Jonathan Melton, candidate for Raleigh City Council At-Large

The News & Observer asked readers again this year to submit their questions for the people looking to lead Raleigh.

We received nearly 200 questions that covered a range of topics important to city residents.

We asked candidates for a yes or no response to 15 questions with a chance to fully explain their position. If candidates did not provide a yes or no answer, we didn’t include their fuller response.

We also included biographical and open-ended questions. Some responses were edited for clarity or length.

Here is how Raleigh City Council At-Large candidate Jonathan Melton answered the questionnaire. Melton, an incumbent, is one of seven candidates for two at-large seats. At-large candidates are elected by the entire city and serve two-year terms.

All eight seats on the Raleigh City Council are up for re-election.

Early voting for the Nov. 8 election began Oct. 20.

Name: Jonathan Melton

Age: 36

Residence: 216 Selwyn Aly

Occupation: Attorney

Education: B.A., NC State University; J.D. NCCU School of Law

Endorsements (limit to three): Wake County Democratic Party, Equality NC, NC AFL-CIO

Previous political or civic experience? Raleigh City Council, At-large (elected 2019)

Campaign website: JonathanMelton.com

How do you identify your political ideology? Democrat

How would you add diversity to the City Council? LGBTQIA

What is your favorite locally owned restaurant either in the city or within your district? Gallo Pelón Mezcaleria

The city of Raleigh lowered the speed limit downtown to 25 mph. Are you in favor of lowering the speed limit to 25 mph throughout the city?

Yes. Pedestrian safety increases as vehicle speeds decrease. We need to be building a city that prioritizes multimodal transportation.

Should the city help bring a sports and entertainment stadium downtown?

Yes. Like most growing cities, residents and visitors look for new options for sports and entertainment. I would support helping to bring a sports and entertainment venue into downtown, or closer to downtown. I understand there may be opportunities to look at this issue along with the proposed Convention Center expansion. We have dedicated sales tax revenue that already helps fund and maintain venues like PNC Arena. As these funds rebound, it would be appropriate to look for new opportunities.

Do you support reinstating Citizen Advisory Councils?

No. How we send/receive information has changed substantially since the 1970s when CACs were established; we have to do things differently. Community meetings continue to play a role; the city offers a neighborhood registry program where community groups have access to staff and community centers. But we must also work to increase access and engage more broadly. For a long time, community engagement in Raleigh was a noun, a place you had to go to engage. It should be a verb, an action embedded in our processes.

Would you vote to increase the police department’s budget?

Yes. The police budget has increased in recent years; some of the increased funding was allocated to retirement benefits, cost of living adjustments and merit-based raises, a greenway patrol unit, and a training facility. As we look toward the future of public safety, I think we need a well-trained, funded police department to address certain matters, while also elevating community oversight, funding non-sworn mental health professionals and social workers, and alternative response models.

Would you vote to increase the salary of the city’s first responders, including police, fire and 911 staff?

Yes. Investing in public safety must remain a priority as our city continues to grow so quickly. Raleigh, like many cities across the country, is experiencing staffing shortages. We can help address these shortages by providing more pay and benefits.

Will you support keeping city buses fare-free indefinitely?

Yes. I’ve pushed for and supported keeping our buses fare free since the onset of the COVID pandemic. We can’t go backward now. We do, however, need to address some rider and operator safety concerns that have been raised recently. I believe we can, and should do both. We must also continue to invest in increasing the frequency of our routes; a fare free bus that runs every hour still needs improvement. Frequency and reliability are keys to a successful transit system and should also be our goal.

The city has received numerous noise complaints about traffic and street racing. Is the city doing enough to enforce its noise ordinance?

No. I believe there’s always room for improvement. But I also think there are more ways to address this issue than just enforcing the noise ordinance. Reducing vehicle speeds and enforcing speed limits improves pedestrian and bicycle safety, and our built environment and infrastructure also play a role in how drivers behave. We should continue to invest in traffic-calming mechanisms to address this issue too.

Would you support the city creating a buffer zone around abortion clinics?

Yes. Access to health care is important, and this is a safety issue.

Do you support the city’s missing middle zoning changes?

Yes. Prior to the enactment of exclusionary zoning laws, most of our neighborhoods had this mix of housing. If you go to some of our oldest, most loved neighborhoods in the city, you’ll see examples of missing middle housing existing nicely with single family homes. We must open up more parts of the city to more types of housing, to alleviate some pressure on areas of the city already heavily burdened by increasing pressure of displacement.

Do you support the city’s $275 million parks bond?

Yes. As we continue to rapidly grow, access to green spaces becomes even more important.

Would you propose additional measures to address the affordable housing crisis for lower wealth residents?

Yes. No city has solved the issues of affordable housing and housing affordability, but I am certain we will not find the solution doing things the exact same way that got us into this mess. We must continue to look for ways to reform our zoning laws to provide more abundant housing, and increase our subsidies to provide affordable housing for those who need it most. One effort underway is using city-owned land for construction of affordable housing, including housing at 30% AMI.

Do you support Raleigh’s and Wake County’s efforts in bus rapid transit and commuter rail?

Yes. Raleigh, and this region should have invested in and planned for rapid transit decades ago. We’re behind now, but it’s not too late. Bus rapid transit (“BRT” often called light rail on wheels) and commuter rail will help connect residents to jobs and opportunities, while reducing car dependency, traffic, and environmental harm. It must be a priority now.

Should it be possible to live in Raleigh without owning a car?

Yes. You should not need a car to get what you need in Raleigh. For decades, poor land use planning divided uses (housing separated from employment and retail), and divided communities. Prior policy makers burdened our residents with increasing housing costs and car dependency, which increases the cost of living and contributes to climate change. It’s going to require changes to our built environment, a focus on multimodal transportation, and significant investments in public transit to fix it.

A council-appointed study group made a recommendation to add one seat to the Raleigh City Council. Do you support expanding the size of the council by a seat?

Yes. The size of our City Council has not changed in decades, while the population of our city has grown immensely.

Do you think the current City Council has put Raleigh on the right path?

Yes. Despite facing unprecedented, global and systemic challenges during this term, I am proud to have been part of a City Council that has passed substantial zoning reforms to address housing affordability and supply, passed an affordable housing bond, included renters in city decisions, allowed micromobility (scooters), enacted a comprehensive nondiscrimination ordinance, among other accomplishments. Raleigh, like most rapidly growing cities, has its challenges, but we are on the right path

What will you do to ensure Raleigh’s working-class residents don’t get priced out of the city?

There are two ways to address this issue, increasing supply and subsidy; I have been, and will continue to be, supportive of both. To increase supply, we’ve focused on substantial zoning reforms aimed to eliminate exclusionary zoning and to open up more areas of the city to more types of housing. Increasing the supply and types of housing, over time, will help stabilize and reduce costs while also reducing pressure on parts of the city already heavily burdened by the risk of displacement. But supply is only one part of the solution, we also need to increase subsidy for our most vulnerable and at risk residents. The affordable housing bond approved by voters in 2020 will help, including increasing funding for owner-occupied rehabilitation assistance (to help existing residents stay in their homes) and first time homebuyer down payment assistance (to help new residents build generational wealth). We also have the 1 cent sales tax that generates $8 million per year for affordable housing.

What lessons should the city have learned from public safety challenges like COVID, curfews and George Floyd protests? Would you propose any new policies or changes?

That was an extremely difficult time for our city and country. I believe staff and elected officials at all levels did the best they could with the information they had at the time. No one could have predicted the COVID-19 pandemic, but I think from the restrictions came some beneficial long-term policy changes, like permanent outdoor dining spaces. Regarding the protests, a lesson discussed soon after was better coordination with other law enforcement agencies. In Raleigh, the Raleigh Police Department was not the only responding agency; the Wake County Sheriff’s Office and State Capitol Police were there as well. As tensions escalated, the actions of one department had a rippling effect on the others and heightened tensions with the crowd, causing a failure to de-escalate and create a safe environment for peaceful protesting which resulted in property destruction and harm. Since that time, we’ve focused on ways to increase community conversations and alternative response models.

How can the city limit investment firms from buying entry level homes?

This is an issue we’ve asked the city attorney to investigate, but it’s likely this problem will require some assistance from the state government. I know this is a challenge many growing cities across the country are presently facing. I think we can look to our peer cities and see what, if any, strategies are working in other places. It’s already difficult to find a house in Raleigh, and when folks are having to compete with big corporations they aren’t engaged in a fair process. One strategy we can continue to pursue is ways to increase housing supply and choice through zoning reforms.

Describe a program in another city that you want the city of Raleigh to try. Please be specific.

It is difficult to identify a major program or policy from another city that Raleigh hasn’t already addressed this City Council term. For the past three years, Raleigh has been a leader in zoning reform and other policy changes, such as allowing accessory dwelling units citywide (ADUs), legalizing missing middle housing, eliminating parking minimums and establishing maximums, and reducing burdens on small businesses (removing the special use permit requirement for live/work, and allowing live/work in an accessory structure (ACU)), just to name a few. However, there are a couple programs that come to mind that I’d like to try: in Denver, there’s a program that offers e-bike rebate vouchers to help residents defer costs. The amount of the available rebate increases for lower income residents. And several municipalities out west, like Portland and Santa Cruz County, have developed low or no interest loan programs for ADU construction, if the ADU is made available as a low income rental.

Raleigh is the center of one of the fastest-growing metro areas in the country. How do you personally feel about that?

How I personally feel about it really doesn’t matter, it’s happening and we need to plan for it. Being a rapidly growing city certainly presents its challenges, but it also presents limitless opportunities. Many cities and towns across the country are losing residents. They can’t invest in amenities, parks, and other necessary services. We’re fortunate that so many people want to live in Raleigh, and so many companies want to invest here. We need to continue to plan for our growth, invest and prioritize transit and multimodal transportation, reduce car dependency, and use every tool available to increase housing supply, housing options, and housing affordability. Raleigh is a great place to live and will continue to be a great place to live if we embrace and plan for these changes by coming from a place of “yes.”

Name one initiative you’d propose in your first 100 days in office.

A zoning change to allow single room occupancy (SRO) housing construction in Raleigh. SROs are another type of housing option that were mostly zoned out of existence through the enactment of exclusionary zoning laws. SROs allow for a more affordable, shared living space, where residents lease individual rooms but share bathrooms and kitchens. This type of housing mostly exists now only on college campuses in the form of student housing. The few examples that still exist elsewhere predate zoning changes and lack fire and safety considerations. They’re obvious bad examples of an approach that could otherwise be helpful in addressing some of the city’s housing affordability needs. A council member in Philadelphia has recently introduced this proposal there, and we have asked our city staff to look at it as well. I expect the staff report will be ready sometime before the end of the year, and I am committed to advancing this initiative at the table early during my next term.