It’s been a busy few months to start the year as WakeUP Wake County has launched 2024 with new leadership, new energy, and a renewed focus on ensuring our area meets its rapid growth by prioritizing equity and sustainability. With current policies being decided around affordable housing, transit development, and expanding growth, we thought we’d take a moment to sit down with new Board Chair, Tom Barrie, to get his take on where WakeUP is headed and why now is such an important time for engaging the broader community into discussions around planning.
Can you tell us a bit about what this new era looks like for the organization and what makes you hopeful about it?
As an organization we are really excited to welcome our dynamic new Executive Director with Denzel Burnside. He brings a rich background in community organizing and campaigning, which is crucial to ensuring our work is successful in engaging community members and building partnerships that include diverse voices on issues.
In addition to Denzel, we’ve added 7 new board members who bring a diversity of expertise and community representation to expand our advocacy efforts in Wake County. They all live and work in this community and are passionate about making sure we are thinking toward the future with the decisions being made today. Our new executive community members round out the leadership transition. Bert Fox (Vice Chair), Hattie Gawande (Secretary), and myself have been involved in this work in a variety of forms for years. I have researched and advocated for affordable housing for most of my career and am inspired by WakeUP’s ability to effect proactive policies in this crucial area.
With so much development happening in such a big, diverse, growing county – why is WakeUP’s work important right now?
This is a crucial time for Wake County. Without a doubt, we will continue to grow at the rate that we have been growing the past few years. Our challenge is how to guide that growth to create an equitable and sustainable community for future generations. Our job is to help people see into the future. We need to think past today and recognize that the issues we face and the successes we celebrate today are because of the decisions made a decade ago.
WakeUP has been a leader in future-oriented education and advocacy for the last 17 years. This work has never been more needed than today. We provide dependable research and information on what the issues are and possible solutions, empowering residents and leaders to effectively participate in the decisions of our time. None of it is easy. These issues require the research, expertise, convening and collaboration that WakeUP provides. A nonprofit with the track record of WakeUP is essential to bringing all voices to the table and guiding the process so no one gets left out. We are an organization that can broker between cities, residents, and community partners to ensure the best results possible.
With 12 municipalities across the county, what trends do you see in the area of development?
Wake County is facing a constellation of interrelated issues that demand comprehensive solutions. It is our job to help our community see how they are all related to the bigger picture of our tomorrow. We connect the pieces of the puzzle of equitable and sustainable development:
- from guiding development that regenerates local cultures and places
- to affordable housing that supports an economic and cultural diversity
- to public, multi-modal transit that connects people to jobs and resources, supports affordable communities, and minimizes environmental impacts
- to protecting natural environments and water quality needed to sustain a quality of life where all can thrive
We can help leaders and residents understand that local identity, transit, housing, land use, and preservation of green space are connected to both the environment AND equity. It’s all interrelated.
As you mentioned, none of these issues have easy answers. What do you see as the roadblocks and impediments to making needed changes?
There are many. Local governments and governing processes are very slow. There is a lack of funding for things like affordable housing and public transit to achieve timely results. There’s also just a general lack of understanding around these complex issues – what is required to make change, and how decisions impact our lives and future generations. This is why WakeUP seeks to be a voice of facts and reason. I am most interested in the character of the positions we take to promote the greatest good.
In the end, local governing is challenging. There are no easy answers, nothing moves fast, and you have to keep your eye on the big picture. I hope we can help people stay the course and create the future we want.
You mentioned your new board members, what makes you excited about this cohort of leaders?
WakeUP, like many community-engaged nonprofits, suffered durin gthe pandemic. However, with new leadership and new board members we are positioned for the next chapter of leadership. WakeUP is ready to: stepUP and speakUP on the most important issues. I am inspired by the depth of passion and expertise of the board. These individuals are dedicated to making the world a better place. In addition to on-going board members, we now have local experts in the areas of: Water Quality (Sam Krop), Historic Preservation (Rodney Swink), Land Use Law (Harry Johnson), Sustainability (Nils Peterson), Aging Populations (Audrey Galloway), Land Use Development (Jonathan Blasco), and community convening (Chris Herndon).
This board is ready to compliment Denzel’s community organizing and campaigning skills to help educate and mobilize our community – so that as decisions are being made, people can feel empowered and trust us as a source that is research-based and ready to dig into the complexities to find solutions.
With all this new energy fueling WakeUP’s work, what does it look like for WakeUP to be successful in this new era?
I think WakeUP Wake County is successful as an organization if we:
- Are a trusted source for reliable, fact-based, research-oriented information
- Convene and bring together of various community partners, residents and city leaders so that all voices are included in the discourse
- Residents feel empowered to mobilize and take action: they have the information needed to make decisions for the future and know their role in making that happen
- Help sustain the efforts for the long haul of local decision making
I am very positive about the future of Wake County. Our cities are often cited as some of the best places to live in the country. Our enviable growth positions us to be a national leader in community engagement, innovative policies, and equitable and sustainable growth and development.