Bull City Rising

Durham moves closer to adding a truancy triage center

To those fighting to reduce Durham's struggles with property and violent crime, education and youth are two closely interrelated issues.

It's a vicious cycle, after all. At-risk youth, often from families with marginal economic or social resources, find themselves caught up in mischief, or finding their ways into gangs -- and away from school and the educational opportunities that await. Too many steps down the wrong road, and it's off to jail, from which a lifetime of lower economic opportunity and possible recidivism await.

Address at-risk youth, the argument frequently goes, and you lay the groundwork for addressing long-term issues of criminal activity. And that work starts by getting youth education, opportunities, and hope.

It's in that context that it's good to hear, in today's N&O, of the agreement between Durham's nascent Truancy Triage Center and the Durham Public Schools.

Bonfield signals city to exhaust avenues on West Point Park

City Manager Tom Bonfield weighs in on the West Point Park on the Eno debate in today's Herald-Sun. According to Ray Gronberg's reporting, the new city manager is looking for a way to fund the preservation of the park through grant money if it could be obtained -- but that Bonfield is not on board with the idea of a park transfer.

As Gronberg notes:

"While I'm inclined to the idea that it's a good idea to have the [60 acres] preserved, I don't think it's a good idea for the state to be blackmailing the city by saying, 'We'll only acquire the property if you give us your property,'" Bonfield said Friday.

Bonfield added that claims the city could free up significant dollars for other parks by cutting West Point loose are "pretty exaggerated."

Also, arguments that either the city or the state can run West Point better than the other are just "speculation," he said.

Durham gears up early voting for predicted record turn-out

You might expect three hours spent on a DATA bus with the chairs of the county's Republican and Democratic parties to be a long, uncomfortable ride indeed. Especially when another rider on the bus brought one of those political joke books for the occasional wisecrack.

Instead, it was a quite comfortable, congenial, good-natured trip around Durham County, a tour of early voting sites for party officials, candidates and the media in advance of next month's opening of the One Stop No Excuse polling places.

Comfortable, yes, but it was still a very long ride -- and quite properly so, since there was a lot of county to traverse.

Durham County's Board of Elections is opening up an unprecedented number of early voting sites, almost twice the 2004 count, in preparation for what's projected to be an all-time record number of voters. All told, there will be seven early voting sites covering the county's terrain, from the Southpoint area to North Durham, eastern Durham County to the Orange County border.

Included among that tally is an early voting precinct on Duke's West Campus, beneficiary of a recent change in state law allowing non-taxpayer-funded sites like private schools and churches to host these One Stop locations.

The three-hour tour of Durham voting sites was organized by Durham County elections chief Mike Ashe, seen standing in the photo at right. Seated near him are, from left, Durham County GOP chair David Smudski; Chris, the head of the Obama campaign in the county; elections board member Terry McCabe; and Durham County Democratic Party chair Kevin Farmer.

PA comes out for meals tax; Durham Dems unlikely to take a stand

Two updates from the prepared meals tax front.

As the H-S reported yesterday, the liberal-leaning People's Alliance voted on Wednesday night to endorse the 1% levy on restaurant meals and prepared foods, a tax option that requires the approval of voters in the November election.

Paul Luebke -- the Durham state representative who blocked the local option tax for years, and agreed to let it move forward only with the shackles of a voter referendum -- called the PA's move a departure from its progressive roots.

In response, the H-S notes backers repeated their argument that property taxes have a greater regressivity than taxes on food. The latter argument, plus lobbying from progressive-affiliated local elected officials, won the day.

Meanwhile, Durham County Democratic Party chair Kevin Farmer told BCR on Friday that the party was unlikely to take a stand on the levy in advance of the fall election.

The matter came before party leadership in a recent meeting at the behest of some unnamed local Democrats, but the Dems couldn't muster a quorum to take a vote on the matter.

Update: Read the PA-PAC's press release after the jump.

Library forum reveals incremental renovation plans for Durham's downtown library

Quick Takes: Last night's downtown library renovations forum presented a concept for renovating the current 1970s structure with some minimal but important site changes that don't significantly increase the library's size but tries to make more efficient use of the space:

• Moving core public services (adult fiction/non-fiction, children's, teens) to the second and third floor, with special collections, staff offices and meeting spaces on the lower level
• A reorientation of the entrance to the Liberty St. side straight into the second floor of the building, providing a more visible entry to improve the perception of security and to align the entry with downtown
• Regrading the eastern side of the site to replace the two long, sometimes distant parking "strips" with a parking lot closer to the building itself
• Interior renovations to recapture space lost to inefficient mechanical systems and stairs, with a net addition of possibly 9,000 sq. ft. in a 65,000 sq. ft. shell

Much of the public comment period centered on concerns that the library program and patrons' needs were having to be backed into a $10.8 million construction budget that the County had already set for the building.

County officials and the design/architecture team countered that the regional library strategy had effectively set the stage for creating strong library facilities throughout the county, and that the main library should be conceptualized as a downtown super-branch that marries the services of a regional library with special one-off features like the history collection.

Assuming funding is found for the project in a Nov. 2009 county bond referendum, construction could start on the year-and-a-half project in 2010.

In Depth: Thursday evening's library renovation forum drew a smaller crowd than the July event to hear an interim update from the design team of architects and library program planners hired to put together a plan for the downtown library's renovation.

The team -- including architects Chris Brasier and Bill Ash and library consultant Jeff Scherer -- described a range of physical changes to the library, and its site design, to address some of the concerns that came out of the July public meeting and subsequent focus groups.

Safety and security (real or perceived) had been one of those issues. Patrons and staff liked the easily-accessible surface parking, but felt the current library site design, which has two long strips of parking on an axis moving away from the facility, decentered too much of the parking from the facility itself.

Downtown library renovation meeting tonight

The architectural and design team planning the renovations to the Durham County Library's main downtown branch will hold a second public meeting tonight, from 5:00-6:30pm at the Roxboro St. facility.

Tonight's session -- which comes on the heels of an update/envisioning forum and a series of focus groups in late July -- will give the design team and library officials a chance to give a progress report and to share their line of thinking to date.

In our interview with library director Skip Auld on "Shooting the Bull" last week, Auld reiterated that the existing downtown site still holds a "98% chance" of continuing to be the home of a renovated library facility (versus moving inside the downtown loop). Auld noted that the estimated $10 million in funding for the library renovations was expected to be included in a 2009 county bond referendum.

We'll have more on the library renovations here tomorrow.

Financial crisis hits Durham County bond market efforts

A sign of just how far the financial crisis in America's debt and equities markets has spread, from today's N&O:

In the past two weeks, Wake County delayed plans to sell $454.5 million in bonds, while Durham County's attempt to borrow $30 million failed because no lenders bid on the offering.

Their struggles are notable because both counties enjoy the highest AAA credit rating -- meaning they are among the safest institutions to lend money to.

Ruffin noted that the county successfully levied $60 million in bonds this spring, and expects to find a buyer for its issue this time around, too -- but likely at less favorable rates as before.

The market disruption comes as the county is on the verge of Durham's levying a total of $130 million to support the forthcoming construction of the downtown justice center to replace the old courthouse and for the human services building. Ruffin notes to the N&O that the county will parcel out the debt into smaller chunks to be more attractive to borrowers.

Bull City Running Co. opens steps off the ATT in south Durham

A couple of BCR readers wrote in this week to share the news that their new retail enterprise is open for business -- and it's a great addition to Durham for all the walkers and runners out there.

Bull City Running Co. is a new, independently-owned specialty running shop located in the Southpoint Crossing shopping center at NC 54 and Fayetteville Rd., which just so happens to be the current southern trailhead of the popular American Tobacco Trail.

The shop, which is open 10am-6pm Monday-Saturday and 12pm-5pm on Sunday, held its grand opening on September 20.

Besides offering speciality running shoes and apparel, the store features everything from hydration to nutrition to timing products. The owners also offer "a complete gait analysis" in order to provide a custom and appropriate fit for each customer.

The owners, Kim and Jason Page, met in Carrboro earlier in the decade while running a 10K race, with their love of the sport bringing them together. (After moving together to Oregon for grad school, they ended up both working at the same running store, naturally.) Jason Page is a past N.C. high school running champion and lettered for UNC-CH's track and cross country teams.

The Pages note their interest in supporting and nurturing the running community through their store. Look for a women's beginning running clinic and half/full marathon training programs to start at their shop, and the owners hope to bring some new running events to the Bull City, too.

Follow their retail adventures at their blog, or visit the store's under-construction web site for more details.

H-S: Revolution Restaurant may open second week of Oct.

The H-S' Monica Chen has an update on Revolution, the new contemporary cuisine restaurant set to open downtown on the first floor of Baldwin Lofts.

According to owners Jim and Teresa Anile, the restaurant could end up opening in the second week of October:

Anile's wife, Teresa, said they are putting final touches on the decor and finalizing the menu which, unlike what's currently posted on their Web site, also includes a three-course Sunday brunch.

The 5,000-square-foot restaurant will have 40 seats in the main dining room, 50 at the bar and raw bar and private seating for 50 more in the basement, where catering will be provided.

Learn more over at the H-S or at Revolution's web site.

More on Angier/Driver supermarket grant plan in today's H-S

The Herald-Sun's lead Durham story today covers the Angier-Driver supermarket/deli/cafe plans we first discussed here back on Sept. 10.

Not surprisingly, the coverage puts a laser-light focus on the fact that principal Joseph Bushfan is the husband of chief district judge Elaine Bushfan -- mentioning her before naming her husband.

The H-S also adds to the civic record the financial backing of ex-City Councilman Dan Hill for the project and the presence of Tom Niemann and Barker French as advisors; it also notes that over $600,000 worth of applications are in the pipeline, Bushfan's included, for the $1.1 million the City Council has dedicated to supporting start-up businesses in targeted neighborhoods.