Q&A
NEW ENERGY
A conversation with Raleigh Mayor Mary-Ann Baldwin by CATHERINE CURRIN photography by GUS SAMARCO
T
he new decade will bring lots of change to our city, including a new mayor and City Council. We talked with Mayor MaryAnn Baldwin, who will tackle city issues while still serving as Executive Director of the Holt Brothers Foundation, an organization that supports children who have a parent with cancer. The dynamic leader says she’s ready for the challenge: from scooters and Airbnbs (“low hanging fruit,” as she
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calls them) to the more pressing issues of affordable housing and transportation. HAVE YOU ALWAYS LIVED IN RALEIGH? I moved here 30 years ago, and came for the same reason everyone else does— we couldn’t afford to live in New York. Weather, schools and quality of life all sold us on Raleigh.
awesome! The food is great! We used to go to Durham for restaurants, and now we have an established food scene. Our greenway has really grown up, and parks are another big change, and of course our downtown. The streets used to be empty, and now we have a vibrant downtown with lots of things to do. We’ve become a city.
IN A NUTSHELL, TELL ME HOW YOU FEEL RALEIGH HAS CHANGED. There are non-chain restaurants, it’s
WILL YOU CONTINUE IN YOUR ROLE AT THE HOLT BROTHERS FOUNDATION? Charles Meeker had given me some good
