Raleigh must protect residents along new BRT line from gentrification | Opinion
Raleigh is at a crossroads. Our city is undergoing significant changes. Newcomers are drawn to our city for opportunities, but we must carefully navigate the path ahead, particularly when it comes to the proposed Transit Overlay District (TOD) along the New Bern Bus Rapid Transit corridor.
In envisioning Raleigh’s future, it’s crucial that every resident, regardless of background, can find affordable housing and maintain the homes they’ve owned for generations. Our vision extends to a community where residents, Black, brown or white, can easily access local amenities such as grocery stores, churches and transit options, allowing our children to bike to school safely.
But as more people move here, our housing shortage gets more acute. New research from Zillow estimates that Raleigh is short 17,000 homes. A lot of people are competing over too-few places to live. And when there isn’t enough to go around, you know Black and brown families get the short end of the stick.
The pressing issue of a housing shortage, exacerbated by the City of Raleigh’s exclusionary zoning practices, disproportionately affects Black and brown families. Historically, zoning policies have played a role in perpetuating disparities, blocking new homes, and encouraging developers to replace older homes in historically Black neighborhoods with expensive McMansions. For nearly a century, these policies have excluded Black and brown people, low income residents and renters from neighborhoods with good schools, safe streets and grocery stores.
These zoning codes were introduced after the U.S. Supreme Court outlawed race-based zoning — accomplishing the same ends instead by reserving large portions of cities exclusively for single-detached houses on large lots, which only more affluent white people could afford.
Today, Raleigh risks making this zoning-driven displacement worse. Not, as you may have heard, by allowing more housing near the Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) corridor along New Bern Avenue, but by keeping the zoning status quo in place there.
In 2016, our community came together to adopt a plan to invest in better transit. As a community, we decided it was time to put long-ignored communities first for a change. As the City breaks ground on the New Bern line, BRT is coming to Raleigh, starting with our historically Black neighborhoods. Bus Rapid Transit can empower communities along New Bern, but not under the zoning status quo.
What happens when a disinvested area gets great new transit service? More people want to live there. And what happens when more people want to live somewhere but the zoning prevents new homes? A housing shortage, a rush on existing homes, old houses flipped into McMansions, and long-time residents getting pushed out.
We have an opportunity to rewrite this narrative in Raleigh. City council is currently considering allowing more homes and apartments along the transit line. Good! These homes can reduce displacement pressure and help more people live where they can walk or ride transit.
Community members are concerned about displacement along the New Bern line. I share their concern. But the answer is not to leave the status quo zoning in place. The city must address the history of exclusion and displacement head on. In the upcoming decision on New Bern Avenue, I implore council to adopt robust anti-displacement policies that safeguard Black and brown communities from further gentrification. Simultaneously, we must increase affordable workforce housing capacity along the transit line to alleviate pressure on our housing system.
Striking a balance is key. The city council should consider reducing the density of new homes in neighborhoods at risk of displacement while ensuring the capacity for significant new housing along the transit line.
Building more homes in the corridor where transit will be — especially more subsidized affordable housing, with every neighborhood along the line sharing in some of the redevelopment — can help lead to the future we all want: a Raleigh with homes for all its residents.
Denzel Burnside is Executive Director of WakeUP Wake County.
