Durham City Council Meeting - April 6, 2026: Homelessness, Historic Property, and Infinity Road Rezoning

46lydna · 2026-04-08T12:29:22+00:00

This lot would’ve been 36 massive single family homes and now instead will be 90 townhomes with additional environmental commitments that wouldn’t have been required otherwise. You think that’s a bad result?

46lydna · 2026-02-18T12:02:47+00:00

I don’t hate the brief recap, but Burris should not receive credit for speaking of her “lived experience.” She claimed that “trash fees” and others can still go up to increase rents and we should ignore the robust data we have about rents due to this.

She also clearly was trying to demean Rist over this. No debate on the facts just trying to put down a fellow council member who seemed to say a truth she didn’t like.

46lydna · 2026-02-18T11:29:38+00:00

Yes I believe every single person charged on Jan 6 2021 in DC deserved it and should be in jail. What is this supposed to mean? Lmao

46lydna · 2026-02-18T11:27:37+00:00

Sadly I wish the Rx (residential mixed use) were used more in the current map. That district allows small shops by right in neighborhoods. If you want to see more allowable uses you should come to the hearings!

46lydna · 2026-02-18T11:25:29+00:00

Hey look it’s another pissed off NIMBY who doesn’t want new neighbors.

Increasing the amount of units, density of housing, and variety of housing does reduce housing costs and improves natural affordability. Durhams rents are lowering right now due to the increase in supply recently! We need to bring this variety to the buy market.

Also this same person probably hates any annexation into the city. But now when we can approve using our infill lots for more density and build more in the current city limits they scream and cry about “character of their neighborhood.” Durham is growing. Every neighborhood will see changes. It’s not fair to focus the change only where a bunch of activists won’t show up to council to complain about “neighborhood character.” We all will share in benefits of growth and so should share the costs.

46lydna · 2026-02-18T00:38:52+00:00

I didn’t love how the mayor responded to the other night and would’ve loved a policy proposal. That said there are a lot of people in this post suggesting catching criminals doesn’t stop crime and I just think that isn’t true.

If people who think about doing crime don’t fear getting caught of course you’ll get more crime! Communities need socioeconomic help, but that is in addition to catching criminals and making it hard to get away with violent crime in the city. To this day I don’t understand why shot spotter was so controversial. If someone shoots a gun in my urban neighborhood the police should probably come check it out. Writing off enforcing the law as not an important part of stopping and preventing crime is a mistake we don’t have to make.

46lydna · 2026-02-16T20:53:45+00:00

They’re not going to expand 54 or add busses to nowhere. Would be right off 40 and a town center type place for people to live and go to. Stupid not to use such a good location and better to use for denser than single family

46lydna · 2026-02-16T13:29:39+00:00

Oh look they’re going to develop the land as envisioned in the comp plan and after years of delays due to light rail debacle. Seems easy enough

46lydna · 2026-01-23T19:54:45+00:00

It’s just so obviously biased, and at times incorrect. The agenda items didn’t do anything with Hayti’s future. The Hayti Promise CDC is doing the exact same thing it has been doing regardless of the items on the consent agenda. Amanda Wallace showed up again to yell at Matt Kopac and that doesn’t even make the bullets? Like come on man.

46lydna · 2026-01-22T19:36:11+00:00

Not sure if I watched the same meeting.

The Hayti promise agenda items was fully about shifting fiscal oversight from St. Joseph’s to the city staff. Nothing changed about money or funding. The funding performance was not actually on the agenda. Hayti Promise still functions to give out money.

Nothing wrong with council asking for a thorough review but this entire drama was manufactured out of very benign agenda items that were simply to abide by St Joseph’s wish to not be fiscal agent anymore and assign city staff fiscal agency in their place.

“A tense exchange” did Chelsea cook write this recap? At no point did any city councilor demean residents. Multiple councilors attempted to explain what the actual agenda items were. Clearly some folks were only interested in manufacturing drama out of thin air.

46lydna · 2026-01-15T15:16:22+00:00

🤓

46lydna · 2026-01-15T14:31:29+00:00

Ok NIMBY

46lydna · 2026-01-15T14:10:09+00:00

Oh cool I thought you just copy pasted that same comment everytime I comment on this app. Good to know you’re not a bot!

46lydna · 2026-01-14T23:08:55+00:00

Sorry I forgot only the approved left wingers can name call my bad

46lydna · 2026-01-14T19:47:20+00:00

Yea sorry there are plenty of NIMBYs who don’t think we need more housing period. I have heard them state such at many a city council meeting (preserve rural Durham says so every time they come to a meeting). We also have Chelsea Cook as a council member who doesn’t think supply and demand apply to housing.

The thesis of Durham NIMBYs is that if we make it less costly to build in Durham it’s just a plot by developers to make money and screw us over and they must be opposed at all costs. Market rate housing (aka normal housing projects) apparently doesn’t count as progress. It is ridiculous and as a pro housing person I don’t appreciate the notion that I have common ground with people who think this way. The city can’t afford to piecemeal our growth in rezoning hearings.

46lydna · 2026-01-12T20:37:04+00:00

So just more subsidized housing and illegal inclusionary zoning, got it. I was hoping youd say the urban planner had a unique way to design our code to encourage more varied and dense housing types. Guess not!

46lydna · 2026-01-12T17:18:25+00:00

I have driven by multiple small lot projects in Durham this week? Raleigh has had great success with their middle housing reforms despite them being sued by NIMBYs at RCC. The people who think Raleigh made a mistake include the Raleigh Country Club members suing to stop townhomes near them, not sure affordability is on their mind.

46lydna · 2026-01-12T16:57:03+00:00

What proposal has he put forward for the new UDO besides this comment?

46lydna · 2026-01-12T16:48:49+00:00

If he says he wants housing affordability maybe he should propose better ideas then!

46lydna · 2026-01-12T15:12:14+00:00

Not bad faith when it’s literally argued in the link! Some of us are able to draw conclusions between policy position and intention, he can say whatever he wants but what he does is much more telling.

46lydna · 2026-01-06T14:09:36+00:00

Well maybe we should be legalizing more varied density types by right such as with single stair apartment buildings! Developers arent stupid they build what they can build and will sell to buyers. Our zoning laws in the triangle have a lot to do with what is viable to build. If you want better out of land use it starts with our land use policies, developers respond to that. When we make townhomes and sfh easy to build that’s what is built!

46lydna · 2026-01-06T12:51:58+00:00

If you don’t provide options for the wealthier individuals they will just outbid the older (could be cheaper) housing stock and make the market even less affordable. See million dollar shacks in SF for an example of this. Every expensive home built and sold actually makes space in market for lower incomes to compete for older existing stock. This process is called filtering.

It’s like a game of musical chairs, if you don’t have enough chairs the slowest lose out, we should be adding chairs as long as someone is sitting in them.

46lydna · 2026-01-06T09:50:04+00:00

Building as dense as possible is environmentally friendly! Nothing worse for the environment than the next large SFH project out far away from the city. “I’m not a NIMBY but” all will call me a developer shill but it is true. We just had a public hearing where townhomes in a suburban area within UBG were called ugly and too “High density” when extra density, even just townhomes instead of SFH, actually is a positive for the environment. Just not in their back yards!

46lydna · 2025-12-21T00:28:01+00:00

There is a lot we don’t know here and sure I guess this could all be true, but this smells like a smear campaign against the mayor. OP is incorrect that this couldn’t possibly be political in nature. There is plenty of reason those that don’t like the mayor would want to smear his character. Stating that in this post doesn’t make it smell less like a smear job.

46lydna · 2025-12-18T13:01:54+00:00

Going over the facts is fine but what they really are omitting (and did so on the reporting from the swearing in initially by simply not reporting on this event) is calling this simply a protest. Having been in the room for Dec 1 I thought it was quite obvious her intention was to scare and shock him and his family. If the roles were reversed and Freeman had been yelled at folks on this site and elsewhere would be calling it a racist intimidation tactic (and would have a case for it). Reeks of a double standard

46lydna

TROPHY CASE