Category: Durham News Odds and Ends

OK, winter’s half way done, and what better time for a DNO&E? Here’s all the small (but not too small) stuff that’s happened so far in 2015:

• Durham based health technology firm Parata is downsizing, cutting 110 jobs.
• SkyZone Durham, a “trampoline park,” has opened on Guess Rd.
• Greenfire continues to offload its Durham properties, and it’s sold Roger’s Alley (the home of Bull City Burger and Brewery, et al) to a NY investor for $6.1M.
• Petition sidewalk projects will be no more. The Council is removing a facility which neighborhoods had been able to use to request special sidewalk construction projects; now the city’s priority list is the final word on if and when sidewalk projects will be performed.
• Construction of the East End Connector is about to begin. The freeway will connect 147 and US 70.
• The City is pushing East-West Partners to preserve access to the Foundry in Central Park throughout the construction of their project on the former site of the Liberty Warehouse.
• Offbeat Music, the record store in Brightleaf Square, is closing after eleven years. It’s sad to see them go; there aren’t many places like this left in Durham.
• A City grant will cover $70,932 in renovations of Ninth St. façades.
• Two new bars have opened downtown: Scott Howell of Nana’s has opened Bar Virgile on Mangum near Main, and Kevin Slater of Fullsteam has opened Atomic Fern just around the corner behind the old Monuts location.
• The DPAC is again one of the top five theaters in the country, this year coming in at fourth right behind Radio City Music Hall.
• The Eno River Association office suffered $100,000 in damage due to a sewer blockage.
• RTP has launched The Frontier, a redevelopment project designed to be more “modern.” Good thing, because one of RTP’s biggest tenants is poised for massive layoffs.
• A Durham water and sewer employee has been fired for drunk driving and wrecking a city water truck. Note that he wrecked on his way home from a maintenance call, meaning he was drunk or in the process of getting drunk while actively on the job.
• Veggie Van, a nonprofit program which brings access to healthy local food to low income people, is expanding. They’ll start delivering vegetables to the Library, Duke Family Medicine, and Walltown Park.
• Indy Week has a followup on the now vacant Lincoln Apartments housing projects near NC Central. The surrounding area has seen pretty heavy crime in recent years, and the structures sit unused waiting for a new Durham Housing Authority project to replace them.
• After changing its crime data publishing platform to RAIDS Online, the city is receiving complaints from a competing vendor. The data was previously published on an in-house solution that could be scraped and republished to other sources, but RAIDS does not allow such republication.
• Only 1262 weapons were seized from people attempting to enter the county courthouse while armed in 2014. That number is down from 2154 weapons siezed back in 2013.
• Morgan Imports is now 45 years old, and it’s still run by the same couple who opened it originally.
• The DOT is putting in a roundabout on Barbee Rd.
• Italian joint “The Boot” is now open in the old Local Yogurt location (across from Nanataco). Seems promising according to Carpe Durham.
• The Carolina Theater is running a Kickstarter campaign to fund new seating.
• I guess it’s scandal season for Duke, the latest of which involves rape allegations at an off campus frat house.
• Moogfest, an Asheville based music festival which celebrates the Moog synthesizer, may be coming to Durham.
• Caktus Group (who you may remember from the Eno River mural SNAFU) is starting up a boot camp to train Python developers. Caktus is also working on an HIV management app along with Duke and UNC.
• In other mural news, it looks like the Bulls will have a mural on Willart Street.
• DPS is chipping in $100K for the Made in Durham nonprofit. The program is a public/private partnership designed to educate and find employment for disadvantaged youth.
• The city’s acquisition of the proposed DPD HQ site, which seemed to be a done deal, has been delayed. There are concerns about cleanup costs of the land which the Council wants to investigate further before committing to the deal.
• The Whitted School redevelopment project keeps inching forward, this time with another $800k from DPS, bringing its total contribution to $5.8M. The project is struggling for funding in part due to the loss of historic tax credits. The County and City are on the hook for $3.4M for this project as well.
• Durham has a new master baker. “The French Corner” bakery is open in the strip mall near the former location of Honey’s on North Pointe Drive.
• A pedestrian was injured attempting to cross Riddle Rd. on an ATT spur. I can attest to this being a very dangerous stretch of road, hopefully this prompts some investigation into improving the crosswalk situation here.
• The Carolina Theater continues to reduce its budget deficit with a second straight profitable year.
• It’s well known that Durham is facing a treepocalypse, as most of our Willow Oaks are nearing the end of their natural lifespans and will die off in rapid succession. The city has already been planting replacements, but we apparently need to triple the number planted per year to 1680 to compensate for the losses.
• DPS subcontractors Service Solutions Inc. had sub-subcontracted out janitorial work to Integrity Custodial Services. That sub-subcontractor went bankrupt, leaving the actual workers (who would be…. sub-sub-subcontractors?) unpaid for nearly a month of work. Initially, Service Solutions Inc. didn’t want to pony up, and DPS reluctantly agreed to foot the bill, but now SSI has decided to cover the $100k the workers were owed after all.
• Cree is cutting 319 temporary manufacturing jobs and is outsourcing that production overseas.
• Mayor Bell’s anti-poverty campaign is moving forward with savings accounts for low income kids, as well as a program targeting 14 families to help them with financial management and career assistance.
• One citizen’s appeal of the The Club Blvd. traffic calming plan has been rejected. This ruling doesn’t seem to have any relevance for the future of the project, which is still heading back to the drawing board due to concerns from WHHNA residents and bicycle advocates.
• Indy Week has some photos of the green wall coming down to make way for the new downtown skyscraper.
• DPS schools seem poised to receive poor scores on a new state level report card, the significance of which Superintendent L’Homme is quick to downplay.
• The N&O has published their list of the best restaurants in the Triangle for 2015. A fair number of them are in Durham, including North Durham’s Gocciolina, which got the nod for top pick of the year. One of these days I need to make my way up there…
• There’s an article about female NC chefs in the New York Times. In response, the Indy Week published an article protesting the NYT’s characterization of this as a “sisterhood.”
• The school board is apparently quite concerned about facing competition from new charter schools. Charter schools siphon off children (and their tax moneys) that otherwise would have gone to DPS schools.
• McCrory is pushing to reinstate some historic tax credits, and is using the ATC as a backdrop.
• The first Durham location for regional chain Gonza Tacos y Tequila is now open in West Village.
• For some reason, crowds lined up for the opening of a new Krispy Kreme shop. I think I’ll just stick to Monuts…
• Speaking of Monuts, the Chronicle has an interview with owner Lindsay Moriarty about the shop and its move to Ninth St.
• Dashi, the noodle shop and bar which is joint venture from the owners of Toast and the Cookery, is open for business at 415 E Chapel Hill St.
• An appeals court has held that a Sprint cell tower, which residents have been fighting since back in 2012, can be constructed. Opponents claim that the tall “monopine” isn’t “concealed,” even though such structures are expressly allowed by Durham’s ordinance. This ruling can be appealed one final time, to the state supreme court, and given how far residents have already taken their hatred of good reception I would expect them to do just that.
• A mixed use development at Angier and Driver is scoring another $170k in incentives from the city.
• Duke’s reclamation pond is nearly finished.
• And finally, Basan Bull City Sushi is now open near the DPAC. Indy Week seems to dig it, and special note: they have real wasabi instead of just horseradish.

All right guys, have fun! The next DNO&E probably won’t be here till spring, so hopefully this will tide you over.

Hey, election season came and went, and now it’s legitimately feeling like fall. This kind of weather always makes me want to grab a blanket, put on some hot cocoa, and curl up by the fire with a good Durham News Odds and Ends. Lucky for you guys I have one for you right over here (a Durham News Odds and Ends, that is; you’ll still need to find your own blanket and cocoa):

• Duke’s endowment hit a record $7BN, exceeding its previous pre-recession peak.
• In an effort to address racial bias in traffic stops, the DPD now requires written consent to search vehicles.
• Carpe Durham checked out a few cool things!
  • First is Criterion, which replaces Whiskey (but is still owned by Rhys Botica). I stopped by Criterion myself a few days ago and I dig the vibe a lot, and this incarnation is much more my speed than Whiskey was.
  • Next up is Beer Durham, a new bottle shop in the “innovation district” building up above the Farmer’s Market.
  • Finally there’s Bull City Ciderworks, a new taproom which is on the future site of the DPDHQ.
• Leigh Farm Park, an 83 acre historic farmstead in south Durham, has reopened following extensive renovations.
• Loaf got a mention in the prestigious food mag Bon Appetit
• A bunch of local real estate owners seem to think that the downtown boom is just the tip of the iceberg.
• We’re number one! We’re number one! We’re number one… when it comes to conducting a really great parking survey, I guess.
• RDU, as you may know, is a parking business which also operates an airport. A huge chunk of RDU’s revenue comes from parking, and they’re now aggressively fining Uber drivers (Uber makes it simply too convenient to get to the airport without your own car, I guess). Uber, though, isn’t retreating.
• Pharma biz Argos is adding a sweet new $56.6M HQ off TW Alexander. The city and county are chipping in $1.8M in incentives for this one.
• In response to a claimed sexual assault of a five year old on a bus (that was later determined not to have happened), DPS is buying more cameras.
• One of the red wolves at The Museum of Life+Science has passed away.
• As is custom, Duke blessed some dogs.
• The site plan for the would-be Greystone Inn apartment complex hasn’t been well received, and it’s on hold until December (if not longer).
• Need a job? The Fresh Market is hiring for its new Durham location.
• OnlyBurger has added a new location at the ATC.
• The 28c hotel (which will be housed in the Hill Building) has announced that it will operate a seafood restaurant called “The Counting House” at street level on the corner of Corcoron and Main. I was kinda hoping the restaurant would be on the top floor, but that’s cool too.
• The $4.8M renovation of the Angier Drive streetscape in East Durham is now complete.
• Atomic Fern is a new bar opening beside Monuts.
• Durham’s fleet is pretty sweet.
• It’s good to see some sanity in the rush to militarize police forces. Rather than hopping on the bandwagon and grabbing an MRAP, the Duke police have kind of gone the opposite way with a “tactical” version of Organic Transit’s ELF electric tricycles.
• Despite its poor condition and advanced age, Long Meadow pool at Hillside Park will be receiving another round of repairs after all.
• The Herald-Sun is moving to Northgate Mall.
• Leo’s seafood is closing.
• Want to get out of jury duty? Try taking a nap.
• There’s a new sculpture in the CCB plaza honoring former DDI CEO Bill Halkhof.
• DPS Superintendent Bert L’Homme has spelled out four priorities in his “Graduate Durham” plan to improve the city’s schools.
• Crime’s up over 2013, and it’s partially due to gang violence.
• One of the teens who is accused of assaulting people on the ATT is already headed to jail for unrelated crimes.
• A kid tried to drive off with some dude’s car. That dude did what any of us would have done: he ran after the moving car, grabbed onto it, and held on tight until the kid got out. The Herald describes this as a “carjacking,” but is it really a carjacking if the carjackee is intentionally clinging to the outside of the vehicle?
• Durham’s been hosting meetings about its “open space” plan to help preserve public spaces. You can still catch the November 18 meeting.
• Ebola? I don’t even know her!
• Nearly a quarter million dollars in Federal grants have come through for planning the Duke Beltway, and now a Virginia nonprofit has joined the fight to build a greenway on the corridor that runs around downtown. This project is moving slowly in large part due to the huge price tag on the rail corridor.
• Kids at a DPS magnet school are printing hands.
• If there’s one thing we can all agree that Durham needs, it’s Ohio barbecue.
• If there’s another thing we can all agree that Durham needs, it’s more apartments. The Hendrick Auto Mall parcel (on Pettigrew, across from the jail and the county courthouse) is slated for high rises and luxury apartments.
• Durham Parks and Rec is hosting several holiday events in December.
• An enterprising Duke student wrote a script to automate enrollment in classes. Pretty neat, right? I mean, who wants to get up at 7 a.m. and register for classes. Only problem? He released it to the public on github, and as countless Duke students tried to use it at the same time they crushed the registration system completely. Whoops.
• TROSA has opened a second thrift store. This one replaces a Wal-Mart in a shopping center near Duke Regional Hospital.
• The DPD has submitted its report on racial bias. Notable: the department plans to start field testing body cameras in January.
• In other LEO photography news, the Sheriff’s Department is adding cameras to their vehicles.
• Police caught a vandal and a 65 year old woman who helped him cover his tracks. The vandal had apparently broken about 40 car windows with a BB gun.
• A DPD corporal was fired for striking a cuffed suspect.
• Durham’s own Big Spoon Roaster’s made Food and Wine’s list of America’s best food artisans.
• The city is working on a new web site to provide open data which is scheduled for completion in summer 2015.
• Zoboomafoo passed away.
• Night fishing deserves a quiet night… (just, you know, maybe bring a sweater. Or two)
• The INC and other groups are pushing hard for increased enforcement of traffic laws by the DPD. The department has already indicated that they’re taking steps to improve traffic enforcement.
• The loss of state historic tax credits is already hitting home, and the Whitted School renovation is going to require more help from the county to fill the gap.
• Do you enjoy business? There’s a little school in town which is apparently number one at teaching that thing.
• Two hour parking limits are spreading.
• Moveloot, an online used merchandise reseller, has brought its service in Durham.
• And finally, a new 300 unit residential development may be coming beside 147 near Ellis Rd.

That’s it, you guys! I really hope to be better about churning these things out on time, cause these bi-monthly procrastination editions can get to be pretty darn long. With any luck, I’ll make you one more in 2014. See ya next time!