Parks and Rec

Seems to me that Durham's Parks and Rec Department has only themselves to blame for this clusterfuck. Years after presenting a master plan for OND park, with no intention of ever finding the finding for it, they encouraged a private/public partnership to take the initiative. Who could have foreseen that there might be competing interests when it comes to a neighborhood park?

Can't say our city council is covering itself in glory over this either. If citizens could work out every difference between competing interest groups, we wouldn't exactly need an elected leadership, would we?

Durham's a big enough city to have a parks master plan and the funding to implement it. flying by the seat of our pants may be the Durham tradition, but it doesn't bode well for a long marriage.

Continue reading Parks and Rec

Kelly Bryant

Very early on in the lifespan of this blog, i yoinked a post from Nicomachus about a pedestrian bridge that was under consideration for spanning the Durham Freeway.

Tonight, the bridge was officially dedicated to Durham treasure R. Kelly Bryant.



I guess sometimes plans really do come together. Everyone involved deserves a hug.

Continue reading Kelly Bryant

Marriage equality resolution passes Durham City Council

No link yet, but all my Facebook friends are saying it, so it must be true.

Unanimous vote. Good for us.

Why were the local media playing up the "controversial" aspects of this?

Continue reading Marriage equality resolution passes Durham City Council

Billboards

Lot of discussion about billboards around town this week. Kevin's recap of the issue is here. Here's the Herald Sun report on Fairway's (the company that owns most of the billboards in town) presentation to the INC to lobby for a change to the local ordinance that governs billboards. (Read Kevin's post to understand the ins and outs of the deal.) Nothing so far in the N&O, but i wouldn't be surprised if Jim wise has something in the weekend Durham News.

Here's the piece that nobody's picking up on yet.

The INC presentation was made by Patrick Byker, attorney for Fairway. Byker works for the law firm of K&L/Gates. As does Craigie Sanders, the current president of the Inter Neighborhood Council. We've pointed out the appearance of a conflict of interest in Craigie's two positions in the past. As far as i'm concerned, that's just getting worse.

K&L/Gates Associates:
K&L Gates LLP comprises 1,700 lawyers who practice in 28 offices located on three continents: Anchorage, Austin, Beijing, Berlin, Boston, Charlotte, Dallas, Fort Worth, Harrisburg, Hong Kong, London, Los Angeles, Miami, Newark, New York, Orange County, Palo Alto, Paris, Pittsburgh, Portland, Raleigh, Research Triangle Park, San Francisco, Seattle, Shanghai, Spokane/Coeur d'Alene, Taipei and Washington. K&L Gates represents capital markets participants and leading global corporations, growth and middle-market companies, and entrepreneurs in every major industry group as well as public sector entities, educational institutions and philanthropic organizations. Our practice is robustly a full market practice — at once regional, national and international in scope — and it is cutting edge, complex, and dynamic.

Patrick L. Byker Counsel
Research Triangle Park +1.919.466.1264
Fax +1.919.516.2064
patrick.byker@klgates.com Add to Outlook Contacts


Areas of Practice • Professional/Civic Activities • Speaking Engagements • Bar Admissions • Education • Additional Information

Areas of Practice

Mr. Byker focuses his practice on land use and zoning. He was previously Vice President of Government Relations with the Greater Durham Chamber of Commerce.
==========

Craigie D. Sanders Real Estate Staff Lawyer
Research Triangle Park +1.919.466.1259
Fax +1.919.516.2059
craigie.sanders@klgates.com Add to Outlook Contacts


Areas of Practice • Professional/Civic Activities • Bar Admissions • Education • Additional Information

Areas of Practice

Mr. Sanders focuses his practice on land use planning and development matters. In addition to having extensive experience in working with elected and appointed government officials, he has experience conducting neighborhood and community meetings.

As a former city planner, Mr. Sanders also has experience in comprehensive planning, rezoning matters, Board of Adjustment requests, plan amendments, historic preservation matters and city ordinance revisions.

No way it's a coincidence that the INC is being pitched on the billboard ordinance revision, after so many years of that group leading the fight against billboards. One more step along the road to irrelevance for this once important organization.

Continue reading Billboards

Bus stop

I think this is the bestest bus stop ever. Nothing says "Our customers have no other choice but to use us" like a big fucking mud puddle in the middle of nowhere to stand around in waiting for the bus that only comes every half an hour.

And certainly nobody in a wheelchair better ever need to ride this bus.

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Bowser!

Kevin has some plumbing advice for our newest returning County Commissioner.

Let's hope he heeds it.

Continue reading Bowser!

Curious

A new website opposing the light sculpture installation that the city recently approved at the DPAC claims to be "Operation Funded By The Citizens of Durham, NC - The City of Medicine"

From the N&O:

According to Chris Waldrup of Apex, a member of Stop the Durham Light Tower, opponents consider the sculpture wasteful of energy; harmful and distracting to wildlife and nearby human residents; and a "gratuitous light pollution."

An "Open Letter" at the group's e-mail site describes it as "several environmentally aware citizens in central NC." The e-mail list had five subscribers as of Wednesday afternoon.

The group also contends that an environmental impact study should have been done before the council suspended its normal procedure to vote on the donation during its work session Oct. 23.

"We have no problem with the sculpture," Waldrup said in an interview, "only the light beam that would emanate from it."

Hey Chris? If you're going to start a group of Durham citizens opposed to something going on in Durham, you could at least try to get a spokesperson who, you know, actually lives in Durham.

For starters.

This reminds me of that Dallas Woodhouse guy from Raleigh who's opposing the prepared meals tax in Durham because it's "regressive" while fronting the anti-tax, rabid right-wing "Americans for Prosperity." Dude wouldn't know a "progressive" tax if it crawled out his asshole and sang the aria from Carmen. And Chris Waldrup? Yeah, maybe there are some issues with a light sculpture. But you sure as fuck aren't raising any of them with that sorry ass website of yours.

UPDATE: Ross points out in the comments that i may be misreading the "Stop the Light Sculpture" website, and that "Operation funded by the citizens of Durham NC" refers to the sculpture, and not the opposition. Maybe he's right. If he is, i apologize. But it certainly seems to me that they're claiming to represent the "citizens of Durham" in their opposition. But hey, i've been wrong before.

Continue reading Curious

Buses - money where my mouth is

Mrs. D's effort to liven up the new bus designs (below) got me thinking i should probably do more than just kvetch about how ugly they are.

So here's some possibilities.

first, in response to Tony in the comments, who wants to see a Camo bus.

Next, reader NS emails to say that the new designs don't let anybody know that the new buses are more environmentally friendly.

Or this one, which is the beaver lodge behind Compare Foods off Avondale and I-85:
My problem with the proposed designs is that there's absolutely nothing Durham about them. (Some folks might argue that the lack of identity is a Durham quality. I say those folks should STFU.) Here's some Durham-centric options.


And, finally, a crowd shot at the Durham Holiday Parade, from 2007.


Contemporary printing technology allows for very short run printing to be adhered to buses, making lots of different designs feasible. Surely a city with the world class aspirations of Durham can do better than the generic blandness proposed below. click on any of the photos to see a (slightly) larger version.

Got any ideas of your own? Email 'em to the address on the right sidebar, and i'll post 'em, you betcha.

Continue reading Buses - money where my mouth is

Don't bother

Eagle-eyed reader JH sends along this tidbit about the Bull Durham sequel, from the New York Post:

THE long-awaited sequel to "Bull Durham" is finally getting off the ground. A spy tells us Kevin Costner recently met with director Ron Shelton at Trader Vic's in LA to discuss reprising the role of carousing catcher Crash Davis from the 1988 baseball flick. Tim Robbins and Susan Sarandon are also expected to return as pitcher Nuke LaLoosh and baseball groupie Annie Savoy, who are now married and owners of a Major League team that Costner manages.

Seriously? You're gonna do a sequel of Bull Durham and have Annie and Ebby Calvin "Nuke" LaLoosh together as a married couple who own a big league team with Crash Davis working for them as manager? No fucking way. Nuke's big league career wouldn't have lasted as long as Mark "The Bird" Fydrich. You're gonna try and tell me he and Annie got together in 1996 after she dumped Crash Davis cause she didn't like living in Visalia, and made enough, a la Mark Cuban in the dot-com boom, to buy a fucking baseball team? And hire Crash to be their manager?

Oh, man. Maybe if they also do it as a zombie movie, it'll have a chance to be watchable.

Continue reading Don't bother