Last week, for the web, we wrote about Sam’s Bottle Shop—formerly Sam’s Quik Shop and Blue Light, all Durham institutions owned by the Boy family—and its current owner John Boy Jr.’s plans to close the shop’s doors for good next month. Sam’s Quik Shop was one of the first to bring curated, craft beer to the Triangle market, as reader Julie Johnson recalled in an email, and the shop’s knowledgeable staff, not to mention its vast collection of specialty beer, will be missed by many:

The thriving craft beer scene in North Carolina owes a big thanks to John Boy and Sam’s Blue Light. During the years-long effort to modernize NC’s beer laws through the legislation known as Pop the Cap, Sam’s—already a pioneer in bringing unusual beer to the state—was a steadfast supporter. Pop the Cap represented beer drinkers who were demanding better choices; John Boy gave us invaluable backing and the perspective of an independent retailer, which was important in shaping our approach to the legislation.

When House Bill 392 (the “Pop the Cap” bill) passed in 2005, it raised the permissible beer alcohol content from under 6% to 15%—and opened the market to an eye-popping range of previously unavailable styles. And local businesses responded: today’s community of over 420 NC breweries and brewpubs is about ten times the number operating in 2004.

The day the bill passed, I drove to Sam’s and bought my first bottle of stronger beer, a Chimay from Belgium, from John. I wish him a very happy retirement, and many thanks.

P.S. One happy memory of the Blue Light on Erwin. I was entertaining a well-known beer writer who was visiting the area, and I took him to Sam’s. My guest was astonished when a modest-looking gas station and car wash attached to what appeared to be a convenience store turned out to have one of the best specialty beer selections (and best-informed staff) to be found anywhere.

In our paper two weeks ago, we published a letter from Durham Sheriff Clarence Birkhead, a supporter of the ShotSpotter gunshot detection technology. The sheriff wrote that he was disappointed that Durham’s City Council didn’t extend the use of ShotSpotter as experts at Duke evaluate data gathered during the yearlong ShotSpotter pilot. Reader Brittany Price wrote in response to Birkhead’s letter that ShotSpotter isn’t the answer to the gun violence that troubles Durham and other U.S. cities:

About a year and a half ago, I lost a loved one to gun violence in another city. Shotspotter didn’t identify the outdoor shootout he was in as gunfire, but they did change their data at the police department’s request after he died. While plenty of neighbors called 911, he didn’t survive, and if he had, the circumstances around his death almost certainly would’ve landed him in prison.

I work in public health, and a sad, true joke we make in my field is that when public health is working, it’s pretty invisible. It’s not as punchy as a headline about a scoop and run that gunfire detection technology enabled, but it does save more lives. And Shotspotter simply doesn’t save lives the way preventive measures do; a growing body of research backs this up, including Doucette et al.’s comprehensive 2021 analysis. It is easy to say that the expenditure on this technology is worth it if it saves one life, but the truth is we’re working with limited resources; spending this amount of money on tech that doesn’t work is an insult to the memory of people who could’ve been saved by preventive measures. My friend’s life is a testament to that: I know for a fact he was saved multiple times by harm reduction and affordable healthcare. He wouldn’t have been in the situation that took his life if he’d had access to affordable housing, to steady, well-paying income and benefits that didn’t exclude him for his criminal record. And I sincerely believe the person who shot him wouldn’t have been there, either. They both deserved better than wasted money on Shotspotter. So do we. Durham is hurting. It’s tempting to throw Shotspotter at that pain, but we must turn toward what works and invest in our community.

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