588 Teardowns--Really?

Studying the newly posted homes built on teardown sites document at the City of Raleigh planning department site, it becomes clear quickly that this number does not contain any teardowns since June 5, 2007, although it is titled through October 2007. That makes the up-to-date numbers for 2007 fairly incomplete, as there has been considerable activity the second half of this year.

The second omission is that this document does not seem to list "commercial" teardowns that became homes--apartments for example. The number of units lost at Whitaker Park is quite large, but does not show up. Neither do the duplexes and other rentals lost on Bernard Street. I hope someone in Sunset Hills can take a look and let us know if the duplexes over there are accounted for.

This is the sort of problem "neighborhood activists" have been talking about. It is hard to get an actual handle on the situation with misinformation flying around. These numbers were given at a City Council meeting and a Comprehensive Planning Committee meeting as if they were factual and inclusive. These numbers are off. An honest mistake perhaps in that this study was titled wrong. But it is misleading and was used in public meetings to diminish the problem. Your local activists are actually neighbors paying attention, in spite of the negative attention.

Thank goodness.