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Old West Durham in the News
City to install two Central Campus crosswalks
(Duke Chronicle, 14 Feb 2006)
The Public Works Department of the City of Durham is planning to build crosswalks where a female undergraduate student was hit by a car as she was crossing the Anderson and Yearby intersection.
The City engineer heard about the dangers posed by the dearth of crosswalks on Central Campus from John Schelp, president of the Old West Durham Neighborhood Association... The plan for the new crosswalks is viewed favorably by members of the Duke community.
Historic Durham
(News & Observer, 14 Feb 2006)
The Historic Preservation Society of Durham will present "A Cotton Mill Village in Durham." Local historian John Schelp will moderate a panel of longtime residents of Old West Durham at Pop's, 810 West Peabody Street.
A man, his dog and their mission
(N&O Durham News, 11 Feb 2006)
[Hale St neighbor] Lanny Pratt and his dog Catherine have just returned from a mission trip to Louisiana, where he managed the construction of a camp for Katrina volunteers and she wiggled her way into everybody's heart... The pastor of the Luling, La.
church wrote: "Lanny and Catherine have become a part of our community and both will be sorely missed. Lanny has brightened our days with his infectious smile and easy laughter and Catherine ... well, what can one say about Catherine, she was a real joy!"
Catherine was adopted through St. Francis Animal Hospital on Hillsborough Road and named for Catherine Sapp, a hospital assistant.
Black literature captivates children during Read-In Day
(N&O Durham News, 11 Feb 2006)
Schools across the country, including some in Durham, recently participated in the 17th annual "African-American Read-In Day." E.K. Powe media specialist Anita Brake has organized the event at the school for the past three years. She thought it was a good way to link black history and literacy... The program, sponsored by The National Council of Teachers of English, is focused towards incorporating African-American literacy as a traditional part of Black History Month activities. Students in 49 states, the West indies and Africa have participated in the effort, according to the council.
About 23 volunteers, from parents to spouses of teachers to students from the N.C. School of Science and Mathematics, read to E.K. Powe students.
Apartment landscape changes with amenity-rich rentals
(Herald-Sun, 12 February 2006
It was the Wi-Fi wireless Internet conference room, two resort-style pools, gym and 24/7 coffee bar that sold Sarah Roberts and her husband... The $1300 rent is worth it for the young couple since her husband, a financial analyst with Pfizer, will use the conference room to telecommute to work daily and his wife can walk to classes at Duke University where she is finishing up her graduate work in biomedical engineering... The emergence of amenity-rich apartment complexes like the Lofts at Lakeview and Station Nine near Ninth Street is just one feature of the changing landscape of the apartment market in Durham.
Budget Love
(Towerview magazine, February 2006)
For those Blue Devils looking to score big with Cupid this Valentine's Day, Towerview presents your best date options for any budget... Wimpy's: It closes early and has no seating, but no one can beat a burger from Wimpy's Grill on Hillsborough Road. It's the way to go for an easy, low-budget date with lots of character.
Bull City loyalists think it's just right: Some in Durham won't trade places
(News & Observer, 31 January 2006)
This city's faithful -- similar to proud New Yorkers who would live nowhere else -- boast about the gritty, urban neighborhoods... "I've lived here 30 years. You wouldn't catch me anyplace else," said Carol Anderson, an owner of Vaguely Reminiscent, a granola-chic clothing and gift shop on Ninth Street. "Durham is the best without question. We've got problems like you have anywhere else. It's just whether you try to face them, and I think we do."
Durham loyalists bristle when outsiders ask whether their neighborhoods are perilous... "You get sick of saying, 'Yes, I feel safe walking down the street,'"
said Michael Bacon, a Rosehill Avenue resident [in OWD] who is in graduate school at UNC-Chapel Hill.
"Durham has a crime problem; I think most places do.
Is Durham some incredibly dangerous place where you shouldn't walk down the street? No."
Shakespeare on Ninth: Shakespeare lovers meet monthly to discuss, enjoy Elizabethan-era drama
(News & Observer, 12 January 2006)
The Ninth Street Shakespeare Club promises no overbearing lectures and no essay tests. Just show up.
Talk about the work. Let out your inner Laurence Olivier and accept a role in a dramatic reading of a scene. Enjoy the greatest works of literature.
Merchants seek DukeCard review
(Duke Chronicle, 24 January 2006)
One reason administrators have cited in the past regarding the difficulty in expanding the DukeCard program is the University's tax-exempt status as a non-profit institution... When Duke students order food at Duke or through Merchants on Points, they do not pay sales tax.
"If Duke is buying something as an institution it's one thing, but individuals buying a pizza or something is another," said Tom Campbell, co-owner of The Regulator Bookshop on Ninth Street. "It should be looked at in fairness to everyone else in this community that pays sales tax."
'DukeCard' ruling on hold
(Herald-Sun, 29 January 2006)
Duke still has made no decision on a request last fall to allow students to use their university spending accounts for purchases off campus... At other universities, however, the arrangement is common. And it is much less costly than the 18 percent commission Duke charges in its program that is now limited to restaurant deliveries to campus...
On Durham's Ninth Street, Tom Campbell, co-owner of The Regulator Bookshop, said... "My assumption has been that it's a choice Duke has made to keep all its transactions on campus."
Letter: DukeCard questioned
(Herald-Sun, 12 December 2005)
The Duke Chronicle quoted Duke students saying they seldom patronize off-campus businesses because they prefer the convenience of making purchases with DukeCards rather than cash... Expanding the DukeCard program along the UNC One Card model would encourage more students to venture off campus and patronize Durham businesses.
Letter: Duke a non-profit?
(Herald-Sun, 16 December 2005)
The Oct. 28 Duke Chronicle reported that DukeCard purchases are tax-exempt, and therefore must be conducted on campus... Duke gets these tax breaks because it's a "non-profit," but this looks a whole lot like "for-profit" behavior. I just don't see other non-profits engaging in such elaborate schemes to avoid paying sales tax.
Letter: Much confusion over DukeCard taxation issue (Herald-Sun, 2 January 2006)
Whichever way you cut it, somebody at Duke "misinformed" me... it demonstrates how frustrating it can be to deal with Duke's administration. It's time for some straight answers. They have heard our concerns, and told us that they'd get back to us with the details in a month. It's now been well over two months. So, we're all waiting for a comprehensive statement regarding the DukeCard and sales tax. Once that's straightened out, we can move on to the next DukeCard question: Why is Duke skimming off 18 percent from each purchase, when other universities are only charging 2-3 percent?
Letter: With its cards, Duke acts like Donald Trump
(Herald-Sun, 5 February 2006)
Duke, which is considerably more well endowed than [most] institutions, apparently gouges both their students and the local merchants while accepting the two-fold subsidy we taxpayers give them as an educational institution: Tax breaks for donors to the university and a pass on the payment of property and sales taxes... Looks like they want it both ways: To be considered needy, do-gooder education providers when it comes to claiming a public subsidy, while playing aggressive, private sector-style entrepreneurs when it comes to economic relations with the surrounding town.
Column: The dining bubble
(Duke Chronicle, 17 January 2006)
Eighteen percent of our points spent at Durham businesses will be recycled back into Duke (a total of $540,000 per year), according to Wulforst...
Considering that a confidential Auxiliary Services budget presentation put all parking ticket revenues at $600,000 in 2000, it’s surprising that this tariff doesn’t earn more ire from the students... it is far worse to keep the surrounding business in Durham at their current disadvantage and to continue to deny them business from Duke students.
Column: Town-Gown on Points
(Duke Towerview magazine, February 2006)
In the Princeton Review's 2005 student survey of college rankings, Duke's town-gown relations were fifth worst in the nation. Duke officials may dismiss them as unscientific, but these ratings raise questions about how students form such negative perceptions of town-gown relations and how Duke might counter them... Lowering DukeCard start-up costs and commissions would improve town-gown relations, enabling more small, local businesses -- like Blue Corn Café or the Regulator on Ninth Street or Morgan Imports at Brightleaf -- to participate in the program... Supporting locally owned merchants is another important way Duke could help the local economy and tax base.
Business Buzz: Ninth Street awaits tenants
(Herald-Sun, 29 January 2006)
The ever-evolving Ninth Street is at it again with several storefronts either awaiting new tenants or undergoing renovations... A longtime favorite for its milkshakes, McDonald's Drug Store is available...
After a three-year run, Bakus Tapas & Wine Bar at 746 Ninth St. has closed, as has its adjoining space that operated as a late-night club... Peek-A-Boos Bar & Grill, meanwhile, is closed for renovations at 754 Ninth St.
Bull Market: Dining gets a makeover along this city road
(N&O Durham News, 7 January 2006)
The face of dining along Hillsborough Road is getting a lift for the new year. Among other developments, the Cattleman's Steakhouse/Italian Garden has closed and is "looking to lease." ...At 2701 Hillsborough Road, the former China Inn is undergoing renovation... a sign on the spot advertises its reopening as Pancho Lopez Mexican Buffet. Also under renovation, and with a "For Lease" sign, is the former "Cow Store" at 2908 Hillsborough Road... Walt Cleary was still waiting to move his Ninth Street Active Feet into its new quarters on Iredell Street... "The city moves in mysterious ways," said Cleary.
Residents reflect on legacy of Lou Rawls
(Herald-Sun, 7 January 2006)
"People will always remember Lou Rawls for 'Tobacco Road,'" his friend said. "That was a big hit."
John D. Loudermilk, an [Old West] Durham native, wrote the song.... Loudermilk says it was inspired by Marvin's Alley -- a street in East Durham that's now called Morven Place -- according to John Schelp, who conducted a phone interview with the writer for the Old West Neighborhood Association Web site.Through the years: Durham-born headache relief powder turns 100
(N&O Durham News, 7 January 2006)
A century ago, Durham had its big tobacco and booming textiles, bankers, butchers and machinery makers.
However, 1906 was also a landmark year in Durham's development toward being a self-described "city of medicine." ...B.C. Headache Powders -- Durham's own concoction -- is 100 years old... "Grandfather developed this powder because of all the Erwin Mills people coming in and the tobacco people with horrible headaches" said the founder's granddaughter.
Letter: Christmas to remember at Charlie's
(Herald-Sun, 12 January 2006)
This past holiday, friends and business associates of Charlie's Neighborhood Pub & Grille participated in a Christmas dinner party for disadvantaged children and their families... Charlie's was able to host 11 families with a total of 30 children. The true spirit of the holiday season reflects a responsibility of helping those in need, and extending good fortune to others living with less and needing more.
Zsa Zsa Zsu: step into spring with new shopping locale
(Duke Chronicle, 02 February 2006)
The Perry Street store, takes its name from a particular episode of Sex and the City in which "the zsa zsa zsu" is described as "that special something that gives you butterflies in the stomach." The owner looks to recreate that feeling in a retail atmosphere, aiming for a "boutique experience" with a fashion-forward edge.
Wise: A little cheer at end of year
(News & Observer, 31 December 2005)
One must recognize the N.C. Society of Historians, which gave its 2005 Paul Green Multimedia Award to the Old West Durham Neighborhood Association for its Internet site www.owdna.org/history.htm. The site is nothing if not deserving; indeed, it's a treasure of stories, pictures, chronology and engaging trivia and a demonstration that the preservation, presentation and promotion of local history and heritage doesn't have to have a building or consultant's report.
Neighborhood group honored
(Herald-Sun, 29 December 2005)
The N.C. Society of Historians recently presented its
2005 Paul Green Multimedia Award to the Old West Durham Neighborhood Association for its Web site at www.owdna.org/history.htm.
Celebration
(News & Observer, 27 January 2006)
Today at 7 p.m., the Ninth Street Bakery Cafe at the Regulator bookshop, 720 Ninth St., will have a party with free goodies, special treats and accoustic music from Anne and Jeremy Ferrell, to celebrate their new downstairs collaboration with the Ninth Street Bakery.
Drop by for good food, drink, and music.
Getting Involved
(News & Observer, 15 December 2005)
Old West Durham's annual holiday gathering is from 6 to 8 p.m. Sunday at the old mill house at 910 Virgie St. in Durham. Neighborhood residents are invited to take canned goods to share with the N.C. Food Bank.
Information: www.owdna.org.
Nuclear plant security breaches alleged
(Herald-Sun, 14 December 2005)
A Durham-based nuclear watchdog group called on local and federal authorities Tuesday to investigate alleged security "vulnerabilities" at the Shearon Harris Nuclear Plant... The NC Waste Awareness and Reduction Network, located on Hillsborough Road in [Old West] Durham, joined with the national Union of Concerned Scientists in filing a complaint about the security issues at the plant with the FBI, N.C. Attorney General's Office and U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
As flocks grow, so do churches: Durham congregations burst the seams of their buildings
(News & Observer, 10 December 2005)
Blacknall Memorial Presbyterian is adding 13,000 square feet of space behind the existing church building at 1902 Perry St., just a block off Ninth Street... Membership has doubled in the past five years to 600, said the Rev. Allan Poole, pastor...
One-tenth of the $3.5 million raised for the project will go to support capital projects in several other locations around the world, including the renovation of a maternity ward in Nigeria and new dorm space in a school in Uganda.
Durham stores getting ready for Black Friday
(Herald-Sun, 24 November 2005)
Even anti-establishment Ninth Street welcomes the day with retailers like Vaguely Reminiscent and Regulator Bookshop drawing in more foot traffic.
"Just that one day we embrace capitalism," joked John Valentine, one of the Regulator's owners. "People come in bleary-eyed having gone to the malls, but it's a very festive day."
Underground guitars: From a basement factory on Ninth Street, Durham's Gadow Guitars wants to take on the big boys
(Independent Weekly, 14 December, 2005)
Hidden under the High Strung music shop on Durham's Ninth Street, the Gadow Guitar factory buzzes with activity and ambition. The noise of sanding and the loud hum of the exhaust fan are constant... Guitars hang around in various stages of construction. In the milling room, several thousand dollars' worth of maple wood from Washington sits on three shelves, waiting for the huge automated machine to stamp out Gadow's distinctive body shape.
Duke employees choose homes away from city
(The Chronicle, 06 December 2005)
As classes end each day, and students head back to their dorms and apartments, professors, too, must make the commute home. For many faculty, however, that trip is longer than some might expect... Despite the low cost of living and easy access to the University campus, Durham is not a popular choice of residence for many professors and administrators. They opt instead to live in the Raleigh and Chapel Hill areas.
Letter: Proud Powe parent
(Duke Chronicle, 07 December 2005)
Both of my children have spent their entire elementary school careers at E. K. Powe. Both have enjoyed excellent educations, good teachers and enthusiastic administrators. Of course, some years have been better than others, and some of their classmates have struggled more than others, but all in all we’ve been pleased and proud to have our kids at E.K. Powe... For this Duke faculty member and his family the experience has been a good one indeed.
Triad part of planned textile heritage corridor (Greensboro News & Record, 28 Nov 2005)
If successful, organizers say, the Textile Heritage corridor along Interstate 85 would encourage the preservation of everything from textile memories to old mills; spur the development of historic sites, scenic byways and museums; and attract tourists to communities devastated by plant closings and job losses.
"Ours is the story of another South -- one that many people are unfamiliar with," an organizer said. "These communities had a vibrant culture that encompassed not only hard work and ingenuity but their own unique music, food, a rich spiritual life and fiercely competitive sports like baseball and car racing."
Some residents get irate as phone books accumulate
(News & Observer, Nov 28, 2005)
Kelly Jarrett gets so frustrated with all those "honking huge phone books" tossed in her yard, she sometimes feels like letting just one of her fingers do the talking. "I call about them every year," the [Old West] Durham resident said.
"It so annoys me," she said. "The reality is that folks use phone books less and less in the Internet age, and yet the number of phone books delivered to me is proliferating every year."
Sunday Buzz: Music Move
(Herald-Sun, 13 November 2005)
An independent record store has moved into the Ninth Street shopping district. Chaz's Bull City Records has settled into 1916 Perry Street, which is right next to Cosmic Cantina.... Sofas and chairs are scattered about so customers can settle in to contemplate purchases. "We're trying to make it more like a community space," the Durham resident (owner) said.
Oh my Guinness, it's a record
(Grinnell College magazine, 4 April 2003)
Colin Tschida '05 holds a Guinness, and it's not the bottled, alcoholic kind. Tschida has a Guinness World Record for Climbing a Mountain on Stilts... The record-setting climb took two hours and 20 minutes.
Tschida and and a friend built the wooden stilts, which put the user’s feet two feet off the ground, themselves. Tschida said that "t-shirts, shorts and sandals" were and should always be the apparel of choice, and that "floral hats from the 80s" and "monstrous sunglasses" also can’t hurt.
[The world record holder now lives in Old West Durham.]
Honors await 17 community superstars
(Herald-Sun, 28 Sept 2005)
The "heroes" will be honored by the InterNeighborhood Council during an invitation-only banquet tonight at the Washington Duke Inn & Golf Club.
Betty Greene and Kelly Jarrett joined other neighbors in forming the Old West Durham Neighborhood Association. Neighbors say the women were insistent on incorporating the words "diversity, harmony, community" into the group's bylaws... Since then, the women have helped promote the neighborhood's "Night of Lights," worked on traffic calming measures and community policing. Jarrett is also working to help the neighborhood develop relationships with property managers who lease units in Old West Durham and throughout the city.
Sweet, Welcome Rain
(Herald-Sun, 22 November 2005)
photo caption: WilloJane Charns catches rainwater to feed her lovebird "Pretty Bird" Monday at her Old West Durham home.
Shop has music to fill the void
(News & Observer, 19 November 2005)
Open in time for the holidays is Chaz's Bull City Records, carrying a "stock of punk, indie, garage, rock 'n roll and a little bit of soul" at 1916 Perry Street, next to the Cosmic Cantina... "We got a good warm reception" opening day said the owner, Charles Martenstein.
Spreading the wealth
(News & Observer, 22 October 2005)
Old West Durham neighborhood activist John Schelp reports some progress in his campaign to get Duke University to cut its charges to merchants who accept DukeCards. According to Schelp, university vice president Tallman Trask has said Duke "is looking at ways" to cut the startup cost and per-sale commissions that discourage small businesses from accepting the card.
Schelp said lower charges would benefit both merchants and the students and Duke personnel who hold the cards by opening more off-campus options for trade. Trask, he said, indicated "they'll get back to me in a month."
Local group pushes for Merchants on Points expansion
(Duke Chronicle, 28 October 2005)
If the Old West Durham Neighborhood Association gets its way, students may soon have more options for food on points and eventually be able to use their DukeCards at local shops and restaurants... Two weeks ago the association sent a letter to President Richard Brodhead with a request to lower the initial set-up and commission fees for the Merchants on Points program in order to promote more small business participation.
The Old West Durham Neighborhood Association also raised concerns about the students' inability to use points off campus. In the MOP system, students can only pay for purchases with points if they are delivered on campus.
Duke Card blues: Merchants want rules eased for using student card to buy off campus
(Herald-Sun, 13 November 2005)
The Old West Durham Neighborhood Association and some merchants are calling on the university to make it easier for local businesses to accept Duke Cards, the debit and meal card that's generally regarded as the standard currency on Duke's campus.
But Duke requires off-campus merchants to spend $1,200 in initial set-up costs and pay an 18 percent commission to be able to accept the Duke Card. What's more, only restaurants can participate and they have to deliver food to campus to take advantage of the program.
"This is good for Duke, it's good for town-gown relations and it's good for students," Schelp said. "It's a win-win-win."
Editorial: The benefits of more off-campus dining
(Duke Chronicle, 31 October 2005)
In an odd marriage of interests, the Old West Durham Neighborhood Association and the Duke administration are working together to promote something that students usually want: more vendors on Merchants on Points... If the University is able to come up with a proposal the businesses like, it will give town-gown relations a boost.
The Outspokin' Cyclist: To pave or gravel part of biking trail under debate
by Phillip Barron [Old West Durham resident]
(Herald Sun, 10 November 2005)
[Old West Durham board member] Chris Sevick would love to be able to ride the entire 23 miles of the American Tobacco Trail. Three things stand in his way right now, but he hopes that riding it will be a real possibility one day soon... So, if like Sevick, you've ever wished that you could continue riding your bike the entire length of the planned 23 miles of greenway, now is your chance to be heard.
Workers bump into old modes of transit
(Herald-Sun, 22 Oct 2005)
Forget buses and cars. When Durham residents wanted to get around downtown at the turn of the 20th century they boarded a trolley... The Durham Street Railway Corp. began horse-drawn streetcar service in the Bull City in 1887. In 1902, the electric utility Durham Traction Co. built an amusement park at what is now The Shoppes at Lakewood to induce more people to ride their streetcars.
"It was a great equalizer because people who didn't have cars could leave their neighborhood and go shopping downtown or see a movie," said John Schelp, a local history buff. "It was an inexpensive alternative to riding a car."
Business Buzz: So where do The Rolling Stones shop for groceries?
(Herald-Sun, 12 October 2005)
When they're in Durham, apparently at Whole Foods Market. Buzz hears that a day or so before the Stones' show on Saturday night, some representatives of the group (OK, roadies) paid a visit to the Broad Street grocery. Estimated tab: $2,500.
Eight Days a Week: Urban Hike, Ninth Street
(Independent Weekly, 28 September 2005)
Take a three-mile hike through Durham's past and future Saturday morning. History buff John Schelp and Juanita Shearer-Swink of the Triangle Transit Authority will take you down hidden streets, through the old neighborhood of Pinhook, and to the future stops of the regional rail service coming in 2008. Meet at George's Garage at 10 a.m. Route goes through Liggett & Myers site, American Tobacco, East Coast Greenway and West Main Street, with a bus back to Brightleaf Square or Duke's East Campus. Rain or shine. Back in time for lunch.
Hikers discover history in landscape: 100-plus souls take Saturday walk into city's past, future
(Herald-Sun, 2 October 2005)
Behind the public parking lot on Ninth Street, in the broad grassy field that pushes the new Station Nine apartments farther from coffee-scented trappings of downtown, is a swatch of land that is a piece of Durham's history.
John Schelp, president of the Old West Durham Neighborhood Association, says it is from that grassy point that history fans can look out on every horizon and see some remnant of the ever-changing array of neighborhoods and communities that make up Durham's past.
Renewing Old Glory
(News & Observer, 22 October 2005)
Tanya Kinsella and her husband, John Buhrmann, knew what they were doing when they bought a 1938 Green Street house in the Old West Durham neighborhood last May. They knew they were buying a house with foundation issues, rotted window framing, broken windows, leaky pipes, faulty plumbing fixtures, a dilapidated stove and walls covered with painted plywood. They also knew the three-bedroom bungalow had oak and pine hardwood floors throughout, bead board walls in the kitchen and original windows, doors, trim, frames and fireplaces.
3-, 4-unit homes get boot
(Herald-Sun, 15 October 2005)
Durham's new "unified development ordinance" will bar the construction of three- and four-unit homes in many neighborhoods close to downtown, thanks to a series of decisions city and county officials made Friday.
Neighborhood groups had lobbied hard for a ban on quadruplexes in R-3 districts, as they believe such buildings and single-family homes don't mix... They argued that in Durham, quadruplexes have contributed to blight because they typically were owned by absentee landlords who didn't maintain them properly or do much to control tenant behavior.
Furniture store fills nook niche
(News & Observer, 15 October 2005)
"Trinitey Occasional Chairs and Accessories" reads the sign in front of the yellow house with white trim at 813 Broad St [in Old West Durham].
A niche shop aimed at filling empty nooks in hallways or rooms, Al and Brigitte Matthews opened Trinitey in mid-July. Their store offers chairs ranging from $150 to $1,900 and accessories: mirrors in stressed frames that were once windows, table and chair sets for bistro and patio, side tables, table runners, table cloths, lamps, throws and some porcelain.
The Outspokin' Cyclist: Bike commuting on the rise
(Herald Sun, 13 October 2005)
A recent Washington Post commodities article reports that while "SUV sales plunged in September more than 50 percent, U.S. bicycle sales have outnumbered car sales." Sounds like mine is not the only wallet taking a hit.
The Bicycle Chain has evidence to support the same trend. Chris Hull, the new general manager of the The Bicycle Chain's Durham store, says the store has definitely seen one of its best fall seasons in a long time. "Sales are up, business is up," he said.
Mill village heritage trail
(Durham Convention & Visitor's Bureau, October 2005))
Durham has several sites with a rich textile heritage. Erwin Cotton Mills, which also were established in 1892 but by Benjamin N. Duke, originally produced tobacco bags and later became nation's largest producer of denim. Now the remaining buildings serve as office space and apartment homes. In fact, today's Ninth Street Shopping District, one of Durham's thriving dining and shopping spots, and the Old West Durham neighborhood had their genesis as the commercial district and mill village alongside Erwin Cotton Mills.
At Vaguely Reminiscent, the fun is in finding what's there
(Herald-Sun, 4 October 2005)
A favorite stop along the popular retail strip, Vaguely Reminiscent surrounds shoppers with stuff. Just a few feet into the 600-square-foot store, customers already have passed a rack of 50 silk scarves priced $20 to $30, a display of two dozen types of Israeli-made Naot shoes priced $60 to $150 and 300 pairs of earrings costing between $20 and $50... And so it goes, all the way to the back of the store where the 10-cent itty-bitty piglets and $6 dashboard Jesuses await shoppers.
Gratitude theme at gay parade: Many cite progress from years past
(N&O, 25 September 2005)
Not even a train roaring past Main Street could mute the cheering crowd of nearly 5,000 people on Saturday celebrating the annual statewide Gay Pride Parade... In Saturday's parade, participants marched from Duke University's East Campus to the Ninth Street retail strip and back, forming a rainbow-colored stream of floats, church groups, high school students, drag queens and local leaders including Stormy Ellis, an assistant district attorney in Durham.
Several local organizations wanted to make sure participants in the parade knew they were welcome in the Bull City, including the Old West Durham Neighborhood Association, a group whose residents live in areas bordering Duke's East Campus. "What this parade is about is what our neighborhood is about," said Phillip Barron, an Old West Durham resident. "It's about being inclusive and neighborly."
Guest column: Why Durham needs a landlord registry
(Herald-Sun, 23 September 2005)
by Kelly Jarrett, vice president of the Old West Durham Neighborhood Association
Nearly half of Durham residences are rental properties. Therefore, renters, homeowners, and the owners and managers of rental property must work together to promote the vitality and well-being of Durham neighborhoods... Recently, I presented a resolution asking the city to require property managers to list their rental properties by address in a public registry to the Old West Durham Neighborhood Association. The OWDNA board and the Citywide Partners Against Crime group have adopted the resolution.
I believe that positive, proactive, collaborative relationships between renters, owners, property managers, and city officials are necessary for Durham's many diverse neighborhoods to thrive. By adopting the registry resolution, the City of Durham will provide us with one tool for working together for the greater good of our community by addressing problems that contribute to criminal activity and neighborhood decline.
Residents want list of rental properties
(Herald-Sun, 19 September 2005)
A proposal backed by Durham's Citywide Partners Against Crime group asks the city to require property managers to provide a listing of all their rental properties... The initiative was penned by the Old West Durham resident Kelly Jarrett, who has spent the summer helping her neighborhood association devise ways to reach out to property managers when they see city code violations or criminal activity, Jarrett said.
Wallace Auto repair a Durham fixture
(N&O Durham News, 17 September 2005)
Carl Wallace was born on a tobacco farm in Cumberland County, one of nine children. At 17, he moved to Durham to work in a cotton mill... By the mid-1920s he bought Carolina Battery and Rewinding Co., at the intersection of Hillsborough Road and Rosehill Avenue... Three of his brothers came to work with him: Clayton, Flave and John. John used half of the building for a fish market. John continued to run a grocery store, Carl kept the shop and moved to 2820 Hillsborough Road.
At that time, while West Durham had been incorporated into the city of Durham, it remained a community unto itself and Wallace's, on its western edge, "was kind of considered remote." However, the shop [made of Salisbury stone] faced N.C. 10, the first highway to cross the length of North Carolina. Most of that "Central Highway" is now designated U.S. 70... Their West Durham neighbors included the Berinis, descendants of an Italian stonemason who came to Durham to work on Duke Chapel; the Loudermilks, whose son, John D., went on to become a successful Nashville songwriter...
Chefs Gone Wild: Where to Eat This Fall A Look at Menus From Classic to Avant-Garde
(Wall Street Journal, 17 September 2005)
In Durham, N.C., chef Charlie Deal says he is on a mission to present Asian cuisine in an elegant environment. The menu at Grasshopper ranges from Chinese pork-and-shrimp dumplings and star-anise-braised short-rib Vietnamese soup to lemongrass and Riesling sangria.
Old shopping areas boast new looks
(Herald-Sun, 10 September 2005)
Northgate, South Square and Brightleaf Square have dedicated millions of dollars to remake themselves for shoppers in the face of new competition offering outdoor walkways with storefronts, bison burgers and Kohl's... Brightleaf Square is taking a page from the longtime Ninth Street retail strip that for decades has drawn on its neighbor Duke University and its neighborhoods of Old West Durham and Trinity Park.
Lunch & Learn programs announced
(Preservation Durham, Fall 2005)
Our brainstorming committee was in the unenviable position of choosing only 7 of the 30 wonderful ideas they dreamed up... A Cotton Mill in Durham -- panel includes Mary Coles, "Goat" Eubanks, Holly Hall, Liz Utley, and Wayne Smith who will tell us about life in Old West Durham. Sponsored by Vaguely Reminiscent.
Cold Drink for a Dry Day
(News & Observer, summer 2005)
photo caption: At Food To Go, a roadside eatery in [Old West] Durham, Myres Burgess enjoys the advertised specialty. "My favorite is the lemonade," he says. Wednesday was warm and clear, but today may bring a chance of showers.
Katrina's Aftermath
(Herald-Sun, 3 September 2005)
The Old West Durham Neighborhood Association is doing a neighborhood fundraiser for hurricane victims. The group is also compiling a list of homes that could accommodate evacuees.
Community Activists Win Pesticide Free Durham Public Schools
(Agricultural Resources Center newsletter, Summer 2005)
This spring, Durham parents and community groups mobilized for least-toxic alternatives to pesticides in their public school system, and for their right to know in advance of broadcast pesticides applications at school – and won! The Durham People’s Alliance, the Old West Durham Neighborhood Association, Durham Farmers’ Market, the Durham Community Environmental Coalition, Precinct 4 Democrats, the Museum of Life and Science, and E.K. Powe’s PTA were all involved with the campaign, and most continue to be connected to ongoing efforts, both in Durham, and statewide.
Durham creeks fail pollution scorecard
(Herald-Sun, 30 August 2005)
A recent city report found that South Ellerbe Creek and areas of Goose Creek are failing to meet city water quality standards... South Ellerbe Creek runs 3 miles through Old West Durham, Walltown, Northgate and Trinity Park. It scored the lowest along with portions of Goose Creek, which runs through east central Durham.
Coalition eyes more protection of homes: Revisions sought on proposed ‘unified development’ rules
(Herald-Sun, 30 August 2005)
A coalition of neighborhood groups has asked the City Council and the County Commissioners to strengthen the proposed "unified development ordinance" to offer more protection to existing homes.
During a hearing Monday, representatives of near-to-downtown "urban tier" neighborhoods gave officials a 49-page request for revisions to the proposed ordinance, the first top-to-bottom rewrite of Durham's zoning rules in about 30 years... Coalition members from Old West Durham, a neighborhood near Ninth Street and the N.C. School of Science and Mathematics, said they worry that the provision would encourage blight.
Neighborhood makes move to improve rentals
(News & Observer, 27 August 2005)
Weeds, peeling paint, cars parked in front yards -- if not up on blocks -- drug dealing, frat parties. From the unsightly to the criminal, the management and monitoring of Durham's rental properties are associated with problems... "This is something I think is a really, really hot issue in Durham," said Kelly Jarrett, a vice president of the Old West Durham Neighborhood Association and prime mover behind its Recommended Property Managers Initiative.
A first for Durham (at least, as far as anyone knows), the project has resulted in a set of screening criteria for evaluating property managers, which the association is using to identify recommended property management companies... Criteria include consistent screening of tenants, building and lawn maintenance, whether leases address explicit "quality of life" like noise ordinances and front-yard parking, and willingness to work with neighborhood associations.
A g'day to learn America's road rules
(News & Observer, 27 August 2005)
Rebecca Varughese, 26, is set to teach fifth grade at a school near Charlotte. In addition to the state curriculum, Varughese is expected to teach her students and her fellow teachers a little something about Australia. When she goes home, she will share what she's learned about America... But before she can exchange cultures, she has to practice driving on the streets of Durham. All summer, visiting teachers have been cruising Guilford Driving School sedans around the Old West Durham neighborhood.
New growth guide in works
(News & Observer, 27 August 2005)
The Durham City Council and county commissioners are scheduled to discuss the sweeping proposal Monday. The governing boards could vote on the [Unified Development Ordinance], but neighborhood representatives say a little more tweaking is necessary.
In several neighborhoods, residents are worried that as the document is now written, a developer could come in and build an apartment complex of four units or more in the middle of a row of bungalows... "The neighborhoods that need the protection the most have the least chance of getting the backing of that high a number of property owners," Schelp said.
Surge of students gives Durham a lift
(News & Observer, 20 August 2005)
With much anticipation -- and a little concern -- Durham prepares for its annual visitation of college kids... The Old West Durham neighborhood, including most of Ninth Street, borders East Campus on the west. It has among its population a fair number of Duke faculty, employees and students, said neighborhood association president John Schelp, "But we are blessed in the neighborhood with smaller homes. We don't have the big party houses. ... no 911 calls."
Who makes your favorite drinks? - An Indy Survey
(Independent Weekly, 31 August 2005)
Best Neighborhood Bar: Charlie's Bar & Grill
Restaurant review: Grasshopper
(Duke Chronicle, 8 September 2005)
Located on the northwest corner of 9th Street and Hillsborough Road, a location better known for the reliable French-bistro fare of Vin Rouge, Grasshopper has been garnering attention of its own for local chef Charlie Deals’ innovative culinary offerings.
Offering updated Chinese and Vietnamese dishes, with a pan-Asian twist, Grasshopper’s light cuisine is a welcome addition to the local restaurant scene... Grasshopper shows flashes of culinary brilliance in aspects of individual dishes and has great potential to improve as time passes.
Durham 101
(News & Observer, 16 April 2005)
Did you know? For many years the sidewalk in front of businesses on Ninth Street in West Durham was sheltered by metal awnings. Then, in February 1987, an ice storm knocked down most of the awnings. According to the Old West Durham Neighborhood Association Web site, "The last segment of the old metal awning was removed ... in 2001."
Durham residents take up stargazing
(Herald-Sun, 05 March 2005)
Sightings of the former "Law & Order" detective and "Sex in the City" love interest have been common around Durham ever since Chris Noth arrived two weeks ago to perform in a play at Duke University... Noth has been spotted buying lunch in the cafe at Whole Foods across from East Campus... He's also eaten breakfast at Elmo's Diner on Ninth Street.
Buzz: Durham diners name favorite restaurants in survey
(Herald-Sun, 3 August 2005)
Word of mouth: The stomachs have spoken and Durham diners have named their favorite restaurants, thanks to the Durham Convention and Visitors Bureau... The favorite high-profile restaurants (those that have received national or regional notice) were Parizade, Bullock's Bar-B-Cue and Magnolia Grill... Best breakfast went to Elmo's Diner, best steak went to Cattleman's Steakhouse and Saloon and best sushi went to George's Garage.
Learn more about East Campus and Nearby Neighborhoods
(Community Change, Fall 2005)
Who lived across the street from East Campus and introduced basketball to the college? What song writer for Norah Jones was "born on a kitchen table" near the East Campus wall? Print the walking tour to find the who, what and why of our neighborhood. There is a lot more to Durham than meets the eye!
Bulletin Board
(News & Observer, 1 August 2005)
The Ninth Street Shakespeare Club, a monthly discussion of the world's greatest writer (with video clips when available), meets from 7 to 9 p.m. on the third Monday of every month at Bean Traders, 714 Ninth Street in Durham. No registration required.
Mail-order pride
(News & Observer, 30 July 2005)
Mamie Norwood, the original owner, had ordered the unassembled house -- pre-cut lumber, cabinetry, roofing materials and all -- from Sears, Roebuck and Co... As they discover the layers of history in the Sears houses they live in, Schelp, Browner and Yarger are also adding their own. Schelp continues the tradition of gatherings at the old parsonage by hosting monthly Old West Durham Neighborhood Association meetings at his house. Browner and Yarger had a new baby daughter just a few weeks ago -- and she was born right there in the house.
Weaving textiles into state's history
(News & Observer, 26 July 2005)
As a child, Holly Marlow Hall used to run to the gates of Erwin Cotton Mills the minute the shift-change light flashed to greet her father after his hard day's work. As recently as 20 years ago, many Durham residents relied on textile mills for their livelihoods... Worried that colorful yarns of the South's textile mills could be lost with the generations who toiled in them, preservationists from Valley, Ala., to Durham are working to designate 464 miles of Interstate 85 a textile corridor for heritage tourism... Still visible are some remains of Erwin Cotton Mills, which closed nearly 94 years after they were incorporated by Benjamin Duke of Durham's well-known Dukes. Tourists might be drawn to old brick mill buildings transformed into offices and apartments. They also might drive or stroll past surviving mill houses that still line Durham streets.
Gee, a loft to lounge in
(Herald-Sun, 24 July 2005)
Nestled in 3,000 square feet next door to George's Garage on Ninth Street, G Loft offers something visually and physically for patrons. For the eyes, the décor has a sophisticated feel with plenty of European antiques and artwork. For the body, there are leather couches and chairs and a loft area with cushions and silk pillows for relaxing.
Adding more to his plate: George Bakatsias plans to open new restaurants (Herald-Sun, 21 July 2005)
Grasshopper, is an Asian concept opening this month at the intersection of Hillsborough Road and Ninth Street in Durham... The restaurant, located adjacent to Vin Rouge in the former Pizza Palace building, features a Zen garden with two water features and a giant wind chime... Grasshopper will offer Chinese and Vietnamese dishes, with a dumpling menu, vegetable side items and a dim sum brunch on the weekends.
Summer in Sum
(Duke Chronicle, 20 July 2005)
Duke announced in June that it will seek University College District for the new campus. The decision was welcomed by Durham residents who have expressed concern that Central Campus would draw customers and income from local businesses.
Valor Award: DSA's The Laramie Project
(Independent Weekly cover story, July 2005)
After the last performance was over, after 10 protesters with hate in their hearts -- and over 200 counter-protesters -- lined the sides of North Duke Street, after newspaper and television camera crews followed members of Fred Phelps' Westboro Baptist Church who'd come all the way from Topeka, Kan., just to picket a show... "They knew the weight they had to bear pretty early on," said director Douglas Graves... For demonstrating considerable artistic integrity, and for their courage in facing the advocates of holy hatred, the Independent fondly confers this special award to the cast, crew and director of The Laramie Project. [The director and one of the actors live in OWD]
Be seated
(Herald-Sun, 17 July 2005)
A new furniture store called "Trinitey" has opened at 813 Broad Street, bringing an eclectic collection to the yellow house next to Nice Price Books... Owners Al and Brigitte Matthews of Durham have filled each room with wood and upholstered furniture made by local artisans as well as vendors such as Century Furniture and Sarreid. "It's not the everyday stuff," Al Matthews said.
Harry VI: Long-awaited sixth book has fans, retailers ready to party
(Herald-Sun, 15 July 2005)
Ninth Street will be a virtual Diagon Alley tonight as Harry Potter fans take to the streets to celebrate the release of the series' sixth book, "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince."
The celebration at The Regulator Bookshop will be one of dozens taking place in the Triangle this weekend. What's different is that on Ninth Street, other retailers are getting involved, too... "It'll be a little like Mardi Gras," said John Valentine, co-owner of The Regulator. "I think people want to be a part of that."
10 people to watch: Dukies who will change the world
(Towerview magazine, July 2005)
It's gonna be a big year. And in a world full of movers, shakers and forward thinkers, Duke alone has thousands of unique individuals bound to stir things up. Towerview pared down that long list to bring you 10 big people to keep your eye on in 2005-06 and beyond... Even though he won "a victory for common sense" when Duke decided to zone Central for university-only purposes, Schelp's ready to run the gamut this year for every item on Duke's wish list. "They at some point have no choice but to have to come home and talk," he says.
Mozart piece will bring back memories of father: Ciompi Quartet is celebrating 40th anniversary
(Herald-Sun, 8 July 2005)
Current Ciompi Quartet member [and OWD resident] Jonathan Bagg, who plays the viola, said the quartet chose to perform the Mozart work both for its exceptional quality as well as to "evoke the memory of the past." ...As a young musician, Bagg recalled, he never dreamed that he would one day be in a quartet that Ciompi founded.
Terry Sanford, Jr receives Society's highest honor
(Preservation News, Summer 2005)
The Historic Preservation Society of Durham bestowed its Bartlett Durham Award to Terry for many historic preservation projects in Durham including... the acquisition and preservation of the Grey Building (former Erwin Mills office on West Main St) and the main Erwin Mills building as the mixed-use Erwin Square with offices and apartments... The Station Nine development, which had strong support in the Old West Durham and Watts Hillandale neighborhoods, should spark further preservation in the Pin Hook, Hickstown and Old West Durham areas.
TTA sees stops as starters: High-density developments pictured for rail line stations
(Herald-Sun, 6 July 2005)
When Triangle Transit Authority begins building its regional rail system next year, officials hope train stations won't be the only buildings going up at a dozen sites in Durham and Wake counties... The most exciting opportunities for development currently are in Durham, TTA said. And much of the type of investment TTA is seeking is already under way, with Triangle Metro Center already planned for Research Triangle Park, the Station Nine apartment complex open near the future site on Ninth Street and redeveloped historic warehouses abutting the planned station downtown.
Column: American Tobacco gets lion’s share of subsidies
(Herald-Sun, 19 June 2005)
If you stop anyone on Ninth Street and ask them to describe the success of this commercial district -- what they like about it and why it thrives -- they won't say it's because the "tax base" is high. They'll tell you that there are people and energy on the street, a good mix of shops and restaurants with a unique character. This has already happened in most other downtowns across the state and country.
Letter: Not in Durham, DDI
(Herald-Sun, 5 June 2005)
Downtown Durham, Inc. has admitted that it does, in fact, try to get Durham businesses whose leases are up for renewal to move downtown... Our tax dollars shouldn't go to an organization that undermines our neighborhoods by actively recruiting businesses to move from one part of Durham to another... Any casual observer of DDI's debacle with Clear Channel and the proposed theater can see it's far better to work together in the sunshine -- rather than trying to work out some side deal in the shadows.
Assortment of hats going on the block
(News & Observer, 11 June 2005)
During his lifetime, Jeffrey Fried, the former co-owner of Mad Hatter's Bake Shop in [Old West] Durham, amassed an impressive collection of hats.
He collected hundreds of hats. Hats worn by police officers, truck drivers, train conductors, pilots and even ladies who lunch (even a wide-brimmed straw hat owned by Mae West).
Sam Bagg: Valedictorian
(Herald-Sun, 26 May 2005)
[OWD resident] Sam Bagg managed to reach the top of his class at Riverside High School while spending several hours each day practicing the piano... "I have been known to be practicing the piano pretty late at night after fitting everything in," said Bagg, valedictorian of Riverside's senior class with a 5.03 grade point average... Bagg's father, Jonathan Bagg, is a viola player with the Ciompi Quartet, performs with orchestras across the state and is a music professor at Duke University. Sam and his sister, Eliza, a violinist, often share the stage with their father in family recitals.
What all the BUZZ is about: Triangle readers tell how favorite coffeehouses are oases in busy world
(Herald-Sun, 22 May 2005)
The aroma of freshly roasted coffee practically wafted from the computer as e-mails poured in from readers describing their favorite coffeehouses... For folks who want to go inside and have a rest, readers named all three Bean Traders locations, including Ninth Street in Durham... as favorite places for indoor-outdoor seating, "funky interior design," walls covered with local art for sale, and, of course, the coffee.
Upcoming
(News & Observer, 16 April 2005)
The Friends of South Ellerbe Creek, the Walltown Community Association and the City of Durham invite the public to this year's Earth Day clean-up of Walltown Park on Saturday, April 23.
Durham 101
(News & Observer, 12 March 2005)
Does the name IL "Buck" Dean sound familiar to you? It will if you regularly travel on the Durham Freeway, which has a sign also proclaiming it as the "IL 'Buck' Dean Freeway." The late Dean played an important role in the Bull City and its roads -- he was a former Durham City Councilman and a longtime member of the state Board of Transportation [and longtime OWD resident].
Whether you're a fan or not, golf's
US Open may affect your life
(N&O, 13 June 2005)
Magnolia Grill, Durham: Tables will be mostly booked as wealthy visitors and corporate honchos look for high-end, Southern-style dining. One party has a table booked Thursday through Saturday. There are about 30 bar seats, though, available for walk-ins.
Locopops pops out popsicles
(Herald-Sun, 5 June 2005)
Crazy and cold: Fresh from an appearance at Taste of Durham last weekend, locopops Gourmet Popsicles opened its new Durham location at 2600 Hillsborough Road on Friday.
The shop features dozens of types of paletas, or Mexican popsicles, in flavors ranging from American traditional (chocolate brownie) to Mexican traditional (chocolate with chile) to fusion/original (watermelon chocolate chip). The shop, located next to Don Hill's Lock Shop, is open Tuesday through Sunday from noon to 7 p.m.
Aiming for style
(N&O, 4 June 2005)
Cameron Taylor lives in a Rubik's cube. His shotgun apartment in Old West Durham is so confining that he can't move a love seat without sliding over his TV, a guitar case and his brother's stereo mounted on a bar-stool. Wires snake from the living room to the bedroom to hook up with his laptop, which rests on a computer desk that doubles as a dining room table.
Shotgun homes, common throughout the South, earned their name because of the notion that if a shot were fired through the front door it would go straight out the back door. Thought to have been imported from Africa or Haiti, shotguns first appeared in New Orleans in the 1830s. Later, they spread as cheap housing for workers in the mines and oil fields
Museum bids make history
(News & Observer, 28 May 2005)
Durham has a tobacco museum at Duke Homestead. Bennett Place and Stagville are state historic sites devoted to the War Between the States and old plantations. N.C. Mutual has its Heritage Room and, in progress, a rich historical archive. The city has a historic park at West Point on the Eno, and another in the works down south at Leigh Farm... Old West Durham has its history online. Hayti has its Heritage Center.
From fried livers to foie gras: How Durham
became known for upper-crust cuisine
(N&O, 28 May 2005)
Founded on barbecue and Southern fried chicken, Durham has built a new reputation as a foodie's town... So why have Durham restaurants become a buzzword for some with fine palates and fat wallets?
...In 1986 the Barkers opened Magnolia Grill in Durham in what had been a health food store. Now the old store at 1002 Ninth Street serves up Southern cuisine with global accents. It has earned lavish praise from the food establishment, including Bon Appetit and Gourmet magazines.
Burning crosses ignite revulsion in Durham
(N&O, 27 May 2005)
The memory of such acts brought a spontaneous reaction in neighborhoods across the city. At least three neighborhood associations quickly organized vigils, and the city's Human Relations Commission is planning a citywide event at a date to be determined.
"It was important to respond quickly and let folks know there's no place for this, and the community is outraged," said John Schelp, president of the Old West Durham Neighborhood Association... About 200 people held candles at Oval Drive Park near Hillandale Road
Duke zoning would limit retail
(Herald-Sun,
6 May 2005)
Duke University officials said Thursday they will seek a university-college zoning that would limit retail businesses on Central Campus, handing an olive branch to critics of the planned redevelopment.
Central Campus rezoning backed: Duke's provost
says he wants the area to be reserved for facilities tied to the
university
(News & Observer,
6 May 2005)
Kay Robin Alexander, a Duke graduate and former employee who now lives in a neighborhood near the school... said a Duke official had purposefully misrepresented community concerns when talking with reporters and tried to backtrack from agreements made two to three years ago. Alexander said that the 12 neighborhoods closest to campus and area business interests agreed to meetings between one or two community representatives and a Duke official, who was not present Thursday... "If some of us come here distrustful, it is because of years of disappointment," she said.
Lange acknowledged Wednesday that the university has played a role in nurturing community mistrust. But, Duke is committed to an open and inclusive process, Lange said.
Letter: Duke's wonderful news on university
zoning
Herald-Sun (Sunday,
8 May 2005)
University/college zoning for Central Campus is something the Duke-Durham partnership neighborhoods voted to endorse in the spring of 2003. The InterNeighborhood Council voted to support university/college zoning for Central Campus in June 2004. Many, many folks in the community played critical roles throughout this process and deserve our gratitude.
Column: Community perspective on Central Campus
Duke Chronicle, 11
April 2005
The fact is that Duke has discovered a goose laying golden-eggs: Because of society's regard for education as embodied in the policy of tax-exemptions for educational institutions, Duke raises millions, even billions of dollars on which they pay no taxes.
They then insist on retaining the right to use every last one of those dollars as potential investment capital to make even more money, supposedly in support of the educational mission... how does using tax-free money to fund businesses that compete with the local economy, serve the mission of education? The only answer to that is some belief that Duke students are better educated by having as little to do with Durham as possible.
Column: Addressing "Real World" Needs
on Central Campus
Duke Chronicle, 23 March 2005
What is truly disappointing is how the committee's preliminary plans seem to continue a history for isolating Duke students from the community and 'the real world.' Early versions of the Central Campus plans -- which have ignited controversy within the Durham neighborhoods that border campus -- make it seem like Duke's vision of 'the real world' was something like The Streets at Southpoint... While more shopping venues would be attractive to undergraduates, this vision does not truly foster a diverse academic and cultural exchange with the 'real world.'
Forum: Duke profiteers are setting a poor example
Herald-Sun, 10 March
2005
We give tax-exempt status to educational institutions precisely to support their academic mission, and to ease financial pressure so that they can focus on that mission, since an educated citizenry is in everyone's interest. So why should we allow these advantaged dollars, that come at the expense of a community full of increasing needs and increasingly desperate for revenue sources, to be used to compete with local business? What about a fiduciary responsibility for citizens to see that all members of a community contribute their fair share to society's overhead? I'm afraid the answer to those questions could be that Duke has better lawyers, a public relations team (read: spin doctors) and enough sheer influence to get away with it -- the might-makes-right, 800-pound gorilla scenario... One would hope that the educational mission of Duke would include teaching by example.
I-85 could be textile mill village corridor
The Dispatch (Lexington,
NC), 25 April 2005
If current and former cotton mill village residents get their way, Lexington will be part of a 464-mile "Southern Textile Mill Village Corridor" extending down Interstate 85 from Durham to Valley, Ala.
Mill village residents from the Carolinas, Virginia,
Georgia and Alabama spent the weekend sharing memories and talking
about ways to prevent
the fast-disappearing industry and its way of life from being forgotten
entirely... John Schelp, president of the Old West Durham Neighborhood
Association, which is trying to preserve a mill neighborhood, said
his group's Web site has received 45,000 hits in five years.
Durham 101
(News & Observer, 16 April 2005)
Did you know? For many years the sidewalk in front of businesses on Ninth Street in West Durham was sheltered by metal awnings. Then, in February 1987, an ice storm knocked down most of the awnings. According to the Old West Durham Neighborhood Association Web site, "The last segment of the old metal awning was removed in 2001."
Weaving the threads of the past
(News & Observer,
16 April 2005)
Mary Coles remembers the circuses that used to parade through West Durham. She liked the elephants and the horses. She remembers the boarders her mother took in, her country ham and biscuits, and climbing trees, and politicians, gathering in McDonald's drugstore and shaking hands outside the gates of Erwin Mills... West Durham memories were something they shared in later years: snake handlers, medicine shows, lint in their lungs and rocking on the front porch...
"I can remember laying in bed at night," she said. "They had steam trains then, you could hear those trains coming waaayyy off, and they'd get closer and closer and then they'd get to rattling the window. And, I don't know, that always just ... " and she stopped... "There'll never be another place like West Durham"
Yard Sales
(Herald-Sun, 16 April 2005)
Old West Durham N'bhood Yard Sale! Sat., 4/16, 8am-12. 1002-1007 Oakland Ave
Central Campus in broad strokes: Duke officials
offer general ideas on direction redevelopment will take
(News & Observer,
17 February 2005)
Duke University Provost Peter Lange and Michael Palmer, director of Duke's Office of Community Affairs, spent much of the evening offering general answers to specific questions about the economic and social impact Central Campus changes could have on Durham. Some community members fear that a lavishly appointed Central Campus will create a cocoon for Duke students, giving them little reason to spend their money and time off campus...
Kelly Jarrett, who is vice president of the Old West Durham Neighborhood Association and a Duke employee, compared the school's refusal to eliminate the possibility of mass-market commercial development to the behavior of a 700-pound gorilla...
Duke talks Central with its neighbors
(Duke Chronicle, 17 February
2005)
University zoning allows for "limited retail...to the extent that [retail facilities] are designed to serve the campus population of the University," according to a March e-mail sent by City Planning Director Frank Duke to neighborhood representatives. Businesses that open on a university zone are property-tax exempt, which some Duke neighbors have charged would provide retailers with an unfair advantage.
Members of the audience also urged the University to add local residents to the planning committees, which currently consist of administrators, faculty and students.
Duke tells neighbors outline of face-lift
(Herald-Sun, 17 February
2005)
As a neighbor, Duke University is like the proverbial 800-pound gorilla -- that much was stipulated... "Some of you may not be totally pleased with the fact that you won't have a level of detail leaving the meeting that you want to have," Peter Lange, the university provost, said at the outset. "That is not an effort on our part to obfuscate the outcomes of this process."
Sunday Buzz: Think Parizade, think dining
(Herald-Sun, March 2005)
Cafe Parizade is returning to its roots. After gaining
a reputation as a late-night party spot, the Erwin Square institution
is refocusing
its emphasis on food.
Old West Durham on CNN
Carolina Avenue neighbor and Duke breast cancer
specialist Victoria Seewaldt, MD, was featured on
Paula Zahn's show on CNN on February 23, 2005.
Dr. Seewaldt (Vicky to friends and neighbors)
discussed her research and the recent announcement of
a new breast pap smear that can be used to survey
cells from the whole breast, examine them under the
microscope and test for early changes that often
precede breast cancer.
Segments of the interview were filmed in Vicky and
Eric's mill house in Old West Durham.
Comprehensive plan passes 9-2
(Herald-Sun, 1 March 2005)
In a joint meeting Monday, the Durham City Council and County Commissioners voted 9-2 to approve the final draft of the Durham Comprehensive Plan with some changes.
Those changes altered the future land-use designations in Old West Durham from high medium density to medium density... One neighborhood leader said the vote carried great significance. "This was one the most important votes for our neighborhood since the city annexed West Durham in 1925," said John Schelp, president of the Old West Durham Neighborhood Association. "Many people worked hard on this document and we are grateful that officials listened."
Durham gets guide to growth: Plan sets tone
for neighborhoods
(News & Observer, 1 March 2005)
The city and county adopted standards Monday to guide Durham in regulating development and expanding public services over the next 25 years.
Old West Durham Neighborhood Association leaders said they were pleased that planners changed the designation of their neighborhood to a lower residential density, which, they said, would prevent developers from tearing down old mill houses.
Letter: Duke has visions of retail
(Herald-Sun, Sunday, 20 February 2005)
Duke repeatedly saying its plans for Central Campus are a "blank canvas" is surprising for those of us in the Duke-Durham partnership neighborhoods who've spent months negotiating with Duke about campus land use plans. If the canvas is blank, why is Duke trying to get retail on Central Campus?
Creating a Duke retail cocoon (without having to pay property taxes) would keep more money on campus. Duke can begin to build back trust by committing to a "University-College" zoning for Central Campus.
Group asks schools to cut pesticide spray
(Herald-Sun, 22 February 2005)
A group calling for a reduction in pesticide spraying within schools is making its case to two area school boards this week... One future Durham Public Schools parent, Michele Kloda, said she learned about the reduction effort at an Old West Durham Neighborhood Association meeting last year. Kloda said she's become an active supporter of the idea since then, especially since she knows her 2-year-old daughter will one day attend the Durham schools.
Citizens give council long list of requests
( Herald-Sun, 15 February 2005 )
Walltown residents want a promised community center and emergency phones installed in their park... And Old West Durham residents just want eight streetlights on Ninth Street and two blocks of sidewalk linking Ninth and Broad streets.
Those are just some of the items residents requested from the City Council Monday night during the District 2 Partners Against Crime budget forum.
Film aims to paint Durham as a microcosm of
America
(Herald-Sun, 25 January 2005)
A former history professor, film maker Steven Channing said the hourlong film will show the unique qualities of Durham and how the city's diversity and development are part of a larger, American picture...
"People flocked here from the country, Jews from the North, Germans from Europe," Channing said. "W.E.B. DuBois and Booker T. Washington came here because people said, 'You gotta go to Durham.'" ...The film also will include Durham's less-recognized citizens, such as surviving workers from the old Erwin Mills.
Senior citizens assist young students who struggle
with reading
(Herald-Sun, 16 December 2005)
Kenzie Brannon, 66, has spent three hours a week at Durham's E.K. Powe Elementary School, mentoring kindergartners who struggle with reading.
Students and teachers know him as "Kenzie-Pop." And whether he helps his buddies read their favorite books or practice their spelling, he never leaves without a barrage of hugs... "It's incredible -- every Monday I just walk out of there, floating on a cloud." Brannon said. "It's so rewarding to know you've helped."
Baker's secret: Evolve and grow
(Herald-Sun, 28 December 2004)
Simplicity has defined much of Frank Ferrell's life. He learned to bake in the 1970s at the San Francisco Zen Center, where he lived for about a decade. Most of Ninth Street Bakery's early recipes, in fact, were from the Center's Tassajara monastery... He and his wife opened their bakery in May 1981 and quickly started selling bread to what was then Wellspring Grocery, making deliveries in the Volkswagen Squareback they had driven from California.
Column: Duke can do better
(Independent Weekly, 15 December 2004)
Why is Duke trying to deny local jurisdictions revenue? Creating an on-campus retail cocoon would exacerbate the town-gown tensions that prompted the creation of the Duke-Durham partnership initiative, further isolating Duke students from Durham by discouraging students from patronizing off-campus businesses... Duke contributes far less than Princeton, Harvard and Brown universities pay to their host cities... Despite assurances by Duke officials at the March forum that they'd try to better communicate their Central Campus plans with the neighborhoods, we've heard nothing from Duke for nine months.
Old Norwood house gathering
(Herald-Sun, 17 December 2004)
In 1928, when Rosehill Avenue was still a dirt lane, Mamie Norwood ordered her dream home from a Sears & Roebuck catalog and built a frame house at the end of Rosehill. More than 75 years later, Ninth Street merchants and residents of Old West Durham will hold an informal holiday gathering for community members in the old Norwood house.
Night of Lights
(News & Observer, 16 December 2004)
An informal holiday gathering of neighbors will be held during Old West Durham's Night of Lights on Sunday.
Speakers are bullish on Durham
(Herald-Sun, 15 December 2004)
By traditional yardsticks of population, jobs and wealth, Durham is growing steadily as it also advances in downtown revitalization and other more focused goals... Older, smaller commercial centers such as Compare Foods, a specialty grocery that replaced an ailing East Durham supermarket, and West Durham's Ninth Street district also drew mention.
Art galleries offer festive holiday exhibitions
(Herald-Sun, 29 November 2004)
Nancy Tuttle May's gallery on Ninth Street in Durham was the site of "Return to Taos: New Paintings." This was May's eighth annual studio tour and show. Her gallery was full of new works. Many of the works were rotated on the walls during the show as pieces were sold.
No Black Friday blues as green flows like wine
(Herald-Sun, 26 November 2004)
One World Market on Ninth Street called in extra volunteers to staff the registers in expectation of a big day... Across the street at Cozy, saleswoman Gita Schonfeld said the store was busier than expected... "It's encouraging," she said. "It's kind of nice to see people coming here as an alternative to the malls." ..."We're not going to go to [a bigger mall] the day after Thanksgiving," [the customer] said. "I don't like the crowds. I don't want to be pushed around, stepped on and beat up for a $10 sweater."
Thanksgiving - Hold the Turkey
(Herald-Sun, 26 November 2004)
Dishes at the Triangle Vegetarian Society's annual Thanksgiving feast at Parizade included string bean almondine, smoked poblano peppers and roasted garlic/olive oil mashed potatoes with chives. All the food was strictly vegetarian, and the reservation-only feast was sold out.
Bets are off unless suit ruling alters law
(Herald-Sun, 29 November 2004)
District Attorney Jim Hardin Jr. recalled prosecuting several people in the mid-1980s, when he was still an assistant district attorney, for operating a poker parlor, numbers racket and dice gaming establishment on Iredell Street.
Ben & Jerry's offers free ice cream if
you vote
(Herald-Sun, October 28, 2004)
Choosing a future president may be tough, but at Ben & Jerry's, 609 Broad Street, voters face another choice: the flavor in a free cone of ice cream with proof of voting in the election... The Durham store started giving out coupons Wednesday when Ben Cohen, co-founder of Ben & Jerry's, was at the store for about an hour Wednesday, signing autographs, taking pictures and encouraging customers to vote.
Column: Revised UDO reflects citizen participation
(Herald-Sun, 29 October 2004)
The UDO is designed around the very fundamental idea that Durham's diversity enhances and adds a texture to our community that makes it unique... Durham's regulations established patterns that work well for suburban development, but discourage redevelopment of and reinvestment in our older, more urban communities... It is intended to ensure that our diversity, is maintained -- to ensure that downtown, Ninth Street, Trinity Park, Campus Hills, Hope Valley, and Rougemont each retain their individuality, integrity and character.
Paintings depict Durham's past, landmarks no
longer there
(Herald-Sun, 15 October 2004)
Local artist Bob Blake said he realized that the paintings
would be of historical value, so he decided not to sell the collection.
Many of the structures he painted are no longer there, like The Washington
Duke Hotel, the Colonial Store and the West Durham Post Office on
Ninth
Street.
Women's group pulls together
(Herald-Sun, 7 November 2004)
The years have taken a toll on the once spry Old West Durham couple Lee and Lois Carlton, who have been married for 67 years and live in the same mill house Lois was born in... Their physical condition made it impossible to maintain the deteriorating work sheds in their back yard or to remove metal junk from their yard. That's why members of the local organization Strong Women Organizing Outrageous Projects -- or SWOOP -- flocked to the couple's Edith Street house on Saturday.
SWOOP also rehabbed another Old West Durham spot Saturday, clearing brush at the Erwin Mills Cemetery, located behind Talbert Building Supply... "The cemetery hadn't heard chainsaws for five years," Schelp said, after popping in to check on the Carltons. "This is a large group of women with a big impact and a lot of tools."
Triangle voters set new turnout records
(Herald-Sun, 3 November 2004)
Throughout the region, election fervor spread from the polling sites into everyday life, creating a holiday-like environment... In Old West Durham, a local Democratic activist turned his Toyota Corolla into rolling advertisement for Kerry, driving around town while playing a trumpet out the driver's side window, all with his 18-month-old daughter strapped in the backseat.
The message was mainly well-received, with only a few angry reactions from Republicans, said Rodrigo Dorfman, who was serving as the "unofficial propaganda chair" of the Durham's Precinct 3 Democrats... Dorfman, who writes a column for The Herald-Sun's Spanish-language edition Nuestro Pueblo, said he and others would canvass the neighborhood later in the day, "flushing" out unmotivated voters.
Homebuyer Info
(Herald-Sun, 30 Sept 2004)
Homebuying Workshop to be held at Ooh La Latte Cafe, 1116 Broad St. Phyllis Brown and Shelia Rasnake will answer questions about buying and financing a home. Sponsored by the Old West Durham Neighborhood Association.
Roxboro firm buys West Durham Lumber Co.
(Herald-Sun, 28 October 2004)
Talbert Building Supply of Roxboro has purchased West Durham Lumber Co., an 81-year-old building supply firm owned by a longtime Durham family and Duke benefactor.
West Durham Lumber first opened in 1923 and by the early 1930s, the firm was selling more than half of the wood materials used to build houses in Durham.
Where does Cool John Fergeson get his guitars?
(Music Maker Relief Foundation newsletter, Fall 2004)
Gadow Guitars of [Old West Durham] has repaired dozens of Music Maker artists' instruments, raised money by selling our CDs on their sales floor and furnished Cool John Ferguson with two incredible, hand-crafted guitars.
Ooh La Latte
(Duke Chronicle, 23 September 2004)
An eclectic mix of vintage clothes, coffee, and music is right around the corner from campus. The Untidy Museum was originally a store that contained a plethora of vintage merchandise: '50s ties and cat-eye glasses, old comic books, Life magazines and a notable shoe collection as well as the trendy "Durham, love yourself" T-shirts that can be seen on many Duke students. The cafe features performances by local musicians at night and serves as a low-key study environment during the day.
Letter: Capitol 'cannibalizing'
(Herald-Sun, 21 September 2004)
Despite promises to bring new businesses to the American Tobacco Campus during the approval process for taxpayer subsidies for parking decks, Capitol Broadcasting is trying to lure Magnolia Grill and Whole Foods from Old West Durham to the American Tobacco Campus... Moving local businesses from one part of Durham to another is not economic development -- it is cannibalizing other neighborhoods... Capitol Broadcasting should be ashamed of the predatory tactics it's using to create what's becoming a separate, little corporate suburb of downtown.
Ninth Street raps American Tobacco
(Herald-Sun, 21 September 2004)
Developers of the American Tobacco downtown redevelopment are trying to lure landmark businesses from the Ninth Street district, in effect cannibalizing one central city retail area to build up another, charge leaders of a Durham neighborhood association... While Ninth Street, itself part of the renaissance of a former textile mill, could suffer, the central city as a whole would realize no net gain.
"They are businesses that bring a strong identity to the neighborhood," said Kelly Jarrett, the vice president of Old West Durham, which represents Ninth Street and the surrounding area.
Friends of South Ellerbe Creek
(Herald-Sun, 1 October 2004)
Big Sweep Creek Clean-Up. Presented by Friends of South Ellerbe Creek, Sierra Club, and Duke volunteers. To be held at Green and Edith streets, next to E.K. Powe Elementary.
Duke Students Go "Into the City":
President Brodhead praises annual community service project
(Duke News, 13 September 2004)
Into the City veterans said the project is a good way to start the semester. Senior Mel Baars said she had volunteered all four years. "I remember cleaning up South Ellerbe Creek (in Old West Durham) and pulling out an air conditioning unit that had been dumped there," Baars said. "I went with a whole bunch of girls from my dorm and we laughed and laughed. It wasn't necessarily very glamorous, but it was one of my best memories as a freshman."
Letter: Durham inspectors can do better with
ADA
(Herald-Sun, 14 August 2004)
As a person who relies on a wheelchair, I have wondered why if Ben and Jerry's and Dogstar Tattoo, among other small businesses along the Ninth Street corridor, can have accessible restrooms, then how did The Streets of Southpoint get by without having public restrooms that are usable from a wheelchair?
Duke Police to add patrols on city streets:
Drunken revelry last August prompted Duke officials to act
(Herald-Sun, 13 August 2004)
Duke Police will begin their off-campus patrols Wednesday, three days before students' annual back-to-school parties in the rental houses around East Campus.
Last August, the drunken revelry so frustrated community residents that the Durham Police stepped up patrols and began citing students for noise-ordinance violations... This spring, Duke and the city signed a patrol agreement, giving campus officers the authority to patrol the entire city. Birkhead said their priority will be Ninth Street, Broad Street and the neighborhoods that border East Campus, including Old West Durham, Trinity Park, Trinity Heights and Walltown.
Alternative preschool closes in Durham
(Herald-Sun, 01 August 2004)
For Rent: Two-story Ninth Street house with pentagonal sandbox, hut made of climbing vines and two tree houses. For a decade, the house was home to scads of 3- to 5-year-olds who attended the Briar Rose Preschool. Waldorf schools emphasize teaching the whole child, promoting individualism and de-emphasizing academics in the early years.
Gay Weaver, an Old West Durham resident whose son Eli attended Briar Rose for two years, described the director as a "kind, loving presence" who would sing instructions to her students rather than merely telling them. "I just feel such a sense of loss that she is not in my neighborhood, helping to nurture other people's children," she said.
Speed humps sprout in Durham
(News & Observer, 29 July 2004)
The city is building speed humps at a rapid pace. They're a relatively inexpensive response to neighbors frustrated with speeders in their neighborhood... But some say they merely shift the traffic to nearby streets and start a sort of arms race with speed humps.
One neighborhood that debated but opted not to petition for speed humps was Old West Durham. Residents there didn't see them as a real solution to traffic problems... Durham has one traffic roundabout created by a private developer in a new West Durham development and two in Old West Durham.
Zoning hearing a smash
(News & Observer, 15 July 2004)
People living in older neighborhoods ringing downtown don't want to see duplexes and triplexes gobbling up their single-family homes, while others in rural Durham County desire the flexibility to carve up their family lots and retire... The draft ordinance, compiled over three years, assigns neighborhoods distinct characters. Denser development would be encouraged downtown, in older in-town neighborhoods such as Watts Hospital-Hillandale and Old West Durham, and near proposed transit hubs in Research Triangle Park. Much of South Durham would remain suburban, while parts of northern and eastern Durham County would retain their bucolic charm.
Durham and Goliath: Some neighbors fear Duke's
plan to develop its campus could encroach on local businesses
(The Chronicle of Higher Education, 18 June 2004)
Duke says it simply wants to serve its students better.
But some merchants suspect that the university is pursuing a strategy
to keep more student dollars on the campus while providing retail options
that would also appeal to local residents... The tension recalls
the
days when Duke's neighbors and others in the city saw the university
as an isolated, arrogant, and sometimes clumsy behemoth that had
little
outward regard for local folk.
Stifled debate unsettles council
(News & Observer, 9 June 2004)
Three City Council members said they regretted their
votes to continue negotiations with the developer of a planned downtown
theater [Clear Channel] without hearing from nearly 30 people who had
signed up to speak at a public meeting Monday... "He was saying
how important the public process is, and then he cuts off public
comment,"
said John Schelp, who attended the meeting and is president of the
Old West Durham Neighborhood Association. "It was actually pretty
amazing. I've never seen anything like it." [Facing mounting
public opposition, Clear Channel later dropped out.]
Town and gown discuss, disagree about retail,
dollars and Central
(Duke Chronicle, 21 July 2004)
The construction of Central Campus has not yet started, but already several of Duke's neighbors feel like the University is proceeding with steamrollers. Local businesses and neighbors are frustrated with their lack of information and input about the University's plans for developing Central. They are concerned that in its zeal to make Central Campus an appealing student destination, the University will overdevelop the retail offerings and overstep the bounds of its educational mission.
"We have to be concerned with our neighbors on Ninth Street because we all sink or swim together," said Walter Cleary, president of the high-performance sports store 9th Street Active Feet. "If they create a retail district, that doesn't generate a lot of goodwill."
Editorial: Zoning changes need explaining
(Herald-Sun, 16 July 2004)
It's high time for the Durham City-County Planning Commission to drop all the baloney and explain how its Unified Development Ordinance, a 600-page document that revises zoning across the county, will affect residents.
Speakers were concerned the UDO would allow new duplexes and triplexes in established urban neighborhoods that currently allow only single-family homes, including Trinity Park, Watts-Hospital-Hillandale and Old West Durham.
Group backs proposal
(Herald-Sun, 24 June 2004)
The InterNeighborhood Council of Durham voted Tuesday night to support a proposed university-college ordinance for Duke's Central Campus, which [adjoins] the Old West Durham neighborhood near Ninth Street.
INC members agreed that the following businesses should be allowed: three restaurants, an on-campus bookstore with a coffee shop, a performing arts center, a 99-room hotel, a Duke apparel store and a bowling alley. Duke is exempt under state law from paying taxes, and some worry that will give on-campus merchants an unfair advantage.
ADF caught in the middle: It dislikes star
role in arts center drive
(N&O, 6/20/04)
In its pitch to the public for a $42 million performing arts center, the city and its development team gave the American Dance Festival top billing, calling it a driving force behind the project... Meanwhile, a concentrated but boisterous opposition is emerging against the city's plans to have San Antonio-based Clear Channel Entertainment manage and book shows at the 4,000-seat venue.
"It's irresponsible for Clear Channel proponents to drag ADF into a controversy," said John Schelp, president of the Old West Durham Neighborhood Association.
Parking woes hurt 9th Street businesses: City
to consider ideas ranging from lights to a new parking deck
(Herald-Sun, 31 May 2004)
Last week the city met with about 35 Ninth Street merchants, employees, residents and property owners to discuss Ninth Street issues such as street lighting, parking enforcement and panhandling. But lack of parking for customers, employees and future businesses dominated the two-hour meeting.
Finding the solution seems to be a major challenge for merchants on the street that includes business such as the A-1 Stop Mail Shoppe, where customers run in and out, and Charlie's Pub & Grille, where people could linger for hours. Also, many Ninth Street patrons park, eat lunch, browse the shops and stay for dinner, merchants say.
President of Old West Durham John Schelp stressed that if a parking deck came to Ninth Street, the street side first level should be for businesses, so it would encourage foot traffic on the streets.
Ooh, aah
(Herald-Sun, spring 2004)
Broad Street's Untidy Museum has expanded next door with the Ooh La Latte Cafe. The space is decorated in "funky vintage" much like the Untidy Museum, with eight couches, easy chairs and barstools. Students from nearby Duke University, the NC School of Science & Math, and the Durham School of the Arts are frequent customers to the cafe.
"We're keeping it a neighborhood place," said the owner.
Freeway name change mix-up clear: Part of road
named for I.L. "Buck" Dean to remain unchanged
(Herald-Sun, 22 May 2004)
Jim Goodmon and his Capitol Broadcasting Co. solicited local and state government support for a resolution to change the freeway's name to the I.L. "Buck" Dean Innovation Highway, or just the Innovation Highway.
The Durham Freeway, also known as N.C. 147 or the East-West Expressway, memorializes the late Buck Dean, an influential highway commissioner who represented the local DOT district... who became an influential public official with only a sixth-grade education and years working in the old Erwin Mills [and lived in OWD].
Regicide or Abdication: The Passing of the
King
(Duke Chronicle, 19 April 2004)
Once upon a time, in the land of Durham, in the dominion called Ninth Street, there lived a King. He stood, or perhaps squatted, at the base of a hill, and rarely cast his eyes upward at the revolutions taking place above him... Biscuit King's fall came 28 years after Earl Mize started the restaurant in the white and blue, cement and brick structure on the corner of Ninth and Green.
The Old West Durham in which the family first operated was different from today's. The area had been a mill town, with the Erwin cotton mill the most powerful king, lording over the neighborhood from the hill west of Ninth Street. With the mill as the chief source of employment for nearly a century, the neighborhood was working class and the stores on Ninth Street reflected it: McDonald's drug store, White Star laundry, numerous small grocery stores and, of course, Biscuit King. In 1986, the mill closed and the neighborhood's economy collapsed.
National Board Certification for local teacher
(Herald-Sun, spring 2004)
Marilyn Bell Hawley earned National Board Certification for Teachers this academic year. NBCT is the highest standard teachers can achieve in their profession. Hawley teaches at EK Powe in Durham and is an adjunct professor at NCCU.
Tomorrow... and tonight, 'Annie' comes to Durham
School of the Arts
(Herald-Sun, 26 March 2004)
A charming girl changes a curmudgeon's life and brings hope and cheer to Depression-era America. Orphans and socialites and even FDR sing and dance away the blues [in play directed by OWD resident, Douglas Graves].
Web site wins recognition
(Herald-Sun, 14 November 2003)
The Old West Durham Neighborhood Association will be recognized for its Web site today at the NC Museum of History in Raleigh, sponsored by the History Channel and the American Association for State & Local History.
Station Nine breaks a mold
(News & Observer, 19 May 2004)
Station Nine's developers did not meet the kind of opposition that has characterized high-density proposals elsewhere in the Triangle because the developers worked with surrounding neighborhoods from the beginning, John Schelp, president of the Old West Durham group said. "Old West Durham is not your grandfather's neighborhood," Schelp said. "We did get a couple of strange looks when we supported dense residential development. But we had to think ahead. What was the alternative? This was a concept we could support."
Ninth Street: From mill village to seat of
privilege
(Herald-Sun, 7 May 2004)
Ninth Street, Durham's mill village turned shopping and dining district, could be facing yet another makeover when the busy retail area receives an influx of residents this summer and, later, a station on the Triangle's regional rail system.
Wood Partners "worked with the neighborhood from the beginning," he said, and the Old West Durham group in turn gave its blessing to the denser zoning category needed... He hopes the area can also preserve its green space, notably a city park planned for 4 acres near [South] Ellerbe Creek, where it flows between Hillsborough Road just opposite Station Nine and E.K. Powe Elementary School.
This Week
(Herald-Sun, 25 April 2004)
Old West Durham Neighborhood Association. Guest speaker will be Steve Chalmers, Durham Police Chief. Elections will be held and light refreshments will be provided. April 29, 7 p.m. Erwin Mill Building, 2024 West Main Street, www.owdna.org.
Letter: Duke's unfair advantage
(Herald-Sun, 21 April 2004)
Duke's neighbors have supported hospital and campus rezoning as well as a variety of creative, exciting projects for Duke. In return, the proposed Central Campus plans will establish serious, property-tax free competition to the business districts of Ninth Street, Brightleaf Square and Main Street. This unfair advantage for Duke, if allowed by City Council, would be even more outrageous than the contradictory statements and false promises Duke's neighbors have come to expect. No matter what university officials want us to believe, what's good for Duke is not always good for Durham.
Letter: Apathy benefits Duke
(Herald-Sun, 30 April 2004)
While enough of us aren't paying attention, Tallman Trask can rest assured that Duke's demands will be met. If choking off the alternative and spillover parking from the Ninth Street business district and setting its sights on a private retail "Shangri La" on Central Campus under the city's nose isn't impact by Duke, please tell me what is.
Letter: Duke's tax-exempt status affects all
of us in city
(Herald-Sun, 11 April 2004)
The city does have increasingly desperate needs. Especially if Duke is going to compete with local businesses above and beyond the scope of its educational mission, then it ought to pay its fair share like everyone else. But whether or not they should pay taxes, it's clear that the fact they don't pay any has a big effect on the tax bill of those of us who do. What would Durham's budget be like -- meaning, how low would taxes be, or how big a surplus would we have if the biggest landowner and employer in the county paid taxes like other companies?
Pizza Palace Closing
(NBC-17 News, 5 May 2004)
"A piece of Old West Durham is going away. Of course I'm sad the Pizza Palace is going."
Durham slowly selling its soul
(Herald-Sun, 30 April 2004)
Just in the last few weeks on Ninth Street alone, Biscuit King has lost out to yet another office building and the "Innovation Highway" (formerly known as the Durham Expressway) has doomed Sam's Quik Stop and its dear old Blue Light sign. For many years, the Blue Light Drive-In was a place respectable fathers forbade their teenage daughters to go, while their sons there made fond memories of hot cars, fistfights and exploding beer cans. It was a tradition... It's not just a boosters' litany that Dur'm has a quirky, funky, gritty quality all its own. You see it in the old factories and warehouses, and you feel it in hometown, homegrown (organic, if you will) places that are reflections of people... You can get a Starbucks latte in Durham, but you can't get a Pizza Palace pizza in Seattle. Trouble is, you won't be able to get one in Durham, either, much longer.
Letter: Goodbye, Mr. Mayor
(Herald-Sun, 13 April 2004)
Marshall-Greene-Jarrett-Merritt, beloved and popular resident of Old Durham, died at home April 8. A particular friend to children and senior citizens, Marshall was known as the "Mayor of Rosehill Avenue" and was dedicated to keeping order around his home street, Oakland Avenue... You may ask why, in light of his outstanding life, he isn't in the obituaries. He would be, except, unlike his chosen human family and friends, Marshall, God bless him, was a cat.
From cold steel comes warm art
(Herald-Sun, 2 April 2004)
As a sculptor, Karl Pfister creates warmth and beauty from cold, hard steel. "Significant Other," his work in Durham Central Park will be dedicated Saturday.
The Grace Garden is tucked away on a rugged strip of ground near the Durham Farmers' Market. The [Old West Durham] artist also created the sculpture on the grassy traffic island at the intersection of Ninth Street and Markham Avenue, a pair of stylistic steel swans with copper tails entitled "Seconds Before Flight."
Letter: No to Duke 'strip mall'
(Herald-Sun, 13 April 2004)
Durham's neighborhood associations and merchants have worked hard to accommodate Duke's needs and wishes. We support much of what Duke wants to do, vis-a-vis rezoning and redevelopment, new dorms, and many of the stores and buildings that have logical relationships to Duke's needs (performing arts, hotel, bookstore, and other college-related retail)... But we won't support a campus turned into a strip mall filled with property tax-exempt stores. What is Duke's mission? To educate students or to Wal-martize Central Campus?
Duke 'closing itself off'?
(Herald-Sun, 3 April 2004)
Many of the panelists who convened to talk about the security measures that Duke University instituted after four armed robberies on or near campus last fall criticized the university Friday for walling itself off from the community.
Duke's security measures have drawn the ire of folks like graduate student Simon Hay, who argued in an e-mail, signed by 60 other graduate students, undergraduates and professors, that Duke was closing itself off from the community in the name of security. "At Duke, language of security means control of resources, where Duke wants to keep students out of Durham and keep their money on Duke's campus," Hay said from the audience Friday.
Herald-Sun editorial: Duke needs to win back
neighborhood's trust
(4 April 2004)
The Old West Durham Neighborhood Association seems at the end of its patience with Duke University over development issues, and that's too bad for both parties. Old West Durham president John Schelp said last week Duke is more interested in what it wants to do than in fostering a true partnership with adjacent neighborhoods... Duke has raised justifiable ire within the Old West Durham group with its plans for rebuilding Central Campus, including more space for retail than Old West Durham says it agreed to. Schelp and others fear that too much tax-exempt retail in Central Campus would affect Ninth Street, Brightleaf Square and even Northgate Mall. These are legitimate concerns... Duke for its part needs to compromise with Old West Durham to the fullest extent possible, and win back the neighborhood's trust.
Duke Officials, Community Leaders Discuss Campus
Security
(Duke Dialogue, 9 April 2004)
Donna Lisker, director of Duke's Women's Center, stressed that trying to keep people off campus wouldn't prevent most of the sexual assaults on Duke students. The Women's Center receives about 40 reports of sexual assault each year, she said, and generally only one report involves an attack from a stranger. Although trying to prevent stranger rape is important, Lisker said, women students should not ignore the greater risk they actually face.
Prof. Lubiano said she understands what it's like to feel vulnerable: She is a rape survivor, her brother was killed in a liquor-store robbery and her sister-in-law worked in the part of the Pentagon attacked on September 11. Despite this, she said, she doesn't believe in trying to separate Duke from the community in the name of security.
Duke and Durham debate isolation
(Chronicle, 2 April 2004)
Duke's neighbors said the University was slowly pulling into its own bubble, isolating itself from the city it calls home. "It appears from the outside that Duke has very much a fortress mentality and that they don't want to be associated with Durham," said Elizabeth Dondero, president of the Burch Avenue Neighborhood Association.
"Duke is from all accounts trying to set up a retail cocoon for students and faculty and staff," said John Schelp, president of the Old West Durham Neighborhood Association... David Smith, president of the Trinity Park Neighborhood Association, said he has also heard concerns that Central Campus plans will allow Duke to become a community in itself, rather than remaining a part of the larger Durham community.
Mom spreads the good word about school
(Durham Public Schools news, March 2004)
Sarah Meyer is a teacher turned "Mom" who saw a need in her community and set about meeting that need. In return, parents of young children in the Watts-Hillandale-Old West Durham areas are learning more about one of the school choices open to them.
In visits to the park and at other outings, Meyer heard other mothers talking about schools and questioning if EK Powe was a good choice for their children. Meyer knew firsthand that Powe offers a wonderful option for families, and she wanted to find a way to show off her former workplace to local families.
If you build it, will they come?
(Duke Chronicle, 5 February 2004)
Lindsay Locke, (Trinity '02), has spent the last two years putting endless time and money into Durham's newest nightclub, The Sirens Lounge. The club -- at the corner of Markham Avenue and Broad Street, across from East Campus --opened to private guests last weekend and is now going public. Locke's decision to embark upon the project was forged from her frustration with Durham nightlife during her four years here. A former sorority president and social chair, she was tired of the limited Durham options. "[My sorority was] spending $2,000 or $3,000 a night just to bus people to Chapel Hill," she said.
National:
Duke Explains Plans for Central Campus Redevelopment in Durham,
N.C.
(Miami Herald, 11 March 2004)
Duke University administrators spelled out long-range plans for the redevelopment of Central Campus at a neighborhood meeting Wednesday, repeating one message over and over: Duke doesn't want to hurt businesses on Ninth Street or other commercial districts. But many of the merchants in Duke's formidable shadow were not convinced, after looking at 50-year plans for a hotel, auditorium, restaurants, offices, shops and new housing in the 200-acre wedge between East and West campuses.
"It doesn't benefit students to stay closeted in what I'm calling 'Dukieland," instead of Disneyland," said Skip Anderson, owner of the Zola Craft Gallery on Ninth Street. He thought the new Central Campus would further isolate Duke students and visitors from the rest of the town. "It's a mental wall created by Duke, by providing for every single student need on campus," he said.
City, county seeking to honor beauty and the
best
(Herald-Sun, 7 March 2004)
The Golden Leaf Awards recognize building projects and residents in Durham for their contributions to improving the character, environment or livability of the city or county... Ninth Street North [nominated by OWDNA] won last year's Golden Leaf for commercial properties.
Fall of the House of Biscuit King
(Independent Weekly, 4 March 2004)
Biscuit King, the only breakfast joint on Ninth Street where you were likely to encounter a moustache, first opened its doors in 1976 and shut them forever on the afternoon of February 27. Biscuit King was defined by its customers and decor as much as it was by its food. Patrons typically included firefighters, police officers, mechanics, hospital employees and university students and employees.
Calling you
(Herald-Sun, February 2004)
After months of renovation work, the Sirens Lounge has opened in the nifty space near Ninth Street at the southwest corner of Markham Avenue and Broad Street. The private club features a gas fireplace, cushy seats and a large red oak bar with a 6-foot, 155-gallon aquarium in the building dating back to 1910.
Students: area lacks metropolitan appeal
(Duke Chronicle, 24 February 2004)
Four years and $160,000 later, you've finally made it out of Duke, and it's time to see the world. So where will it be--Paris? London? L.A.? How about... Durham?
John Valentine, Trinity '71, and co-founder of The Regulator on Ninth Street says "good weather and good basketball" drew him to Duke originally, but, like Williams, the allure of Durham made him stay. "It's a wonderfully supportive community," Valentine said. "At that time in the early 1970s we were really just a bunch of hippies, we all just wanted to move to the country, start small businesses... you know, drop out for a while. Durham had a lot of cheap rent--there were a lot of co-op houses."
Durham
(Meridian magazine, March 1998)
To the west of Duke's campus, another Durham neighborhood provides a different shopping experience than the Brightleaf area's old warehouses. Ninth Street, which some residents have taken to calling the city's Greenwich Village, has attracted an array of small retailers in recent years, from do-it-yourself pottery to independent grocers. "It's a lot of quaint, old brick buildings," says the owner of Blue Corn Cafe. "There are lots of professors and students around... It's got more of a metropolitan feel."
Mayor
Bell calls for city ceasefire
(Duke Chronicle, 20 February 2004)
The need for average citizens to play a role in reducing crime is an idea embraced by John Schelp, president of the Old West Durham Neighborhood Association, which includes the area around Ninth Street. Schelp noted that members of his association work with police officers through the Partners Against Crime organization and take weekly walks through the neighborhood to report problems like broken windows. Schelp also said they have talked to the Duke University Police Department about increasing foot and bicycle patrols along Ninth and Broad streets when the DUPD begins patrolling areas off East Campus.
Both Schelp and Bell agreed that Duke can help with Durham's fight against crime.
Doodling
(Herald-Sun, 18 January 2004)
Looking for some hand-on art experience for your toddler? Artsy Doodle at 2600 Hillsborough Road is here for you. The new Durham business offers eight-week classes for youngsters where they get to use all kinds of nontoxic art supplies as part of their introduction to the art world. The colorful storefront, located across from Grey Stone Baptist, describes its service as "process art for toddlers."
History Bytes
(History News magazine, Winter 2004)
Congratulations to the following American Association for State and Local History award winners. These projects all included an online component: University of Chicago, National Park Service, Massachusetts Historical Society, US Forest Service, Old West Durham Neighborhood Association...
Letter: Community service commendable
(Duke Chronicle, 28 January 2004)
Thirty-five volunteers from Round Table Selective House are to be commended for cleaning up a creek near East Campus and a historic cemetery near the Medical Center... Working together, things are getting better in the Bull City. The Old West Durham Neighborhood Association is grateful to these Duke volunteers, and the many other student groups who've contacted us, for building bridges with the community around them.
Community
spirit taking root
(Herald-Sun, 8 December 2003)
They're growing more than just children at E.K. Powe Elementary School. Sprouting along with the youngsters are pecans, broccoli, cabbage, cherries, figs, apples, blackberries, raspberries and grapes, to name some of the future foodstuffs volunteers have planted in the school's new "edible garden." The Old West Durham Neighborhood Association plans to maintain the plot using strictly organic methods and says it will encourage local residents to use the garden as well.
Letter: Duke needs to keep its promises on
new retail
(Herald-Sun, 28 December 2003)
On-campus retail would have an impact on the business districts surrounding Duke. Vacant storefronts along West Chapel Hill Street in the West End, Brightleaf Square, downtown and Ninth Street would harm the very neighborhoods Duke is trying to help. Also, existing small businesses would be at a disadvantage because Duke's on-campus retail shops wouldn't have to pay property taxes. Finally, creating an on-campus retail cocoon would further isolate Duke students from Durham... So Duke faces a decision. Will it violate its agreement with the partnership neighborhoods? Will it exceed its academic mission and pursue on-campus retail that would harm small businesses in Durham? The ball is in Duke's court.
Celebrating a New Sculpture
(Durham Central Park newsletter, 21 December 2003)
We are thrilled to announce that a new sculpture has been added to the park. This new piece, entitled Significant Other, was created by local sculptor Karl Pfister. It stands on the hill above the Grace Garden, in a choice spot underneath two stately white oaks. The gracefully curving lines of the sculpture will fit in well with the other curving lines used as design elements in the park. [OWDNA board member] Karl Pfister works at Vega Metals on Hunt Street near the park and has already placed other pieces of sculpture in the Durham area. One of his works is located across from Elmo's Diner on Ninth Street.
Column: Sharpton's run reminiscent of Jesse
Jackson
(Herald-Sun, 5 January 2004)
We had some free time before the prayer vigil on Colfax. Al Sharpton wanted some soup, so I took him to The Madhatter's on Broad Street. Sharpton ordered bean soup. I ordered a mocha latte, my usual drink. We talked some more about the next steps for the campaign... I looked at the little giant sitting next to me. I considered his passion and humility. Sitting next to me was history in the making. A black man from the ghetto, raised by his mother, and running for president.
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