This year, we published more than 500 stories written by INDY staff, not to mention the work of the INDY’s freelance contributors. We wrote about salvaging Duke students’ discarded treasures, attempting to take the train between Raleigh and Durham, and everything in between.
But beyond our biggest hits, looking back through this year’s stories, some broader themes emerged. Some were perennial: continued challenges of growth and affordability, elections that shook up local leadership. Others were distinctively 2025: devastating federal funding cuts, looming threats of deportations.
As the year draws to a close, here are the stories that defined 2025 in the Triangle. And if these stories stood out to you, too, we’ve also included some local nonprofits working on related causes that you can support.
Strife at Saint Augustine’s
Toward the end of 2024, it was clear that Raleigh HBCU Saint Augustine’s University (SAU) was in trouble. Its accreditation was threatened, it held tens of millions of dollars in debt, and it had to slash its workforce by half in order to shore up its finances. Last December, reporter Chloe Courtney Bohl was first to cover a Hail Mary-type land lease deal that the HBCU negotiated with a Florida-based real estate investment firm that would have resulted in a $70 million cash infusion. Local stakeholders regarded the deal with suspicion, and in January, Chloe reported that SAU rejected an offer from a credit union for a low-interest loan that was contingent on the resignations of two SAU board of trustees members, including its chair, Brian Boulware. As SAU’s accreditation hearing loomed, the INDY and The Assembly published a detailed investigation into the state of the university’s finances and management by the board of trustees. Saint Augustine’s lost its accreditation appeal in March for the second time in two years and pursued an arbitration process in an attempt to remain accredited. But in July, after the university graduated a class of just 25 students, SAU’s accrediting agency, the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges, pulled the university’s accreditation for good. Saint Augustine’s leaders immediately appealed to alumni to raise money for litigation, and in August, SAU held on to its accreditation again with a court injunction. Boulware stepped down from the board of trustees’ chairmanship, though he remains a trustee, and SAU President Marcus Burgess resigned as well after two years in the role. Under the leadership of the board’s new chair, Sophie Gibson, and new president, Verjanis A. Peoples—SAU’s eighth president in a decade—Saint Augustine’s signaled its interest in joining the Trump administration’s higher education Compact for Academic Excellence, the first and only HBCU in the country to do so. Benefits of joining the compact include preferential funding for universities that participate. SAU held online-only classes this fall.
Deep Cuts
North Carolina’s 4th Congressional District, which includes Durham and Orange Counties as well as portions of Chatham and Wake, was the district hardest hit by cuts to federal funding in the country, losing more than 180 federal grants totaling in the millions within the first few months of this year.
The slashed grants mostly came from USAID, NASA, the EPA, and the National Institutes of Health—hitting Research Triangle Park and local universities especially hard. Research institute RTI International reportedly was forced to lay off a third of its workforce. FHI 360, a global health nonprofit, laid off more than a quarter of its workers. Duke University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill announced they would cut millions from their budgets, including by eliminating positions. All told, hundreds of Triangle residents have lost their jobs, education programs and critical research have been jeopardized, and life-saving programs abroad were cut off.
At the INDY, we looked at this major economic news via our neighbors: A kindergarten teacher at a low-performing school in Wake County who lost tuition assistance after the Department of Education canceled grants it said promoted critical race theory and DEI. A Durham resident who had been tracking outbreaks of diseases like anthrax and avian flu before she was furloughed as part of the gutting of USAID. A Navy veteran who coordinated a PTSD treatment study at the Durham VA but couldn’t keep her job amid a hiring freeze.
For many locals, federal funding cuts were among the topics that motivated them to hit the streets in protest of the Trump administration. This year, the INDY spotlighted the ways residents pushed back, big and small, from the Hands Off and No Kings protests that drew thousands to a lone protester on a South Durham street corner sounding the alarm over rising fascism, a 73-year-old who walked 300 miles to D.C. to personally deliver dozens of Triangle residents’ concerns to lawmakers, and a gaggle of Raging Grannies protesting through song.
Wheels of Fortune
In a year when it often felt impossible to escape the bad news emanating from our devices and screens, the Triangle’s kids (and kids at heart) found a better way to spend their time: on wheels, in recreational third spaces. In March, Lena Geller wrote about the reopening of Wheels Fun Park, the roller-skating rink-slash-Durham institution that Lena likened to a blast from the past: “It’s disorienting in the best way possible,” she wrote of opening night at the newly restored skating rink, “like somebody took my childhood memories, ran them through the wash, and handed them back to me pristine.” The next month, we published a feature about a group of Raleigh skateboarders on a mission to find a new space to build and skate after their beloved DIY skate park, Graveside DIY, was bulldozed to make way for townhomes. The skaters are in talks with city officials and it seems like their vision for a new DIY skate park partnership could soon become a reality. In other DIY skate park news, Justin Laidlaw reported in August on Durham’s emerging Lakewood DIY skate park, which uses repurposed equipment from Wheels and will feature the Bull City’s first public miniramp. And over in Apex, we reported on the efforts of a group of kids from the Charleston Village neighborhood to get the town to sign off on a bike trail that would feature jumps and other obstacles after their own DIY bike jumps were torn down. “Imagine future kids discovering this spot, building their own friendships, learning teamwork, and finding the same joy and sense of belonging that we have,” one of the kids said of their vision at an August town council meeting. In the Triangle, where pressure to commercialize any vacant property seems ever-present these days, there’s always the possibility that recreational third spaces could disappear. Triangle residents experienced this with the mountain bike trails at Lake Crabtree County Park, despite their best efforts to get county leaders and the RDU Airport Authority to leave the trails undisturbed. This spring, the trails closed to the public, and the Airport Authority is soliciting input for a “recreation and wellness destination” for the hilly, wooded parkland along the shoreline of Lake Crabtree. Residents are asking the Airport Authority to keep the land “as green as possible.”
No Place Like Home
According to statewide study, Durham and Wake Counties are projected to have a housing shortage to the tune of more than 140,000 units through 2029. Housing options for low-income households are particularly hard to come by. While rents remained fairly stable from last year, housing costs are a burden for many anyway: In Wake, 27% of households spend more than 30% of their income on housing costs; in Durham it’s 31%.
Earlier this year, Durham and Orange Counties conducted their routine adjustments of property values. Justin Laidlaw reported on the staggering jump that homeowners in Durham saw as a result and some of the factors that drove the increase, which has been especially difficult for longtime homeowners on fixed incomes to absorb. And in Orange County, Chase Pellegrini de Paur reported that increases were distributed inequitably between white and Black neighborhoods.
That said, there were significant—and in some cases creative—strides made on the affordable housing front in 2025.
In Durham, officials celebrated a milestone in an eight-year effort to build affordable housing on two prime, downtown lots owned by the county, Justin reported. Affordable apartments are now available to rent on one site on the 300 block of East Main Street, and construction is underway at the other site down the street on the 500 block. And the Durham Chamber led an effort to create an impressive dashboard with seemingly all the Durham housing data that exists, helping to ground future policy discussions and decisions (and maybe some Reddit debates) in data.
Over in Wake County, land trusts are having a moment. The Raleigh Area Land Trust was expected to bring 30 units online, after selling two affordable homes in its seven-year existence. And Apex launched its own community land trust, a unique model in that it is town-sponsored and uses town-owned land. In Cary, Greenwood Forest Baptist Church made its foray into what associate pastor Wesley Spears-Newsome referred to as the “yes, in God’s backyard” movement, winning approval to build 62 affordable units on the church’s property, Chloe Courtney Bohl reported.
Despite these highlights, housing affordability will likely continue to be an issue in 2026; some officials in Raleigh and Cary have already publicly indicated willingness to put new affordable housing bond referendums on the ballot.
The Triangle is still behind on the numbers of housing units it needs to meet demand, especially for lower-income families, and folks in the community need a safety net to keep them from falling through the cracks. Housing for New Hope in Durham and Families Together in Raleigh provide rapid rehousing services for individuals and families facing homelessness and work to lead folks toward more permanent stable housing. In addition, participants receive assistance with budgeting and other tools needed when moving into stable housing.
Water, Water Everywhere
On July 6, Tropical Storm Chantal brought record rainfall to parts of the Triangle, causing historical flooding particularly in Orange County and north Durham. INDY staffers jumped into action to cover the immediate aftermath of the storm, which took many by surprise over the long holiday weekend. In a story that captured the chaos of the storm—and what we ask of service workers despite deciding for ourselves that it’s best to hunker down—Lena Geller spoke to INDY contributing writer Andrea Richards about her experience being trapped inside University Mall as the storm unfolded and to a friend of hers who happened to be DoorDashing in the floodwaters just outside around the same time. Justin Laidlaw reported on damage to Eno River State Park and its trails, some of which remain closed five months later. In the months since the storm, displaced residents have struggled to find affordable housing, and artists have worked to rebuild workspaces and collections that were destroyed.
What we saw in July was the product of a singular weather event but also deeper issues: intensifying rainfall due to climate change and inland flooding exacerbated by impervious surfaces. In August, Lena told the story of one couple living in a Chapel Hill floodway who, despite losing nearly everything due to Chantal, had no other options but to stay. In November, Lena chronicled the bureaucratic struggle of a Walltown homeowner whose foundation is being eroded by an open pipe dumping stormwater from nine surrounding acres into her yard; after the story published the homeowner succeeded in getting her property value lowered a second time.
Looking ahead, flooding and climate resilience will continue to challenge local governments as communities recover from Chantal, storms worsen, and funding is cut for key federal agencies like the Federal Emergency Management Administration and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
In the wake of Tropical Storm Chantal, residents suffered losing their possessions, food insecurity, and homelessness. Triangle Mutual Aid brought together hundreds of volunteers to canvass neighborhoods, provide medical support, gut flood-ravaged homes, and remove tons of hazardous debris from park sites and city streets. The group also raised thousands of dollars to purchase protective gear for the volunteers and neighbors affected by the storm. Whether through disaster response, food distribution, or emergency funds, Triangle Mutual Aid mobilizes to support neighbors as needed.
Digital Footprint
Late this summer, plans for what, in its current iteration, would be the second-largest data center in the state were proposed for a parcel of land near Apex in unincorporated Wake County. In order to build the 300-megawatt data storage facility, the developer, Maryland-based Natelli Investments LLC, needs to annex the 190-acre property into the Town of Apex and secure a rezoning. Community opposition to the proposal was fierce from the get-go, with residents from Jordan Pointe and other nearby neighborhoods raising concerns about the environmental and quality-of-life impacts associated with the project, including potential sound and air pollution and excessive use of power and water (these concerns are not unfounded; reports have shown energy bill increases to customers living near data centers, and the facilities’ water usage has become a problem in communities across the country). Natelli Investments officially filed plans for what it’s calling the New Hill Digital Campus with the Town of Apex in September. In October, the town’s Environmental Advisory Board worked on conditions with the developer to include in its rezoning application, which will go before the town’s planning board and full council in the first quarter of next year. But a community meeting in November—meant to serve as a dialogue between the developer and residents on noise issues—revealed there’s still staunch public opposition to the project. Natelli Investments is making the argument that the data center is the perfect project for that specific parcel of land: It has been zoned for light industrial use in the town’s planning documents for years, and its proximity to a wastewater treatment facility and a nuclear power station make it an ideal site. Apex Town Council members have so far been mum on the data center, citing the risk of opening the town up to a lawsuit if they stake out positions before the proposal officially comes before them for review. But community opposition has not flagged; residents have been showing up to council meetings by the dozens to speak out against the project, and they’re organizing to raise money to hire legal counsel to fight it.
DPS Detente
Last year was a tumultuous one for Durham Public Schools (DPS): Kids missed school due to a bus driver shortage, the district had to walk back planned raises for staff, several top administrators stepped down, and schools closed down as teachers, organized by the Durham Association of Educators (DAE), walked out over all of these issues.
In 2025, the district—and its relationship with DAE—are in a better position, though it’s not all kumbaya.
DPS reorganized bus routes and enlisted more drivers, helping kids get to school on time. It hired a new CFO who seems to be rebuilding confidence in the district’s finances. DAE scored a major win in April when the district agreed to a hard-fought meet and confer policy, the first in the state, which gives educators a seat at the table for district decision-making. The INDY’s Chase Pellegrini de Paur tracked the negotiations closely and was the only reporter in the room when the policy was unexpectedly approved after it appeared DPS and DAE were still at stalemate.
At the same time, the district has discovered not one but two multimillion-dollar budget shortfalls this year, the latest due to declining enrollment as families continue to choose charter schools or opt out of having kids altogether. From 2024 to 2025, DPS saw its biggest enrollment dip since the COVID era, Chase reported.
And DAE continues to push the district on a number of issues, including pay, leave, and—as Chase recently reported—policies and protocols in case immigration agents show up at schools.
Pride and Prejudice
This year, in the face of attacks on LGBTQ populations from the federal government via funding cuts, health care policy changes, and inflammatory rhetoric, queer residents across the Triangle celebrated Pride with the same vigor and vibrancy as in years past. There were some challenges: In June, an out-of-town concrete company tried, and failed, to weigh down the Town of Morrisville’s Pride in the Park celebration when it showed up as a vendor, only to be walled in and drowned out by rainbow-clad community members holding umbrellas and singing Disney songs. As Wake Forest prepared for its Pride celebration in October, in observance of LGBTQ History Month, former Mayor Vivian Jones introduced, then walked back, a Pride Month proclamation. Public records revealed that the president of the Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary, one of the town’s most powerful institutions, had asked Jones not to move forward with the proclamation. Still, Wake Forest’s second annual Pride festival was a success, and in the town’s municipal election last month, Jones, a 20-year incumbent, lost her seat to a sitting town commissioner in what can only be described as a landslide. As is tradition, Durham celebrated Pride Month on the last weekend in September with a host of events and a large parade. We featured interviews and reflections with three ambassadors of the LGBTQ Center of Durham, and INDY contributor Desmera Gatewood wrote about what it means to stand in solidarity with queer people during a second Trump presidency: “Love for queer folks requires resistance—bold, outspoken, disruptive, resistance against every pillar of the monster that is fascism,” Gatewood wrote.
The LGBT Center of Raleigh and the LGBTQ Center of Durham are essential pillars of the community, and in the face of federal policy changes and loss of funding, both organizations remain steadfast in providing resources and a sense of belonging to hundreds of individuals across the Triangle. The two sister organizations are a central hub for educational workshops and support groups, including mentorship programs for youth, and counseling for queer folks who have experienced physical and psychological violence. Not to mention, they each host a raucous Pride party weekend—Raleigh in the spring, and Durham in the fall.
Blue Wave
It’s not a stretch to say that on Election Day last month, voters across the Triangle, especially in Wake County, made their dissatisfaction with the policies and actions of the federal government known. Though these were local elections for town board and mayoral seats—all officially nonpartisan—the fact that Democrats swept races in nearly all municipalities, and ousted three conservative mayors, is impossible to ignore.
The Cary Town Council election is perhaps the best example of how reactions to national politics played out at the local level; there was no overlooking the fact that the town’s District A, District C, and at-large races each pitted a Republican against a Democrat. With the exception of a misleading mailer designed to imitate official Town of Cary correspondence, the races were civil and candidates mainly focused on local issues. Still, come Election Day, all three Democrats won handily, a trend we saw repeated in Apex, in Morrisville, and across the Triangle.
Speaking of trends and local issues, how to manage growth was a big focus this election cycle in some of the nation’s fastest-growing towns; Chloe Courtney Bohl reported on this dynamic from Wendell in eastern Wake County. And we saw Chinese American candidates emerge as a formidable electoral force, with Sue Mu and Bella Huang dominating fundraising—and vote-getting—in Apex and Cary Town Council races, respectively.
In Wake Forest, a long-serving mayor lost her seat after fumbling a Pride Month proclamation, and Republican mayors in Holly Springs and Fuquay-Varina were ousted by Democratic challengers as well. These towns represent some of the last conservative holdouts in Wake County; it will be interesting to see what the midterms have in store for Republican candidates in 2026, and whether they’ll be able to win back any lost ground in the years to come.
In already blue Durham, there was no blue wave this fall, but voters did choose challengers over incumbents in two city council races, issuing their own call for change (well, some change—one council member and the mayor were re-elected). As in other towns, housing and growth dominated Durham’s at-times heated elections; candidates were frequently labeled as either pro-developer or antigrowth. And campaign finance loomed large: Candidates quickly began swearing off “dark money” contributions after Lena Geller reported on a mysterious new 501(c)(4) with a tie to one candidate. But, in the end—with winning candidates’ fundraising totals ranging from $5,700 to $76,000—dollar amounts raised didn’t neatly correlate to votes cast.
Hunger Pangs
As the longest-ever federal government shutdown dragged from October into November, national and local experts warned of a worsening hunger crisis. As Justin Laidlaw reported, more than 125,000 Triangle residents were on the brink of losing food assistance benefits known as SNAP as government funding ran out. While the Trump administration was eventually forced by a judge to put money toward SNAP, payments to recipients were delayed and incomplete—and as Justin found, disruptions to SNAP were just one factor adding to food insecurity in the Triangle.
Food banks in the area were already struggling with cuts to federal grants that helped them put food on their shelves, fewer donations in a tough economy, and the added needs of federal workers who lost their jobs earlier in the year. The government shutdown created even more demand as additional federal workers went unpaid and as SNAP recipients looked to supplement their grocery budgets.
But food insecurity was an issue in the Triangle before the shutdown—and continues to be. According to the Food Bank of Central and Eastern North Carolina, more than 45,000 Durham County residents, nearly 140,000 in Wake, and 20,000 in Orange face hunger.
Triangle residents and institutions are stepping up to meet the need by donating to food banks, stocking community fridges, and volunteering to help with food distributions. And in November, INDY intern Kennedy Thomason reported Durham County officials were launching an effort to map food access and create a 10-year strategic plan for addressing food insecurity.
“Once you know that almost 50,000 people are food insecure in this community that has so much brain power and so much wealth, you cannot turn a blind eye,” Miguel Rubiera, who founded Emanuel Food Pantry in Durham with his wife Margaret, told Andrea Richards for a November story in the INDY. “It’s almost inconceivable that this was such a hidden issue for so long.”
The government shutdown may be over, but food security remains a pressing issue. Dozens of grassroots organizations in the Triangle have stepped up to meet the moment. Durham Community Fridges, in addition to managing its own fridges, maintains a comprehensive list of other organizations in the network of community fridges that offer food assistance. In Cary and Apex, NeighborUp mobilizes hundreds of volunteers to provide food assistance as well as workforce training and personal coaching through a partnership with Wake Tech Community College, helping folks build a foundation of short-term stability and long-term success.
Agents of Chaos
Since Trump’s inauguration in January, many Triangle residents have taken to the streets to protest, among other things, the President’s immigration agenda. In November, that agenda made its way to North Carolina; first in Charlotte with “Operation Charlotte’s Web,” which resulted in hundreds of detentions. Our partners at The Assembly began to hear from sources in the legislature that Raleigh would be next. INDY was the first to report confirmation from Raleigh’s mayor that agents were expected to be “active” in the area, breaking statewide news. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agents appeared in Raleigh, Durham, Garner and Cary the next day, sweeping up more than a dozen people, including at least one U.S. citizen, who was detained at a construction site in Cary and later left in a parking lot after he says agents saw his ID. Meanwhile, INDY staffers reported scenes of panic and protest as agents fanned out across the area, the resulting hits to local businesses and school attendance as scared families stayed home, and the massive volunteer efforts to monitor agents’ activity and protect residents.
Now, immigrant rights group Siembra NC reports that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents are stepping up their activity across the state, including in the Triangle.
Local organizations have been forced to mobilize against the invasion of federal immigration agents swiftly and with equal force. Siembra NC has been at the forefront of the resistance, training thousands of volunteers to monitor immigration agents and distributing vital information to individuals and businesses about their 4th Amendment rights. Similarly, Brava NC coordinated community defense teams to respond to Border Patrol activity; year-round the organization advocates for immigrant rights and helps connect the Latino community with resources and voter information. El Futuro provides critical bilingual mental health and substance abuse services in Durham, as well as community engagement.
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