The faces of homelessness

Homeless people talk about their experiences with county services. This is the second part in a two-part series on gauging Wake County’s efforts to help people facing homelessness.

Gauging Wake’s fight against homelessness

The recession continues and the news is rife with stories of struggles from board rooms to homeless shelters. Corporate cutbacks, unemployment extension and insurance losses abound, but how’s the recession impacting those who never had much to start with?

Wake County’s water quality report card

Tension is rife these days between Raleigh and Durham about Falls Lake water quality. Raleigh contends “its” water source – whose headwaters are located in Durham County – is dirty, getting dirtier and Durham allowed it to get that way.

Dirty water is neither cheap nor easy to clean. Raleigh may have to pay $450M to boost its water treatment plant’s cleaning capacity if Falls get dirtier. Durham likely would pay considerably more to clean Falls Lake. Finger pointing is all very fine, but everybody lives downstream.

WPTF, The story – Part 2

To mark the 85th birthday of Raleigh’s longest-running radio station, the Raleigh Public Record presents a two-part series on the history of WPTF. Part 2 looks at stories from the station’s long history and looks forward with owner Don Curtis.

WPTF, the story – Part 1

Happy Birthday to WPTF 680 AM, Raleigh’s oldest and (almost) first radio station. Since signing on September 22, 1924 at a mere 50 watts, the station has changed its call letters, frequency, air personalities and programming, but its impact lives on. Learn how WPTF influenced Raleigh and was influenced in turn as we look back at the city’s oldest radio station.

An interview with Maha Chambliss

Maha Chambliss has chaired the Raleigh Planning Commission through the development of the city’s 2030 Comprehensive Plan. She has served on the planning commission for the last six years, but her time on the board will end in January. As the comprehensive plan development process came to an end late last month, Raleigh Public Record contributor Chrystal Bartlett sat down with Chambliss to talk about her time volunteering on one of city government’s most important commission. Photo by Andrew Mayo.

Nancy McFarlane

Nancy Louise McFarlane
District A incumbent
Age: 52
Address: 8016 Selfridge Court
Hometown: Born in Washington DC, grew up in Falls Church and in Arlington, Virginia. How long Have you lived in Raleigh? Twenty-five years

What brought you to Raleigh? A job change. Actually, my husband was changing jobs.

Charles Meeker

Charles Carpenter Meeker
Mayoral incumbent
Age: 59
Address: 324 South Boylan Avenue
Hometown: I was born in Washington DC in 1950. How long Have you lived in Raleigh? I’ve lived here full-time since the summer of 1975, after I finished law school. I was here with summer jobs in 1970, 1972 and 1974. I didn’t live here full time until the end of May, 1975

What brought you to Raleigh?