Last night, as part of the Cary 101 program, I had the honor of seeing democracy in action. I attended a council meeting at the council chambers and it was edge of the seat kind of stuff. I’m NOT joking at all.
A subdivision in Cary, Wellington Park, which is in District C, was asking for council to decline rezoning of a parcel of land from a daycare to a dentist office. Now this doesn’t sound edge of your seat interesting at first glance. But being there in person, with about 30 Wellington Park residents wearing red shirts and homemade signs asking to decline rezoning, and making tearful, compelling please for childcare for their neighborhood. It was the most beautiful display of democracy I’ve seen in a long time.
There was no yelling, no anger, just folks making their points, including the dentist, in a respectful way. And council said they were two pretty equal presentations by two pretty similar businesses. The reason they sided with the citizens is their reason was more compelling. And they gave the citizens marching orders, find a daycare to purchase this parcel soon, because if no daycare purchases, they will reconsider the dentist.
The celebration afterwards by the citizens, all wearing their matching shirts, was so awesome.
Do you love democracy like I do? Let’s grab a coffee to chat about making positive change for Cary!
Elect Amanda Murphy 