West Raleigh Residents Want to Keep Athens Drive Community Library Local

View This Email In Your Browser

Good morning, readers.

Raleigh’s Athens Drive Community Library has been a fixture of its community since 1978—and its patrons are devoted to their local library. Close to North Carolina State University and the State Farmers Market, the library is situated among some of Raleigh’s fastest growing and most diverse neighborhoods. More than 10,000 residents live within a 30-minute walk, and others can access it conveniently by bus. 

“We want it to be a safe place for our kids, something they can walk to,” says Hannah Mckenzie, who lives on Athens Drive and is a member of the Friends of Athens Drive Community Library advocacy group. “We want the folks in the community who don’t have access to personal vehicles to be able to access the library.”

But the library’s future is uncertain, Jane Porter reports for the latest installment of the INDY’s year-long series spotlighting local libraries. A replacement for Athens Drive Community Library was included in the $142 million bond package voters approved last year to upgrade library services across Wake County. And the high school in which the library is located—an unorthodox arrangement—is set to be renovated next year.

All of this means that a new version of the Athens Drive Community Library is slated to open sometime in the next seven years, but where exactly is unclear. Library advocates are pushing to keep Athens Drive in their community, but they’re wary—there have been three prior attempts to shutter the library, its location inside the high school has made it a target of security complaints, and its hours have already been cut in half. Jane’s reporting shows the county could relocate Athens Drive to a number of locations, even outside of Raleigh city limits.

Read more about the possible futures for the Athens Drive Community Library—and residents’ efforts to save it once again—here.

 —Sarah W.

---

---

Durham

An upcoming play performance tells the story of Booker T. Spicely, a Black Army private who was fatally shot by a Durham bus driver in 1944 after he protested while moving to the back of the bus to make room for some white soldiers. The INDY’s Chase Pellegrini de Paur spoke to the playwright.

Wake

Restored Church Raleigh is one of many Christian campus ministries at North Carolina State University. And it’s an offshoot of a religious movement reportedly banned by at least 39 colleges and universities for soliciting or harassing students, our partners at The Assembly report.

Orange

UNC researchers warn that cuts to National Institutes of Health funding could jeopardize research into cancer discoveries and treatment, WCHL reports.

North Carolina

The state is spending $265 million to improve water quality and address PFAS contamination. But the need exceeds the funding, WRAL reports.

North Carolina has a unique history of modernist architecture. Its brutalist buildings, like Raleigh’s Bath building and Greensboro’s City Hall, are a dying breed, Carolina Public Press reports.

---

If you’d like to advertise your business to the Daily’s 30,000-plus subscribers, please contact [email protected]

---