Score One for Bev!

Bev Perdue won one this a.m., and good for her. The NC Council of State approved her plan to lease the 306-acre Dorothea Dix Hospital tract of land in downtown Raleigh to the City of Raleigh for preservation as a park for the people. The deal will cost the City of Raleigh about $68 million over 75 years. Republicans on the Council of State (principally Secretary of Labor Cherie Berry) had their noses out of joint because they were flakking for big-money interests, said they wanted more cash for the land, but more than wanting more, they wanted to deny Bev Perdue a victory. They lost.

Another Council of State member, Attorney General Roy Cooper, said, "This is an extraordinary opportunity that will improve the quality of life for generations to come. I think it’s shortsighted to analyze this as a pure economic transaction for the state.” (Why didn't Roy Cooper run for governor?)

Cherie Berry: "More money!"

Roy Cooper: "More value."

The site contains much open park land already, some 200-year-old specimen oaks and other mature hardwoods, and was lusted after by a rapacious crowd of commercial developers. Bev Perdue has saved that historic jewel from development. For that she gets a star in her crown.

Her chief opponents, who've been raging publicly since she announced the plan: The Koch Brothers/Art Pope group known as Americans for Prosperity, along with their puppets in the NC General Assembly, Thom Tillis and Phil  Berger. And, of course, old Me-Too Pat McCrory, Squishy Pat, who's learned fast whose palm to eat out of.