A turf dispute with the North Carolina Railroad Company has forced Triangle Transit to reconfigure part of its proposed light-rail route in Durham, including the segment downtown. The changes would affect about three miles of the route, from east of Duke Hospital on Erwin Road through downtown and on to Alston Avenue. Triangle Transit presented […]
Lisa Sorg
Bio: Lisa Sorg is the editor of INDY Week.Email: [email protected]: http://twitter.com/lisasorg
Posted inNews
The Great Wall of Durham: Triangle Transit to address concerns about downtown light-rail design
Compared to the Great Wall of China, which is more than 13,000 miles long, the Great Wall of Durham, at less than a half-mile, would be miniscule. But not to downtown businesses, residents, urban planners and designers who have been lobbying for Durham to become a walkable, public transit-oriented, urban city. We’re starting that process: […]
Posted inHousing, Soapboxer
New condos to flank Durham Farmers’ Market
If you’re a mapping, planning, urban policy geek—or if you care about the future of Durham—you need to bookmark two sites: the city planning department’s development tracker and Durham Neighborhood Compass. The tracker shows what’s being proposed where throughout Durham, which, considering Wednesday’s lengthy affordable housing discussion at City Hall, is important to follow. The […]
Posted inSoapboxer
Let us praise dangerous playground equipment
At the risk of sounding like a drill sergeant or a very, very old person, playground equipment of yore was better. It served as a butt-blistering, splinter-stabbing, tooth-loosening rite of passage that introduced us kids to the realities of life. If we did not bleed from a fall from the monkey bars, then we were […]
Posted inNews
University Marketplace: Where art thou?
Like most large developments, University Marketplace had a grand vision: 300 apartments and 110,000-plus square feet of retail space, including a gourmet grocer, Poppies, in southwest Durham, near SuperTarget and Sam’s Club. That was in 2008, shortly before the Great Recession tanked the credit markets. And since then, University Marketplace off Shannon Road between U.S. […]
Posted inNews
University Marketplace: Where art thou?
Like most large developments, University Marketplace had a grand vision: 300 apartments and 110,000-plus square feet of retail space, including a gourmet grocer, Poppies, in southwest Durham, near SuperTarget and Sam’s Club. That was in 2008, shortly before the Great Recession tanked the credit markets. And since then, University Marketplace off Shannon Road between U.S. […]
Posted inNews
How to work at DENR
While you were out of the news loop over the holidays, on Dec. 23, Gov. Pat McCrory named his new appointee to one of the state’s most important agencies. Donald van der Vaart is the new secretary of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources, replacing John “oil is renewable energy” Skvarla, who’s been whisked […]
Posted inNews
City, county to launch affordable housing plan
Durham could take a major step in preserving and creating affordable housing next week. That’s when officials unveil their initial ideas on incentives for affordable development near proposed light-rail stations. This is important not only for Durham residents who live car-free by choice or necessity, but also for the city to qualify for federal grants […]
Posted inNews
The game of life in 2014
Life in 2014 was ridiculous. If you’re not up on current eventsthe follies of state government, the despicable run of wrongful convictions and racial profiling incidents, tension between police and protesters, the widening chasm between the wealthy and the middle-class and poor, the corruption of college sportsproof of these absurd times is embodied in a […]
Posted inNews
Remembering Durham’s homeless who died this year
Tunisia Martin had big, brown eyes. Scott Rhoton loved art. Timothy Alred was a fisherman who had planned to just pass through town. He stayed nearly five years. Coriyanna Hayes was not yet three months old. These are four of the 18 people, homeless or who had recently moved into permanent supportive housing, who died […]