Show Your Heart Exhibit at Broad Street Cafe

Small, locally-owned businesses are wonderful to the community for many reasons. Not only do the account for the most of the job creation, keep money in the community, and give Durham an outsized national reputation, but they also keep our community uniquely engaged by fostering cooperation between artists, business owners, and Durham residents.

An excellent example of such cooperation is the Board Street Cafe, which has long served as a nexus of good food, excellent music and innovative art. According to the Durham News, their latest project is the Heartfelt project, a collection of paintings and other artwork serving as a fundraiser for the Dave Turner Lymphoma Foundation which helps area families facing cancer. 

Check out the article after the break and be sure to visit Broad Street, sample their fares, and, perhaps, purchase one of the art pieces.

Bridge Construction over Main Street Delayed

As I have covered in previous posts, the area near the intersection of Main and Broad streets will be seeing a lot of construction soon: the water main replacement, repaving of Main Street (which will include adding bike lanes, finally), and the wholesale replacement of the section of Main Street that goes over Campus Drive, which connects Duke's East Campus to the rest of the university.

Soon-to-be replaced Campus Dr. Bridge

Today's Herald Sun reports that the bridge replacement has been pushed back almost a year and -- in even better news -- is now expected to last six months rather than twelve. This is unquestionably good news for then neighborhood, as it would minimize the ongoing disruption to the whole community without compromising infrastructure improvements that will need to be made.Read the whole article after the break.

Bracing for major road construction in the neighborhood

Today's Herald Sun has a good article describing a trifecta of road construction projects happening around Ninth Street Shopping Center and Duke's East Campus. By far the most destructive of three, promises to be the demolition of the bridge that carries Main Street over Campus Drive
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As I described previously, the work is likely to last for at least a year and will result in a complete closure of Main street. The detour will be through Durham Freeway, which is likely to cause considerable pain to residents trying to get to downtown and Bright Leaf square without having to get on the interstate. Before the work begins, however, the city will need to replace a major water main. The construction is slated to begin in the summer. On the bright side of things, DOT officials promise to repave the Main Street and narrow it from four lanes to three to allow bike lines on both sides. 

The Herald Sun article describing the full  impact of this and some other roadwork projects is reprinted after the break. 

Update on the renovation of 725 Broad Street

As most of us have seen by now, the renovation of 725 Broad Street is in full swing. A local architectural firm, BLOCK Architecture, PLLC, has been tasked with turning a 5,000 SQ office space from 1964 into a modern two story building that could serve as an anchor for further Broad Street revitalization. According to the architects' facebook page, the space is designed to host a bakery, class A offices and an event space. I posted some drawing of the finished project from the same page. It is exciting to see new energy brought to a long-suffering stretch of the road and it comes amid an influx of new businesses on the 700 block, including Ad Spice and Nataraja Healing Arts. Here is what the place looked like before renovation.
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Free Community Event at Broad Street Cafe this Sunday

This Sunday, January 15, at 4:30 p.m. the Broad Street Cafe is hosting another one of its BSC Kids events, which occur every first and third Sunday of each month, October through March.

The featured artist is Baron Von Rumblebuss, who sings of "robots, superheros, and failing into an onion dip" among other kind-friendly and adult-pleasing favorites. According to John Hite, of the Broad Street Cafe, you will hear "the lingering echos of The Kinks, The Who, Devo, and more. Please support Broad Street Cafe by purchasing food/drink and keeping this event free.


[source: Watts-Hillandale Listserv]



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Trinity Lounge - now under new management

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Trinity Lounge, a self-described "Durham's newest and most sophisticated private club," has reopened its doors on November 1st after undergoing some renovations both inside and out and dropping its previous moniker "Siren's Lounge." (Google view is still showing the old sign). According to its website and facebook page, Trinity Lounge's core business is various fraternity and sorority events organized by Duke student groups on weekends; during the week it functions as a martini bar, with daily specials, including Mondays.  In its previous iteration, Siren's Lounge has gone steadily downhill from its promising beginnings as a favorite nightclub hangout for Duke students unwilling to travel to Chapel Hill , to a poorly managed and maintained dive, whose owner one reviewer described as "being extremely rude" and "highly intoxicated." Now that the bar is under new management, the reviews have been fare more positive, with reviewers describing it as a "neighborhood pub with a brand new twist" and "a cozy place with a very personable staff."