Community-focused posts
There are 771 posts filed in Raleigh (this is page 45 of 78).
There were rumors over the past few weeks that Linux pioneer Red Hat was shopping around for new office space, including digs in Massachusetts, Austin, and Atlanta, among others. Today, Governor Purdue announced that Red Hat would be staying in Wake County (though she didn’t say Raleigh, specifically).
A month ago when rumors started swirling I predicted Red Hat would stay, posting this on the WRAL story about the office search:
Red Hat would have a hard time finding anyplace with a better quality of life than it has right here. The company’s executives are savvy enough to know that.”
Sure enough, the first thing out of CEO Jim Whitehurst’s mouth when explaining Red Hat’s choosing to stay was this area’s quality of life. Now, Red Hat just needs to vacate the overpriced Centennial Campus space and hang their hat in downtown Raleigh and then they’ll be in business!
After making my list of highlights of my community service from the past year I have to mention a strange new phenomenon of late: lots of people now know me and I don’t always know them.
I’ve went down to the municipal building for something earlier this year and gave my name to one of the staffers I had just met. “Oh, so you’re Mark Turner! We’ve heard all about you,” came the cheerful reply. Some treat me like some kind of celebrity. Even cops. City staffers have told me they read my blog on a regular basis, too. It’s a little unnerving knowing that people are talking about me, even if it’s good stuff. (At least, I hope it is!)
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It was a productive year for helping out in the community.
The biggest and most rewarding thing I did as the CAC chair was help organize the first East Raleigh Community Day event along with Ronneil Robinson, Raleigh Police, Raleigh Parks, WakeMed, and others. It was so much fun seeing everyone out and having a good time. I had a silly grin on my face all day long.
Part of the Community Day celebrations included the grand opening of the Police Department Field Office in the Raleigh Boulevard Food Lion shopping center. This was the result of an initiative I took two years ago to work with the city and the property owner to get it done. Now the shopping center is thriving, new businesses moving in, and the neighborhood has a nice local place to shop.
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This makes me happy.
America’s neighborhoods became more integrated last year than during any time in at least a century as a rising black middle class moved into fast-growing white areas in the South and West.
Still, ethnic segregation in many parts of the U.S. persisted, particularly for Hispanics.
Segregation among blacks and whites fell in roughly three-quarters of the nation’s 100 largest metropolitan areas as the two racial groups spread more evenly between inner cities and suburbs, according to recent census data.
Black segregation in US drops to lowest in century :: WRAL.com.
I was reminded today that Google has less than three weeks to make its site selections for its Google Fiber project. The post that sparked interest said that the company would be making its selection by the end of the year.
Which communities will Santa’s backhoe visit this year?
Update 15 Dec: Google says it needs more time to decide.
One early spring morning this year I was walking the dog on State Street when we stumbled upon three deer across the street from us. The deer made a well-worn beeline to a hole in the fence of the St. Augustine’s campus and bounded into the woods. In July I had another morning sighting, with deer standing near the edge of our front yard.
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Michael Darnell Green
I got word today that yesterday’s foot chase through the nearby Mordecai neighborhood yielded an arrest of a suspect in the area’s recent burglaries. Michael Darnell Green, age 37, was arrested and charged with numerous offenses, including breaking and entering, possession of burglary tools, possession of stolen goods, and possession of a firearm by a felon, among others. Green has a long history of B&Es, and with his build of 5’10” and weight of 160, he certainly fits the description of the guy my neighbors saw on our front porch when our alarm went off Friday. Police are charging him with at least 9 area burglaries and more are pending, I’m sure.
It goes to show you … don’t mess with East Raleigh!
Break-in suspect
After our attempted break-in Friday, a friend reminded me of a neighbor’s security cameras outside his home, suggesting his cameras might have filmed the perpetrator. On a whim I asked my neighbor to check his system. Sure enough, his camera did capture video of the suspect on Friday (empty-handed, I might add). The video is here. [some weird M$-proprietary WMV format]
The detective working our case told me today that the fingerprints they recovered from our window are being processed by CCBI. Hopefully, we’ll have an identification of the guy soon. In the meantime, the photo of the suspect has been distributed to all the line officers in RPD’s downtown and southeast districts, and rides in the cab of Engine 7 of the Raleigh Fire Department. It’s good to have friends in uniform!
As usual when you don’t hear much from me, there are a lot of things happening at the moment. And they’re good things, really. Can’t complain.
On the work front things are cranking up. I was busy with a few projects which have expanded my knowledge of the product. I was expecting to be traveling south to Orlando next week for a trade show but my plans changed abruptly today when the company realized I should be in New York state instead. So rather than enjoying high temperatures of 80 degrees I’ll be looking at 55 degrees instead. Oh well: at least the work will be interesting! I will be far more active in NY than at any trade show, so my product knowledge will increase exponentially from this change of plans.
Outside of work my community involvement continues. I nailed down the East CAC’s November agenda, and through the magic of Le Calendar I have proclaimed this month’s to be the last meeting of the year. We’ll have a holiday social event and hobnob this month. It’s always one of my favorite meetings.
On the Raleigh CAC front, I’ve been asked if I would like to become chair. I’m not really looking for any more feathers in my cap but I don’t want the organization to lose ground, either. Still trying to figure out if I want to take something else on, though as of now I’m leaning towards “no.”
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Well, that was interesting. Election Day was yesterday and, nationwide, Democrats took a drubbing. The U.S. House is in Republican hands again. The Senate remains in Democratic hands. Can’t say results on the national level surprise me.
I found the local races more interesting. GOP took control of the General Assembly for the first time in over 125 years. The Republicans face tough decisions with a looming $5 billion state budget deficit. Cutting taxes won’t solve that problem, so now Republicans will have to govern rather than whine.
For all the “throw the bums out” talk, nearly all North Carolina Congressional incumbents were reelected. At this time Bob Etheridge is calling for a recount against political newcomer Renee Ellmers. At this point it looks like Etheridge is done. If so, he’ll become the only congressional incumbent to lose this election.
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