The N&O tries to look out for your interests. Sometimes, policymakers take action.

The News & Observer posted a story Wednesday a week ago that gave you insights on what it’s like to live, work and play during 24 hours on Glenwood South.

A few days later, Raleigh police took actions in the Glenwood South neighborhood, letting the community know via Facebook that 14 guns had been seized and 36 arrested during the first weekend of August.

Aaron Sanchez-Guerra’s story provided these details:

The Raleigh Police Department “made numerous drug and quality-of-life charges” in the area, according to a Facebook post depicting seized firearms, cash, marijuana and other substances.

These charges included assault on a law enforcement officer, possession of a firearm by a convicted felon, open container violations, indecent exposure, careless and reckless driving and DWI charges, the post said. Raleigh police spokesman Lt. Jason Borne told The News & Observer that the charges occurred Friday and Saturday.

Was it coincidental or causal inference that The N&O’s reporting on Glenwood South intersected with Raleigh police’s decision to chronicle their actions?

I tried Pilates once and realized that any effort to excessively slap my back required more stretching followed by two Aleve tablets.

As my always-finds-the-best-in-others wife likes to say, “Good for them!”

Arrests on Glenwood Avenue

It’s accurate to say there was no cooperation. The N&O’s reporting on the many personalities of Glenwood South reflected a community interest. Your responses and our digital audience analytics validated this complex newsgathering project.

Raleigh police did their own assessment of Glenwood South’s “quality of life,” and perhaps their actions were serendipitous (for everyone except those 36 arrested).

I highlighted our newsgathering approach to Glenwood South in a column last week. I’m not a big fan of editor’s columns that skew institutional or have the excitement level of a defense attorney’s closing argument in an IRS tax hearing.

I’ve been writing this weekly column for about a year with the goals of:

1) Making it conversational and personable (or as a reader once described “not preachy”).

2) Mention The N&O’s connections with the topic (because, hey, that’s why you’re reading it).

3) Try to get it done before my column editors, Thad Ogburn or Brooke Cain, file a Missing Person report. (I write in spurts interrupted by meandering walks and cheeky conversations with anyone in a 2-mile radius.)

The don’t-be-preachy mantra isn’t easy because I’ve been an editor for a while and understand better than most that storytelling doesn’t happen the same way you order a pizza. Unless you’re ordering from a local pizza place that picks its own tomatoes and obsesses over the dough. There is no such thing as a 30-minute pizza if you include sourcing the ingredients. And there is no such thing as a 30-minute, one-ingredient story.

Differentiating our journalism

We talk often with our journalists about focusing on differentiated, essential ingredients in their reporting, writing and visuals. Your personal news stream is likely multifaceted and messy. How do we differentiate our journalism from others in a news stream that often feels like an angry ocean?

This is why reporting by Brian Gordon and Richard Stradling on VinFast’s new plant in Chatham County focused on impact and issues, such as why there have been NCDOT delays on roads to VinFast.

I hope you spent time with When Birth Brings Death, a News & Observer and The Charlotte Observer investigation on North Carolina’s troubling maternity mortality rate. N&O reporters Tyler Dukes and Teddy Rosenbluth dug deep into the data to reveal the public-policy gaps. Charlotte’s Lisa Vernon Sparks reported on the state’s high Black maternal death rate.

Will anything happen to speed up construction of the roads to the VinFast plant? Will the state’s public-policy approach change when it comes to protecting North Carolina moms?

Our job is to look after your interests, to be the public’s watchdog, to do journalism with impact.

If policy makers and state leaders take action, there’s no back-slapping here.

As my favorite person often says, “Good for them!” Because coincidence sometimes is a good thing.

Bill Church is executive editor of The News Observer.