Week's end wrap-up: Thursday's news galore

It's a busy day in the local news cycle, between local government happenings from the school board and City Council yesterday and all other manner of what's what. (Actually, one of the busier days in the Metro sections in recent memory, period.)

We'll focus on some of these stories in the days to come, but for now, let's just highlight the big picture of all that went on yesterday, with links to the H-S and N&O coverage:

Education: The school board approved the plan to open a Montessori magnet middle school in the old Lakewood Y, though not without some questions over the curriculum choice. Still, this should just about seal the deal for the future of the YMCA of the Triangle facility.

Spring Valley Elementary is the name of the new school opening up adjacent to the Brightleaf at the Park development in East Durham and which will split up the Oak Grove district. At the same time, the school board is considering changes to Durham's general school transfer policy, acknowledging the deep socioeconomic inequality in school demographics and performance.

(I'm hoping we'll have more coverage here on local schools coming soon, with the help of some additional correspondent contributions to the subject.)

Local Government: The City Council approved an ordinance change to allow Neighborhood Improvement Services to conduct housing inspections on a proactive basis before complaints are called in, though any such implementation is expected to be targeted to high-need neighborhoods. (And, of course, could all be moot thanks to real estate interests in Raleigh.)

In intriguing news, Durham's water management staff are requesting permission to sell 1 million gallons/day of water to Chatham Co. -- a number that would grow to 4 million by 2015 -- in exchange for Chatham joining into Durham's plan to build a new Jordan Lake water intake and treatment plant.

(Quick reaction: expect this one to get some grousing from the public, especially given the sweetheart cheap rate Chatham's proposed to get for Durham water, but given Chatham's linchpin status to expanding Durham's water supply, it could make sense from a long-run perspective.)

Meanwhile, DPD chief Lopez reveals an 8% rise in overall crime in Durham's 1Q 2008 versus 2007, though data from April appear to show the start of some reductions. Still, the struggling economy -- as evidenced by the hordes of folks waiting almost twelve hours for a tank of free gas -- could, to our mind, provide an upward pressure on larceny and burglary.

Ironically, on the same day as the idiotic free-gas-traffic-jam promotion idea, the Special Transit Advisory Commission has released its Regional Transit Vision Plan. The proposal is available on the web for perusal, but the N&O reports it won't be considered by local governments until after the fall elections.

Comments

[barry]

so - what happened with the Alston Ave. widening? Neither the HS nor the N&O mention it in their wrap-up of the work session.

[Natalie]

Until NIS begins to actively convince people to rennovate or sell instead of demolish the houses with code violations this will have a serious negative impact on housing stock in East Durham.

[Michael Bacon]

Glad to see the N&O folks finally getting something up about it, even if it's just in the traffic blog, and not anywhere on the local news page. Got scooped by nearly 24 hours by Ray on that one. (Of course, who wants to link to the H-S, when it will disappear in 7 days.)

Barry, if I get a chance, I'm going to put something up about Alston today. I know, I haven't blogged anything in weeks, but it's a Friday -- maybe work will be slow... :)