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  • From: grady <grady AT ibiblio.org>
  • To: RTP-area local music and culture <ch-scene AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: confused curmudeon gets it all wrong (was NOTICE: alarmist hits your inbox)
  • Date: Mon, 12 Dec 2005 10:00:14 -0500

What's the matter, Hep, did you hang onto your Krispy Kreme stock a little too far past its peak?

It's true that I've never actually eaten in a non-NC KK, but if the doughnuts are as good in other states as they are here, what's not to like? I mean, other than their general inability to run a large public company, and that little thing where they force franchisees to buy ingredients from them, at prices much higher than the fair market prices?

In answer to your other question: I don't live in Durham, and I've never been any good at predicting what will/won't "work" in Durham, nor at divining what the city needs in order to revitalize itself. So my feelings about the American Tobacco Campus are merely feelings, and not informed opinions about what it is or is not doing for the people of Durham.

Briefly: it feels like a mall. In fact, the first time I went there, I felt like I was at Southpoint, albeit without the crowds.

The only businesses in it are the various white-collar firms who occupy the office space (which is great, sure, nothing wrong with that - folks gotta work, and it's certainly better to have them working in an actual city rather than out here in fucking RTP where there's literally no "there" there), and the restaurants which cater to the people who work in the white-collar firms who occupy the office space.

Couple that with its rather forbidding exterior facade, and it feels less like an exciting new facet to downtown Durham, and more like a white-collar fortress across the train tracks from downtown Durham.

In fact, it's so faceless and anonymous on the outside that it's really difficult to explain to people (particularly non-Durhamites) how to find the Tyler's Taproom that's hidden inside. I've had trouble giving directions to friends, and the last time the Triangle rock-climbing group had their monthly meeting there, at least one new member drove all around downtown Durham for a half-hour trying to find it before giving up & going home.

Like I said, I don't live in Durham and I don't purport to know what it needs. But it seems to me that both the ATC and all the schwanky loft apartments in converted tobacco warehouses around Brightleaf/Duke St. have become this weird walled yuppie enclave just to the south & west of downtown Durham, and downtown itself hasn't actually received any direct benefit/improvement from it all.

And maybe somebody who lives downtown could explain this to me: where do all the people who live in those lofts buy their groceries, and go to the drugstore, and etc?

Anyway. The thing about development, in Durham or anywhere else, is that it's a delicate multi-way push/pull thing between the developers with the money, the city government with its own needs (and its own perception of the city's needs, which may or may not be accurate), and the actual people who live there currently, as well as the people who'd potentially be moving into the newly-developed spaces. That's at least 4 different constituencies, overlapping to greater/lesser degrees. We can argue all we want about, for example, the rightness/wrongness of restricting "nightclub" activity in downtown Durham, but we have to remember that there's at least one downtown resident who *hates* the noise from the few clubs that are down there (remember that long cranky letter in the Indy a couple of years ago that we mocked mercilessly at the time?).

I mean, yes, it's stupid to expect to live in a "downtown" and have it be as peaceful & quiet as the countryside after 8 p.m. -- but then again, there have been big chunks of the past 20 years when that was more-or-less the reality of downtown Durham, so maybe that expectation is more realistic than our idealized expectation of a downtown full of life after dark.

My friends who have moved here from the big city will usually say that they don't miss much about the city, except for one thing: they could do everything they wanted to do, for weeks & even months at a time, without a car. I think it's great that so much [lip service | attention] is being paid to this whole "new urbanism" / "mixed-use" development trend, but I can't think of anywhere in the Triangle where one of these new-urbanist enclaves have gone up where even 5% of the residents could live for more than 3-4 days without getting in a car.

I'd say if downtown Durham wants to come up with some big-picture Goals for the Future, that would be one to consider. They've certainly made a good start via their de-facto expulsion of cars from downtown by turning all the streets into giant gaping holes in the ground ;-)

Ross

James Hepler wrote:
To change the subject a litle bit, I've always found
it fascinating how my North Carolinian brethren and
sistren love so much to use Starbucks as the symbol of
everything that's bad about the world while munching
happily on Krispy Kreme doughnuts.

--- Caleb Southern <southernc AT mindspring.com> wrote:

Rick Sawyer wrote:
first of all, i know that you sit on the durham
city board of zoning.
Correct. I am a member of the Durham Planning
Commission.


Rick Sawyer wrote:
i therefore find the fact that you cannot explain
the zoning change
proposed by commisioner reckhow without waving your
arms to be...
disheartening.
I posted the Herald-Sun article, and referred to the
comments of Durham
Planning Director Frank Duke. He is certainly an
expert on zoning issues. I
would also generally associate myself with the
comments of County
Commissioner Lewis Cheek, as reported in the Herald.


Rick Sawyer wrote:
finally, i checked the company you keep. you sit
on the board of downtown
durham, inc.,
Correct. DDI does some things that I agree with, and
some others that I do
not. I joined this board in an attempt to influence
the policy positions of
this organization from the inside. I am one of two
downtown residents who
sit on this 41 member board. There are about three
small business owners on
this board - only one of which is a retailer.

I could sit on the outside and express opinions
about DDI when I disagree
with them, or I could sit on the board and try to
influence the direction of
this organization from the inside.

On this particular issue, my views happen to be very
different from many
others at DDI.


Rick Sawyer wrote:
and it seemed as if your call to "ACTION" came, in
part, directly from that
organization.
Dead wrong.

My call to action was a direct *REACTION* to
positions long expressed by
some staff and some board members within DDI,
advocating for additional
regulation of entertainment businesses. Similar
comments from the Chair of
the Durham Board of County Commissioners reinforced
this position.

There is another perspective on downtown zoning
issues and entertainment. I
will likely be the only representative on the board
of this organization
expressing this side of the issue - being to leave
zoning ordinances the way
they are.
This issue is an example of one reason I chose to
join this board -- to
express points of view that would otherwise not be
represented.


Rick Sawyer wrote:
i checked it out, and it [DDI] seems to me to be a
collection of banks and
corporations, with a smattering of nonprofit types.
these are the groups
that brought us the american tobacco campus, a
starbucks, and a wonderful
brown river that runs straight toward the heart of
downtown.

Correct.
Would you rather someone like myself, with a
different perspective than the
aforementioned, *NOT* be on the DDI board?


Rick Sawyer wrote:
on what basis should i trust such a group? as rich
(mostly) white
men, they aren't responsible to me. they are
responsible to their
shareholders.
The position I have taken on this zoning issue is
unpopular with many at
DDI.


Rick Sawyer wrote:
so, i'm supposed to swallow it when they pump out
some theory about our
elected officials entering into cabal against
downtown development?
Again, your understanding of the various positions
and who is pushing them
is incorrect.

As I stated, the position coming from some at DDI
and the positions reported
in the paper from Commissioner Reckhow (which she
has since backed away
from) were generally consistent -- more zoning
regulation that would further
restrict entertainment businesses in downtown
Durham.
This is the issue of relevance and interest to this
list.
The position I am advocating (in favor of the status
quo zoning allowing
downtown entertainment, and against further
regulation) is the exact
opposite of what is coming from some at DDI and
originally reported as that
of Ellen Reckhow.


***

Rick,

It is bizarre that you continue to falsely
characterize me as representing
some of the very positions that I oppose. What kind
of strange conspiracy
theory world do you live in?




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