[Durham INC] New improved January minutes

[Pat Carstensen]

January Delegate Meeting of the InterNeighborhood Council of Durham

Via Zoom

January 25, 2022


Attending the meeting were:

Neighborhoods

Bragtown – Vannessa Mason Evans

Burch Avenue – Richard Ziglar

Cross Counties – Pat Carstensen

Falconbridge – Richard Ford

Forest Hills – Sarah Morris

Leesville Road Coalition – Steven Knill

Long Meadow – Michael Throop

Merrick-Moore – Bonita Green

Morehead Hill – Rochelle Araujo

Old North Durham – Helena Cragg

Old West Durham – David Eklund

Trinity Park – Philip Azar, Mimi Kessler

Tuscaloosa-Lakewood – Susan Sewell

Watts Hospital Hillandale – Tom Miller


Guests

Annette Smith – Durham Parks and Recreation, Durham Parks Foundation

Will Wilson – Past President of INC

Max Cawley – Program Manager, Museum of Life and Science

Tobin Freid – Sustainability Manager, Sustainability Office of Durham County

Erik Landfried – Bike Durham Board Member

Daniel Singer

Imani Vincent –  Museum of Life and Science

Michelle Lotker – PBS NC

Deb Hawkins

Dereana Freeman


President Bonita Green called the meeting to order and welcomed everyone; those present introduced themselves.  There were no adjustments to the agenda.  Susan moved to approve the minutes of the last meeting, Tom seconded and this was passed.


Bylaws Revision Update – Tom has been unable to work on the details of the bylaws due to other obligations.  Phil has reached out to the Duke Community Law Clinic to see if they can help us.



Development Project update

  *   Burch Avenue Rezoning Project – Duke is ready to submit their re-zoning and asked the neighborhoods about committed elements that would make the re-zoning better for them.  Committed elements could include what neighborhoods want on traffic, lighting and buffers that would apply for whatever uses might go there; the elements could also include prohibited uses in some areas.  There may be neighborhoods with their own concerns adjacent to other parcels.

  *   Watts Hospital Hillandale is seeing a lot of tear-downs.  They are wondering if there are other neighborhoods where small lots options are being exercised.

  *   Get your comments in on the Place Type Map.  https://durham.mysocialpinpoint.com/comprehensiveplan

  *   There are proposed amendment to the 2045 Transportation Plan that, among other things, add Transit Enhancement Corridors.

  *   Please support Bragtown on the affordable housing in the Carver Street Assemblage.


Neighborhood Reports and Announcements

  *   Leesville Road Communities is having 3 drives this year,  including a food drive and a toy drive during the holidays.

  *   There is a new rent assistance program in Durham, and it would help to have community connections to help build trust.

  *   Durham Parks and Recreation has signed agreements so the picnic area at the Wheels property can be used as a COVID testing site.  Parks and Recreation has gotten money for long-term planning, basketball court, and a new bathroom at another Park; the neighborhood also got a grant for a stage there.



NEW BUSINESS:

Urban Heat Islands – Max Cawley, Tobin Freid, and Imani Vincent talked about the urban heat island mapping project.   Across the country, days that are over 90 degrees are going up, and nights where it doesn’t cool down are also increasing.  Climate change will just make things worse; we are locked into some warming already.  Every three years Durham does a community health assessment; the latest in 2020 identified for the first time climate change as a public health issue focusing on extreme heat, wildfire and extreme rainfall.  Extreme heat can give heat stroke to healthy people, and disproportionately affects people with other health or demographic considerations including those who work outside; are older; have high blood pressure, diabetes, asthma, or are overweight; do not have a car; are unhoused; or lack access to air conditioning.  In fact, heat has the most impact of weather conditions because of the number of people it affects.  Concrete gets Areas that have a lot of concrete, asphalt, and brick can be as much as 10 degrees hotter and stay hot longer into the night.   Some recommendations are to establish an upper limit on how hot a residence can get, doing green infrastructure and other items.  Historic racism correlates to vulnerability to heat events, due to more concrete, fewer trees and greenspaces, less likely to have a car, and experiencing poverty.  Predicting exactly where the heat is worse is hard, and gets even more complicated when we want to know how hot it is in the air around someone’s head.  The heat island project sent volunteer citizen scientists out along predetermined routes, some on foot and some in cars, in the morning (6-7 AM),  afternoon (3-4 PM) and evening on July 23, 2021.  We had wildfire in the Pacific Northwest, it wasn’t as hot as it could have been.  Based on data gathered, they could model a heat map across Durham.  In the day, one can really see the parking lots but everywhere is pretty hot.  Nighttime is when you really see how much inequality there is, and it is important to be able to cool down at night to get a relief.  The data will be available, with a kick off webinar on February 3 register here https://us06web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_WcPMXh56QXOgFo2I-ey9bQ  .  The museum owns the handheld monitors so groups could borrow to do detail in a smaller area or to check out conditions at after-school activities, for example.   If a parking lot is needed, it can be shaded; furthermore, it can be lighter in color or have a coating to be more reflective.  There are interventions to make it feel cooler. Durham County and the Museum of Life and Science want to work with neighborhoods to develop equitable solutions.


Transit Equity Campaign – Erik Landfried talked briefly about what Bike Durham is; their mission has expanded to ensuring that everyone has access to safe, affordable, and sustainable transportation regardless of who they are or where they live.  The Durham Transit Plan is now 10 years old; in the beginning, most of the money and work was on the now-discontinued Durham/Chapel Hill Light Transit Project.  Over $35M are being accumulated each year.  The Transit Equity Campaign, which is a coalition of several groups, is an effort to get that money spent as equitably as possible and to get the communities most affected to have a say in how the money is spent.



 Adjourn


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