April 10, 2020

This is a special week for many of us as we celebrate Passover and Easter, even if it’s not the way any of us imagined spending it. Even though we are physically apart, I hope you are able to enjoy the holidays with those you do have at home and keep in touch with your friends and family remotely.

This week, the city council held its first ever virtual meeting as we continue to monitor and respond to the COVID-19 pandemic. I’ll get to new actions we took in a minute, but first, I have a special request:  I and all members of the city council are making donations to three non-profits that are on the frontlines of the fight against COVID-19 in Raleigh – Oak City Cares, Inter-Faith Food Shuttle, and the NC Restaurant Workers Relief Fund. We’ve already raised $6,500, and an anonymous donor has just pledged to give $50,000 if we can raise another $10,000.  If you’re able, please consider donating here.

In our virtual meeting, we received updates on the state of COVID-19 and discussed how we can further act to slow the spread in Raleigh. One of the first actions we took at the beginning of this crisis was to reinstate all water and sewer services that were disconnected due to non-payment. This week, we voted to expand the consumption tiers of our residential water rates, preventing those that are staying at home from being pushed into our highest rate for increased water usage. The city is continuing to work closely with local non-profits and our county to provide shelter with appropriate social distancing measures for our city’s homeless and housing insecure, as well as providing staging areas for food distribution across Raleigh. We voted to allocate $100,000 in emergency assistance to individuals and families with children living in hotels, understanding that these members of our community are some of the hardest impacted by COVID-19. 

Over the past week, Raleigh has taken further steps to modify public transportation and city services so that we can continue to serve the public in this crisis while keeping everyone protected. We have limited bus routes except to those that serve hospitals and other essential facilities, instituted social distancing seating policies, and provided sanitization pumps for all bus operators and the public. We are continuing to work to protect all city workers by limiting exposure to each other and the public, including providing PPE to all front-line workers and temporarily limiting some solid waste services.

Protecting Raleigh’s 33,400 small businesses and their workers remains a top priority and we are continuing to research ways to support our business community. I provided some resources for small businesses and employees here. You can find even more resources on the Office of Economic Development and Innovation’s website here.

I also announced this week that due to the stress COVID-19 has placed on city resources, we will not be moving forward with a parks bond this year. Parks and greenways have become our refuge over the past few weeks, but we now have an economic crisis looming. We will continue to pursue placing a housing bond on the ballot this year. 

Finally – some good news that I’m excited to share. Software communications company Bandwidth has chosen to expand Raleigh, bringing 1,165 new jobs to our city. The company is also investing $100 million in a new campus on the Blue Ridge Corridor. It’s a great reminder in these difficult times that Raleigh’s best days are still ahead.

As we head into the holiday weekend, please stay safe, be kind, and enjoy time with friends and family over the phone or through video conference. We are Raleigh, and we will get through this together.