My favorite hideout is Durham’s abandoned urban garden

I found this secret garden hidden in downtown Durham a few years ago. It’s on the roof of the Durham Centre parking garage across from the Carolina Theatre. Head to the top of the parking deck and you’ll see a warped boardwalk winding in a labyrinth-like pattern covered in overgrown brush.

It’s a cool spot to eat your lunch, have some coffee or watch theater-goers file in and out of the Carolina Theatre. The garden is on the spot where developer Franklin Wittenberg once envisioned building another glass tower filled with luxury condominiums. I’ve been out of the Durham development loop for some time, so I’m not sure where that project stands, but my guess is it was abandoned long ago.

Anyone know more about what’s going on with Durham Centre? Are there any hidden gardens or spots you take a timeout in?

I’ll be live blogging Durham election results tonight

I’ll be live blogging from the Durham County Courthouse starting at approximately 6:45 p.m. tonight. That’s where candidates for Durham’s public offices traditionally gather to watch the returns come in.

So picture this. In the meeting room, many of the candidates stand around and wait for the returns to be streamed onto a screen. Soon it becomes apparent who has won and who has lost, so the winning and losing candidates are often finding out their fate while standing beside each other. It’s an interesting dynamic.

So hopefully the candidates for Durham County Commission, District Attorney and School Board will be gathered there and I’ll be able to tell you about their interactions through the live blog.  You’ll also be able to pose questions or post comments on the blog.

So check it out tonight, starting around 7 p.m. at MyNC.com

The set of awesome baseball flick “Bull Durham” gets makeover

The crumbling Durham Athletic Park will get some needed attention tomorrow, when Durham city officials break ground on a $5 million restoration project. In addition to providing a home to the Durham Bulls minor league baseball team from 1926 to 1994, the ballpark was also the set for Bull Durham. Yes, Kevin Costner, Tim Robbins and Susan Sarandon all spent time at this historical ballpark.

The long needed renovations will “upgrade the infrastructure, restrooms, concessions and seating bowl, while at the same time create picnic areas and concourses that reflect the historic quality of the ballpark,” according to a city news release, as well as the installation of a new state-of-the-art playing field. The work is scheduled to be complete in December 2008.

After that, the ballpark will play host to all of NCCU’s home games, as well as serve as home field for the School of the Arts and for local softball and baseball leagues. It also will also continue serve as a venue for the Bull Durham Blues Festival and the World Beer Festival.

The 9 a.m. ceremony is open to the public. For directions, click here.

Three reasons I love the Triangle (in pictures)

1. Because it’s entirely possible to go to a fashion show based on the theme of using plastic bags. This show was at the Whole Foods in Raleigh on Earth Day.

2. Because Durham residents are so passionate about local politics that they will go to great lengths to display their support.

3. Because you can go to a wine fest one weekend (this pic was taken at the Great Grapes! fest in Cary last Saturday), then go to the World Beer Festival the following weekend (I’ll be at the Raleigh event from noon to 4 p.m. Saturday).

What are three reasons why you love the Triangle (or greater Triangle area)?

Does the public really get to help pick Durham’s next city manager?

The finalists for Durham’s vacant city manager post will be announced Monday, April 28, according to a news release from city officials. This is exciting news for anyone who pays attention to Durham city government since it’s been a little over four months since city manager Patrick Baker announced that he was resigning. At the time, Mayor Bill Bell pledged to fill the post by the end of June 2008, the Independent Weekly reported.

Also on Monday, the city is also inviting the public and city employees to a forum to ask the finalists questions from 7 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. at City Hall.

Here’s what annoys me a little (this is my reporter side kicking in). Why is the city choosing to release the names of the finalists on the SAME DAY as the forum? That doesn’t really give the public and employees time to Google the candidates and find out information about their backgrounds that may not be included in their resumes.

Back in 2005, when the city was looking for a city manager to replace Marcia Conner, it announced the finalists two days before the public forum, giving the public (and reporters) ample time to research the finalists before asking their questions. Here’s the article I wrote(PDF) following the ‘05 forum back when I was a reporter for the Herald-Sun.

On the bright side, I think it’s impressive that city leaders are keeping the process somewhat open to the public. Often hiring decisions like these are made with little to no input from the public, so it’s cool that Durham continues to let residents participate in the process.

That being said, does the public really get to help pick Durham’s next city manager? Not really. That’s up to the city council to decide. I guess, in theory, if the public made a big enough stink about one of the candidates that the council may bow to pressure and not pick that candidate.

Still, I wonder how much value the folks in Durham place on having a finalists forum? In 2005, about 120 people showed up. How many do you think will come Monday night?

Two more reasons you should go to Durham

I spent Wednesday morning in Durham with my co-worker and Earth-conscious friend Ashley Sue. Part of her job involves getting to know the Bull City inside and out, and since I used to live there, I thought it would be fun to show her some of my favorite sites.

For a lot of silly reasons, Durham has a bad rep in the Triangle. But Ashley Sue and I know the charms it beholds. So we decided to highlight some of those in a vlog. But because I’m new to this whole speaking on camera thing, I wasn’t too impressed with a couple of clips. So, instead, you get the Reader’s Digest version of cool places to check out in Durham.

The first is the Durham Athletic Park (called DAP by locals), not to be confused with the Durham Bulls Athletic Park (or the DBAP). It’s starting to crumble to the ground, but Durham voters approved bonds in 2005 that will eventually pay for its renovation. The park was the set for the move “Bull Durham” (which if you live in the Triangle and haven’t seen this flick yet, add it to your queue on Netflix immediately) and it also plays host to the World Beer and Durham Blues festivals. So there are definitely multiple reasons to go.

BTW, the audio on this video is terrible, so you may have to turn up the volume (I’m working on getting a lapel mic). But if you turn up the volume for this one, be sure to turn it back down for the one below (I don’t want to hurt your precious little ears).

The other place that I highlighted is the Scrap Exchange. This huge store is located just around the corner from the ballpark, so you can knock out both places in one trip. The nonprofit store collects all kinds of materials from businesses, industries and individuals and sells them for super cheap. You can use the scraps (you’ll never believe the stuff you can find here) for everything from art to classroom projects. It’s crazy cool. There are a bunch of other places worth visiting in Durham, and I hope to visit more soon and show them off to you. In the meantime, why don’t you tell me about some of the spots in the Bull City you love. Maybe I’ll highlight some of them in an upcoming video.

Here’s another reason why Durham rocks

When Durham’s new $44 million performing arts center opens at the end of the year, it will be sporting a long, but cool name. City officials announced today that the venue will be named the “Mildred & Dillard Teer Stage.” Your initial reaction may be: “Huh? Isn’t that a mouthful?”

But here’s why this rocks. Durham is known for being completely community oriented. And so rather than have a theater named after something corporate and generic like Progress Energy Center for the Arts (sorry, Raleigh), it will be named after people who are a part of that community.

The Teers are lifelong Durham residents, according to a news release from the city. They’ve been married for more than 60 years (yes, 60) , and they’ve who have been involved in the community for a long time (Dillard sat on the Raleigh Durham Airport Authority for 31 years and served as a county commissioner, while Mildred once sat on the school board and her father was a tobacconist who ran Roycroft’s Warehouse on Rigsbee Avenue). The Teers’ children decided to honor their parents legacy by paying for the naming rights, which cost $1.2 million over 10 years.

The only thing that could taint this good news is a well-researched article revealing something unsavory about the Teer family. I’m not suggesting the Teer family is anything less than perfect, but knowing local Durham reporters and bloggers, I bet someone is doing some research to see if there’s anything less than desirable that could weigh down the theater’s new good name.

Check out construction progress on the live cam (pictured above).

If Barack Obama was the Mayor of Durham

What would Durham’s “state of the city address” have been like if it was delivered by presidential hopeful Barack Obama instead of Mayor Bill Bell?

Well, first of all, I can guarantee city hall would have been packed (although, it’s likely that even with a packed crowd the public-to-journalist ratio still may have been in the range 10-to-1 range that Kevin referenced in his Bull City Rising blog.)

Independent Weekly editor Lisa Sorg speculated how the annual address might have been different in her most recent column. Her rendition includes some words Obama is known for dropping, such as “hope” and “change.” This may be the most spot on paragraph in her psuedo-speech:

Yes, we have challenges, but we also have hope. We hope someone will visit downtown after six o’clock. We hope someone will pay $60 to see a show at the Durham Performing Arts Center. We hope, someday, someone will speak of Durham without uttering the words “Duke” and “lacrosse.”

Anyone else want to try their hand at guessing what Mayor Bell’s speech would have sounded like if it were delivered by John Edwards, John McCain or maybe even Ron Paul?

Durham Residents React to Mayor Bell’s State of the City Address

I watched Durham Mayor Bill Bell deliver the annual State of the City Address last night. The mayor opened by touting some of the city’s accomplishments last year. Then he spoke about the challenges for the upcoming year. On a lighter note, if there is any question about my attendance at the speech, a competing local TV station solidified my presence by including me in their broadcast (see right).

Among the highlights from Bell’s speech:

• The city and county must continue to work to reduce green house gas emissions
• The city should change its pricing structure for water so that heavy water users are paying higher rates
• City administrators should “present a definitive proposal defining” the city’s legal authority to deny water and sewer connections for future developments
• The city should continue to make revitalizing inner-city neighborhoods a top priority, including North East Central Durham, Southwest Central Durham, Rolling Hills and the South Side Community
• The city and its residents need to step up efforts to reduce crime. Residents, he said, should participate in neighborhood watches. Additionally, he said, the bonds set for people charged with serious crimes needs to be looked at. For even more details, check out the recap posted on the Durham blog Bull City Rising.

Afterward, I stopped some residents in the lobby and asked them what they thought about the mayor’s speech:

Hear It from Mayor Bill Bell’s Mouth

The city of Durham has scheduled its annual ‘State of the City’ speech. Mayor Bill Bell will highlight the good and the bad of what went down in the Bull City during 2007. Then he’ll spell out his goals for 2008.

Hear it straight from the mayor’s mouth at 7 p.m. Tuesday Jan. 22 in council chambers at City Hall.

Perhaps Mayor Bell will take some of the suggestions made by Durham residents on New Year’s Eve, when I did some on-the-street interviews of residents.

Also, the city’s water conservation mascot will be there to hand out free retrofit toilet devises and exchange shower heads.

What goals do you think the city should have for 2008 (besides maybe making LocoPops its official dessert)?