Old farts
Outside of both the overt and subtle slights on the candidate, I enjoyed reading your article (“Watch the throne,” Sept. 16).
In response to your comment about YIMBY (your quote: “a group in Raleigh that has yet to see a high-density development it didn’t think could be bigger”), I think the opposite could be said of the INDY.
In other cities, I usually think of magazines like the INDY as young and hip, aligning with 20- and 30-year-old crowds, but in Raleigh, the articles on growth seem to cater to the old and well-to-do.
The standard lexicon for the no-growth movement seems to be full of buzzwords like “historic,” “preservation,” “encroachment” and “pro-development.” Though those terms touch upon important issues, the subtleties seem to be lost on the INDY. If you were to ask the younger generation what key words they thought were important, I bet you’d get a different set. Certainly, I almost never read anything from the INDY that discusses the benefits of denser mixed-use development, injecting vitality, reducing automobile dependency and creating more walkable neighborhoods in our growing city.
The INDY, sadly, does a disservice to the younger generationnot even fairly representing their voice. I recall an article you wrote last year where you were complaining about students living on Hillsborough Street. Even this article, being written by (surprisingly enough) a 45-year-old single-family homeowner with overridingly ardent support for Crowder, represents the same old, same old. You alone aren’t to blame, of course. It is endemic in the INDY, an anti-development voice regardless of the merits in a growing city.
Like the INDY, Crowder may serve the voice of an older crowd in District D, but the voices of the younger generations are almost unheard.
As a disclosure, I am a founder of Raleigh YIMBY, a group promoting urban, pedestrian-friendly development that encourages alternative transit with an emphasis on a higher quality of life for both old and new residents.
Seth Hollar, via indyweek.com
Missing history
After reading the article on 21c Museum Hotel and The Durham (“The view from below,” Sept. 9), I was a bit miffed but chose to keep quiet and complained to/with a small circle of friends. After reading the extremely complimentary words from a reader in [last] week’s issue regarding that same article, I choose not to remain silent and to voice my original thoughts.
The portion of the article related to 21c was pretty on point.
Yet I found it very puzzling as to why the company that occupied the iconic building just prior to The Durham was not even mentioned. That building was the corporate office for Mutual Community Savings Bank, an African-American-owned business that tied in with Parrish Street, aka Black Wall Street.
In your archives are good stories about the transformation of Mutual Community Savings Bank into The Durham.
That fact may have given the Mad Men take on the building a little different twist. And, with that article, many readers won’t ever know the real and complete history of the building.
Sad. I hope that overlooking the African-American contributions in Durham will not become the INDY‘s MO in order to give stories the desired slant.
Alice Sharpe
How to stop fracking
Want to stop fracking (“Frack this!” Sept. 9)? Easy. Vote all incumbent and future GOP assbags out of office. McCory and his ilk have sold us out to be polluted and turned into a wasteland so a few can get rich and then tell us it is so we can be energy independent. What utter BS. Make McCory and his regime one-termers. Send ’em packing.
Tony D, via indyweek.com
Correction
In last week’s Durham endorsements, a reference to Council candidate Philip Azarwas omitted before we went to press. That’s unfortunate. While we were not endorsing Azar, his work with Habitat for Humanity, Clean Energy Durham and the Inter-Neighborhood Council deserves credit. We also failed to mention that retired doctor Juan Alva dropped out of the Council race in late July.
