EOT 368- Eye on the Triangle Election Special (Police, Climate, Students)

WKNC Content Creator, Owen Martin, interviews several candidates for the Raleigh City Council.
The candidates interviewed are Joshua Bradley, Jonathon Melton, James Bledsoe and Anne Franklin.
Due to the length of these interviews, the episode has been segmented based on discussed topics.
This second segment discusses Police, Climate, The Role of student's in local elections and the candidates will give their closing statements.

Show Notes

★ Support this podcast ★

What is Eye on the Triangle?

Eye on the Triangle is WKNC 88.1 FM HD-1/HD-2’s weekly public affairs programming with news, interviews, opinion, weather, sports, arts, music, events and issues that matter to NC State, Raleigh and the Triangle.

00:00
Brian Jurado
The views and opinions expressed on Eye on the Triangle do not represent NC State student media or WKNC. Hello, this is Brian Jurado, the Public Affairs Director here at WKNC and host of Eye on the Triangle. In continuation of our WKNC Eye on the Triangle election episode, we've added some podcast episodes to fully post these interviews. The candidates being interviewed are Joshua Bradley, James Bledsoe, Jonathan Melton and Anne Franklin. These candidates are running for the at large Raleigh City Council race. For this segment of interviews, the candidates will discuss their stances on police climate, the students role and give their closing statements. The interview is being conducted by WKNC content creator Owen Martin. Hope you all enjoy.

00:47
Owen Martin
Here we're going to have some of the odds and ends and other questions, but first we're going to talk about how Raleigh should adjust its police force and. And then we are going to talk about why students should care. How do you feel about. Kind of. So obviously you guys have dealt with one of the major issues of 2020 that you guys dealt early on with was a lot of the repercussions of the killing of George Floyd. How do you support breaking out a lot of the functions of the police into sort of like, oh, this is a traffic safety officer. This is a, like a mental health crisis like officer that. That deals with that. That is pro. That is.

01:46
Joshua Bradley
Yes.

01:47
Owen Martin
That is trained in that. What are some. How would you kind of like to restructure some of the. Yeah, some of the city services.

01:58
Joshua Bradley
So when I ran in 2019, this is before the murder of George Floyd, I ran in support of a police advisory board with oversight ability and subpoena power. When I got elected, we got a police advisory board created. I am the liaison to the police advisory board. We requested oversight ability and speed of power from the General Assembly. It failed. So that was one piece of it. But I think that we need a well trained, well funded police department for matters of public safety. If your house is being broken into, if you are in trouble, you call the police. But there is a lot we're asking police officers to do that quite frankly they're not equipped to handle and they shouldn't be handling. And I think that when you call for help, you don't always need an officer and a gun to show up.

02:38
Joshua Bradley
And so what I want to do is to also invest and find alternative response models for 911 calls. The city's actually doing that work. We worked with Durham on analysis of our 911 call data so that we could get some Suggestions on what to do differently. Under state law, you can send civilians to handle traffic, minor traffic infractions, incidents that all require a local act. I think we should do that. I know we have our ACORNS unit now, which pairs officers with mental health workers. From what I understand, it's kind of occurring on the back end, not proactively on the front end. And I think it could be expanded and retooled. There are programs like the Denver Star program that we all know that takes a more proactive approach, and so I would support that.

03:23
Joshua Bradley
I know our police advisory board has looked at making some recommended changes to acorns, and so I think a lot of this work is in motion, and it just needs to happen. I will say we have a. I still say new city manager. She's not new anymore. She. She arrived, I think, in 2021. Marshalle Adams, David. She's fantastic. She gets all these issues. We have a new police chief, Stella Patterson, who is very community oriented. One thing we didn't have in Raleigh was an LGBTQ liaison to our police department advocates, and the community has been asking for it for years. Charlotte had one. Chief Patterson came from Charlotte. The first thing I talked to her about was getting one here, and she got one.

04:03
Joshua Bradley
And so I think she's receptive to supporting the officers and also, quite frankly, finding other ways to be addressing some of the stuff that we're asking police officers to do.

04:14
Owen Martin
Because I feel like. Yeah, because a lot of people, I feel like a lot of things that a lot of the time that police officers spend is sitting, waiting to see someone speeding, and that just isn't a good use of city resources.

04:29
Joshua Bradley
Right. I think one thing that'll be interesting is triaging calls. Right. And so if a call comes in and it's clearly a mental health issue, is there also an officer who's needed to help clear the scene? So I understand that argument, but I've also heard folks on the police advisory board say, if you've got a hammer, everything looks like a nail. And I think that's right, too. And so I think we have to find a way that we can sort of coordinate services, but make sure that the appropriate person is responding at the appropriate time.

04:59
Owen Martin
Yeah. Because, I mean, there's a model set up for it. If you're. I mean, that's why they don't. Not the. If your house starts burning down, 50 cops don't show up.

05:12
Joshua Bradley
Right.

05:13
Owen Martin
They know whether to send, oh, we send an ambulance, we send a fire truck, or we send a police officer. Yeah, the system's already there. It's just figuring out how to get more buttons on the board.

05:22
Joshua Bradley
Yeah, I think so, yeah.

05:25
Owen Martin
How do you feel about how a lot of cities have sort of taken some of the burdens away from police officers to let them focus on crime response by kind of separating their tasks out into, like, separating out traffic responsibilities into different positions and more of unarmed public safety people to deal with just events and stuff or mental health crises or. In Austin, they've even made the forensic science department a separate part of the police.

06:01
James Bledsoe
If I remember correctly. Is that the ACORNS, what they did in Texas?

06:07
Owen Martin
No, ACORNS is here.

06:09
James Bledsoe
Okay. ACORNS is here. All right. I do like the citizens that are allowed to go out and help out with police that are here. I know that was a big push in the city. They get their own cars and whatnot. But currently, right now, we have about 3 to 400 vacancies between the police and the firefighters. So I can't really give a response to that in good confidence either way, because violent crime is up, but also nonviolent crime is going through the roof. And I actually have those numbers at the city of Raleigh publish, and it's looking like it'll be 5 to 10% increase in response. Times are going to go up by another minute or two. And that's not just police, that's also fire as well.

06:56
James Bledsoe
So I would like to have us have an adequate police department and also fire department first before I even give a good enough response on that, because that would just be dishonest, you know, because I'd be making a statement not based on facts. That's what I have to rely on, is the numbers and statistics.

07:17
Owen Martin
I agree. How do you feel about lowering the burden of police officers by creating positions that maybe only deal with mental health crises or traffic safety or even the forensic sciences?

07:33
Anne Franklin
Yeah, it's the right question. We have a program called acorn, which is to make skilled people available when there is a family crisis. Could be several varieties, but mostly mental illness. They are caseworkers and others trained to be available when police are called. I also think in some of the police organizations, and we have been talking, there may be some things that police do that could be handled by civilians. I'll tell you one thing that comes to mind. We get noise complaints. They're nuisances, but for some neighborhoods, they're really huge because they interrupt life.

08:22
Anne Franklin
But to use a highly trained and equipped police officer to go and sit and wait for something to happen, that is too Much noise might not be the best use of our resources, but it might be possible for us to equip neighborhoods or businesses where with some equipment so they could keep track of the sound. And if it goes on too long or too late, then you've got a record. And mostly people do what they should. They mostly do what they can to be good neighbors. Sometimes big thumbs stick out and they can be noticed and attended to.

09:01
Brian Jurado
Kind of tying into that, what would you say, like, are ways for maybe the student population and anyone who would tune into this to like, be able to go out there and kind of see what could be done with Raleigh or like be able to get involved in kind of any of these material pushes you're going for?

09:17
Jonathan Melton
Well, I'd like to. One way to do it is to get involved in an organization and not just during election season. Like, you've got the YDSA here, you've got the Triangle dsa, you've got the pso, you've got, you know, Carolina Abortion Fund, you've got. There are lots of organizations that are doing good stuff on the ground and more than I can do to list you today. But my best advice to anybody is just to find your people, get an organization. Because we're stronger together and organizations will work together. And that's why you come to. It doesn't necessarily have to be socialist. Like, for me, like, I mean, I'm obviously a socialist and in multiple socialist parties, but like, there's other groups that aren't necessarily politically involved that are still on the ground doing stuff.

10:14
Jonathan Melton
And I would also say listen to the people that are doing the work now. Like, don't come into a space and invent it and say, I've got this great idea, let's do it. No, no. What you should do is get involved with local groups and when you show up, listen, right? Especially listen to people that are generally not given speech like you don't want to. When you join an organization, don't center it around yourself. That's why it's really hard for me to run for city council because, like, I certainly don't want to center myself and like, for. And it's hard. It's. It's a. Being a CIS hat white male is the epitome of privilege in our society. If I were rich, I would have completed the, you know, checked all the boxes.

10:53
Jonathan Melton
I've been part of the least oppressed class that has existed in west in this hemisphere. And though the problem with that is there is a lot of implicit Bias and a lot of privilege that we have to some degree that we try to work on, but that we don't see why when you join organizations, you need to listen to the people that are there that are running it and then try to filter yourself through, try to. Because it's a work in progress. If you're privileged, you don't necessarily see the privilege because there are CIS white males that are poor, have problems, but their problems aren't because they're so I've been right. So it's just important to listen to the group. But I would say the best way to make a difference is to organize.

11:42
Jonathan Melton
Join an organization, find something that's close to your heart or multiple things that are, and devote the time that you have to get to it. Because I think what it's going to take in the city is a grassroots campaign. Because when it comes down to it, there's not a bunch of billionaires that aren't coming in and swoop down and fix us. You know, there's not people that are, you know, the people that are, that really control the power don't even see us as people. So if we work together, we can be noticed. And, and you know, and I think that's the most effective thing that we can do.

12:17
Jonathan Melton
Like people say vote, and I would love everybody's vote, but you're not going to vote in the paradigm shift that we need, the revolutionary change that we need in this country, in this world, in order to lift everybody up. Because the people that are, that have the money, that are in charge are doing their darndest to wreck it and they're doing a good job. Their strength in numbers were stronger together than apart. I hope that answered the question, why.

12:42
Owen Martin
Should NC State students care about city council? As college campuses are kind of a bubble.

12:47
James Bledsoe
Okay, there's a few things with this. So going back to the law enforcement side. Carjackings are up, nonviolent crimes are up, but also violent crimes are up. That creeps into NC State. Certainly seeing a lot of the police reports mention this, like there's assaults on campus. And I know that NC State has their own police, you know, their own police or security. However, those two need to work with each other. And there's just a lot of gaps I'll say, to response that wouldn't be there if we had a larger police presence. The next thing is housing affordability and also cost of living.

13:25
James Bledsoe
So with every bond, every tax increase, every dollar spent by the city, that's another penny, another dollar, another ten Dollars that you have to spend, say at the store, in your apartment complex, or even in student housing, because that's a limited resource right now. If you want your cost of living to go down, then certainly myself and other candidates that want to cut spending and taxes need to be put in office because that means that's more you can spend on paying off your student loans or your tuition, even just go and buy a soda. You're certainly going to see that if we cut down the cost of living here in Raleigh.

14:08
Owen Martin
That leads perfectly into my next question, which is why should NC State students care about city council as college campuses are kind of a bubble. Or. Kind of a bubble? Yeah.

14:23
Anne Franklin
That is a question I'd like to have a whole lot more time to answer, to think about. Many years ago, there was a much more primary relationship between the city and the university. We would come to concerts, we'd use the craft hall. We were back and forth on campus a lot. And so just because of its growth and the city's growth, that relationship has changed. This whole scale has changed. The infrastructure that supports NC State and its campus is city infrastructure. So if you turn on your water and you can just drink it without thinking you're using a city service first thing in the morning, every morning. Those public utilities and the upkeep of basic roads, not the ones right on campus, but the basic roads allow mobility and they allow a transit system.

15:26
Anne Franklin
You guys have one of the biggest transit systems in the state. They allow that system to work because of the infrastructure that it rides on. And you have a security system here. But if something more serious happens, you need police to be available, not just on campus, but to all of the communities around the campus. So I would say the basic services are not seen. We don't talk about them a lot, but we do depend on them. And students pay taxes, so they help to support some of those things. We also have a very strong parks and greenway system. So you don't have to pay anything. You just get to use it as public space. You can use it for yourself, or you can go to the wetlands center, take your lunch, sit on a rocking chair, invite a friend to come with you.

16:24
Anne Franklin
You get off campus a little bit. So being in a city is a different experience than a campus that is its own city. And I think some people choose to come to NC State because it is in a city. It's not, it's not as isolated as some locale.

16:49
Owen Martin
I know I certainly did, and this.

16:52
Anne Franklin
Is not an interview for you, but it makes Me curious about why you wanted that and if we're matching up to what your expectation was and what you'd like to see more of. We get asked about how to have a vibrant downtown. I want lots more sort of small scale enterprises, not just places to go have a beer, but all kinds of places. You know, maybe a leather shop where you can take some of your gear and get it fixed. Vintage clothing shops that cater to people who can afford to pay in that realm and all sorts of things that we can do to be as a city to enrich the college experience.

17:43
Owen Martin
I asked the candidates their opinions on climate in Raleigh and also how we should address the large corporations such as Apple, Google and others moving into our area as well as investment. How do you going off of that? You say you want to get Raleigh carbon neutral by 2030. What does that look like?

18:05
Jonathan Melton
Well, I think it's doable. I mean a lot of it has to do with. It's going to take a lot to do that. If you're just talking about city government like there were supposed to be a green roof initiative. I mean what we need to do is go through city buildings and do what we can to update them and make sure that not only are they accessible to the people that everybody that needs it, but that are also meet environmental like high environmental standards. We need to do what we can to get rid of the buses that run on anything other than electricity for now, which would be a short step.

18:39
Jonathan Melton
I think that what we need to eventually get to is like electric electrified trolleys I think are probably the most efficient way to handle mass transit, especially in the denser areas of the city. That's going to be expensive to do and it's going to be a long term. But I think there's. And I think the city should certainly divest of any company or that does that. I think the city has a climate action plan that's all carrot and no stick. Right. And it depends heavily on Duke Energy rolling over. You know, I just don't know that's. I give them points for optimism but like they need to actually. You can't have a stick without a carrot. Especially when it comes to capitalists that are out to make money.

19:29
Jonathan Melton
Like it's, you know, in theory against corporate charters to do anything that will do anything other than make money. Like because they're, that's the point.

19:37
Owen Martin
Yeah.

19:38
Jonathan Melton
So like, you know, there's not a whole lot of B corps in the city that are out there. So I Just think that there are things that the city could do. We need a lot of that has to do with public transit and we need to do better with public.

19:54
Owen Martin
How can Raleigh work towards carbon neutrality?

19:57
Joshua Bradley
So we have a climate action plan. It was past maybe 2021, but it's been developed through sort of the city experts for a while. And I think there are big ways we can do it, little ways we can do it, like obviously want to reduce our greenhouse gases, our footprint. You're going to start seeing a lot more electric buses, compressed natural gas buses, little things like eliminating single use plastic in our city facilities. When I got on council there were plastic water bottles everywhere and we all said why are we doing single use plastic here? I know that now downtown businesses have the little things on their windows. That's you where you can bring your water bottle in and get it filled up for free. We've got a lot of city facilities that are not helping with our footprint, so to speak.

20:50
Joshua Bradley
And I know we're planning a new municipal campus where we can consolidate city services and stop spending money on rent. And that's going to be a green like LEED certified building. And so the plan really lays out a bunch of steps and I believe the goals 2050.

21:11
Owen Martin
How should Raleigh deal with these billion dollar companies moving in like Apple and Google and such?

21:19
Jonathan Melton
I would do it with trepidation and I certainly wouldn't give them any of our tax money to come here. There are Google employees out on the west coast that sleep in their cars. Like I don't think that large tech is going to come in and somehow miraculously save us. And I don't even think that they're going to hire a good number of us. I think they're going to import most of their workforce. So I think that's a net loss as far as affordability and in just.

21:47
Owen Martin
General the soul of the city, you know. Yeah.

21:52
Jonathan Melton
I mean, don't get me wrong, I mean not every again, not everybody that moves in from out of town is bad. And you know, and I don't want to diss too hard on the west coast. They're having enough problems the fact they can't get water and you know.

22:06
Owen Martin
Yeah. It's just, it doesn't make sense for the city of Raleigh to say oh you can move here for a lot less than it costs you to build anywhere else and then bring in all these workers that aren't paying Raleigh that aren't paying in.

22:20
Jonathan Melton
Right. And they're not. And it doesn't generally have a huge net effect on Raleigh because most of the people that pay the good money are coming with company.

22:28
Owen Martin
Yeah.

22:30
Jonathan Melton
And I agree.

22:33
Owen Martin
How could, how should Raleigh handle all these billion dollar companies moving in?

22:41
Joshua Bradley
In what way?

22:43
Owen Martin
Kind of if they're causing all this traffic with all these new with Google and Apple and sort of stuff moving in. If they're moving in, creating huge job centers, what are we doing to make sure that it's not only tax money and the people's money going forward to make those transportation improvements and how are we keeping going to get local people employed with these people with these companies instead of just having them import a bunch?

23:22
Joshua Bradley
Yeah, I think there's multiple angles to that question. If it's sort of like a state recruitment incentive and they decide to plop down in Raleigh, that was probably negotiated by whatever statewide economic development office. I know that Raleigh Chamber runs our economic development team. They really take a regional approach with Raleigh and Durham and Chapel Hill. And any time I have seen any sort of incentive for a company to come here, it's been tied to a threshold of hiring local talent. I think whatever we can do. We've got so many universities of different types, colleges in Raleigh hiring local talent, investing in local talent, especially like WNB businesses, I think that's important.

24:03
Owen Martin
And then I know that's minority and woman owned business. Yes, correct.

24:08
Joshua Bradley
Yes.

24:08
Owen Martin
Yeah.

24:09
Joshua Bradley
And then I also know that I think it was Apple, this, that was a state incentive package. But I do believe Apple has committed to investing in schools and some of the transit stuff. But at least on the local level, since I've been on council, the ones I've seen have not been big things like Apple, but have been, you know, smaller things to an extent. And there's been like a hiring requirement.

24:38
Owen Martin
How does, how should Raleigh handle the multibillion plus corporations moving in?

24:44
James Bledsoe
With caution. With extreme caution. So a lot of people look at these multi billion dollar companies coming in now. Mind you, they're a boon to tax revenue. However, as far as employment, they're bringing in a lot of people inside the company to move down with them. That's the one thing I want people to understand is that not every job that they're offering is to the local populace. Those are now jobs that are, they're coming in from other places. They're saying hey, move on down to Raleigh, we have all these jobs available. This is more of an internal posting shift for you. Along with that you're looking at infrastructure too. Can our roads handle it? Can our power grid Handle it.

25:27
Owen Martin
Do you think those are things that those companies should pay into?

25:30
James Bledsoe
Oh, absolutely. If you're going to move to Raleigh and you're going to build a giant complex in our city, you are definitely going to foot the bill for the improvements that need to go in to facilitate your structure coming in. Subsidies. I'm not too much of a fan of that. I want you to build your own parking on your own land. I want you to maintain your own roads until they're up to code and then Raleigh will come take it over. But you need to be responsible for footing the bill for all the water that we're going to be pumping into your area, for the electrical grid, everything. I mean, they need to chip in.

26:08
Owen Martin
How can Raleigh handle the multi billion dollar corporations kind of moving in at our doorstep or what should we do about them?

26:25
Anne Franklin
Ouch. We can say ouch because it feels hurtful. If we don't know who's doing what. I don't think we can stop it. I think we can provide education to people in our communities about who is doing what. Particularly when groups are buying up whole rows of property so that if you're selling you will at least get a fair compensation based on the value that outside people are assuming. As I've been told repeatedly, we have investors that are buying anything they can buy. They're not sight unseen. They have no idea exactly how they will use it, except they believe it is profoundly marketable.

27:19
Anne Franklin
At some point we have to make it clear that those properties are marketable because they're in a market that has benefited from very solid local government, benefited from public investments, benefited from public school systems and healthcare systems that make us a very attractive place and that we expect they will make a contribution to those basic systems through taxes or any other way we can fear. It makes us feel very vulnerable and I'm not sure how to deal with that, but I'm hearing it from a lot of different places. It's not just poor communities, it's communities that have houses that are maybe, you know, 40, 50, 60 years old. And the people in them have been in them there a while. So they're feeling very vulnerable. I think there are a few things we can do, but we can't stop foreign investment.

28:23
Owen Martin
It did. Now we're gonna, now we're gonna try to blitz through some lighter questions. What's your favorite park in Raleigh?

28:32
Jonathan Melton
My favorite park, I'm kind of partial to Shelly Lake because I live near there and I walk around it. It's not super fun, but you can walk around the lake. That's what I do. But like, I mean there are a lot of good parts. Pulling is good. Chavis is good.

28:47
Owen Martin
What's your favorite greenway?

28:48
Jonathan Melton
My favorite greenway, huh? It's not an easy one, huh? I mean I, you know, the kind of the. Anything that connects out of Shelly Lake is obviously familiar with. But I mean I've generally had good experiences any in any of the greenway that I've been in. You know, I've been down here, some down coming down towards Crabtree, but any, you know.

29:20
Owen Martin
What's your favorite Crayola. Crayon flavor?

29:22
Jonathan Melton
Crayola. Don't they taste the same? Crayola crayons taste different based on the. Oh, I don't know.

29:31
Anne Franklin
I haven't, I haven't tested which one would taste the best.

29:33
Jonathan Melton
Do you think I would go with green, probably.

29:37
Anne Franklin
What does it taste like?

29:39
Jonathan Melton
Green, Artificial green. Like they say it's apple, sometimes I say it's watermelon, but it just tastes like green.

29:46
Owen Martin
What else would you like the listeners at home to know?

29:50
Jonathan Melton
Wow. If you have a chance, give it a chance. Listen to Old Chumbawamba. Like not their popular ones, but like all their old school stuff. Like they were like hard. They were, they were a punk collective anarcho socialist band from England that did awesome stuff and they were talented and that's just personal. And if you read, if you're not reading Theory occasionally I would recommend the Culture series by Ian M. Banks, which are about post scarcity space utopian society and how it deals with people that aren't so. I think they're very interesting books if anybody's interested. Am I allowed to have a pitch for something that's free.

30:40
Owen Martin
As long as it doesn't lead to anybody profiting?

30:43
Jonathan Melton
It does not.

30:46
Owen Martin
Perfect, then you're good.

30:47
Jonathan Melton
At the beginning of the pandemic, some of my friends and I started together a Zoom study group. And we've been going for three years. It doesn't cost anybody anything. Technically it cost me to maintain the Zoom license. I just had the Zoom license from the last campaign. So that's how it started. And basically every Thursday we meet, we vote as a group on what we want to study, we pick a book, everybody puts in, we vote and then we do it. It's grown. We have about 150 people registered for the group. We have about 20 to 30 people on every Thursday. We started with Paolo Fieri's Pedagogy of the Oppressed and we did Frantz Fanon's Wretched of the Earth which took us 10 months because that's a dense book. We've done all the stuff that you would expect. We've did the manifesto, we've done.

31:46
Jonathan Melton
We did a little Mao, we did a little. We did state and revolution, we did reformer revolution, we did some Rosa and. But if anybody's interested, if you go to leftunitystudy.com and register, it's free. It doesn't cost you anything except time and it's a pretty good group and we're actually, we've got people from all over the country so it's an interesting thing. I don't know if I'm allowed to do that. So you can edit it out the of awesome.

32:12
Owen Martin
Well this has been Her Majesty Plover DJ Steel knit.

32:16
Jonathan Melton
I agree.

32:18
Owen Martin
How could. How should Raleigh handle all these billion dollar companies moving in?

32:26
Joshua Bradley
In what way?

32:28
Owen Martin
Kind of if they're causing all this traffic with all these new with. With Google and Apple and sort of stuff moving in. If they're moving in creating huge job centers, how. What are we doing to make sure that it's not only tax money and the people's money going forward to make those transportation improvements and how are we keeping going to get local people employed with these people with these companies instead of just having them import a bunch?

33:07
Joshua Bradley
Yeah, I think there's multiple angles to that question. If it's sort of like a state recruitment incentive and they decide to plop down in Raleigh, that was probably negotiated by what statewide economic development office. I know that Raleigh Chamber runs our economic development team. They really take a regional approach with Raleigh and Durham and Chapel Hill. And anytime I have seen any sort of incentive for a company to come here, it's been tied to a threshold of hiring local talent. I think whatever we can do. We've got so many universities of different types, colleges in Raleigh hiring local talent, investing in local talent especially like WNB businesses, I think that's important.

33:48
Owen Martin
And then I know that's minority and woman owned business, correct?

33:53
Joshua Bradley
Yes. Yeah. And then I also know that I think it was Apple this, that was a state incentive package. But I do believe Apple has committed to investing in schools and some of the transit stuff. But at least on the local level, since I've been on council, the ones I've seen have not been big things like Apple but have been, you know, smaller things to an extent. And there's been like a hiring requirement.

34:23
Owen Martin
What's your favorite greenway in Raleigh?

34:25
Joshua Bradley
Probably Rocky Branch. I think that's the right name. It's the one by my house. You get on it at Chavis and it takes you through really up through Centennial campus and. And then I take it out through Dick's park and ride it back. It's a 10 mile loop. I did it all the time during COVID because there was nothing else to do. So yeah, that was great.

34:46
Owen Martin
What's your favorite restaurant in Raleigh?

34:48
Joshua Bradley
I like Centro Gallop alone downtown. There's also, I hate to say. Cause it's like a hidden gem and if I say it, the people are gonna start going. It's smokestacks. It's in Oakwood neighborhood. It's really good. Probably those two.

35:04
Owen Martin
What's your favorite Crayola crayon flavor?

35:07
Joshua Bradley
I don't think I've ever eaten a Crayola crayon. Do they taste different?

35:10
Owen Martin
Yeah.

35:10
Joshua Bradley
Oh, I don't know. I know my favorite color. It varies since I'm at State and I went to State. I'll say red, but it varies over time.

35:20
Owen Martin
What was your crowning achievement in student government?

35:25
Joshua Bradley
I was the senate press secretary for a little while. That was kind of cool. That's why when were talking before we started the interview about how the student senate chambers used to be on the second floor and technician was up here on the third floor. So I was running up and down all the time. I liked that because I was a news reporter and editor in high school of our high school paper. So it was really cool because I still have passion for journalism, just not involved in it. So it was pretty cool to be a student senator and then the senate press secretary. So I was sort of had a hand in having to communicate with the journalists and then also making the policy. So I really liked that.

36:02
Owen Martin
Are there any organizations that you want to shout out that would be cool, volunteer opportunities or any ways that students could get involved?

36:10
Joshua Bradley
Yeah. So I started an organization called Stonewall Sports. It's an LGBTQIA philanthropic sports league. I don't run it anymore, but it's in Raleigh and in cities across the country now. And so if folks want to sign up to play or participate, there is a support for everyone. There's also service projects associated. I'm a former board member of Tammy Lynn center tlc. They are not far from where we're sitting right now. They're just down Avent Ferry. They help folks with children as an adult with developmental disabilities. So this great organization to be associated with. And then, you know, the LGBT Center Raleigh can always use help too.

36:50
Owen Martin
Anything else that we haven't touched on that you want the listeners at home to know about?

36:54
Joshua Bradley
No, I don't think so. I just think in general, if I had one parting message. You know, I ran in 2019 as a first time candidate. I never held elected office before, quite frankly, never thought I would be here. But I ran because I felt like it was time for new leaders to step forward. I felt personally affected by a lot of the issues facing the city. I was a young professional trying to find housing I could afford, trying to navigate the city without a car. And I felt like it was time for some new ideas and new ways forward. And I've always been the kind of person where you don't wait for someone else to raise their hand. If you see a void, you know you can address it. You step forward and you ask to address it. And that's what I did.

37:32
Joshua Bradley
After I got elected, the whole world changed. It's been an incredibly difficult term, but I am proud of the work I've accomplished on council. I'm proud of my record fulfilling my campaign promises. We still have more work to do. We're a growing city. With that comes challenges, but I also think limitless possibility. I govern from a place of yes. I try to seek what we can do and not say what we cannot do. And you know, I'm eager to serve another term, so I hope to have everyone's vote. Awesome.

38:00
Owen Martin
This has been Her Majesty for WKNC 88.1 FM H2 and Raleigh with Jonathan Melton who is running for the one of the large seats on Raleigh City Council. What do you have to say to people who may write you off as a bigot because you're endorsed by the Wake county gop?

38:22
James Bledsoe
First off, I'm not a bigot. I've served in the army for 17 years. Yeah, I'm a white guy. But again, I've been serving around every single race, religion, Creed, sexuality for 17 years. I've had guys serve under me in comment from all over the world. I've had a guy from Chile, a guy from Cuba with me, two guys from Africa. One was from South Africa and one was from Nigeria. Just because you're endorsed by the GOP doesn't mean you're a bigot. I mean, for me, I'm unaffiliated. I've been so my entire life. I don't plan on joining the GOP or the Democratic Party because I don't think that either have my best interests at heart. They see my campaign as a way of Cutting taxes and spending as a good thing.

39:07
James Bledsoe
But again, I'm not a Republican, I'm not a Democrat, and I don't ever intend to be.

39:15
Owen Martin
Okay, we're gonna close out the interview with some lighter questions.

39:18
Jonathan Melton
Okay.

39:19
Owen Martin
What's your favorite park in Raleigh?

39:21
James Bledsoe
My favorite park in Raleigh. That would be Barwell. Just because it's easy for me to, or it used to be easy for me to bike to, but also it's easy for me to drive to.

39:31
Owen Martin
What's your favorite greenway in Raleigh?

39:33
James Bledsoe
That would be the one right next to my house. That would ride off of the Walnut Creek Amphitheater. So the Walnut Creek Trail.

39:41
Owen Martin
What's your favorite restaurant in Raleigh?

39:43
James Bledsoe
Jack Seafood.

39:44
Owen Martin
What's your favorite Crayola? Crayon flavor.

39:48
James Bledsoe
Not a Marine. So I can't answer that one.

39:50
Owen Martin
What else would you like the listeners at home to know?

39:53
James Bledsoe
Just know that if you vote for me, I'm going to try and make your life easier through your wallet by not charging you as much by cutting down taxes, spending, and providing as much opportunity as possible for you to live here, stay here and also conduct your business here. I want, you know, you to feel safe. I want you to trust in me, but also have Raleigh go back to the way of it used or used to be felt as, you know, lots of opportunity, safe and for everyone.

40:27
Owen Martin
We're going to close out the interview with some lighter questions now. What's your favorite park in Raleigh?

40:36
Anne Franklin
Oh my goodness. That's like asking me what my favorite library is. I go to a lot of different libraries and I love them all. Well, the Walnut Creek Wetland park is my favorite. I've invested a lot of time in helping that come to be and I love being there. I like sitting in the rocking chairs and just taking in the green of it. I like being there at night listening to the peepers in the early spring. My favorite park. So that's my favorite park.

41:08
Owen Martin
What's your favorite greenway?

41:14
Anne Franklin
Well, again it would be the Walnut Creek Greenway. We worked a lot to get that in place. And our greenways get to develop along sewer rights of way and those are typically right next to streams. So I think when you get on our greenway system you have the benefit of a creek right there as well as the plants and all that come with that. So probably all the creek related greenways would be my favorites.

41:51
Owen Martin
What's your favorite restaurant in Raleigh?

41:54
Anne Franklin
Neomond.

41:58
Owen Martin
What's your history with Raleigh?

42:01
Anne Franklin
Well, I should say we moved to North Carolina. I grew up in Ohio. We were recruited by a program that Governor Sanford started. It was the poverty program before there was a federal poverty program. And were trained to be community organizers, and we worked all over the state in about 11 different communities. And I've sort of stayed in that realm of community organizing for a long time. And frankly, now I've forgotten the question.

42:32
Owen Martin
What's your history with Raleigh?

42:34
Anne Franklin
With Raleigh. So were in D.C. for a little bit, and then my husband and I came back to North Carolina because he was in the adult education program at NC State as a graduate student. And we've pretty much invested our lives here. He was with the Justice Department, and they brought him up to Washington for about six years. But then we came back and his work was in disability rights, and he worked all over the state, eventually headed up the state ADA office. So part of me stays really tuned to how well we're doing with services for people with disabilities. But, you know, I have other connections. In Raleigh, I got to be on the Wake County Botanical Garden Society. I was chair of their board for about six years. And I've been.

43:28
Anne Franklin
Was part of Oratorio at one time and then sang with a choir that got to take two different original works to Carnegie Hall. One was this summer and other was about five years ago. So lots of good things going on in Raleigh, and that's why I like being here. Awesome.

43:48
Owen Martin
What's your favorite Crayola crayon flavor?

43:52
Anne Franklin
Oh, my goodness. Oh, I like violet. But I'm drawn to this sort of warm red color, which is my campaign color.

44:07
Owen Martin
Anything else you'd like the listeners at home to know?

44:11
Anne Franklin
I really like being on campus. It gives me energy. I feel like I'm in the right place if they'll just have me. And I see such diversity among the student population. They're coming from all over the world, so it gives me hope. I also enjoy. Here I am in the radio station. I know that there are lots of little nooks and crannies throughout the A campus which appears to the outsider to. Be. Sort of maybe impenetrable. But then you get introduced to some of these little places where some really exciting things are going on. So you're reminded of how much life there is here. And I appreciate each student's investment. I appreciate the faculty who provide as much as they can to help people. I also know that there's a huge staff that takes care of all of the spaces that you use.

45:13
Anne Franklin
And I've known some of those people. I've worked with some of those people directly on rideshare, et cetera. So I would want State students to pay attention to who cleans up after them and who keeps their space safe and. And who drives the buses. It's important that we connect with all the parts of our community. And I thank you so much. This has been a lot of fun for me. I appreciate your good attention.

45:44
Owen Martin
Yeah, thank you so much.