The vote by the Raleigh City Council to dismantle Citizen Advisory Councils came as a big shock to many residents of Raleigh.
For nearly 50 years, these groups have provided forums for residents to speak out about various issues and give input to city council. A ground swell of emotion has taken root ever since that vote on Feb. 4.
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"The day this happened, I was bawling. I didn't realize how much this meant to me," said Christina Jones, who recently became chair of the Raleigh Citizens Advisory Council after getting involved three years ago.
As chair, she oversees all of the city's 18 councils, each representing a different part of Raleigh. The groups meet monthly and review all rezoning requests along with any number of community issues. The councils have had a dozen city staffers routinely working with them.
"And now that has been taken off, and now we're really a grassroots organization," Jones said.
Raleigh Mayor Mary-Ann Baldwin said the city is seeking a more effective way to engage a wider cross-section of residents, with plans to hire a consultant. Since the 6-2 vote, several CACs have passed resolutions to restore the groups.
Mike Lindsay is among a group of concerned residents who, after November's election, launched an online forum called "Livable Raleigh." It, too, is grassroots, calling on equitable growth in all neighborhoods and citizen engagement in city government.
"We've got our website up and running, resources people can go to," Lindsay said. "A lot of them are linked to the city's website.
"Right now, I do think we might be filling a gap."
Jones said CACs can keep on meeting even without sanctioning from the city, planting seeds for what's next.
"The goal here is engagement," Jones said. "So whatever that looks like, CACs want to be part of that. We want to be there to support them."
The city will keep the CACs going for another couple of weeks to address outstanding zoning issues. Livable Raleigh has a website and Facebook page and plans to have a meeting next month.