A Lost Year

Around this time a year ago, i recall Mrs. D saying something about being happy to see the back end of 2010. I agreed with the thought, as the last 2 months of the year were filled with her mom's failing health. Had i known then what i know now . . .

The elder Mrs. D continued her decline through the early part of the year, and passed in mid-March. She spent her last days receiving hospice care at Carillon Assisted Living in Hillsborough.

After she died it was time, we thought, to get back to our lives. My buddy Jeff and i took a road trip up to DC and Baltimore to catch some baseball. He was happy, because that early in the season the Orioles hadn't started totally sucking, and actually beat the Red Sox. The Mets lost to the Nationals, which was a harbinger of a mediocre season. (For the record, the Mets finished 8 under .500 at 77-85, 25 games behind the Phils. The O's? 69-93, 28 games back of the Yankees.)

But it was a phone call on the trip that ended up being most significant. Mrs. D called while we were stopped for gas (either a few minutes before or just after i had saved a flock of baby geese from being run over by some speeding moron behind me.) The radiologist had seen something he didn't like on her mammogram, and while it was probably nothing, could she come back in for another one in the next few weeks?

As it turned it, it wasn't nothing, and the past 8 months have become an ongoing lesson in the vocabulary, diagnosis, history, and treatment of breast cancer in the early 21st Century. Which, thank goodness, is light years ahead of where it was even in the latter years of the previous century. There are 3 ways of dealing with cancer - surgery for removing localized tumors; radiation for killing stray cells in the affected organ; and chemicals for disrupting the metabolic and reproductive processes of cancer cells in both the affected organ and anywhere else in the body they may have migrated. The organ of origin, degree of development, and the specific mutations of the DNA of the tumor determine which of the treatments are recommended. Mrs. D got very lucky and hit the trifecta - 2 surgeries in June, 6 weeks of radiation in July and August, and 3 months of chemo from October through December. The doctors didn't learn about the oncotype of the tumor until after her radiation treatments had started. It's apparently unusual to have radiation before chemo, but the original plan had not included chemotherapy, so that's why the sequence of treatments went the way they did.

It's never been in my thoughts to be a cancer blogger or a cancer diarist. From the very first conversations with the folks at Duke Hospital, there has been a high degree of confidence that the cancer was found early enough to be treated, and that this wasn't going to be a life threatening experience. Rather, an 8 month pain in the ass that was going to impact every aspect of our daily lives and pocketbooks, but one with a well-defined roadmap and a knowable destination, even if that map leads you through pretty dark places. And the destination, although knowable, is not a guarantee. Mrs. D's been a trouper these 8 months. But i know she'd prefer to put the map away and never have to look at it again. I guess everyone who hears those words from a doctor has to come to their own bargain with mortality. I'm thankful that Mrs. D's should end up with her living out a normal allotment of years. So that's the bulk of the journey we've been on the past 8 months, and if there are any of you out there who i haven't seen in the real world who've been missing my sparkling wit, now you know where it's been hiding.

But of course that wasn't our only experience with the health care system this year. On Halloween, being the middle aged guy i am, i went into the clinic for a routine colonoscopy. (I'm no more interested in cancer treatments now than i was a year ago, despite the increased familiarity with the process.) No cancer, but i did have a small polyp (a serrated adenoma, if you must know) removed from my ascending colon. No big deal; this kind of thing happens to hundreds of people every day.

But only a few of them (maybe 1 in 500 or so) gets to bleed out through the wound the following day. And of those, only an even scanter handful actually pass a couple of liters of blood. Fortunately, i made the call to hit the ER early on in the sequence, and was already being seen when the largest part of the hemorrhage occurred. Two days later, with a new plug in my cecum (more like a staple, actually) and a refill, i was given back to the real world. So the folks at Duke Emergency will have my gratitude for a long time, even those doctors who asked if i wanted my heart to be restarted should it stop while they were working on me; the surgeon who told me that, if the stapling effort didn't work that he'd probably be going in to take my colon home for display; and whoever it was who asked, before another needle full of sedation, if i wanted to speak with a chaplain. (I told the surgeon that i had checked my calendar before coming to the hospital, and that colon removal was not on my to-do list that day; to the chaplain question i merely responded "why?")

2011 wasn't all bad news, although, as the kewl kids say, the bad news rather dominated the narrative. Mrs. D and i finally got our shit together long enough to find a house up near the Eno River, and we've left the continuing deterioration of the Avondale Drive corridor in the hands of the city of Durham its Neighborhood Improvement Services Department, and the various shitty landlords who own those properties. A quick glance at real estate trends shows that 4 houses on the east side of Avondale sold for around $30,000 over the past 12 months or so. On my block, several houses went on the market on 2011 for under $100/square foot (about half of what comparable houses sell for in Old West Durham or Trinity Park); as of this writing, neither had sold. We were lucky enough to have family members who wanted to live in the neighborhood, so we're not dealing with either unknown tenants or the vagaries of the resale market just yet. With any luck, things will pick up enough in 2012 that selling the house at any sort of profit becomes possible.

The other bit of news on the plus side of the ledger also involved the older daughter and her husband - not only have they traded in Minnesota winters for North Carolina summers, but they'll be bringing a baby into the world come May 2012. Not that grampahood was ever anything i planned for. but as Mrs. D said, as long as we're dealing with all this other crap that comes with the getting older territory, we might as well have a baby to look after once in a while.

So as it turns out, the very first entry in Dependable Erection was posted 6 years ago today. I guess it's fitting to post this, which will be last entry in the blog, today. I never had any expectations for this blog. I mentioned once or twice that the only audience i ever had in mind was myself, and i wanted to have something that i could look at 4 or 10 years down the road and remember what i was thinking back then. But if i made anyone laugh, or think, or say, what the fuck, well, that was a bonus. The new phase in my life doesn't involve having to deal with the incompetence of the city of Durham (for which i am immeasurably grateful), inconsiderate neighbors (ditto), and, with any luck, health issues. I'll have some things to say in the New Year, some images to share, and, if you have any interest in what that might be, check back in a couple of weeks for a link to the new site.

Have a Happy New Year.

Continue reading A Lost Year

Demolition by neglect?

So, let's see if i understand this:

DURHAM, N.C. - The Durham City/County Planning Department has received a written request to suspend the Demolition by Neglect investigation and determination process regarding the condition of the Liberty Warehouse.



Paragraph 3.19.2B of the Unified Development Ordinance stipulates that the Demolition by Neglect process may be suspended if the property owner agrees in writing to rectify the alleged conditions of neglect within a reasonable timeframe.



The property owner, Durham Liberty, LLC, has committed to rectify the Liberty Warehouse’s deficiencies within a timeframe determined as reasonable by the Durham City/County Planning Department. Therefore, the pending Demolition by Neglect investigation has been suspended, and the public meeting scheduled for Thursday, June 16, 2011, at 5:30 p.m. is cancelled in recognition of that suspension.



Failure to make the necessary repairs to the structure within an approved timeframe will be cause to reinstate the investigation in accordance with UDO paragraph 3.19.2B.

So, apparently, the city attempted to invoke a provision of its zoning ordinance (an occurrence so rare that it ought to be circled in red on the calendar lest we forget that it actually happened) prohibiting "demolition by neglect," in the case of Greenfire's Liberty Warehouse building, which sustained serious damage during a rainstorm last month and had to be condemned, forcing all tenants to scramble to find new digs. Greenfire responded by agreeing, in writing, to make all necessary repairs within a "reasonable time frame." I don't know what's "reasonable" in this case, do you? Six months? 18 months? 18 years?

What action would the city take if Greenfire left this historically significant building vacant and unmaintained for 18 years, right in the heart of a thriving downtown district?

One need look no further afield than a mile north, where the Duke Park bathhouse has sat, idle, vacant, and decaying, since it closed just after Labor Day, 1993. Despite earnest and repeated efforts by several community organizations to take the building on as a project and turn it into a community use center, the landlord has not only failed to negotiate in good faith with those tenants, but has used the building to store out of date paperwork and other fire hazards, while completely neglecting any maintenance issues.

Of course, since the landlord is the city of Durham itself, one hardly imagines that the neglect by demolition portion of our development ordinance will be invoked here.

If i was someone who gave a shit, i'd probably let City Manager Tom Bonfield know just how bad something like this makes the city look.

But i'm pretty much done with that part of my life. I figure i'll check in on the bathhouse in another 18 years, and see if any progress has been made.

Continue reading Demolition by neglect?

Bialystock and Bloom

I can't quite put my finger on why, but this story in the Herald-Sun reminds me of this.

The original, and far superior version.

Continue reading Bialystock and Bloom

Because the current system doesn't encourage enough people to dump their shit on the street, that's why

From the Herald-Sun:

Solid Waste Management Director Donald Long is telling elected officials he thinks it's "imperative" for Durham to emulate other North Carolina cities and begin charging residents a monthly collection fee for garbage and recycling.

Long said the move would enable his department to reduce its annual demand for property tax revenues, which in fiscal 2011-12 will cover $12.5 million of a $21.3 million budget.

One listserv correspondent wrote:

My initial response to this proposal is: What a terrible idea. We see how badly this fee-for-service system works with yard waste. When it became fee based, people opted out. To make garbage & recycling fee-for-service based in a community such as ours, with a 50% rental housing rate, is a recipe for disaster. What happens if residents don't pay the fee? Their garbage isn't picked up? Whose responsibility is it to see the fee is paid: the residents? The property owner? The property manager? If a resident moves, does their trash fee move with them or would they have to pay again at a new property? Who will insure that fees are paid and trash is collected for each household? What happens if a property manager or rental owner goes belly-up and these fees aren't paid? How will the current legislation pending that would prohibit rental registries and limit inspections impact problems with trash pick-up, non-payment of fees? What happens if owners decide not to pay? Who will clean up after the inevitable surge of illegal dumping? Handle complaints from businesses who find other people's garbage in their commercial bins? Will animal control increase their responses to rat and pest infestations?

Oh, you mean like this rental property at 110 E. Markham Ave?


Yeah, Durham really needs to give its shitty landlords more of an incentive to be fuckups.

(And out of curiosity, i'm not going to report this to One-Call. It's on the Roxboro side of the building, and i imagine that there are at least a couple of dozen city employees, and at least one or two council members, who drive past this pile of shit daily on their way home from work. Let's see how long it takes for one of them to report this.)

UPDATE 6/2: So the trash was gone when i checked at 8 pm last night. No idea if the landlords will be picking up the tipping fees (and penalties for mixing yard waste, electronics, and recyclables in with the busted up furniture and used paint containers), or if that privilege will be passed on to the schlubs who pay their taxes and sort their trash because it's the right thing to do.

Continue reading Because the current system doesn't encourage enough people to dump their shit on the street, that's why

God bless the grass

The street where i live.

Continue reading God bless the grass

Eyes and ears

This could, and perhaps sometime soon will, be a much longer explication of my relationship with this town. But for now, there's this.

Seems every time i meet with someone who works for the city, i get some variation of this speech. "Durham doesn't have enough (insert job description here) to stay on top of (insert urban problem here.) Because of this, we need you to be our eyes and ears on the street. Let us know what the problems are, so that we can devote our resources to solving them."

But after 10 years at my current address, letting you folks know what it is that i'm seeing and hearing pretty much every freakin' day that makes my surroundings ugly and unsafe, i've come to the conclusion that you're really not interested in making things better, and you'd be a lot happier if i weren't your eyes and ears.

And i'm all about making you happy.

Continue reading Eyes and ears

Real journalism

Samiha Khanna shines a light on the backroom dealings of K&L Gates in this week's Indy.

The money quote?

The attorneys and their public relations team declined several requests for interviews with the Indy.

All their protestations to the contrary about how they believe their work is in the best interests of the community yadda yadda yadda vanish in a plume of smoke. They don't want to talk about it in public.

Durham - you've got a pretty clear choice ahead of you in the next two years, as we vote first on 4 of our City Council seats this year, and then all 5 of our County Commissioners seats next year. Do you want these land use attorneys pushing projects and policies that will turn Durham into the new Atlanta, or do you want a sustainable, organic growth process that allows us to become a new model for the 21st century.

That decision will be made in the next 16 months.

Continue reading Real journalism

Isn't it time . . .

That Durham scrapped this bullshit de-facto at-large City Council system and put in place a true district/ward representative system? There are competing interests in the city who are almost completely without a voice the way things are currently structured, what with every member of council having to win votes from every district.

As it stands, none of us "have a representative" on Council, and it's just way too easy for the moneyed interests to game the current system.

Continue reading Isn't it time . . .

New Year - Same Old Shit

Durham's City Council holds its first meeting of 2011 tonight, and lo and behold, Southern Durham Development's 751 South project is on the agenda. Following a 2 year run at the clown show that is the Board of County Commissioners, SDD and their lawyers, K&L Gates, are asking the City Council to redraw the Urban Growth Area boundaries, thus including the parcel adjacent to Jordan Lake in order to provide a path for sewer and water services to be brought in, as well as to obviate the current lawsuit filed by opponents of the project over the actions of the BoCC and County Attorney Lowell Siler in the run-up to the BoCC's rezoning of the parcel last year.

The Indy, BCR, the Herald-Sun, & the N&O have all covered the details of that tawdry episode, so i'm not going to bother with a recap.

Let's just note a couple of things.

First, there is only one reason to even consider this request. And that is to ensure that the investors make the maximum profit possible. If you believe that's the role of government, then you're in favor of annexation.

Second, Durham doesn't need to develop its rural fringes in order to grow its tax base. There are plenty of redevelopment opportunities in town, that take advantage of existing infrastructure, to do that. The area surrounding the old ballpark, for instance, is primed to take off in the next 3 or 4 years, and don't be surprised to see hundreds, if not a thousand or more, new residential units come on line in that part of town now that large chunks of it have been rezoned for higher density residential. The infrastructure investments required to serve that population increase will be an order of magnitude less than having to provide new services to a village sized community on the far fringe of the county.

Third, how will this development provide a match between the jobs it creates, and the parts of our community that are most in need of those jobs? It's about 15 miles from downtown Durham to this project, which may as well be in Richmond, VA, for job seekers who don't own their own transportation. Hell, both Chapel Hill and Cary are closer to the 751 project site than Northeast Central Durham.

The developers have done a great job incorporating lots of 21st century buzzwords into their presentations. We hear that this will be a livable streets mixed use development, with lots of environmental impact mitigations to lessen the effect of paving large areas of rural land. The bottom line, though, is that none of that matters. This is a stupid idea whose costs will be borne by all of Durham's taxpayers, and whose profits will accrue to a handful of investors. County Commissioners, who don't have to face the voters until May 2012, have already shown who they side with. Half of our City Council, as well as the Mayor, are on the ballot this year. They may be a little more mindful of the consequences of their actions.

Continue reading New Year - Same Old Shit

751 Assemblage

So, among the other items we've been neglectful of as December hastens towards its close is updating you on the fate of the 751 South project wich seemed ot occupy so much of our time earlier this year.

Fortunately, Ray Gronberg does this for a living, and he's already told you that the developers and their attorneys are trying to get the services contract, which would bring water and sewer to the distant village-sized project in south Durham.

Council members are scheduled to get their first look at the proposed service extension contract today, and will have to decide whether to put it on the agenda for a vote at their Jan. 3 business meeting.

The request already has drawn heated opposition from one of Durham's key political groups, the People's Alliance, and from dozens of people who have e-mailed council members to say consideration of the request is premature.

. . .

City Manager Tom Bonfield, though, said the developers have questioned why he and his staff should sit on an extension contract.

"They've argued -- what's the reason we wouldn't at least consider it, or move it to the policy level," Bonfield said, alluding to the developers' contention that extensions and annexation are a matter for the city's elected political leaders and not its unelected staff to decide.

The manager also said the developers would argue that the staff has "been negligent to [an] ordinance" that sets a deadline for processing applications for utility extensions.

City Attorney Patrick Baker, however, said Monday he's aware of no such ordinance.

Officials do generally pledge an answer to applications in six months, and city officials received Southern Durham Development's Inc. request in March, Baker said.

But the city code on utility extensions to land outside the city limits does specify that decisions on such applications are discretionary as far as the council is concerned.

That means the council can say yes or no, with a no leaving developers unable to count on access to utilities and with little basis for arguing that such access is a matter of right.

Bonfield had halted work over the summer on both on the extension contract and the annexation that 751 South's developers have requested. He said he decided work should resume after the two sides in the zoning fight opted this fall to take it to court rather than going to Durham's Board of Adjustment.

One quick note here - it's my understanding of the case that County Attorney Lowell "Encyclopedia Brown" Siler made the decision that the Board of Adjustment would not be able to rule on the legality of the BoCC's decision to invalidate the original protest petition filed int he rezoning case, which necessitated the lengthier and more expensive lawsuit currently under way.

No matter, though. Our sources tell us that Council has agreed with the notion that that lawsuit should be decided before making their annexation and services extension decisions. For Durhamites who believe our elected officials, and not the attorneys of K&L Gates, should be making decisions about what the Durham of the future will look like, that's a victory indeed.

Continue reading 751 Assemblage

Water main breaks

Gotta love this.

The Durham County Administrative Building is closed Tuesday, November 30, 2010 due to a water main breakage in downtown Durham.

If you're on Facebook, and you follow DurhamNC, you get this additional tidbit:

UPDATE ON WATER MAIN BREAK:
Building at 200 E. Main St is still closed. Taxpayers with bills due today can go to Tax Kiosk at Northgate Mall & pay by credit card or cash.

What's that you say? You don't have a car? You walked over to the County building? Well, there goes your afternoon, huh? I suspect that those on Facebook can figure out how to pay their tax bill online. It's the ones who aren't who are going to need that info about Northgate.

Let's not even get started on how many jobs we could be creating with a real stimulus program that started upgrading our century old infrastructure.

Continue reading Water main breaks

Expanding the commercial district

I was walking downtown for dinner the other night with Mrs. D. Our walk takes us past the two currently vacant properties on Markham near Mangum. One is currently available through Preservation Durham; not sure what the status of the other is, though i keep hearing rumors that someone has plans for it.

PD touts the potential of their property to be restored to single family housing. At around 50 bucks a square foot, that's probably doable, though it
s been available for most of the year, so it might still need to come down again.

From my perspective, though, a neighborhood commercial use for these buildings is even more desirable. I'm thinking of a Four Square type restaurant, or perhaps a law office. Of course, the city has got to do a couple of things on that block no matter what's going to happen to those buildings. For starters, the plastic Rhino wall on the curve as you go from Markham to southbound Mangum has got to go. That was a temporary installation that was supposed to last a year or two until the city got around to the permanent modifications for that intersection. 2011 will mark the wall's 8th anniversary.

Enforcing city codes at the other 2 buildings on the block, including the apartment building that was the site of a multiple homicide a few years back at the SW Roxboro/Markham corner shouldn't be that difficult. Multiple city administrators and elected officials drive past those buildings every day on their way to city hall. You'd think someone would be paying attention to the state of that intersection. The only explanation i can come up with is that it's so dangerous to drive through there, and people are going so fast, that they don't have the cognitive ability to pay attention to much more than the car in front of them.

That's why i was so thrilled the other night to see someone with entrepreneurial spirit taking notice of this corner. On our way back from dinner, around 7:45 or so on Saturday night, i was solicited for a sexual encounter by a woman working the street. while i was walking by with my wife.

The only thing that would make this any better would be to buy the woman a T-shirt that reads "Great Things Are Happening in Durham" and let her solicit those out-of-towners who are driving through to the DPAC to see Billy Elliott. That would give them the full Durham experience.

Continue reading Expanding the commercial district

I confess

I've been way too caught up in what's going on with the sale of Liverpool FC to blog about something so trivial as neighborhood convenience stores conveniently acting as fences for neighborhood thieves.

Continue reading I confess

More Durham goodness

I guess this will be the wedding portrait.

Continue reading More Durham goodness

Do you love Durham?

Well, isn't it about time you took the next step and made that commitment?

Continue reading Do you love Durham?

Anti-climax

Hey, Durham?

There are a lot more people watching your fireworks display than can fit in the DBAP.

Maybe it's time to think about them for a change?

Just sayin'.

Continue reading Anti-climax

Updating again - sleazeball tactics

Another email from Wanda Boone, and i have to say it sounds as though she understands the first law of holes.

Dear Fellow Citizens,

Mistake number 1.

I naively carried a message regarding the above as requested by the Facilitator of City-Wide PAC about a very important vote that took place several months ago.

Although information was provided to PAC 1 via Melvin Whitley about the important safety features of electronic billboards, it is obvious that PAC 1 might not have received all of the information at the disposal of others. It is also obvious that there are still silos between us as PAC members. I suggest that a larger conversation should have taken place during City-wide PAC which would have been a great use of our time.

To make sure that this happens, I would like to invite members of PAC 2 as well as Mike Woodard to attend our next PAC 1 meeting to present the information that you have.

My sincere apologies for any misunderstanding, confusion or seeming misrepresentation. It was unintential on my part. I have spent 39 years in Durham and a lifetime of building a trusted reputation in the community that I have no desire to see end on this issue.

I hope that both my apology and invitation are accepted.
Best Regards,
Wanda
Wanda Boone

Now, let's go back to Ms. Boone's earlier email and look at this quote:

3. The request for me to speak came via Harold Chestnut, City-wide PAC to voice the result of City-wide PAC's vote (period) in favor of the electronic billboard "for the safety of our Durham Community". The majority of PAC representatives voted yes during the City-wide PAC meeting in question and the process was conducted fairly, as overseen by Harold. I carried the message.

emphasis added

Jumping ahead, here's an email from the PAC 2 list today, addressed to PAC 2 co-facilitator Bill Anderson:

Not to put too fine a point on it, but I think this is kind of important: as far as I've heard, PAC2 -- the organization that meets monthly at the DPS Training Center -- has not formally voted on the issue.

In the future, if a similar situation were to arise at the Citywide PAC meeting, I would suggest making a motion to table the question until the emissaries from each of the five PAC groups have received instructions from their respective memberships.

And Bill's response:

There's nothing overly "fine" about your important point. I did try to table it in that way, and every other way I could think of at the time.
The attorney representing Fairway said there wasn't enough time, so the Chair agreed to vote on it that evening. My objections barely slowed it down ten minutes.

emphasis added

So, enquiring minds want to know, what was so important about this vote, conducted, according to Wanda Boone "several months ago," that City Wide PAC Chair Harold Chestnut had to have it voted on that night, without allowing for alternative viewpoints to be presented, without allowing for the facilitators to consult with their respective groups to determine how they wished their organization to vote, and without questioning the credentials to vote of one of the 3 facilitators who voted in favor of the resolution, and who, according to the current facilitator of PAC 5, was not authorized to represent that group, and voted against that groups expressed preferences?

I don't know anything about Mr. Chestnut; don't think i've ever met him. But this information seems to indicate that he's at the center of this ill-advised decision to jump into bed with Fairway Outdoor Advertising. Would love to hear his take on this situation.

Continue reading Updating again - sleazeball tactics

Updating again - sleazeball tactics

From the comments:

Marion Lamberth does not represent PAC5, and I am insulted to learn that she presented herself as such at this meeting. The co-facilitators of PAC5 are myself and Ms. Alice Cheek. Ms. Lamberth has not attended a PAC5 meeting in the two plus years that I have been co-facilitator. She was a former co-facilitator of PAC5, incorrectly presented herself as representing PAC5 on the CCIP Advisory Board, and now I learn she is casting votes when a) she is not authorized to cast such votes; and b) she has no possible understanding of the desires of the PAC since she does not even attend our meetings.

I am dumbfounded.

PAC5 did discuss the billboard ban at one of our monthly meetings, and all in attendance supported the existing ban. Ms. Cheek, my co-facilitator, attends the City-Wide PAC meetings, and was either late or absent for the meeting in question.

Scott Harmon

Wow.

What the fuck is Fairway thinking?

Continue reading Updating again - sleazeball tactics

Updating - sleazeball tactics

Wanda Boone of Durham TRY, who claimed to speak for Partners Against Crime at Fairway's press conference yesterday, has just sent out an email to the various PAC's.

Good Afternoon Everyone,

Four very quick points:
1. Have have not been contacted by nor have I made statements to the media regarding anything that has been in print.

2. TRY received donated billboard space in late 2007 after my approaching Fairway with the request. Fairway did not at any time offer free billboard space to TRY. As you see this transaction occurred prior to any recent electronic billboard discussions.

3. The request for me to speak came via Harold Chestnut, City-wide PAC to voice the result of City-wide PAC's vote (period) in favor of the electronic billboard "for the safety of our Durham Community". The majority of PAC representatives voted yes during the City-wide PAC meeting in question and the process was conducted fairly, as overseen by Harold. I carried the message.

4. I appreciate and respect the opinions of all those who wish to voice them. TRY's mission continues to be to prevent the devastating effects of substance abuse and underage drinking. Our billboard has been a successful tool in reaching that goal which is separate and apart from the electronic billboard discussion.

Best Regards,
Wanda
Wanda Boone

A couple of questions remain. Wanda claims that "The majority of PAC representatives voted yes during the City-wide PAC meeting in question and the process was conducted fairly, as overseen by Harold." We ask, when has the City-Wide PAC, a group which consists of the facilitators of the various district PACs, ever been asked to take a position on an issue like this? What information was available to the members of that group before they made their decision? So far as we know, only a representative of Fairway addressed the group? Were any other parties invited to present their viewpoints?

Continue reading Updating - sleazeball tactics

Sleazeball tactics

So i got an email yesterday telling me about a press conference in downtown Durham on behalf of the billboard "industry" and their ongoing attempts to have Durham's current billboard ordinance overturned. For about 20 years, after several court battles upheld Durham's right to ban new billboards through zoning ordinances, seemed like everybody was OK with that status quo. Then a new technology arrived, digital billboards, essentially giant flat-screen TVs for your highways, capable of showing new images every 10 or 15 seconds or so, the industry suddenly saw massive revenue streams available, and began pushing for modifications to the ordinance. "We just want to be able to replace a handful of our existing, rundown billboards with some of these new ones," they said. They offered access to some not-for-profit groups for occasional 10 second messages. They said that digital billboards were no more a traffic safety risk than conventional billboards.

Well, the jury's still out on that last one, since the study that came to that conclusion was, not surprisingly, funded by the industry, and objective evaluations of it cast doubt on its methodologies and conclusions. The full evidence isn't in yet, of course, but it's not looking good for the industry. Which probably explains why they're pushing so hard to get Durham's ban overturned. It'll be a lot harder to get of these things once they're installed, if the data shows that they're unsafe, than it will be to keep them from going up in the first place.

So anyway, didn't pay much attention to the press conference announcement since they've been doing this for three years.

Until i saw an email on the PAC 2 list asking if the PACs had endorsed the industry's position on overturning the billboard ordinance. WTF?

Quick digression - PAC stands for Partners Against Crime. There are 5 of them in Durham, roughly corresponding to the 5 police districts in town. I live in PAC 2, and i probably get to a couple of PAC meetings a year. It is a specifically non-political group in which citizens, police representatives, and city department heads interact and discuss concerns (street lighting, garbage pickup, maintenance issues, landlord/tenant conflicts, etc.) that can have impacts on crime and safety in neighborhoods. The PAC 2 website may not be completely up to date, but a review of the minutes of its meetings does not indicate that the issue of billboards was ever taken up.

So what gives?

Apparently, there's another PAC. It's called City-Wide PAC, and it consists of a meeting among the facilitators of the 5 distract PACs. And it was as a representative of this group that Wanda Boone, founder of Durham TRY, was speaking at yesterday's press conference. We'll get into some of the ironies of a group whose mission is to keep alcohol out of the hands of minors getting into bed with the billboard industry later. But for now, let's go to the videotape:

"Digital billboard technology is a wonderful tool" in locating missing persons and catching crooks, said Wanda Boone, representing Partners Against Crime at a press conference announcing the campaign this morning.

We've established that Wanda Boone presented herself as representing Partners Against Crime. How did that happen?

Here's an email from current PAC district 2 co-facilitator Bill Anderson:

Just returned from the City Wide PAC a couple hours ago, which is a monthly meeting of the 5 PAC Co-Facilitators. Often these meetings are very important, and should, theoretically, tie the five Police Districts together from a Partners Against Crime standpoint. I've never seen another company represented there before, or after, but sure enough...

A couple months ago, the attorney representing Fairway Advertising was there to pitch their case. At the end of the presentation, they requested PAC support. I objected as strongly as possible, mostly on the grounds that none of the PAC leaders could claim to know how their members would vote, and in essence, this would only be the opinion of the five individuals present, and WOULD NOT REPRESENT the PACs they lead.

I forced a vote to create a rule that City Wide PAC should NEVER vote on ANYTHING when the members of each of the individual PACs had not at least voted at their monthly meeting. That vote went south (3/2) and no such rule was created.

With PAC3's Patty Cloninger and I staring dumbfounded at each other across the table, and Melvin Whitley smiling like a Cheshire cat at the end, they took the vote to another predictable 3/2, and Chair Harold Chesnut gave that company permission to claim that City Wide PAC endorses it.

Marion Lamberth, PAC 5, Wanda Boone PAC 1, and Harold Chestnut, PAC 4 ~ IN FAVOR

Patty Coninger, PAC 3 and Bill Anderson, PAC 2 ~ AGAINST

I was powerless to stop this insane vote, cited the DCVB survey, but mostly general process. Mind you, the above folks are community leaders, and City Wide PAC often serves a good purpose, but that evening, in my opinion, it erred dramatically.

So, the company left with permission to claim City Wide PAC support, and I reserve the right to explain to the best of my ability, how they got it.

This is the first I've seen of Wanda's quote, so this is the first time I've explained what I bore witness to that evening.

Are you taking notes? Because this is important. Fairway Outdoor Advertising pitched itself to a meeting of the 5 facilitators of the PACs throughout the city, and asked for their endorsement of Fairway's billboard proposal. They didn't go to the individual PACs, and they didn't ask the facilitators to go back to their groups to obtain their endorsements. They got three people to approve their resolution, and then got those three people to put "City-Wide Partners Against Crime" behind their names.

Still paying attention? Because this is still important. You looked at the Durham TRY website linked above, right? You noticed that big billboard promoting Durham TRY, space donated by Fairway, right in the middle of the page, with a big "Thank You Fairway!" tag below it, right? OK. That's Wanda Boone's group. (And we'll still talk about the irony of a group devoted to keeping alcohol away from underage youth getting in bed with the billboard industry later.)

Let's go back to the videotape again:

The InterNeighborhood Council has gone on record opposing Fairway's request, but Fairway General Manager Paul Hickman said the council is not representative of the county as a whole. The INC lists 31 neighborhoods as members, out of more than 100 registered with the city/county planning department.

Now, you may remember a while back, the Inter-Neighborhood Council was the first group that Fairway and its partners attempted to persuade to get on board its campaign. At the time, Craigie Sanders was the INC president. Craigie, as it happens, is also an attorney at the firm representing Fairway, K&L Gates. One of my favorite of Craigie's moves as INC president was when he invited his fellow Gates attorney Patrick Byker to pay dues for the dormant Rockwood Neighborhood Association and become its representative to the INC, which backfired when other neighbors became aware of this and revitalized their Neighborhood Association as a result.

So - another brief digression. Inter-Neighborhood Council (with or without the hyphen) is another group in Durham that meets monthly, and invites all recognized neighborhood and homeowners associations in Durham to be members. It often takes positions on controversial issues, but in a somewhat more transparent fashion than the "City-Wide PAC" we talked about earlier. A neighborhood may ask for an INC endorsement of a position on, say, changing the billboard ordinance. A resolution will be drafted during a first meeting. At the next meeting, or sometimes even the next two meetings, information will be presented about the impacts of the proposal, and proponents and opponents will be invited to speak. INC delegates go back to their neighborhoods and discuss the various presentations and positions, and other neighborhood residents are welcome to attend INC meetings if they want firsthand information. The resolution may be amended or rewritten. Eventually, a vote is taken and INC's position is established. It may not be the prettiest process, and it may not be the timeliest process, but it would be fair to say that it provides for a significant amount of participation among Durham residents who are interested in the issue at hand.

Unlike, say, getting three industry supporters into a room and having them vote on an issue with no discussion amongst their constituents.

So when Fairway General Manager Paul Hickman says the council is not representative of the county as a whole, while standing next to Wanda Boone, who he knows does not represent the city as a whole, we are safe in describing his tactics as disingenuous, sleazy, underhanded, and reprehensible. At this point it would be reasonable to ask Mr. Hickman what percentage of Durham's billboard advertising revenues are generated by alcohol advertising, and more specifically, by alcohol ads placed in Durham's at-risk communities, specifically along Alston Ave. and US 70 in East Durham? And what percentage and total revenues do they anticipate the new "digital" billboards will generate in those same areas? And then it would be reasonable to ask Wanda Boone why it is that her group is willing to sell itself to the billboard industry, which is one of the prime vectors for alcohol advertising aimed at at-risk young people, the same people her organization claims to be trying to reach, for the price of a few free billboard ads? Could it be that Durham TRY is more interested in establishing its organizational position in the political landscape than in actually getting kids to postpone alcohol consumption? Because if that was their true goal, eliminating outdoor advertising for alcohol would be a much more effective tactic than merely subbing one out of every 4 Crown Royal ads with Durham TRY PSA, wouldn't it?

Noted: Kevin wakes up much earlier than i do.

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