Raleigh neighborhood name change still rankles some residents

RALEIGH, N.C. (WTVD) -- Raleigh city leaders approved a measure on Tuesday changing what was formerly known as Cameron Park, to Forest Park, on the last city document where it appears.

It's the culmination of a major reckoning over local connections to the Cameron family -- once the largest slaveholding family in the state -- dating back to 2020. It's the same debate that led to the renaming of the Cameron Village shopping area in 2021.

Raleigh's Forest Park neighborhood changed its name from Cameron Park in 2022 after roughly a year of neighborhood input and a remote vote. Tuesday's vote at city council merely changed the text on the neighborhood's NCOD -- or Neighborhood Conservation Overlay District -- an extra set of guidelines and rules governing historic communities. Still, several residents appeared at the Tuesday evening session, both for and against the text change.

"It was democracy in action, and everyone had a chance to participate," said neighborhood President Mike Lindsay of the original vote to rename the community in 2022.

Lindsay said that when the conversation about renaming the community began three years ago, he wasn't in favor of it.

"I actually wanted to keep the name and voted as such. But I stand by our process. It was open and transparent. It was incredibly, it's a process that everybody should be proud of," Lindsay said.

It's the latest in a neighborhood dispute dating to 2021 -- one that's ultimately led to attorney letters and vitriol.

"The empirical evidence I have tells me the vast majority of our neighborhood has moved on, and it is an angry minority who instead of wanting to even talk with us directly, they're doing it through lawyers," Lindsay said.

But many neighbors, like preservationist and longtime neighborhood resident Myrick Howard, are calling foul.

"I think this is an internal thing in the neighborhood that needs to be fixed and not through the City of Raleigh," Howard said.

Howard said he's still fighting the issue because he said he believes the neighborhood's bylaws to change the name weren't followed.

"I've lived in this neighborhood for nearly a half-century or chose to live in this neighborhood. And I and many, many others had this sprung upon us," Howard said.

Despite council ultimately moving to vote and approve the change, Mayor Mary-Ann Baldwin -- who abstained because of concerns over a possible lawsuit -- closed Tuesday's meeting on a somber note.

"I've had conversations with people who have told me that their neighbors don't talk to them anymore. I've had conversations with people who say they've been targeted. I just think it's tragic," Baldwin said.

The mayor confirmed at Tuesday's session that her office had received a recent letter threatening legal action should council move forward with the vote they ultimately approved. ABC11 asked Howard and his attorney after the vote if they plan to pursue a lawsuit, but they declined to say.