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Independent Weekly 10/24/01 "City
Council At-Large"
In the at-large City Council race, four candidates
are competing for two seats. The primary's top vote-getter, Janet
Cowell, fell just 199 votes shy of reaching the 25-percent-plus-one
total needed to win outright. The three other runoff qualifiers
are second-place finisher and Raleigh Planning Commission chair
Neal Hunt, incumbent Mort Congleton and former mayoral candidate
Venita Peyton. It is our sincere hope that Cowell, an associate
director for the Common Sense Foundation and a strong advocate of
citizen involvement, environmental causes and controlled growth,
will lead the pack in the November runoff, as well. The well-rounded
Democrat with extensive national and international business experience
is by far the best choice for an at-large seat.
Congleton did not receive an Independent endorsement in the primary
due to his disappointing fence-straddling on the "Coker Towers"
proposal. Instead, we recommended Andrew Leager, who failed to qualify
for the runoff. Given the current field of four, Congleton's respectable
voting record on the council--which includes votes for citizen involvement
in the rezoning process and against commercial development in environmentally
sensitive watershed regions--is enough to earn him a nod for the
at-large seat. Hopefully, he has learned from his constituents'
outrage over his mishandling of the Coker situation and will think
twice before considering development interests over those of neighborhoods.
Hunt, a moderate Republican, supported the Coker project because
of its mixed-use nature. Though he does agree that developers should
be required to meet with neighborhood groups prior to submitting
a rezoning proposal, Hunt's stance on the Coker project suggests
he's not someone who'll be a brake on powerful development interests.
Peyton, a Democrat from Southeast Raleigh, has become a strong Coble
ally since throwing her support behind him in his successful 1999
election. Though genuinely concerned with the plight of her Southeast
community, Peyton's close alliance with the incumbent mayor spells
trouble for a council sorely in need of independent, forward-thinking
members.
Original article
(pdf format)
News & Observer 10/24/01 "Cowell
brings world views to city efforts"
Janet Cowell grew up witnessing the growing pangs of burgeoning
cities as her family moved from one place to another so her father
could start up new Methodist churches. She saw forests cleared for
new developments, cities stretching into farmland, and wondered
why cities had to grow that way.
Similar scenes in Raleigh, she says, helped spur her to run this
year for an at-large City Council seat --her first try for elected
office. Her chief opponents in the general election, Neal Hunt and
Mort
Congleton, outspent Cowell, but she still placed first in the Oct.
9 election, falling only 199 votes shy of winning outright.
If she wins one of two seats Nov. 6, she vows to reverse what she
calls sprawling development patterns in Raleigh and work with neighborhoods
and developers for good projects inside Raleigh's
Beltline instead of on the outskirts.
"That's the key if we want to reverse sprawl," Cowell
says.
Cowell says the city is subsidizing sprawling development because
it must extend services, such as new fire stations and water and
sewer lines, when new subdivisions and shopping centers are built
near the city's borders instead of closer to downtown, where infrastructure
already exists. She supports a scale of impact fees on new development
that makes it more expensive to build farther out, and more city
investment in existing neighborhoods.
She also supports development that provides alternatives for people
who would rather walk, bike or take public transit to jobs and daily
errands. Better development, she says, can help improve air quality
and protect the water supply. Her campaign slogan: "Raleigh
needs a breath of fresh air."
"I accept there's going to be a lot of change in Raleigh,"
Cowell said, "but you just want to make sure it's going to
be a good change and not just the destruction of all the good things
we've got."
While some politicians brag about their longtime, deep ties to the
community, Cowell, 33, is trying to sell voters on her globe-hopping
resume.
When she speaks to crowds, she often highlights her experiences
in Germany as a foreign exchange student and in Indonesia and Hong
Kong, where she worked as a stock analyst. An increasingly diverse
area, she says, needs a politician with an international perspective.
She speaks German and Mandarin and has a copy of her resume written
in the Chinese language on her Web site.
In 1997, after three years working abroad and two years earning
master's degrees from the University of Pennsylvania, Cowell thought
about moving to Raleigh, Atlanta or Washington, D.C., and got the
job she wanted in Raleigh at a management consulting firm. About
a year later, she moved into the Westover neighborhood in an area
about to boom with the Entertainment and Sports Arena and surrounding
development.
After moving to Raleigh, she immediately signed up with the Sierra
Club, volunteering with the local chapter, then with the state chapter,
where she is now vice chairwoman, the second-highest
volunteer post. She sat on the club's smart-growth committee, working
to teach the public about different ways cities can grow.
Last year, Cowell took a job at the Common Sense Foundation, a Raleigh-based
nonpartisan public policy group. As associate director, she raises
money for the group.
She also began attending city meetings about what should be built
around the arena. After months of discussion with city officials
and dozens of residents, the final plan did not include what she
and
others recommended for the 159 acres across from the arena that
the state sold to a private developer. She calls that reversal one
of the most frustrating moments in her work with the city.
"I guess for me, more than just that one parcel of land, it
was simply a bellwether that all of the public buy-in on the arena
plan could come to naught," Cowell said. "If on that first
development you
could have that kind of backsliding, then what was going to happen
to the rest of it?"
She started campaigning in May after talking to friends and local
politicos for advice. Friends and supporters say she is as comfortable
at a Chamber of Commerce meeting as she is among a group
of environmentalists.
During the past six months, about 50 people have volunteered for
her campaign and 500 people are in an e-mail group receiving weekly
campaign updates. She has visited as many as 75 neighborhood
get-togethers asking for support.
That grass-roots hard work helps explain how on Oct. 9 a political
newcomer finished ahead of an incumbent and a high-profile Planning
Commission chairman, said Jesse Rutledge, a friend and campaign
volunteer.
"A lot of folks think running an at-large campaign is you raise
a bunch of money and send out a bunch of mail," Rutledge said.
"The Cowell campaign has been anchored by Janet's desire to
get to know
the city."
Original
article (pdf format)
News & Observer 10/05/01
"One of the at-large
posts is being vacated by the veteran and highly capable Julie Shea
Graw.
Fortunately, the field of candidates includes one who would be an
ideal replacement for Graw, bringing an impressive range of strengths
to City Hall. The N&O enthusiastically endorses Janet Cowell
as one of the most promising newcomers in Raleigh politics in some
time."
Endorsement
article pdf
version
News
& Observer 8/11/01 “Raleigh On
The Hudson”
For those of you who missed this great August 11th N&O story
on Janet’s recent fundraiser in New York City, here is an excerpt:
“They ate boiled shrimp and olive oil biscuits, sipped mint juleps
and ‘other Southern comforts’ and listened to a tall woman from
Raleigh give her stump speech on how she wants the city to grow
in a more intelligent way. It was a scene that is quickly becoming
common as local campaigns heat up, only this took place in a loft
in SoHo. That’s right, SoHo, the trendy neighborhood in New York
City…the reception netted $2,500.”
http://www.janetcowell.com/n&o8-11-01.pdf
Independent Weekly 6/27/01
“Let’s give it up for her campaign slogan: ‘Raleigh needs a breath
of fresh air’.” That’s how a profile of Janet begins on page
15 of this week’s “Independent”, the Triangle’s art and entertainment
weekly. It hit the streets last Wednesday – if you haven’t
seen it yet, go out and get it, or read it online using the link
below. Cowell’s message is continuing to resound with more
folks. Says the article: “A Cowell campaign fundraiser last
week drew some 50 of the city’s progressive leaders, including its
organizer, Gerda Stein…state Sen. Eric Reeves, and Cowell’s boss,
Chris Fitzsimon. Cowell ripped into the conservatives, accusing
[Mayor Paul] Coble, in particular, for ‘striving for mediocrity’.
Her campaign platform: Planning new development, instead of just
letting it happen wherever developers want it; linking it to transportation
planning, with sidewalks and bike lanes as well as public transit
options; and investing in older neighborhoods along with the new
ones.”
Read the whole article - download our pdf
version
N&O 6/9/01 Triangle Politics.
(At Charles Meeker, for Mayor, Kick off)
"The group -- about 150 local Democrats,
including former Mayor Smedes York,
City Councilman Benson Kirkman and City Council
candidates Janet Cowell,
Geoff Elting and Esther Hall -- clapped and
whooped. Reeves, the host, who is
thinking about running for U.S. Senate next
year against Republican Jesse
Helms, looked around the room and beamed."
N&O 4/28/01 Campaign Announcement.
Here is a portion of the story that appeared
in the Saturday, April 28th “Triangle Politics” section of the N&O:
“Janet Cowell, vice chairwoman of the North
Carolina chapter of the Sierra Club, says she plans to run for a
Raleigh City Council seat this year and would like to fill the void
left when at-large council member Julie Shea Graw leaves. Cowell,
32, lives in the Westover neighborhood in West Raleigh and is the
associate director of Common Sense Foundation, a Raleigh-based nonprofit
organization that deals with state public policy issues. Cowell,
who has a master's degree in business administration from the University
of Pennsylvania's Wharton School of Business, said she is concerned
about the "economics of sprawl" as new development requires
the city to build more infrastructure such as roads and utilities.
‘As a taxpayer, we are subsidizing a lot of
development,’ Cowell said. ‘... Taxpayers are picking up the bill,
and I just don't think that's fair.’”
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