech (OK, I'm dreaming here).
9. Shopping for obscure public art in Ulaan Bator.
10. [And most likely] Hiding in City Hall and hoping the WakeCARES lawsuit bails him out of the MYR fiasco and redirects all the blame to the BoE instead of his own administration who handed out the building permits and overloaded the schools.

Let the Fur Fly

Don't know what Harold Weinbrecht did to piss off Tom Joyner (I'm sure there's some history there), but he took a beauty of a missile in this week's Cary News. Never met Mr. Weinbrecht, but I happen to think he's right in just about everything he said, so I felt compelled to fire back with a letter of my own. Don't know whether it will show up in print, but here it is:

One of the letters in your March 7 issue accused Harold Weinbrecht of trying to create a 'poisonous atmosphere' in Cary with his negative comments concerning our City's leadership. I have never met Mr. Weinbrecht, but would agree with the majority of what he stated in his City of Cary Address rebuttal. It is a bit curious why Mr. Weinbrecht's column drew venom when so many preceding reader comments of a similar nature did not.

A 'poisonous atmosphere' is one which encourages citizen outrcy when their best interests are not well represented, where leaders openly challenge eachother, and where public scrutiny prevails. Kind of reminiscent of the way government was run when our great country was born.

Instead, the 'Good ole boy network' is alive and well in Cary. Developers finance our City council and mayors' campaigns (fact, not opinion), our leaders stand with the developers to support $1B bonds, and we as citizens ultimately pay the price in taxes, traffic and in our education system. This week a number of Cary families received letters assigning their mandatory year-round track assignment -- a bitter pill to swallow for the sake of increasing the tax base.

The Mayor's address painted a rosy picture of how wonderful everything is in Cary and how responsive the City Council has been to the needs of the citizens. I think a little bit of poison might go a long way toward opening people's eyes to how decisions that affect us are being made and who the real beneficiaries are.

CTC Retreat

Since WRAL has picked up on the story regarding Cary Town Council's retreat to Wilmington, a number of people have expressed their dissatisfaction over how the town's tax money is being spent, and how inaccessible these sessions are to the general public. Fortunately, Cary real estate developers should have no problem getting there and mingling with our representatives, so at least they won't be alone.

Still, I think with a little planning, this session could prove quite productive in generating the kind of thoughtfulness we need from our town council. The key is to strucuture this retreat in a way which lets them experience the same kinds of issues Cary citizens face, and for the council to use the benefits of this newfound experience to provide citizen-focused leadership when they return. Here are my suggestions on getting the most out of this retreat:

1. To heck with meeting downstairs from the hotel rooms. Have the CTC stay in a hotel well-outside of Wilmington and schedule their meetings downtown beginning 8:30am. CTC members generally don't get to experience rush hour traffic, so give them a chance to spend 30 or 40 minutes enjoying the company of courteous fellow commuters.
2. After the first session, redistrict the meetings to a different downtown building, which is even further away from their hotel. This would better balance Wilmington's economic benefits and political / apolitical demographics. Explain to them that this is for the betterment of all.
3. As the CTC prepares to break for the day, inform them that based on budgetary restrictions, they are going to have to work Mandatory Day Round schedules, and that they will have to work through the night in yet a different building. This is an excellent cost-saving measure, and studies have shown that their efficiency will actually increase. Other CTC's have tried MDR at their retreats and found it didn't work, but I'm sure ours will be different. They can enjoy having breaks at 2am, 6am, noon and 7pm. I'm sure there are all kinds of enrichment activities available at those times.
   
4. When dinner is served, reduce the culinary offerings to chips & dip and maybe a few pork rinds -- but place a beautiful ice sculpture in the middle of the table. Artwork is important, and should precede the basic necessities.
5. When CTC members check out of their hotel, include a hefty 'water/sewer usage' fee on their bills, since somebody's got to pay for all the infrastructure to support hosting retreats like this.

Upon their return to Cary, let the CTC members come back to neighborhoods they no longer recognize. Put up some quick modular 'high-density' condominums or office buildings next to their houses, add a drug store on the corner, and leave them wondering what happened to the charming place they were used to.