One environmentalist's thoughts on the Dix debacle

I know it's a cause near and dear to the hearts of many of my environmentally minded friends here in Raleigh, but the campaign to convert the Dorothea Dix Hospital property near downtown into a park hasn't gotten a great deal of attention here at Raleigh Eco News.

That's because I've been conflicted about the proposal.

On the one hand, I do think we need to increase public open space in our fast-growing city -- and there's a certain poetic justice in converting an old mental hospital into a health-enhancing place like a park. After all, science has found that access to nature via parks plays a critical if still not fully understood role in human health and development. Some think that addiction, for example, may sometimes represent an attempt to fill the void left by the loss of contact with nature.

But on the other hand -- maybe because I'm a social worker by training -- I can't help but worry about how we will meet the local community's mental health care needs. Deepening my worry was the News & Observer's outstanding recent series on the state's botched mental health privatization effort, which introduced us to people like Johnnie P. Yarborough:

In 2006, the 47-year-old Yarborough, suffering from bipolar disorder and addicted to crack cocaine, was so desperate for treatment that he beat on the doors of state-run Dorothea Dix Hospital in Raleigh and a private mental hospital, seeking to be admitted.

Because of the 2001 reform law, treatment once offered by Wake County's mental health agency had become spotty or nonexistent. Yarborough was admitted to Dix 14 times during 2006, but never for more than a few days. He began fearing that he might commit a murder. He's drug-free now and working, but that's thanks to the nonprofit Raleigh Rescue Mission, where he now lives.

It's bad enough for someone in need of health care to be reduced to pounding on a hospital door. But now we want to eliminate even that lousy option and force ill Raleigh residents to go to a new facility 30 miles away, Central Regional Hospital in Butner.

And as it turns out, there are still serious problems at Central Regional. With patients expected to start arriving by the middle of next month, the $120 million facility still has a host of safety hazards -- including hundreds of door handles and bathroom handrails that present risks for the suicidal, as the N&O reported this week.

State mental health workers rallied today against the Dix closure plans, calling them a "disaster in the making," according to the paper:

"This is our Katrina,” said Beverly Moriarity, a nurse who helps coordinate staffing at Dix. "This is a train wreck waiting to happen. The administration knows it’s going to be a catastrophe and they’re moving ahead anyway. I don’t understand it."

State employees say they're worried about expected shortfalls in the numbers of nurses, doctors, psychiatrists and psychologists needed at the facility. They're also concerned about the readiness of the staff that has been hired, since their orientation consisted of a two-hour walk through one floor of the building and a packet of instructions to read at home. To date, they have received no training on using the computer system, securing medications, or evacuating in case of fire.

They're also rattled by the long commute to Butner -- especially given the rising price of fuel:

"Half of my salary would go to gas," said Floyd Mims, a health care technician. The starting pay for his job is less than $11 an hour.

I think it's become clear that closing Dix doesn't make sense from a strictly human perspective. But neither do I think it makes sense from a broader ecological perspective to demolish a local treatment facility and force patients and staff to commute to a new one 30 miles away.

My dream is that Raleigh's conservationists, state mental health workers, mental health advocates, and mental health patients and their families would join forces to keep Dix open -- and turn it into a world-class park. With a campus of more than 300 acres, there's room for both. Let's make Dix into a place that continues to care for patients in need and also enhances the well being of the wider community.

(Dix property photo by Karen Tam from Friends of Dix Web site)

Raleigh, drought, and development

Anyone interested in Raleigh's mounting water woes -- and our mayor's insistence that they have nothing to do with development -- should read the excellent ongoing analysis by Lunsford Lane over at the Below the Beltline.

Raleigh voters reject Big Real Estate's candidates

It's a great day for those of us who think Raleigh would be a better place if the real estate industry held less sway over city politics.

With election results close to final, it appears that Raleigh's council may be governed by a majority that wants developers to shoulder a greater portion of the costs of growth. Mayor Charles Meeker, who wants higher impact fees on new development and limits on tax breaks for developers, will now have key allies in victorious council challengers Nancy McFarlane in District A and perhaps Rodger Koopman in District B. (Koopman did not win 50 percent of the vote outright, and incumbent Jessie Taliaferro told the News & Observer that she plans to request a runoff.)

McFarlane appears to have defeated incumbent Tommy Craven, himself a developer, while Koopman garnered more votes than Jessie Taliaferro, an incumbent whose campaign was heavily funded by development interests. In the at-large race, incumbent Russ Stephenson, another Meeker ally, has held onto his seat by a comfortable margin. The winner of the second at-large seat appears to be Mary-Ann Baldwin, the director of marketing for Stewart Engineering (a firm involved with real estate development) and a major recipient of developer cash.

According to an analysis by the folks at Below the Beltline, 65 percent of Baldwin's contributions in the last campaign finance reporting period came from development interests. For Taliaferro, that figure was 86 percent, compared to just 10 percent for Stephenson and 2 percent for Koopman. The blog A View of the city puts the portion of Taliaferro's campaign cash that came from development interests in the latest period at an even higher 93.8 percent.

The triumph of smart-growth advocates over pro-development candidates is particularly important this year, as Raleigh is about to kick off the process of updating its comprehensive plan.

Raleigh soft on developer fraud?

Catching up on some reading recently, I came across a jaw-dropping series of posts on the excellent Below the Beltline blog documenting how the developer of the Wake Crossings Plaza in Northeast Raleigh, faced with having to get permission from nearby residents to take away 20 feet of their backyards for a landscape buffer, forged the signatures of a resistant couple on a landscape easement and filed it with the city. Donald Genford of Genford Development Co. has reportedly been charged by police with committing forgery, a crime punishable by a fine and up to 10 years in prison.

What may be as outrageous as the developer attempting to defraud the public was the reaction of the Raleigh Planning Commission members when the forgery was brought up at a public hearing on the site plan. Genford owner Steve Fitzpatrick told commissioners that there was a problem with one of the project documents -- what he characterized as a "legal technicality." But the couple involved, Romeo and Vita Mazzaluna, offered a different perspective. They said that after refusing to sign the easement on their attorney's advice, they called a city planner to check on the development's status only to be informed that the Register of Deeds had their signed document on file -- "not by us," Mr. Mazzaluna said, "but a forged document, and that is the technicality that he talked about, and so, I don't understand."

Outraged, Commissioner Maha Chambliss motioned to reject the plan. But Chairman James Baker -- himself a developer with Charleston Homes -- said the commission didn't have all the necessary information. Chambliss' motion died for lack of a second, and Baker's motion to delay the matter passed. Writes BTB's Lunsford Lane:

At this point, I would normally be out of my chair screaming at the TV! But I was so literally stunned. Speechless, breathless, motionless, wide eyes glued to the tube, not even blinking. What does that idiot mean we don’t have all the information yet? The developer all but outright admitted to the Commissioners that the easement document was forged. After the meeting, when it is was crystal clear to him that the gig was up, Fitzpatrick was much more direct with the North Raleigh News, “Oh, it's forged.”

The lack of outrage by any Commissioner other that Chambliss is just, well, just staggering. Not unexplainable, given the Commissioners we were dealt, but staggering nonetheless. If I had free time (the lack of which is evidenced by my recent post rate), I'd start a new website called jimbakermustgo.com.

I wonder how this will affect Genford projects around the city? Besides Wake Crossing, they include the slow-moving and problem-plagued retail and condo project at the corner of Brookside and Glascock. I wonder: If Genford goes under, can we get back the grassy lot that used to be there?