Top local stories of 2008
Kevin and i reviewed our top local stories of the year on Shooting the Bull last Thursday night. We had a great deal of overlap in our picks, but not unanimity. Here's my list.
10 - New Justice Center parking deck design modified after complaints from local activists. It's still sub-par, but at least it'll have the potential for a retail wrapper.
9 - Durham Board of County Commissioners bans dog chaining. Kudos to the Coalition to Unchain Dogs for their hard work and patience in getting this passed. 2009 will education efforts; warning tickets will be issued to people still keeping their dogs tethered beginning in January 2010, with actual citations issued beginning in July 2010.
8 - Lakewood YMCA saved from closing by community activists. Chuck Clifton is a big time hero in this one. Chapel Hill Rd. could have easily ended up with a big empty eyesore of a building dragging down the neighborhood.
7 - Drought ends. A year ago we were down to about 28 days of water in our reservoirs. I can honestly say i haven't felt the need to check the levels in about 4 months. But don't get too cocky. One of the lessons of the drought was how little water Durham actually stores compared to demand, and how it only takes a couple of abnormally dry seasons to put us in a precarious situation.
6 - Crime increases, & Durham gets shut out of new probation officers. These two items have to be considered together, i think. A couple of high profile crimes allegedly committed by people who were on probation but had slipped through the cracks made the headlines, but bubbling under the surface has been a widely discussed sense that crime levels in general in Durham have increased beyond the point of acceptability. Yesterday's meeting in Morehead Hills, between police and citizen activists, is probably only the first sign that Durhamites are going to be demanding a greater response from Chief Lopez and his team.
5 - Durham Performing Arts Center opens. And, relatively speaking, on time and close to budget. The DPAC could have been a disaster, and it still isn't what a lot of people thought Durham really needed. That it's a whole lot better than it might have been wasn't an accident, although a lot of the people who fought to make it that way didn't stick around long enough to see the results of their efforts.
4 - Local economy hangs tough, so far. A recent audit shows that the city has 11% of its annual appropriations budget in savings, below recommended guidelines (12%) but in line with the budget approved last summer. Unemployment in the county was at 5.2% in October, up from the 3.7% recorded a year ago, but down from the high of 5.6% over the summer. Still , that's substantially below the 7.9% recorded statewide. Nobody's running around jumping for joy at those numbers, though, and there's no guarantee that 2009 is going to be economically strong. Everybody's holding their breath, waiting to see what kind of stimulus package comes out of Washington next month.
3 - Prepared meals tax fails at the ballot. Miserably. but as far as i'm concerned the big story here was the alliance formed between the Durham Committee on the Affairs of Black People, ostensibly a progressive group, and the far-right anti-tax group Americans for Prosperity. This group actively campaigned against several candidates that the Durham Committee, headed by Dr. Lavonia Allison, endorsed. And considering that Dr. Allison is a member of the State Executive Committee of the Democratic Party, that's got to be raising some eyebrows in back rooms in Raleigh.
2 - Tom Bonfield hired as Durham city manager. I really like Patrick Baker. but his lack of experience as a city manager meant that his administration was always going to be at best a holding effort, following the tenure of Marcia Conner, who was forced out by City Council in 2004. Bonfield's got a good track record and lots of experience as a manager. He's going to need all of it in 2009, i suspect.
1 - Satan came to Durham, and he had a pair of handcuffs and a dog collar. Earlier this year, a couple of officers in the county Democratic Party were arrested on some rather spectacular charges, and generating headlines linking them with a Satanic cult. I love this story for so many reasons, not least because it inspired so many right wing bloggers to jump to so many unsupported conclusions, that the resulting wank-off threatened to permanently alter the earth's orbit. Unsurprisingly, the case still hasn't gone to trial. In fact, it's hardly generated a line of news in 6 months. Look for charges to be quietly dismissed sometime soon, probably announced at 5:15 pm on a Friday afternoon, maybe just before the Super Bowl.
Other stories to consider from the year past included the continuing deterioration of local print media employment, with layoffs at the N&O and the Independent Weekly, and rotating reporters at the HS, the upcoming battle between the billboard industry and neighborhood activists (among others) over the proposal to amend Durham's zoning ordinances to allow digital billboards on our highways, and the very late breaking story on Minor League Baseball's dissatisfaction with Durham's progress on the DAP restoration project. We'll certainly be looking at these in the coming year.
Have a Happy New Year wherever you're celebrating.
10 - New Justice Center parking deck design modified after complaints from local activists. It's still sub-par, but at least it'll have the potential for a retail wrapper.
9 - Durham Board of County Commissioners bans dog chaining. Kudos to the Coalition to Unchain Dogs for their hard work and patience in getting this passed. 2009 will education efforts; warning tickets will be issued to people still keeping their dogs tethered beginning in January 2010, with actual citations issued beginning in July 2010.
8 - Lakewood YMCA saved from closing by community activists. Chuck Clifton is a big time hero in this one. Chapel Hill Rd. could have easily ended up with a big empty eyesore of a building dragging down the neighborhood.
7 - Drought ends. A year ago we were down to about 28 days of water in our reservoirs. I can honestly say i haven't felt the need to check the levels in about 4 months. But don't get too cocky. One of the lessons of the drought was how little water Durham actually stores compared to demand, and how it only takes a couple of abnormally dry seasons to put us in a precarious situation.
6 - Crime increases, & Durham gets shut out of new probation officers. These two items have to be considered together, i think. A couple of high profile crimes allegedly committed by people who were on probation but had slipped through the cracks made the headlines, but bubbling under the surface has been a widely discussed sense that crime levels in general in Durham have increased beyond the point of acceptability. Yesterday's meeting in Morehead Hills, between police and citizen activists, is probably only the first sign that Durhamites are going to be demanding a greater response from Chief Lopez and his team.
5 - Durham Performing Arts Center opens. And, relatively speaking, on time and close to budget. The DPAC could have been a disaster, and it still isn't what a lot of people thought Durham really needed. That it's a whole lot better than it might have been wasn't an accident, although a lot of the people who fought to make it that way didn't stick around long enough to see the results of their efforts.
4 - Local economy hangs tough, so far. A recent audit shows that the city has 11% of its annual appropriations budget in savings, below recommended guidelines (12%) but in line with the budget approved last summer. Unemployment in the county was at 5.2% in October, up from the 3.7% recorded a year ago, but down from the high of 5.6% over the summer. Still , that's substantially below the 7.9% recorded statewide. Nobody's running around jumping for joy at those numbers, though, and there's no guarantee that 2009 is going to be economically strong. Everybody's holding their breath, waiting to see what kind of stimulus package comes out of Washington next month.
3 - Prepared meals tax fails at the ballot. Miserably. but as far as i'm concerned the big story here was the alliance formed between the Durham Committee on the Affairs of Black People, ostensibly a progressive group, and the far-right anti-tax group Americans for Prosperity. This group actively campaigned against several candidates that the Durham Committee, headed by Dr. Lavonia Allison, endorsed. And considering that Dr. Allison is a member of the State Executive Committee of the Democratic Party, that's got to be raising some eyebrows in back rooms in Raleigh.
2 - Tom Bonfield hired as Durham city manager. I really like Patrick Baker. but his lack of experience as a city manager meant that his administration was always going to be at best a holding effort, following the tenure of Marcia Conner, who was forced out by City Council in 2004. Bonfield's got a good track record and lots of experience as a manager. He's going to need all of it in 2009, i suspect.
1 - Satan came to Durham, and he had a pair of handcuffs and a dog collar. Earlier this year, a couple of officers in the county Democratic Party were arrested on some rather spectacular charges, and generating headlines linking them with a Satanic cult. I love this story for so many reasons, not least because it inspired so many right wing bloggers to jump to so many unsupported conclusions, that the resulting wank-off threatened to permanently alter the earth's orbit. Unsurprisingly, the case still hasn't gone to trial. In fact, it's hardly generated a line of news in 6 months. Look for charges to be quietly dismissed sometime soon, probably announced at 5:15 pm on a Friday afternoon, maybe just before the Super Bowl.
Other stories to consider from the year past included the continuing deterioration of local print media employment, with layoffs at the N&O and the Independent Weekly, and rotating reporters at the HS, the upcoming battle between the billboard industry and neighborhood activists (among others) over the proposal to amend Durham's zoning ordinances to allow digital billboards on our highways, and the very late breaking story on Minor League Baseball's dissatisfaction with Durham's progress on the DAP restoration project. We'll certainly be looking at these in the coming year.
Have a Happy New Year wherever you're celebrating.
Labels: Durham
Since 1949, Durhamites have slept soundly, secure in the knowledge that, in our town, erection can be depended upon. Now, thanks to the power of the internets, we can spread that security all over the world.
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home