The INDY has learned that the three owners of Isaac Hunter’s Hospitality—which owns Paddy O’Beers, Common 414 and Coglin’s in downtown Raleigh—have been charged with wanton destruction of city property, specifically a city-owned bench, in an incident directly related to the city’s recent crackdown on sidewalk patios. There were no mug shots or handcuffs. Rather, […]
Jeffrey C. Billman
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Can the City of Oaks become the City of Spokes?
On Monday the city of Raleigh dropped its 2015 State of Bicycling in Raleigh report, an assessment of the city’s progress in fostering the bike- and pedestrian-friendly environment leaders so often talk about. The verdict? “We’ve got a lot of work to do,” says transportation planner Jason Myers. But at the same time, it’s important […]
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The INDY has a new editor but the same mission
There’s a red laminated card that was handed to new employees of The Independent Weeklyback when we were still called that, before City of Roses bought us in 2012when they walked through the doors. On it, in black text, was the mission statement: “To work at The Independent Weekly is to pursue these ideals: to […]
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The Carolina Comeback continues: North Carolina’s unemployment rate just ticked up again
So you guys remember how the sweeping tax cuts the Legislature passed in 2013 were going to make the state’s economic woes abate? And how these tax cuts worked so well, we need to do more? Yeah, about that. From a press release this morning from the N.C. Department of Commerce’s Labor and Economic Analysis […]
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PPP is straight-up trolling now: Presidential candidate “Deez Nuts” doing surprisingly well in North Carolina
The good folks at the liberal-tilting, Raleigh-based Public Policy Polling are out with another presidential survey this morning. It finds, unsurprisingly—although by rights it should shock the shit out of our sensibilities—that Donald Trump is still doing just fine with Republican voters in the Tar Heel state. Last month when we polled North Carolina and […]
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Half of North Carolina’s home health aides make less than $10 an hour. That needs to change
Kim Thomas is tired. Of course she’s tired. You would be, too, had you awakened before sunrise and spent the next 12 hours driving all over the TriangleRaleigh to Durham to Wake Forest to Youngsville and back to Raleigh, the same trip she makes every day, some 600 miles a weekto care for people who, […]
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DENR head takes a potshot at the EPA’s climate change plan
You remember a few years back, in 2013, when John E. Skvarla III, the new secretary of Gov. Pat McCrory’s N.C. Department of Environment and Natural Resources, had some deep thoughts about climate change, which maybe isn’t real, and oil, which maybe is renewable? (Neither of those things is true, by the way, but it’s […]
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180 minutes wandering downtown on night one of Raleigh’s outdoor-drinking crackdown
Friday, Aug. 14, marked the first night of Raleigh’s new sidewalk-permit restrictions. This was, you’ll recall, an effort to bring to heel the noise and litter and general bacchanal that some downtown residents (including and especially Empire Properties founder Greg Hatem) have been complaining about over the last year or so. These rules—the most contentious […]
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Raleigh bars tell the city where it can shove its sidewalk permits
In May, the idea was straightforward enough: Restrict sidewalk usage to restaurants, not bars, and not too late. After all, that’s what Austin does, and, well, if Austin jumped off the Brooklyn Bridge, Raleigh might have to do it, too. This proposal, you’ll recall, was roundly and vociferously rejected. The City Council punted to a […]
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The N.C. Senate, still crazy after all these years
Did you think the N.C. Senateour legislative version of the drunk uncle who forwards you chain emails about Jade Helm 15had wrapped up its crazy for this session? Ha! Don’t be ridiculous. Last Thursday, Jones Street’s resident geniuses unveiled a straight-outta-ALEC plan to essentially bake all of their terrible policy inclinations into the state constitution. […]
