| Neighborhood concerns that OWNDA is looking into. |
As part of your neighborhood association's efforts to improve the quality
of life in Old West Durham, we have identified speeding cars on Oakland
Avenue and Knox Street as one of our neighborhood's biggest traffic
problems. As the only straight shot through the heart of Old West Durham,
Oakland is the preferred route for cut-through traffic. Commuters, late-night
weekend drivers and others are speeding through the neighborhood on
Oakland -- some hitting their brakes at the top of the hill to slow
down for the stop sign at Englewood Avenue.
We are working with the City of Durham to improve the situation. At
our request, the City recently conducted traffic counts on Oakland confirming
that 86% of vehicles traveling on the 25 mph street travel an average
speed of 31 mph or faster. And, that more than 700 vehicles use Oakland
on a given day.
With the experience of other Durham neighborhoods in mind, the board
of the Old West Durham Neighborhood Association is opposed to the use
of speed humps. Other towns have used traffic circles to slow down cut-through
traffic. A traffic circle also allows motorists to see that they are
traveling in a neighborhood with children and pedestrians -- and that
we are not just an easy short cut for getting from point A to point
B faster (according to the City, the traffic circle would have low-lying
shrubs and be big enough to slow down traffic without displacing the
existing curbs at the intersection).
We've met the "preliminary criteria" and now need to get signatures
on a petition for the City of Durham. We have four teams collecting
the signatures of homeowners living one block in each direction of the
Oakland/Knox intersection. The response has been great.
In our efforts to build a stronger community, your neighborhood association
recently got 75 new street lights for Old West Durham, put up a new
neighborhood sign at Ninth and Hillsborough, developed a website, received
an Indy Citizen's Award and a proclamation from Mayor Nick Tennyson,
and have built bridges with Ninth Street Merchants, Duke University,
Partners Against Crime, Durham Police and others. We are also working
on establishing a neighborhood park and are getting ready for the eventual
development of Erwin Square.
Successful Green Street Cleanup on March
13
The Green Street "green space" between 9th and Virgie was spruced up
by 14 OWD neighbors. They came and filled 4 pickup trucks worth of debris.
The refuse was hauled away by the city's Impact Team, which also provided
the pickers, bags and yard tools to help with the clean up. District
2 city-wide clean up is on March 27 and you can take any large items,
paint cans and the like to Durham County Stadium.
Potential Health Hazard on Green St.
at Site of Former Mill Nestled in the woods between EK Powe Elementary school and Hillsborough
Road is a large "dye pond" surrounded by a screened fence.
The dye pond is left over from the Erwin textile mill -- when run-off
from the mill operations used to flow away from the mill (apparently,
in the past, the neighborhood often smelled like a big laundry mat from
the warm water that flowed out of the mills).
We don't know if the dye pond presents a health hazard. Its placement
next to an elementary school and near many homes should be a concern.
Potential health risks associated with the dye pond include possible
chemical residues in the water or leaching into the surrounding soil
and creek bed. If nothing else (non-toxic dyes do exist), it seems to
be a huge breeding place for mosquitoes.
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