Full name: Mark-Anthony Middleton
Party affiliation: Democrat
Campaign website: Middleton4Durham.com
1) In 300 words or less, please give our readers your elevator pitch: Why are you running? Why should voters entrust you with this position? What prior experience will make you an effective member of the Durham City Council?
I’m not running simply on experience, I’m running on a record of documented progressive policy victories. Guaranteed Income, historic investment in Hayti, increased bonus and incentive pay for bi-lingual city workers, fare free buses, and a full throated official statement on White Supremacy, Islamophobia, and Anti-Semitism are all now part of Durham’s policy landscape and have my name directly attached to them. Voters should trust a proven record of collegial and rigorous engagement with my elected colleagues to turn our progressive values from abstractions into actual policies.
2) What would your priorities be as a member of the city council? Please identify three of the most pressing issues Durham currently faces and how you believe the city should address them.
1. Durham’s progressive cultural vitality, educated populace, food and entertainment options, and overall mystique have given us a “high class” problem – a lot of folk want to live here. Contrary to popular belief, the council does NOT approve “development”, the council approves or rejects rezonings. Development can and will occur without council approval. Using our zoning power to help bolster and diversify our housing stock while pushing for LEED building practices, maximum environmental protections, developer funded infrastructure and road improvements, and other amenities has been and will remain a priority for me. I will also continue my advocacy and support for the use of city owned land for affordable housing initiatives.
2. I was introduced to Durham’s public square years ago as an advocate working on police reform and affordable housing issues while part of the leadership apparatus of Durham Congregations, Associations, and Neighborhoods (CAN). I also began incessantly trying to focus our city’s attention on gun violence with particular emphasis on impacts to our youth. I advocated for a multi-faceted and comprehensive approach including things such as experimentation with gun shot detection technology; I proposed and secured the votes for a city funded expansion of the Bull City United violence interruption model; and I proposed and secured the votes for a Guaranteed Income pilot which is now housed as part of our city’s anti-recidivism efforts. If re-elected I will seek significant funding to expand the footprint of our after school and late night offerings in city owned recreation centers, and historic investments in youth job programming similar to what is being celebrated in the city of Baltimore.
3. Tropical Storm Chantal was yet another vivid reminder of how weather is becoming more violent and unpredictable due to climate change. Even state of the art flood mitigation and design can be overwhelmed when facing the type of weather we are more frequently seeing. I will prioritize our city’s adherence to our plan to drastically reduce our carbon footprint by 2050 at the macro level; and at the micro level I will push for the incorporation of the most rigorous storm mitigation standards legally allowed us in our Unified Development Ordinance. I will also under the rubric of our racial equity lens explore the reprioritization in our Capital Improvement Plan (CIP) of neighborhoods that have been historically more prone to flooding during inclement weather.
3) What’s the best or most important thing the Durham City Council has done in the past year? Additionally, name a decision you believe the city should have handled differently. Please explain your answers.
I am very proud and supportive of the symbolic power of resolutions and I’ve sponsored my share of them. However, I believe the codification of Durham’s Guaranteed Income Initiative in our last budget will be remembered as a high moment for our city. It was in a very literal sense putting our money where our municipal mouth is. Durham led North Carolina in illustrating the proposition that it is good social and economic policy not to let neighbors fall below a certain financial threshold simply by virtue of their humanity.
When the Durham Police Department, after almost a year of practical real world experience with gunshot detection technology, asked the council via the city manager for a 3 month extension on the ShotSpotter contract while waiting for the deliverance of the Duke Report it should have been granted. Without even quarreling about the ultimate decision on the pilot, the message sent to the police department was that their determination of the empirically based efficacy of a tool in carrying out their mission was nullified by ideological and political sensitivities rather than data.
4) President Trump is working to ramp up deportations and curtail visas. At the same time, the state legislature has passed laws requiring cooperation with ICE. What do you think Durham officials can or should do to ensure safe, welcoming communities for immigrants in light of these policies?
As I write this response my image, name, and words are being circulated to literally millions of people around this country because of my support for our recently passed 4th Amendment Workplace Resolution. The level of hate and vitriol that I, along with my council colleagues, am experiencing for a resolution makes it unimaginable to me what our immigrant brothers and sisters must be experiencing. The guidance to our municipal staff via this resolution was a powerful step not in defying federal authority, but in ensuring that the constitution that I swore to uphold as an elected official is honored and that employment is not a nightmarish proposition to our immigrant neighbors. With respect to being a welcoming community, I am extremely proud to be the council member that proposed and led the effort to increase the bonus and incentive pay for bi-lingual city employees across our organizational chart. During my days as a leader with Durham Congregations, Associations, and Neighborhoods (CAN) I lobbied state legislators for provisional driver licenses for immigrant workers strangely enough in partnership with rural NC farmers so their crops could be delivered to markets, urged Durham Public Schools to hire more bi-lingual counselors, and worked to have Faith IDs accepted as legitimate forms of identification for undocumented workers.
5) Federal funding cuts this year have hit the Triangle particularly hard, from canceled grants to layoffs, and local government officials are having to make difficult decisions about what to fund and how. What are your ideas for how the city can prioritize competing funding needs, close funding gaps, and balance the financial burden on residents?
I believe the next budget cycle, which will start shortly after this upcoming municipal election, will require a comprehensive scrubbing of every line item and initiative to determine its sustainability in light of not only federal funding cuts, but also general economic conditions impacted by things such as tariffs. This may require the temporary suspension of some spending or the total elimination of certain initiatives. Our city’s Strategic Plan will be a crucial touchstone in guiding those deliberations.
6) As climate change leads to more intense rainfall, communities are at greater risk of inland flooding, such as the historic floods in parts of the Triangle caused by Tropical Storm Chantal in July. How would you like Durham to address climate resilience, particularly flooding?
Durham’s plan to mitigate and eventually eliminate our carbon footprint through LEED buildings, fleet electrification, and storm water infrastructure modernization must be prioritized and fast tracked. Our Capital Improvement Plan (CIP) should be reworked using our city’s racial equity lens to reprioritize major storm related infrastructure projects (e.g. piping and draining) in historically neglected and disinvested neighborhoods which disproportionately suffer the most during inclement weather events.
7) Describe what sustainable growth and development mean to you. Additionally, what is another municipality you believe has made smart decisions related to growth and development that could be similarly implemented in Durham?
I once asked an audience at a candidates forum during an exchange highly critical of the city’s (i.e. me and some of my colleagues’) handling of growth what city do you think is doing it right? Who should our conversation partners be? There were crickets and blank stares. Let me be clear this wasn’t a mic drop moment or a gotcha scenario. It was a legitimate question that I also struggle with. Part of the struggle is when you add the qualifier “that could be similarly implemented in Durham” in the question. North Carolina is a Dillon’s Rule state as opposed to a Home Rule state. Therefore, my admiration of New York City’s ability to exercise rent control over older buildings; or Minneapolis’ practice of inclusionary zoning is muted when you say “that could be similarly implemented in Durham”. Moreover, sustainable growth and development is only an issue for a city that’s actually growing. Durham is not growing because the city council is luring people here via our rezoning decisions. Growth is an organic process fueled by cultural vitality, economic and employment opportunities, educational offerings, safety, recreation and entertainment, and “vibe”. “Sustainable” must and should be paired with “well managed” and not to be confused with the impractical and illegal option of a moratorium. Additionally, it must be understood that the city council does not approve “development” per se. It is within the council’s purview to approve or reject rezonings. Development can and will occur with or without council intervention. The council’s on-ramps to contouring development are found in the content of our Unified Development Ordinance (UDO), and in the opportunities to secure proffers provided during the consideration of rezoning cases. For me sustainable growth and development means exploiting every legally permissible mandate in our UDO in every relevant area that impacts our built environment and then telling the truth about them. I believe our city’s public discourse has suffered from the insistence by some that things would be so much better if we just had the courage to exercise powers we don’t actually have. In addition to an exhaustive UDO I also believe in milking every concession I can out of developers in areas ranging from affordable housing to roadway improvements without crossing the line of quid pro quo. I invite all readers of this questionnaire to engage in a thought experiment in which you’re a member of the Durham City Council and are considering a rezoning case – ask yourself the question is what is being proposed better than what could go here by right particularly in light of what you think your city should look like. If the answer is no then how does what will go there reconcile with YOUR view of sustainable growth and development? Should you take the chance that a better project will come along by voting no? Is compliance with the UDO’s minimum standards the fault of the developer not being sufficiently magnanimous or should you have codified what you actually wanted? Times this by 6 other people. Welcome to the Durham City Council.
8) Downtown Durham continues to see growth, with large commercial developments and hundreds of new housing units, yet businesses say they’re still suffering. How would you reinvigorate this major business district?
There are rarely cases that come before the council involving downtown rezonings. This is because the place type map already allows for the type of development one would expect in the downtown area of a major American city by right. The ascendancy of the Zoom platform, food delivery services, telework, and downsizing during the Covid pandemic greatly impacted daytime foot traffic downtown and consequently the customer base of many of our downtown businesses. Many major employers are still grappling with compelling their employees to return to the office or accommodating the work/life balance preferences of modern workers. There are some businesses that managed to thrive after the pandemic and there are those that are still struggling. I would seek to reinvigorate downtown through bolstering the city’s partnership and support of entities like Downtown Durham Inc. (DDI) whose board of directors I sat on as the council liaison for several years. DDI’s cultural programming and beautification projects can help make downtown more appealing and boost foot traffic. I supported the creation of the downtown social district which merchants have anecdotally reported as being helpful to their businesses. I would also consider the addition of more amenities downtown such as enhanced seating areas, public art, and flexible parking options. I look forward to the day when a downtown business with a cult following and lines out the door credit their success to the actions of the Durham city council.
9) The City of Durham is realigning its homelessness services. What can or should the city be doing to support this growing population, especially in light of recent changes to state law governing encampments and financial pressures on service providers?
One of my first committee assignments from former Mayor Steve Schewel as a new council member was to serve as the liaison to the Homeless Services Advisory Committee (HSAC). I immersed myself in learning and crafting our city’s Continuum of Care (COC) for our growing homeless population. One of the most impactful tenets to come out of that work was the establishment of a “front door” that would facilitate the navigation of all of the services that one experiencing homelessness would require. Imagine being unsheltered and seeking medical attention from our health department only to find out that you first need Medicaid certification or a form of identification from a totally different entity in a different part of the city. You don’t have a car but thankfully the buses in our city are fare free but your commute time will have you returning after business hours and now you have to wait another day. The front door approach offers a “one stop” solution to coordinate all services that may be needed increasing efficiency and lowering stress for someone already in the most stressful situation imaginable. With respect to encampments and dwindling funding I believe it is time for city leadership to have a conversation about using some of our tax base derived dedicated housing funds possibly in conjunction with our debt floating capacity to super charge our rapid rehousing and emergency shelter capabilities.
10) According to the Triangle Community Foundation, there’s a mismatch between the price point of housing units available in Durham and what Durham renters can afford, amounting to a nearly 25,000-unit deficit for low-income renters. What can the city do to ensure Durham housing is affordable for current and future residents
According to Triangle Apartments.Com rents in Durham are trending downward. Speculation is that a post-pandemic construction boom and vacancy rates are forcing landlords to compete to fill units. Two things can be true at once – rents are dropping and rents are still too darn high. With respect to low-income renters one of the most important things the city can continue to do is to donate city owned property to be used for affordable housing initiatives that can incorporate units that service Area Median Income (AMI) levels as low as 30%. A sterling example of this is Willard Street Apartments which I advocated for as an unelected activist and then had the opportunity to vote for as a sitting councilmember. I will always support the city’s maintenance of our dedicated housing fund sourced by 3 pennies in our tax rate enabling us to service affordable housing related debt and to subsidize future initiatives. It has been fascinating to watch the things I learned in 100 level economic courses being dismissed by some in our public square when it comes to the relationship between supply and pricing but admittedly I was not the brightest in my class and am open to learning how best to lower rental prices. It should be said that outside of putting up our own land and money there are few levers a local municipal government can legally pull to “ensure Durham housing is affordable for current and future residents” but I have watched committed leaders past and present lean into finding ways to do just that. That will always be top of mind for me for as long as I hold my seat.
11) For some residents, gun violence remains a persistent issue even though shootings and other violent crimes are currently down from last year. How would you rate the progress the city has made and what are your ideas for improving public safety?
Crime overall in our city is down 26%. That is a fact. It is also a fact that it means absolutely nothing to a family who has an empty seat at their table or a loved one fighting for their life or permanently disabled because of a bullet. Respectfully, there is perhaps no other non law enforcement public official that has dedicated more of their platform and time focusing on the issue of gun violence in our city over the last 8 years than me. From ShotSpotter, to the expansion of Bull City United, to the deployment of unarmed mental health responders, to Guaranteed Income, to salary increases for emergency personnel, to working with the mayor on the establishment of the Bull City Future Fund, to calling for copying everything going on in Baltimore I have long advocated for a comprehensive multi-faceted approach to addressing our city’s gun violence issue. The city has made some progress but there is so much more work to be done. Many in our community have called for the use of our city owned recreation facilities and Durham Public School buildings for youth and family programming way beyond normal hours of operation. I am committed to pursuing the funding of these types of initiatives with the same vigor I pursued funding for the Hayti corridor.
12) If there are other issues you want to discuss, please do so here.
Whenever it’s an election season there is always a competition to frame what is at stake. Not long ago a prominent person in our city opined that “the balance of power” on the city council was at stake in this election. I found this to be a divisive and cynical characterization. As a student of politics I’m aware that the phrase “balance of power” is reserved for a partisan context. How many members of the GOP are currently serving on our city council? Every single member of the Durham City Council is a dedicated and genuine progressive leader wanting the same things for our city. This election is about a balance of ideas not power. The balance of power framing rests solely on one issue – development. This first requires that you bracket out the instances of unanimous agreement on rezoning cases and the numerous times when decisions mirror Planning Commission recommendations. But these truths are inconvenient when a political contest is afoot. I would like to suggest to Durham voters that the ability to frame an election in light of ONE ISSUE is a function of privilege and/or myopia. The constituents I serve can’t afford to vote solely on development (as important as it is) when gunfire is heard in their communities every night, ICE raids are looming, DEI is under attack, minority businesses lack capital, and Trans people are being erased.
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