BCR's Daily Fishwrap Report for October 28, 2009

We'd be remiss if we didn't point out Sunday's N&O investigative story on the NC School of Science and Math, a piece that looks at significant growth in the salaries of a number of chief administrative positions -- along with allegations by the Raleigh-based paper over the ties between NCSSM Chancellor Gerald Boarman and many of the top lieutenants he's hired, some of whom worked for him at Maryland's Eleanor Roosevelt High School. The story is worth a read. (N&O)

In today's news:

NCCU Forum turns on DPD Report, Emails: The Herald-Sun's recap of last night's municipal candidate forum at NC Central suggests the debate largely followed the lines of recent forums held by the League of Women Voters and other groups, with the notable exception of new criticism of incumbents over the 2008 Secondary Employment report released by the Durham P.D. and the City last week. Ward 3 challenger Allan Polak also raised a concern that the City has been unable to produce all emails from his competitor, incumbent Mike Woodard, after a public records request; Polak asserts that this reflects a failure of the Council to oversee required electronic records retentions standards. (Herald-Sun)

The N&O's account goes further, documenting the interchange between Polak and Woodard at Tuesday night's forum. Polak asserted that Woodard was somehow tipped off by City Hall to the records request and intimated the Councilman lied about it; Woodard told the N&O's Jim Wise after the forum that public officials are always made aware of email records requests involving them, since they have to provide their password to City staff. An email from Woodard to City staff on Friday asks them to check again for email records, which he believes are unavailable due to a technical fault. (N&O)

Population Growth Strong in Triangle, other Tech Meccas: The Raleigh region joined Austin, Portland OR, Charlotte and Seattle among big jumps among college-educated or better residents while cities with lower technology-based economies -- including Orlando, Detroit and Cleveland -- all saw slow or negative growth and higher foreclosure and job losses. The AP article suggests that it's a "resurgence of braniacs" in tech-savvy and new economy metros. (WRAL)

Injured Officer Back at DPD: The officer shot in a South Square apartment complex during a call this summer tells the Herald-Sun that he's "just getting started" with the DPD and is glad to be back; the paper features the officer, who returned to light duty last week, in an extended interview. (Herald-Sun)

Duke Football Winning (Again): The paper also notes that while Duke's ACC football wins over Maryland and NC State have created ebullience among the team's fans, the team had a similar start last year before fading; three more wins, though, and Duke might be bound to a bowl game. (As opposed to previous years, when players were only invited to the Popcorn Bowl, that omnipresent event that is played in the bowl of food situated between one's living room couch and one's television set while watching others play nationally televised football bowl games.) (Herald-Sun)

Veni, Vidi, Thrilla'-ici: The N&O takes a look back at this weekend's "Thrill the World" event, which brought a few dozen Durhamites out among 23,000 people worldwide all performing the dance from Michael Jackson's "Thriller" to set a world record. (N&O)

Wicked Hype Already Underway: The national tour of the Broadway show Wicked won't be here until springtime, but there's already a great deal of interest, it seems, based on the turnout to an invites-only look at the show featuring a couple of its cast members. Group tickets are still on sale; individual tickets will be available come January, and since the show has sold out very quickly in other cities, expect to need to buy tickets as soon as they're available, says the Herald-Sun.

Comments

[Phil]

Re: "joining Portland" etc., I like to see how other places describe us.

Here's an excerpt from the Oregonian (sorry I'm too cheap/lazy to pay for the full article):

Our diversity myth
Portlanders live in a like-minded bubble, making it easier to get things done but harder for dissenting voices to be heard
Monday, September 22, 2008
The Oregonian
By Erin Hoover Barnett
(Originally published on 8/14/2008)
Emily Lieb visited Portland on a whim, but it's no accident that she decided to settle here.
At 29, Lieb is the quintessential new Portlander. She didn't come for a job. She came for the lifestyle. Visiting from Ohio five years ago to see a friend's band, she loved the towering trees. She heard intelligent conversation on the MAX train, saw people riding bikes, and she liked the alternative music and art festival scenes.
She moved here two months later. "I felt like there were lots of possibilities here doors would open."
We all know about young creatives college educated 25 to 34-year-olds such as Lieb whom Portland economist Joe Cortright says are flocking to cities such as ours.
Now comes the rest of the story.
Portland is a key example of a much bigger national trend that's the topic of a new book, "The Big Sort: Why the Clustering of Like-Minded America Is Tearing Us Apart."
Thousands of Americans are choosing communities that reflect their lifestyle, says author Bill Bishop, and that lifestyle is closely aligned with their values and politics. The result: islands of conservatism and liberalism that deepen the divides between the groups and the politicians they elect. It's the red state/blue state phenomenon brought down to a local level.
"What we've lost is any sense of a whole the ability to act collectively as a nation because we don't know and don't understand the people just one county over," Bishop told the City Club of Portland this summer. "It makes perfect sense for people to live around others like themselves birds flock. But what surprised us was that the birds were flocking in greater numbers."
Portland is among a dozen liberal magnets including Austin, Texas; San Francisco; and Raleigh-Durham, N.C. And these liberal flockers have turned Portland, once more politically mixed, decidedly blue....

[Phil]

Here's a better article from the Oregonian, filed under "breaking news", with a clue on why a respected Portland restaurateur decided to move to Durham:

Breaking News, Dining Top Stories »
Fife restaurant closing next month
By Doug Perry, The Oregonian
April 09, 2009, 3:23PM

Fife restaurant, where chef-owner Marco Shaw has presided over a seasonally-driven menu of farm fresh offerings for the last six-and-a-half years, will close after dinner service on Saturday, May 2. Shaw confirmed the news first released in his e-mailed subscriber newsletter.

Shaw plans an early summer move to Durham, N.C., with his wife and their child, with a second child on the way. Once established in Durham, Shaw will open Eno Restaurant and Marketplace. "Eno" refers to the river that runs through Durham. Shaw also expects to take part ownership of a working farm -- raising animals and crops - 20 minutes away from the new restaurant. His goal is to create an even tighter farm-restaurant connection than he has helped create and nurture in Portland.

Shaw says he has had the move in mind for a couple of years and has grown serious about it in the last year. It is no coincidence that in the same period, with the economy declining, Shaw pulled the plug on his seafood restaurant project, Hardshell, slated for the Vanport development along MLK, Jr. Boulevard. Crowds at Fife have declined too, though Shaw says the restaurant was not failing. He hopes to sell the business to an interested party with whom he is negotiating. In contrast to the local economy, Shaw says that unemployment in North Carolina is low and the Raleigh-Durham area is particularly resistant to the economic ebbtide, buoyed by the concentration of government and educational institutions in the area.

Shaw, originally from Washington, D.C., and the only African-American chef in Portland's restaurant mainstream, is also moving to raise his children in a more diverse environment than Portland offers. He has numerous family members living within a 30-minute drive from his new home and has vacationed for years on North Carolina's Outer Banks shoreline. Though he is looking forward to the move, Shaw says he will miss Portland, where he has spent the last 10 years. His wife is from Portland.

For the next three weeks, he will complete his days at Fife - appropriately as the new spring produce begins to make its way from farm to market -- and make preparations for his next chapter.