Welcome to Save Hayes Barton!

Launching the Save Hayes Barton Substack/newsletter/site

Introduction…

Greetings neighbors 👋, I’m Scot Wingo and we moved to Hayes Barton in 2007 and have been here 18 years now. We live on Iredell (1534) in the ‘elbow of the bend’. I’m a technology entrepreneur in town and have founded five companies (you may have heard of ChannelAdvisor or Spiffy). My wife is Kris and we have three kids and two dogs.

I’m from Aiken, SC, went to USC 🐓 for under-grad in Computer-Engineering and then got a Masters in CE from NCSU 🐺. We fell in love with the Triangle and have been here since 1995.

20 years ago, as we were thinking where we wanted to move (we moved from Cary), we chose Hayes Barton for many of the same reasons I’m sure you did:

• The single family homes

• Sidewalks and walkability

• Proximity to Five Points

• Schools

• Light auto traffic.

In short, Hayes Barton offers an oasis of calm in a city and World that are increasingly chaotic. Hayes Barton delivers a quality of living that’s hard to find anywhere else.

We believe that what we have here with Hayes Barton is very special and rare - and that makes it worth fighting for.

Getting involved in the battle to save Hayes Barton, wasn’t top of our priority list, but after watching the incredible leadership that Frank Gordon has shown in the battle to save our neighborhood and in talking with him about what he needs, the time has come to escalate the battle and marshal our resources.

What is ‘Save Hayes Barton?’

I am a fellow concerned neighbor. Talking to Frank and other neighbors, what I believe we need to support Frank in the legal battle are 3 things:

1. Split the Battle

2. Up-level our communications

3. Launch a new fundraising effort

That’s what ‘ Save Hayes Barton’ is - those three new strategies added next to what Frank is doing on the legal side.

Let’s dig into each of these in a bit more detail:

Split the Battle

Note: I’m not a lawyer, this is my interpretation of what’s going on from a ‘business strategy’ perspective. Because of this I may not use the exact language a lawyer would use. If you want the legal-ese, Frank’s your man.

There are two fronts to the legal battle Frank is fighting. They are:

• 908 Williamson Battle - This is the battle to stop the 17 townhome project from moving forward in our community that will destroy the character of Hayes Barton.

• City of Raleigh Battle - As you’re probably aware, there’s a bigger issue that was the root-cause of the 908 Williamson project - the City of Raleigh made text changes to the zoning laws in 2021 and 2022 that have enabled just about structure just about anywhere in Raleigh. The City’s PR take on this is it will fill the ‘missing middle’ and offer more affordable housing. There are many reasons this doesn’t make sense, making it seem like there are other hidden motives at play.

From a legal standpoint, this is a smart two-pronged approach, from a PR standpoint which has focused on both and mostly the Zoning battle, I believe it has diluted our message and hampered our fundraising efforts locally.

I’m launching Save Hayes Barton to re-energize our defense of the neighborhood and make sure we win the 908 Williamson Battle. When we do that, it will show other neighborhoods how to fight and that you can fight. A win here will also support and strengthen the city-wide effort while sending a clear message to the City of Raleigh leadership.

Up-level our communications

Like me, Frank enjoys a morning coffee, and you’ll frequently see him at Third Place meeting with neighbors updating them on what’s going on 1:1, or stopping as he’s out walking his dogs. He also has the ‘mega cc’ updates. Both of those are great and appreciated, but they take valuable ‘Frank time’ away from the battle (note: this is not Franks full-time job), and it’s also not efficient.

I volunteered to help modernize the communications and this message is the first-step of that process. What you can expect is more frequent updates, building out of online resources and ultimately a push to make sure the local press hears our side of the story. We are fighting a David vs. Goliath battle here and our opponents have been clever at making it hard for us to tell our story. I’ve fought these battles in business for 30yrs and have some ideas for how we can escape the enemy’s traps and spring new ones on them. More on this later.

What’s a substack?

Substack is a company that has a free platform for running modern newsletters - they have very high deliverability (don’t go to spam folder) vs. older 'systems like Mailchimp and they also allow us to eventually turn on some community features should we want to.

Substack will make it easy for you to help promote the effort - you can forward articles, recommend people subscribe and send your feedback and thoughts to the central location.

Transparency

Substack also gives us transparency. I believe we are on the right side of this issue and have nothing to hide. Of course, legal strategy and other areas should be kept close to the vest, but what got us to this place is the City of Raleigh acting secretly in an opaque way. The same is true with 908 Williamson, the chain of actions that led to where are were based on misrepresentations, duplicitous motivations and greed without consideration for the overall community and asset that is Hayes Barton.

Launch a new fundraising effort

Fighting one legal battle is expensive, fighting two simultaneously is VERY expensive. While Frank is the plaintiff on this case, he should not solely bear the burden for all the legal fees. We need to support his efforts.

More on this in a separate communication coming soon.

What’s next?

That’s the Who, What, and How of the Save Hayes Barton initiative. If you have any questions, you can reply to this message directly, leave a comment or join the chat.

What’s next:

• Detailed update on the 908 Williamson case is coming this week

• Fundraising announcement and launch by end of the week of July 7th.

Thanks for reading. Let’s Save Hayes Barton!