By Jordan Meadows
Staff Writer
In June 2023, the Raleigh City Council voted unanimously to approve a resolution acknowledging the enduring consequences of slavery and Jim Crow laws on Black families. The resolution affirms that African American residents have been unjustly “enslaved, lynched, segregated, and incarcerated.” Among the injustices explicitly named in the document: housing discrimination by banks, governments, and the real estate market.
But just a year later, new tensions emerged in Raleigh’s historically Black neighborhoods—particularly those near downtown now facing intense development pressure. As property values surged, residents found themselves facing higher taxes, prompting growing concerns about what they describe as a systematically flawed method of property valuation.
While the city has acknowledged these discriminatory legacies, many in the Black community say a deeper disconnect remains between City Hall and its residents.
Three years ago, the City of Raleigh began construction preparations in Southeast Raleigh’s Old Towne subdivision, including placing property flags and blasting dynamite to build a new street—Primrose Bank Road—linking Holiday Drive with Bowmont Grove Street.
The impact of the construction has rippled through the neighborhood. At least four households have filed complaints with the city, citing property damage, a lack of notification about the project, and a complete absence of community input.
A letter obtained by The Carolinian from GeoSonics-Vibra-Tech, dated May 2022, informed residents about “the blasting phase of its development operation.” According to the letter, East Coast Drilling and Blasting Inc. contracted the company to conduct the work and planned to “perform conditional inspections of the structures nearest to the areas where blasting could occur.”
Reverend Isaiah Green believes the true story begins even earlier. He claims the Halle Building Group—an outside developer—initiated the neighborhood’s development and that a “secret vote by the City Council” years ago allowed the project to proceed without notifying residents.
Some residents now fear the new road will bring more harm than good. The Stanford family, whose home sits just 60 feet from the proposed street, says the project will bring “excessive traffic congestion” and threaten their personal safety and property rights. “There does not appear to be plans to create substantial barriers between the street and our home to guard against people loitering, breaking and entering, trashing, potentially vandalizing our property for the benefit of the residents of the Old Towne Subdivision project,” they wrote.
Other residents, like Mack Evans, have taken formal steps to protest. Evans filed a Constituent Request for Service with U.S. Representative Deborah Ross, outlining what he describes as a “civil rights violation… dynamiting near residence without giving written consent… same being permitted by the city of Raleigh.” He also alleges he was “denied voting privilege by the City government.” According to Rev. Green, none of these complaints have received substantive responses—if any.
Green himself sent a certified letter to the Halle Building Group, blaming the blasting for structural damage to his property. “Be advised… as early as March 18th 2025, that my garage had damage done to the rear of it in the foundation wall in several places as a result of dynamite where my property line connects with the old town regency building construction site,” he wrote.
And the effects of the blasting extend beyond Holiday Drive. One resident, Gail Durham from nearby Barwell Road, submitted a letter to the city describing widespread issues caused by earlier blasting: “A lot of homeowners in this area have private wells and septic systems. A few years ago blasting was done in the area. As a result, our well water systems became muddy and unusable for a few days. A plumber has to pull and replace the water pump due to damage… These are not inexpensive fixes.”
Despite repeated calls for transparency and accountability, many residents say they’ve been left in the dark—again.
Green told The Carolinian he had only once been in contact with the City, but wasn’t offered any meaningful solution or explanation. The City of Raleigh, according to Green, has not responded to a single residential inquiry since March 31 2025.
Not only are issues of transparency and communication central to the concerns surrounding the new development, but there is also the matter of damage to multiple homeowners’ properties in Southeast Raleigh. Fears of gentrification are heightened by events like this, where government officials discuss, plan, approve, appoint, and implement large-scale projects that affect the health and safety of community members—often with little to no meaningful input from the area’s residents.
