Megan Patton, candidate for Raleigh City Council District B

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 District B candidate Megan Patton answered the questionnaire. There are five people whose names will appear on the ballot, including candidate Zainab Baloch who dropped out of the race in September.

Incumbent David Cox is not seeking another term for the northeast Raleigh seat. District B candidates are elected only by people within the district 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: Megan Patton

Age: 34

Occupation: I manage a customer service department.

Education: I earned my BA in Education from UNC-Chapel Hill

Endorsements (limit to three): I am endorsed by the Wake County Democratic Party, the AFL-CIO, and the Sierra Club (among others).

Previous political or civic experience? I’m an active member of Moms Demand Action, my neighborhood HOA, and the school PTA. I’ve called my representatives, run events at school, and organized meal trains and home care assistance for neighbors in need. I firmly believe that acts of advocacy and community building at the most local levels have deep and resounding impacts on our daily lives and society as a whole.

Campaign website: PattonForRaleigh.com

How do you identify your political ideology? I identify as a Democrat.

How would you add diversity to the City Council? I’m a young, working-class mom. I have a shared story with so many folks living in Raleigh — working multiple jobs to make ends meet, working nights to subvert the astronomical cost of child care, living with family when we couldn’t afford to live on our own. These experiences have shaped who I am and how I view public policy.

What is your favorite locally owned restaurant either in the city or within your district? I love Heyday Brewing — they bring a great “watering hole” energy to our neighborhood. (And great food and beer!)

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

No. I support lowering the city’s speed limit in areas where it makes sense: heavily pedestrian and bike areas like downtown and residential neighborhoods. However, I think that high-traffic areas such as parts of Capital Boulevard that are not currently well suited for bike and pedestrian traffic can maintain a higher speed limit.

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

No. Though often cited as building community and helping to forge a collective identity, sports stadiums are a documented drain on city resources and taxes. The area of the proposed stadium is already an area of rampant gentrification and displacement. I don’t support initiatives that would drive our budgetary focus away from improving the lives of everyday folks.

Do you support reinstating Citizen Advisory Councils?

Yes. I support the reinstatement of a version of CACs. I’d like to see them broken down to the community center level so they can serve a smaller, more representative population and be more responsive to the needs of individual communities. Neighborhood meetings are an important component toward ensuring that we are comprehensively engaging the community, but they’re only one component of community engagement — the presence, availability, and proactive outreach of councilors are also critical.

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

No. While I support finding ways to better compensate officers, public safety in Raleigh already receives more than 1/3 of the entire city budget at $124 million. I support working with federal and state leaders on efforts to absorb some costs from municipalities so that localities can focus on wages. I want to ensure we are keeping our city safe, while also investing in programs that make our communities safer in the long term, like housing and wrap-around services.

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

Yes. It is imperative that we find ways to increase the salary of our city’s first responders, especially those who are veteran public safety staff — the brokers of institutional knowledge. It’s no secret that communities are safer when first responders live in the places they serve, and it’s incumbent upon the city to ensure that they can afford to do just that. Recruitment and retention efforts rely on us finding funds for higher compensation.

Will you support keeping city buses fare-free indefinitely?

Yes. Though fare costs are not often the single biggest determinant of whether folks ride the bus, if we can find a way to continue to offer this service free of charge, we should. More importantly, we need to make sure that we are routing buses to the locations where people need to go. We must also prioritize placing shelters and benches at existing stops even as we build new stops. We must also pay our drivers well and combat the driver shortage that has resulted in reduced frequency of routes.

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

The candidate chose not to answer this question.

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

Yes. People should be able to access their health care without being heckled by protesters. The city should also be doing everything within its power to ensure access to comprehensive reproductive health care and family planning for city staff (and residents).

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

No. I do support housing variety, in-fill development and density in some areas as ways of creating space for our new neighbors. However, what I hear from residents is that they just want answers to “how will this impact traffic” or “is there a plan for the stormwater.” These are reasonable questions. I believe there are ways we can improve the rezoning system procedurally in such a way that we are answering these questions for existing neighbors while also creating space for our new neighbors.

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

The candidate chose not to answer this question.

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

Yes. We must continue to build permanent supportive housing for our most vulnerable neighbors. We must enhance our use of community land trusts and get creative with existing land-use tools like overlay districts, to create permanent affordability. We must reduce barriers to homeownership by doubling down on home-buyers assistance programs, and find relief for longtime residents who are burdened by rising property taxes.

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

Yes. We must accelerate projects like Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) and Greater Triangle Commuter Rail (GTCR). Further investment in reliable, convenient transit would allow non-driving folks to reach jobs, grocery stores, and medical services. This would also decrease traffic density so folks who still need to drive. While we work on BRT and GTCR, we must also do more to protect affordability along these corridors — both for the folks who already live there and for those who would move to be closer.

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

Yes. Though it may not be realistic for many folks right now, especially for those in less dense areas like much of District B, we should aspire to develop citywide transit that makes it feasible to live anywhere in Raleigh and have access to reliable and timely transportation. So while we continue to build all parts of our city toward goals like this, we also need to continue investing in infrastructure that accommodates all types of road use.

A douncil-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. Raleigh is growing every day. There have been five districts since the 1970s, and in those 50 years our population has increased fivefold. Adding a seat would reduce the size of the population represented by each councilor, in turn enabling them to be even more embedded in and accessible to their communities. If the council were to undertake that work, they would need to simultaneously endeavor for independent redistricting that prevents gerrymandering.

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

The candidate chose not to answer this question.

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

Ensuring that Raleigh’s working class isn’t priced out of the city involves both housing and wages. We must continue to advocate to our federal and state-level partners to increase the minimum wage, or at least free up municipalities to do so, and we need to explore partnerships with businesses that prioritize livable wages for their employees. As an employer, the city of Raleigh can lead the charge by raising pay for city workers. Raleigh can also invest in workforce housing targeted to ensure reasonable rents and home prices for city staff and other essential workers. The city can advance efforts like Community Land Trusts that preserve affordability for generations to come, and advocate at the state level to allow inclusionary zoning. Taking advantage of and enhancing creative strategies, like the TOD density bonus, will allow us to both create density where it makes sense and incentivize affordability.

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?

There are many lessons to be learned in the past few years. With respect to COVID, I think one major takeaway is that alternatives to in-person, time bound meetings increase accessibility and engagement. I would like to see continued efforts to facilitate hybrid council meetings — there has been some questions about the legality of doing so, but I want to keep looking for a solution. This could expand to hybrid options for neighborhood rezoning meetings and meetings of commissions and committees. I’d also like to work with city staff to enhance use of social media beyond static posts and into engaging live discussions and eliciting feedback for residents. We know that more and more folks are gathering their news and information from social media, so I’d like to see us meet people where they are, be it at their doors or through their devices.

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

We must advocate, to our partners at the state, for a limit on the amount of due diligence money allowed during a home sale. Short of intervening and blocking companies from buying houses, we can work to make potential home buyers, regular folks, more competitive in the housing market by amplifying down payment assistance. Likewise, we should seek and implement tools that allow nonprofits (and the city) to be more agile in purchasing homes that can then be designated for affordability.

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

I would like to see Raleigh try something modeled after Durham’s HEART program. The HEART program embeds mental health professionals into multiple points of its emergency response chain. They have Crisis Call Diversion at the 911 call center, three-person unarmed teams that respond to nonviolent situations, and co-responder units that pair police and social workers for calls that may pose a higher risk. These programs are still in their pilot phase, but they have shown promising results. They are diverting responses away from officers, which serves a dual purpose of reducing negative police interactions and ensuring that officers are available to respond to the calls for which they are most needed.Currently, Raleigh has the ACORNS unit, which focuses on co-response. But this unit is small and hits fewer points in the crisis response cycle than HEART, which catches people at the moment they call 911. This is an upstream effort to keep communities safe that is worth investing in.

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

I feel the way a lot of folks feel: excited and concerned. I love that people are drawn to the same things that drew us back to Raleigh to raise our family, and I’m excited about the ways we all benefit from being a city on the rise — cool new businesses, arts, and culture. At the same time, I’m losing sleep about who we will leave behind, who we’ve already left behind. When I moved to Raleigh, I was a young mom who worked multiple jobs just to make ends meet. I’m not unique. This story is familiar to many Raleigh residents. But if we don’t hurry up and do something, our city won’t be available for people with stories like that.

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

In my first 100 days in office, I will work to get buffer zones around reproductive health clinics in place. The city has been working slowly on this, but the time is now for us to do our part at the local level to protect reproductive health care. This is a non-partisan issue, and we can follow the lead of other cities that have worked to protect sensitive spaces for all their residents.