The First Year as Mayor of Raleigh

00:00:00:04 – 00:00:03:28
David Martin
This is the good government show.

00:00:03:33 – 00:00:16:44
Janet Cowell
The mayor is a really special job. You’re so close to the community. You’re you’re immersed in it. That can be good and bad at times, but you really feel like you’re in. And of the people.

00:00:16:49 – 00:00:24:56
Janet Cowell
11 p.m. on Saturday night, my phone would just start lighting up with people like, I can’t sleep.

00:00:25:00 – 00:00:37:45
Janet Cowell
And you realize that art and how you structure a city and design a city makes a tremendous difference on how people connect and relate to each other.

00:00:37:50 – 00:00:45:40
Janet Cowell
You know, it was a meandering path to get here, but I have really enjoyed it.

00:00:45:45 – 00:01:02:17
Janet Cowell
You know, when people lose battles, they don’t say, we’re on the losing end of this policy. What they do is say, these folks are bad people. They aren’t listening. They accuse you of nefarious intent and bad character, as opposed to having a different policy perspective.

00:01:02:22 – 00:01:17:57
David Martin
Once again this year, I got to catch up with a mayor. After her first year in office, I got to sit down with the mayor of Raleigh, North Carolina, listen to how the mayor learned on 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 sharing us where we are.

00:01:17:57 – 00:01:35:18
David Martin
On your favorite social media makes a review us and share our show everywhere. We all need to talk about good government. Janet Cowell is now well into her second year as the Mayor of Raleigh. We talked about how the first year went and what she learned. First, she said, being a mayor is a job where you really are tied to the city you serve and the people.

00:01:35:20 – 00:01:52:17
David Martin
She says. Being mayor is a really special job, and she said it takes a lot of time and attention because being mayor really comes down to being responsive to the people. You’re going to hear some of her highlights. Raleigh is a common, actually a quieter city. I’ll let the mayor explain. But also, she faced some challenges that you can’t prepare for.

00:01:52:17 – 00:02:00:21
David Martin
So coming up a year on the job with the mayor of Raleigh, North Carolina, Janet Cowell.

00:02:00:26 – 00:02:27:07
David Martin
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00:02:27:10 – 00:02:51:35
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David Martin
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00:03:00:41 – 00:03:19:02
David Martin
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00:03:19:07 – 00:03:25:45
David Martin
Welcome back to The Good Government Show. I’m very happy to have you with me. Janet Cowell, the mayor of Raleigh, North Carolina. Welcome back.

00:03:25:45 – 00:03:27:21
Janet Cowell
Good to be back one year later.

00:03:27:21 – 00:03:40:27
David Martin
One year later. That’s why I wanted to talk to you. You’ve been mayor for a year now. I know you had an extensive background in government to prepare you to be mayor, but what did you learn this year that you had no idea was going to happen to you as mayor?

00:03:40:32 – 00:04:10:01
Janet Cowell
Well, some of the acts of violence, as much as you know that is going to happen, I think it’s a little different, as mayor, to get notice of some of the homicides to to have that intimacy with some of these acts. That’s tough. The level of just fragmentation across government and how difficult it is to get the full, comprehensive picture of what’s actually happening in your own community, you know, on something as basic as housing, like, oh, who’s doing this housing?

00:04:10:01 – 00:04:22:37
Janet Cowell
The county’s doing this. So I mean, it’s just so things like that. But overall, it was a good year. And of course, having served before, you know, there’s always surprises. But it was a good year.

00:04:22:39 – 00:04:24:41
David Martin
Well I was going to ask what was the biggest surprise.

00:04:24:44 – 00:04:46:04
Janet Cowell
No, I think, you know, the level of resource. And maybe that’s coming off of having been state treasurer. I don’t think this is unique to Raleigh. You’ve got people on the front lines doing a lot of hard work, not making a lot of money, and there’s just not a lot of assistance or resource. I am grateful that I’ve been part of the Bloomberg leadership program.

00:04:46:04 – 00:05:08:15
Janet Cowell
I think that’s one of the few individuals in the United States and globally, really, that recognizes the importance of cities. These are the economic engines. These are where the vast majority of human race live. And are we investing in them. You know, our governance structure in the United States, everything is about states. Maybe it’s about counties, not much about cities themselves.

00:05:08:29 – 00:05:13:38
Janet Cowell
So you’re nothing’s really suited for purpose when it comes to being mayor of a city.

00:05:13:41 – 00:05:21:16
David Martin
In the last year. Have you ever once said, what was I thinking? Why did I get into this? You’re laughing. Have you said that? That?

00:05:21:26 – 00:05:51:50
Janet Cowell
No, I mean, I believe me. People ask me that all the time, you know? Are you are you stable? You know that you’re doing this. But I think what many mayors will tell you, and having served in many offices, the mayor is a really special job. You’re so close to the community, you’re you’re immersed in it. That can be good and bad at times, but you really feel like you’re in and of the people, and it’s a physical retail job and it’s great in that.

00:05:51:53 – 00:05:59:26
Janet Cowell
I mean, you’re not five layers behind bureaucrats and lobbyists and procurement agents. It’s you and the people.

00:05:59:28 – 00:06:06:38
David Martin
And has the reaction changed when people see you pumping gas, running to the grocery store, running into the hardware store?

00:06:06:40 – 00:06:20:53
Janet Cowell
Yeah, there’s you know, I had a lot more direct authority as treasurer, but people don’t get treasurer kids. People’s like much more selfies, like massive lines for selfies. Kids in grocery stores who are.

00:06:20:53 – 00:06:22:08
David Martin
As young.

00:06:22:13 – 00:06:29:55
Janet Cowell
As six years old wanting to meet you in the vegetable section because kids understand what a mayor is.

00:06:29:58 – 00:06:31:48
David Martin
Have you gone out and talked to kids in schools?

00:06:31:50 – 00:06:51:42
Janet Cowell
Yeah, which is some of the best experiences I’ve had, and I’ve gotten some great art. I helped put together a large playground, and I got a number of drawings from different children. Okay. Thanking me, you know, but I have some of those in my office. I’ve done a girls who run with, like running out there with little girls and their parents out trying to run A5K.

00:06:51:44 – 00:06:55:35
Janet Cowell
Just some really special moments with kids.

00:06:55:37 – 00:06:57:54
David Martin
What’s the best thing that’s happened to you in the last two years?

00:06:58:06 – 00:07:10:00
Janet Cowell
The best thing. I mean, there’s just there’s so many of these moments you would never have. You know, just last week, we had the monks come through Raleigh, North Carolina, that were walking from Texas to D.C..

00:07:10:02 – 00:07:11:00
David Martin
I don’t know about this.

00:07:11:00 – 00:07:13:21
Janet Cowell
Okay. Yes, there’s a bunch of Buddhist.

00:07:13:21 – 00:07:14:55
David Martin
Monks this in January.

00:07:14:57 – 00:07:33:35
Janet Cowell
Yes. And it is January. And they started out in Texas in the heat. Right. And they just hit the snowstorm the day they were in Raleigh for their 91st day of walking. They have a dog. I mean, this has become a phenomenon. And they’re heading this way, right? We’re in D.C. as we’re speaking. They’re heading this way. And in fact, the mayor of Richmond’s here.

00:07:33:35 – 00:07:36:35
Janet Cowell
And he called me. He’s like, give me some tips on the monks. I’m like.

00:07:36:42 – 00:07:36:51
David Martin
Tell.

00:07:36:51 – 00:07:38:22
Janet Cowell
Him, well.

00:07:38:27 – 00:07:40:44
David Martin
You know, he’s telling me that where you’re like, no.

00:07:40:46 – 00:07:57:12
Janet Cowell
Well, the guy gave his speech in socks on the Capitol steps. Okay. Of the North Carolina state Capitol. The governor of North Carolina and I both greeted them, you know, so there’s some public safety issues. You know, people are nuts over these monks.

00:07:57:14 – 00:07:58:00
David Martin
I guess.

00:07:58:04 – 00:07:59:14
Janet Cowell
Yeah. You got to look that up.

00:07:59:16 – 00:08:08:25
David Martin
I will I will have to check into this monks. They’ve they’ve. Pastor Raleigh, has there been a moment in the last year you’ve said. Oh, no, I did not know this was going to be this bad.

00:08:08:28 – 00:08:30:26
Janet Cowell
I think, you know, when you sometimes when it’s you realize the lack of data, the lack of resource, the lack of tools. And here you are trying to solve issues. And these are things like, like mentally ill. We had a horrific murder by a mentally ill person that was just random act of violence, murdered a teacher and you.

00:08:30:29 – 00:08:49:59
Janet Cowell
Right. The frustration of not having some immediate solution, not being able to tell people also with issues of Ice that this community wanting you to say I can protect you, I can make it all go away, you’re going to be fine. This is never going to happen here, and I don’t have that answer for them.

00:08:50:01 – 00:08:57:13
David Martin
What advice would you give someone who’s thinking about running for mayor, now that you’ve been in the office for a year, what would you say to someone?

00:08:57:18 – 00:09:14:19
Janet Cowell
It’s a great position, right? It does require a lot of personal resource and that you are not going to have 15 people. Maybe if you’re the largest city mayor and you’ve got all these, you know, minions around you, but for the most part, you’re out there on your own.

00:09:14:21 – 00:09:15:12
David Martin
You don’t have minions.

00:09:15:12 – 00:09:37:58
Janet Cowell
You don’t have security details, you’ve got some assistance. But it’s you need a lot of personal resource to draw upon. You need, you know, your stable sort of environments because you are going to be it’s going to require a lot of you personally and how you can sort of manage and take care of yourself and be that stable presence for your community that they need.

00:09:38:01 – 00:09:40:01
David Martin
Do you think you’ve been successful in this year?

00:09:40:03 – 00:10:02:45
Janet Cowell
I feel like I’ve had a number of people say that things feel calmer. They feel less frenetic, that at least at the city level, yes, I feel like there’s a lot of strong fabric of community and being good neighbors in the city. And obviously that gets tested at times with some of these acts of violence or Border Patrol coming in or whatever.

00:10:02:45 – 00:10:09:47
Janet Cowell
But Raleigh has really shown itself to me that, that the depth and breadth of that sense of community is strong.

00:10:09:49 – 00:10:16:25
David Martin
What stood out for you in the last year of something that you’ve been able to get started, or a program that you’re excited about?

00:10:16:27 – 00:10:38:40
Janet Cowell
Well, I mean, this is a small this may not be the sexiest thing in the world, but one thing that became obvious after I was elected was noise ordinance. Like, we have all these now mixed use, right? People who were doing much more infill, and we had these incredibly loud bars and I was getting blown up over the weekends with like 11 p.m. on Saturday night, my phone would just start lighting up with people like, I can’t sleep.

00:10:38:41 – 00:11:01:17
Janet Cowell
And we looked into the noise ordinance and found that we were not following best practice. And so this is a technical problem, but I love that it actually had a technical solution. And we hired a guy out of Austin, Texas, who certainly understands live music. And I pass a new ordinance within, you know, nine months or something. And that now went into effect on January 1st.

00:11:01:20 – 00:11:11:55
Janet Cowell
And I feel like it’s it’s working. So those kind of moments feel good, regardless of what that issue is, if there’s a problem and you’re able to actually solve it.

00:11:11:58 – 00:11:15:43
David Martin
So you solved one problem. Well one down. That’s right. How many.

00:11:15:43 – 00:11:17:16
Janet Cowell
Do yeah. Next to go.

00:11:17:19 – 00:11:35:23
David Martin
When we spoke last time, I went and found your state of the city address, which I thought was fantastic. I thought it was. I thought you were hilarious when you came out on stage promoting girls basketball. And I think we put a link up and I urge people to go do that. I understand this year. You’ve got something else planned.

00:11:35:25 – 00:11:36:03
Janet Cowell
That’s right.

00:11:36:18 – 00:11:37:39
David Martin
So of course, is this a big event.

00:11:37:39 – 00:11:56:17
Janet Cowell
For you? Well, we do it once a year. And of course it’s during March Madness. And we have a lot of basketball in North Carolina. So the NC State Wolfpack was in the Final Four. And that’s where I was encouraging people to watch. I do have season tickets this year. Just so you know, this year we are going to announce that we’re going to do a poet laureate program in Raleigh.

00:11:56:19 – 00:12:12:56
Janet Cowell
We’ve never had a poet laureate. And so as part of that, I am looking at urban poets, North Carolina poets, and just trying to think about the ways of which people has captured the urban experience and incorporate that into my state of the city.

00:12:12:59 – 00:12:16:23
David Martin
Where on earth did you get the idea to come up with a poet laureate for Raleigh?

00:12:16:25 – 00:12:37:19
Janet Cowell
I’ve seen other poet laureates, and in fact, so this large park that I helped develop, Jackie Shelton Green was the first African-American state poet laureate in North Carolina. And we are we have a mural with one of her poems at this large playground in Raleigh. So I was starting to interface and realize some other cities have poet laureate, but we don’t.

00:12:37:21 – 00:12:37:50
David Martin
We don’t have.

00:12:38:02 – 00:12:53:47
Janet Cowell
And this whole spoken word, I think, is very attractive to young people, high schoolers. You think about rap, you think about song lyrics and how that could be incorporated as a way for people to connect with the city.

00:12:53:49 – 00:12:55:11
David Martin
Have you picked your poet laureate yet?

00:12:55:13 – 00:13:06:20
Janet Cowell
No. We will announce that we are going to and then we’re going to go through a. We’ve been working with the State Poetry Foundation to get the right process, but we’ll hope to name somebody within a matter of weeks after the state of the city.

00:13:06:22 – 00:13:07:29
David Martin
How is this good government?

00:13:07:31 – 00:13:08:39
Janet Cowell
How is that good government?

00:13:08:41 – 00:13:08:55
David Martin
Yes.

00:13:08:58 – 00:13:29:54
Janet Cowell
I mean, well, I will say, let me just talk about the role of public art. We have Thomas Danby is an artist who creates large trolls. And these are friendly trolls, not, you know, the evil trolls. And we he came to our dicks park in Raleigh. This huge park. And these trolls have taken off. They have caught the imagination.

00:13:29:54 – 00:13:50:00
Janet Cowell
Kind of like the monks caught the imagination of the public in a way that we had like 45,000 people in a weekend. People are crawling all over this park. The joy, it’s almost giddiness. And you realize that art and how you structure a city and design a city makes a tremendous difference on how people connect and relate to each other.

00:13:50:00 – 00:13:58:33
Janet Cowell
And so I am a believer in these sort of trolls getting high schoolers involved with poetry and spoken word, and how.

00:13:58:33 – 00:14:00:33
David Martin
There are the high school kids, like, interested.

00:14:00:43 – 00:14:12:54
Janet Cowell
We have a strong poetry, spoken word. There’s a lot of poetry, you know, jams and stand up nights. And so it it’s a stronger element than many people may think about in their cities.

00:14:12:56 – 00:14:19:46
David Martin
I guess. Yeah. And federally, they’ve cut way back on public art. How are you? How are you dealing with that?

00:14:19:49 – 00:14:31:00
Janet Cowell
We have a 1% for public art in all major public civic buildings. So, for example, we are building a new city hall. Our old city hall is from the 1980s.

00:14:31:02 – 00:14:31:36
David Martin
It is.

00:14:31:38 – 00:14:33:26
Janet Cowell
Time to kind of a dog.

00:14:33:31 – 00:14:34:14
David Martin
Has your office.

00:14:34:17 – 00:15:04:36
Janet Cowell
My office is bad. The new office, it’s it’s going to have a lot more light, a lot more better public service convening. Right. People can navigate city services, but 1% of that project. So there will be some art in the lobby, in the interactive space in the park that we built, there was a 1% where we did a poem embedded in the sidewalk by a young man whose mother had worked at a mental health hospital, and some, some other things.

00:15:04:36 – 00:15:12:43
Janet Cowell
So just these small elements that make spaces special and have people feel a sense of authenticity to the city.

00:15:12:46 – 00:15:14:05
David Martin
How is this money well spent?

00:15:14:12 – 00:15:37:22
Janet Cowell
Again, I mean, even our police department, there’s safety through environmental design. Those kinds of elements can really help enhance public safety, help connect community, understanding, trust. It’s amazing the role this can have, the fact that our whole police department has a safety through environmental design tells you this is scientifically based.

00:15:37:25 – 00:15:39:34
David Martin
How does art drop lower crime?

00:15:39:34 – 00:15:58:57
Janet Cowell
So having foot traffic in an area can help. So let me just give you an example where these trolls are located. Years ago there was a large homeless encampment in these woods because nobody ever went back there. Now you’ve got 45,000 people going into these nooks and crannies of this public park.

00:15:59:00 – 00:15:59:43
David Martin
Looking for trolls.

00:15:59:45 – 00:16:19:51
Janet Cowell
And there is a sense of safety and community and again, happiness and play in a place that used to be abandoned, where folks were setting up homeless encampment. So you’ve now activated spaces in a way that have made them feel safe without adding any additional security.

00:16:19:54 – 00:16:28:27
David Martin
That seems like good government. Yeah. Prior to being mayor, you worked at the state level. You worked as a municipal level. Is this the best job you’ve ever had?

00:16:28:29 – 00:16:51:04
Janet Cowell
I would say mayor is. Being treasurer was really awesome as well. I really enjoyed that job, but I would say this is closer to the people. I really love urban design, I love architecture, I love, you know, social interactions. So it is a much broader job than being treasurer.

00:16:51:06 – 00:16:52:49
David Martin
So what’s the best thing about Raleigh?

00:16:52:52 – 00:17:13:29
Janet Cowell
One of the things people always say when they come to Raleigh is how green it is. When they land at the airport, you just see this huge canopy of trees and we have these amazing creeks that have all we have greenways all along our creeks that we’ve preserved, and we’re really trying to lean into that now to orient developments towards those creeks, clean up the creeks, do green infrastructure.

00:17:13:31 – 00:17:33:18
Janet Cowell
One of the big ideas is Sponge City, right where you have all this absorptive capacity. When we have these major rain events and storms, and it all just kind of soaks into the ground and becomes right part of this really amazing ecosystem versus rushing off concrete and flooding somebody downstream.

00:17:33:20 – 00:17:34:37
David Martin
Are you planting more trees?

00:17:34:39 – 00:17:54:43
Janet Cowell
Absolutely. My neighborhood, in fact, we did. We have a program called Leaf Out and we planted. This was more aggressive than I thought. I showed up on a Saturday morning. Yeah, a plan, a couple trees. They’re like, no, your team is planning. I think we planted, like, total 60 trees in this neighborhood and we had pickaxes. Let me just say again, this was more than I was anticipating.

00:17:54:45 – 00:18:05:11
Janet Cowell
I’m like, wait a minute. But we planted 16. I think we my little team planted like 16, 18 trees or something in the the right of way kind of medians.

00:18:05:14 – 00:18:05:35
David Martin
Okay.

00:18:05:35 – 00:18:09:21
Janet Cowell
And we’ll hopefully in the spring all these little trees will survive.

00:18:09:25 – 00:18:12:02
David Martin
All right. We’ll see how you did. Yep. Are you having fun?

00:18:12:04 – 00:18:19:10
Janet Cowell
I am having fun a lot. There’s a lot of moments of joy. And just like, wow, I get to do this.

00:18:19:15 – 00:18:24:46
David Martin
Did you think you’d be here? Did you think that this is where you would wind up as bad, you know, at this as you progress along?

00:18:24:48 – 00:18:31:26
Janet Cowell
I think it’s a little bit, you know, it was a meandering path to get here, but I have really enjoyed it. Yeah.

00:18:31:29 – 00:18:41:45
David Martin
Well, you must be doing something right last year. You are a rookie. Bear to who you were, and now you’re hitting panels. Yeah. All right. That was the easy part.

00:18:41:50 – 00:19:05:39
David Martin
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David Martin
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00:19:17:24 – 00:19:46:20
David Martin
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00:19:46:24 – 00:19:53:50
David Martin
We asked this before and we’re going to ask it again. Here’s our good government show questionnaire. Okay. Has your definition of good government changed in your year as mayor?

00:19:53:53 – 00:20:03:54
Janet Cowell
I don’t think so. You think about transparency, participation, data driven decisions. Those are all fundamentals.

00:20:03:54 – 00:20:11:28
David Martin
Have you gotten more people involved? Do you think have you gotten more people talking, joining, speaking out in your year?

00:20:11:30 – 00:20:33:50
Janet Cowell
You know, I would say there’s a lot of controversy in these spaces because what some people view, I will say in my first year as mayor is we said something and if we didn’t agree or we didn’t make the decision you wanted, the accusation is that you’re not listening or that you’re not incorporating the public. And it is a representative government form of government.

00:20:33:53 – 00:20:58:32
Janet Cowell
There’s a lot of different pieces coming into play. There’s state government relations, federal government relations, how you filter and absorb everything that you’re listening to and make that final decision. So I feel like we have engaged strongly with the public. You would certainly have people in my community and others say, well, you’re not making the decisions that I want you to make.

00:20:58:34 – 00:21:01:58
Janet Cowell
And therefore I think you’re not listening to me. And, you know.

00:21:02:01 – 00:21:04:56
David Martin
But that’s not the case because you can’t make everybody happy.

00:21:04:56 – 00:21:20:55
Janet Cowell
That is true. But, you know, when people lose battles, they don’t say, we’re on the losing end of this policy. What they do is say, these folks are bad people. They aren’t listening. They accuse you of nefarious intent and bad character as opposed to having a different policy perspective.

00:21:20:55 – 00:21:25:57
David Martin
What would you like people to do? What would you like the citizens to do? How would you like them to be better partners?

00:21:25:59 – 00:21:53:14
Janet Cowell
Certainly trying to focus on policy and quit attacking individuals. We’ve seen a lot more attacks on staff this year. And, you know, even folks that I think would be against the violence and the political rhetoric and would view themselves as being not part of that. You see these small sort of microaggressions of spreading rumors that, you know, I blocked people out of the parking deck or something.

00:21:53:19 – 00:22:17:39
Janet Cowell
I will say, even ironically, the day the monks came to Raleigh. And everybody’s about peace and love and these monks and mindfulness, somebody blocked park their car and blocked me into my driveway because my house was actually quite near where this monk’s route was. And you’re like, this is kind of ironic, right? That people who profess to care deeply about this love and, you know, are willing to block people into their driveway.

00:22:17:42 – 00:22:21:20
David Martin
One year in, what have you learned that you’d like other people to know about?

00:22:21:32 – 00:22:50:22
Janet Cowell
You know, the interconnectivity and the context of which you are mayor? I am mayor in a state where we have city manager form of government. We have a strong Republican supermajority, almost supermajority in our General Assembly. And we have a Republican federal government that has generally been hostile towards cities. So you have to think about all of those factors when you’re making statements and how that’s going to impact people in your city.

00:22:50:23 – 00:22:58:06
Janet Cowell
So again, there’s a lot to process and a lot of elements as you go into thinking about what you say, what you do.

00:22:58:08 – 00:23:01:19
David Martin
So how do you how do you do that? How do you bridge that, that problem?

00:23:01:20 – 00:23:19:04
Janet Cowell
I tend to say less. Yeah. And I’ll get people constantly saying, you should be weighing in on this. You should be saying more, you should be doing this. And we actually did have Border Patrol come to Raleigh for one day. And I just want to be in concert with my city manager, my police chief and the governor.

00:23:19:07 – 00:23:19:38
David Martin
Okay.

00:23:19:48 – 00:23:27:23
Janet Cowell
And so I tell people, that’s the team. I’m not acting as a lone cowboy here. I am part of a team.

00:23:27:25 – 00:23:28:21
David Martin
People think you are.

00:23:28:23 – 00:23:53:00
Janet Cowell
I think people think mayors could just go out and say what they want. Again, context matters. If you’re the mayor of a super large city that’s democratically controlled, you have a lot of power and you’re in a democratic state. You may feel that that is the best thing, and there’s not going to be a lot of repercussions. In my case, I feel like I could hurt the least of those by making statements that may not have any tangible positive impact.

00:23:53:02 – 00:23:58:43
Janet Cowell
Certainly would be a symbolic statement, but could end up hurting vulnerable people. In my community.

00:23:58:45 – 00:24:04:38
David Martin
There is a lack of faith in government. What can you do or what are you doing to restore that faith.

00:24:04:40 – 00:24:28:34
Janet Cowell
Being present, right? I mean, I spent a lot of time on the ground so that you are in your community, you’re at the important events in your community, you’re trying to engage people that might not have been, and you’re trying to be transparent about process, etc.. So, I mean, those are the ways that I’ve tried to be a good leader and exhibit that government is doing good things in the community.

00:24:28:36 – 00:24:32:05
David Martin
You sort of answered this. Let me ask you a different way. What’s the best part of the job?

00:24:32:05 – 00:24:57:58
Janet Cowell
The best part of the job is getting to be in these special moments in your community that you would probably never be a part of if you weren’t mayor, and that could be in a homeless shelter where you have like a really special interaction. I was at a vigil for those who died on the street. Unfortunately, that was about 50 people in our county last year who died kind of as a direct result of being unhoused.

00:24:57:58 – 00:25:09:48
Janet Cowell
And you’re there to light a candle and honor those 50 people. I mean, there’s just a lot of moments that are special and make life, I call it life, maybe more in Technicolor versus black and white.

00:25:09:51 – 00:25:17:31
David Martin
Okay. All right. I ask you this before I’m going to ask it again. What is your favorite thing to eat? What is the what is the dish of Raleigh?

00:25:17:33 – 00:25:18:38
Janet Cowell
The dish of Raleigh?

00:25:18:40 – 00:25:20:47
David Martin
The cuisine? Yes. What are we having? Where are we going?

00:25:20:50 – 00:25:45:44
Janet Cowell
What are we? Well, I’ll tell you. We have two James Beard nominees, both of whom one is a Bangladesh background. The other is Indian background. So the dish of Raleigh, you know, could be changing. But, you know, there’s a lot of great cuisine in the city. I think people would still, you know, of course, think about barbecue if they thought about your classic vinegar based eastern barbecue.

00:25:45:46 – 00:25:52:41
David Martin
That’s vinegar based, vinegar based. So. Right. What do you do for fun? What have you been able to do for fun?

00:25:52:43 – 00:26:05:21
Janet Cowell
You know, still do. I work out and read a lot movies, some travel. But again, I really haven’t traveled as much. I tried to stick pretty close to the ground.

00:26:05:23 – 00:26:11:40
David Martin
Yeah, you have to be down for bed. Something happens in your own vacation. Right? Right, yeah. I think. Did you run?

00:26:11:44 – 00:26:20:05
Janet Cowell
Yes. I do have a small running group. And then I’ve done the string training. One thing I’ve done is I took the police physical assessment test, which I passed.

00:26:20:08 – 00:26:21:27
David Martin
Good. You could be a cop next.

00:26:21:27 – 00:26:30:41
Janet Cowell
And then the fire, I will say, is kind of kicking my butt. So I’m still training to be able to do a pull up, and I’m working on it.

00:26:30:43 – 00:26:33:02
David Martin
All right. Well you’ve got you’ve got time.

00:26:33:05 – 00:26:33:48
Janet Cowell
I have some time.

00:26:33:50 – 00:26:37:00
David Martin
All right. So maybe you’ll give you a firefighter right now. You could be a cop.

00:26:37:00 – 00:26:37:52
Janet Cowell
I could be a cop.

00:26:37:55 – 00:26:41:31
David Martin
All right. Do you read about yourself? Have you been reading about yourself? The papers.

00:26:41:33 – 00:26:47:35
Janet Cowell
I generally don’t read a lot about what gets published because it’s just better not to.

00:26:47:37 – 00:26:52:23
David Martin
When you’re watching, do you watch the local news? And when you see yourself, do you turn it off or pay attention?

00:26:52:25 – 00:27:04:58
Janet Cowell
I do not tend to. I do not tend to watch all of that. You know, obviously you want to see what’s relevant and how things are being reported, but I generally let other people let me know how things have gone.

00:27:05:00 – 00:27:08:05
David Martin
Do they don’t watch the news tonight?

00:27:08:10 – 00:27:22:47
Janet Cowell
Yeah. I don’t think I’m on that much. But, you know, right now with the weather, I’m starting to get the weather calls again because we’ve got more snow forecast. So later today and now at 7:00 on Saturday morning I’ll be doing Weather Outlook.

00:27:22:50 – 00:27:32:11
David Martin
You’re in a city that does not get a tremendous amount of snow year in, year out. When you have a snow emergency, what can you do and how can you prepare?

00:27:32:13 – 00:27:58:28
Janet Cowell
Brian the streets right. We put the the salt brine all over because of course ice. And then we have emergency teams. So if we do get branches down because of ice or snowfall, you’re clearing those out, coordinate with the local energy and then try to have people know who to call so that if you have vulnerable residents that could call without power, right, that you can get assistance to them, police, etc..

00:27:58:38 – 00:28:08:30
Janet Cowell
So, you know, all the sort of basic blocking and tackling. Yeah. Right now I think all the stores are trying to restock and get ready for the next wave of grocery buying.

00:28:08:33 – 00:28:10:06
David Martin
What is the acorn on your jacket?

00:28:10:06 – 00:28:24:15
Janet Cowell
So we are the City of Oaks and this is the acorn is definitely a huge theme in our city. We even we have squirrels. You know, there’s all sorts of like little feisty squirrels. So that is what this acorn symbolizes.

00:28:24:27 – 00:28:29:40
David Martin
This is the good government show. We always bring it back to good government. Tell me about something you’ve done in the last year you really happy about.

00:28:29:41 – 00:28:58:49
Janet Cowell
Well, I will say this Dick’s park that I was a big part of. We opened Gibson Play Plaza to great applause and joy in the community. And then we had the art with the trolls. And just to see, like one day I was out with it was an Afghani community convening a lot of folks that had come to the Raleigh area, and these kids were all out there playing, and they had these the the sort of robes that the children will wear.

00:28:58:49 – 00:29:22:14
Janet Cowell
And they were frolicking around next to these trolls and just thinking about Danish Afghan crossover. Right. But the fact that I had a role to play in that park, that it is I think will be, you know, recognized in the in the coming year as one of the best parks in America, that it was public, private, philanthropic, all these different.

00:29:22:19 – 00:29:24:59
Janet Cowell
So really proud of that.

00:29:25:02 – 00:29:39:37
David Martin
Sounds good. Janet Cowell, congratulations on your first year as mayor of Rollins. And hopefully we’ll be back here next year. And you’ll and you’ll still be smiling. That’s right. And I look forward to hearing more about poetry in Raleigh. And good luck selecting a poet laureate.

00:29:39:42 – 00:29:44:32
Janet Cowell
Yeah. Thank you for what you do.

00:29:44:36 – 00:30:06:06
David Martin
The Good Government Institute has a new partner, the Charles F Kettering Foundation. I really like their podcast, The Context, and I bet you will too. They have a new series called Democracy Under Construction. The show is hosted by historian Alex Lovett, and he looks back at the first 250 years of U.S. history. Alex digs into the moments that have pushed us towards an inclusive democracy.

00:30:06:09 – 00:30:14:37
David Martin
You can find it where you’re listening right now, or visit Kettering and give him a follow.

00:30:14:42 – 00:30:32:34
David Martin
Want to hear more about good government? Check out another show I host Leading Iowa Good Government in Iowa cities. I host the show with Brad Kavanagh, mayor of Dubuque, Iowa, and the immediate past president of the Iowa League of Cities. Together, we talked to leaders in Iowa cities. We talk about what works and what good government looks like in Iowa.

00:30:32:36 – 00:30:42:47
David Martin
Join us right here. We’re listening. Now that’s leading Iowa. Good government in Iowa cities.

00:30:42:52 – 00:30:59:08
David Martin
First let’s talk about the monks. They concluded there 109 day 2300 mile walk for peace in Washington. They made it. After the walk. The monks stayed in America. And it was only just in May that the monks went home to Thailand. Check out their Facebook page. We have a link on our show notes. It’s a pretty incredible.

00:30:59:08 – 00:31:14:48
David Martin
Story now about the mayor’s year. It’s fun to be able to catch up with a city leader and listen to them talk about the job they took on, and to see how it changed for them and their city. See, I told you it was quieter in Raleigh. I actually watched their first state of the city speech. It was pretty impressive.

00:31:14:53 – 00:31:33:59
David Martin
There was a link in last year’s episode, so I had to look at this year’s speech. And this year she announced the city would have a new position poet laureate for the City of Raleigh. We talked about that before she made the formal announcement. That’s good government. At least. It’s fun government, and that is good government. Arts are an important part of life, and it’s good to see a mayor taking time to invest in the arts.

00:31:34:01 – 00:31:50:38
David Martin
Often it’s one of the first things cut, and I hope she gets to take more selfie with kids in the parks and at the stores. That’s fun. Government too. Good luck. Mayor Cowell on the fire department. Fitness training. Well, that’s our show. Thanks for listening. Please like us and share us with your friends and review us right here where you’re listening, and check out our website.

00:31:50:38 – 00:32:06:45
David Martin
Good Government show 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.

00:32:06:49 – 00:32:45:42
David Martin
The Good Government Show is produced by the Good Government Institute, a nonprofit organization promoting civic engagement and civic education. All donations to the show help promote trust in government. You can donate at Good Govt Institute. That’s good govt institute. Executive producers are Jim Ludlow, Dave Martin, that’s me and David Snyder. Jason Stershic is our editor and producer. Join us again to hear good stories about our government right here on The Good Government Show.

00:32:45:47 – 00:32:48:49
Narrator
This podcast is part of the democracy Group.

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