Remarks by Carl Rist
73 remarks on the record, newest first · Page 1 of 3
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“I'll pass it over to Council Member Wrist. Pledge of Allegiance. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. If this is your practice, I invite you to rise with me and recite the Pledge of Allegiance.”
City Council · Oct 5, 2026
- Play at 17:29
“Great people. Good evening, everyone. I'd like to call forth Jimmy Leandia, come on, for tonight's proclamation for Energy Efficiency Day.”
City Council · Oct 5, 2026
- Play at 17:47
“Whereas the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating, and Air Conditioning Engineers”
City Council · Oct 5, 2026
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“ASHRAE, advances energy efficiency of new and existing buildings, including through its research, standards, publishing, and continuing education. And whereas ASHRAE standard 90.1 has served as the benchmark for commercial building energy codes in the US, and a key basis for codes and standards worldwide for almost half a century. and whereas improved energy codes for homes and commercial buildings can reduce energy consumption and utility costs while supporting local economic activity and workforce opportunities, and the City of Durham supports increasing building energy efficiency through…”
City Council · Oct 5, 2026
- Play at 46:23
“Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Good evening, colleagues, staff, residents, and those online as well. Good to see you all. Yeah, my colleagues touched on a lot of things going on. It's been an exciting couple weeks. I did want to note that it was a bittersweet weekend. Two folks died from gunshots over the weekend. A third person succumbed to wounds today. That's a tragic result in the Bull City, and my heart goes out to the families involved. We do have a violence reduction plan in the city of Durham with the county, and we're moving forward on that, but we can't move fast enough. As we saw last week,…”
City Council · Oct 5, 2026
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“Any other comments? Yeah, she'll go ahead. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Yeah, I appreciate the comments from the audience and Council Member Cook. Yeah, anytime we're working with the Republican legislature and asking lobbyists to help us, it's tricky stuff, right? This is sausage making. It's a big investment we've made. We made that decision several years ago. I will say that part of the work that our lobbyists do is to defend us from bad legislation. It's hard to quantify that. The one thing we did get this year was a local bill passed for Durham that gives us that we're the only city in the…”
City Council · Oct 5, 2026
- Play at 2:49:32
“The elementary school is almost near 50% capacity.”
City Council · Oct 5, 2026
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“And that's where we ended up at 8% on that.”
City Council · Oct 5, 2026
- Play at 3:13:26
Not quoted here: it may name a member of the public. Hear it at the meeting.
City Council · Oct 5, 2026
- Play at 3:14:17
“So that's a use that could be, so that could be, if this were not approved, that could be a use of the property. Yes, by right. And so, right. And so what I see on the, again, on the zoning map change report is that the potential impact of the proposed designation is less than that because of it being residential, not commercial. So that's how you get the lower traffic counts.”
City Council · Oct 5, 2026
- Play at 3:14:37
Not quoted here: it may name a member of the public. Hear it at the meeting.
City Council · Oct 5, 2026
- Play at 3:15:22
Not quoted here: it may name a member of the public. Hear it at the meeting.
City Council · Oct 5, 2026
- Play at 3:15:42
“Intersection, okay, yeah. So that would complete, so then from your parcel, you could walk continuously, if you can make that gap with the five-foot sidewalk, you could walk to the intersection there, you could walk then north to the bus stop.”
City Council · Oct 5, 2026
- Play at 3:15:59
“And I also understand, I want to give a shout out to the manager here. So I understand that we did sign an interlocal agreement with the county, I think, back in August or something that would allow us to, if DOT does build that sidewalk, that we would then maintain it, because that is on county land, right? That's not currently city land, correct?”
City Council · Oct 5, 2026
- Play at 3:16:22
Not quoted here: it may name a member of the public. Hear it at the meeting.
City Council · Oct 5, 2026
- Play at 3:44:46
“Mr. Mayor, if I could, I think it's a really good question. Yeah, I think, go ahead. And Council Member Cabrera addressed the MPO side of it. I think the other side is that we're also working on these things within the City of Durham, right? So we've got a bike and walk plan with the county. This is not one of the priority corridors right now in the bike and walk plan, just because there's other priority corridors where there's more PEOPLE, RIGHT? PART OF THE CHALLENGE IS GETTING MORE DENSITY AND THAT BRINGS MORE OF THE SORT OF SIDEWALKS AND TRANSIT. SO THIS IS NOT A PRIORITY FOR THE BUS,…”
City Council · Oct 5, 2026
- Play at 3:59:47
“And then is impervious still 65% of it was impervious part of the?”
City Council · Oct 5, 2026
- Play at 32:10
“Glad to be here. I do bring greetings from the North Carolina League of Municipalities. My first meeting there, so we are well represented there, and it's a pleasure to serve.”
City Council · Sep 24, 2026
- Play at 37:10
“All right, well, Madam Clerk, I'll let you know if we need to order dinner.”
City Council · Sep 24, 2026
- Play at 37:20
“It's not on the financials? It's not a presentation?”
City Council · Sep 24, 2026
- Play at 46:08
“Council Member Rivers, go ahead. Yeah, if you want to respond, yeah, and then I'll happen to jump in.”
City Council · Sep 24, 2026
- Play at 48:15
“Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I guess I have a similar question. So when these original estimates were done, who was responsible for that? Was that like DPR? Was that General Services? Was that the Finance Department? Who was responsible for developing those estimates? Because I agree with Council Member Cook. Some of these things, or as you said, some things can change. But some of these costs around that, engineering and so forth, are probably costs you would expect to be included. So is it a question of one department doing the analysis, somebody else putting it on the bond? How did that happen?”
City Council · Sep 24, 2026
- Play at 49:25
“Yeah, so I understand, obviously, as projects evolve, as you find bedrock, so things do change, right? But I think there is, I think we continue to face this challenge of this kind of communications political challenge with our residents. We went to the residents and said, this is a big plan, we want you to invest in the bond, and now we're saying it's going to cost a lot more. Also, we also, I know on the streets and sidewalks, said this is shovel-ready stuff, we can do it in a couple years. Now we're saying 29 on this thing? Have we pushed the timeline out on the delivery of the two parks?”
City Council · Sep 24, 2026
- Play at 52:05
“Yeah, no, I appreciate that, and I appreciate staff being creative to find other sources of funds. Federal dollars are certainly always appreciated. I guess my question related to that, and this comes out of some of the transit work we've done, like does applying for these funds, and also does it sort of like relying on the state, the pre-regulatory landfill program, does relying on those funds or budgeting those funds, does that also push the timeline out further? Because this has happened on transit stuff, where we sort of are waiting for federal dollars, we have to push back. I think…”
City Council · Sep 24, 2026
- Play at 53:13
“Are there additional sort of like approvals we need on sort of whether it's environmental or different sort of approvals that can also slow it down? That's the other thing that happens sometimes with different pots of funds. There's different sort of levels of authorization.”
City Council · Sep 24, 2026