Raleigh City Council District E
David Knight
Are you an incumbent?
Yes
1. Do you support the City of Raleigh’s $275 million parks bond on the ballot this November?
Yes
2. Do you support the $353.2 million Wake Tech bond on the ballot this November?
Yes
3. Do you support the $530.7 million Wake County schools bond on the ballot this November?
Yes
4. What is your long-term vision for growth in Raleigh?
My vision for Raleigh’s future is focused on sustainable growth. Cities that are not growing are places where few people want to live. Any city with Raleigh’s highly desirable quality of life, excellent healthcare and schools, and strong economy will experience continued growth; the only questions that remain are how and where we will grow. Decisions that are made at the local level determine whether a region experiences urban sprawl - resulting in traffic congestion, poor air quality, loss of open space, and long commutes - or if that region will grow sustainably, with walkable neighborhoods, reliable transit and transportation choices, and vibrant mixed use centers so people can live near where they work, learn, and play. I believe city leaders must make principled land use decisions and infrastructure investments that support a thriving, vibrant, healthy city, and I look forward to continuing that type of leadership in my second term on Council.
5. What do you see as the city's number one challenge?
I think our number one challenge is to stay focused on what we must do at the local level to support sustainable growth. This is a challenge not only for elected leaders, but for business leaders and residents as well. Before I ran for City Council, I was often discouraged by city leaders who seemed to bury their heads in the sand instead of planning for the future. City leaders need to be pragmatic, thoughtful, and informed about how our choices today will impact our city and our region for years to come. While our national discourse related to politics and government can turn people away, local government can and should be a place where people come together and find common ground.
6. What are you hoping to achieve as an elected official that will foster a healthy and innovative business environment in both the near and long term?
One of the reasons I ran for city council was because I thought the city needed to focus more on small business support. At that time, I didn’t anticipate that a global pandemic would be the biggest challenge facing our small business community, but I’m proud that the City acted quickly to support local businesses throughout the pandemic. I think we need to take the lessons learned from the pandemic and continue to act quickly and responsively to the needs of our business community. This requires constant and open dialogue with business leaders and groups to ensure that city policies and programs are developed with them in mind. I am particularly proud of the work I have done to strengthen the City’s relationship with business groups and alliances. As the representative for District E, my focus has been on serving as the Council’s liaison to the Blue Ridge Corridor Alliance and working with the Mid-Town Alliance and Five Points Business Association. I’ve also had the opportunity to visit with the people at Raleigh Founded and learn from their perspectives on fostering innovation here in Raleigh. I think we need to help develop more of these groups and incubators to foster continued innovation in our local business community.
7. The Wake County Transit plan will expand bus service countywide, implement four bus rapid transit lines, and initiate a regional commuter rail system. What would you like to see the City of Raleigh do to complement or modify this enhanced transit service?
I’m thrilled to see the Wake County Transit Plan in action. The higher frequency of service, the new bus rapid transit lines, and planned commuter rail will go a long way in making Raleigh more connected and sustainable. I think the next step is to lead in shifting our community’s mindset towards transit. As service becomes more robust and reliable, we need more people to choose transit to get around our city. Making transit fare-free was a significant step towards that goal, as it makes using the bus easier to use and increases the cost savings gained by choosing transit. I will continue to advocate for fare-free, reliable transit and for enhanced connectivity with city sidewalks, bike infrastructure, and greenways.
8. How do you plan to involve the community in the decision-making process in our city, especially area businesses?
This is a critical question, especially for this year’s election. I am proud of the work we have done over the past three years to modernize our community engagement efforts, particularly by elevating the City’s Office of Community Engagement. This Office’s role is to ensure that every city department - Police, Planning, Transportation, Parks, and all others - has the support they need to engage the community in a comprehensive and inclusive way. We cannot return to the engagement methods of the past, which centered on the voices of a few.
I have been very intentional in my first term to engage with the business alliances in my district. I serve as the City’s liaison to the Blue Ridge Corridor Alliance and I meet regularly with the Midtown Raleigh Alliance and Five Points Business Association. Working with these organizations has allowed me to become familiar with the unique needs and challenges facing the business communities in these areas and to advocate for solutions at the city level. For example, the small businesses in Five Points have been struggling for years with the area’s outdated and unsafe infrastructure; I was proud to develop the concept for the Five Points Streetscape & Safety Study and to secure city funding for the study, which will help us determine a plan for improving safety and connectivity for Five Points. For the plan to be successful, we must ensure we are continually engaging the businesses who will be affected by the plan.
I am also proud of how we have engaged the business community in specific decisions that would affect them. Raleigh recently received national recognition for our work to update city rules for development in the floodplain, but this work would not have been possible without the support and input from homebuilders and land use professionals who worked with our staff to craft the new rules. The 2020 Affordable Housing Bond was successful in large part to the involvement of home construction and finance experts who lent their time to the effort. There are several other examples of how local business leaders have helped shape city policy, and we need to continue to find ways to engage Raleigh’s business leaders in city initiatives.
9. How will you balance increased infrastructure and personnel funding needs of the city while also addressing economic growth, affordability, and quality of life?
This question is really at the heart of what we do at City Hall. The City Council spends dozens of hours each year in our budget deliberation process, as we work to prioritize our community’s greatest needs and identify resources to address them.
If we view our infrastructure improvements and city workforce as investments, we begin to think about our community goals for economic growth, affordability, and quality of life in a different way. Investments in city infrastructure - water, sewer, stormwater systems, transit, roads, sidewalks, and parks - require us to look far ahead into the future to ensure what we build today serves us well in the years ahead. Similarly, we have to invest in our city staff with compensation, benefits, and training that equips them to serve our community now and well into the future.
By making the needed public investments in our infrastructure and workforce, we are creating the type of quality of life that attracts private investment in our city. Economic growth can be achieved while advancing affordability if we set the right course with our land use decisions, resulting in a higher quality of life for everyone in our community. The key to achieving these goals is to elect local leaders who understand how all of these factors come together at the local level and who are committed to our city’s continued sustainable growth.
Transportation/Transit – Continue to promote and implement an effective transit plan to optimize service delivery and position the city for ongoing growth.
Raleigh cannot be a world class city without robust, equitable, and reliable transportation options. I fully support the Wake County Transit Plan and believe we should continue to invest in high frequency transit, bus rapid transit, and commuter rail. Transit must be part of a multimodal transportation system that is safe and user-friendly, and I will continue working to accelerate sidewalk construction citywide, to expand our greenway system with new access points at strategic locations, and to build roads that prioritize safety and multimodal access.
Economic Strength - Create a business-friendly environment to attract, retain and grow business, diversify the economic base, and create job opportunities for all citizens.
This is an area that I have worked on for years in state government, and I’m proud to use that experience in service to our city. I believe city government can best serve its business community by providing a customer-friendly development and permitting process, revising outdated city policies and systems, and ensuring that local and women- and minority-owned businesses have opportunities to do business with the City. We must also focus on the factors that contribute to Raleigh’s highly desirable quality of life: continual reinvestment in infrastructure and city parks, addressing housing costs, and investing in transit and the public resources found in a world class city.
Affordable Housing – Develop an effective affordable housing plan through collaboration with the government, the private sector, the community, and individuals.
The City has developed meaningful partnerships with developers, non-profit housing providers, and the community in its efforts to make housing more affordable. Subsidized housing, partnerships with nonprofits like CASA and Habitat for Humanity, and building new affordable units along transit corridors are all important steps in addressing the housing crisis in our city. We also need to ensure that there are enough market rate rental units to meet demand, so that the market rate is not out of step with the median income.
Great Government - Promote a vision of a city government that partners with all levels of government to empower, protect and serve its citizens through a culture of respect, collaboration, and innovation.
Building consensus and putting people over politics is important to me and my work. I am politically independent for this exact reason; it will always be my priority to put the needs of the community over political ideology and to work with key stakeholders and changemakers regardless of their party affiliation. Raleigh must cultivate strong relationships with other local governments in our region, while working to represent our regional needs at the state and federal levels. My years of experience in state government provide me with the skills needed to represent Raleigh at all levels of government.
Growth and Sustainability - Establish a deliberate and realistic approach to address growth and mobility while preserving our environment and healthy communities.
As a lifelong advocate for sound environmental policy, I will always work for the protection of our natural resources. Sustainable urban growth helps prevent urban sprawl, which has disastrous effects on our natural environment. Raleigh can continue to grow sustainably if we prioritize multimodal transportation, smart land use decisions, and the preservation of open space.
Public Safety - Provide a safe, secure, and healthy community through coordinated, efficient, and effective public safety services.
Public safety is a core function and responsibility of City government. I have advocated for the city to increase pay for our first responders and will continue to do so, and I am pleased to have secured the endorsement of the Raleigh Police Protective Association.
We must also make decisions that cultivate safety throughout our community, rather than try to address all of our safety concerns through enforcement. I have worked to decrease speed limits on residential roads, accelerate sidewalk construction, and implement our new Vision Zero program to ensure our roads are safer for people. I was happy to advocate for the Raleigh Police Department’s first parks and greenway unit, which focuses on patrolling our parks, community centers, and greenway trails.
Social and Economic Vitality - Improve economic and social opportunities in vulnerable communities through strategic partnerships.
Raleigh has made significant strides in these areas in recent years, but our best days are ahead. We are investing more in affordable housing than ever before, and we have programs in several city departments that are aimed at serving the most vulnerable people in our city. I am particularly excited about the efforts of our new Department of Equity & Inclusion, and I look forward to the community learning more about their important work within our city government and beyond.
I believe that one silver lining of the pandemic was that we were all reminded of the importance of caring for the most vulnerable in our community and choosing to do business with our small and women- & minority-owned businesses. I hope we will all continue to carry those lessons moving forward.
Are you an incumbent?
Yes
1. Do you support the City of Raleigh’s $275 million parks bond on the ballot this November?
Yes
2. Do you support the $353.2 million Wake Tech bond on the ballot this November?
Yes
3. Do you support the $530.7 million Wake County schools bond on the ballot this November?
Yes
4. What is your long-term vision for growth in Raleigh?
My vision for Raleigh’s future is focused on sustainable growth. Cities that are not growing are places where few people want to live. Any city with Raleigh’s highly desirable quality of life, excellent healthcare and schools, and strong economy will experience continued growth; the only questions that remain are how and where we will grow. Decisions that are made at the local level determine whether a region experiences urban sprawl - resulting in traffic congestion, poor air quality, loss of open space, and long commutes - or if that region will grow sustainably, with walkable neighborhoods, reliable transit and transportation choices, and vibrant mixed use centers so people can live near where they work, learn, and play. I believe city leaders must make principled land use decisions and infrastructure investments that support a thriving, vibrant, healthy city, and I look forward to continuing that type of leadership in my second term on Council.
5. What do you see as the city's number one challenge?
I think our number one challenge is to stay focused on what we must do at the local level to support sustainable growth. This is a challenge not only for elected leaders, but for business leaders and residents as well. Before I ran for City Council, I was often discouraged by city leaders who seemed to bury their heads in the sand instead of planning for the future. City leaders need to be pragmatic, thoughtful, and informed about how our choices today will impact our city and our region for years to come. While our national discourse related to politics and government can turn people away, local government can and should be a place where people come together and find common ground.
6. What are you hoping to achieve as an elected official that will foster a healthy and innovative business environment in both the near and long term?
One of the reasons I ran for city council was because I thought the city needed to focus more on small business support. At that time, I didn’t anticipate that a global pandemic would be the biggest challenge facing our small business community, but I’m proud that the City acted quickly to support local businesses throughout the pandemic. I think we need to take the lessons learned from the pandemic and continue to act quickly and responsively to the needs of our business community. This requires constant and open dialogue with business leaders and groups to ensure that city policies and programs are developed with them in mind. I am particularly proud of the work I have done to strengthen the City’s relationship with business groups and alliances. As the representative for District E, my focus has been on serving as the Council’s liaison to the Blue Ridge Corridor Alliance and working with the Mid-Town Alliance and Five Points Business Association. I’ve also had the opportunity to visit with the people at Raleigh Founded and learn from their perspectives on fostering innovation here in Raleigh. I think we need to help develop more of these groups and incubators to foster continued innovation in our local business community.
7. The Wake County Transit plan will expand bus service countywide, implement four bus rapid transit lines, and initiate a regional commuter rail system. What would you like to see the City of Raleigh do to complement or modify this enhanced transit service?
I’m thrilled to see the Wake County Transit Plan in action. The higher frequency of service, the new bus rapid transit lines, and planned commuter rail will go a long way in making Raleigh more connected and sustainable. I think the next step is to lead in shifting our community’s mindset towards transit. As service becomes more robust and reliable, we need more people to choose transit to get around our city. Making transit fare-free was a significant step towards that goal, as it makes using the bus easier to use and increases the cost savings gained by choosing transit. I will continue to advocate for fare-free, reliable transit and for enhanced connectivity with city sidewalks, bike infrastructure, and greenways.
8. How do you plan to involve the community in the decision-making process in our city, especially area businesses?
This is a critical question, especially for this year’s election. I am proud of the work we have done over the past three years to modernize our community engagement efforts, particularly by elevating the City’s Office of Community Engagement. This Office’s role is to ensure that every city department - Police, Planning, Transportation, Parks, and all others - has the support they need to engage the community in a comprehensive and inclusive way. We cannot return to the engagement methods of the past, which centered on the voices of a few.
I have been very intentional in my first term to engage with the business alliances in my district. I serve as the City’s liaison to the Blue Ridge Corridor Alliance and I meet regularly with the Midtown Raleigh Alliance and Five Points Business Association. Working with these organizations has allowed me to become familiar with the unique needs and challenges facing the business communities in these areas and to advocate for solutions at the city level. For example, the small businesses in Five Points have been struggling for years with the area’s outdated and unsafe infrastructure; I was proud to develop the concept for the Five Points Streetscape & Safety Study and to secure city funding for the study, which will help us determine a plan for improving safety and connectivity for Five Points. For the plan to be successful, we must ensure we are continually engaging the businesses who will be affected by the plan.
I am also proud of how we have engaged the business community in specific decisions that would affect them. Raleigh recently received national recognition for our work to update city rules for development in the floodplain, but this work would not have been possible without the support and input from homebuilders and land use professionals who worked with our staff to craft the new rules. The 2020 Affordable Housing Bond was successful in large part to the involvement of home construction and finance experts who lent their time to the effort. There are several other examples of how local business leaders have helped shape city policy, and we need to continue to find ways to engage Raleigh’s business leaders in city initiatives.
9. How will you balance increased infrastructure and personnel funding needs of the city while also addressing economic growth, affordability, and quality of life?
This question is really at the heart of what we do at City Hall. The City Council spends dozens of hours each year in our budget deliberation process, as we work to prioritize our community’s greatest needs and identify resources to address them.
If we view our infrastructure improvements and city workforce as investments, we begin to think about our community goals for economic growth, affordability, and quality of life in a different way. Investments in city infrastructure - water, sewer, stormwater systems, transit, roads, sidewalks, and parks - require us to look far ahead into the future to ensure what we build today serves us well in the years ahead. Similarly, we have to invest in our city staff with compensation, benefits, and training that equips them to serve our community now and well into the future.
By making the needed public investments in our infrastructure and workforce, we are creating the type of quality of life that attracts private investment in our city. Economic growth can be achieved while advancing affordability if we set the right course with our land use decisions, resulting in a higher quality of life for everyone in our community. The key to achieving these goals is to elect local leaders who understand how all of these factors come together at the local level and who are committed to our city’s continued sustainable growth.
Transportation/Transit – Continue to promote and implement an effective transit plan to optimize service delivery and position the city for ongoing growth.
Raleigh cannot be a world class city without robust, equitable, and reliable transportation options. I fully support the Wake County Transit Plan and believe we should continue to invest in high frequency transit, bus rapid transit, and commuter rail. Transit must be part of a multimodal transportation system that is safe and user-friendly, and I will continue working to accelerate sidewalk construction citywide, to expand our greenway system with new access points at strategic locations, and to build roads that prioritize safety and multimodal access.
Economic Strength - Create a business-friendly environment to attract, retain and grow business, diversify the economic base, and create job opportunities for all citizens.
This is an area that I have worked on for years in state government, and I’m proud to use that experience in service to our city. I believe city government can best serve its business community by providing a customer-friendly development and permitting process, revising outdated city policies and systems, and ensuring that local and women- and minority-owned businesses have opportunities to do business with the City. We must also focus on the factors that contribute to Raleigh’s highly desirable quality of life: continual reinvestment in infrastructure and city parks, addressing housing costs, and investing in transit and the public resources found in a world class city.
Affordable Housing – Develop an effective affordable housing plan through collaboration with the government, the private sector, the community, and individuals.
The City has developed meaningful partnerships with developers, non-profit housing providers, and the community in its efforts to make housing more affordable. Subsidized housing, partnerships with nonprofits like CASA and Habitat for Humanity, and building new affordable units along transit corridors are all important steps in addressing the housing crisis in our city. We also need to ensure that there are enough market rate rental units to meet demand, so that the market rate is not out of step with the median income.
Great Government - Promote a vision of a city government that partners with all levels of government to empower, protect and serve its citizens through a culture of respect, collaboration, and innovation.
Building consensus and putting people over politics is important to me and my work. I am politically independent for this exact reason; it will always be my priority to put the needs of the community over political ideology and to work with key stakeholders and changemakers regardless of their party affiliation. Raleigh must cultivate strong relationships with other local governments in our region, while working to represent our regional needs at the state and federal levels. My years of experience in state government provide me with the skills needed to represent Raleigh at all levels of government.
Growth and Sustainability - Establish a deliberate and realistic approach to address growth and mobility while preserving our environment and healthy communities.
As a lifelong advocate for sound environmental policy, I will always work for the protection of our natural resources. Sustainable urban growth helps prevent urban sprawl, which has disastrous effects on our natural environment. Raleigh can continue to grow sustainably if we prioritize multimodal transportation, smart land use decisions, and the preservation of open space.
Public Safety - Provide a safe, secure, and healthy community through coordinated, efficient, and effective public safety services.
Public safety is a core function and responsibility of City government. I have advocated for the city to increase pay for our first responders and will continue to do so, and I am pleased to have secured the endorsement of the Raleigh Police Protective Association.
We must also make decisions that cultivate safety throughout our community, rather than try to address all of our safety concerns through enforcement. I have worked to decrease speed limits on residential roads, accelerate sidewalk construction, and implement our new Vision Zero program to ensure our roads are safer for people. I was happy to advocate for the Raleigh Police Department’s first parks and greenway unit, which focuses on patrolling our parks, community centers, and greenway trails.
Social and Economic Vitality - Improve economic and social opportunities in vulnerable communities through strategic partnerships.
Raleigh has made significant strides in these areas in recent years, but our best days are ahead. We are investing more in affordable housing than ever before, and we have programs in several city departments that are aimed at serving the most vulnerable people in our city. I am particularly excited about the efforts of our new Department of Equity & Inclusion, and I look forward to the community learning more about their important work within our city government and beyond.
I believe that one silver lining of the pandemic was that we were all reminded of the importance of caring for the most vulnerable in our community and choosing to do business with our small and women- & minority-owned businesses. I hope we will all continue to carry those lessons moving forward.
