Bull City Rising

Landlord-tenant bill passes General Assembly, avoids systematic inspections ban; landlords get water submetering

Amidst all the legislation being followed in the General Assembly, one bill that's now passed the state House and Senate has garnered relatively little notice: a new landlord-tenant bill slogged out after deep negotiations between the landlord lobby and groups like the progressive NC Justice Center and ACORN.

Advocates for a systematic rental property inspection program -- the possibility of which had been under threat in early discussions about the bill -- can rest easy. The bill does not include language that would preclude Neighborhood Improvement Services (or similar municipal agencies in other cities) from implementing such a program.

The bill also implements minimum-housing standards, but Durham City already has such standards, so there's no impact there. They will apply in Durham County, however, which previously (according to a BCR source) was not covered by such standards, which require structural integrity, working water and heat, and a rat-free residence, among other basics.

The win for landlords? Water submetering. Landlords will, once the rules phase in and leases roll over, be able to bill back water charges to tenants on properties more than twenty years old.

N&O: Bronto bashers buy head/neck fixes -- community the rest?

Summertime brings warm weather, back porch sessions with lemonade, festivals aplenty -- and, this year, debate over the punishment meted out to the youth who vandalized the beloved old brontosaurus statue at the Museum of Life & Science near Northgate Park.

I took the seemingly-unpopular view here a few weeks back that revealing the names of the perps wasn't necessary if the Museum felt it was getting whatever sort of restitution was most appropriate -- restitution that, at the time, was known only to include volunteer time for the cash- and manpower-strapped museum.

It's a position others have taken, too, but one which has run into a good question on local listservs and in comments here. The Museum is a partially taxpayer-supported entity, and community donations are being raised to repair the bronto -- why shield those who committed the act if Durham citizens are picking up the tab for the fixes?

Today's N&O has a brief update from Mark Schultz, one that sets out what seems to be a reasonable bifurcation of responsibility for the repair costs:

In an interview Tuesday, [museum VP Julie] Rigby said the museum has received financial restitution to repair the head and neck and the vandals will perform community service.

Additionally, the museum hopes to raise $4,000 to restore the statue, including holes in the mouth that may have been there before the dinosaur's head and neck were cut off in late May.

Chalk this one up as something that makes sense to me.

BCR's Daily Fishwrap Report for July 2, 2009

The Indy continues its analysis of the lawsuit filed on behalf of Southern Durham Development against the County in this week's issue. The most interesting bit of new news in Matt Saldaña's reporting: BOCC chair Michael Page's allegation that someone ordered planning director Steve Medlin to move back the critical watershed boundary on the 751 assemblage after Frank Duke changed it (although the state Division of Water Quality did later rule Duke did not have the authority to make the change in the first place -- a finding Page notes his disagreement with, though UNC's school of government and county attorney Chuck Kitchen also agreed with DWQ on the point.)

"I hope it will be proven in a court of law, so that these people who have been whining and complaining will actually realize who's behind all of this, that's costing the county thousands of dollars," Page said of the lawsuit's allegations. "The truth is going to come out regarding who instructed the planning director to move the maps back—and that's who I want to see answer to the government in regards to all of this."

Read more on this over at the Indy. In other news:

• A Durham P.D. officer was shot overnight at a robbery-in-progress at an apartment complex on Shannon Rd. (ABC 11)
• Duke's public policy institute is as of yesterday officially Duke's tenth school -- the Sanford School of Public Policy, with ex-director Bruce Kuniholm taking the top decanal slot. (H-S)
• The half-cent local option sales tax for transit in the Triangle and Triad remains mired in the Senate over whether rural counties should have a quarter-cent option themselves -- and, increasingly it seems, over nervousness about taxes after a quarter-cent general-purpose sales tax increase has been floated as a budget-balancing method. (H-S)
• A move in the General Assembly to allow builders to defer property taxes on unsold new construction residences for up to three years -- a response to the housing crisis -- won't take effect until after FY2009-10, but would have cost Durham city and county $2.7m in tax revenue if it had. Legislators expect (hope?) the housing market to be in better shape by then. (H-S)
• Minnie Forte-Brown and Heidi Carter were re-appointed to their chair and vice-chair positions on the school board, with both signaling their and DPS' ongoing committment to school reform, which the H-S' Matt Milliken notes the board argued DPS was on the forefront of nationally. (H-S)
• The recent $400k grant from the EPA for brownfield sites evaluation will be used on four NECD sites -- Angier Ave., Plum St., the Sullivan St. flea market, and the old grocery store at Liberty/N. Alston, a community group learned Tuesday night. (N&O)

Durham ranks 16th in country for growth last year -- but you won't learn that in the N&O

Though not the lead story for the day by any stretch, we here at BCR were bemused by the differential coverage of a little story on growth in our local papers today.

The latest report from the Census Bureau finds growth a continued reality for the Triangle in the twelve months ended July 1, 2008. Raleigh Cary saw a 6.9% growth rate, third in the nation among cities; Raleigh ranked 8th with a 3.8% increase.

Durham was in the mix, too, at 3% -- 16th in the U.S., according to the TBJ's wrap-up. (The city grew to 223,284 souls by mid-summer last year.)

The N&O covered the story, too, but you wouldn't know of a Bull City connection if you read the N&O... unless you look veeeery cloooosely.

The article by Kristin Collins doesn't mention word one about Durham, focusing only on Raleigh and Cary. A sidebar lists the fastest growth cities and towns overall in N.C. -- which by percentage naturally favors smaller suburban areas.

Cuban Revolution opens today, bringing food, music -- and a political theme -- to ATC

Of all the things that a typical restaurant can bring, one might expect politics to be the last on the list.

Given the discussions in comments here and elsewhere over the eponymous theme underlying American Tobacco's newest addition, the Providence, R.I.-based Cuban Revolution, you can tell this is not your typical restaurant.

Then again, Ed Morabito is not your typical restaurateur.

He's not a foodie by nature, bucking the trend in Durham where master chefs who've cut their teeth working at renowned establishments become both kitchen master and owner themselves.

Morabito, instead, brings a much more unusual (and political) background to Cuban Revolution, which opens today at 11 at the sight of the old Symposium Cafe at ATC.

BCR's Daily Fishwrap Report for July 1, 2009

We'll cover the most groanworthy coverage in the fishwraps -- some rather uneven treatment of Durham's 2007-2008 growth in everyone's favorite Raleigh paper -- later this morning at BCR. For now, the rest of the news:

• NCCU celebrated the centennial of the signing of its charter yesterday, a ceremony replete with a recreation of the event's occurance, and the return of a septagenerian alum who rang the campus bell on schedule four to five times a day -- an occurance he notes didn't make him Mr. Popular in the neighboring residence halls. Central chancellor Charlie Nelms noted the bravery and audacity of James Shepard and others who founded what became the nation's first publicly-supported liberal arts college for African-Americans at a time when lynchings were an all-too-common occurance in the American South, and where education was the right most denied to blacks. (H-S #1, #2; N&O)
• Lincoln Community Health Center will receive $1.3 million in stimulus funds allocated to community health clinics; the funds will be used to renovate the center, which replaced the historically-black Lincoln Hospital after the merger of Watts Hospital and Lincoln in the 1970s. (H-S)
• Though the measure in the General Assembly to give the Triangle and Triad a local-option half-cent sales tax for transit still is perceived to have an excellent chance at passage, the bill is mired in a debate with rural interests over whether those counties should be able to vote in a quarter-cent tax for transit in their areas. A Senate hearing on the bill was delayed yesterday so that Durham state Sen. Floyd McKissick, Jr. could work back-channels to try to resolve the sticking points on the bill. (H-S)
• The old Holton School in east Durham is still on track for an August opening. The third floor will house vo-tech classes for high school students in fields from construction to machinery to landscaping; the second floor will house a Durham Parks & Rec center with a gym, computer lab and more. And Duke University will take the first floor for a wellness center in partnership with Lincoln, sez the N&O. (The Durham News)
• There's no new news on the Black Meadow Ridge site adjacent to the Eno River, the parcel at the center of last year's firestorm over whether the City should transfer West Point Park to the state so that state government could buy up the 60-acre BMR parcel and merge both with the Eno River State Park. No surprise, given how bad the state budget situation has become. (TDN)

Old Starlu digs becomes site for new restaurant Eden

Durham Magazine's DM Blog broke the news last week that there's a new eatery set to open in the Shannon Rd. office building that housed the Restaurant Starlu before it shut down in late 2007.

On tap: Eden, described by DM's Matt Dees as offering "simple, fresh American cuisine using plenty of local ingredients." Renovations are reportedly well underway with a late-July opening planned.

Owner and executive chef Adam Smith was formerly a chef at George's Garage and spent the past five years as executive chef at Southpoint's Firebirds Rocky Mountain Grill before taking on this entrepreneurial opportunity.

BCR's Daily Fishwrap Report for June 30, 2009

• Just days after attorneys for the developers proposing a dense development off 751 near Fayetteville Rd. and developments like Chancellor's Ridge and Fairfield filed suit against Durham County over its decision to bring what they had thought was a settled matter of the critical watershed boundary impacting the project, the Haw River Assembly yesterday released their independent survey of the lake's boundaries. Their data finds the bottom level of a stream feeding Jordan Lake only dips below 200' above mean sea level about 6,200 ft upstream of where the developer's privately funded survey predicted -- data that could play out at August's planning commission discussion of the project. (H-S, Indy)
• The N&O has a nice feature on Eric Stein, the longtime Self-Help COO and consumer advocate at the Center for Responsible Lending, who was tapped by the Obama administration to be a deputy assistant treasury secretary for consumer protection -- he'll play a key role in establishing the Federal government's new consumer protection agency. (N&O)
• State House Rep. Paul Stam (R-Wake) has grumbled about a part of Durham's city charter that allows the City Council to set participation targets for minority- and women-owned businesses in city contracting. This year's Durham legislative agenda includes provisions to allow the city manager's office to be delegated greater contracting authority by Council, including over affirmative-action policies and over what dollar-amount threshold of contract would need to be reviewed by Council. Although Stam claimed the charter provision violated NC's state constitution, the H-S' analysis suggests any challenges over this matter are unlikely. (H-S)
• Durham's M&F Bancorp became the third Triangle-based institution to apply for TARP funding, receiving an $11.7m capital infusion from the Federal government, with the historically black-owned bank noting it would be able to increase its lending with the help of the funds. (N&O)
• The H-S profiles a new exhibit at the Nasher Museum at Duke: "Beyond Beauty" features photographs from Duke's special collections library. The exhibit of 80 original photographs opens Thursday. (H-S)

Win a sneak-peek of Durham's Cuban Revolution tomorrow night (first 20 readers)

The folks at Cuban Revolution, American Tobacco's newest restaurant, are opening their doors for the first time this Wednesday, July 1.

Well, sorta. A by-invitation-only sneak preview is set for Tuesday night. And BCR readers have a chance to get in on the action.

The team behind Cuban Revolution wants to give Bull City Rising readers a first chance to see the new establishment, which is opening its first eatery outside its home base of Providence, R.I.

The first twenty readers to RSVP via email to cubanrevolutionatc@gmail.com will be invited to a private "soft launch" of the restaurant tomorrow night. Join me and dozens of other folks from around Durham and the Triangle to take a sneak peek of Cuban Revolution. (Winners can bring one guest with them to the dinner.)

If you're one of the first twenty to respond, you'll get an email from the organizers letting you know. All slots taken -- thanks!

Good luck -- and good eating.

Rev. Whitley passes on Ward 2 race against Clement

For years, it's been easy to reach Harvard Ave. neighborhood activist and political mover the Rev. Mel Whitley -- with an email address of "tellmelvin@nc.rr.com," he's been one person East Durham residents and activists have turned to to tell their complaints.

Now it's Rev. Whitley doing the telling, this time about his decision not to seek the City Council this year in Ward 2, which covers much of east and southern Durham.

Candidate filing in the races for mayor and City Council begins on Monday, July 6 and runs through July 17. An announcement either way from Whitley has been expected.