Bull City Rising

A new twist for Five Points Cafe, and espresso al fresco

Big tip of the hat to BCR reader "JDC" for the following discovery on the mysterious Five Points Cafe taking shape in downtown Durham, originally posted in the comments section:

"Some clues regarding the Five Points Cafe at fivepointscafe.blogspot.com. Looks like it's being run by (former?) school board member and editor of the short-lived Durham Community News, Steven Matherly."

Well now.  This certainly adds some intrigue to the mix.  (And what would Durham be without a little intrigue, hmm?)  Steven Matherly is a local political gadfly, having run (unsuccessfully) for the school board in 2006, and having engaged in some dust-ups with the previous board during its, shall we say, raucous tenure.  In case you're dying to re-live those glorious moments in Durham political history (and Durham's real estate agents hope you aren't), Matherly's old blog paints what is at least an interesting picture of his side in the debate. 

Of more relevant and recent interest are his complaints against the Durham Food Co-Op's leadership, detailed at yet another Matherly blog, CO-OP CONFIDENTIAL.  I don't know the full story behind the ongoing turmoil at the Co-Op, but from an outsider's perspective, I gotta say: posting a big ol' picture of a dead Soviet leader on your blog (with the words "Stalin Would Understand"), and describing an Area 51-like air of conspiracy and secrets around the whole business?  Interesting.

So: what the heck's this mean for the Five Points Cafe?  Is it a competitor to the Co-Op?  A different dream to fulfill, or to be deferred?  Will they serve Wagstaff Wings, or Denlinger Donuts?  (Probably not the latter.)  Only time will tell.

...

Overheard at Alivia's this morning: The outdoor espresso bar is estimated to open in about two weeks' time, pending the completion of final City inspections.

More musings on the Hill-hotel

The Herald-Sun and N&O both have pieces running today on the Hill building conversion to a boutique hotel. 

Interestingly, WRAL's home page has nothing, zip, nada about the piece in their "News" section, which most visitors gravitate towards since stories are on the home page.  No, you have to dig down to the "Business" section to see the story.  Of course, I don't think WRAL reported on the groundbreaking of the Durham Performing Arts Center in late 2006, either, despite the fact that, er, they have massive commercial real estate and sports interests next door and they're sponsoring the DBAC plaza's naming rights.  Well, thanks for proving Capitol Broadcasting isolates its news and business interests (a good thing), which means 'RAL can go right on proliferating scare-mongering stories about 'thugs and drugs' in Durham (a bad thing.) 

Anyhow, pressing obligations this morning prevent me from making any really detailed comments on the Hill project, and in any case, the local news media (those that cover the story) are doing a fine job.  Just a few thoughts below the cut...

Greenfire announces boutique hotel future for Hill/SunTrust tower

It's official: we don't know all of Greenfire's plans for their wide array of downtown Durham property... but the Hill building (AKA the SunTrust building, aka the old CCB tower) is officially becoming a 110-room boutique hotel complete with a spa, with condos and a restaurant to boot.  Work begins this fall, most of the SunTrust staff having already moved over to space in Capitol Broadcasting's Diamond View I building next to the Bulls park, and is expected to be complete in 2009.

No press release yet from the folks at Greenfire, so I'm completely cribbing off the N&O's late-morning update on the subject at this point (posted here).  As the N&O notes, Greenfire is planning an office tower next door on the site of the vacant lot and old Woolworth building at Main & Corcoran.  And as Greenfire head Michael Lemanski notes, the opening of the new performing arts center downtown is one driver of the readiness for a boutique hotel.

Unlike the last boutique hotel promised for Durham's core (hey, anyone want a Residence Inn by Marriott in Brightleaf?), the development partner for this effort is Lifestyle Hospitality LLC, a newly-formed Connecticut-based firm led by a former exec with the Kimpton and W Hotels organizations.  Lifestyle Hospitality's target market is blending the 4-diamond hotel concept with the "spa experience," with a focus on high-growth secondary markets, including Charleston, Providence, Sarasota, Savannah and Chattanooga besides Durham.  Price points for the concept are projected to be between a Marriott/Sheraton-style business hotel and a Four Seasons-style luxe product.  (This article from a web site called Hotel Interactive has this information and more details, including some brief discussion of doing this sort of work in historic buildings.)

More details as they become available.

Roundabout, or what art's about?

If you've passed through the Duke Park neighborhood in the last couple of years, you've doubtlessly encountered the small traffic circle (AKA roundabout or rotary to those of us who've spent time in the northeast) at the intersection of Markham and Glendale.

This traffic circle, intended as a traffic calming method, has taken on an entirely different life as a space for impromptu public art installations, making it one of the truly coolest places to walk or drive past in the Bull City.  A good record of these installations can be found over at Christa Wessel's blog; Joe Vilas has some captured as well.

Now, this all worked because the traffic circle at Markham and Glendale was pretty modest in design and construction -- a small, slightly raised patch of asphault, meant only as a temporary design, that proved a blank canvas for guerrilla art installations. At last Monday's City Council meeting, funding was approved for the permanent traffic circle construction, to include landscaping (akin to the circles in place on Watts St. and elsewhere in Durham.)

Great to see ongoing commitment from the City to traffic calming in car-crazed neighborhoods. In this case, I'm also hoping the neighborhood can work with the City on what any landscaping or design looks like to preserve, even in some small way, the pure whimsy that has taken over the traffic circle in recent memory.

What better way  to slow traffic, after all, than to get drivers pressing the breaks to get a better look at an ever-changing art installation?

Help turn a "fire sale" into a fine sale

One of my earliest and still best memories of Durham was my first-ever Friends of the Durham Library book sale.  I went to their fall sale shortly after moving to the city a couple of years ago, really just on a lark.  It was a nice excuse to get out on a weekend for a few hours, but I certainly never expected to find too much of interest.  I mean, we've all been to library book sales, right?  Yesterdays never-sellers intermingled with sloughed-off textbooks no one would ever touch again.

Was I ever wrong.  I walked away with a bagful of great books, one under each arm -- ranging from the architectural history of Boston, to Garrison Keillor's WLT, to the hard-to-find novel (by all-star music critic David Menconi, of the N&O and No Depression fame) that slyly recounts a fictional version of Jacksonville, NC-native Ryan Adams' rise to local stardom playing the clubs of the Triangle a few years back.  And more, all for next to nothing... perhaps $15 at most.  I can't even begin to say how many hours of enjoyment I've gotten from these books, for less than the cost of a night out at the movie theater.

So I was saddened to hear that last week's storage shed fire at the downtown library destroyed hundreds of the books that were queued up for this April's sale.  One estimate from the non-profit Friends organization is that $8,000 in sales (which support the library's services and holdings) were lost. I can't begin to count the number of bagfuls of books that represents.

The Friends of the Library have made a public plea for donations of books, CDs, DVDs, and audiobooks to help restock the inventory for the book sale; cash donations are also welcomed.  Details on how you can help, and details on the book sale (scheduled for the weekend of April 14-15) are available below.

If you can donate, or can contribute, please do. I think I owe the Friends a couple of bags of books myself.

Fade to black

The Herald-Sun passed along the terrible news today that Bob Groves passed away on Friday morning after a brief hospitalization.  Graves was the owner and operator of Durham's legendary Starlite Drive In theater on East Club Blvd.  He died at the far-too-young age of 55.

The Starlite is one of those quirky, wonderful institutions that gives Durham its character and keeps the Bull City from the suburban sterility that afflicts so much of Wake County.  The Starlite showed first-run movies on its drive-in screen to perhaps the most diverse customer base of any theater in the state; everyone from Duke grad students to families of all stripes and sizes to farm kids from Granville County would come down to see the show.  The concession stand also contained, of all things, a gun & ammo shop, providing for endless amusement (as well as some of the more interesting cross-sell opportunities you can ever imagine.)

How much has the Starlite mattered to Durham?  Well, when the drive-in's screen burned down a few years, loyal customers and members of the community chipped in to raise funds for a new screen to take its place.  In an era when drive-ins close left and right across America, the Bull City came together to keep this one alive.  A plaque in the concession/gun shop commemorates those who gave towards the reconstruction, and the drive-in's own website address (www.saveourstarlite.org) itself recognizes how much this theater has mattered to Durham.

Rest in peace, Bob.

According to its website, the Starlite will be closed until further notice.  More word here as it becomes available.  Details of a memorial service for Graves are also posted on the site.

Why rental inspections matter

Durham's proposed rental property inspection ordinance was the subject of some discussion here at BCR last month when it was first announced. As proposed, Durham's Neighborhood Improvement Services department would begin annual inspections of all rental properties older than ten years of age (those newer properties would begin inspections five years from now) as a way of proactively finding housing code violations that otherwise never get reported.  Landlords would also be required to register with the city and to pay a nominal annual registration fee.

The topic has received additional coverage in the local press this week, including a very good treatment on the issue over at the N&O's Durham News section yesterday.  I wanted to take some time to focus a bit more on the subject -- which is, without exaggeration, one of the most important proposals on the table for improving the quality of life in Durham.