INC NEWS - Letter: DDI outgrew public funding (today's Herald-Sun)

[John Schelp]

Letter: Downtown Durham Inc. outgrew public funding
Herald-Sun, 10 April 2006
 
The April 7 column by John Schelp and Larry Holt about
Downtown Durham Inc. had points that encouraged me to
share my experience sitting on the community review
board for city grants.The board is made up of city
staff and community volunteers. The goal was to learn
about each applicant and report back those that fit
the criteria laid out by City Council so the council
could grant funds with some consistency. 

Each group of three volunteers had about 12 grants to
review. DDI was in my group of grant applications.
They rated very low on the city's list of goals. I am
sure this list has changed over the years as new
council members have been elected. 

When it came to the question of whether other funding
sources are available, DDI rated particularly low,
because they have no new sources of income and rely on
the city and county as the major job producers for the
Central City Area. Also fairly new to the criteria is
positive impact on youth. DDI again scored low based
on the application they put forward that year. 

Investment in the ring around Downtown is needed to
take the loop to where DDI and all of us want it to
go, rather than back to where we started. With its new
private sector stakeholders, if DDI opened its
boundaries to help business districts like Old Five
Points, and Angier Avenue, its numbers would rise and
it could still score high for public investment from
what I reviewed. 

In summary given the growing Downtown economy, and DDI
sticking to its original charter of ballpark to
ballpark, library to Brightleaf, public money is
better spent on other non-profits. The areas
championed by DDI are going to rapidly infill even
without grant money. 

Richard Mullinax
Durham