Hurry-up to sign up for the Durham Home Energy Savings Program

According to the press-release reprinted after the break, there are still some spots left for homeowners to sign-up for the Durham's Energy Savings Program -an EPA funded initiative that provides homeowners with up to $1600 in funds to weatherize their homes for free or at greatly reduced price.

To qualify, your home must be:
• Located in Durham
• 2,300 square feet or less of heated space
• No unvented gas, propane, oil, or wood appliances in the living space
• No major structural, moisture, or hazardous materials issues
• Rental property must have approval from the landlord and tenants
• Occupants must agree to allow access to energy use data for one year prior and two years after the retrofits
• Occupants or landlords must provide the contractor with the $400 payment at the time of the initial home assessment with the Durham Home Energy Savings Program paying up to an additional $1,600 per house
• Occupants must be available to be home when contractors come to do the work (estimated two visits)
• Occupants must remove contents of attics and/or crawlspaces to allow contractor access to those spaces
• Occupants and landlords must be current on all local taxes

There are about 50 slots left,so hurry and sign-up online. 

New Proactive Rental Regime Begins in OWD

 A little over a month ago the City of Durham rolled out a new Proactive Rental Inspection Program (PRIP), designed to "proactively identify and remediate rental housing that does not meet the [code and related ordinances]. This program is the implementation of the March 5 resolution of the City Council enacting the PRIP ordinance. As described more fully in a previous post, this represents a significant change in the way the City investigates and enforces violations of the housing code in rental properties.
 

The city has designated several "priority zones," including a significant portion of the OWD and Trinity Park neighborhoods (see map below) in which all rental property owners will undergo periodic inspections to ensure compliance with Durham's Minimal Housing Code. Furthermore, landlords whose property registered three or more housing code violations in the past 12-month period will be required to register their property with the Department of Neighborhood Improvement Services (DIS). 

The trigger for proactive (i.e. unprompted) inspections will be something called "Reasonable Cause", defined as (1) a history of 3 or more violations in 12 months; (2) a complain has been received; (3) there is knowledge of unsafe conditions, or (4) violations of the code are visible from the outside of the property. Both single-family and multifamily buildings will be targeted, with penalties as high as $300 a month, and a maximum penalty of $5,000 for failure to register properties found to have more than 3 code enforcement violations.

This program is long overdue, particularly in the neighborhood like ours, where upward of 50% of all properties are rentals. While most neighborhood landlords have been diligent and conscientious in up-keeping their properties, a few bad apples have cropped up here and there.

Although this program is a great start, several areas for improvement immediately jump to mind:

1. Increase the maximum penalty - given potentially significant costs of repair, some proverbial "slum-lords" may make an economic calculation that it is simply cheaper to pay a $5,000 fine rather than fix up their dilapidated eye sore of a building. To change this calculus, DIS should have the power to fine $5,000 per violation. 
2. Create a publicly searchable database of all properties found to to have three or more code violations in a year, including the fines levied and the business address and telephone number of the registered owner. 

Still, this a step in the right direction, and I hope with time, the program will be revised and strengthened to improve the overall appearance and safety of our neighborhood. The full scope of the program is described in greater detail after the break.

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.

City Council Approves Ninth Street Development Plan

Following a strong show of support from OWDNA and the community at large, the City Council has approved the Ninth Street Development Plan in its original form. The vote was unanimous 5-0. This is great news for our community and shows that power of action by citizens who are concerned about the impact unrestricted development can have on their community can have. The article from the Herald Sun describing the issue in more detail is reprinted after the break.

Is Durham the most tolerant city in America?

I have previously voiced my skepticism of rankings of various kinds, be they complementary or critical of the Bull City. But the appeal of traffic-pleasing ratings arms race is too strong for many online publications to resit. The latest, courtesy of the Daily Beast, crowns Durham the most tolerant city in America. Durham comes ahead of San Fransisco (third) and Honolulu (second).

The rankings were based on measuring racial diversity, religious tolerance, same-sex marriage rates and hate-crime reporting rates. But this analysis conveniently ignores the larger tapestry of state laws that,arguably, affect local residents to the same if not greater extent than the cities where they live.

Although I am very proud of Durham's diversity and progressive politics, we are still living in a fairly conservative southern state. To say that Durham is a better place for a same-sex couple than New York City or Boston would be ludicrous, as both of those states have legalized gay marriage. Similarly, no matter how welcoming a community Durham may be to undocumented migrants, the larger policies of North Carolina are surely less advantageous to that community than the more immigrant-friendly laws of California and Hawaii.

So readers, we’d like to know what you think.Do you think Durham is the most tolerant city in America?

Lies, Damn Lies and Businessweek Rankings

As the title of this post suggests, I am not a big fan of rankings, particularly rankings of cities by using some arbitrary criteria taken out of context. Fore more on why city rankings are always wrong, see this fantastic Salon article.So now we have these new rankings from Businesweek of best cities to live in the U.S. and Raleigh comes in at #1, while Durham is at #37 behind Greensboro (#31). Give me a break! The full description is after the break.