INC NEWS - Column: Image problem just a figment of the imagination (Durham News)

[John Schelp]

Column: Image problem just a figment of the
imagination
By Frank Hyman, Correspondent
N&O Durham News, 25 Feb 2006

Durham, some say, has a "serious image problem." This
problem, they claim, causes too few people to move to
Durham. Set that notion aside for a moment. And
instead imagine that Durham has an image problem so
bad that people are moving away from here. Try to
imagine Durham depopulating as fast as a Kansas farm
town smacked by tornadoes and wilting crop prices. Or
as fast as a Dakota farm town with no multiplex
theater.

That, my friends, would be a "serious image problem."

Fact is, despite a reputation for the worst crime in
the Triangle, the sorriest schools in the solar system
and the highest taxes in the known galaxy, Durham's
population has just about doubled in the 22 years I
have lived here. That rate of growth puts us a far cry
from your average Dakota farm town. Heck, it puts us
beyond the growth rate of more than nine-tenths of the
country! Fact is, during the '90s, according to the
U.S. Census Bureau, Durham County grew at a faster
rate than Orange County. Moreover, the City of Durham
grew at a faster rate than the City of Raleigh. ...
Fact.

So I want to know for whom, exactly, is that growth
rate not fast enough? Which person is it who is not
experiencing enough congestion on his or her ride to
work? Who is it that wants to see more kids going to
school in trailers? Who among our leaders really
thinks that Wake County should be some kind of model
for the growth and development of our hometown?
Sheesh.

Nearly 100,000 people moved to -- or chose to stay in
-- Durham in the last couple of decades. Were they not
aware that Durham has a "serious image problem"? Did
they not listen to the Wake County-based Realtors?
Were they not reading the newspapers' coverage of
terrible crime, high taxes and bad schools? Are these
100,000 people just fools who don't know that they
would be safer, happier, wealthier and wiser living in
Holly Springs or Johnston County? I don't think so. 

The folks pushing the most recent incarnation of the
"we need to overcome Durham's serious image problem
through sophisticated marketing ploys" largely hang
their case on the concern that not enough local people
are holding local jobs. They point out that many of
the jobs in Research Triangle Park are going to people
who don't live in the county. (Let's set aside the
fact that many of the jobs in Orange and Wake go to
people from other counties as well, but no one calls
that an image problem.)

In making their case they overlook zoning, geography
and transportation issues that affect the distribution
of RTP employees. One such issue is a zoning policy
that outlaws even upscale apartments within RTP.
Another barrier is the lack of an East End Connector
between U.S. 70 and Interstate 40 that would make
north Durham neighborhoods like Treyburn accessible to
RTP.

These "serious image problem" folks also seem unaware
that gaining jobs at a faster rate than we gain
households -- as has been the case in Durham for about
a decade -- keeps local government in the black. Don't
believe me? Read any recent article on Wake County's
upcoming $1 billion school construction bond. Booming
bedroom communities are driving this costly campaign.
Businesses pay more in taxes than they need in
government services. Households, on the other hand,
pay less than what it takes to service them with
schools.

This growth in good-paying jobs has given us a
consistent single digit unemployment rate that
surprisingly hasn't erased our double-digit poverty
rate. New and old Bull Citizens are working, but many
are not getting ahead.

So, is it possible that we can all agree that not
enough locals are holding the good local jobs? If so,
do we really want to give steroids -- and cash -- to
pump up Durham's already high residential growth rate?
Or do we want to invest that effort into our people,
thereby making sure more Bull Citizens have those good
jobs?