Mayor Cowell frames Raleigh's growth, housing priorities and opens applications for a poet laureate

At the 2026 State of the City address, Raleigh Mayor Janet Cowell said the city has passed the half-million-resident mark and laid out priorities for housing, infrastructure, stormwater resilience and civic engagement, and announced an open call for the city's first poet laureate.

Cowell framed the speech around poetry as a way to describe Raleigh's character amid rapid growth and repeated the city's central planning figures: she said Raleigh has added about 100,000 residents since 2009 and is projected to add roughly 250,000 more over the next 25 years. "We have crossed half million in the past year," Cowell said, using the projection to underscore the need for continued building and investment.

The mayor cited specific development and infrastructure items to support that growth. She highlighted 4,000 building permits issued in the last year and named several major public and private projects: a new city hall expected in about a year, expansion of the convention center, relocation of Red Hat Amphitheater and construction of an Omni Hotel. Cowell also described an ongoing $1 billion capital plan covering 20 years and said the city is not constrained by sewer or water capacity.

On transportation, Cowell pointed to more than 1,100 miles of sidewalks, about 160 miles of bike lanes and a recent groundbreaking for bus rapid transit on New Bern Avenue, calling Raleigh the first city in the state to pursue that BRT line. She also provided roadway and asset figures: about 1,157 miles of roads and roughly 91,000 traffic signs.

Cowell emphasized stormwater and resiliency work, noting the city maintains roughly 600 miles of stormwater pipe and about 190 miles of streams under city control; she said that investment yielded a 20% reduction in hurricane and storm-damage insurance from FEMA. "We've done so much investing and so much improvement in this area," she said.

On affordability, Cowell pointed to a completed $80 million affordable housing bond that she said helped create nearly 5,000 units, with another 3,000 units in the pipeline. She said the council is considering a roughly $100 million affordable housing bond to appear on the fall ballot and listed other programs, including homebuyer down-payment assistance (57 households helped last year with nearly $3 million in assistance) and targeted developments such as Hope Village at Method, which prioritizes residents exiting foster care.

Cowell also highlighted public-safety trends and community policing initiatives. She reported property crime down 17% and violent crime down 1% in the past year and credited Chief Boyce's emphasis on building trust and engagement, including a restarted citizen academy for residents to learn about local policing.

The address mixed policy items with poetry and civic culture: council members read poems selected or written by them, the presentation highlighted public-art installations and planned tree-planting and park projects (including Smoky Hollow Park and Pigeon Branch stream daylighting), and Cowell said more than 12,000 people participated in the first round of feedback for the city's updated comprehensive plan. "A city is not built by certainty. It is built by people willing to stay at the table long enough to recognize each other," Cowell said, reading a poem introduced during the program.

The major new civic announcement was a call for applicants to serve as Raleigh's first poet laureate. Cowell said applications opened during the event and will remain open for about a month, closing on April 17; the appointed poet will serve a two-year term. "We are going to announce, and as of now, we are opening applications for a poet laureate," Cowell said. The program will place poetry and spoken-word practice into civic events and public spaces, the mayor said.

Pastor Chris Jones of Ship Outreach Community Center offered a blessing and described his outreach work: "At Ship, we believe that real change happens through relationship, consistency, and meeting people where they are," he said, thanking the mayor and city for partnership.

Mr. Poetry Fox, introduced as a Durham poet laureate who writes extemporaneous verse, closed with a short poem crafted during the event and presented it on Raleigh stationery.

The program concluded with an invitation to a lobby reception; Cowell thanked city staff, the council and attendees and closed the event.

The mayor did not announce a binding council vote during the address; several initiatives (the proposed housing bond and transportation projects) were described as planned or to be placed on future ballots or actions. The city posted application details for the poet laureate on its website during the program.