Bull City Rising

Durham's East End Connector: Not a black-and-white issue

Friday brought the good news that the state Board of Transportation approved the draft Transportation Improvement Program, which includes $98.9 million in funding for Durham's East End Connector.  Over the next few years, NCDOT is scheduled to finish the planning for the road's alignment along with environmental impact analysis and to acquire right-of-way in advance of road construction, which is set to begin in 2012.  The short (less than 2 mile) project is scheduled to open in 2013.

In case you haven't been following the project, the EEC is the missing-link connector between the Durham Freeway (at the inflection point where the road turns away from RTP and towards downtown) and US 70's freeway portion leading to I-85 and North Durham.  (See this earlier post for more on the EEC.)

This is an incredibly important development for both the health of Durham's urban neighborhoods and for the long-term growth of both the city and county.  The Durham-Chapel Hill-Carrboro Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO) had ranked this as its highest priority through the formal planning process, as had both city and county leaders in formal and informal ways.  The vote by the City Council back in early February to support city staff's recommendation that the so-called Alignment #3 be selected for the road was a further form of support for NCDOT's proposal (which leaned heavily towards that alignment as displacing the fewest residents and having the lowest construction cost.)

Of course, Durham being Durham, the East End Connector has gotten dragged into the oldest and messiest politics of all: the age old black-versus-white debate.  The speakers during February's City Council meeting were divided almost evenly among racial lines, with residents from some of Durham's well-off urban neighborhoods supporting the EEC in the face of opposition from the East End Avenue, an historically African-American neighborhood where seven or eight homes would be impacted or taken to build the road.

Is this the Durham Freeway all over again, as Rev. Sylvester Williams and other East End Avenue community leaders would like to portray?  Not exactly.  The way I see it, the EEC is actually a key step in saving Durham's historically black neighborhoods, especially many that are historically less-advantaged than East End, along Alston, Avondale, and Holloway in eastern Durham.

The phantom downtown condo project

Everytime a new downtown condo or apartment project is introduced -- be it Trinity Lofts, or West Village, or the Durham Kress project -- there's always a flurry of local news stories, listserv posts, and a website from the developer highlighting the project.

Right?  Er, well, that's what I thought, until in looking at some local real estate listings in the Triangle MLS, I stumbled across a project named "The Wesley at Mangum Place," located at 524 N. Mangum St., a couple of blocks north of the downtown loop (see map).  ("The Wesley?"  Somehow, that brings to mind an image of young, eager Wesley Crusher from Star Trek:TNG.  Who names these things, anyway?)

Looks like a four-story residential condo, just up the street from the fully-reserved Mangum 506 project (about which Maverick Partners has been quiet of late, it seems.)  All the units listed range from about $220,000 to just under $300,000.  Here's the description from Laurie Wilson's web site--

NOW PRESELLING PRICES FOR THE FIRST FEW UNITS! Luxury condos within walking distance to Downtown. Loaded w/standard amenities: Hardwood floors, granite counter tops, stainless appl.-incl. refrigerator. Maple cabinets, double vanities. Gas log fireplace, Cat-5 networked, walk-in closets. Fitness center on site, secure entrance & covered parking. 10' ceilings at Penthouse level, granite tiled foyer & upgraded appliances. Target completion date is December 2007.

So the question I'm wondering is, who's developing this project, and where is it in the development process?  Anyone heard anything more about this one?

Gatsby redux

An alert reader noticed the mention of the old Bread & Kabob here on BCR earlier this week, and the listserv-fueled rumor of a cash crunch, and wrote in to say that he's noticed that "lots of work has been going on in Bread and Kabob the last week."  I drove by yesterday and also noticed some recent changes on the inside, so looks like the words of woe may have been premature.

If so, it'd be good news for that stretch of West Main, which is far sleepier than the rest of the resurgent Brightleaf district immediately to its east.

The Chancellory: The decision is, no decision

The Board of Adjustment met today to consider the special use permit for The Chancellory at Trinity Park and voted... to defer a decision yet again, this time until July 24. The stated reason for the delay is to yet again give time for all parties to try to reach an agreement anew.

All of this happened after a session where arguments pro and con the project were given for eight hours. That's not a typo. Eight hours. (Which explains why the Trinity Park listserv was silent this afternoon -- the whole neighborhood was attending the meeting, apparently.)

Interestingly, the Trinity Park Board Association will hold elections between now and the July 24 date, which adds another interesting dimension to the picture.

Credit to Jim Wise at the N&O for breaking the news this evening at this blog post.

A drive through Brightleaf. No, not Brightleaf Square, the other one.

Coming back up US 70 from a dreaded shopping run to Brier Creek, I decided to turn off and take a look at the so-called Brightleaf subdivision that's going in off of the highway.  This "master planned community" will feature upscale vinyl siding-clad houses intermingled with half-million dollar homes (non-vinyl clad, of course).  It will be nestled amidst stands of wooded pine (those that survived the bulldozer) and, once the spray-on green chemicals have taken root, I'm sure the grass will even look natural.  Brightleaf will also feature swimming pools, tennis courts, and other recreation facilities that duplicate those you already pay for via your local taxes, but choose not to use.

OK, I'm being harsh; I admit it, I am a fan of the old, historic neighborhoods and am more than a bit biased against new subdivisions. Brightleaf actually looks surprisingly tasteful as these things go (compared to some of the things getting thrown up in Spraleigh, at least!)  The developer seems to be making a legitimate attempt to incorporate environmental sensitivity (such as respecting the natural grading of the land, preserving creeks, adding nature trails, etc.), and worked with Audubon International's standards to develop Brightleaf as a so-called sustainable community. 

They're also adding public art/sculpture to the development and donating land to the Durham Public Schools for an eventual elementary school, which are both nice to see.   (As much as I dislike new developments, the wife was looking around a little too interested at what some of the houses looked like...)

However, there were two things of particular interest from an all-Durham perspective that I want to take a moment to dwell on.

Durham #1 for creative class workers

Downtown Durham, Inc. has reported that Durham has been ranked #1 out of all the metropolitan areas in the US for highest percentage of workers in the "creative class."  The rating, from the statistician who does reports for Richard Florida, the inventor of the term and guru of the movement, which argues that an intellectually- and creatively-oriented workforce is a key to economic success in the future.

Durham beat out San Jose, Washington, DC, and Boulder for the top position.

Three more downtown dining updates

A few nuggets of news and speculation about the downtown dining scene:

• From the N&O's Bulls Eye blog, the old Joe and Jo's space just inside the Loop is supposed to reopen on March 5... but in any event, "by St. Patrick's Day," says new owner Malachy Noone, which of course is a necessity given the new space's spin as an Irish pub.  Jim Wise reports that some of the old Joe and Jo's staff will return to the space, which is good news; if Noone (and Durham) are lucky, so too will the space's rep as the center of the downtown culture and social scenes.
• Just down the street, a storefront at Five Points is heralding the "coming soon" arrival of Five Points Cafe.  No word on what the cafe will be; the web address listed in the window isn't yet active (in fact, isn't even registered... yikes!)
• In less happy news, the old Bread & Kabob has been stuck in renovations for ages, and now the rumor from the Duke Park listserv is that their plan to convert the space to a sports-pub named Gatsby has run into the small problem that the owners have run out of cash.  Unconfirmed, but it would explain the purgatory-like limbo the West Main St. restaurant has been stuck in for months now. Update: A Trinity Park resident reported that there's been activity inside the restaurant over the last week so things may be back on track.  Find out more at this update post.