New Mayor in the City of Oaks

David Martin: This is the good government show.

Janet Cowell: I would say I have this unique perspective because I was on council 20 years ago. Is is really how much cities have changed. So I’m in the Bloomberg New Mayor’s program and they gave us a clock with how many days you have left in your tenure. And it says, use your time wisely. 90% of the success of your term is going to be the team that you built, right?

Either direct hires or the team that you’re right, maybe collaborating with and then how you prioritize and use your time. Government has done so many things for me as some middle class kid growing up, going to the library and public pools and public schools and, you know, as, as mayor, I just appreciate all the things that we do in cities, right?

That just make your your life better, right? From picking up the trash, good roads, beautiful street trees, great parks, sports teams. Like, that’s that’s the front line of government.

David Martin: A new mayor and a new job. I talked to Janet Cowell. She was right in the middle of her first 100 days as mayor of Raleigh, North Carolina. Just a few weeks on the job. And it’s a fun conversation about what it’s like to take on a new position. And we talked about how she prepared herself for the job.

Welcome to the Good Government show. I’m Dave Martin. First, help us share the message of good government by liking us and showing us where we are on Facebook, Instagram and Blue Sky. Please share a show with your friends and reviewers for your listening and join our good Government Show community. Check out our website for the link. Let’s get everyone excited about good government.

Well, I met Mayor Cowell at the Conference of Mayors shortly after she was elected to begin serving. We talked about her expectations for the job, and how her 25 years in public service prepared her to be mayor. Early this year, she gave her first state of the city speech, by the way, wearing a red t shirt under a jacket that said, watch more women’s basketball.

Clearly, she’s a fan. Mayor Cowell talked about the city’s growth. She said Raleigh grew from a, quote, a sleepy government town to an economically and socially diverse city and quote. She also said cities matter now more than ever. She said that her speech between 2010 and 2023, the city’s population grew by 20%, bringing the city’s population up to about half a million residents.

And I can tell you from having been there many times, the area around Raleigh is booming, too. Housing is a top issue for the mayor like it is for many city mayors. So far, the city has approved 13 new housing programs. She also talked about hiring more police officers, and she’s working on improving public transportation. A lot of them played for a new mayor, but after serving a state senator and a state treasurer, she says she’s ready.

My conversation with Raleigh Mayor Janet Cowell after this.

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Welcome to the Good Government show. I am speaking with Janet Cowell, who is the new mayor of Raleigh, North Carolina. Welcome to the Good Government Show.

Janet Cowell: Thank you.

David Martin: Thank you. And how long have you been mayor?

Janet Cowell: Six weeks.

David Martin: Six weeks. So it’s now January. So you’re six weeks into your term. What have you learned? The first six weeks?

Janet Cowell: Well, you know, I was on council previously, and I’ve been working closely with the city. So really, I’ve been spending time building the relationships and trying to get the lay of the land right. Who gets along? Like, what’s the inside? Baseball? Yes. Working with the county, like, just all the different lovers, right? When you come into a new job, you’re trying to understand how do you exert influence and get things done?

David Martin: What’s the first thing you noticed in this term? Six weeks in that you’re like, oh, I didn’t know about that.

Janet Cowell: You know, seeing some of the dynamics of just between council and staff and, learning more about some of the staff. I mean, you know, these are people I, some of the people I’ve worked with very closely and others I have not. You know, nothing shocking. It’s more just, like I said, what are the dynamics?

So I’m not sure there’s some huge.

David Martin: Okay. Is there anything that you said? Oh, this is going to be easier than I thought.

Janet Cowell: Yeah. You know, I would say I have this unique perspective because I was on council 20 years ago. Is is really how much cities have changed? I was the only woman on council 20 years ago. And, all the senior management was mostly, white men. Now we have a very diverse council, African-American woman manager, African-American woman chief, African-American woman attorney.

I mean, it’s a much different place.

David Martin: Okay.

Janet Cowell: In 20 years.

David Martin: Are there any folks that you used to work with 20 years ago that you’re like, you know, they’re still there? No, I’m the mayor.

Janet Cowell: Yeah. Like I we helped create a stormwater program, and the guy now running, the department is, you know, there. So there’s a few folks that, you know, have the longevity of activist is incredible. Some of the community members that were active 20 years ago still front and center.

David Martin: That’s got to be a little helpful.

Janet Cowell: Yeah. Well, and having the amount of relationships right is critical. And in Raleigh, as you may know, is a city manager form of government. So and we’re the state has a lot of authority. And so having served I served in the General Assembly, I served as a state treasurer. So all of those relationships over, you know, 25 years of public service help a lot.

David Martin: And has that all sort of led you to be the mayor? All of that background?

Janet Cowell: Yeah. I mean, and I love, tangible operational. I mean, mayor is a pretty gritty job in many ways. I will say that I would just kind of make sure, you just feel proud and really energized when you’re coming out of, like, a solid waste department after the 5:30 a.m. start of shift, and you’re watching the trucks deploy and you’re driving on the highway and a police car goes by you, and I mean, it’s just a powerful, big city and all the people that make it happen.

David Martin: So I’ve been to Raleigh a few times. More than a few times, actually. Beautiful city, lots going on. What’s the biggest challenge you face in Raleigh?

Janet Cowell: Growth. We. Which is an opportunity, right? And a challenge. I told you we were just named, number one, large, city by the Milken Institute. On, you know, for economic growth and equity and affordability. We have had so much, attention, so many people moving in, so many people investing. It’s the affordability, right?

Has has changed dramatically in the last 4 to 5 years. That has made it really hard for renters. A lot of people are having to move out of Raleigh into the county or out of the county. Particularly acute when you get into, older African-American neighborhoods that, you know, because of racial discrimination and, segregation. We’re, right near downtown.

But, you know, for years, under invest, under invested and, and now you’ve got those as prime targets of redevelopment. So, you know, creates tensions, in the community.

David Martin: A friend of mine lives just outside of Raleigh. In an area they, Apparently, it’s the town he lives in. Stands for calling all relocated Yankees.

Janet Cowell: It’s the it’s the collection area for relocated.

David Martin: Excuse me. Yes, yes. But I know that’s that’s an issue throughout the region. How are you dealing with housing? Because I know that’s a problem and a challenge across the nation, but it’s got to be especially acute in Raleigh area.

Janet Cowell: Yeah. So, good news is that the last two, councils, mayor and councils have, deregulated housing. So we do have a lot of housing units, you know, that are coming on to the market. Okay. We are still, in our million, million population. Metropolitan county. We’re 65,000 units short on housing. So 65,000. Yeah. So it’s, it’s not insignificant.

No. It’s not. And, you’re seeing some of the implications we probably have between 1 and 2000 unhoused that has become more acute and visible. You know, as the as the prices have gone up. So, we’ve got, right, just trying to streamline permits, the deregulation, you know, doing everything on multiple fronts to, to, allow for housing to happen, across all spectrum and diversification and then also working on the unhoused issue that county opened a new shelter on January 1st.

It’s cold today here in DC. It’s it’s called, in, in North Carolina.

David Martin: So as mayor, what can you what can you really do about that, about the housing challenge?

Janet Cowell: Well, I mean, of course, cities have more control over that than anybody, right? Which is a lot of it’s regulation, the permitting and your business process of how quickly you can get it done. I think, you know, we all know that, unfortunately, a lot of large cities and, West Coast have made it very difficult to build housing, and that has resulted in some of the most acute unhoused populations, you know, in the country.

David Martin: Sure.

Janet Cowell: I think southern cities, have generally had lower regulation and more just housing development. Austin, you know, Houston, Raleigh is, you know, a southern city, probably a little more in line with, with them. But, you know, again, we’ve got, challenges given the pace of growth and population.

David Martin: Are there things that is the direct action you can take?

Janet Cowell: Yeah. I mean, you can, obviously, a pretty.

David Martin: Good six weeks, so.

Janet Cowell: Well, the deregulation, that I just mentioned. Right. So that you can allow for, accessory dwelling units, duplexes, townhomes, triplexes condominiums, multifamily. Right. All of that, what I’m hearing right now, is that our permitting process could be streamlined. It’s taking 18 months to get through things that, you know, you would hope could be done in 12 months.

I mean, time is incredibly valuable. And in an inflationary environment that we’ve just been through. So, those sorts of processes.

David Martin: What was your agenda running for office? What were the things that you wanted to.

Janet Cowell: Yeah. Housing, public safety, making sure we continue to be a safe, community for everybody. And then, trying to retain the special aspects of Raleigh. The tree. We are the city of Oaks. We have incredible. Everybody who comes to Raleigh is like, gosh, is such a green city, right? We, led the nation on, preserving our creeks and establishing greenways along all those creeks, years, you know, 50 years ago, it’s a beautiful city.

So how do you, maintain that environmental green and resilience? You know, of course, we had Hurricane Helen that had a major impact in the western part of North Carolina. Raleigh had flash flooding, but, you know, nothing compared to the West. But still, you you know, we all know now trying to be prepared for these, increasingly unpredictable weather patterns.

David Martin: That we could. Unpredictable that we have to start predicting. Raleigh is part of the, the the tech triangle.

Janet Cowell: The research triangle.

David Martin: The research triangle. How does that affect everything, really? I mean, jobs, people moving in housing.

Janet Cowell: Well, we have been, incredibly fortunate. And the research triangle to have the universities that we do. And that shapes so much. Yes. NC state is in Raleigh. They’re adding 4000 more engineering graduate students that’ll be close to 40,000, students, very Stem focused. That fundamentally makes it a very diverse place. We have attracted all sorts of people from all over the globe.

David Martin: But a lot of those people stay in the region. Right.

Janet Cowell: And they do stay. We have a very young population, lots of young families. And we’ve invested in things like parks, our airports, fabulous.

David Martin: So it is. Yeah.

Janet Cowell: Yes. And we’ve got a lot of, a lot of direct flights. We just added last year, direct flights to Frankfurt, Germany. We’ve got Paris, London direct, a number of Latin American direct now. So it is pretty easy if you’re a consultant or somebody who’s right on the road a lot to, get in and out of the triangle.

David Martin: One of the things that impressed me when I go visit, friends, you know, again, just outside of Raleigh is the extensive hiking and biking trails. How are you able to do that? I think one of them was like an old tobacco road.

Janet Cowell: Yeah. Well, like, many tobacco railcars. Yeah. The old rail tracks, are huge opportunities. And we do have that. We also have a whole mountains to sea trail that go from the mountains of North Carolina to the Atlantic Ocean. We’ve got, 200 miles of greenways, in Raleigh, that are all along mostly the old Creek, you know, estuary system.

So, yeah. And then we have Umstead Park, right in the middle of the triangle, which was a 1930s really kind of a era. Okay, relocation of some really hardscrabble farmers and, you know, to create a really massive state park, that has incredible for mountain biking, horse riding, hiking, you know, right in the middle of the triangle.

David Martin: Raleigh always struck me as a very, very livable city.

Janet Cowell: Yeah. It is. Got a lot of elements that you would want, right? We have a good school system, the affordability, while, you know, being challenged, it’s it’s still a very affordable city, relative to the country. And like I said, the interstate, we have the hurricanes, hockey team. A lot of people don’t think about the South and hockey.

Now, of course, we’ve got college basketball. But women and men’s. Yeah. NC state was in the final four for both women and men’s last year. Okay. And you got two games? Yeah. And of course, watch that. I live right near the bell tower at NC state, so I, I when the helicopters start hovering, I know, I know, NC state’s winning.

And then, we have Carolina Courage women’s soccer. So we also have a women’s professional soccer team. And of course, incredible youth soccer in North Carolina. UncW women’s soccer has been a powerhouse for a number of years in that space. So, a.

David Martin: Lot of baseball.

Janet Cowell: And, you know, I get all sorts of people who want major League Baseball. We’ve got, Durham Bulls and some of the minor league teams. Yes. We have not had a major league team, so we’ll we’ll see.

David Martin: But, so everything’s graded right. There’s no problems. You have nothing to worry about, right?

Janet Cowell: Yeah.

David Martin: That’s a it’s a four year term.

Janet Cowell: No, I am two years. So. And then it’ll be four years. We’re in the middle of, moving to a staggered four year term, which I think is great. Okay. It takes 3 to 4 years to get any project done. At a city level. I mean, these are big capital intensive projects. So.

David Martin: We’re here at the Conference of Mayors of Washington, D.C.. We we just met at the, new member, new mayor, conference breakout session. What have you gotten from the other mayors so far? I mean, I know it’s early in the session.

Janet Cowell: Yeah. You know, I’ve been. This is my third, kind of third event with other mayors. And the situation with the unhoused and how prevalent that is nationally. Yeah. It doesn’t matter. Rural, urban West or, you know, southeast. It’s all, everybody’s dealing with that. It is interesting to just learn all the different aspects of, finances.

I learned that California caps the property tax. So you would think with all the incredibly expensive real estate in California, they would have money at a local level. And I’ve found out that they have all sorts of constraints on that. So, you know, it’s always just interesting.

David Martin: You said a little easier that, there’s a lot.

Janet Cowell: Of well, you know, I mean, yeah, everybody’s got pros and cons, right? So it’s it’s, how do you, best navigate the situation that you’ve got?

David Martin: Have you mentioned you came into this from working at a, a public private partnership? I know that, you know, having talked with, with mayors in the past, that is, a, recipe for success for lots of different projects. What were you working on?

Janet Cowell: So we and Raleigh have had an 1856 mental health hospital that was right near downtown. And, because it was the 19.

David Martin: 56 is and built in 1856.

Janet Cowell: Yeah, yeah. So it opened in 1856. So it was a very Victorian era, right. Campus. Right. So it’s almost like a mothballed 19th century central, you know, Central Park that you could sort of unwrap. Okay. And get these rolling hills, creek, huge fields. It was, you know, 300 acres, is is the area of the park.

So I was the head of the conservancy and raised over $40 million, from families, individuals, corporations to help open, this and develop the park. And we have a huge playground opening at Gibson Play Plaza that will open next spring. Major public art program. We, just most recently worked in collaboration with Duke Energy, the utility company, to get their transmission lines.

And we made huge sunflowers out of these transmission poles. Okay. We plant sunflowers every year at the parks. It’s kind of an iconic, label, but worked with a local sculptor, Thomas Sayer. So just breaking through bureaucracy and doing new and innovative things like creative infrastructure. So these two sunflowers now are on as you drive down the you know, the perimeter road, you just, you know, they sort of glitter in the sun and the sunshine as you drive bys.

David Martin: All right. And now that you’re on the other side, are you looking to do more public private partnerships?

Janet Cowell: That, is something I would definitely like to do. I’ve, I find it be it for housing. Like, going back to our topic number one goal, we have the Raleigh Housing Authority, the Raleigh Housing Authority has certain, you know, project vouchers and things that the city doesn’t have. So if we partner with them, we can do more units, deeper subsidy of housing in that partnership.

They can do things the city can’t do. I think there’s a lot of examples of that. So finding out where is the city best position to execute something and then how can they partner to do things faster, better.

David Martin: That sounds like good governance. All right. So in a minute we’re going to get to more of your philosophy of good governance. The Good Government show is sponsored by our. That’s oh you are for our community. Get involved. We hear that all the time from government leaders. Our brands with your governments name and logo, your staff and the people you serve are connected and part of your community.

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David Martin: All right. Now we’re going to find out what you really think about government, what your what your thoughts and philosophy is. Are you ready? Yeah. Okay. You’ve been at this for a long time at different levels, state and city. Now you’re the mayor. Define good government.

Janet Cowell: Good government is trying to get the best sense of what the citizenry needs are. And then using your expertise and, sort of understanding of law, you know, of the constraints and economics to execute, solutions to serving those needs.

David Martin: Let’s hope that holds up over the next four years. Three years, I guess. So you’ve only been at this for, six weeks as mayor, but how do you judge your success? You know, on a weekly basis, you’re a long way from the next election. So how do you know if you’re doing a good job?

Janet Cowell: Yeah. So I’m in the Bloomberg New Mayor’s program, and they gave us a clock with how many days you have left in your tenure. And it says use your time wisely. So no pressure there from Michael Bloomberg. No. I have felt that given my position and a city manager run that building the relationships with your council, with the city manager, with the key staff, so that you’re laying the groundwork, to execute on the promises.

And, in fact, when we were at this Bloomberg program, they were saying that 90% of the success of your term is going to be the team that you build, right? Right. Either direct hires or the team that you’re right, maybe collaborating with and then how you prioritize and use your time. And so for me, that’s those are sort of the groundwork.

And then I am like, I was just sitting there today summarizing. We’ve already gotten the homeless shelter open on January 1st. We just approved, habitat for humanity Affordable housing project. We just approved a whitewater park. So certainly, you know, you want to see these tangible thing we just got named, you know, the Milken number one, performing city.

So all of those things are maybe some tangible results built off the shoulders of others. And then, you know, how am I laying the groundwork for my two years?

David Martin: Okay, if people don’t think they’re getting good government, what should they do? What would you like them to do?

Janet Cowell: They can convey what the issues are right in email. There’s so many ways to get in touch with government these days, right? There’s social media, there’s, email. There’s we have all sorts of, colleges where people can learn about planning, where they can become, you know, civic leaders, and understand better, you know, how government functions.

So any and all of those, you know, and we’re also going to be launching a new tech app where people can write just there’s a pothole here it is.

David Martin: Okay. All right. So there’s ways to get in touch with you. Yeah. What should people do if they don’t like the job you’re doing? If they have a problem with you, if they think you’re not being responsive, what should they do?

Janet Cowell: Well, all of the same things, right? You can always, right.

David Martin: Critique are you do you go are you out of the shopping center? Are you out?

Janet Cowell: Oh, yeah. I mean, you know, I live in Raleigh. I mean, mayors are the most accessible, right? Citizens out there? Most of us are. I mean, I was just having somebody the gentleman, was just talking to you said, you know, you try to go to a meet governor’s. You can’t get to them mayors, you can get to them.

David Martin: They can find you and they can find you anywhere.

Janet Cowell: Yeah. I mean, you know, you’re walking down the street like that, and I do. I walk to City Hall. So I was, you know, walking down the street, somebody drives by. Hey, man. Janet.

David Martin: Yeah. So you’re Mayor Janet back in Raleigh. Okay. You’ve been in government before now. You’ve been mayor for six weeks. What would you like people to know about government, about how it works? As an insider, what would you like people to know that they might not know about government?

Janet Cowell: Well, don’t come in with a even if you’re unhappy about something. Yeah. Don’t come in with the assumption of going full bore. A lot of times what what happens is people come in and they just take the, you know, they just blame the entire council, all the staff, you know, it’s a matter of like, try to solve it in the most simple way.

If you can’t do that, you escalate to the next step. If you can’t do that, you escalate to the next step. A lot of people never even do that. They just assume that you are, you know, corrupt, evil, and they just come in guns blazing and, don’t even know exactly what you think about these issues or, and, one thing I’ve learned in 20 years of public services, right?

A lot of these things are not because people were stupid, didn’t care. It’s that it is really hard to solve things like homelessness. It is really hard to do everything people want on the budget that you have. There’s a lot of complexity and systems at work. And so being a partner not, hey, I want you to solve this and you should have done this for me, but wow, here’s an issue.

I may or may not like what you’re doing, and maybe there’s a better way to do this. How do we partner? Or at least right? Like think about this as a shared burden and a shared solution.

David Martin: Have you brought the temperature down and brought people in?

Janet Cowell: Yeah, I would say in general, and I think part of being elected is that people have always seen me as a fairly levelheaded pragma stick, you know, collaborative person, and that you do de-escalate just by listening. Well, okay. And then and, and there’s a lot of knowledge I when I was on council 20 years ago, I really didn’t.

There’s so much you don’t know now I have a much better sense of. What are you asking me to bite off? How big is that? How many people is that going to impact? How big a deal is this going to be? Or just smaller things where I know how I can figure out this thing, but because I know that person and I can get the answer quickly.

Gotcha. You know, and I watch people get frustrated with their city councilors, but again, I think we’re all human. There’s a lot to know. These are not easy solutions. And a lot of these people are paid almost nothing. Right. Sure. So they’re doing this all like kind of while dancing backward in high heels. I mean, they’re they’re not, so having a sense of bringing this with, a sense of collaboration, we are all part of the same community.

We are all trying to work towards the same good things.

David Martin: So now that your your name in the news, where do you get your news?

Janet Cowell: You know, I still read a lot. I, I read mostly, you know, my local newspaper news and observer. I did home delivery. No, it’s all online. I also read, the new York Times. I did subscribe to the Washington Post, but I canceled my subscription at the end of last year. I just go to some of those issues.

Just walked by the office this morning on my way over here. And then I read, like, the Apple News feed. So I get everything from the Guardian, the independent, you know, Wall Street Journal, Fox News, whatever. This coming through kind of the news feed. And then just now that I’m mayor, of course I get a lot more feed locally.

David Martin: Do you read about yourself?

Janet Cowell: I don’t tend to read articles. I mean, I’ll glance to see and know that something was printed, but I really have found in my 20 years of office, like let somebody know if I need to know something, but I don’t.

David Martin: You must know a lot of the local reporters, and they know you. So you have relationships?

Janet Cowell: Yeah.

David Martin: I won’t say if they’re good or bad, but you do.

Janet Cowell: Yeah.

David Martin: Okay. Who inspires you? Do you have a political here?

Janet Cowell: Well, I, I, I have just really enjoyed the mayors I’ve met. They’re just pragmatic. They said this is a physical job. It’s a gritty job. I really have appreciated just how immersed folks are in the community. So, I mean, mayors in general, I think are pretty incredible. Okay. I will say, just as I’m in the Bloomberg program and I’ve been reading about him, it is pretty stunning to watch somebody bring the business acumen that he brought to that office, as you sort of dive into the details of that and the, just the discipline, the process.

Yeah. And just, the intelligence of somebody like Michael Bloomberg serving as mayor is certainly right. A very relatable to be able to grasp. Well, I.

David Martin: Live in New York City, so I was there covering, you know, most of his terms.

Janet Cowell: Yeah.

David Martin: Yes. You said, you know, you’ve been in public service for 20 years. Is there something you always thought about is did you want to be president when you were growing up? Were you president of your high school class?

Janet Cowell: Well, and as you know, I mean, a lot of girls my age, I mean, I saw I was born in the late 60s, right? You didn’t you weren’t raised to think that you could do any of these things. And so much of my tenure, I’ve been the first, like, the first female elected treasurer in North Carolina, the only woman on city council, one of six women in the state Senate.

I mean, you’ve there’s been a lot of breaking of first, okay, in my generation. So, no, I never thought that I would do these things. My father was a methodist minister and my mother was a schoolteacher. So we were brought up with a sense of public service community. Good. Okay. And a lot of perspectives on. Right, just ethically, how to live your life.

David Martin: All right. So I’ve been to North Carolina. Whenever I go, I always make sure I get barbecue. I think city barbecue is a place I go to. Yeah. The next time I come to Raleigh, where must I go? What are we? What are we having? What’s the local dish that you love? So where are we doing?

Janet Cowell: Well, that right nearest. There’s actually several places near my house. The pit has been around in the warehouse district for many years, and, I’m. I’m a fan, so I’ll. I’ll call out the pit. Okay.

David Martin: I take a bit of the. What a Durham. I think there’s what they’re too. Right.

Janet Cowell: Yeah. I mean, there’s of course there’s barbecue all over the place.

David Martin: Yes. There is anything other than barbecue. Now, you don’t have to, you know, talk me.

Janet Cowell: Out of it. Well, no, I’ll say we have a lot of incredible restaurants. Food and beverage in the Research triangle, which is one of the best things. Another local restaurant I go to a lot. Why hill it. One reason I like it is because it’s the best view of the skyline. Okay. For the city of Raleigh.

So you can sit there and have your, you know, Brussels sprout, with salmon, you know, whatever’s on the menu and, kind of check out the sunset against the city skyline.

David Martin: I think I’ve been there. It’s on the top of the building somewhere. Yeah, yeah. So this is the good government show. We always like to edit with good government. Tell me about a good government project that you’ve either worked on in the past that that that came to fruition, you were proud of or you know, what’s on your what’s on your list?

What what’s the thing that you’re you’re pushing right now? What are you trying to get done?

Janet Cowell: Well, I mean, many examples, but I will say so I manage the state pension plan and inherited it at around. We were the ninth largest pension in the country, so grew it from 60 to 90 billion with a return of over 7.5% per year. During my tenure took over the state health plan. It was being run out of the General Assembly in North Carolina.

So no executive branch oversight. Okay, took it into the treasurer’s office and, reduced the unfunded liability, added things like mental health parity, some autism saving plans, like, you know, the Able act, and others, so felt good about that experience. And, you know, Dix Park, what an incredible project to be able to work on to add a major public arts and gathering space.

You know, we plant sunflowers every year to see the diversity of community. And, Dreamville, we had J. Cole, hip hop artist from Fayetteville, North Carolina, who founded Dreamville. So we have 55,000 people a day for two days for a massive hip hop festival in Raleigh and a huge old field. That is just beautiful. So, I get, you know, government has done so many things for me.

Some middle class kid growing up going to the library and the public pools and public schools and, you know, as, as mayor, I just appreciate all the things that we do in cities, right? That just make your your life better, right? From picking up the trash, good roads, beautiful street trees, great parks, sports teams, like, that’s that’s the front line of government.

David Martin: I can’t top that. Let’s end it there with very good government. Janet Cowell, the mayor, the new mayor of Raleigh, North Carolina. Thanks for coming on. Great to have you. Thank you so.

Janet Cowell: Much.

David Martin: Look forward to see you in Raleigh.

Janet Cowell: Appreciate what you do.

David Martin: Thank you.

County government affects more people than any other form of government. That’s why we like talking to so many representatives of county government here on the good Government show. They are the voice of public service. The National Association of Counties, or Naco, supports all 3069 counties across the USA. This year, their annual conference is in Philadelphia in July, planned to attend the conference and join them in their efforts to bring good government to America’s counties.

Check out the details at Naco. Dot org. That’s naco.org.

After you get done with this episode, hear more good government stories with our friends at How to Really Run a City for mayors Kassim Reid of Atlanta and Michael Nutter, a Philadelphia, and their co-host, journalist and author Larry Platt, talk with guests and other mayors about how to really get stuff done in cities around the nation. Check them out where you’re listening now or through their nonprofit news site, The Philadelphia Citizen.

Dot org slash podcasts.

20 years after being a city councilwoman, Janet Cowl returns to the city as a mayor and is a much different place. In fact, part of the theme of her state of the city speech was on the changes, and you should check out her state of the city speech. There’s a link on our website show notes. It’s kind of a fun speech, one of the better speeches by a mayor talking about their city.

Check it out. You’ll laugh even if you’re not from Raleigh. Housing, public safety, and improving public transportation are all the top of her to do list, right where they should be. Raleigh is the city of Oaks. The trees line. Many of the streets in the city has preserved its greenways. That helps make Raleigh a very livable city. And we talk about that and sports.

NC state men’s basketball and women’s basketball and of course, the neighboring Durham Bulls baseball team. So just one year on the job, good luck to Mayor Cowell and the city of Raleigh. That’s our show. Please like us and share this with your friends and review us right here. We’re listening and check out our website. Good Government show.com for extras.

Help us keep telling stories of good government and action everywhere. Join us again for another episode right here. I’m Dave Martin and this is the Good Government show.

The Good Government show is a Valley Park production. Jim Ludlow, Dave Martin, that’s me and David Snyder are the executive producers. Our show is edited and produced by Jason Stershic. Please subscribe then share and like us and reviews. That’s the best way to make sure we’re able to keep telling these stories of our government working for all of us.

Then listen to the next episode of The Good Government Show.

**This transcription was created using digital tools and has not been edited by a live person. We apologize for any discrepancies or errors.