Seven hours before Durham City Council received a sobering six-month crime report from the police department Monday, a man was shot and seriously injured in front of a Church’s Chicken on Fayetteville Street. That was one of 587 aggravated assaults reported in the first six months of the year, which has driven up Durham’s violent […]
Lisa Sorg
Bio: Lisa Sorg is the editor of INDY Week.Email: [email protected]: http://twitter.com/lisasorg
Posted inGuides
Recycling and reusing the dirty and obsolete
Old carpet and rugs: In the mood to waste some money? Buy a kitty condo, which is merely carpet-covered wood that will set you back $100 so that your cat can claw the feline version of the Taj Mahal. Here’s a clue: Cats don’t care. They like paper sacks and cardboard boxes just as well. […]
Posted inNews
Violent crime up 30 percent in Durham over this time last year
Violent crime in Durham rose 30 percent during the first six months of the year, compared with the same time period in 2013. Up 50 percent, aggravated assaults are the primary driver of that increase, according to Durham Police Deputy Chief of Operations Larry Smith. He presented a six-month crime summary to City Council on […]
Posted inUncategorized
The Hayti mural and the Durham divide
The cab driver’s face is flaking. The young girl’s dress is torn. The woman’s shirt, covered in rose petals, is full of holes, as if chewed on by moths. The Hayti mural, painted in 1999 on a concrete block wall at the Heritage Square Shopping Center in Durham, resembles a back that has been badly […]
Posted inNews
In Chatham County, a pine coffin business teaches us about life
“When I set out to make a coffin, I try to donate one breath to the intention of making something that’s worthy of a life.” Don Byrne Don Byrne, his wife, Nicole, and two young children live on a rural Chatham County farmstead without indoor plumbing or electricity. There, in an outdoor workshop, at Piedmont […]
Posted inFood & Drink
You really can eat well, and it’s quick too
In college, I subsisted on granola bars, whole-milk lattes, pizza, beer and whatever food-like products had been dumped in the trough of the happy-hour buffet. For my laziness, I gained 20 pounds, contracted mono and other communicable diseases, and felt like hell for four years. And, for some reason, I didn’t know why. (Perhaps because […]
Posted inNews
Amtrak hits, kills man near downtown Durham
Amtrak train No. 1859, carrying the Pamlico Sound and Longleaf Pine cars, was headed west when it struck a man near Dillard and Pettigrew streets in Durham, killing him this afternoon. Around 12:30, bystanders at the nearby Venable building told the INDY that it looked like the train had hit a trash bag, and that […]
Posted inNews
Durham City Council’s long afternoon: parsing the report on the police department
Mayor Bill Bell’s directives for the Durham Police Department could be distilled into three main points: Don’t bust small-time pot smokers. Get written consent for vehicle searches. Walk, not just drive, the neighborhoods you patrol. This afternoon, Bell and his fellow City Council members are expected to parse the city manager’s 131-page report, which is […]
Posted inUncategorized
Club Boulevard decision delayed
After two hours of passionate testimony and intense deliberation, willow oak trees stood between the Historic Preservation Commission and a final vote about Club Boulevard. The HPC spent Tuesday morning debating whether the proposed traffic-calming devices on the Durham Speedway, aka Club Boulevard, would meet design criteria for the historic Watts-Hillandale neighborhood. That criteria includes […]
Posted inNews
Size small: Tiny development proposed for area off Alley 26 in Durham
Pity the mail carrier that tries to find 120 W. Parrish St. The former furniture warehouse—or what’s left of it—is wedged behind the former 118 Got Soul restaurant, the Mechanics & Farmers bank building and the Jack Tar moteloff Alley 26. Now that vacant space could be redeveloped into a two-story office and courtyard. The […]
