Bull City Rising

Comprehensive plan update gets another go-around this afternoon

Durhamites will get a chance to examine and potentially to influence one of the county’s most important planning documents this afternoon. 

The six-year-old Durham Comprehensive Plan is about halfway through its first major revision. In one way or another, the document touches upon nearly every major aspect of life in Durham County. It has 18 chapters covering land use, housing, historic preservation, commerce, conservation and the environment, transportation, recreation, education, capital projects, and public infrastructure and buildings, among other topics. 

Each chapter briefly examines relevant issues, lays out goals and details a few strategies for realizing those goals. These guiding principles often take up relatively little space. The text of the housing chapter, for instance, runs 11 pages, of which about half deal with ensuring that subsidized housing is distributed more or less evenly throughout the county. 

This part of the 18-month revision process is the time for the first of two scheduled rounds of public comments. When the next round comes, in the fall, a draft plan revision should be complete. The process is being led by Laura Woods, a senior planner in the City-County Planning Department who helped create the original plan. 

Campaign finance complaint to state turns up heat on Durham Committee’s Allison

A member of the Durham Committee on the Affairs of Black People has asked state elections officials to investigate potential mishandling of campaign funds in the committee’s political organization. 

The move comes as some people in the 76-year-old civic group, one of Durham’s oldest and most prominent, have been calling for an ouster of its chairwoman, Lavonia Allison. 

Committee member Victoria Peterson submitted a two-paragraph letter to the State Board of Elections on Monday asking it to look into a pair of transactions that took place over a two-day stretch last fall. 

On Oct. 24, according to Peterson — but not the public document on which her claim is based — the Durham Committee’s political action committee reported receiving an $8,000 contribution from the committee of incumbent Rep. David Price (D-Chapel Hill), who was re-elected in November. The next day, records show, the PAC paid $8,822.61 as reimbursement for bulk mail postage to Allison. 

“The organization fiscal report stated that Dr. Allison paid for bulk mail, but there is no evidence of such a transaction,” Peterson wrote to Kim Strach, the state board’s deputy director for campaign reporting. 

In a brief phone conversation Tuesday afternoon, Allison declined to be interviewed but dismissed the allegations against her as falsehoods. 

“I’m not going to get into something that is totally, totally prevarications,” said Allison, who became chairwoman of the Durham Committee on the Affairs of Black People roughly 13 years ago. “People can’t even read an electronic [campaign finance] report. It’s sad.” 

Eyes on 2012 as Durham Committee members talk leadership

A group that may be mounting a challenge to the leadership of the Durham Committee on the Affairs of Black People met Thursday evening at White Rock Baptist Church.

That much is certain. But members of the group declined to state what was discussed.

“Everybody’s upset,” said Victoria Peterson, a community activist who helped organized Thursday’s meeting, said after it ended.

But she had little more than that to say. “A lot of things were decided,” Peterson noted, without elaborating.

Other participants in the meeting stated immediately and emphatically that no one who was present would be speaking to reporters.

When asked why that was, a woman who declined to give her name answered, “Because I said so.”

The meeting had been billed, according to an e-mail missive sent to publications including BCR and summed up well in coverage by the Indy's Samiha Khanna, as a bona fide meeting of the DCABP. Its purpose? To elect new leadership following allegations by Peterson, former City Council contender Darius Little and others that the organization hadn’t made its financial records accessible as promised and had not seen effective leadership.

For the record, the committee’s longtime head didn’t seem too concerned with the talks at White Rock. When contacted by phone after the gathering, longtime head of the Durham Committee on the Affairs of Black People Lavonia Allison noted firmly that the conclave was not an official group meeting.

“We have not in fact installed our officers yet,” Allison said. “We haven’t even started for the year. We were late getting started on everything. We have not installed any officers yet.”

Durham, Raleigh racial segregation by the dots

Yours truly was first intrigued a week ago, when Gawker, Flowing Data and other web sites pointed out an interesting Flickr photostream by Eric Fischer, who reviewed 2000 Census data for major metropolitan areas and mapped out residents by race to show, visually, what level of segregation or integration existed then in communities.

Of course, these data are likely to change come 2010, as maps nationally don't show the level of Latino population that came to many communities -- including Durham, which saw a decade-long boom in Hispanic residents. But they still show patterns of residential activity particularly in term of self-identified Caucasian (red dot) and African-American (red blue dot) residents. Asian residents appear in green, Latino in yellow/orange, and gray for other ethnicities, with each dot representing 25 residents.

The initially release of metro areas didn't include the Triangle, but the latest run of maps includes Raleigh, and Fischer was kind enough to zoom out enough in his mapping to include at least the eastern side of the Bull City. (Click on the image for a larger view.)

 

City, County see Aug. votes on hotly debated billboard industry proposal

 The debate over digital billboards in Durham has been ongoing for over two years now.  

All things in life must end, however -- the billboard debate included.  

Durham's City Council and the Board of County Commissioners will be voting independently on Fairway’s proposed changes to Durham’s sign ordinances at their next meetings, Aug. 2 and Aug. 9 respectively. 

Fairway seeks to allow replacement of all billboards in Durham, with up to one-fourth of these signs being replaced with digital displays that change message every eight seconds.

Next week marks the beginning of the end of that long debate, which has seen warring web sites, opposing results from opinion polls, email campaigns and non-profit lobbying, plus the recently-debated appearance of a little-known City-Wide PAC group in the voting mix.

Will the industry's lobbying effort pay off? Or will a group of residents fighting the mix -- including some of the citizens who first lobbied themselves for a Durham anti-billboard measure in the 80s -- prevail?

Meetings this week examine NC's budget cuts, the new green economy

Two meetings this week bring opportunities to review the down side, as well as the possible upside, of our evolving economy.

One, sponsored by the NC Justice Center, focuses on the cost to North Carolina residents of dramatic proposed state budget cuts. Juxtaposted against it: a chance to bring hundreds of conference-goers to town to learn about opportunities for green jobs nationally, a conference sponsored by Durham-based SJF Ventures and being held in the Bull City for the first time.

The NC Justice Center will be holding a town hall in Durham this Wednesday from 6:30-8:30pm in NCCU's Michaux School of Education. Durham legislative delegation members Rep. Larry Hall, Rep. Mickey Michaux, Rep. Paul Luebke, and state Sen. Floyd McKissick, Jr. have all signalled their intention to attend. The event is co-sponsored by NCCU's Institute for Civic Engagement and Social Change.

From the NC Justice Center's description (website):

North Carolina's state government faces a historic budget shortfall- close to $5 billion or more than 20% of the total budget for 2009-2010 alone. It is critical that elected officials hear from folks in their communities about the importance of public programs and services so they can make budget decisions that support communities and families and do not undermine the state's economic recovery.

The institutions North Carolina families rely on -- education, health care, unemployment insurance, housing assistance, just to name a few -- are in jeopardy this year.

On a happier note, Durham is this year home to SJF's "Summit on the New Green Economy: How to Make it Work," a national conference expected to draw forty-three national-level speakers, including fifteen CEOs and NC state treasurer Janet Cowell.

The venture capital fund, which provides expansion-stage capital to companies with a focus on clean energy, technology-based services and consumer products, with a focus on firms that are "committed to impacting the world positively." SJF's held clean-tech CEO panels on Wall Street in the past, but now brings this conference to its Durham offices and their environs for the first time.

The conference will be held at the Durham Convention Center downtown. Keynote speakers will touch on successful strategies and markets for green-economy businesses, from entrepreneurship to investment to creating green jobs in communities. Find out more at SJF's website.

Taco doc, MOMart, historic home tour and more this Bull City weekend

It's tough not to kick off a wrap-up of the weekend fun to come without mentioning the fun happening right now at West End Wine Bar, which is celebrating its grand opening tonight with 25+ patrons, some (but not all) friends of the business in Chapel Hill, others just passersby who dropped by for a chance to check out the place in action.

The coffee and wine half of the space on the northern end has most of the action, with the tiny southern space through darkened doors giving access to liquors, beers, and a couple of video game machines.

But don't rest at checking out new establishments. It's an embarrassment of riches in Durham this weekend.

Burt's Bees could move downtown to American Tobacco, pending incentives

Looks like the rumors were true: Personal care products maker and longtime Triangle corporate citizen Burt's Bees is on the verge of moving downtown, to American Tobacco, from their current perch on the Durham-Wake border at Keystone in the midst of RTP.

The H-S' Monica Chen has a very good and detailed look at the news, which first popped up in the public record late Monday, via the April 6 City Council agenda.

Chen reports that the Hill Building -- currently the home of mobile content provider Motricity, which is in the midst of moving to Washington state -- would be Burt's Bees new site. BCR understands that Burt's Bees could potentially lease the entirety of the building, only half of which was occupied by Motricity; the firm would start in the existing footprint and expand over time.

The Hill Building has been rumored to be under scrutiny for other relocating firms before; last fall, a deal to relocate Bandwidth.com from offices in Cary to downtown Durham -- in what was rumored to be a Hill Building play, though unconfirmed by the company -- fell through.

DDI's Bill Kalkhof tells the Herald-Sun that Burt's Bees, now a division of Clorox, has weighed expanding at its current site, or relocating to Wake County's Perimeter Park, which we believe is in Morrisville, if American Tobacco isn't an option.

Interim director of Durham's Office of Economic and Workforce Development Kevin Dick notes in his memo that the firm has applied to Durham for $183,750 in economic development incentives. (We presume that this has been the subject of the two recent City Council closed sessions on economic development.)

Out and about this weekend

What to do now that the election is over? Wondering how to spend your weekend? There's quite a few things to do around the Bull City this weekend.

First, the Durham Sierra Club is holding a hike around the Black Meadow Ridge site that's been at the center of a parkland controversy in recent months. The 2.5 mile roundtrip hike will also explore a couple of possible pathways by which the North-South Greenway could connect into West Point Park on the Eno. Boots are advisable due to a couple of stream crossings along the way. The two-and-a-half hour hike starts at 1pm today at the upper parking lot for West Point Park.

On Sunday, art fans will want to check out the 6th annual Watts-Hillandale neighborhood art walk, a truly local event that shows off some of Durham's home-grown talent:

This event is organized by artists living and working in our neighborhood. Your probably know many of them. You can stroll along the streets, enjoying the autumn day with friends and family, stopping here and there so see beautiful art and have delicious snacks. Look for the signs, and balloons, or pick up a map at any of the various locations to find this or that artist. Or stop at the house of some artist you don't know. You never know what you might find! Many of our neighbors do their holiday shopping during this fun, fall Sunday event.

The WHHNA Art Walk runs from noon until 6pm Sunday. See all the participating artists and a map of the walk at the WHHNA web site.

Finally, if you're a fan of the Scrap Exchange -- or if you just enjoy a little friendly competition at the poker table -- the non-profit is hosting its fifth-annual Charity Game Night this evening at their Foster St. location:

• No-limit Texas Hold-em is the game of choice.
• Beginner and veteran poker players welcome.
• For every $20 donated to The Scrap Exchange, players will receive $200 in poker chips and a tax deductible receipt.
• No need to pre-register but reserve your space by emailing Kelley at kdennings@gmail.com
• The player at each table with the most chips at the break and end of the night will receive a prize.
• Drinks and snacks provided.

Current prizes include gift certificates from: Carolina Rollergirls, Barnes & Noble, JJill, Drag Bingo, Phydeaux Dog Supplies, Frankie's, Consolidated Theaters, Galaxy Theater, Red Lobster, Nice Price Books, Sarla licensed massage therapist and more added daily.

Wachovia: Charlotte to fear the hornet's sting of banking crisis?

Try to imagine, if you will, how it would feel to see a news story like this one cross the wire services:

Posted at 9:19pm on July 24, 2013

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) -- The trustees of Duke University announced today a breathtaking combination with Princeton University in the latest reverberation from the higher education market collapse.

The takeover, valued at $8.7 billion (U.S.), comes on the heels of last week's Johns Hopkins-University of Chicago merger.