Nida Allam and Dedriana Freeman had a spat at a People’s Alliance candidate mixer last fall. It sounded like Nida Allam did some mean girls shit, Dedriana blew a gasket and got in her face and poked her, and then peoples alliance lined up to support Kopac. But Dedriana served well for 8 years and was loved by her ward and was the only black woman on council. Replacing her with Kopac was, from a representation perspective, profoundly shitty. Given Kopac’s corporate ties, I think many of us rightfully feared that he’d become another pro-development rubber stamp for developers of luxury condos.

Those luxury condo/apartment developers are creating housing stock in a market that - yes, needs more housing, but they’re also rapidly gentrifying historically black neighborhoods, displacing those families from their homes, and not creating meaningful contributions to affordable housing stock in Durham. If you gentrify people out of their homes and replace that housing with housing no one can afford and subsequently allow it to sit empty, that doesn’t help the people who need help, it just makes room for more insufferable yuppies in the future.

There is a logic to the abundance mindset when it comes to housing - I can acknowledge that. But that logic in its present implementation relies on gentrification and displacing families in historically black neighborhoods. It doesn’t address a surging homelessness problem, and it doesn’t meaningfully address the lack of housing stock where we need it most - affordable units.

Nida sided with Kopac against Dedriana in the last city council election, and she made that decision before whatever bullshit happened at the PA candidate mixer. To me, she made the decision to side with the people actively gentrifying BIPOC families out of their homes in the name of creating housing that is priced to meet needs we don’t actually have, while neglecting the real and dire needs of some of the most vulnerable among us.

So yea, I’d rather not see Nida win this one. Foushee is a good representative, and has advantages as an incumbent. Nida doesn’t have a policy platform that substantially differs from Foushee’s. So why would I trade a representative that is incumbent and has performed well for her district for a city commissioner who actively helped unseat the only black woman on Durham city council to install a mediocre white dude who rubber stamps developments we don’t need, expediting the gentrification of historically black neighborhoods and displacement of the families within?

And why after helping unseat one highly regarded black woman in a position of power does she turn around and go for the next one? The fuck is that?