• Demand that the budget be used in a manner that provides benefits to all citizens

• Reallocate surplus in the budget, including the Department of Equity & Inclusion pg. 208 to provide partial tuition reimbursement from Durham Technical Community College upon successful completion of a course leading to diploma or certification. The program would serve our justice-involved citizens as well as low-income citizens desiring upward mobility.

• Eliminate the need and funding for the Guaranteed Income pilot that the current City Council continues to expand pg. 118

• Develop a downloadable proximity app that citizens of Durham and visitors to Durham can use to explore and engage with the businesses, services, and agencies available in the Bull City.

• Engage with vetted and reputable Durham organizations and invest in their charters as an outreach to the homeless population 

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MY RESPONSE TO THE STERLING BAY/HERITAGE SQUARE DEVELOPMENT

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East Harlem, also known as Spanish Harlem, was a vibrant, Latin American neighborhood. People from Puerto Rico and Mexico lived there, as well as people hailing from Cuba, Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay, and the Dominican Republic. African Americans lived there too, and there was a population of elderly Italian Americans. White Americans made up about 3% of the population. As development took place, and more upwardly mobile residents have moved in and then moved out due to how close it was to the largest concentration of public housing in New York, rents have gone up and the flavor of the community has changed.  Does not this sound familiar to what is occurring in Durham today.  Gentrification means to make beautiful but the Sterling Bay proposal, propped by some members of the City Council and our Mayor is ugly. 

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Members of our Durham City Council, including our Mayor, desire to place the Hayti community in that same peril.  The residents of the Hayti community have seen their fare share of being lied while their historic community has shrunk over the past several decades.  I remember the Heritage Square strip mall when I visited my grandparents here in Durham as a young boy from Raleigh.  The dwellings across from the vacated strip mall did not exist but there were residences there that people – OUR PEOPLE- were able to afford.  To have a City Council, and for worse, a Mayor that would sell out the same people that voted him in to just be forsaken with the proposed Sterling Bay development is outrageous. 

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I believe in development – but it must be smart and compassionate.

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As a member of the Durham Committee on the Affairs of Black People, I voted NO after the attorney representing Sterling Bay made her case to us for rezoning Heritage Square.  It was an easy decision to made and even easier after the lackluster incentives that were offered.  I voted NO because had my grandparents been alive today, would they have benefited from this development?  The answer is NO. 

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The culture and vibrancy of Durham must be reserved and never be in jeopardy of being erased from an out of state developer looking to establish their footprint in the Bull City.  Whether it is West Point on the Eno or historic Stagville, we deserve a strong City Council and Mayor that will support the interests of Durhamites over the interest of developers. 

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DURHAM NEEDS A CHANGE and I want to be partner for that change.  When elected, I will champion future efforts to preserve Durham’s legacy and will build her responsibly. 

 

God is Good