Fracking - it is baaack!

I have previously posted about energy companies' designs on North Carolina and the future of fracking in this state.  Fracking refers to hydraulic fracturing, a technology used in conjunction with horizontal drilling to tap into underground natural gas deposits trapped in shale rock formations. North Carolina is believed to have about 40 years of shale gas around Lee, Chatham, Moore and Durham counties.

Well, according to Progress NC, a liberal-leaning environmental organization, the legislation currently pending with state legislature has the potential to give energy companies a wide leeway to conduct fracking operations throughout the state. And the gas deposits are dispersed throughout Durham county, raising the possibility of environmentally disastrous gas extraction in our own backyards.

Take a look at the NC Department of Natural Resources map below. Two-thirds of Durham County, including Jordan Lake, are in the tracking zone.

Harris Teeter on Ninth Street - Design Plans Revealed

There has been a further update on Harris Teeter plans and its looks worse than expected: to skirt the new Ninth Street zoning, the developers submitted plans to convert the area between Station Nine Apartments on the west side and George's Garage on the east side into a big-box Harris Teeter with a square footage of almost 52,000 sq. ft. and a 200-car parking lot facing the street.

The south side of the store will be facing new Circle Nine Apartments. The description, as conveyed by Tom Miller of OWD Neighborhood Association is reprinted in full after the break. If I understand correctly, there is not much the neighborhood can do legally at this point, as the builders have secured all the necessary permits to start construction. But I wonder if organized and vociferous neighborhood opposition can persuade them to alter their plans in a way that would seek to make the store more cohesive and consistent with the historic nature of the neighborhood.

The store of this size, built without any regard to local neighborhood wishes and in direct contravention to the new zoning ordinance, may permanently alter the character of the neighborhood and set back Durham's efforts to encourage high density mixed-use development in the area. In fact, it would make a mockery of these efforts! For some perspective, take a look at a similar monstrosity that Harris Teeter built in Durham sometime ago.

Please read more about the Harris Teeter plans below. I really hope these developers listen to reason. If not reason, perhaps they would listen to neighborhood-wide boycott of the store. I, for one, will not set foot in a grocery store that seeks to destroy what makes Ninth Street unique.

Weekly Neighborhood Watch Report (February 17-24)

RAIDS Online is a crime tracking system utilized by the City of Durham to keep track of crime reports throughout the city. One of its best features is a mapping system that allows users to see crime trends by neighborhood or specific address  and easily categorize and hone in on problem areas. Anyone can sign up for free on RAIDS website. After the jump is the full list of all crime that took place within one mile radius of Ninth Street in the past week.

The Rumors Are True: Harris Teeter is Coming to Ninth Street (updated)

After the closing of George's Garage in 2009, the former site languished as the rumor mill swirled. What was known at the time was that the developers,Terry Sanford Jr. and Clay Hammer, had grand designs for the space, including a wholesale redevelopment of the property. But in the wake of the financial crisis these plans did not materialize, and the former site of the restaurant sat vacant and unused. One persistent rumor (aside from an amusing episode when the neighborhood listservs lit up at the prankster's mention of Hooters coming to that location) was that a new Harris Teeter was going to take up the space.

With the spate of new development in the area, it appears the coming of Harris Teeter to Ninth Street is now imminent, at least judging by a large sign erected behind the former George's Garage's building on the corner of W. Markham and Ninth Street. Little else is known beyond that:  the square footage of the new store, whether the old building is going to be razed and -- if so -- how this new development is going to be integrated into the existing cityscape of Ninth Street.

**UPDATE: OWD neighbors indicate that the new Harris Teeter is going to be around 48,000 square feet and will feature exactly the same floor plan as the other Harris Teeter in Durham at Willowhaven Shopping Center.  It is an ugly, car-orinted building, just as I had feared. Far more preferable, although apparently not likely, is the urban design of the new Harris Teeter on Jenkins Row (Potomac), in Washington DC, a rapidly gentrifying community to the South East of the Capital.

Harris Teeter on 1505 Horton Road in Durham

Harris Teeter in Washington, DC

Likely location of our new Harris Teeter

As Reyn Bowman points out in his excellent piece on the dangers of Harris Teeter in this location, large chain grocery store with its car-centric culture and parking-lot oriented architecture is hardly the best tenant for  "a funky, gritty, organic, indigenous district." Not only the typical square footage of Harris Teeter far exceeds that of any other Ninth Street business, but, as Reyon correctly notes, the corporatization of Ninth Street can take away much of its charm and uniqueness. Let's hope that the developers are conscious of the unique character of this neighborhood and design a store that fits the mold of Ninth Street rather than attempts to change it into a bland version of Erwin Terrace.

Circle Nine Breaks Ground - lots of other development to come to Ninth Street soon

Crescent Resources, a real-estate development company that, on December 5, has purchased a a six-acre site adjacent to Ninth Street and the historic Erwin Mill building has finally broken ground on Circle Nine, an upscale 303 apartment complex designed to meet meet Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certification requirements from the U.S. Green Building Council. Instead of one contiguous building, Circle nine will consist of several four-story building, allowing for a number of community space, including a park, pool, and fitness courtyard. For a complete description of the project, read here.

Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/2012/02/22/4283200/crescent-resources-celebrates.html#storylink=cpy

As described in the Triangle Business Journal article from a few months ago, the influx of new construction in and around Ninth Street area represents the first major development since the early 1990 when the Erwin Square Plaza and the adjacent apartment complex were built. In addition to Circle Nine, a new Hilton Garden Inn Hotel is in the development pipeline of Olympia Properties, a Maine-basde developer. This hotel will be facing Main Street, with Circle Nine Apartments immediately behind it (see the map below)

Perhaps relatedly -- and I will cover this in a separate post later this week -- a new Harris Teeter  is coming to the building formerly occupied by George's Garage.

 Here is what the construction site looks like today.

The full press release is after the break. 

Durham Leads North Carolina in Public Transit Use

Although the bar is set  pretty low, it is heartening to see that according to American City Business Journal, The tri-county area that includes Durham leads the State in the number of transit users per capita. About 4% of all commuters in Durham use public transit, a seemingly low number that is made no less low by the fact that in the city the size of Charlotte only about 2% of all commuters use public transit. The number is still below the national average of 5% although, according to the Triangle Business Journal article, from which this data was taken, that number is heavily skewed by large transit-dependent cities like New York and Boston.

Of course, the hope is that with the wider implementation and adoption of the transit initiatives following last November's referendum, Durham numbers will rise significantly. And judging by the number of bike commuters in our own neighborhood, alternative forms of transit are increasingly taking root in the Bull City.

The increased use of public transit is good for the environment, the health and economic vitality of the community and for property values. In a recent article in the Atlantic Magazine, the authors describe how favorable public perception of light rail affects economic development and property values in the surrounding neighborhoods.

E.K. Powe Renovations are starting

Funded by the 2007 bond referendum, the E.K. Powe Elementary School has recently embarked on a $2.2 million renovation of over 50,000 square feet of the building. Kenbridge Construction of Virginia serves as a general contractor, with the bulk of the design work completed by Design Collective, Inc.


The scope of work is  limited to the 1926 and 1966 portions of the elementary school and includes new ceilings and interior finishes in many areas, renovated student bathrooms, new lighting and fire alarm, and repairs to mechanical systems. Exterior renovations include roof repairs and new asphalt shingle roofing, site accessibility upgrades, new site lighting, and minor landscaping.

For detail-oriented, the completion description and blueprints are available here. And here is a blueprint showing the landscaping and exterior renovations that will take place. Click to enlarge.

Durham County Real Estate Market Still Lagging

Despite several months of good news about the economy, the Triangle real estate market continues to lag, with both prices and sales of homes falling. To the extent there is any silver lining in this, it is that the Durham County is doing less poorly than either Orange or Wake countries insofar as the percentage of decreases is concerned. Triangle MLS, Inc., a local real-estate tracking firm, has excellent summaries of the state of the market, broken down by county and month on their website.

The depressing news is encapsulated well by the graph below.

But no all is lost! When looking at some long-term trends, the folks at Trulia Insight, a data-crunching arm of the real-estate powerhouse, came up with this fascinating infographic of people who are searching for housing across state lines. There are some interesting findings in this dataset when looking at Durham county, and the Triangle region more generally.

Is Burying Power Lines in Durham a Pipe Dream?

We all know the drill - a gust of strong wind, an unexpected ice storm or a hurricane blow past our neighborhood and a few hours later the lights go dark. If we are lucky, we get the power back in the few hours, although sometimes the power does not come on until days later. This happens every year and while some neighborhoods are luckier than others, everyone has experienced power outages at some point. But it does not have to be this way! Duke University, for example, rarely if ever experienced a power failure no matter what the weather. This is because the University had the foresight to bury their power lines, thus removing a visual nuisance while at the same time ensuring a degree of protection from inclement weather. So why don't cities like Durham follow suit?

The obvious answer is money. It would be a tremendous immediate capital cost for the likes of Duke Energy to  move their electrical infrastructure underground. But the long-term savings will accrue overtime and inure to the customers rather that the energy company itself. In an interesting interview on NPR,   Ted Kurry, the director of at the Public Utility Research Center at the University of Florida discusses the possible cost-benefit analysis of such a move. 

In short: his conclusion is that none has undertaken the regions examination of the long-term benefits of burying power lines, mostly because energy company see no particular benefit to such an expensive move in the absence of government incentives. It is a short interview well worth a read.

In addition to inconvenience, the aesthetic effect of power line-manged trees is rarely attractive (see below). The visual impact of city pruning was well covered by Bullcityrising a few years ago, so I won't repeat the arguments therein. It is a worthwhile read.

Calling all artists -- creating public art in OWD

The City of Durham has allocated $25,000 for local artists interested in creating public art displays (the full press release is after the break). I think this is a great idea and I think there are several places in the neighborhood that would benefit tremendously from a public art installation. The city says that the preference will be given to projects centered around downtown neighborhoods and Bull City Connector stops. Given the artistic and creative chops of this community, I wonder if there will be any applicants willing to beatify this part of our city. The deadline to apply is March 29th.

Here are some places in need of beatifying:

Corner of Markham and Ninth Street

View Larger Map

Intersection of Main and Broad Street



View Larger Map

Weekly Neighborhood Crime Report (February 3-10)

RAIDS Online is a crime tracking system utilized by the City of Durham to keep track of crime reports throughout the city. One of its best features is a mapping system that allows users to see crime trends by neighborhood or specific address  and easily categorize and hone in on problem areas. Anyone can sign up for free on RAIDS website. After the jump is the full list of all crime that took place within one mile radius of Ninth Street in the past week.

The Ninth Street Derby - February 26 - Don't Miss It

Raw Sewage Spilled into Ellerbe Creek

A disturbing article from yesterday's News and Record details the spillage of about 3,000 gallons of sewage sludge into the Ellerbe Creek on Wednesday. The report says that the spillage took place near the North Durham Reclamation Facility, off East Club Boulevard in Durham. The creek runs right through our neighborhood.The full article is reprinted after the break.

Bull City Car Wash Opens

I covered the renovation of the old Kwik-Kar Wash on 1810 W. Markham Avenue in December. With the renovations now complete, the new Bull City Carwash is now open for business. Check out their website at www.bullcitycarwash.com.

New Rental Inspection Regime Portends Good News for our Neighborhood

Old West Durham has a lot of things going for it: location, diversity along both socioeconomic and racial lines, strong neighborhood organization, vibrant urban infrastructure, Ninth Street Shopping District, etc. Most of these traits are uncontroversially positive. But another important feature of this neighborhood -- high prevalence of rental housing, which by by some estimates is as high as 50% -- is more debatable. Some would argue (and I include myself in this group) that rental housing that is well maintained and managed brings vitality and new blood to the neighborhood, which is a good thing. Some recent research studies back-up this conclusion, at least insofar as high-density urban housing is concerned. Still others may argue that high proportion of rental housing depresses housing values, reduces the neighbors' stake in the longevity of their neighborhood and increase crime.

Regardless where you stand on this issue, the new rental inspection proposal currently considered by the City Council is unquestionably a positive development.  The "Probative Inspection Program" will switch housing-code inspections of rental property "to proactively identify rental housing that does not meet [housing code]" by introducing proactive inspections instead of the past practice of inspecting properties only if someone complains. The new regiment will institute period inspections of all properties where "there is a probable cause to believe that unsafe, unsanitary or otherwise hazardous or unlawful conditions may exist at a residential building or structure."

Take a look at the proposal here.

When is the next bus coming? GPS tracking of DTA buses

You may not be aware of this but Durham Transit Authority has partnered with TransLoc to offer users a live view map of all buses participating in the DTA system, including Triangle Transit, Bull City Connector, Capital Area Transit, Durham Area Transit Authority and North Carolina State University buses. Recently the system also added Duke buses to its portfolio. You can check out the live view here.

Although an improvement over not knowing, one significant drawback remains -- unlike its sister bus-tracking system in Chapel Hill, DTA has not installed digital panels at the bus stops to let smartphone-less riders know when the next bus is coming. While it is understandable that the cost and potential for vandalism may be keeping city planners from purchasing this equipment, I wonder if the staggered rollout, particularly at the underperforming Bull City Connector, would be advisable.

Chapel Hill Bus Stop:

Durham Bus Stop:

More information on water main replacement

The city of Durham has posted additional information, including FAQs and a map (reprinted below), on the water main replacement that will be taking place along Ninth Street and West Main Street corridors. It looks like there will be significant disruptions along both streets but the work should be wrapped up by the end of the summer, at which point the DOT will close the W. Main to begin construction on the new bridge over Campus Drive.

Magnolia Grill Recognized as Triangle's Restaurant of the Year

This comes as surprise to exactly no one  as the neighborhood landmark and perennial New York Times favorite Magnolia Grill is once again showered with accolades. The News & Observer food critic Greg Cox named Magnolia Grill the Triangle's Restaurant of the Year. The full story is here.

Future of Transit in the Triangle

The Herald Sun has a good article about the visit of the current FTA commissioner to the Triangle, which sums up the current state of the proposed transit plans for the Wake-Durham-Orange Tri-Country Region. The good news is that, as the article describes, all three counties are moving forward in planning for the proposed transit and aligning their wider zoning and long-term development plans to include transit. The bad news is that many of the proposals continue to make the crucial mistake of transit planners elsewhere: in the name of convenience and cost, the transit is routed through an existing major road artery, such as 15/501 corridor. Slate had an excellent article on the folly of this approach - if we want to spur dense development along the transit corridor, we must ensure that transit is easily accessible by pedestrians; plopping it in the middle of a median on 15/501 is not going to accomplish it. Washington, DC provides an excellent study in contrasts of two approaches. The first section of the Orange line through the Roslyn/Ballston corridor has been constructed underground, spurring massive and highly dense development overhead. In contrast, the rest of the Orange line runs along the I-66 corridor through  Fairfax County,creating massive parking lots on both sides of the highway and not much else. Given that one of the future stations is going to be built near Ninth Street, it is never too early to start thinking about how proposed design of the entire system will affect our our own neighborhood.

High Density development sprouted around underground transit

High pedestrian traffic and successful businesses abound

Versus

Surface parking lots

Barren landscape and little in the way of urban density