I was doing a vanity search on the N&O website, looking for a story I linked to once but apparently no longer exists (the N&O has never fixed its linkrot problem), when I found a 2013 story in which Colin Campbell quoted me and I didn’t even know it. In 2013, after musing about two-way streets here, I had written City Council and urged them to consider getting rid of the one-way streets in East Raleigh:
From: Mark Turner
Date: 06/25/2013 07:57 PM
Subject: Please consider making New Bern and Edenton two-wayDear Madame Mayor and City Councilors,
I would like to respectfully request that you consider devoting a portion of transportation funds towards converting New Bern Avenue and Edenton Streets from one-way streets into two-way streets east of the Capitol. I strongly feel nothing would provide an economic boost to the east side of town as much as making these streets friendlier to local traffic and pedestrians and making them less like miniature freeways.
Thank you for all that you do for our city!
Respectfully yours,
Mark Turner
Colin quoted it in his story published July 1st, 2013: “East Raleigh’s New Bern Avenue could get a facelift”:
On the opposite end of the road, residents are talking about converting New Bern and Edenton Street to two-way traffic. Neighborhood leader Mark Turner floated the idea to the Raleigh City Council last week.
“I strongly feel nothing would provide an economic boost to the east side of town as much as making these streets friendlier to local traffic and pedestrians, and making them less like miniature freeways,” Turner wrote.
I usually keep up with my interviews but this was something I didn’t know got published. Glad the idea got a wider audience, at any rate. And, hey, nice to be called a “neighborhood leader” in print!