My Opa, a Vietnam War veteran who celebrated his 84th birthday this year, shared a similar sentiment years ago when I interviewed him for a video project about Durham.

“Progress is that a city will change,” he told me.

I have spent all [redacted] years of my life in the Bull City. I was born here, went to college here, and have worked for countless businesses here—even helped shepherd one or two.

So I say with the utmost confidence: Durham is constantly changing, in ways too profound to ignore and often too subtle to comprehend. Whether we like it, or believe in it, progress is here to stay.

Credit: Photo by Angelica Edwards

So how do we make sense of the change around us? Four years ago, I decided to start small: Keeping up with what’s going on with city government. For a year before joining the INDY staff, I wrote a newsletter, By The Horns, focused narrowly on the happenings inside City Hall and council deliberations over the choices that shape the city’s present and future.

The desire that drove me to slog through five-hour-long meetings alongside fellow residents and the people contractually obligated to be there has only grown since. 

Originally, By The Horns was a project born out of deep curiosity. What made this place, the only home I’ve ever known, tick? I wanted to learn how the various systems worked, who the characters are, and what impact city council had on the way Durham continues to evolve. The quest to write BTH every two weeks sent me tumbling down the rabbit hole. I spent dozens of hours listening to soliloquies from city officials and diatribes from my fellow Durhamites. I learned how to follow agendas, about “tomato soup” in Durham’s waterways, and what it means to make development projects “pencil.”

If these phrases seem foreign, don’t fret. Local government has its own language—one I have worked to translate, both with that newsletter and my time reporting here at INDY. 

That’s why By The Horns is coming back as a recurring column under INDY’s banner. This version will expand beyond the walls of City Hall and take a broader look at government, politics, culture, and civic engagement in the Bull City, exploring problems facing Durham and searching for potential solutions. 

Together, we will try to understand the mechanics of local government, dispel myths and misnomers, elaborate on complex ideas, and dive deeper into recent stories published at the INDY. We will dig into rezoning cases in Durham, the impact development has on the community, the merits of ideas like consolidating our city and county governments, and why that one storefront at the bottom of One City Center has been empty for eight years.

Like Durham, the column will undoubtedly evolve over time. I want By the Horns readers to feel empowered by what they learn from the column and encouraged to engage with it. What do you want to know about Durham government and politics? Send me your questions, ideas, and feedback to continue the conversation. 

You can also catch me (and my INDY and Assembly Network colleagues) on September 30 at the latest event in our Newsmakers series, where I’ll be part of a panel discussion on the community college-to-career pipeline.

Comment on this story at [email protected].

Justin Laidlaw is a reporter for the INDY, covering Durham. A Bull City native, he joined the staff in 2023 and previously wrote By The Horns, a blog about city council.