Name: Christina Jones
Age: 41
Party affiliation: Democrat
Campaign website: https://christinaforraleigh.com/
Occupation & employer: Raleigh City Councilor, Residents of District E
Years lived in Raleigh: 15
1. Given the direction of Raleigh’s government, would you say things are on the right course? If not, what specific changes will you advocate for if elected?
I believe Raleigh is moving in the right direction, but progress has been too slow, and we still have more work to do as we experience rapid growth and our residents face a national affordability crisis.
For years, the city fell woefully behind in creating housing opportunities for people at all income levels. However, we’ve made progress by adding 5,800 affordable housing units since 2016, above the goal of 5,700 set at that time.
Ensuring adequate staffing for public safety personnel, investing in transportation and stormwater infrastructure, and implementing the Fire Safety Master Plan remain challenges. We have more than $900 million in unfunded stormwater projects alone.
During my time on City Council, we’ve made meaningful progress in addressing these past failures. We’ve approved more affordable housing, increased pay for first responders, funded the first increase in public safety staffing levels in a decade, moved forward with Bus Rapid Transit (BRT), and adopted a steady-state financing model for infrastructure that will allow us to take on more transportation and stormwater projects, more quickly.
Moving forward, as we increase our housing supply, I’ll continue to advocate for greater housing density paired with affordability in every corner of our city. At the same time, I’ll ensure that as we accommodate growth, we have the plans, resources, and funding in place to support that growth with existing and planned infrastructure, including transportation, stormwater, and public safety. This means considering factors such as investments in resilience and flood mitigation, access to public transportation, the Fire Master Plan, and emergency response times when evaluating rezoning decisions. It also means prioritizing higher pay for public safety personnel, filling vacant positions, and standing with our firefighters in their effort to secure separation allowance.
2. If you are a candidate for a district seat, please identify your priorities for your district. If you are an at-large candidate or running for mayor, please identify the three most pressing issues the city faces.
My priorities for District E will continue to be affordability, public safety, and community engagement.
Our district has the lowest share of affordable housing in Raleigh, and I’m working to ensure we provide housing that people at all income levels can afford. I’m proud to have helped lead the effort to bring the first fully affordable housing project to our district in a decade, Barton Oaks. This community will provide families earning between 20% and 60% of area median income (AMI) with housing they can afford within walking distance of local employers and small businesses, grocery stores, and medical providers, bringing much-needed walkability to an area of our city that has historically lacked it. Barton Oaks is a model for what affordable housing can look like in our district, and I’ll continue working with stakeholders to bring similar opportunities, as well as mixed-income developments, to District E.
I’m also committed to helping my constituents on fixed incomes access city grants for necessary home repairs, allowing them to remain safely and comfortably in the homes they love. At the same time, keeping our property tax rate among the lowest in the region is important to homeowners and renters in my district.
A big part of achieving this is broadening the tax base through responsible mixed-use development and supporting the small businesses that are so important to our community. We have many small, independent businesses in Five Points, Brier Creek, and along Glenwood Avenue that we can support by strengthening our grant programs to help entrepreneurs at every stage of their business journey, connecting them with talent through our workforce partnerships, and improving how we communicate with businesses and deliver city services. This also includes reimagining one-story shopping centers to increase density along transit corridors. Examples include Brier Creek and Townridge Shopping Center.
As it relates to public safety, I want to continue providing first responders with the pay, training, tools, and resources they need to keep us safe, including ensuring adequate staffing levels. One challenge for residents in District E has been auto break-ins, particularly in the Brier Creek area, and working with RPD to ensure Chief Boyce’s auto task force has the resources it needs to address this issue will be critical.
Addressing one of the most notorious right-hand turns in our district, at West Whitaker Mill Road and Glenwood Avenue, will also be a priority for me. There have been countless accidents at this intersection, creating a safety hazard for pedestrians and motorists, threatening the safety of Hayes Barton Baptist Church, and disrupting the Five Points Business District. We’ll continue searching for funding to implement the Five Points Streetscape Study, which will be essential to modernizing the area’s transportation infrastructure and making it safer for everyone.
During my tenure on City Council, I have prioritized community engagement and ensuring District E residents and businesses have a meaningful voice in city decision-making. I host monthly community meetings, where I provide updates on city issues, answer questions, and receive feedback from constituents, residents, and entrepreneurs. I also lead a monthly book club to help residents better understand city government; hold community agenda reviews before each Council meeting to discuss upcoming items; and created the Budget LEAD Collaborative, a group of residents who analyze the budget process, review city finances, and provide recommendations. After leading the effort to restore CACs, my colleagues and I successfully brought them back last year. I will continue these and other efforts moving forward.
3. What in your record as a public official or other experience demonstrates your ability to be effective as a member of the city council and as an advocate for the issues that you believe are important?
Whether it was working with the private sector and my colleagues to bring the first affordable housing project to my district in a decade, standing with residents to successfully stop a rezoning project on Edenburg Road that would have brought a commercial business into a residential neighborhood while reducing future housing options, bringing city-serviced trash cans to Five Points at the request of local small businesses to beautify the area and protect the environment, working with neighborhood leaders to restore CACs, or partnering with nonprofit, city, and county partners to house people experiencing homelessness, I have a proven record of building coalitions and delivering results on the issues that matter most to people across our city and that I care deeply about.
4. Raleigh voters will have the option to support a $101.5 million housing bond and a $101.5 million transportation bond this fall. Do you support the bonds? Why or why not?
“I strongly support both bonds. Policies from Washington and the State Legislature have made life less affordable for Raleigh residents while limiting the funding available to our city for transportation and affordable housing. That means Raleigh must identify other responsible sources of funding to make these critical investments.
The $101.5 million transportation bond will allow us to move forward with preparing for Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) while funding projects that will improve our roads and make Raleigh more walkable and bicycle-friendly. These investments will save people money, reduce emissions, and improve public health.
The $101.5 million housing bond will allow us to double down on our efforts to preserve naturally occurring affordable housing, build new affordable units, encourage mixed-income development, and finally provide dedicated funding for homelessness response. These investments will make a meaningful difference in the lives of people who simply want a safe, stable place to live that they can afford.
Best of all, these bonds will not raise property taxes on Raleigh residents. Because they use a steady-state financing model, the city has the revenue necessary to pay for them without increasing the property tax rate.”
5. As climate change leads to more intense rainfall, communities are at greater risk of inland flooding, such as the historic floods in parts of the Triangle caused by Tropical Storm Chantal in July 2025. How would you like Raleigh to address climate resilience, particularly flooding?
Overall, I believe we’re moving in the right direction in building a more resilient city by investing in green infrastructure that can help absorb greater amounts of water during flooding, proactively lower water levels at the Lake Johnson Dam, and implement prohibitions on development in protected floodplains. We also have technology that can predict where flooding is likely to occur ahead of time so that we can warn residents.
Whenever the City Council considers rezoning requests, I carefully evaluate their environmental impacts, including stormwater management, flood risk, and the long-term sustainability of new development.
As Raleigh continues to grow, we must encourage smart, sustainable development while avoiding sprawl that increases greenhouse gas emissions, strains our stormwater infrastructure, reduces our tree canopy, destroys forests and natural habitats, and raises energy costs for residents. I support any efforts to increase our tree canopy, incorporate green infrastructure and flood control into city parks, and help reduce emissions that contribute to climate change and environmental degradation.
6. After a decade of planning, Raleigh scrapped a proposal for the Six Forks Road widening project for bike and pedestrian lanes that would have been financed by transportation bonds that voters had already approved. In southeast Raleigh, construction on Phase 1 of the city’s Bus Rapid Transit system was delayed two years after the city initially failed to attract a bidder. How can city leaders ensure Raleigh keeps its commitments to voters and taxpayers and keeps projects on track from planning through construction, as well as within their budgets?
In 2017, the Six Forks Road project was set to cost around $40 million and was to be funded through a bond referendum. After delays from previous councils and the pandemic, that price tag increased to $120 million during my first term. We directed staff to value engineer the project and got that down to $56 million. A year later, that cost skyrocketed to $93 million, and we decided to cancel the project. The initial bond funding was reallocated to other projects around the city. Additionally, from the original Six Forks Road funding, I secured money for the design of a multimodal bridge to ensure that when the original project receives funding from the state, the city will be ready.
With regard to Bus Rapid Transit (BRT), the lack of bids was frustrating. The initial challenge was the large scope of the project, which failed to attract bids. Once staff broke the project into smaller parts to attract more bids, it worked. This is how we’ll operate moving forward.
Due to tariffs and other policies at the federal level, the cost of improving our city’s infrastructure has gone up in recent years. One of my most important responsibilities on City Council is helping oversee and vote on the city budget, including the capital budget, as well as providing oversight of city operations and major projects, including transportation infrastructure. I’ve always taken this responsibility seriously, and I will continue to do so.
The heart of your question is about preparedness and timeliness. We were unprepared for the cost escalation of Six Forks and the challenges of attracting a bidder for BRT. Moving forward, I want to work with my colleagues and staff to ensure we have contingency plans in place when unforeseen circumstances prevent an original plan from being fulfilled.
7. Last fall, Customs and Border Protection agents carried out immigration enforcement operations in Raleigh with no official warning to elected officials or the public. At the same time the Trump administration is working to ramp up deportations and curtail visas, while the legislature has passed laws requiring cooperation with ICE. What do you think Raleigh officials can or should do to ensure safe, welcoming communities for immigrants in light of these policies?
As the federal government intimidates immigrants and refugees and carries out cruel mass deportations, the City of Raleigh must remain committed to being a welcoming home for people from all backgrounds and countries; Y’all means All. I believe we have a moral obligation to support our immigrant neighbors during this moment of instability and ensure they are protected, included, and heard. On Council, I will do everything in my power to ensure that the Raleigh Police Department does not cooperate with ICE or other federal agencies in carrying out these cruel policies.
Raleigh currently offers cultural programming that celebrates our diversity and strengthens mutual understanding, free business training to support immigrant and refugee entrepreneurs, and accessible English language classes. In addition, our grant programs help underrepresented small business owners, including immigrants, pursue and grow their entrepreneurial goals while creating jobs.
While these efforts matter, I believe there is more we can and should do to support our immigrant communities fully.
This includes investing in organizations that provide free legal aid and settlement services for immigrants and refugees, improving the accessibility and reliability of public transit, especially for immigrants who disproportionately rely on it to get to work, and advancing environmental justice initiatives that ensure all communities, particularly those historically underserved, benefit from a cleaner, healthier environment.
8. Many local municipalities, including Cary, Durham, and Apex, have introduced moratoriums on new data centers in order to study their impacts and develop regulatory policies. Should Raleigh consider a data center moratorium like its neighbors or should it continue to evaluate proposals for data center projects that require the city’s approval on a case by case basis?
Raleigh has real rules in place to help mitigate the impacts of data centers, and that puts us ahead of many of our neighbors who are enacting moratoriums precisely because they don’t have that foundation yet. I understand the frustration behind the call for a pause, and I take it seriously, but a moratorium isn’t a ban. It’s a few months’ delay before the same question comes back: how do we get to yes on data centers? The real risk isn’t the timeline; it’s whether the public gets to shape that answer. So yes, I support a moratorium, paired with real work to strengthen our existing rules. What I don’t want is a pause that quietly ends with the same lack of public participation we’re frustrated about right now.
9. Last year, the Raleigh Police Department came under scrutiny for its handling of the investigation into the crash that killed Tyrone Mason. Additionally, a former senior officer was fired in May 2025; it was later revealed that the officer conducted illegal searches. How do you think the city should work to build trust between residents and RPD and what role do you think the council should have in overseeing the culture of the police department?
City Council must work with the Chief of Police to build a culture where our officers know that we value their service and heroism, want them to be safe as they keep our community safe, and are committed to treating them with the respect and fairness they deserve. That means providing officers with competitive pay and benefits, high-quality training, reliable equipment, and the resources they need to do their jobs effectively and safely.
At the same time, there can be no compromise when it comes to professional and ethical conduct, constitutional rights, civil liberties, or rejecting hate and discrimination in all forms. These are the basic expectations our community has a right to hold for those entrusted with the authority to protect and serve. When those expectations are called into question, impartial and appropriate processes must be followed to determine what happened. When misconduct or illegal behavior is substantiated, accountability must follow.
I believe community policing is essential to building trust between the Raleigh Police Department and the community. I’m encouraged by the work RPD has done in recent years to strengthen its relationship with residents through programs such as the Raleigh Community Police Academy, Coffee with a Cop, and Shop with a Cop. I have confidence in Chief Rico Boyce and his team as they work to keep our residents safe, protect civil liberties, and strengthen relationships between law enforcement and the community.
On Council, I’m proud to have appointed community members to the City’s Police Advisory Board, which serves as a liaison between Council and residents and helps strengthen communication, understanding, and trust between law enforcement and the community. The board also analyzes RPD policies and makes recommendations directly to the department. I will continue to use my oversight role to ensure our police department has the resources it needs while maintaining the trust and confidence of the community it serves.
10. How should the city of Raleigh address homelessness encampments? Have city initiatives such as the Bringing Neighbors Home pilot program been successful in your view? What more should the city do to address unsheltered homelessness?
Over the past year, I’ve had the chance to meet with residents of our city who are experiencing homelessness. I’ve gone to their community gatherings, heard their stories, and shared in their successes and setbacks. This experience has renewed my passion for combating inaccurate and offensive stereotypes about the unhoused and strengthened my resolve to ensure that they are represented at the Council table, so that public policy addresses their challenges and hopes.
I believe that we should expand our investments in housing and supportive services for those experiencing homelessness in collaboration with non-profit and county government partners, and look for innovative ways we can partner with other organizations and use underutilized property and dwellings for those experiencing homelessness.
The Bringing Neighbors Home Pilot Program has been enormously successful, with 90% of participants remaining housed over the last eighteen months. I would strongly support making the program permanent and expanding it. Our efforts also resulted in the City purchasing a hotel that has now been converted into housing for those experiencing homelessness. I believe we should be on the lookout to replicate this elsewhere in the city. The goal of this program is to transition it to a countywide program, where funding is presently available through Wake County’s Continuum of Care.
Moving forward, the City should continue working with the Wake County Continuum of Care and nonprofit partners to expand the Housing First model, which has helped people experiencing homelessness secure stable housing while providing the support they need to build stability, hope, and a better path forward. If approved by voters in November, the city’s housing bond includes a $12 million investment in homelessness response that will provide additional resources to strengthen and expand these efforts.
I also believe in our partnership with the Great Raleigh Cleanup, which provides people experiencing homelessness with an opportunity to earn a living wage of $18 an hour and receive a free meal at A Place at the Table in exchange for helping beautify our community and remove litter from our streets and parks. Programs like this provide meaningful work and dignity while making Raleigh a cleaner, more welcoming place for everyone.
In addition to utilizing city-owned land for affordable housing, I believe we should explore using city-owned land to provide temporary housing for unsheltered individuals as part of our Housing First approach.
11. As the city adds to its housing stock, how should it continue to address affordability? Do you have ideas on ways the city can work with housing developers or property owners to keep housing affordable for residents?
“As previously mentioned, I believe that as we increase density and housing stock in the city, we must provide housing opportunities for people at all income levels. Increased density, especially through the inclusion of mixed-income multifamily and missing-middle housing, can provide opportunities for middle-income families to afford housing. Already, approximately 10% of missing-middle units have been affordable, which is a higher percentage than in other rezoning projects across the city. While the implementation of missing-middle housing has been challenging in a few cases and may not be appropriate everywhere, it is an important part of our strategy to provide more people with housing they can afford.
At the same time, greater density and missing-middle housing alone do not address deep affordability. Negotiating for subsidized affordable housing through city-backed gap financing and federal tax credits, as well as preserving naturally occurring affordable housing, will be essential to addressing the needs of residents on fixed incomes. That means negotiating with developers and property owners during the rezoning process, approving mixed-use and mixed-income developments, and supporting budgets that allow the City to make financial commitments toward gap financing.”
12. Raleigh’s CACs have been fully restored, and the city has introduced civic assemblies for paid community outreach, among other measures. What more could or should the city do to engage and inform residents?
As mentioned in question 2, I’ve led initiatives to increase community engagement and include residents in the decision-making process. In the most recent municipal budget, we included $150,000 for the city to increase community engagement. Residents should work to ensure all of us in elected office listen to them and work with them to build the city we all want.
I’m thankful to our city departments, especially the Department of Community Engagement, for their efforts to inform residents and gather community feedback. Raleigh Neighborhood College, Raleigh Planning Academy, Citizens Leadership Academy, and Community Police Academy have been extraordinarily valuable in educating residents, strengthening collaboration between city government and the community, and building civic engagement.
I believe other city departments could benefit from offering similar educational and community programming. Giving residents more opportunities to learn about how their city works, engage directly with staff, and provide meaningful input can help build a more informed, engaged, and connected community. For example, a class focused on sustainability and the environment could benefit residents who want to make more environmentally conscious choices in their daily lives while also giving them the knowledge and tools to advocate for a cleaner, healthier city and planet.
I also believe we should empower our boards and commissions to play a role in community engagement.
13. How should the city address public safety downtown, including around the central bus station and Moore Square Park and in Glenwood South?
My number one responsibility as an elected official is to keep the people of Raleigh safe. While overall crime is trending downward, downtown and Glenwood South continue to present challenges, and residents are rightfully concerned about safety in these areas.
Overall, as we hire more law enforcement officers, we should increase patrols downtown. Our Downtown Raleigh Safety Ambassadors also play an important role in creating a safer environment, and we need to work with the Downtown Raleigh Alliance to ensure they are using best practices to keep residents safe. We should also invest in Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design (CPTED), including better lighting, visibility, and other improvements to public spaces that can deter criminal activity and help residents feel safer.
The challenge with the Moore Square Bus Station and adjacent Moore Square Park is that multiple entities are responsible for safety in these areas, and there has not been enough communication and coordination among them. Ultimately, we need greater collaboration and more consistent security coverage, and the City of Raleigh will need to take the lead in making that happen. I also believe there is an opportunity for Raleigh CARES and our nonprofit partners to proactively maintain a presence in these areas, assist people experiencing a crisis, and connect them with the resources they need. At the same time, we cannot blame our unhoused neighbors for the challenges at the bus station. The data shows that people experiencing homelessness are far more likely to be victims of crime than perpetrators. That distinction matters, particularly when some have sought to scapegoat people experiencing homelessness for the challenges in this area.
14. If there are other issues you want to discuss, please do so here.
