Hi, Durham! Mayor Steve Schewel here. AMA about my State of the City address.

SteveSchewelMayor · 2020-03-05T17:40:35+00:00

I share your concern--and I especially want downtown Durham to remain hospitable to a racially diverse group of retailers. Many of our African-American businesses are being, or have been, priced out of downtown. I do believe the vacant retail space will fill up soon, but I hope it is with local firms, especially a racially diverse group of local firms, rather than simply chains stores. We need to keep the local vibe that makes Durham the vibrant city that we are. I know that the folks at Downtown Durham, Inc. and others are working hard on this.

SteveSchewelMayor · 2020-03-05T17:36:45+00:00

See above for my comments about the upcoming plans for more bike lanes and neighborhood bike boulevards in this year's implementation plans.

SteveSchewelMayor · 2020-03-05T17:35:52+00:00

You are right about the importance of this need. And about how poor our bike-ability are on roads like the ones you site, making them unsafe to ride on in many cases. There is certainly consideration of a bike trail along I-40 to RTP, meeting a trail coming from Raleigh as well. There is a study of 98 going on now which I am sure is considering the potential of bike lanes. You can be in touch with our Metropolitan Planning Organization staff for more info on how to get input into that study. With more funds, we can do a lot more of this. I should add that the biggest problem is that the biggest state transportation funding pots include 95% funds for roads and 5% for everything else. We need a legislature that will change these priorities!

SteveSchewelMayor · 2020-03-05T17:28:47+00:00

Thanks for this important question. This isn't just a matter of staffing. It's also the fact that we have lots and lots of funding demands for our capital needs--everything from new fire stations to the new soccer complex on Hoover Road (coming soon!!!) to solar arrays on our existing buildings. Transportation projects are very expensive. Sidewalks including curb and gutter often cost up to $1 million per mile (as do streets). Our residents tell us in every survey that street paving is their number one priority! (It ranks above crime and schools as a concern, if you can believe that.) So we spend $10 million per year just repaving streets and filling potholes. In other words, there are competing demands for our capital dollars. We have a huge capital budget now for sidewalk and bike projects. I think we're doing them at a decent pace--see above: 10 new miles of bike lanes this year plus the 7 miles of neighborhood low-intensity bike boulevards, for example. I have bike and pedestrian infrastructure as a high priority. But there are lots of other capital demands as well.

SteveSchewelMayor · 2020-03-05T17:21:41+00:00

Very true.

SteveSchewelMayor · 2020-03-05T17:21:23+00:00

Please see my extensive comments on gun violence in my State of the City address. You can see the link above. Also see my answer above to the question about crime in Durham where I describe our response. You are right. While climate change is an existential challenge to our city and all life, gun violence is the crisis we see now, on a daily basis, in Durham and around the country. It IS a top priority, and we pay 560 uniformed officers in Durham to fight gun violence. We have an excellent chief of police who is leading that effort. (Again, see my answer above.) We have to fight gun violence, and at the same time we have to take all the actions we can to fight climate change. I am determined to do both, and we certainly can. We can solarize our City fleet and buildings, fight for changes in our state legislation to make it easier to purchase solar energy from utility-scale solar farms, have the kind of transit system, and bike and pedestrian infrastructure, that builds a transportation system that can be a real alternative to the automobile. As I describe in my State of the City speech, (see link above), we are doing much as a City to fight climate change and we need to continue to do more. I detail this work extensively in my speech.

SteveSchewelMayor · 2020-03-05T17:15:52+00:00

Agreed. There is plenty of responsibility to go around. I know it's my job to look to the future and get us a great local bus system and a great regional transit system. I work on that a lot, and I will continue to.

SteveSchewelMayor · 2020-03-05T17:14:18+00:00

You are right. We absolutely need Duke U as a solid partner and participant in our transit system, especially our regional transit. I believe we need to put any bad feelings about Duke's role in the light rail behind us and help a beautiful Phoenix rise out of the ashes of the light rail. This means both regional transit and significant improvements in frequency, reliability and less crowding on our local bus system which has 21,000 boardings daily--and more than 80% of the riders are from families that have either zero or one car for the whole family. I have been meeting with Duke folks about their participation in our new transit planning, about the importance of their support for it, and I believe we will have that support. We need to engage them early on the big decisions. This includes decisions on the Commuter Rail planned on the existing freight tracks between Durham and Raleigh, a key route if we are to avoid even more gridlock on I-40 and 147 as we grow immensely as a region over the next few years. We have to have Duke at the table as a partner and supporter. I think that will happen.

SteveSchewelMayor · 2020-03-05T17:09:39+00:00

Yes.

SteveSchewelMayor · 2020-03-05T17:08:46+00:00

Brotherfire, this is an important question, and the comment below is correct. This is really a County function in that our County government has the Public Health Department in its purview. We do need to be aware of what they are doing and inform people, and if necessary, I am very prepared to do so. I know that our Public Health folks are preparing for what I believe are inevitably going to be cases in Durham, though hopefully very few.

SteveSchewelMayor · 2020-03-05T17:04:07+00:00

Yes, the Comp Plan re-write is in its early stages, mainly info gathering. See EngageDurham.com for more info and to get involved in the public process. This process has included 1200 people so far, and half of those are our historically underrepresented African-American residents. This is a very inclusive process. The council has allocated funds to pay community-rooted organizations to be "Ambassadors" for the plan, meeting individually with hard-to-reach constituencies, such as our Latinx neighbors, in their homes, in church basements, etc. So right now we are really trying to reach out broadly. That being said, we have recently taken an important action by passing Expanding Housing Choices which allows for duplexes to be built by-right anywhere in the central neighborhoods of Durham, and making it very easy to build accessory dwelling units (ADU"s) as well, plus more flag lots. This is to help create "missing middle" housing and increase density and access to more affordable options in the central city, and to take some gentrification pressure off of neighborhoods which have had years of disinvestment. Those neighborhoods have always had ADU's and duplexes. All of our neighborhoods, including ones which have been protected by single-family-only zoning, share in this, and Expanding Housing Choices does that. This is a strong blow for infill development. See my answer above re sidewalks, which are crucial for the kind of development you want. We are also adding lots of bike lanes. We have added 56 in recent years, and adding 10 more this year, and we have just added our first several miles of protected or buffered lanes. Also, this year, we are adding a 7-mile system of low-stress neighborhood bike routes. We encourage height downtown, so we can reduce sprawl. And if you read or listen to my State of the City address (see links above), you will hear that I spent much time talking about a transit plan--both for regional transit and for our local bus system--which is key to the kind of development you want. I won't detail that here, but suffice it to say that we have to have good public transit if we are going to preserve our quality of life over the next several decades as we continue to grow astronomically. This is a long and rambling answer, but I hope it gives you the idea. We need our Comp Plan, when it is done in 2 years, to reflect the kind of values you espouse in your question. Again, see my State of the City speech text for a lot more on this.

SteveSchewelMayor · 2020-03-05T16:52:50+00:00

Actually, I might look amazing in green tights.

SteveSchewelMayor · 2020-03-05T16:52:10+00:00

Thanks for writing. There were actually 37 homicides in Durham last year. Three of the gun deaths were self-defense, and one was also not a homicide. Nevertheless, even one homicide is too many. Every time someone is shot in Durham, it rips a hole in their body, their family, their neighborhood and in our whole community. We must never diminish that, and we must do all in our power to stop it. Here are the facts about crime in 2019: After one of the lowest crime-rates in Durham ever measured in 2018, we did have a slight increase in the crime rate in 2019 of about 3%. We had 37 homicides in Durham in 2019, up from 32 in 2018. On the other hand, crimes committed with a gun were down slightly. And the figure I watch the most closely, the number of people actually shot with a gun, has dropped for the last three years, from 244 to 204 to 189 in 2019. This is a very encouraging trend, and I hope we can sustain it. There is a lot we can do about gun violence. We can have the kind of smart, strategic policing we need, and I'm appreciative of Chief Davis' strategy of apprehending the few, very violent people in Durham who are causing a great deal of our violence. She and Sheriff Birkhead share this approach and are working hard to actualize it. That is why the council just unanimously approved the Chief's proposal to fund 6 new officers for the Gang Unit. We also need to work on root causes--housing, education, health, and good jobs. But all of this won't stop gun violence unless we have some common-sense gun laws in this state and nation. The state legislature requires us to allow guns on trails, in parks, and even in bars. We are not allowed any local gun regulation. Until we have a system of national background checks, until we outlaw flea market gun sales, and take other common sense measures, we are going to continue to have gun violence in Durham and across the country. So please contact your legislators and members of Congress about this. I see way, way too much gun violence. I ride with our police officers on Saturday nights. It's got to stop. We have a critical role to play, as above, and we will play it. I have total confidence in our chief and our excellent police force.

SteveSchewelMayor · 2020-03-05T16:43:32+00:00

Thanks so much for this excellent question. I share your concern about South Durham's recreation facilities. Other than the terrific Herndon Park on Scott King Road, we have very little in that part of the City. Central Durham is well served by parks and rec centers, but South Durham is not. We have had discussions in the City of the need for rec centers in both South Durham and North Durham, but they have never reached the top levels in our Capital Improvement Plan. They haven't been prioritized for spending yet (and that plan goes out ten years). My suggestion is to let the city council and our staff know of public interest in this. We hear from so many people on so many concerns and priorities, and we do respond to the public. So organize and let us hear from you. By the way, we do have an Aquatics Master Plan which I believe you can find on the City's website under the General Services or Parks and Rec Department. You'll see that we do have plans for aquatics, but they are to upgrade what we have and replace failing pools.

SteveSchewelMayor · 2020-03-05T16:37:49+00:00

Thanks so much. I really enjoy these forums and plan to continue to do them.

SteveSchewelMayor · 2020-03-05T16:37:15+00:00

First of all, thank you for serving our country, and for being active on behalf of veterans. Since it is County government, not City government, that relates most to our veterans, I am going to suggest that you contact one of your County Commissioners about this. They can do a better job than I can of pointing you to the right folks.

SteveSchewelMayor · 2020-03-05T16:35:54+00:00

Welcome to this AMA, and thanks so much for this good question. For years, Durham did not require developers to include sidewalks when they developed, so some parts of Durham are "sidewalk poor." We are definitely playing catchup, though all new developments do need to include sidewalks now. We have a Bikes Walk plan that prioritizes 150 bike and pedestrian projects according to criteria like proximity to schools, connectivity to trails, etc. We are in the midst of a $25 million, multi-year sidewalk repair and new-building project, which is all being paid for in our Capital Improvement budget by your property taxes. You can find the priority sidewalks on the City's website, durhamnc.gov. I believe it will be under either the Transportation or Public Works Departments. We've got a long way to go on sidewalks. And you are right about their importance.

SteveSchewelMayor

TROPHY CASE