I spent part of my summer break from city council duties doing an unpaid internship at a local tree company. Raleigh is the City of Oaks, and we talk a lot about trees in City Hall, but there is much to learn...

One of the things I like about being mayor is I generally get to focus on day-to-day issues that matter to people rather than getting caught up in political abstractions. I do my level best to insulate residents from overhead political crossfire...

As a Tennessee native, Jack Daniels is my whiskey of choice. As Raleigh Mayor, City of Raleigh tap water is my go-to for daily hydration. The city even carbonated and canned city water as a time-limited option...

I got to ride on a City of Raleigh fire truck with Sparky the Fire Dog during the Carolina Hurricanes Stanley Cup Championship Celebration Parade. From my perch atop the truck, I had an incredible view of cheering Canes fans lining the streets, waving from on high-rise balconies, and crowding the windows of steel and granite office towers...

When I was a kid in Sunday School learning Bible stories, I never imagined that one day I would be mayor and NOAH would refer not to a man saving humankind and animals from a great flood, but to an acronym for Naturally Occurring Affordable Housing (NOAH). ..

GoRaleigh is Raleigh’s bus system. Founded in 1975, its goal is to ensure safe, frequent, reliable, and affordable mobility for its 7.5 million annual users...

There are almost 10,000 intersections in Raleigh, but just 200 account for approximately 50% of both fatal and serious injury crashes.

Raleigh had an average of 23 annual fatal crashes and 143 annual serious injury crashes during the five-year period of 2019-2023...

There is no single such poem that captures the character of Raleigh then or now. During our ‘State of the City’ address on March 18, we asked the crowd to share words that they associated with Raleigh. They said the following...

Speaking of words that feature prominently in our city, ‘affordability’ is high on the list. The city council and I understand that the 2021/22 spike in home prices, rent, food, and the general cost of living has exacted ongoing pain. We came out the other side of that spike with housing prices and rents up almost 50%...

Nate Silver is a statistician and political analyst who writes ‘The Silver Bulletin’. In a recent article, he laid out a taxonomy of three factions within the National Democratic Party: 1) the 'affordability' libs; 2) the 'abundance' libs; and 3) the 'resistance' libs...

As you know, Raleigh experienced two winter storms in the last two weeks. While both these storms had the capacity to do major damage, we avoided the worst. As well as we fared, I acknowledge frigid temps presented life-threatening conditions to those without adequate shelter and road conditions...

As mayor of the 39th largest city in the U.S. and one that has experienced some limited federal immigration enforcement action, my goal is to keep all residents of Raleigh safe and protect our First Amendment rights...

When I was running for Mayor in 2024, former Mayor Bradshaw and I spent an hour and a half on a Saturday morning talking over coffee at Carolina Café in the Village District. He gave me unique insight and perspective on what it was like being the Mayor of Raleigh in the 1970s...

I marked winter solstice by attending a Homeless Memorial. Fifty one people died in Wake County in 2025 as a result of exposure, illness, or accidents related to being unhoused. ..

There is still plenty more to do. As I file for a second term, I am clear-eyed about the challenges ahead: improving affordability, ensuring everyone in Raleigh feels safe, and balancing growth with environmental and community preservation...

I recently spoke about being mayor to a group of Cub Scouts, Webelos, and their parents in the community room of a local church. The kids peppered me with questions: ‘What’s your favorite color?’, ‘Why is the police dog named Teddy?’, ‘What do you eat every day?’...

Asymmetric risk, an imbalance in risk and reward, is a term I learned when I was NC State Treasurer. Positive asymmetric risk is when the reward outweighs the risk, the holy grail of investing. Negative asymmetric risk is when the risk outweighs the reward—for example, your cousin Bobby’s newly hatched bitcoin fund...

While NIMBY is a word that’s been around for decades, and YIMBY has been around for one to two decades, YIGBY is a term I only learned while running for mayor...

On a fairly routine basis, I get resident noise complaints via email. The most frequent is outdoor amplified music coming from clubs. Next is cars/ motorcycles with loud mufflers...

Downtown Raleigh is important to the city for many reasons: it is the historic heart of our city featuring the state capitol; it plays a strong role in our brand and reputation since it houses many of our most-visited...

‘Jesus Wept’ was painted on a sign that was swept off the wall of the Mystic Christian Girls Camp and washed up on the banks of the Guadalupe River in Texas this past weekend after more than two dozen...

My cat Leo woke me up a little after 3 am a few nights ago. I took him downstairs and was getting back to bed when I noticed unusual light and noise outside. I looked out the window and saw a large pickup truck idling...

The City of Raleigh just passed a $1.78 billion 2026 budget. This year was focused on taking care of public employees. The City conducted a salary study that showed City of Raleigh employees are ~14% below market...

When I was 21, I went to Moscow (picture below - it was the big hair era, what can I say…). During my time in the city, I rode the subway. I was impressed that the stations were highly decorated with chandeliers and...

Recent environmental disasters in the U.S., including floods in Western NC and fires in California, have prompted some residents to ask me, “How prepared is Raleigh”?...

I recently had the chance to be on a panel with Durham Mayor Leo Williams and Derek Thompson of The Atlantic, co-author with Ezra Klein of the book Abundance. The premise of the book is that to have the future we...

Last night, I delivered my first State of the City address as your mayor.

I’m excited to share some reflections with you.  You can also watch the full...

One of the biggest things a mayor in an American city must face is notifications of shootings and homicides. There have been five homicides in Raleigh since the stroke of midnight on January 1. The first homicide...

Yesterday, I had the honor of being sworn in as Mayor of Raleigh. My mother, Norma Cowell, held our family Bible as I took the oath of office...

I am honored to have been elected the next Mayor of Raleigh.

Since I declared my candidacy in January, I have been touched by how...