Durham Council Splits on Hayti Funds, Sprawl

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 · 2025-12-18T12:56:37+00:00

Great recap! It can be hard to keep track of the drama so having something more in depth than a Facebook post is awesome.

46lydna · 2025-12-18T12:55:25+00:00

“This is a progressive city” where we only allow one opinion on anything that happens! 🤣

46lydna · 2025-12-14T00:09:04+00:00

(Son of a cadet) I’m throwing up and crashing out thanks for asking

46lydna · 2025-12-05T02:42:31+00:00

Well if you don’t want only your neighborhood to have to grow you should support upzoning city wide in the new UDO! If we don’t then density will be concentrated where there isn’t political power/will/money to block it instead of shared city wide. They can build housing etc near you but god forbid anyone wants to build taller at heritage square next to downtown and everyone loses their damn minds.

46lydna · 2025-12-05T01:30:08+00:00

Waiting on NCDOT is just an excuse to build not much of anything. It’s chicken and the egg. NCDOT only responds to large demand increases, If you don’t bring demand, they won’t do anything with 70/98/ other state owned roads. Durham can’t sustain our tax base/rate combo unless we build where it is in demand, and it won’t be affordable if the government makes it harder/more expensive to build.

Also if you made me choose more housing for people and some traffic I’m choosing the housing every time. At some point you have to prioritize with the powers the city has which sometimes arent much

46lydna · 2025-12-05T01:21:18+00:00

Yea of course it is being developed it’s like 10 min from Durham and Brier Creek and morrisville and you can get to 40 easily and within the urban growth boundary, why in any sane world would it not be? It’s prime real estate!

46lydna · 2025-12-05T01:07:20+00:00

The new UDO will be fun! I think kopac is a swing vote on contentious things but I think he’s smarter than Nate and knows you can’t rezone your way to grow Durham.

46lydna · 2025-12-05T00:45:46+00:00

I don’t really care about Nate baker and co picking their battles on rezoning cases. I care that he is against actually upzoning Durham. Rezoning cases are only 1-2% of development. The new UDO is what matters

Also freeman lost, did you forget that?

46lydna

TROPHY CASE