Alston Ave.

While i was out of town, the city and state apparently decided that their original Alston Ave. widening plan (the one that's going to turn Alston Ave. into a corridor designed to maximize the number of cars that can pass through it, rather than a pedestrian friendly neighborhood avenue that enhances the value of the properties around it) is the way to go. No big surprise there, as the leadership of the city of Durham has consistently shown an inability to comprehend that the city of the future is not going to be built around the automobile.

That section of East Durham has one grocery store, Los Primos, which is probably going to end up disappearing as a result of the widening. The manager of the store left a comment on an old post here, but i think it deserves a wider read. If the loss of the store in the East Durham community seems troublesome to you, stop by Los Primos and sign their petition.

I am the manager of Los Primos supermarket . . . we are now offering a petition to stop or relocate the supermarket . . . in the neighboorhood . . . we feed this whole neighboorhood . . . with such a high rate of pedestrian traffic, this highway right through our neighboorhood . . . would cause the neighboorhood . . . to have to go to other supermarkets,, miles away and with six years of success, leaving this neighboorhood that we know so well . . . will be a definite blow to old north durham's economy, we know the local customers . . . and the customers know us . . . please come by and sign the petition!!!!!!!!!
Manager- Michael Collado
1109 E Main st
Durham, NC 27701
919-682-6417
THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!

Continue reading Alston Ave.

Assuming privilege

The unconscious assumption of privilege is one of the most toxic elements in human interaction, whether in a personal relationship or in attempting to navigate the gulf between cultures. Carl Kenney, for example, documents a specific example of a class based assumption of privilege in a recent blog post that's worth reading.

Assumption of privilege is not limited, though, to racial, gender, or socio-economic based classes. I think on a daily basis we all encounter, and many of us hold ourselves, a perspective in which the automobile is privileged over virtually every other means of getting from point A to point B.

Nowhere is this more clear than in the comments of Gary's recent post about developments in the Alston Ave. widening discussion. Once upon a time, we used to have a word for the process by which an individual was brought to awareness of his or her assumptions of privilege. Consciousness-raising. You don't hear too often these days, but let's give it a go.

Here's the comment in question:

Alston Ave Commuter said...

So now you're negotiating on how many intersections can have right turn lanes?

If I was the NCDOT I'd say the hell with you, we've got plenty of projects in Raleigh, Charlotte and Greensboro to fund.

Obviously what you want is to tear up Alston and put in a bike path to take its place.

More power to you, I say. Maybe you should start by electing people to the city council who agree with you,

That's hard work, of course. It's easier to jot a few things into a blog everyday.

Let's start with the screen name chosen by the author, Alston Ave Commuter. By commuter, this person means that he or she rides in a car along Alston Ave., from point A to point B, from home to work and back again. And assumes that this vantage point should be more important in the decision making process than that of those people who, you know, actually live along Alston Ave. In other words, our commuter friend assumes the privilege of the commuter over the resident, and the primacy of his or her choices over those of others.

Strike one.

Next, the commenter makes the expert/power figure play, questioning why Gary, or anyone else, would have the audacity to "negotiate" with decisions made by the NCDOT regarding the actual structure of the widened Alston Ave. Again, the assumption here is that people such as Gary, or Aidil Collins, or anyone who questions NCDOT's program, lacks the standing to do so. They are not privileged enough to actually act on their opinions. And that the proper response to this not knowing your place is for the authority figure to take their ball and go play elsewhere, like Greensboro or Charlotte, where the citizens know their place and stay in it. The giveaway is the "Obviously what you want is to tear up Alston and put in a bike path to take its place," line. Not only is this not obvious, not only does this explicitly contradict what the commenter has just said (re: negotiating right turn lanes), not only does this fly in the face of what an reasonably intelligent person has just read on their own, but it also reveals the commenters animosity towards non-automobile transportation. Opposing bad design can only mean that you're one of those bike riding tree huggers, in the mind of our commenter.

Strike two.

Finally, the challenge. Go and elect your friends to the City Council. Betcha can't do that because it's too hard. Much harder than writing a blog post. Other commenters have already pointed out the hypocrisy in that it's so much easier to make a anonymous drive-by on someone else's blog than it is to research the issues and put your thoughts out their under your own name in a community the size of Durham. But as it stands, there are already members of City Council who agree with Gary's position, as well as significant and authoritative members of staff. And, based on the hard work that people like Aidil and Gary are doing, much of it behind the scenes, it's likely that a majority of Council will come to realize that East Durham indeed all of Durham, deserves a better design for a widened Alston Ave. than the one that NCDOT has come up with. Once we are conscious of the assumptions of privilege that those who argue in favor of the current design make on behalf of that small group of automobile users, and once we realize that they have no more claim on the benefits of road design than the residents of the neighborhood, there's literally nothing left in their argument that's persuasive.

Strike three.

Go grab some pine.

Continue reading Assuming privilege

Alston Ave. widening update

A message from Uplift East Durham activist and fellow blogger Aidil:

If you are receiving this message, it is because I KNOW you care about supporting community friendly roads located in neighborhoods with high biking and walking traffic. Unfortunately, the NC DOT has planned a mini version of the freeway through our neighborhood.

This particular design to widen Alston Avenue is hostile to the community. Various neighborhood groups have met to agree on a slate of changes to the design in order to minimize the negative impacts of the NC DOT's plans. They are as follows:
-Removal of dedicated turning lanes
**Leaving these would be detrimental to bikers and walkers.
-Striping all bike lanes within the project
**This improves level of service and safety for bikers.
-Commitment to relocate a grocery store in the neighborhood
**Such a crucial asset in a community needs to be replaced since
the existing store will be demolished by the widening.

On Thursday, May 22 at 4pm during the City Council Work Session (2nd floor Committee Rm.), these requests for changes to the NC DOT plan for Alston Ave. will be presented. PLEASE attend to stand in support during this presentation. City Council will do little to negotiate these changes with NC DOT until they know the community is serious. With a little over 70 seats in the committee room, I would like to see
it filled with supporters for a more responsible road design for Alston Ave.

So come next week on Thursday at 4pm. The meeting is no longer than an hour. You will not have to speak, but your STANDING IN SUPPORT of these requests for design changes will speak volumes.

Continue reading Alston Ave. widening update

More highway stupidity

Kevin and Gary have the details:

Never mind the opposition of the city's Economic and Workforce Development department - who know this won't bring economic development. Never mind the opposition of the city's Transportation Department, who know that this will do nothing to improve travel time, and do much to create hazardous conditions for pedestrians, including mass transit users.

Never mind the kids that will be hurt or killed trying to cross a 6-lane intersection. Never mind the kids that become obese because their parents, wisely, won't let them walk to school across a highway.

Never mind the people that won't buy and refurbish old/abandoned housing in the Golden Belt / Morning Glory historic district or Cleveland-Holloway because when they ask a realtor where the nearest park and school are, the realtor will say "across Alston Avenue."

Never mind the houses and business that will be destroyed. Never mind the loss of the neighborhood grocery store that the owner says he would invest $30,000 in tomorrow if he knew he wasn't going to be kicked out.

Never mind that East Durham is already on the upswing - with new businesses and new/renovated housing, with people excited to explore a neighborhood they didn't know, and longtime residents excited to see new businesses, people, and housing. Never mind that this is happening because investment in a human-scale landscape is already occurring - by the public and private sector - without Alston Avenue being turned into a freeway.

From the first point I saw this design, I advocated for a compromise design solution. Perhaps that was a mistake - perhaps I should have just advocated to kill this project from the start, before it, and neighborhoods, could become pawns in a local game of who-brung-the-money.

For the councilmembers who will endorse this project - I hope that this highway is your legacy. That every kid who can't cross the street without fearing for their life, every bicyclist run off the road, every speeding vehicle that runs off the road across a sidewalk on Alston Avenue reminds people that you voted for this boondoggle to feed your own political ambition. Thanks for showing that the politician's invocation of the oft-lamented destruction of neighborhoods by the Durham Freeway is absolute pandering b.s. - that, given the same choices, you would make the same exact mistake for the exact same reasons.

Gas is approaching 4 bucks a gallon. Anyone with vision can see that within two generations, maybe less, the one person/one car paradigm is going to be deader than 35 mm film cameras. Widening Alston Ave. according to this design locks that entire section of Durham into the 1980s for the next 50 years or more. There are very good proposals out there to turn this into the streetscape of the future, instead of the barren highway to yesterday. Too bad our elected officials are too blind to see it and too chickenshit to implement it.

Continue reading More highway stupidity

Alston Avenue

Phillip Barron has a good column in the HS on the Alston Ave. widening.

A March 2007 report from the John Locke Foundation (JLF) encouraged the state Department of Transportation and cities around the state to widen roads as the primary transportation strategy for economic development and alleviating congestion.

In April that year, I wrote a column for The Herald-Sun questioning the study's findings, and casting doubt in particular on whether the findings even applied to Durham. As I did then, I still encourage you to read it for yourself at http://www.johnlocke.org/site-docs/traffic/durham.html.

I noted then, that by David Hartgen's own admission, single-occupancy driving declined in Durham between 1990 and 2000, the time period at which his academic gaze is focused. The data show, and so he also admits, that carpooling and use of public transit increased. He further notes that Durham is the only urbanized area in the state to report declining solo driving times and increased carpooling and transit shares between 1990 and 2000. You might think, then, that the conclusions he reaches for Charlotte or Raleigh ought to differ from the conclusions he reaches for Durham's future.

Across the state, however, it's all the same. Eliminate transit. Widen roads. Pave early and often.

Concluding the article, I asked whether DOT will side with the John Locke Foundation or Durham residents. That remains to be seen, but the question remains for each of us to consider. Do roads exist to serve people or cars?

Also at the time, I wrote that I thought Durham had strong, visionary leadership that could see through the misguided Civitas/John Locke Foundation mindset, which thinks of road widening as economic development.

The city still has an able Transportation Department, and in November, the people of Durham voted against the Art Pope-backed candidate for mayor. So, why is the City Council considering toeing the JLF line? What happened to our leadership?

Why, indeed? Several city agencies, including the Transportation Department, are opposed to the NCDOT's Alston Ave. widening plans. There are better ideas out there. Tell your City Council you want to see them implemented.

Continue reading Alston Avenue

Alston Ave. widening project pulled from Council agenda

City Manager Patrick Baker commented over at Kevin's place the other day that the proposal to accept the NCDOT's plan (and funding) for widening three or four blocks of Alston Ave. north if I-85 was not going to be on the agenda for this Thursday's work session, and the published agenda bears that out.

That's pretty good news. Word last week was that Mayor Bill Bell thought he had the necessary four votes to get the project approved. He may still have them, but racially divided 4-3 votes in Council, especially for a project that is generating opposition within the community most directly affected, are not a good thing for Durham. Once again, you can email the entire City Council at council@ci.durham.nc.us and tell them you support the city's Transportation Department and Office of Economic Development in wanting something better for this part of town. Councilmembers Farad Ali and Howard Clement are said to be open to persuasion on this issue. Their contact information is here.

Continue reading Alston Ave. widening project pulled from Council agenda

Alston Ave. widening

I don't have much to add to what Gary, Kevin, and Aidil have already said about the Alston Ave. widening project. Just that the city has talked a great game over the past few years when it comes to pedestrians, bicyclists, and other, non-automobile transportation modes. But when the rubber meets the road, so to speak, it appears to be same old same old.

If you want to add your voice to the opposition to this project, and in support of the alternative being put forward by community activists and some city staff*, you can email the entire city council directly at council@ci.durham.nc.us

I'm told that Howard Clement and Farad Ali are likely to be swing votes on this project. Their contact information is here.

===============
*

And this is what we can do. Although people seized on the "shift the money" thing publicized a few weeks ago as a way to manipulate the process, the suggestion was: shift the state money to Fayetteville St., and let NCDOT do their unitary suburban highway design down by Martin Luther King. Then shift the city money that would have been spent on Fayetteville to Alston - so that the city can design a better road. Combined with streetscape funds from the Office of Economic Development, we could build a functional and beautiful street that would be the envy of other parts of Durham.

Continue reading Alston Ave. widening