• Confronting the Opioid Crisis in Durham
  • Durham’s First Heritage Community
  • ICYMI: Another DPS Budget Gap
  • Give Input on Durham Bus Plans
Credit: Photo courtesy of the subject

Good morning, readers.

From 2017 to 2019, about 50 people died of opioid overdoses in Durham County each year. During the pandemic and its aftermath, that number—following a statewide increase—spiked as high as 137 a year.

As a harm reduction programs manager at the North Carolina Harm Reduction Coalition (NCHRC), Loftin Wilson saw this all in real-time.

As Durham (and all of North Carolina’s counties) begins to spend its share of billions of dollars in lawsuit settlements from pharmaceutical giants, Chase Pellegrini de Paur spoke to Wilson about Durham’s response to the ongoing crisis, racial disparities in overdose deaths, and how the opioid epidemic has changed since the first of those pivotal lawsuits went to trial.

The story is part of a reporting collaboration with our partners in the Assembly Network looking at how opioid settlement funds are being distributed and the shape of the opioid crisis across the state.

Read more below and have a good Tuesday.

—Sarah W.

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The latest from INDY, plus other stories around the state you’ll want to read. Handpicked every day by INDY Editor-in-Chief Sarah Willets.

Credit: Bottom center image courtesy Bonita Green, bottom right image via Wikipedia; other images courtesy Durham County Library’s North Carolina Collection

Living History

Merrick-Moore is Durham’s first Heritage Community. For the historic neighborhood, it’s a way to preserve its past—and protect its future in a growing city, Kennedy Thomason writes.

Credit: Illustration by Nicole Pajor Moore

Bills, Bills, Bills

More Durham students attended charter schools this year than anticipated, leaving the district with a $4.7 million budget gap, INDY’s Chase Pellegrini de Paur reports.

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LOCAL: UNC installed license plate reader cameras and The Daily Tar Heel reports community members are concerned about how they could be used to aid immigration enforcement.

LOCAL: Some low-income residents with disabilities are still displaced after Tropical Storm Chantal, underscoring the need for affordable housing, WUNC reports.

LOCAL: A Durham woman found letters from a World War 1 soldier in her attic, WRAL reports.

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  • Let off some steam and support local organizations this Saturday when Smashfest returns to The Scrap Exchange in Durham.
  • Braxton Foushee, civil rights activist and Carrboro’s first Black alderman, was awarded the Order of the Long Leaf Pine, the state’s highest civilian honor.
  • Looking for a place to have a good cry in the City of Oaks? Raleighites have some pretty thoughtful suggestions over on Reddit.
  • There’s still time to give input on Durham’s plans for a bus rapid transit system via this county survey.
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