Neighborhood email traffic, which has been hot and heavy on the pros and cons of backyard chickens ever since the proposition hit the city council two months ago, has taken a new turn.

Foxes.

Since foxes are known to frequent some inner-Durham neighborhoods, and foxes love chicken almost as much as preachers, the question has been raised:

If Durham allows citizens to raise hens in their yards, won't that attract even more foxes?

And if the foxes find good eating, won't they be breeding more little foxes?

Couldn't an influx of domestic chickens lead to an explosion in the fox population?

If the fox population explodes, won't it outpace the food supply, leading to hungry foxes all over town?

Are street foxes, scrounging a living from trash cans, really what Durham wants?

Silly? No more so than some of what's been said in city council hearings on the subject.

Hey, foxes gotta eat, too.

The Raleigh City Council is likely to approve on Tuesday a resolution that would allocate money towards  creating public art in the city. The program being proposed is similar to what many other cities across the country have adopted.

It's worth noting how this funding mechanism would be different from what Raleigh currently spends on art. Raleigh does allocate money towards the arts, just not specifically to creating public art. The city allocates $4.50 per resident towards the budget of the city's Arts Commission. This year that budget totals about $1.65 million (Raleigh's population being 367,995), but about 85 percent of that money is disbursed as grants to nonprofit art groups in the city. Very little, if any, is spent on actually creating public art.

The Arts Commission's proposal to create a percentage-for-art ordinance in Raleigh also calls for a full-time Public Art Program Administrator position to be created. This person would run the program. City Manager Russell Allen said this week that the salary for this position would have to come out of the Arts Commission's existing budget. Raleigh has had a soft hiring freeze in place since July and is only filling positions related to public safety.

A few readers have contacted me raising issues with the percentage-for-art program. One caller called it inappropriate for Raleigh to be adopting something like this given the economic uncertainty about the next six months to a year. Another caller said he supported the program, but was concerned that local artists would not be hired and used on these projects. There will be no stable of artists designated to work on these projects, so only time will tell how many of the jobs go to locals.     

Last year at this time Raleigh was mired in a historic drought and Mayor Charles Meeker's used much of his state-of-the-city address to talk about the need for water conservation. During his address on Monday, Meeker noted that water issues have taken a backseat to other matters this year, thanks both to the tanking economy and the fact that Raleigh has received 50 inches of rain since last spring.

But Meeker still used a portion of his 12-minute speech to talk about conservation. He said the city needs to renew its focus on conservation by making a push to install more low-flow devices and to use less drinking water to irrigate lawns. (The city is also expected to adopt tiered water rates later this year, a system that charges customers higher rates the more water they consume.) More notably, Meeker on Monday took a jab at City Council members who have made an issue of rising water rates.

Raleigh increased water rates by 15 percent in July, and City Manager Russell Allen anticipates that another 15 percent increase will be needed to pay for expensive capital improvements that are now being made to the system. Meeker said Monday that Raleigh's water rates remain among the lowest in the state and he went on to explain why conservation should be pursued even if it temporarily increases water rates: 

"This is a challenge very simply because you sell water to pay for the improvements ... at the same time the City Council doesn't want to increase the rates because the customers don't like rate increases and the customers happen to vote in city elections. But our community has got to be better than that ... we don't need to be using drinking water to irrigate our lawns as much as we are ... even though it may not be popular in the short run because it will affect rates, it's the right thing to do in the long run."

This debate over water rates is likely to resurface at the City Council's special budget work session in March and then continue on until a new budget is adopted in May or June. Councilmen Thomas Crowder, Rodger Koopman and Russ Stephenson have all expressed their displeasure with water rates increasing and are likely to press hard for the city to find some way to spare residents a rate increase this year. Meeker made his position clear in Monday's speech. 

The Rev. Melvin Whitley asked the Durham City Council to support his "bullet ownership bill" Thursday, and got a mixed reception.

While council member Howard Clement and Mayor Pro-Tem Cora Cole-McFadden expressed enthusiastic support, council member Eugene Brown said, "There are lot more things that we can do that might pass constitutional muster and legislative muster and do a lot more good."

The City Council Legislative Committee will meet on Thursday at 3:30 p.m. in the Committee Room located on the second floor in City Hall.

City Clerk Ann Gray made the announcement late Tuesday afternoon.

The meeting, at which council members are expected to discuss Rev. Melvin Whitley's "Bullet Ownership Bill," had been postponed from last week.

When the Raleigh City Council approved a controversial new registration fee for landlords in June, it was supposed to go into effect in early January 2009. But Robert Spruill, the city's housing inspections administrator, said this week that the city would not begin registering landlords until March at the earliest.

The new fee is related to the city's PROP, or Probationary Rental Occupancy Permit, ordinance. It will require landlords to pay $30 annually for their first registered unit and $10 for each additional unit registered in the same dwelling. The money will be used to create a database of rental properties and to hire a four-person team to deal with landlords who run afoul of the PROP.

The city estimates that about half of Raleigh's 154,000 residential units are rental properties, which means the new fees will generate more than $775,000 annually. The City Council voted 5-3 to adopt the fee in June. Opponents said the fee is excessive and will just be passed on to tenants.

The landlord database is supposed to make it easier for the city to identify problem landlords. A landlord enters the PROP program if he or she accumulates a certain number of housing code violations at a property.

Each landlord in the program is required to get a permit, pay $500 a year for two years and attend rental management classes. Since the ordinance was adopted in 2005, 20 properties have received enough violations to qualify.

Spruill said the city's Public Affairs Department will lead a campaign to let landlords know when the registration period begins. He said landlords will likely have about two months to register their rental properties with the city.

On Tuesday night, a crowd will gather at City Hall to protect one of Southeast Raleigh's oldest treasures: the Chavis Park carousel.

Built circa 1920 and placed in the Southeast park in 1937, the carousel's hand-carved animals are rivaled only by the older merry-go-round in Pullen Park 2 miles to the west.

Supporters of the park resist the city's plans to move it from its historic spot to a new home within the park, and they are also pushing for improvements that would bring the park back to its glory days when it was segregated and used by blacks from all over the state. Backers hope to bring back a kiddie train, which Pullen still has, and a Tuskegee Airman-style plane from World War II, which also used to grace Chavis.

 The meeting begins at City Hall at 222 W. Hargett St. at 7 p.m. Supporters ask that Chavis backers arrive 15 minutes early to occupy the front rows.

Violent crime in Durham continued an upward trend in August, prompting several city council members to vent some frustration Thursday.

"The trend doesn't look good," said Mayor Bill Bell.

When City Councilman Thomas Crowder took his colleagues on a 5 p.m. bus tour earlier this month, he could have easily still been at work.
At each stop on the 90-minute tour Crowder, founder of the Raleigh architecture firm Architekturpa, explained why the property in question represented some the worst in modern urban architecture.
“Quality construction,” Crowder said sarcastically at one point in the tour.
Focusing on, and debating, the aesthetics of development in Raleigh has become a staple of this City Council, largely because of the presence of Crowder and Councilman Russ Stephenson, who is also an architect with his own practice.
While their frequent trumpeting of the urban form is welcomed by many, it also has its critics.
Philip Isley, the only council member who was unable to attend Crowder’s tour, said he frequently hears complaints from developers who say Crowder and Stephenson want to redesign projects they don’t like.
Their objections can be particularly infuriating for developers who have spent months, even years, working to meet the recommendations of the city’s Planning Department and the Planning Commission.
“Sometimes the desire to get everything just perfect, as architects do, becomes maddening,” Isley said.
Councilman Rodger Koopman, who admits to being a layman when it comes to architecture, said he understands the frustration some developers must feel.
“At the same time, I don’t think it’s a bad thing if it forces developers to pay attention to the aesthetic component,” Koopman said.
Koopman also notes that Crowder and Stephenson each represent one vote on the 8-person council, meaning their support is not required for a project to get approval.
Crowder and Stephenson were both elected to the council after serving on the Planning Commission. Crowder joined as the District D representative in 2003; Stephenson as one of two at-large members in 2005.
Each has shown a willingness to raise aesthetic concerns about a wide range of projects — with varying degrees of success.

* In 2006, Crowder crusaded for the use of stone walls instead of synthetic stucco on the new Marriott Hotel along Fayetteville Street. Although he failed to excise all the stucco from the project, the developer did eventually agree to trimming back the stucco to 25 percent of the hotel’s exterior, all of it on the upper floors.

* In September, Crowder held up the approval of a new McDonalds on Peace Street because he felt the design could be more pedestrian-friendly. A McDonalds representative said only stores in Manhattan and Brooklyn had the characteristics Crowder was seeking. Crowder said he’d seen them in Tennessee. The council approved the project, with Stephenson and Crowder voting against it.

* Last month, Stephenson wanted to delay approval of the Powerhouse Plaza project in downtown’s Glenwood South district because of concerns about how the facade on a parking deck would look. Mayor Charles Meeker pointed out that, in addition to meeting the city’s current standards, the developer had already agreed to make changes to the facade that will be visible at street level. The council approved the 11-story project with only Stephenson voting against it.

Crowder and Stephenson deny they are against projects that doesn’t meet their personal architectural standards.
“We’re not here trying to impose a personal critique on every project that goes through,” Crowder said. “I see it as helping to educate.”
Stephenson said he doesn’t prefer one architectural style over another — rather, he just wants something that improves the surrounding community. He said he’s trying to raise the bar for what kinds of developments get built in Raleigh.
“For a long time, there was this idea that we were just Raleigh. We can’t aspire to being a really top-notch city,” Stephenson said. “I think that’s changing. I think people want more and expect more.”
Even Isley admits that, as one of two lawyers on the council, people could make the same argument against him and Mayor Charles Meeker as they do against Stephenson and Crowder.
“I’m sure people look at the mayor and me and say ‘they’re meddling in things that we don’t need to be meddling in,’” Isley said.
And if enough Raleigh voters become convinced that two architects is too much, there’s always the ballot box.
“The whole notion behind elected officials is that they will be representative of the community,” said Gordon Whitaker, a professor of public administration and government at UNC-Chapel Hill’s School of Government. “It’s up to the voters to decide which they want to have representing them.”

Mayor Charles Meeker opened yesterday's City Council meeting by discussing the Wake County Board of Commissioner's recent rejection of stricter development rules in the Little River Watershed. "It's not a situation where all is lost," Meeker told the council.

But he also said that it is not at all clear that adopting the minimum requirements in Little River will be adequate. Meeker proposed a 3-step plan to try to persuade county commissioners to reconsider their recent decision, which was unanimous.

Basically, the plan involves reminding Wake County folks of the years of cooperation between Raleigh and the county to get the Little River project this far; a discussion between City Manager Russell Allen and his county counterpart, David Cooke; and a meeting between the county commissioners and Meeker, Councilor James West and the mayors of Wake Forest and Garner.

What's striking about these steps is how easily they could have been taken before the county commissioners voted on the tougher restrictions.

All told, last week was a bad week for Raleigh's interests in the surrounding watersheds. In addition to the Little River vote, the state Environmental Management Commission last week issued the city a notice of violation for failing to adopt tougher rules in the Richland Creek Watershed in North Raleigh. (Scroll down to the 5th action item on the EMC's agenda.) The city now has 120 days to get in compliance. Getting in compliance means adopting stricter development rules that will impact 4,994 property owners located in Northeast Raleigh, including neighborhoods like Wakefield and Falls River. The rules would make it harder for those owners to add a deck or build an addition.

Raleigh has been trying to convince the state for four years that the tougher restrictions are not necessary, but their long struggle appears over. The new rules are designed to protect a possible source of drinking water on the Neuse River at the old Burlington Mills textile plant off Capital Boulevard. Nobody is using the water now, though Franklin County has expressed interest in tapping it.