Be you

Just wanted to take a moment to thank Dorian over at the Beyú Caffe for the tour the other night. If he's even 50% successful in realizing his vision for this new coffeehouse, this will be a great addition to downtown culture.

And very nice of him to conduct his renovations without papering over the windows. Don't see that every day.

Continue reading Be you

Toast

I just wanted to take a minute to note the lovely meal Mrs. D and i had at Toast last night. Kelly and Bill really know what they're doing over there.

Continue reading Toast

Saturnified

Awesome parade and concert honoring Sun Ra yesterday through downtown and at the Arts Council.





The second stop is Jupiter.

thanks to Ms. Kaferine de Nerve for some photos.

Continue reading Saturnified

Whiskey

Couple of folks asking me over the past two days what's up with Whiskey, the new bar at Five Points that's been closed the past couple of nights.

Good news - they're open tonight, after some infrastructure repairs shut them down Thursday and Friday.

Continue reading Whiskey

What's wrong with this picture?

Herald-Sun:

Big events like the July 4 fireworks show and tonight's Bob Dylan concert could wind up giving the city a big black eye if officials can't figure out how to empty downtown's parking decks more quickly afterward, elected officials say.

City Council members Eugene Brown and Diane Catotti complained about the pace of departures from the decks beside the American Tobacco complex shortly after the fireworks show, saying it took 45 minutes to an hour for traffic to clear.


. . .

Brown and Catotti said the July 4 problems affected the so-called "north" deck - the city owned parking structure along West Pettigrew Street - and to their eye came in part because attendants were only letting people make a right onto Pettigrew from the single exit that was open.

Catotti - who said she needed about 40 minutes to get out of the deck despite being parked only one level up - added that a gate arm that dropped between every exiting car helped slow the process.

Lanier officials said the single-exit, right-turn-only arrangement on July 4 complied with the Durham Police Department's specifications.

Most cars had exited the north deck by about 11 p.m., following the fireworks' conclusion at about 9:45 p.m., Joe Vallejos, a Lanier senior project manager, said in an e-mail to city officials. He added that the company would do whatever police and other city officials tell it to.

Police were happy with the July 4 traffic flow.

Central District Capt. Loretta Clyburn told her higher-ups that it took only about 35 minutes to clear the area around the American Tobacco complex, and that the worst jams lasted only about 15 minutes.

"I consider this a great success considering there were about 10,000 people in the area for this event," she added in a July 8 message to Deputy Police Chief Beverly Council.

The deputy chief agreed, and noted that there's another factor aside from speed to consider. "Moving 10,000 people without any accidents is awesome," Council told Bonfield, also on July 8.

Because getting 10,000 people to come to Durham, spend their evening in the parking deck, and leave without any accidents, is exactly what we need to boost downtown, isn't it? Wouldn't want any of those visitors spending any time walking around downtown and visiting our awesome restaurants and cultural facilities, would we?

I'll be at the Dylan show tonight. And i won't be parking anywhere near a parking deck.

Continue reading What's wrong with this picture?

It's a start

Kevin's got the scoop that Rue Cler is selling pizza by the slice at lunch time over there on East Chapel Hill Street.

Not quite the full time pizzeria that downtown needs (and to be fair, downtown really needs more than one of these), but it's a start.

I will seriously drive from Hillsborough into downtown Durham one day next week, and buy Kevin pizza for lunch.

Continue reading It's a start

By the slice, bitches!

Ninth Street didn't have to do without pizza by the slice for too long, now, did it? How long before we see this sign, or one like it, inside the loop?

h/t and photo credit to reader JS

Continue reading By the slice, bitches!

Dinner

So Saturday night, Mrs D and i were talking about going out to dinner. We ended up at Kim Son, on Guess Rd., because it meets most of our dining out criteria: tasty food that we wouldn't make at home at a reasonable price, with decent service. With drinks, dessert, and tip we dropped well under 50 bucks.

The proximity of available parking did not figure into our decision at all. Of course, it would be great to have those kinds of dining options located in a part of town where, after dinner, you could walk to some other place for music, coffee, shopping, you know, the things that a downtown has*. Besides parking decks.

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*Brightleaf comes close to fitting that bill. In the summertime, at least. But Mt. Fuji doesn't compare to Kim Son.

Continue reading Dinner

Begging for change

Interesting discussion on the ABCD list the past few days about getting more people out into the CCB (or See Say Be, as our old friend Blazer used to call it) Plaza.

The question was asked about having street musicians or artists busking there as a way of drawing interest and spectators.

Joy Mickle, Downtown Development Coordinator for the city, wrote in to explain some of the roadblocks:

DDI, and the City of Durham's Office of Economic and Workforce Development, and Parks and Recreation have had discussions related to how to encourage/support/finance street performers in the CCB plaza and in downtown. Currently the issues of insurance/risk management for performers who may be injured and/or sue the City or the sponsoring company remain a hurdle. We are still working through some of these issues for a final solution.

Fair enough, i suppose. I know that New York, for example, at one time sponsored performers to busk in the subways; so there are probably models out there for dealing with the insurance issues. but Durham may have enough liability issues on its hands in the future not to want to take on more, and that's understandable.

Ben Kimmel then asked:

But what if I wanted to hang out there and play music? I don't mean set up a stage and massive speakers - just me and a guitar and 50-80 bikers? ; )

Here's where it gets interesting. Joy responded:

Legally you can sit out and play music on the street all day long as long as you don't ask for money (which violates the City of Durham's panhandling ordinance) and if you are getting paid (by the City or by a private entity) then you need a City of Durham business license (so City taxes can be tracked) and if something happened to you and you were being paid whoever is paying you then becomes liable.

The point is that there are questions to be answered if we are to have PAID street performers in Downtown. If people want to do it for free and are not "panhandling" then you can play your guitar till your heart is content (and then as long as it doesn't create a disturbance or violate a noise ordinance).

she also posted the relevant sections of city code, which the Attorney's office apparently determined meant that you cannot play your guitar with an open case in front of you.

Let's look at the ordinance. (Note to any city officials reading this - a big fat link to the city's Code of Ordinances on the city website is probably a good idea.)

Section 12-28 is the relevant section. Paragraph (a) defines a bunch of terms, including "To beg or solicit alms or contributions," "Accosting another person," "Forcing oneself upon the company of another person," and "Public place."

Paragraph (b) states, pretty clearly: It shall not be unlawful to beg or solicit alms or contributions except when performed in the following manner:

and then goes on to use the terms defined above to expressly forbid accosting or forcing oneself upon the company of another person. The ordinance also sets some location limits, to wit, not within 20 feet of a bank entrance or ATM, or within 6 feet of a bus stop. Finally, subsection 4 reads:

(4) In a public place twenty (20) minutes before sunrise and twenty (20) minutes after sunset. For purposes of enforcement of this section, the terms "sunrise" and "sunset" shall be determined by and based on the times for those events published daily by the U.S. Naval Observatory Astronomical Applications Department.

I guess this last is confusing. Does it mean, between 20 minutes before the sun comes up, and 20 minutes after the sun goes down, you can't solicit? Or does it mean that prior to 20 minutes before the sun comes up, and subsequent to 20 minutes after the sun goes down (ie, during dark hours) that you can't solicit. I'd assume the latter, but i'm not a lawyer. The key is that paragraph (b) clearly says that soliciting is legal unless you do it wrong. So i'm curious to know what reasoning the city used to make the blanket announcement that it's not.

Anybody able to enlighten me on this?

Continue reading Begging for change