[Durham INC] DRAFT January INC minutes

[Pat Carstensen]

January Delegate Meeting

InterNeighborhood Council of Durham, Via Zoom

January 23, 2024


Attending the meeting were:

Neighborhoods

Birch Avenue – Hannah McKnight

Bragtown – Vannessa Mason Evans

Colony Park – Liz Conroy

Cross Counties – Ed Harrison

Leesville Road Coalition – Steven Knill, Herman Sperling

Long Meadow – Pakis Bessias

Merrick-Moore – Bonita Green

Morehead Hill – Bruce Mitchell

Northgate Park – Keith Cochran

Old North Durham – Mimi O’Brien

Trinity Park –  Mimi Kessler

Tuscaloosa-Lakewood – Susan Sewell

Watts Hospital Hillandale – Tom Miller


Guests

Fred Broadwell – Highway 147, Past and Future

Kathy Claspell

Donna Frederick

Angel Iset Dozier – Keep Connected Durham, Equitable Community Engagement Blueprint


President Mimi Kessler called the meeting to order and welcomed everyone.  Folks introduced themselves. Mimi gave a brief overview of the Re-imagine the Durham Freeway Project, which is funded under the federal infrastructure program and is meant to reconnect communities; see https://www.durhamnc.gov/5201/Reimagine-Durham-Freeway


Downtown Durham from Freeway or Boulevard – Fred Broadwell introduced himself and said that he started thinking about this question since before the Infrastructure Bill gave money for this kind of effort. While we were getting the presentation on line, Angel Iset Dozier talked briefly about the importance of engaging the whole community in revitalizing neighborhoods, such as the Durham Beltline project, so that historic harms are not repeated. Her organization was able to engage about 400 people to get effective, long-term fair  solutions, listening rather than just telling people what is  needed.  Fred moved to LA in the 90’s and experienced the reality that more capacity on freeways makes more traffic on the freeways, while Wilshire Boulevard provided good flow.  San Francisco has torn down a couple freeways and the predicted gridlock didn’t occur.  Downtown Durham is thriving today, and the freeway needs substantial repairs and possibly widening.  The Congress for the New Urbanism has a Highway to Boulevards project with a lot of resources, including a sample of completed projects.  The Bull City 150 Project has some visuals of the impact of building the Durham Freeway; groups are looking at the possibilities of re-connecting Hayti to downtown.  The Infrastructure money for planning, design and construction has moved repairing the damages of past transportation projects into “possible space.”  Some idea of how much land could be freed up is at https://philveasley.com/2022/02/04/sketching-the-durham-freeway-conversion-idea/.  There are also a lot of other needs such as sidewalks on Dearborn.  We need to look at who benefits from the land freed up  from the Freeway.  “New Urbanism” is often cover for “gentrification” – it’s not even for the people coming in, but for the people who profit from the new people coming in.  These concerns are widely shared and the structure of the team is mean to address the concerns; the criteria for the federal funds are about redressing the historic impacts of urban freeways.


Mimi O’Brien moved and Bruce Mitchell seconded to approve the November/December minutes; this passed.


Hannah McKnight gave an update Durham Drives, which started in 2020 and collaborates with many local organizations to get people to the polls; they are in the process of applying for 501c3 and are looking for an attorney to help.  We will post a request on the list-serve.   They are looking for volunteers to do things like calling people who have been drivers or have gotten rides in the past.  https://www.durhamdrives.org/


Susan Sewell is working on a form for members to fill out. Tom moved that the Treasurer work with neighborhood (or other organization) to fill in any missing information, the Executive Committee check that all the criteria are met and the application (with possible appeal to a full Delegate Meeting if the decision is negative or not unanimous), and the Secretary keep a contact list of members and delegates.  Susan seconded and this passed.  Even current memberships should fill in the information.


Please pay dues.  They are due in January.


Neighborhood Reports

  *   Tom will be writing an explanation for his neighborhood newsletter about SCAD; at some point we need to take up the issue of buffers.

  *   Steven is moving to Cary to help with family matters; we will miss him.

  *   Susan represents INC at Durham Neighborhoods United that deal the Duke party houses; the police have been good about “re-directing” the students but low staffing means that it’s hard to get an officer out while the event is going on so the neighborhoods are needing to document the issues.  Duke was exerting enough control that a lot of the fraternities have become unaffiliated with Duke.

  *   Mimi and others are working on the issue of Roxboro and Mangum becoming two-way streets to slow traffic, as part of the re-striping effort.  Straight parts of streets encourage speeding, more than whether it is one-way or not.  Cars have been  clocked going 90 on Roxboro.


None of the committees have met.  We aren’t going to affiliate with any organization or do our own candidate forum.


Adjourn. The next meeting is in February.





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