Shooting the Bull: Podcast for January 29, 2009

In this week's edition of "Shooting the Bull," Duke economist Charles Becker talks with Kevin and Barry about his urban economics class and its Durham focus, and talks about some of his students' findings on race, class, crime and other conditions. Plus, Barry and Kevin catch up on this week's City employee appreciation lunch debate and two differently-received streetscape projects.

Thanks as always to the folks at WXDU for the opportunity to host this weekly show.

If you missed the Thursday night broadcast, you can download or listen to the show from the Internet Archive, or listen to it via this embedded player. You can also subscribe to the show in iTunes, via WXDU's hosted podcast.

Comments

[Erik]

Kevin, I'm not sure I understood where you were going about the different reactions to the Fayetteville St and West Village streetscape plans. Could you elaborate a little?

[Kevin Davis]

Erik -- it may be "streetscape burnout," but the reactions to the Fayetteville St. and W. Main projects have been a bit different (both on the blog and in conversations I've had off of it.)

While I'd like to know how the targeted neighborhood streetscapes come above the W. Main project when the latter also buries electrical lines -- you may be onto something with your mention of multiple intersections -- I sense much more opposition to the neighborhood commercial streetscape work, work which really varies more in the volume than the cost/rate.

Todd made the point that the Liggett work was funded through GO bonds, which is true -- though it also got Federal funds for infrastructure improvement related to economic re-development. I don't think it's as far a stretch as to see that kind of redevelopment possible in areas like W. Chapel Hill St. and Fayetteville St., but only if there's some matching city investment to move those areas forward.

Not that $33m or $55m is a short-term realistic number by any stretch... but I hope, personally, to see those projects draw the same interest that our downtown revitalization has. It may take 10-15 years to get there -- heavens know we're not raising those funds overnight, and it would be nice to see NCCU come to bat for this too. But I do think, to echo Joshua's comments earlier, we need to find a way to get there.

[Erik]

Thanks for clarifying. I guess I didn't sense as much opposition to the Fayetteville St plan, at least on the comments on this site, but maybe you heard more of that in other conversations. The only straight up opposition I read was from someone who thought we should use that money for something like expanding the Durham Freeway (um...OK).

Instead I think most of what I read were just questions, which is natural for the beginning of a planning process. Why is the per-foot cost higher, is the scope of the project realistic, is this type of streetscaping appropriate for a residential area, what role NCCU will play (especially since they are eating up houses left and right in that area right now), etc.

To me, these two projects are apples and oranges. One connects two commercial areas (downtown and Brightleaf) along a short stretch of road that has already undergone significant private investment. The other is a much longer, mostly residential area with very little recent investment except for a state-run institution buying up land for parking decks and the like.

The question to me is not whether Fayetteville St. needs or deserves investment from the city and other sources, it's what investment makes the most sense. (A quick aside: I marched in the MLK Jr. parade on Saturday and the people I was walking beside, who have less of an interest in planning/development issues than I do, were all commenting on how great most of the houses were and how sad it was to see many of them boarded up. It just reinforced my thought that the city needs to finally make good on its promises to revitalize a neighborhood it destroyed by allowing the Durham Freeway to destroy a vibrant community).

In my neighborhood, Walltown, from what I understand, a lot of the investment that has occurred in the neighborhood over the past 10-15 years has been Duke and Self-Help working on rehabbing the housing stock in the neighborhood and making it possible for homeowners to both afford their houses and provide the kind of upkeep that will keep the houses in good shape. Durham is also investing in the Walltown Park and community center. But to my knowledge, no major streetscaping effort has taken place. While it would be nice to have better sidewalks and nice traffic calming measures like our neighbors to the east (Trinity Park) and west (Old West Durham, Watts-Hillandale) have, those things will eventually come BECAUSE the residents of the neighborhood will demand them. Walltown's neighborhood association seems to be slowly gaining traction and hopefully will have the same presence others in the area have. But none of that would have been possible without an investment in the housing first.

In a commercial area, streetscaping probably needs to happen first simply because pedestrian activity is so much more important in that type of area. Not that it's unimportant in a place like Walltown, but people still walk their dogs in my neighborhood even if there are no old-fashioned streetlamps or there are a few bumpy parts of the sidewalk.

As a final note, I have to wonder about the source of most of the comments you have gotten, either on this site or off it. My guess is that most people who have commented do not live in the Fayetteville St. corridor, but DO go to Brightleaf Square and/or downtown once in a while. So of course people are more likely to support a project that they will personally benefit from.

As I said, I would absolutely like to see a similar type of investment in helping restore the Hayti area to its past glory as Durham has done in downtown. I'm just not convinced yet that pouring a lot of money into a streetscape effort is the best initial investment to make in this particular instance.

[Erik]

Quick addendum: I realized I made it sound like Duke and Self-Help did all the work in Walltown...obviously the residents in the neighborhood had just as important a role in that effort as well.