Incoming !!

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 !

The Teflon Mayor

NBC17 ran a short piece this morning in which Mayors McAlister and Weatherly fielded questions about their towns. This short interview did a wonderful job demonstrating the differences between the two mayors. Mayor Weatherly came across as sincere, and provided direct answers to questions. Mayor McAlister came across as the consummate polished politician, evasive at best. Frankly, I think he embarrassed the town of Cary.
In the first exchange, each mayor was given 45 seconds to talk about the state of their town. Mr. McAlister stated that economic growth, roads and fiscal responsibility were the 2006 priorities for Cary, and went on to pat himself on the back for great progress in those areas. Mayor Weatherly talked about economic growth, but also about Apex's objective of managing residential growth which was under 3% in 2006.
In the next exchange, the mayors were asked if the school board was adequately representing their constituents. Mayor Weatherly went first, and gave a very direct answer: "No, they are not doing a good job." He had the facts to back this up. When Ernie got his turn, he started singing the 'we need to work with the school board' song again, and talked about the complexity of their task. No direct answer.
In the last exchange, the mayors were asked a simple question: Do you think your town would be better off with their own school system? Again, Mayor Weatherly gave a direct answer: "yes." Mayor McAlister gave a drawn out answer about MYR taking a back seat to the "long term" view of schools, and as evasive as he was I believe his answer was no. He did explain that the Town of Cary was giving 55 acres to WCPSS to site schools in our area, left out the fact that the Cary Park deeded this land to us for exactly this purpose.
Again, I think our mayor embarrased us today. I'd like him to explain the "long term" view to my kids who will be on different tracks this fall. For months, he's been talking about 'working with the school board' yet I have seen zero evidence that the Cary Town Council has had a single conversation with the school board or administration. If NBC17 has a transcript of the program I'll post it here.
As an aside, it seems the town council will be continuing to fly the "missing man formation." Here's a subject I have got to understand better

BoE

Was able to spend a little time today watching the BoE work session, we should all be very afraid. The process of redistricting nodes and sub-nodes prioritizes achievement of economic mix over all other considerations. In fairness, when that was not in question, the BoE did make some attempts to consider proximity to schools in their assignments. But most of the discussion was about data: what percent F&R students, what percent of capacity, etc. I never dreamed my kids would end up as decimal points in somebody's chart, but that is today's reality in WCPS.
On the upside, for a change one of the BoE members said something I can fully agree with. In a sidebar, a comment was made about our towns' governments being unwilling to control growth, then stabbing the BoE in the [back]. Right on!
WakeCARES was faithfully represented again, keep up the good work.

We're Just Getting Warmed Up

Every day I gain more respect for Patti Head's political savvy. The "Divide and conquer" strategy is winning the day. Traffic on the N&O WakeEd and WakePol blogs is high, and the acrimony between the participants is just depressing. The BoE platform is simple: Create fear and uncertainty, deliver veiled threats of increased MYR, and eventually convince everyone that theirs is the only possible solution.
Stay tuned for 2008. The board has already stated that another bond will be required. The $1B we just approved does nothing to increase high school capacity, and unless we're expecting a bunch of kids to drop out after middle school, we will not have enough seats. Get ready for split-scheduling or MYR to be introduced as Plan A (with no Plan B) to solve the high school capacity crisis.
We need our commissioners to remain steadfast in keeping a leash on the BoE, to help us through this MYR debacle, and to start asking questions now about 2008. Failure to do so will play right into Patti's hands.

Top Ten Money Magazine

A rebuttal letter in the Cary News today, I feel compelled to respond (even if it is to myself). Text of the letter is below.
The writer's kids are both in high school, so I assume MYR is not a problem for them. I have lived in 6 states and 10 cities before settling in Cary 15 years ago. All the cities had 100K+ population, so I think I'm emminently qualified to compare. In all those states and all those cities, I never saw local governments who were so unresponsive to the citizens, and none of these areas turned to MYR to solve their problems. Prince William County in northern VA (one of the spots along the trail) has and continues to experience explosive growth. They do it without fracturing families with MYR, and the county government (at least when I lived there) was, by comparison, devoid of the political maneuvering we see here.
As far as leaving Cary, I'd love to, but with my older son entering high school in the fall I think dealing with the prospect of MYR is better than dealing with the prospect of him starting as a freshman in a new town. The greenways are great, but they don't help with my kids education, and I can't drive on them to avoid traffic. To those of you who have sent letters, my thanks.

For anyone who want to give Money Magazine their opinion either for or against our ranking, you can log directly onto their Top Ten blog here. I already sent in my posting, and you'll see others share my opinions:

• I have lived in Cary 15 years. In 1992 we probably deserved the #1 Ranking, now I don't think we deserve a ranking in the top ten. The number one issue with Cary that people must consider is schools. The schools are managed by Wake County, and Town of Cary officials do not work with them to balance growth and school capacity. Next year, 18,000 Wake County students are being forced to Mandatory Year Round calendars. In many families' cases, this means having children on multiple schedules, with as little as 4 weeks break in common across the whole year. Log into the Raleigh News & Observer WakeEd or WakePol blogs and see for yourself the mess we're in.
  

Cary deserves Top 10 honor
I am shocked that there are Cary residents who think our beautiful town is not worthy of Money Magazine’s ranking as one of the top five small cities to live in in the United States! Obviously those people have never lived in another city with a population over 100,000. Cary deserves every bit of the honor, as I’ve lived in many cities around the United States and Cary by far has the lowest crime rate and the most beautiful and accessible parks and greenways, with some of the best schools in the United States, and I have first-hand experience with the schools with two teenagers. Sure there are politics and some weak decisions that have been made, but you will find that in any city with a large population. Cary is an exceptional city and well deserving of Money Magazine’s recognition.

I hope the people who are so unhappy with our town who have gone as far as pleading to Money Magazine to remove us from the Top 10 list will move to another city and experience the growth problems, politics, crime, school policies and traffic there instead. Maybe if they took advantage of some of Cary’s beautiful greenways, parks, people and culture they would see what a great and beautiful city we live in. Becky Finley

State of Cary Address

Our mayor has released his State of Cary address. To view the document, click here. Here's the document, with my commentary in red:

In the Town of Cary we enter 2007 with great optimism. Our sense of community is strong, just read the N&O blogs and you can see how united our parents are over MYR; our quality of life is vibrant; our economy is growing; and together we can celebrate the success of the town we call home.

What makes Cary a great community in which to live, work, and raise a family?

For our children, it's the opportunity to play in acres of parks and participate in a variety of recreational opportunities, and to attend schools in one of the nation's top-rated educational systems. If your children are here long enough, our county's regular redistricting will allow them to attend many such schools. They will also benefit from the opportunity to become more independent as our new MYR format will reduce the time they have to spend with their own families.

For singles and parents alike, it's the opportunity to build rewarding careers, enjoy safe neighborhoods, indulge in great shopping and restaurants, and live in a community with expanding cultural and entertainment options. Of course, actually driving to any of these options may take some time with our traffic being what it is.

For our seniors, it's the opportunity to choose from a variety of residential settings and a senior center and programs that engage seniors as active and valued members of our community.

For existing businesses and prospective companies, Cary offers an unbeatable combination of highly-educated and talented workers and professionals; stable and predictable long-range planning; reasonable costs; low taxes and strong leadership in the private and public sectors alike. Just ask the developers, they love it here. In Cary we have the resources and a quality of life that makes us competitive nationally and in the world economy.

Cary is truly an award-winning community, with top ten ratings from Money Magazine, Frommer's, Consumer Reports, the USTA, and the Morgan-Quitno annual survey of the safest towns in America, just to name a few.

All of these attributes have been earned over decades of hard work. Our continuing challenge is to be good stewards of what we have inherited and do our best to make it even better for future generations. Accordingly, in this year’s State of the Town address I will focus on several areas that you have told me are critically important for our future.

Transportation
As many of you know, the Town of Cary has been aggressively working to address our road and transportation needs. We are benefiting from the recent completion of several major projects including the widening of Highway 55, Davis Drive and significant improvements to US 1/64. We are continuing to move forward with a number of major projects including the widening of Chapel Hill Road, Kildaire Farm Road, High House Road, Southwest Maynard Road and the final Cary section of Tryon Road, as well as completing our traffic synchronization project. At some point hopefully we'll get caught up with the growth we have had over the past three years. We will sustain this commitment as evidenced by the current 2006-2007 budget, which doubled our capital spending on both road and park projects.

Facilities and Infrastructure
Cary's over-crowded roads lead to some of the Triangle's most outstanding facilities for recreation, competition and entertainment. As I mentioned earlier, the United States Tennis Association rated us as one of the top five municipal facilities in the nation. SAS Soccer Park has hosted both the men's and women's NCAA College Cup tournaments and will this year see the inaugural season of men's professional soccer in the Triangle as the Carolina Railhawks begin play. USA Baseball also makes its home in Cary and will be up and running during 2007. The Koka Booth Amphitheater just completed another stellar season and continues to attract world-class entertainers to Cary in addition to hosting cultural festivals and an array of other community events. Our outstanding facilities also include a new regional library, and as a member of the Western Wake Regional Partnership, we are building a state of the art wastewater treatment plant to meet the needs of Cary and our region for years to come, as well as years that have passed. Each of these facilities contributes in its own way to the success of our town.

Economic Development
A strong economy is the engine that keeps our community healthy and vibrant. After a great deal of work and careful consideration, we have developed a comprehensive economic development plan and strategy for Cary. We have hired our first Economic Development Director to implement our plan and coordinate our strategy with the business community with state and county initiatives and resources. This will assure the continued economic prosperity of our town, which is critical for our long-term success.

Fiscal Responsibility
As I said back in 2003, fiscal responsibility is the key to putting our local financial house on a solid and sustainable footing while ensuring we have the resources to maintain and enhance our community's quality of life. Our reduction of impact fees was a great first step. We have restored Cary's long-term fiscal health, maintained our AAA bond rating, and kept our property tax rate low, all while refocusing our resources on our highest priorities.

What are the challenges we must address to keep us successful in the future?

The most important is to maintain our commitment to long-term fiscal discipline. In 2009, we will have to address debt issues incurred earlier in this decade. We can meet this financial challenge by setting priorities, keeping current spending under control, and continuing to build our local economy and tax base. Our first step will be to build a new aquatics center costing $30M.

We also have exciting new opportunities to partner with the private sector. We anticipate strong participation from private resources as we plan for the cultural and performing arts centers downtown and the new regional aquatics facility. In particular, I am excited about our plans to enhance downtown Cary as a destination for community and cultural activities, entertainment, shopping and dining. The financial model we have put in place for these projects is based on our commitment to having significant participation from the private sector in projects that serve our citizens and make our community more attractive. Oops, left out the part where we partner with Wake County to advocate for the children of Cary, so that they may receive a quality education without having their families fractured by MYR.

Economic Development and high quality jobs will continue to be a major focus as we implement our plan and see the fruits of returning to a model of close cooperation and collaboration between your Council and the business community.

In the area of transportation, we are committed to doing all in our power to move forward with the 1-540 Western Wake Expressway and Southern Loop. This major regional project is crucial to addressing our long-term transit needs in Cary and in the Triangle. We can build houses even faster once this is open.

All growing communities have to keep a vigilant focus on public safety. This past year we were again honored as one of the safest places to live in America; nevertheless, we know the daily challenges facing our law enforcement officers and first responders require a sustained commitment. We have added officers and operational capability in recent years, and I am committed to ensuring our police force has the resources it needs to keep our streets and neighborhoods safe. I have nothing but respect for the Cary Police, they do a great job.

The state of our town is strong, vibrant, growing and successful. In 2007 our commitment is to stay focused on the fundamentals that will ensure our success is sustained for the long-term.

As I enter my fourth (and last?) year as Mayor of Cary, I can reflect on the progress we have made over the last three years, and, more importantly, look forward to the expanding opportunities we have in the future. Time and again, you, the citizens of Cary, have provided the leadership, the volunteers, the vision, resources, and commitment to improving our town. We are successful because we have great partnerships, a strong sense of community, and a spirit of cooperation and shared responsibilities. It continues to be my honor to serve as your mayor and to lead a town with the citizen participation and commitment we have in Cary.

T.Vaden Editorial

Ann and I were expecting Ted Vaden's editorial today. Regarding MYR, a significant subject which the N&O has failed to report on is the pain inflicted by MYR on families with kids in different tracks -- how does a married household manage daycare, activities and together time, how does a divorced family begin to deal with this. The only "in-depth" coverage was Lize Weidle's column which speaks for itself. Bottom line, the more people that move here, the more subscriptions the N&O sells. The glossing over of inbound student numbers was particularly disappointing. Mr. Hui from the N&O has done some good work covering education, so when consulted about the "right Number" of new fall students, I would have like to see a more specific answer. Here's a posting I just left on Mr. Hui's blog:

• Mr. Vaden's editorial in today's paper was disappointing. WCPSS has insisted that there are 8,000 new students coming in the Fall. WakeCARES, StopMYR and other groups have performed independent analysis which supports a much lower number (Thus less need for conversions). The editorial asserts that numbers are irrelevant to the policy debate, yet the BoE uses these numbers as the sole means of support for their MYR agenda. The piece goes on to say that the right number "probably is somewhere between the estimates of the school system and the opponents."
  
  Mr. Hui, you are in a unique position to bring clarity to the numbers question. You have direct access to the BoE and the anti-MYR groups. I implore you to investigate this further and come up with the right number. Any inflation of this 'right number' by the BoE translates to unnecessary MYR conversions for Wake County children, the price for ambiguity just much too high to leave this open to interpretation.