A month ago, the Southern Coalition for Social Justice called for the City of Raleigh to redo their redistricting with a more equitable map by March 31, 2022.
The city has done nothing to address this issue, nor have they admitted that they made an error for claiming that they did not need to follow the Voters Rights Act, Section 2, when there was no factual or legal basis for them to say so.
The city may be trying to sweep this under the rug, but they cannot.
Because it is recorded.
Please know that there are families and communities that the City of Raleigh has harmed in their gerrymandering of the city’s districts.
Angeline Echeverria, Brentwood resident and NC Counts Coalition, “Please don’t sever the Latino and immigrant communities with the city’s redistricting plan.”
The city did not listen to the people, but we hear each other.
This city council has openly undermined and harmed the voting powers of the Black, Indigenous, Latino, and Immigrant communities, and for that reason, they must be voted out on November 2022.
On April 5, 2022, the City of Raleigh will be have a public hearing on the Wake BRT: Western Boulevard Corridor Study & CP-10-21 Amendments. Not only will this bus rapid transit plan endanger the well-being of many Black communities – Heritage Park, Kentwood, and Method Community (The oldest Black community in Raleigh), it will also impact the livelihoods of many Muslim and immigrant families and businesses in the community.
And yet, the City of Raleigh chooses to have this hearing on the fifth day of Ramadan, which prevents Muslims from actually participating in a hearing that will directly impact their lives.
During that press conference, they demanded that the City of Raleigh show respect to the community as they would any other religious community by postponing the hearing date for the Western Blvd Bus Rapid Transit until Ramadan is over. And then provide the residents and business owners ample time to review the proposal and prepare for another hearing.
After all, the Black, Muslim and immigrant communities living near Western Blvd have have every right to be concerned and fearful City of Raleigh’s current Jim Crow tactics and policies. Fourth Ward was once a thriving Black community, and was “the only ward in Raleigh that consistently elected Black aldermen – no other ward had as much Black political influence”. However, the expansion of Western Blvd at the time marked the beginning of the end of the Black community in Fourth Ward.
For these reasons above, we thank our community leaders for speaking truth to power, and we demand that the City of Raleigh move back the hearing date for the Western Blvd Bus Rapid Transit, and provide the local community residents ample time to review and the city should be designing the community based on what the community wants for their families and neighborhoods.