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https://indyweek.com/news/voices/drawn-out-the-protege/
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Support independent local journalism. Join the INDY Press Club to help us keep fearless watchdog reporting and essential arts and culture coverage viable in the Triangle.
Comment on this story at backtalk@indyweek.com.
On big lies.
Support independent local journalism. Join the INDY Press Club to help us keep fearless watchdog reporting and essential arts and culture coverage viable in the Triangle.
Comment on this story at backtalk@indyweek.com.
© 2021 INDY Week • 320 E. Chapel Hill St., Suite 200, Durham, NC 27701 • Phone 919-286-1972 • Fax 919-286-4274
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20220401
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https://indyweek.com/news/what-to-do-this-weekend-in-the-triangle/
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There are sunny days ahead this weekend, but come Saturday night, most North Carolinians will be inside. As the NCAA tournament draws to a close, people in the Triangle are only thinking about one thing—the semifinal game between longtime rivals Duke and UNC.
This year marks the first time ever the two college basketball teams will meet in the tournament, a statistical anomaly that has mostly prevented the Triangle from becoming a dumpster fire each March. So if you're a basketball fan, be prepared for chaos. And if you're not, well ... be prepared for chaos.
Clash of the Titans
The Duke v. UNC game airs at 8:49 p.m. Saturday on TBS. Sports bars across the Triangle will be tuning in, so if you plan on heading to Franklin Street, downtown Durham, or downtown Raleigh, be prepared for a loud, crowded, and crazy evening. Locals will remember the legendary car fire back in 2001 after a fan celebration on Franklin Street got out of control. This year, vandalism like that is even more likely, so stay safe and stay sober.
If you're not planning on watching the game, avoid downtown. Even if you are planning on watching the game, I recommend throwing a watch party from the comfort of your own home, where you don't have to search for parking and you can throw down as many beers as you like. You can stream the action on the TBS app, NCAA March Madness Live app, TBS.com, and NCAA.com. And if you're an NC State fan, sit back and enjoy the show. Maybe try and send some bad ju-ju UNC's way beforehand.
First Friday Fundraiser: Support Ukraine
If you're looking for a non-sporting event, head to Gallery C in downtown Raleigh for an evening of Ukrainian food, music, and art—all in support of the Ukrainian people. The guest of honor is Olen Kozlova-Pates, founder of the volunteer network Ukrainians in the Carolinas, which has been working to assist Ukrainians and promote their culture in the Carolinas for the past eight years.
Proceeds from the fundraising event will go toward the nonprofit Revived Soldiers Ukraine, which has been providing medical and humanitarian support to the people of Ukraine since 2014.
With the big game this weekend, there's a lot of appeal for some in getting as far away from civilization as possible. If you want to be unreachable, consider taking a self-guided canoe, kayak, or paddleboarding tour of Falls Lake. A short trip runs two-and-a-half hours, while a long trip will take up half your day, at four hours. The spring weather also means its not yet too hot on the water. Tours are $30-40.
Support independent local journalism. Join the INDY Press Club to help us keep fearless watchdog reporting and essential arts and culture coverage viable in the Triangle.
Follow Staff Writer Jasmine Gallup on Twitter or send an email to jgallup@indyweek.com.
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https://indyweek.com/news/longform/sunday-reading-origin-theories/
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In an absolutely wild story published this week, Vanity Fair contributor Katherine Eban follows Peter Daszak, the president of the nonprofit non-governmental organization EcoHealth Alliance, and the group's risky (albeit government-sponsored) work in the United States and China studying how to identify viruses that could jump from animals to humans in order to prevent a global pandemic.
Drawing on 100,000 leaked documents from Manhattan-based EcoHealth Alliance and interviews with 33 sources, Eban painstakingly traces how the once obscure nonprofit accidentally found itself suspected of starting the COVID-19 pandemic.
Helmed by Daszak, EcoHealth Alliance started out, according to the story, as "a struggling nonprofit with a mission to save manatees, promote responsible pet ownership, and celebrate threatened species," originally operating under the name Wildlife Trust until 2010.
"Constantly on the hunt for ways to close its budget shortfalls," Daszak's organization was, in 2009, awarded $18 million over five years in grant money from USAID to test bats for zoonotic viruses in remote locations all over the world.
From the story:
The money transformed the ragged nonprofit. It increased its budget by half, ending a yearslong operating loss; began a long- deferred rebranding, which led to the new name EcoHealth Alliance; and spruced up its headquarters, even giving its chronically broken air conditioner. Over the course of the grant, it allocated $1.1 million to the Wuhan Institute of Virology, USAID recently acknowledged in a letter to Congress."
Now, Daszak had long been collaborating with the Chinese scientist Shi Zhengli—"known as 'bat woman' for her fearless exploration of their [that is bats'] habitats"—per the story. Shi would eventually become the director of the Wuhan Institute of Virology's (WIV) Center for Emerging Infections Diseases.
More from the story:
In 2005, after conducting field research in four locations in China, Daszak and Shi co-authored their first paper together, which established that horseshoe bats were a likely reservoir for SARS-like coronaviruses. They would go on to collaborate on 17 papers. In 2013, they reported their discovery that a SARS-like bat coronavirus, which Shi had been the first to successfully isolate in a lab, might be able to infect human cells without first jumping to an intermediate animal.
Fast forward to 2014, and Daszak and EcoHealth Alliance received a prestigious, $3.7 million grant from the National Institutes of Health titled Understanding the Risk of Bat Coronavirus Emergence. Working with Shi and the WIV, as well as a partner laboratory at the University of North Carolina, the grant "proposed to screen wild and captive bats in China, analyze sequences in the laboratory to gauge human risk of bat viruses infecting humans, and build predictive models to examine future risk."
You can probably see what's happening here: not only did EcoHealth Alliance and WIV fail to foresee the COVID pandemic outbreak, but, with "murky grant agreements, flimsy oversight, and the pursuit of government funds for scientific advancement, in part by pitching research of steeply escalating risk," it's not implausible that the WIV's lab work could have had a "possible role" in the pandemic, if not as the origin point itself rather than the Huanan Seafood Market as has long widely been believed.
Anyway, there's your backstory. Dr. Anthony Fauci is involved, and UNC-Chapel Hill's Dr. Ralph Baric, a professor of epidemiology, microbiology, and immunology, and a coronavirus researcher, plays a supporting role in the story, too. It's a deftly reported, if at times convoluted, account of what could have happened in late 2019 or early 2020 that has brought us the global the reality of these last two years—a story that's both maddening and terrifying in its telling of what "shouldn't happen."
Read it all here.
Support independent local journalism. Join the INDY Press Club to help us keep fearless watchdog reporting and essential arts and culture coverage viable in the Triangle.
Follow Editor-in-Chief Jane Porter on Twitter or send an email to jporter@indyweek.com.
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https://indyweek.com/news/northcarolina/volunteers-work-with-ukraine-refugees/
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Eduard and Liliya Chernous of Asheville spent several weeks in March working with Ukraine refugees in Eastern Europe locations like this facility in Poland. | Photo courtesy of Eduard Chernous
Less than two weeks after Russian forces opened fire on Ukraine, Liliya Chernous was on a flight from North Carolina to Poland.
“When I came to the United States, I told myself, ‘I will learn everything that Americans are doing in order to help my country,’” Chernous said. She never thought helping Ukraine, her home, would mean tending to people fleeing war zones.
“It is a different (kind of) help, but I want to do it.”
When Chernous and her son, Eduard, boarded a 12-hour flight to Warsaw, they didn’t have a set agenda.
The Chernous family immigrated to Asheville from Western Ukraine in 1997. Since then, they’ve made annual trips back to visit Ukrainian family and friends—many of whom have fled the country in recent weeks as Russia widened its attack.
Most of Liliya and Eduard’s Ukrainian family has escaped the country safely. Some are choosing to stay and fight, despite Liliya’s pleas otherwise. One cousin, a front-line fighter in the war, hasn’t been in touch with the family in weeks.
The Chernouses didn’t start their humanitarian work in Ukraine when they landed in Europe. Back in Western North Carolina, they helped put on a vigil in Asheville days after the war began.
But this trip to Eastern Europe was different from previous ones. Instead of sharing meals with family or revisiting fond childhood locations, the pair spent the three-week trip in Germany, at Ukrainian borders and in Poland.
They didn’t join humanitarian organizations offering aid at the borders, such as Doctors Without Borders or the International Committee of the Red Cross. Instead, they reached out to people they knew personally through family and church to offer help.
“We found it more effective to be on a personal basis because the turnaround time is a lot quicker,” Eduard said about joining Polish church and community groups in Warsaw, Lodz, Krakow and the border town of Hrebenne. “You can get directly connected to people.”
The mother and son also served in German cities, including Stuttgart, Pforzheim, Neubulach and Bad Liebenzell.
After joining forces with these connections, Eduard and Liliya transported refugees to safe places and registered them for international passports and social services.
Liliya, who was a registered nurse in Ukraine and works as a medical translator in North Carolina, also assessed people for medical issues. Group leaders told her to be cognizant of potential sex trafficking and approach incoming Ukrainians with listening ears.
The Chernouses quickly realized, however, that the biggest task ahead of them while working with displaced Ukrainians was tending to their emotional needs.
“I just tried to hug them and kiss them,” Liliya said. “Ladies were crying constantly and asking, ‘Why? Why has this happened, Liliya? Do you think the world will end soon?’
“They still hope … to go back. They want to rebuild Ukraine, and they were even asking me, ‘Liliya, do you think the world will help us to rebuild Ukraine?’”
During their nearly monthlong trip, Liliya and Eduard heard heartbreaking stories from refugees about their arduous journey across the Ukrainian border.
One refugee family, while passing through a Russian block post, watched soldiers fire at a vehicle carrying a family with small children. Another had a friend who watched his wife die after being shot.
“They lost track of the days of the week,” Liliya said about a refugee who spoke about staying in the basement with her seven foster children for 19 days after Russia invaded.
“This lady … she said, ‘I so appreciate that I can see … light. Everything is different. Everything is much brighter.’
“Sometimes we don’t see colors, but those refugees, they can see colors much brighter than us.”
Eduard and Liliya flew back to Asheville on March 30, but they don’t plan to stop assisting Ukrainians. As soon as it’s logistically appropriate—they had to pay for the trip on their own and with the help of a GoFundMe—the two plan to return to Ukraine’s borders or wherever they’re needed to help their homeland.
In the meantime, they hope that the world outside Ukraine doesn’t become accustomed to the violence saturating the ground of their home country.
“The more identity we give to the (Ukrainian) people, the better,” Eduard said. “We can only hope that people don’t forget about this.”
Support independent local journalism. Join the INDY Press Club to help us keep fearless watchdog reporting and essential arts and culture coverage viable in the Triangle.
Comment on this story at backtalk@indyweek.com.
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https://indyweek.com/news/durham/nccu-professor-chosen-to-research-nina-smith/
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A Durham professor will join a team of scholars tasked with providing national leadership and research on how to best serve African American children and their families.
Nina Smith, an associate professor of human sciences at N.C. Central University, was selected to provide research for the newly-established National African American Child and Family Research Center (NAACFRC) at the Morehouse School of Medicine, the university announced in a press release.
Smith will work as a co-investigator under the leadership of Latrice Rollins, an assistant professor in community health and preventive medicine at the Morehouse medical school, according to the NCCU release.
The two academics plan to work in concert to help provide national leadership on how to best serve African American families in the areas of child development, child care, economic mobility, and fatherhood, according to the university.
Smith’s work will focus on rural research. She previously studied the impact of COVID-19 on African Americans in rural North Carolina.
“When Dr. Rollins decided to apply for these funds, she asked if I’d be interested in serving as a co-investigator given my research interests and the goals she wanted to accomplish,” Smith said in the release. “I said ‘yes’ immediately because I believe this center [NAACFRC] is one of the first, if not the first of its kind, and so I understood the importance of this national research agenda for African American children and families.
“There’s great work being done on African American children and families, but the spotlight isn’t on that work the same as it is with work with majority populations,” Smith added. “This center will spotlight work with African Americans and the need for continued research.”
In the release, Rollins noted that Smith’s “prior work on African American families demonstrates her expertise and ability to lead the NAACFRC research in this area, which will inform policies and programs for these families.”
Rollins said the center will focus broadly on early education, including early head start and head start; child care assistance; social and economic mobility, including Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) and poverty alleviation programs; and healthy relationships, including fatherhood and supportive family relationships.
The work will include “specific research themes impacting African Americans,” including those in rural communities and others who have been impacted by health, disability, and criminal justice issues, according to the release.
“One in 10 African Americans lives in a non-metropolitan area; however, dominant narratives about rural America frequently neglect the experiences of African Americans,” said Rollins, who added that African Americans in rural areas “deserve special attention, and those with low incomes face substantial burdens to employment because of extremely limited transportation and childcare options.”
The center’s opening was heralded in a Black History Month press release from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (DHS). Among the goals of the center is the development of “a community-engaged and high-caliber research program focused on African American children and families,” according to the press release.
“The African American population, like other racial and ethnic populations in the US, is very diverse, and this Center will allow space for scholars, students, and practitioners to learn and share more about the varied experiences and strengths of this population,” according to DHS.
Support independent local journalism. Join the INDY Press Club to help us keep fearless watchdog reporting and essential arts and culture coverage viable in the Triangle.
Follow Durham Staff Writer Thomasi McDonald on Twitter or send an email to tmcdonald@indyweek.com.
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https://indyweek.com/news/northcarolina/postpartum-medicaid-expansion-extended-for-pregnant-people/
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This story originally published online at NC Health News.
Postpartum Medicaid will be extended from 60 days after birth to one year starting today, as a provision included in last year’s state budget comes into effect.
The provision allows pregnant people at or below 196 percent of the federal poverty guidelines—about $34,800 for a family of two—to remain eligible for coverage for 12 months postpartum.
Medicaid coverage for pregnant people had previously ended about two months after giving birth, even though many pregnancy-related deaths occur 43 to 365 days postpartum, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
North Carolina has a maternal mortality rate of 21.9 deaths per 100,000 live births according to the annual America’s Health Rankings report, which uses CDC data. The United States averages 20.1 maternal deaths per 100,000 live births.
“This extended coverage is an important component to help improve the health of families in our state,” Deputy Secretary for North Carolina Medicaid Dave Richard said in a press release. “I hope we can build on this important step by expanding Medicaid in North Carolina to further support maternal health and reduce infant mortality by improving health before the pregnancy.”
Sarah Verbiest, a member of the NC Child Fatality Task Force called the provision “a game changer for new families in North Carolina” before the legislation was passed, at the group’s Perinatal Health Committee meeting in late September.
North Carolina for Better Medicaid said the move “has the potential to make a meaningful difference in the health of new mothers and their families,” in a press release in December.
What it means
The extended coverage applies to all categories of beneficiaries, according to the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services. Those who are eligible for postpartum Medicaid will receive a letter detailing the change, according to NC DHHS.
The change comes after the postpartum Medicaid benefits for people who gave birth during the pandemic have continued for months past the 60-day cut off due to a provision in the Families First Coronavirus Response Act, which continues to cover new parents until the end of the federal COVID public health emergency, which is currently due to expire on April 16.
The American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 gave states the ability and the money to extend postpartum coverage to 12 months, which the North Carolina General Assembly included in its budget which passed in November 2021 at a cost of $12.5 million in state dollars in the current fiscal year (which ends on June 30) and another $50.8 million in state funds in the coming fiscal year.
Starting April 1, pregnant people on Medicaid for Pregnant Women will have coverage for full Medicaid benefits, meaning they will also have coverage for services such as dental, doctor’s visits, vision and behavioral health care. A full list of Medicaid services can be found here.
Advocates say the extension is important since many postpartum deaths are due to preventable causes, such as substance use disorder, cardiac disease or death by suicide, according to the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists.
About 12 percent of women in North Carolina experience postpartum depression, according to NC DHHS.
New parents can be vulnerable in the first months after giving birth and may suffer from health conditions from physical health issues to mental health struggles, Verbiest previously told NC Health News.
Advocates for women’s health have argued that extending postpartum Medicaid can help reduce deaths that occur outside of the 60-day window North Carolina had previously used for postpartum Medicaid, especially since 41 percent of births in North Carolina are financed by Medicaid, according to Kaiser Family Foundation.
Extension not expansion
While the state has extended Medicaid for pregnant people, it has yet to expand Medicaid for the remainder of low-income adults. Currently, the Tar Heel state is one of just 12 states that has not expanded Medicaid, something that became possible because of the Affordable Care Act. However, a bipartisan committee at the state Legislature is studying the possibility of expanding Medicaid.
Medicaid expansion has divided North Carolina’s legislature along party lines for almost a decade, with Democrats, including Gov. Roy Cooper, largely supporting expansion and Republicans largely opposing it.
Medicaid expansion would allow households with an income below 133 percent of the federal poverty line to qualify for coverage. Currently, only low-income workers, low-income people with children, people with disabilities and pregnant people qualify up until they give birth and for 60 days thereafter.
Extending postpartum Medicaid was a bipartisan effort. It was originally introduced as a Senate bill by three Republican Sens. Jim Burgin (R-Angier), Joyce Krawiec (R-Kernersville) and Kevin Corbin (R-Franklin).
Both Krawiec and Corbin are on the Medicaid expansion committee. Corbin has been a vocal supporter of expanding Medicaid.
North Carolina Health News is an independent, non-partisan, not-for-profit, statewide news organization dedicated to covering all things health care in North Carolina. Visit NCHN.
Support independent local journalism. Join the INDY Press Club to help us keep fearless watchdog reporting and essential arts and culture coverage viable in the Triangle.
Comment on this story at backtalk@indyweek.com.
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20220405
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https://indyweek.com/culture/page/megan-mayhew-bergman-story-collection-review/
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Book cover and photo of Megan Mayhew Bergman by Nina Subin
Megan Mayhew Bergman readings | Quail Ridge Books, Raleigh | Wednesday, Apr. 6, 7 p.m. | Flyleaf Books, Chapel Hill | Thursday, Apr. 7, 5:30 p.m.
Only one of the stories in Megan Mayhew Bergman’s new short story collection, How Strange a Season, takes place in North Carolina: “A Taste for Lionfish,” the story of Lily, a college student employed by a conservation organization, who travels to Alligator, North Carolina, to try and persuade coastal residents to incorporate lionfish, an invasive species, into their diet. It goes about how you’d expect: “You’re trying to tell these poor folks how to fix a rich folks’ problem,” a character bluntly tells Lily.
The other seven stories in the collection cast a wide geographic net, from Italy to Arizona, and lurch back in time; the years 1792 and 1979 both make appearances. But Bergman, who grew up in Rocky Mount and spent years in Raleigh and Durham in adulthood, evidences no shortage of love for the state, and the book bears an affectionate dedication to “My North Carolina Family.” This week, Bergman—who now teaches literature and environmental writing at Middlebury College in Vermont—is back locally in support of the new book, with stops at Quail Ridge Bookstore and Flyleaf Books. In-person readings have been slow to come back, since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, so events like these feel extra special.
Time and setting may vary in these stories but the characters have plenty in common: How Strange a Season is haunted by strong women in search of themselves. Or, maybe better put, the women in Bergman’s stories—strong-willed activists, artists, and athletes—have a grip on who they are but are less sure how to squeeze into a world shaped by men.
Climate change lurks like a specter, though not ornamentally; Bergman is a gifted, observant scribe of the natural world. Sex, regret, and desire run amok. (“It seemed to her that adulthood was a series of mundane years punctuated by transgressions and apologies,” one character thinks to herself.) Money also plays a strong hand, and most characters have the luxury of not wanting for it. (This isn’t a criticism: the affluence of some characters thrusts the needs of others into sharp relief, as with Marie, a Norwegian wet nurse who is drawn, conditionally, into the lives of a dysfunctional old-money family in the story “Indigo Run.”)
What these characters do long for, though, is purpose and home.
In “Indigo Run,” the novella-length story that anchors the collection, the older generation of a family is obsessed with sinking their teeth into the traditions of their ancestral South Carolina plantation, even if it makes them sick, while the youngest woman in the family believes she can only find her own sense of belonging by burning it all down. “Girls understand what home means in a way men don’t,” one character explains.
It’s a Southern Gothic story that takes a few pages to get into—it has no shortage of diversions, especially in the beginning—but once you do get into it you’ll be pulled in deep by its sensual, uneasy current. I was reminded, while reading, of Lauren Groff’s ambitious novel Fates and Furies, with its lyrical Southern sprawl and damaged characters hell-bent on a collision course.
In “Wife Days” a champion swimmer makes dark agreements with her wealthy husband, while in the surprising (and maybe a little uneven) “Workhorse” a heartsick floral artist has already separated from her husband and spends her days crafting an elaborate terrarium while trying to avoid the demands of another man, her father.
It’s the first story in the book, and the rare botanical flowers the artist seeks to cultivate are a perfect stand-in for the book’s rich themes. The flowers are beautiful and expensive but have to be coaxed into their environments. They’re only destined to thrive that way for a little while.
Support independent local journalism. Join the INDY Press Club to help us keep fearless watchdog reporting and essential arts and culture coverage viable in the Triangle.
Follow Arts & Culture Editor Sarah Edwards on Twitter or send an email to sedwards@indyweek.com.
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https://indyweek.com/culture/page/david-sedaris-happy-go-lucky-review/
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David Sedaris: Happy-Go-Lucky | Little, Brown and Company; May 31, 2022
North Carolinians—or at least those of us who enjoy seeing our state through the twisted lens of Sedarian humor—may rejoice: David Sedaris’s latest essay collection, Happy-Go-Lucky, has much more of the Old North State in it.
Happy-Go-Lucky starts with Sedaris and his sister Lisa visiting a Winston-Salem gun range. In following essays, he shares his and his partner Hugh’s fight to restore their Emerald Isle beach house (wonderfully named the Sea Section) after Hurricane Florence and the family’s time spent in their father’s North Carolina nursing home.
In these new essays, Sedaris continues on themes he began to explore in Calypso, namely his father’s aging, his own aging, and the business of maintaining a beach house on a hurricane-plagued piece of coastline. He also spends ample time being concerned for young people and meditating on the nature of comedy, writing, and performance. Oh, and dental work.
If those topics don’t sound like cause for rejoicing, well, fair. But if you’re a devotee of Sedaris’s work, I think you’ll enjoy this collection. He approaches each of these challenges with his characteristic witty ire, but a few of the essays did leave me thinking about more somber topics like the mortality of my parents and the horror of training children to deal with school shootings.
As always, Sedaris is often shockingly candid. He shares his phobia of looking at his own teeth (this checks out: have you ever seen a photo of him smiling with them visible?), a touch of regret about the last words he said to his father, and the immensely uncomfortable tension of being the subject of at least one youth’s sexual awakening. Just a heads up, the most uncomfortably frank essay investigates his father’s consistent sexual comments about his daughters and one daughter’s accusations of sexual abuse.
Sedaris has often relied on the alternate insight and obliviousness of children to highlight the comedy of everyday life. (Well, he uses them to highlight the comedy of his everyday life, which I’ll admit has a higher level of inherent humor than I can find in my own.) Earlier collections focused almost entirely on Sedaris’s own childhood, but he spends a good amount of time in Happy-Go-Lucky focusing on other children, through exercises such as imagining what it might be like to be a child in a time of school shootings. It works well to highlight the whole uneasy aging thing.
Sedaris is often thoughtful, attacking uncomfortable topics in a darkly funny way. But at least one essay, the one about his father’s death, made me feel the way Bo Burnham’s Inside or Hannah Gadsby’s Nanette did: that I’d fallen prey to a bait and switch where I did not get the laughs I thought I would.
Other essays even take a similar path to some of Burnham’s more poignant moments in Inside. Sedaris considers, for example, the fact that he gets to profit off of his own trauma as long as he can frame it in a way that makes people laugh. Sedaris describes both the freedom that can come from turning trauma into comedy gold and into actual revenue and the necessity of an actual audience for what he does. (Zoom just doesn’t cut it some days, does it?)
He doesn’t linger in this place of self-reflection (indulgence?) for too long, though. He also arrives at a different conclusion than many of us when we reflect on varying levels of emotional exploitation in our own careers: Sedaris likes his job. He likes it when you and I are there to laugh at the trials of his childhood. I found myself touched by his gratitude that we continue to support him in that line of work.
And then, there’s the book cover: on it, a small child smiles while leaning on the arm of a truly grotesque clown who’s holding a small white dog—a poodle maybe? As uncomfortable as the artwork might be, it’s fitting for this collection. If you or I sat down and drew a clown face right now, we’d all probably do similar versions of exaggerated features. Double those to get the scope of this clown’s raggedy face, and trim the mouth down to three painted-on teeth in a Joker smile.
I probably wouldn’t allow this snapshot in my house in any form other than as a necessary attachment to Sedaris’s essays, but I couldn’t imagine a better representation of them. Children watch or attack or ignore Sedaris throughout the collection. He uses their innocence to highlight the creeping horror of confronting his own mortality or, more hauntingly, that of the kindergarteners across the country practicing active-shooter drills.
If you’re looking to be entertained by another round of lightly self-effacing elitism and Sedarian “can he really say that?”—well, he did, and in just another month or so, Happy-Go-Lucky can be yours to have and to hold.
Support independent local journalism. Join the INDY Press Club to help us keep fearless watchdog reporting and essential arts and culture coverage viable in the Triangle.
Comment on this story at backtalk@indyweek.com.
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https://indyweek.com/culture/screen/ten-films-full-frame-2022/
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A still from 'What We Leave Behind' | Photo courtesy of Full Frame Documentary Festival
Full Frame Documentary Film Festival | Thursday, Apr. 7–Sunday, Apr. 10, 2022
Due to the perpetual bummer that is COVID-19, the 25th annual Full Frame Documentary Film Festival is being held online again this year, April 7-10. But don’t fret: festival organizers have figured out the best possible techniques for watching the films at home on your TV (why not a viewing party?) or on your small-screen device, if you must.
The best way to proceed is via the Full Frame website, which has step-by-step instructions and a thorough FAQ on purchasing tickets and setting up your viewing experience. This year’s festival features 37 titles from 18 countries—22 feature films and 15 shorts. The festival is also hosting several online filmmaker Q&A sessions. Organizers have also announced a plan to present a handful of in-person documentary screenings at Durham Central Park at the end of August.
To watch now, though, browse the full listings at the Full Frame website, and read up on this sampling that suggests the typical breadth of awesomeness at Full Frame’s annual festival.
Among the buzziest of this year’s docs, Stay Prayed Up profiles legendary North Carolina gospel group The Branchettes and singer Lena Mae Perry, celebrating her 50th year as the bandleader. Early reactions suggest this is the film for those of us seeking dramatic renewal of hope. Watch for a special screening event at the Carolina Theatre in May.
Grand Jury prize winner at Sundance, The Exiles follows the 30-year journey of three exiled Chinese dissidents from the Tiananmen Square massacre. Also in frame: notoriously rowdy filmmaker Christine Choy, the documentarian who first profiled the escapees just after the tragic events in 1989. Debut directors Violet Columbus and Ben Klein unknot a very twisty story.
Another big winner at Sundance, this harrowing documentary chronicles the story of now-imprisoned Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, and his mission to find those who poisoned him in 2020. Navalny is square in the middle of the global conversation right now, and it’s one of several films in this year’s lineup to address issues around the war in Ukraine.
Director Jon-Sesrie Goff offers a sustained meditation on the American South through a collage of history, memory, and the tensions in between. Told in flittering scenes of personal narrative, the film observes the Gullah community in South Carolina, stewards of land originally deeded to freed slaves, and their experience with recent hate crimes and gradual gentrification.
First-time feature director Reid Davenport shot the entirety of this remarkable film from his particular physical vantage point as a wheelchair-using documentarian. Toggling between the experimental and the vérité, Davenport delivers a first-person perspective on “spectacle, (in)visibility, and the corrosive legacy of the Freak Show.”
In 1956, Gabor Szilasi arrived by boat from Hungary to his new adopted home in Canada. He’s been taking pictures of everyday life ever since. Filmmaker Joannie Lafrenière follows the 94-year-old photographer as he applies his fiercely humanist philosophy to everything he sees, from Montreal to Budapest and back again. This year’s fest is light on feel-good films, but this is one of them.
Another documentary with alarming relevance just now, Chernobyl: The Lost Tapes features never-before-seen footage filmed during and just after the infamous 1986 disaster. Director James Jones also rooted out additional material from archival news reports, defunct Russian studios, and Soviet propaganda films. Word is that Jones finished his film and got out of Ukraine just before war was declared.
Filmmaker Iliana Sosa’s film is a kind of DIY cinematic ode to her grandfather, Julián, who regularly visits his daughters and their children in El Paso from his home in rural Mexico. Julián has been making that bus trip for decades, nurturing family ties over the border. Sosa’s lyrical, artful film is a reminder that all a talented filmmaker really needs is a story and a camera.
This intriguing feature doc from director Tomasz Wolski depicts the back-room dealings behind a series of violent protests in communist Poland circa 1970, when authorities cracked down on starving workers. Wolski combines archival telephone recordings with stop-motion animation to imagine the conflict from behind the closed doors of the oppressors—angry little men in power, playing with life and death.
Fresh from its world premiere at SXSW, director Jessica Edwards’s new film is being billed as the first feature documentary about the rise of women’s skateboarding. Skate Dreams follows the stories of several women, from the sport’s 1980s pioneers to recent Olympic contenders around the world. There aren’t many rules in documentary filmmaking, but everyone knows this one: skateboarding movies always look cool as hell.
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https://indyweek.com/food-and-drink/features/acme-strike-carrboro/
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On a Sunday in late February, as diners were beginning to warm up again to indoor dining and most restaurants were celebrating one of their busiest weekends in two years, Acme Food & Beverage Co. turned 24 years old to the tune of a silent, empty dining room.
The Carrboro restaurant’s birthday came three days after its front-of-house team announced the end of their three-month strike, with all but one of the 19 striking workers permanently vacating their serving, hosting, and bartending positions.
The strike was brought on by what employees describe as the “willful ignorance of upper management” in addressing sexual harassment allegations they had raised against Acme’s owner, Kevin Callaghan.
During a time of dramatic upheaval in the labor sector—Starbucks workers are currently organizing in more than 150 locations across the country; just last week, employees at an Amazon warehouse in Staten Island succeeded in forming the company’s first union—the strike at Acme stands out as unusual for a number of reasons.
“It’s hard not to see that this is something of an anomalous strike,” says Gunther Peck, a Duke University associate professor of history who teaches courses on organized labor. “There’s no wage demand. There’s no union recognition demand.”
Unlike labor movements in recent headlines, the strike at Acme involved a single, independent restaurant in a small college town, with a social-media-centric strategy of organizing that reflected its generation of striking workers, nearly all of whom were under the age of 25. And their chief demand—that Callaghan, Acme’s founder and chef-owner, would not set foot again in his own business—raised questions about what justice looks like in a strike unable to be settled through simple policy change.
It was also an abnormally tight-lipped strike, as employees declined to go into detail to others or the INDY on their allegations. Strike organizer Madison Burns says this was primarily because harassment is hard to enumerate; it can be difficult to convey the impact of a comment, a look, or a lingering touch, she says.
“Sexual misconduct and harassment has a much broader definition than people realize,” Burns wrote in a reply to one Instagram commenter’s request for specifics. “Our coworkers were made to feel very uncomfortable by a man, who is their boss, who is more than twice their age, on nearly every occasion he was in the restaurant. That’s plenty of detail if you ask me.”
Shortly before the strike, employees say, a breaking point came after working a wine dinner in mid-November. According to Burns, Callaghan, 55, had spent the night making inappropriate remarks and being touchy-feely. A few workers expressed their discomfort to Alison Hinks, a recently hired bar manager.
“She was really concerned so she brought it to management’s attention, and she was threatened with her job if she didn’t stop speaking out for us,” says Burns, who started working as a server at Acme in May 2021. “So she quit, and that’s when we decided we should strike.”
In an email to the INDY, Acme’s legal representation wrote that allegations of inappropriate behavior by Callaghan at the wine dinner were false and denied that he had threatened Hinks’s job; after Hinks reported that Callaghan “had engaged in ‘inappropriate sexual language and advancements,’” they wrote, the restaurant requested that she give them time to gather facts, and she subsequently resigned without notice. Hinks declined an interview for this story.
On November 26, several hours before the striking employees set off to deliver their notice, Callaghan used the restaurant’s scheduling app to dispatch a letter to the entire Acme team.
The letter opens with Callaghan asserting that he thought he was “on the right side of things”—or, at least, that’s what he’d “told himself.”
“You think that because you go to marches, host fundraisers, and sign petitions, that you then align with certain goals and beliefs,” Callaghan wrote. “So, it’s incredibly humiliating to find myself complicit in the same power dynamics that I’ve claimed to disavow for my entire adult life.”
Callaghan went on to state he would be removing himself from any involvement in restaurant service for several months; in the meantime, he would be talking with a therapist and Acme’s management team would work to create a new framework for conducting conversations about harassment.
“There is no excuse for my actions,” Callaghan concluded. “I am very sorry.”
The strikers found Callaghan’s apology insincere.
“[It seemed like Acme] knew something was up and were trying to quickly take the wind out of our sails,” says 22-year-old striker Drew Ehrler. “The timing of it felt like too little too late. It just gave this feeling like nothing’s been internalized, very glib.”
Later that day, as planned, the strikers submitted their notice and Acme shifted back to the take-out-only model it had implemented earlier in the pandemic.
After receiving the workers’ demands, the restaurant hired Raleigh attorney Bridget Blinn-Spears as legal representation and Chapel Hill employment law practice Noble Law Firm to conduct an HR audit. With help from the grassroots labor campaign Fight for $15, the strikers brought their own counsel on board, who represented them pro bono.
The strikers’ first demand: that Callaghan “not be allowed to return to the premises.” The notice also called for the appointment of an official human resources officer. Zoë Dehmer—the chief culture officer for Acme’s leadership team and the manager who employees say functioned as Acme’s de facto HR director—had recently gotten out of a six-year romantic relationship with Callaghan. Dehmer, 29, says she started dating Callaghan after being promoted from a front-of-house position to management in 2015. In an email, Dehmer wrote that though they lived together, she and Callaghan kept their personal lives removed from the business during the time.
“I don’t know where they got the idea I was the de facto HR person,” Dehmer wrote. “In Acme’s handbook, which they all signed during onboarding, the policy is clear that employees were welcome to go to any manager to raise concerns.”
The strike notice explained that Dehmer’s involvement with Callaghan “contributed to the inability of victims to come forward against Kevin.”
Twenty-year-old striker Abbey Chewning, who started working at Acme in August 2021, says she was originally drawn to the restaurant because she believed its status as a beloved, critically acclaimed Carrboro institution implied a healthy workplace. But once Chewning learned of Dehmer’s history with Kevin, she says, “there wasn’t a lot we felt like we could do to rectify the issues we were facing.”
Former employee Coco Wilder, who worked at Acme between 2018 and 2019, echoes this sentiment.
“Kevin and Zoë as a unit were impenetrable,” Wilder says. “She was posting pictures of their international vacations together—I’m not going to go to her with an issue against her boyfriend, boss, and owner of the restaurant.”
The notice went on to demand a “formal apology” from Callaghan and upper management—one posted publicly with an acknowledgment of Callaghan’s alleged behavior, not just his position of power—as well as a framework to encourage more diversity in the restaurant staff.
The negotiation was frustrating at first, strikers say, then began to feel futile.
In February, employees received a draft of Callaghan’s apology that Acme representatives said would ultimately be released to the public. Workers were then asked to sign a contract stating that they wouldn’t release the apology or discuss it in detail, Burns says, which Acme also denies. According to the restaurant’s counsel, Acme “requested and received assurances that any drafts would be kept confidential until the apology was finalized and released.”
Ultimately, Burns maintains, it was a document that “didn’t inspire any confidence that if we went back we would experience different treatment.” After the HR audit was concluded, Acme presented the results to the striking workers’ counsel on an “attorneys’ eyes only basis.”
The investigation did not find any instances of Callaghan’s behavior that would constitute a legal claim for sexual harassment, according to Acme, though it did “describe employees being uncomfortable with comments made by Callaghan.”
Speaking on the condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation, five former employees who worked at Acme for three to 10 years, as long ago as 2005—including one who claims to have submitted a testimony to the HR audit—corroborated Callaghan’s history of harassment. Some expressed guilt at not speaking up about the alleged behavior. Acme maintains that management “received no other complaints related to Mr. Callaghan prior to those made to Ms. Hinks.”
Acme also informed the striking workers—who were largely made up of front-of-house staff—that in rehiring employees, the restaurant would be reinstating its pre-pandemic shift availability policy, in which servers and bartenders must have the availability to work a minimum of 15 shifts a month. This, according to Acme, was to ensure that employees have a “deep knowledge of the menu and ingredients,” though some employees—who had previously been hired to work only a few shifts a week—interpreted it as a more direct message from Acme: We don’t want you back.
By the end of January, some advancements had been made: Acme agreed to mandate sexual harassment and diversity training for employees and management, as well as implement a new anti-bullying policy.
And in negotiating their chief demand, Burns says the strikers were willing to compromise; if Callaghan had agreed to take a lengthy furlough and limit his presence during service hours upon his return, that would have been enough. Instead, lawyers offered a 30-day leave of absence from Callaghan.
Several months into this back-and-forth, the restaurant was still posting brightly lit photos of cornbread and wedge salads on Instagram, and most of the workers had moved on and gotten new jobs. Though no demands had been met in full, workers decided it was time to call it. On February 17, they ended the strike.
When Wilder heard that her successors had gone on strike, she says she was supportive but dubious about how it would play out.
“I was like, that’s gonna be hard, their first demand being that Kevin was not going to set foot on the premises,” says Wilder. “Acme is inseparable from Kevin.”
This particular facet of the strike is part of what makes it so unique, explains Peck.
“It’s unusual for a particularly bad foreman to literally cause a strike,” he says. “Usually it’s company policy, or that all the foremen are doing something wrong.”
It’s also unconventional to use a strike as a grievance procedure, according to Peck. When there’s just “one bad apple creating a toxic work environment,” it’s usually a simple fix—the company fires them. It can even be an easy way for a company to look heroic, Peck says.
“But this isn’t a company—there’s the rub. It’s an individual who owns the damn restaurant.”
But Peck stresses that the demand is important, despite the fact that it’s tricky to meet it in full.
“In terms of getting a story that’s compelling about something that sometimes would be gray in policy terms, to say it’s gray doesn’t mean it’s not impactful.”
They’ve raised difficult workplace questions, Peck says, and that’s a good thing. In Chewning’s words, “When the owner of the restaurant is the biggest issue, it’s like, what are we gonna do? Fire him from his place of business?”
From the outside, the answer may have been straightforward: quit and find another place to work. This is ultimately what most of the strikers did, but not before making a full-court press to change working conditions—not just for themselves but for future employees.
“The employees insisted that the food being served and the efficacy of the restaurant are inseparable from how they’re being treated,” Peck says. “They were figuring it out as they went, so I admire the chutzpah—the courage and the risks that they’ve taken.”
Wilder also applauds the strikers’ ability to both see an issue and act on it.
“It’s a very brave thing to do. They’re new blood, and that may mean that they’re not taken as seriously, but it also means they’re able to identify a problem and take a stand,” Wilder says, in reference to the number of recent hires that were involved in the strike. “In the ‘business as usual’ climate I worked in, I don’t think it would’ve happened.”
This, the strikers say, is part of what enabled them to organize as a collective.
They all started at Acme around the same time and quickly became good friends. Most were in their early twenties, and though Acme’s front-of-house had always been fairly youthful, this new batch was also from a new generation.
And even if the collective’s demands weren’t ultimately met, they say they still feel accomplished in what they set out to do: have their voices heard—if not by Callaghan or management, then by the community.
According to Chewning, the workers didn’t originally intend to go public with the strike. But after almost a month had passed and Acme hadn’t responded to their demands, they took their grievances to the digital realm. They decided to go Gen Z on ’em.
They created an Instagram account,@acmeonstrike, which quickly accumulated more than 700 followers. The strike hashtag—#damngoodstrike—was a sardonic nod to Acme’s business leadership team, Damn Good Food, which is owned by Callaghan and works jointly with Plum Southern Food in Durham, Atlas Bar in Carrboro, and Lumina Theater in Chapel Hill.
“They pivoted really quickly to something called community unionism, where you’re not focused simply on the immediate demand, but you reach and seek out a broader public,” Peck says. “It shows the ingenuity of a younger group on strike.”
The strikers created graphics (complete with their own “Acme on strike!” logo) that stated their demands, a timeline of events, and any updates, and posted them on Instagram alongside captions that provided nuance, addressed commenters’ questions, and cited their role models; one post ends with a quote from Lech Walesa, a trailblazing labor activist who organized his first strike at age 27 and later served as the president of Poland.
Burns has Walesa beat by a few years: she’s 24, the same age as the restaurant she strove to organize.
“Social media has become a really powerful information-spreading tool,” Burns says. “It was a way to get information to folks who maybe aren’t plugged into activist networks otherwise.”
Beyond Instagram, the workers also filmed videos of themselves explaining the strike and its larger context and cut them with B-roll from a rally they held in early January; the videos were then featured on Fight for $15’s TikTok account, which has 100,000 followers.
Sharing social media posts via direct message is straightforward—even reflexive—and allowed the strikers to swiftly mobilize their own community. Online visibility likely played a large role in raising the strikers’ funds to almost $10,000, and also allowed reporters to easily contact strikers for interviews, enabling their story to be shared on other platforms.
The strikers went public with the hopes that it would compel Acme to start talking. But the rally, which attracted Carrboro Town Council member Danny Nowell and more than 50 other supporters, was ultimately what drove the restaurant to start taking them seriously.
That being said, there was a driving force behind those high turnout numbers: they’d promoted the rally on Instagram.
On February 25, Acme posted a note from Callaghan on its website stating that management had been approached with “complaints of sexual harassment and misconduct” in November and immediately took action to investigate the claims. Callaghan wrote that even though the investigation came back clean, he feels he has fallen short in creating an environment where employees feel comfortable and is working to mitigate similar situations in the future.
The restaurant linked the note in a Facebook post and, for several days, in its Instagram bio. The note is not visible on Acme’s site unless users enter specific search terms.
Now that the strike is done, Burns is channeling her energy into forming a Chapel Hill–Carrboro Workers Coalition, which she says will provide workers with a support system and a place to discuss organizing and workplace treatment.
The former strikers held a “victory rally” to promote the new coalition on February 27, huddling under the pavilion at Carrboro Town Commons while rain poured down around them.
At the rally, Council Member Nowell briefly applauded the workers for their efforts, a sign-up sheet for the coalition was passed around, and then the crowd, mostly made up of former strikers and former employees, dispersed one by one. Perhaps due to poor weather and a last-minute venue change, turnout was low, but Burns has taken to the Acme strike Instagram to further promote the coalition, which had its first meeting on March 28. Ten people attended.
In a phone call, Nowell, who also spoke at the mid-strike rally in January, declared that he doesn’t plan on returning to Acme.
“It’s a real shame. I was really looking forward to eating at an organized Acme that had met these demands,” Nowell said. “But under these circumstances, I’ve had my last meal there—I’m not going to be crossing the picket line. Without the workers, there is no Acme.”
Support independent local journalism. Join the INDY Press Club to help us keep fearless watchdog reporting and essential arts and culture coverage viable in the Triangle.
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https://indyweek.com/music/reviews/the-dead-tongues-dust-review/
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The Dead Tongues: Dust | ★★★★ | Psychic Hotline; Apr. 1
For over a decade, Ryan Gustafson has been crafting affectionate roots rock, sharing deeply personal lyrics with a mystical folk hue. Gustafson’s work with The Dead Tongues has become a reliable source of entrancing tunes, and while sometimes formulaic, it’s a formula that works: Gustafson digs deep into his heart and churns out timeless tracks like clockwork.
With The Dead Tongues’ latest album, Dust, Gustafson found himself struggling to push forward as a musician. Like for many of us, the pandemic made Gustafson reevaluate his identity. Instead of tossing out his old notebooks, he used them as inspiration for this stellar fifth record.
While many familiar tropes are explored on Dust, we also find Gustafson at his most adventurous. The record opens with “Pawnshop Dollar Bills” a hypnotic track that nods to classic American jam bands, chooglin’ on with eight minutes of dynamic rustic ruckus. “Pawnshop …” is downtempo but packed full of intricacies, a pervasive theme in this record. While it’s easy to tune out to Dust, an album full of sparse and subdued songs, you’ll find that it’s packed full of brilliant musical moments if you give it your full attention.
“Through the Glass” is an upbeat jaunt with mandolin flourishes from Andrew Marlin (Watchhouse) and harmonies from Alexandra Sauser-Monnig (Mountain Man). It’s a track that follows the fleeting nature of life and the joy found in its minutiae, a theme found frequently throughout the album. The titular track stands out with Gustafson’s harmonica hanging over the mix, lurking like a specter of his pining and desperation. “Little Lies” brings bright pedal steel and upbeat percussion to contemplative lyricism.
Dust is a record that feels like a natural progression for Gustafson. There’s a fine balance between rich production and humble arrangements, all anchored with lyrics that traverse a universal struggle to belong—and to find the balance between the person you were and the person you’ve become.
Support independent local journalism. Join the INDY Press Club to help us keep fearless watchdog reporting and essential arts and culture coverage viable in the Triangle.
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https://indyweek.com/news/15-minutes/15-minutes-musician-john-foley/
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John Foley | Courtesy Photo
How do you feel like your approach to music and the industry has changed and adapted throughout the pandemic?
I haven’t been playing live shows since COVID started. The plan was to move to a bigger city right as COVID hit and then that obviously changed everything. I shifted to Twitch on New Year’s Eve 2020 and started doing live streams two to three times a week.
I might have done that without COVID, because after playing with a band for so long, I wanted to be more self-reliant. [Twitch] made me focus more on a solo act and work on guitar more. There was already a trend toward musicians going digital, and I think COVID expedited things when no one could play for a year. I was thinking how can I make money when my regular revenue streams are gone? What are some new income streams I can put in? How can I connect with people online?
You’re obviously never going to match the energy of an in-person show, but Twitch is really cool because if I was doing this kind of set in-person it would be a restaurant bar, 3 hours cover set and stream from 2-4ish hours, but you can connect with people a lot more on Twitch because you have the chat and can talk to people on-on-one. Whereas if you are doing the same set in a bar or restaurant you can make more money, but no one is really interacting with you that much. Music is growing and Twitch has been making a point to growing their music section.
How does Twitch work for an artist?
The monetization is either subscriptions and for affiliates – you are a streamer and when you reach a certain bench mark you are an affiliate and that’s when you can start monetizing. But it’s really easy to get there. As an affiliate you get half of the subs—so it’s 5 dollars and you get $2.50 and twitch takes the other half. Once you get to partner—that’s 75 average viewers—you can renegotiate and have a personalized deal.
As an affiliate you get money from subs and bits, which is Twitch currency. Each bit is one penny. You can take donations so I have my Venmo linked because it’s direct and you get all of it. In my experience as a small streamer, and this is generally true for most streamers, the money comes in waves. You get the subs and your regulars will donate a little bit every show but there is usually one person who will drop a ton of money randomly. There are raids where when your stream ends you can automatically send all your people to somebody else's stream, it’s a cool way to connect with other people and grow your audience. You can also get money when somebody buys gift subs, which are when you buy subs and give them to other people.
How do you feel your music style and inspiration for writing has developed throughout the pandemic?
I’ve definitely focused more on solo acoustic stuff. I write all my songs with just me and a guitar. The next album I’m working on is more of an acoustic, stripped-down album. There will be full instrumentation on it, but it is more folk singer songwriter than pop rock. It’s stripped back and I’m more self-sufficient as an artist. It’s one thing to have to wrangle a band together, but when you can’t see other people theTe biggest issue is becoming more self-reliant.
The next album is more introspective. All of my music is a bit angsty, but whereas Spirits was existential and feeling lost in life, the next album is more my personal struggles with mental health and stuff like that. A lot of the songs come from when I was really depressed in college and I never thought would show those songs to anybody – they were just my therapy. Now that I’ve gotten out of that, I looked back on those songs and decided to build an album out of them. A little less than half of the album will be older songs from that dark place and the other half is more recent stuff, but it’s all in that same kind of tone.
What are your future plans?
On Twitch you have a song list and you put up every song you know and people can request from it. I’ve gotten that to about 150 songs. I’ll definitely start playing restaurants and bars again because the money is better than Twitch, but i'll keep streaming on Twitch as well. I would also love to do solo acoustic show and play with some other people for an actual show. I have gotten a lot better at finger picking and I have a stomp pad for percussion. I’m excited to build up a set where I can give a quality show where it’s just me and from there I can start working with other people.
Support independent local journalism. Join the INDY Press Club to help us keep fearless watchdog reporting and essential arts and culture coverage viable in the Triangle.
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https://indyweek.com/news/Letters-to-the-Editor/backtalk-indy-role-creating-nimbyism/
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Two weeks ago for print, Jasmine Gallup wrote about how the Triangle’s housing crisis, in Orange County specifically, is displacing residents as landlords increase rents. Reader Rob LaVelle suggests we here at the INDY take a look at our own culpability in contributing to the Triangle’s housing crisis over the years. LaVelle writes:
Thanks for your reporting on the ongoing housing crisis here in the triangle. It did a good job of showing the impact of scarce housing on our citizens. It fell short, however, in shedding light on why we are in this predicament—which is really hard to do with this complex issue. Your article fell into the easy trap of implicitly blaming out-of-towners for our self inflicted wounds.
A great follow up article would be to investigate all the ways local governments have limited supply and slow-walked development over the past 30 years. Relevant to your reporting is the fact that Carrboro built more multi-unit housing in the 1980’s than it did in the 30 years since. “Progressive” nimby citizens of a “progressive” town set the stage for the replacement we are experiencing. That would be an interesting article to read!
An even more interesting article would be to search through the Indy archives of the last 30 years and analyze its role in creating or reflecting the anti development nimbyism that afflicts us. Serious analysis from your newspaper has been sadly lacking over the past decades.
A few guiding thoughts:
• Scarce and valuable products will end up being owned by rich people.
• Displacement is fueled by not building sufficient housing in a hot market.
• “Progressives” have been reluctant to engage seriously [on] housing supply issues.
So … How has Indy reporting added fuel to the housing crisis?
Support independent local journalism. Join the INDY Press Club to help us keep fearless watchdog reporting and essential arts and culture coverage viable in the Triangle.
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https://indyweek.com/news/durham/durham-development-tree-canopy/
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Donna Frederick | Photo by Brett Villena
Donna Frederick has lived in her dark brick home in the Colonial Village subdivision for nearly 20 years.
Frederick retired last year after owning and operating the now-closed Playhouse Toy Store on Ninth Street after more than a dozen years. She enjoys puttering around in the wooden garden plots in her front yard before sitting down with a cup of tea on her home’s screened-in front porch.
She used to enjoy the shade afforded by the massive oak, magnolia, and pine trees that were on her neighbor’s property next door. But in February, developers who purchased the lot knocked down the house and garage before cutting down the hardwood trees.
Those trees were lost under an initiative Durham City Council members approved several years ago with the goal of increasing density to keep up with demand for more housing. In 2019, council members, by a 6-1 vote, amended the city’s Unified Development Ordinance (UDO) in hopes of undoing decades-old vestiges of discrimination that have prevented generations of African Americans from owning homes and amassing wealth.
The update, known as Expanding Housing Choices (EHC), amends zoning rules in neighborhoods near downtown to allow for higher density, which city and county planners believe is key to stabilizing housing prices as the city grows.
But now, some community members think the city’s EHC plan has had the unintended effect of fueling gentrification and displacement that’s taking place in neighborhoods that had “naturally occurring affordable homes,” also known as “NOAH.”
Nate Baker, an urban planner who serves on Durham’s planning commission, described the EHC as a “missed opportunity” during its formative stages that could have enabled the city to retain its affordable housing stock.
“The EHC does the opposite of that,” Baker told the INDY last week. “It spurs additional gentrification and displacement, to a certain extent.”
But city council member Jillian Johnson this week told the INDY she has not seen evidence of gentrification as a consequence of the EHC initiative. She pointed to a late 2020 letter presented to the city council that reported 50 related permit applications have been submitted to the City County Planning Department.
“I do not believe this volume is enough to have been a driver of gentrification,” Johnson said in an email. “Developers do not need EHC to build expensive single-family homes on less than two acres of land. They could do that before EHC and can do it now.”
Among the trees felled by the developer next to Frederick’s property was a giant oak that stood in her former neighbor’s front yard, along with a massive magnolia and several pine trees. Soon after the oak tree was knocked down, Frederick posed beside the fallen hardwood. Frederick stands at about 5 feet, 4 inches. The top of the trunk reached her chest.
“That’s how wide it was,” Frederick told the INDY. “It was a huge oak. You couldn’t get your arms around it.”
A building permit filed with the Durham Planning Department in January shows that the developer, Hayes Barton Homes, is using a small lot plan to build four two-story, single-family homes on the land, which covers less than two acres. The building permit application, which has been approved by the city, also shows plans for the replanting of two trees on each lot.
“These are not start-up homes for most people,” Frederick told the INDY. “The developer says the homes will sell for $350,000.”
For Frederick, living on a fixed income and facing the prospect of higher property taxes is one thing. But she points to a bundle of issues with the ongoing construction related to affordability, health, environmental impact, and the city ordinance that allows builders to construct homes on less than two acres of land without input from community members.
Now, with the absence of trees that shaded her home for decades, Frederick wonders what the impact will be when the weather warms up, especially during the summer months.
As the INDY previously reported, the absence of tree canopies in low-income communities leads to higher temperatures that fuel high utility costs and a higher incidence of health-related issues.
While standing in her yard last month, Frederick points to how the land slopes downward onto East Club Boulevard. She thinks that without the trees’ root systems to hold water from heavy rainfall, combined with the impervious surfaces that are a feature of home construction, stormwater runoff and sedimentation will flow into the nearby Ellerbe Creek.
Frederick also thinks that developers are taking advantage of what she describes as “a loophole” in the city ordinance that exempts them from having to hear neighbors’ concerns if they are building on plots of land that are less than two acres.
In an email to the INDY, Bo Dobrzenski, an assistant manager with the city-county planning department, says that state law exempts from the subdivision construction review process privately owned tracts of land “whose entire area is no greater than two acres [divided] into not more than three lots.”
Dobrzenski added that Durham’s UDO “mandates this exemption.”
“There is no site plan review or preliminary plat submittal required for a subdivision of less than six new lots,” Dobrzenski said.
The planning department official also noted that the exemptions have been in place statewide and locally “for many years.”
As for the wholesale tree removal that took place on the Colonial Village property, Dobrzenski says the city’s UDO also “does not require tree coverage for projects that are less than two acres.”
Allen Wells, the founder and owner of Hayes Barton Homes in Raleigh, last week told the INDY that he’s “trying to do the right thing and build affordable housing because there’s a great need, and I’ve done nothing but get grief.”
“No good deed goes unpunished,” he adds.
Wells says his company did everything the city required in order for him to receive a building permit.
“I did all of the things that I’m required by law to do,” he says.
“It’s not illegal, but it is unethical,” Frederick says.
She thinks the builder will replace the hardwoods that stood for decades next door with landscaping trees—crepe myrtle, perhaps.
“The builder says they are going to replant trees and hedges, but hedges aren’t trees,” she says.
She pointed to the nearly half dozen young cherry trees in black plastic buckets that she intends to plant this spring, and lamented the loss of hardwoods that stood for decades next door.
“That was tree shade for my home,” she says. “It will take 20 years to get that back.”
“The city is encouraging multiple-density units. I get it,” Frederick says. “I get that $350,000 is the average price of a house in Durham. There’s one right up the street selling for $700,000. The problem is that the people who live here have to move out of the [town] where they work.”
Frederick wants the city council to intervene and require developers of small residential projects to seek input from neighborhood residents in the same manner as if they are working on a large development.
According to records filed on August 4 with the county register of deeds, Durham’s Weitz Real Estate purchased the home next to Frederick’s from former owner Ronald Dexter Cates, who could not be immediately reached for comment.
Frederick says she contacted the new owner of the home, and Tyler Weitz visited with her the next day.
Frederick says Weitz walked the lot with her and seemed to understand her concern about preserving the tree canopy in the neighborhood. Frederick says Weitz told her the plan was to build two homes on the lot and preserve the magnolia, oak, and pine trees on the property.
Last week, Weitz told the INDY that Frederick contacted him after the house was removed, and says he thinks Frederick’s “critiques were quite fair,” and he apologized to her “for the lack of notice about my plans.”
But on November 12 of last year, Tyler Weitz sold the property to Hayes Barton Homes for $316,000, according to records filed with Durham County’s register of deeds office.
Frederick says the new developer, who specializes in custom-built homes, “decided to build four houses with no trees.”
“Those of us who live in the community wondered, ‘How can he knock down trees, and without us having a say-so?’” Frederick told the INDY.
Frederick says she understands that Durham leaders have determined to increase the Bull City’s housing stock “by any means necessary.”
“You can’t stop gentrification,” she says. “But the city is saying one thing and doing nothing. It’s unfortunate. It’s not a builders’ problem. It’s a North Carolina General Assembly problem. There’s no incentive for builders to build $100,000 homes.”
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Follow Durham Staff Writer Thomasi McDonald on Twitter or send an email to tmcdonald@indyweek.com.
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More than 1,900 shooting incidents have taken place in Durham since the start of 2020.
They’ve left more than 650 wounded and nearly 90 dead.
“Folks are asking for help,” said council member Leonardo Williams at a recent Durham City Council meeting. “They’re saying, ‘Just do something more, please.’”
That “something more” may be ShotSpotter, a controversial gunfire detection system that the council blocked in June 2019 and September 2020. Now, the council is one step closer to setting aside $197,500 for a year-long pilot of ShotSpotter.
A majority of the council voted last month to move forward with a budget for the 2022-23 fiscal year that would include money for ShotSpotter. The council must vote on the budget before June 30, but during public comment at a council meeting last week, several Durhamites showed up—either in person or via Zoom—to oppose funding for the technology.
ShotSpotter uses microphones placed around a city. When the microphones sense gunfire, police are notified and dispatched. By improving police response times and sending officers to scenes that might otherwise go unreported, ShotSpotter could save lives, proponents say.
Mayor Pro Tem Mark-Anthony Middleton, arguably the council’s most ardent supporter of ShotSpotter, said that last year in Wilmington, two police officers received awards for saving lives after responding to ShotSpotter alerts. (Only one incident involved gunfire; in the other, someone had sustained injuries breaking a window.)
“This is about when someone needs help,” Middleton said. If someone is hurt, even “in the middle of the night, someone will come and see about you.”
But does ShotSpotter work? The MacArthur Justice Center found that in Chicago, 88.7 percent of ShotSpotter alerts were “dead ends”—incidents in which no gun was actually involved.
“What ShotSpotter is effective at is manufacturing consent for increased policing,” council member Jillian Johnson said in an interview. “It increases the number of times that police are called.”
Naana Ewool, who is involved with Durham Beyond Policing, a coalition that advocates for “community-led safety and wellness,” says most cities place microphones only in small areas...or in certain neighborhoods. “And those neighborhoods are often the ones that are majority Black and brown, with a higher number of folks being criminalized.”
“Police who arrive on the scene often escalate situations and introduce violence, so folks are more likely to get injured or killed,” Ewool said. “There’s public health research that shows that regardless of the type of interaction, the more interaction folks have with police, the worse their health outcomes are.”
Danette Wilkins, a health professional and resident of Durham’s Cleveland-Holloway community who works for Johns Hopkins University, implored the council to reject ShotSpotter. She cited a report by the City of Chicago that says “the very presence of this technology is changing the way Chicago Police Department members interact with members of Chicago’s communities.”
Opponents think the $197,500 would be better spent elsewhere.
In general, “we need gun control, we need housing guarantees, we need a living wage,” Johnson said. “That’s how you end gun violence.”
Johnson said the city can “invest as much as we can into prevention and intervention techniques,” like the violence intervention program Bull City United and the We Are the Ones Fund.
Middleton says these reforms and ShotSpotter are not mutually exclusive: “I think the people reject the zero-sum game. It’s not either/or.”
He resisted comparisons to Chicago and Charlotte, which canceled its contract with ShotSpotter in 2016. “I have to govern based on data from Durham,” he said. “But we don’t have that, and so I really want this to be a pilot in the truest sense.”
In an interview, Ralph A. Clark, president and CEO of ShotSpotter, said the technology bridges “a fairly significant public safety gap.” He pointed out that “80 to 90 percent of gun fired events go unreported. So that means guns are fired, there’s no call to 911, which means there is no police response.”
In Oakland, California, Clark said, ShotSpotter technology has saved more than 100 gunshot wound victims. The company also says its sensors detection rate is 97 percent.
Clark added: “It’s very confusing to me to see people have a negative reaction to the idea that police are able to respond to incidents of gunfire.”
Williams agreed. “Give us a chance to try this,” he said. “If it works, it works. If it doesn’t, we’re going to try something else.”
Council member Javiera Caballero, who would prefer that the city fund other violence-reduction efforts, says officials will have six months to collect the data about the gunfire detection technology. After that, the city has to pay for ShotSpotter.
She doesn’t think Durhamites have had enough of a chance to hear about the technology, but she expects it to be funded when the council votes on the budget.
Opponents want the city to keep searching for solutions.
“Communities are dealing with so much grief and so much fear because of gun violence,” Ewool said. “Just offering them something—anything—isn’t fair. People deserve things that are going to provide real solutions and real healing.”
This story was produced through a partnership between the INDY and 9th Street Journal, which is published by journalism students at Duke University’s DeWitt Wallace Center for Media & Democracy.
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Volunteers work to rebuild the University of Mosul’s Central Library. The library reopened in February after ISIS fighters destroyed it in 2015. | Photo Courtesy of UNC Media Hub
A couple of years ago, University of Mosul student Nora Al Jadoue wanted to leave Iraq. At the same time, UNC sophomore Eden Yousif wasn’t sure she would ever get to see Iraq.
But thanks to an innovative virtual exchange program between the University of Mosul, UNC-Chapel Hill, and UNC-Greensboro, students are developing new understandings of Iraq and the United States. Despite being over 6,000 miles apart, students in Iraq and North Carolina have found they have much to share with one another and plenty to learn on their weekly Zoom calls.
“We just don’t hate anybody that we don’t know,” said Heba Ezzuldein, a University of Mosul student. “And I think this is really helping in developing a lot of things. Because I think it’s important to share with different people from different languages and different cultures.”
The Islamic State controlled Mosul from 2014 until 2017, during which thousands of civilians were killed, schools were closed, and ancient artifacts and historical sites were destroyed.
“Although Mosul has been at war a lot and has only just got liberated and is still healing, at the same time, if you actually get in touch with the young people here, you will see amazing talents and true accomplishments,” Al Jadoue said. “If you asked me two years ago, I would totally tell you that I want to leave Iraq and never go back and that I don’t have a future here.”
But her classes at the University of Mosul have inspired her to stay. She said her peers push her to be the best version of herself.
“Every week I get surprised more and more about the young generation’s ideas,” she said.
“Mosul is so alive”
Yousif grew up in Goldsboro, in an Iraqi family. She said it was hard to hear stereotypes about Iraq in her hometown.
“I just wanted people to know that there’s so much life there, and people are happy there, and it’s not it’s not some desolate country,” Yousif said.
Yousif has never been to Iraq but is now planning her first visit because of the exchange. For a long time, Yousif said her family assumed it wasn’t safe to go back to Iraq. But one of the Iraqi students helped her family realize that it was time to plan their first trip together.
“He said, ‘Mosul is so alive. There’s no reason you can’t come,’” Yousif said. “I immediately told my grandpa and I said, ‘We want to visit.’ And he said, ‘That’s great. I’ll go with you.’”
Students meet on Saturday mornings for the exchange, which is part of the University of Mosul’s peace-building initiative, one of the first academic peace studies programs in the Middle East. Hijran Al-Salihi, assistant professor in the philosophy department at the University of Mosul, said the peace program prepares students to tackle the problems present in the city of Mosul and Iraq more broadly.
“Security can’t be established with weapons only,” Al-Salihi said.
Noor Ghazi, professor of the practice in UNC-Chapel Hill’s Peace, War, and Defense Department and a lecturer at UNC-Greensboro, Durham Technical Community College, and the University of Mosul, facilitates the exchange, which began in her class on modern conflicts in Iraqi history in spring 2021.
Yousif and UNC sophomore Jasper Schutt were in the class together and have been working on expanding the exchange ever since. Schutt said he believes American students have a responsibility to speak to people whose lives have been affected by the U.S. government.
U.S. forces invaded Iraq in March 2003 on the pretense of destroying Iraq’s supposed weapons of mass destruction and ending Saddam Hussein’s dictatorship. There were no weapons of mass destruction. To date, over 180,000 Iraqi civilians have died as a direct result of the U.S. invasion.
“This is something that could be really transformative for a lot of American students,” Schutt said. “There’s a certain responsibility on the part of American students as well, because this is a region of the world—a country specifically—that people shouldn’t be allowed to just speak about in stereotypes.”
Ghazi said the exchange has been eye-opening for American students.
“I tell students, ‘Look at things from different perspectives. There’s always another side to the story,’” Ghazi said.
One Saturday morning, a UNC student asked the Iraqi students what brings them hope. Al Jadoue shared how excited she was about the reopening of the university’s Central Library. In 2015, ISIS fighters burned thousands of items from the library, which housed over a million books, maps, and manuscripts dating back centuries. The loss was immeasurable.
On February 19, after a reconstruction project facilitated by the United Nations Development Programme and the Iraqi government, the library reopened. A slogan, “The Word ‘Impossible’ Does Not Exist in Our Dictionary,” is written on the left wall of the library’s entrance. The university describes the library as a “symbol of triumph of humanitarianism, civilization and peace over terrorism.”
“One of the latest accomplishments that has been in the city was today—it was the opening of the Central Library. Our university is supposed to be one of the biggest libraries in the Middle East, and yeah, we’re actually proud of it,” Al Jadoue said.
Al-Salihi said students and professors worked to clear the rubble of the Central Library and save what was left of the books after ISIS was driven out of the city. Universities across Iraq and the world sent books and resources to Mosul.
“I hope we can invest in this great dream of ours, which was absent for so long by the smoke of wars and was wrapped at some times in the black flags of ISIS. The steps are slow, but this is how we grow a tree, with patience,” Al-Salihi said.
“All I thought about
was my education”
Ghazi grew up in Baghdad but was forced to flee Iraq for Syria in 2006 due to a civil war between Sunnis and Shias. Ghazi’s family—she has a Sunni father and a Shia mother—was in danger of being targeted by both groups. Sunnis and Shias have long clashed over their different visions for the future of Iraq, and the 2003 U.S. invasion of the country exacerbated the sectarian violence.
“Death in Baghdad was just a norm,” Ghazi said. “Every time my dad left the house, we said our last goodbyes because we just didn’t know.”
During difficult years in Syria, Ghazi struggled to understand her identity. Her family was uneasy when they were approved to move to the United States as refugees.
“This is the country that invaded Iraq—do we go there?” Ghazi said.
But the family had nowhere else to go.
They arrived in High Point in 2008, which brought on a whole new identity crisis for Ghazi. She eventually stopped covering her hair after Americans made vicious, racist comments.
“What is my identity? If people here think I’m a terrorist and people back there think I’m a traitor, who am I?” she said. “All I thought about was my education.”
Education was refuge for Ghazi. Little by little, her English improved. She went on to receive her master’s degree in peace and conflict studies from UNC-Greensboro. She married and had a daughter.
But she still dreamed of Iraq. In 2018, she visited Baghdad with her husband for the first time since leaving on her 16th birthday.
Upon her return to Iraq, Ghazi was shocked by what she saw.
“I did not feel home. It was not the same. My parents are not there. My siblings are not there. I’m not there—I’m not there as me when I left,” Ghazi said.
Ghazi visited Mosul shortly after the Islamic State was driven out of the city. Mosul is located on the banks of the Tigris River in a region often referred to as the cradle of civilization. Thousands of years ago, ancient Mesopotamians developed the first systems of writing, agriculture, and cities in the region. But ISIS had destroyed much of the area’s cultural heritage.
“I felt like an entire civilization was being just dissolved right before my eyes,” Ghazi said.
When she arrived back in Baghdad, she sat down with her husband.
“I looked at my husband and I said, ‘Let’s go home.’ And he said, ‘We are home.’ I said, ‘No. This is not home for me anymore,’” Ghazi said.
Ghazi’s experiences led her to begin working on a book and a documentary. The documentary, The Mother of Two Springs, is about life in Mosul under ISIS. She has worked closely with faculty members at the University of Mosul to produce the documentary and begin the implementation of a master’s program in peace studies at the school.
Ghazi always knew she wanted to help Iraqis after she finished her education. She realized the best way for her to help was to become an educator herself, since the education she received under Saddam Hussein’s regime was so restrictive. Teaching peace comes naturally to Ghazi.
“When I heard of the word ‘peace,’ I jumped in right away without even asking,” Ghazi said. “The more we can work with youth on education, the better outcome we can have in the future.”
From Mosul, Al-Salihi said he has a lot of hope for the city.
“There is hope since I enter my classroom and talk with freedom with my students around topics used to be considered taboo and impossible to talk about. Today there is a space for the youth to speak with freedom and rationality,” Al-Salihi said. “There is hope after we broke many of the religious, social, and political taboos in our societies which ruled our societies and framed our thoughts in the past.”
This story was originally published by UNC Media Hub.
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In a historic matchup, UNC’s men’s basketball team toppled its archrival Duke in the NCAA tournament’s Final Four game in New Orleans on Saturday night. As is their custom—and with the days of COVID anxiety largely behind them—elated students and fans flooded Chapel Hill’s Franklin Street for pole climbing, fireworks, and other raucous victory celebrations. The Tar Heels went on to fall to Kansas in the national championship game on Monday, marking the end of an extraordinary first season for head coach Hubert Davis.
Photo by Brett Villena
Photo by Brett Villena
Photo by Brett Villena
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On Saturday night, I found myself rushing Franklin Street for the first time.
I’ve never run to Franklin Street before, much less late at night with a stomach full of strawberry and mango margaritas.
If I’m being honest, I’ve never found sports to be extraordinarily riveting, but my roommate decided to host a watch party for the game and I knew I’d regret not paying attention to the Tar Heels taking on the Blue Devils in the Final Four.
The game against Duke was tantalizingly close. I may not pay much attention to sports, but I am aware of the age-old rivalry. I found myself on the edge of my seat in the living room of my apartment—tight fists formed in my lap creating nail-shaped indentations on my palms, biting my bottom lip right up until the last second. The score remained interlocked. I sat glued with my eyes to the screen—afraid that I’d miss something if I looked away even for a moment—confidence faltering slightly when Armando Bacot limped off the floor with an ankle injury. With less than 25 seconds, Caleb Love scored a three-pointer.
The clock ran out and it was time: 81 to 77. Eighteen lead changes and 12 ties. The Heels came out on top in a historic upset against Duke. My roommate and I ran out the door, through the shortcut in the woods and onto Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard, and into a sea of ice blue. Cars honked, people cheered and chanted.
When I transferred to UNC from Wake Technical Community College in the fall of 2020, I was under the impression that school pride would happen naturally. I bought the sweatshirts, baseball caps, and pins and waited for it to overtake me. At times, there were sparks, like when I attended the UNC-Florida State football game last fall or when I walk around the beautiful campus and study under my favorite tree—but never a full-fledged flame.
Flash forward almost two years. I’ll be graduating in December. I thought it was too late for me and that my college experience was just simply going to be different.
But as I ran uphill to join the crowd of thousands of students on Franklin on Saturday night, I was fueled by something I hadn’t felt before. A sense of belonging. A sense of pride.
There it was. That feeling I’ve been missing. I didn’t see any familiar faces as I looked around at other students holding up signs, popping champagne, and congratulating one another as fireworks went off above us, but we were connected on a fundamental level. The feelings rushed over me as it hit me that I go here. This is my team and we won.
I’ve come away from this weekend with a different perspective and a lot of school spirit. I was able to run on Saturday night for the girl who transferred into UNC in the fall of 2020 without friends. I ran for the girl who attended college through her computer screen for nearly two years, unable to form lasting connections with her classmates because of the isolation that has accompanied the pandemic.
I’ll be chasing the high from Saturday night for years to come. I mean, where else am I going to get splashed by champagne from multiple directions?
At the end of the day, I’m thankful that I’m a Tar Heel. I’m proud to sport my college’s apparel and be able to say that my basketball team beat Duke in the Final Four and advanced to the national championship.
And as for finally rushing Franklin Street, if there was ever a time to do it, Saturday night was that time. Let me tell you, it was one hell of a way to catch up on my college experiences.
Brooke Dougherty is a fourth-year student at UNC-Chapel Hill and an INDY Week intern.
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Graphic by Jon Fuller
It’s overtime. Six seconds left on the clock. The NC State University women’s basketball team trails Connecticut by three points. That’s when forward Jakia Brown-Turner made her move.
With a clean pass from senior guard Raina Perez, Brown-Turner got a good look at the basket, and she didn’t waste it. In one fluid move, Brown-Turner sent the basketball swishing through the net, prompting an explosion of celebration from her teammates and sending the game into a hard-fought double overtime.
It was a tough game for NC State, who were hoping to win it all this year after they broke into the Elite Eight. In the end, it was anyone’s game, thanks to the driving force of veteran Elissa Cunane and the talent of young sophomore Diamond Johnson. It simply wasn’t enough to overcome the Huskies.
Still, as the NC State men’s basketball program endures a slow, seemingly unending decline, the top-seeded women’s team is giving Wolfpack fans something to root for. In 2018, while the men were losing in the ACC quarterfinals, the women were making a run to the Sweet 16. They hope to stay on the rise.
There’s a lot of energy around the women’s team, as there always is around a team that’s winning. But despite their success, the players continue to be undervalued, underwatched, and unfairly treated.
A gender equality scandal in the NCAA
The differences between the men’s and women’s tournaments got a lot of attention last year as they played at the same time in two COVID bubbles: the men in Indianapolis and the women in San Antonio. Women’s players and coaches shared videos of their accommodations, which fell far short of the men’s. While male players were treated to a fully equipped weight room, buffet, and a shower of gifts, the women had a mostly empty workout room, prepackaged meals, and paltry gift bags.
“You could really compare amenities on a one-to-one basis, and that put into stark contrast how little the women’s tournament was cared about,” says Lindsay Gibbs, author of Power Plays, a newsletter about sexism in sports.
“Because the NCAA makes the majority of its money off the men’s tournament … all of its focus and energy was on the men’s tournament. The women’s tournament had to jump through hoops just to get approval [to play].”
This year, things haven’t changed much. The NCAA has made some cosmetic changes, including offering better perks to women, expanding the tournament from 64 to 68 teams, and allowing teams to use “March Madness” branding, but there are still systemic inequities.
“All of these [changes] are positive, I don’t want to diminish them,” Gibbs says. “But ultimately, I think there’s a lot more structural issues within the NCAA. There’s a long way to go. They solved the easiest problems to solve, but the real work is systemic, as it always is.”
Who’s watching?
In Raleigh, the conversation about basketball revolves around the men’s tournament: Who’s going to win? Would Duke beat out UNC? Wolfpack fans didn’t have much to cheer about this year. The former championship men’s team didn’t even qualify for the postseason—unsurprising, given they’ve failed to get into the tournament for the past four years and ended the regular season with an 11-21 record, the worst since 1993.
For most Pack fans, watching the tournament is an exercise in futility and has been for the past 30 years. Nostalgic alumni dream of the Pack’s glory days—the 1980s under Coach Jim Valvano, when a team of greats came from behind to win it all. Frustrated State fans console themselves with the fact that, well, at least the women’s team is doing well.
The fan conversation reflects the historic disparity between media coverage of men’s and women’s sports. In the world of television, men’s sports are the focus of 95 percent of stories, while women’s sports are the focus of just 5 percent, according to a 2019 study by the University of Southern California and Purdue University.
The study found similar disparities in social media posts and sports newsletters, which covered women only 9-10 percent of the time.
“Men’s sports—especially the ‘Big Three’ of basketball, football, and baseball—still receive the lion’s share of the coverage, whether in-season or out of season,” researchers state. “When a women’s sports story does appear, it is usually a case of ‘one and done,’ a single women’s sports story obscured by a cluster of men’s stories that precede it, follow it, and are longer in length.”
That pattern is especially apparent during the NCAA tournament. During a three-week span in 2019, ESPN’s SportsCenter ran 27 stories on the men’s tournament, for a total airtime of two hours and 13 minutes, according to the study. The women’s tournament was the focus of just two stories, for a total of three minutes and 43 seconds of coverage.
A nationwide sample of local TV stations found that stations aired 56 stories on the men’s tournament, for an hour and 14 minutes, compared to eight stories on the women’s, for only three minutes and 16 seconds.
Newspaper coverage is equally biased. In one week during last year’s Final Four, men received nearly twice the amount of newspaper coverage as women, according to an analysis done by Gibbs. Overall, men’s sports got 86.6 percent of coverage, while women’s sports got 13.4 percent of coverage.
Despite the lack of media coverage, the NC State women’s basketball team has a strong fan following. In the women’s league, NC State home games were among the top 10 most attended games during the 2021-22 season. In the men’s league, NC State ranked 27th in attendance.
The NC State women’s team also has no problem filling Reynolds Coliseum, which seats 5,500. On average, 85 percent of seats were filled during the women’s games, while only 61 percent of the seats at PNC Arena were filled during men’s games (although PNC is much bigger than Reynolds, seating more than 19,000).
During the Pack’s home games last month, “Reynolds [Coliseum] was absolutely packed, it was deafeningly loud,” Gibbs says. “The fans really love this team, they really support this team, and as a North Carolinian, it was thrilling to see.”
Camille Hobby, a junior who plays center for the team, echoed those sentiments in a pre–Sweet 16 press conference. She went on to say women’s games should get more airtime.
“We’ve seen in the past that when women’s games are on TV, people watch them. So more games need to be on TV. Not ESPN+, but ESPN,” she said. “Have us on there and give us a chance to perform and show that we’re great. That we’re some of the best athletes that there are, that there can be.”
Hobby said that the NCAA is doing a better job of being inclusive, but the changes they made are just the first step.
“Sometimes women’s sports don’t get the same respect as men’s,” she said. “This is a step, but I think there could still be more things in the future for us.”
Players Jakia Brown-Turner and Elissa Cunane also said that while the treatment of female athletes is improving, they expect even greater things in the future.
“The buzz around women’s basketball is growing, and it’s because people realize that we are full of talent,” Cunane said during a March 25 press conference. “I think in the future everyone just continuing to speak out and stand up for themselves is going to help us continue to move forward.”
A cycle of devaluation
When it comes to the women’s tournament, the NCAA has created what Gibbs calls “a cycle of devaluation.” Because the organization invests less money in women’s basketball, it makes less money from the sport. It then becomes easy to justify investing even less money in the future.
“[The women’s tournament] is not where the NCAA makes its money, because the NCAA has decided not to turn it into a money-making property,” Gibbs says. “[It has decided] not to give it the investment it deserves.”
Last year, the women’s championship game drew about 4.1 million viewers, an increase of 9 percent over the 2019 championship. The men’s championship game drew about 16.9 million viewers, a decrease of 8 percent from 2019. So while the men’s tournament did get more views, interest is decreasing, while interest in the women’s game is rising steadily.
In addition, while the men’s tournament drew four times the viewers as the women’s, its broadcasting contract is worth 20 times as much. The broadcast rights for the men’s tournament sold for $850 million last year, compared to the rights for the women’s tournament, which sold for $42 million.
“The proportions that we’re looking at are just completely out of whack,” Gibbs says. “Four million viewers for any television network is a lot these days. Just because it’s not 16 million doesn’t mean it’s not valuable. It’s been really sad to see this go on for so long.”
Sports media professionals estimate that the women’s basketball tournament alone will be worth $81 million to $112 million per year, starting in 2025, the first year after the NCAA’s current contract with ESPN expires.
“A new eight-year, $909 million [broadcasting] deal would be worth an average of about $114 million per year; a 10-year, $1.2 billion agreement would average $118 million per year,” states a gender equity analysis conducted by consulting firm Desser Sports Media.
The NCAA commissioned the report following last year’s gender inequity scandal, and the results were far from favorable. In addition to devaluing women’s basketball, the structure of the broadcasting contract discourages sponsorships and ads for the women’s tournament.
That lack of money at the top also trickles down, ultimately discouraging colleges and universities from investing in women’s basketball programs.
When a men’s basketball team makes the tournament, their college’s conference gets a payout from the NCAA. The more games the team wins, the bigger that payout is. Women’s teams, on the other hand, get nothing.
“So of course schools are gonna want to pour more money into their men’s programs than their women’s programs, because it makes them so much more money if their men’s team makes it to the tournament,” Gibbs says.
“These kinds of issues, that stem from the NCAA internally, devaluing and deprioritizing women’s basketball, these are the decisions that really trickle down and impact everything.”
Support independent local journalism. Join the INDY Press Club to help us keep fearless watchdog reporting and essential arts and culture coverage viable in the Triangle.
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https://indyweek.com/news/orange/documents-show-new-details-in-sweeping-faculty-investigation/
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This story originally published online at NC Policy Watch.
A UNC-Chapel Hill investigation of its own faculty was much wider and deeper than previously disclosed, according to new documents released under state open records law .
Documents released last week show the probe went beyond reading faculty members’ emails to searching backup systems on their computers. It may have included as many as 22 separate faculty members.
As Policy Watch reported last August, UNC-Chapel Hill launched an investigation into a leaked donor agreement that included examining faculty member emails without their knowledge and asking them to sit for questioning.
At issue: the agreement between the university and Walter Hussman, the wealthy Arkansas media magnate whose $25 million pledge to the university’s journalism school led to it being renamed for him.
Hussman was at the center of the controversy over a tenure vote in the university’s failed attempt to hire Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Nikole Hannah-Jones. When it was revealed Hussman lobbied against Hannah-Jones’s hire behind the scenes and had confidential details of the hiring process students, faculty and alumni began asking larger questions about his relationship with the university.
The Hussman contract, which the university considers confidential, was published by the News & Observer on July 14. The university announced an investigation two days later, seeking to determine how the paper got the document.
The university argues any leaked donor agreement endangers the confidentiality of all such contracts, which could in turn have a chilling effect on donations.
By the time the university launched its investigation, the Hussman document had been shared widely, including on a faculty email listserv where dozens of faculty members could access and forward it.
As Policy Watch reported, the school asked to question at least two professors in the journalism school Deb—Aikat and Daniel Kreiss—as part of its investigation. Kreiss declined. As part of his questioning, Aikat learned the university had accessed his university emails without his knowledge.
The revelation led to swift condemnation from staff, open government advocates and the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE), which sent a letter to Chancellor Kevin Guskiewicz warning the investigation appeared violate the First Amendment rights of faculty members.
“I have been at this university for 27 years,” Aikat told Policy Watch Wednesday. “I have never seen such illicit overreach. And for what?”
The new documents, released last week in response to public records requests filed seven months ago, show the investigation went well beyond Kreiss and Aikat and beyond the reading of faculty email.
In an email to fellow faculty Wednesday, Kreiss said what they reveal has “sweeping and disturbing implications for faculty, staff, and research at this institution.”
“As a reminder, all of this was ostensibly in pursuit of an inquiry into a leaked donor agreement that the University later admitted was a public record,” Kreiss wrote. “As reporting and a letter by the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE) has made clear, the University has never presented any evidence, nor has there ever been any evidence produced more generally, that these Hussman faculty had access to the donor agreement before the media.”
The university’s accessing faculty data without their knowledge has worrying implications beyond this donor agreement, Kreiss said.
“I run a center that works on extremism,” Kreiss said. “I have a lot of data that is sensitive, that includes data under NDAs from major platform companies, stored on my computer. I was not aware that data would have a lot more touch-points.”
Kreiss said experience of being targeted in this investigation, and the disrespect with which faculty has been treated throughout this controversy, has had real consequences for faculty morale and confidence in the university’s commitment to its mission.
“I’m one of the initiative co-leads for the UNC Strategic Plan around promoting democracy,” Kreiss said. “I resigned from that today.”
The revelations of these new documents had a direct impact on that decision, Kreiss said.
“If we don’t have basic principles of transparency and due process in faculty governance and public justification and accountability with our faculty and staff, how can I in good faith promote democracy on campus?” Kreiss said.
Ryan Thornburg, an associate professor at the university’s journalism school, is part of a collective that requested the documents along with a number of reporters and organizations seven months ago.
Though the documents were highly redacted by the university before their release, they show that former university provost Bob Blouin repeatedly signed off on the widening of the investigation shortly after it was announced. The extent of Blouin’s involvement was not revealed by the university during the initial investigation.
The email chain in the new documents shows communications between Blouin, General Counsel Charles Marshall and senior university counsel Kara Simmons. Everything Marshall wrote was redacted from the newly released documents, but the emails show Simmons asking to add names to the list of those being investigated and for access to their Microsoft Office 365 cloud storage space and a separate backup system. Blouin repeatedly approved.
Using a formula taking into account the number of characters redacted from emails requesting access to specific accounts and the average length of faculty members named, Thornburg said he was able to estimate that as many as 22 faculty members may have been targeted in the probe.
“In my mind, it’s important to understand when a government agency is using its power to monitor communications of academics and journalists,” Thornburg told Policy Watch Wednesday.
“It’s too bad the University took seven months to respond to the records request, but it is not unusual,” Thornburg said. “I do think this is in some part due to the volume of requests, but I also believe it is part of the University’s strategic communication plan. That plan may be very effective in the short run, but in the long run I worry that it erodes the public’s trust and patience.”
Thornburg said that when he files a public records request, he doesn’t assume anything about the response except that it will be timely and complete. In this case, he said, the university’s response—seven months in coming and highly redacted—was neither.
Policy Watch recently received documents from UNC-Chapel Hill and the UNC System pertaining to public records requests filed as long as two years ago. Those requests were handled at the UNC System level.
“It’s also too bad they finally got around to sharing this information during what was supposed to be a week of major celebration for the School,” Thornburg said. “We are inducting new members into our halls of fame and dedicating a new building that caps years of work by a lot of generous and hard-working people. But, perhaps, we can see this effort to improve transparency and accountability of an important and powerful government institution as a celebration that we live the values we teach here.”
The university swiftly launched an investigation into how the Hussman agreement was made public. But no comparable investigation appears to have been launched into how Hussman, an alum outside of the hiring process, was given access to confidential information and documents in Hannah-Jones’s hiring process. That same information, part of a confidential personnel process, was not available to reporters or the general public.
Thornburg, who has been part of hiring processes at UNC-Chapel Hill, said he always keeps such information confidential. It isn’t clear why Hannah-Jones’s information was not similarly kept within the process, Thornburg said.
“You want our alumni to be engaged, but you also have to draw a line at some point,” Thornburg said.
That line generally does and should include things like details of hiring decisions and research, Thornburg said.
“We’re obviously still working on where that line is,” he said.
It’s possible, Thornburg said, that university administrators did communicate to Hussman that confidentiality should limit their communications with Hussman on Hannah-Jones. If that happened, no such documentation of it has yet been found.
“I do worry about the inability of our leadership to draw lines where I think they should be drawn,” Thornburg said.
Kreiss agreed.
“If you are really concerned with anything that is corrosive, with making public private information, you would start with confidential personnel information being given to someone outside of the personnel process,” Kreiss said.
“I have to assume that these same practices, policies and informal agreements are still in place in terms of donors and donor influence in various aspects of the university’s life, because I haven’t seen any indication that’s changes,” Kreiss said. “I’ve seen far more resources and time devoted to going after faculty members around the supposed leak of information on a donor agreement than has been put into questions about our tenure and hiring processes, who has access to that information and whether it is in fact confidential.”
Aikat said both the investigation into faculty and Hussman’s access to hiring and tenure information set terrible precedents.
“If we are not told when investigators may be accessing the information in our e-mails and on our computers, without our knowledge and without any warning, if we don’t even know who has this access, how can we have confidence that we can keep confidential the things that should be confidential?” Aikat said. “And if donors can be given access to information they tell us should be confidential without our knowledge and without any consequence or investigation or anything, how can anyone who applies for a position or undergoes the tenure process believe that it is confidential and that it is fair?”
Support independent local journalism. Join the INDY Press Club to help us keep fearless watchdog reporting and essential arts and culture coverage viable in the Triangle.
Comment on this story at backtalk@indyweek.com.
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https://indyweek.com/news/wake/raleigh-residents-keep-the-pressure-on-for-property-tax-relief/
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More than 100 Raleigh residents turned out at the Wake County Board of Commissioners meeting Monday to ask officials for relief from skyrocketing property taxes.
The cohort were all members of ONE Wake, a grassroots community group calling for a program that offers payments to people who have owned their homes for at least 10 years and earn less than 80 percent of the area median income. The program would cover any and all property taxes that exceed 2 percent of qualifying homeowners' annual income.
That goes much farther than existing relief programs, which limit aid based on both income level and age, disability, or veteran status. In a discussion last month, some commissioners seemed reluctant to commit to a tax grant program, which would offer the kind of direct aid ONE Wake is asking for. Commissioners asked staff to explore other options for keeping housing affordable, such as the creation of a community land trust, a homeowner care fund, or a foreclosure prevention fund.
Many residents who spoke at the meeting Monday reflected on their circumstances in detail, describing how existing programs are not helping them. Leslie Fox, who (for now) lives on Haynes Street in Raleigh, spoke about how health problems cut her career short in 2012, leaving her with a house that had expenses greater than her income.
Fox was "livid" when she found out she was ineligible for the state's existing relief program because of her disability benefits, she said. Without disability, her taxable income is $8,500 a year.
"I have had to rent out a portion of my house to take care of my house and stay in my house, and meanwhile my property taxes have skyrocketed," she said. "There's not gonna be any way I can stay in it without property tax relief. I expect that my property taxes are gonna go up, probably another $3,000 with the next valuation."
Elaine Peebles-Brown, a fourth-generation Wake County resident and leading ONE Wake advocate, talked about how she wants to keep her home in the family.
"My granddaughter would like to move here from Maryland and continue her career in education. She would be the sixth generation of the Peebles family. But the escalating property taxes are making it extremely difficult," Peebles-Brown said.
She added that she would be happy to work with the commissioners to help "craft a solution" that works for everyone.
Members of ONE Wake were optimistic and positive when speaking to the commissioners, talking about how they wanted to bring the community together and support their neighbors. So far, commissioners seem willing to work with them.
Also Monday, the board voted unanimously to again rename the public library in the Village District south of Wade Avenue, the largest in the county.
Commissioners changed the name from Village Regional Library to "Oberlin Regional Library," taking another step toward racial equity.
Most people know the library by its earlier name, Cameron Village Library. The name of the shopping center and library was changed last year after it came to light that the Cameron family for which the center was named were slave-owners.
Cameron Village was rechristened simply "The Village," a name that is innocuous at best and meaningless at worst. At the time, some North Carolinians questioned why the owners of the shopping center hadn't taken the opportunity to recognize nearby Oberlin Village, a historic Black community.
Oberlin Village was originally founded in the late 1860s when former slaves, freed during or after the Civil War, settled there. It soon grew into a thriving African American community that today is home to some of the area's oldest homes and churches.
Now, library staff will develop an exhibit inside the institution to educate visitors about the history of Oberlin Village and why the library's name was changed, according to a news release.
“By honoring this community and the people who lived there, we are recognizing and celebrating a very important part of Wake County’s rich history,” said Commissioner Matt Calabria in the release.
Support independent local journalism. Join the INDY Press Club to help us keep fearless watchdog reporting and essential arts and culture coverage viable in the Triangle.
Follow Staff Writer Jasmine Gallup on Twitter or send an email to jgallup@indyweek.com.
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https://indyweek.com/culture/page/2021-whiting-recipients-named/
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Alexis Pauline Gumbs and Ina Cariño | Photo courtesy of Broadside PR
In a Wednesday night ceremony in New York City, the Whiting Foundation announced the honorees of its 2022 Whiting Award, which is presented annually to ten emerging writers in fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and drama. Awards are $50,000, one of the most substantial awards sums to exist for emerging writers.
Claire Boyles, Rita Bullwinkel, Alexis Pauline Gumbs, Anthony Cody, Anaïs Duplan, Megha Majumda, Jesse McCarthy, Nana Nkweti, Ina Cariño, and Claire Schwartz were all named as awardees.
Two recipients are local: Ina Cariño, who is based in Raleigh, and Alexis Pauline Gumbs, who is based in Durham. Cariño is a Whiting poetry awardee and received their MFA in Creative Writing from North Carolina State University. Previous poetry recognitions include a 2021 Alice James Award for the poetry collection Feast, forthcoming in 2023, and recognition as one of the four winners of the annual 92Y Discovery Poetry Contest. They also founded a local reading series, Indigena Collective, which centers marginalized voices. (You can read an INDY interview with Cariño about their work here.)
“It’s been both amazing and surreal to be in such a talented cohort of writers, and I’m humbled to have had my work read and reread by the anonymous judges," Cariño told the INDY. "I’m grateful that my words are reaching people; this award will allow me to keep working on poems that I hope will continue to resonate with others.”
Alexis Pauline Gumbs, a nonfiction honoree, holds a PhD in English, African and African American Studies, and Women and Gender Studies from Duke University. She is the author of Undrowned: Black Feminist Lessons from Marine Mammals; Dub: Finding Ceremony; M Archive: After the End of the World, and Spill: Scenes of Black Feminist Fugitivity. She has also previously been a Voices columnist for the INDY Week; you can read those columns here.
“I’m overwhelmed with gratitude," Gumbs says. "Especially as I learn more about the legacy of these awards. For example, the late Randall Kenan, one of our most beloved North Carolina writers and a personal mentor of mine, was once a Whiting Award winner! I’m excited to continue living inside the practice of writing as freedom.”
The Whiting Award was founded in 1985. Previous recipients like Colson Whitehead, Jeffrey Eugenides, Tony Kushner, Mary Karr, and Tracy K. Smith have gone on to become household names.
Support independent local journalism. Join the INDY Press Club to help us keep fearless watchdog reporting and essential arts and culture coverage viable in the Triangle.
Follow Arts & Culture Editor Sarah Edwards on Twitter or send an email to sedwards@indyweek.com.
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https://indyweek.com/news/ninth-street-journal/stone-brothers-moves-locations/
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George Davis has owned and managed of Stone Brothers & Byrd since 1976 | Photo by Milena Ozernova — The 9th Street Journal
Step inside, and you’ll feel like you’ve been teleported back to the 1920s.
Racks of fertilizer and seed line the aisles. An assortment of gardening hats lies directly in front of the entrance. Step into a smaller side room, and the bags of mulch are impossible to miss. Locally owned stores like this one are not as common anymore, but don’t tell that to George Davis, the owner of Stone Brothers & Byrd.
On a recent Friday, Davis, wearing a classic gardener’s hat, was helping customers left and right. Even after 46 years of ownership, his dedication is still evident.
“I think ’91 was the last farm mechanic that I had, and that was the end of that,” Davis said. “So from ’90-’91 to the present, we’ve been lawn and garden.”
For 108 years, Stone Brothers has been a staple of the Durham community, providing gardening resources to local farmers and families. From Moss Out! to Cardinal food, from flower pots to gardening gloves, Stone Brothers could always be relied upon, and that’s not about to change.
What has changed, though, is where that reliability can be found.
For over 50 years, Stone Brothers sat at 700 Washington Street, where the business and its longtime location became intertwined.
But in line with recent development trends in Durham and the Triangle region, that’s changing. Last May, Beacon Street Development announced it had bought the land from Stone Brothers and laid out plans to build a seven-story complex with 40 luxury condos. With construction set to begin this month on The George, named for Davis, Stone Brothers has moved down to 937 Washington Street, a two-minute drive from its previous spot.
The new development is one of several changes coming to a historic section of the city. Just across from the Durham Athletic Park—the 1926 ball field where the baseball movie “Bull Durham” was filmed in the 1980s—the land is on the corner of West Geer and Washington, with longtime Durham staples like King’s Sandwich Shop just up the road.
Neighboring businesses say they’ll miss Stone Brothers. The Durham Distillery, for instance, relies on Stone Brothers for the molasses for its liqueurs.
“Now we have to walk a little bit further,” said Josh Dixon, the distillery’s marketing coordinator.
utside Stone Brothers’ former location, signs reflect the former business and the new condos that are coming | Photos by Milena Ozernova — The 9th Street Journal
Meanwhile, Durham Distillery is also facing a second development in its backyard, a six-story mixed-use project headed by Florida-based Ram Realty Advisors. Right behind the distillery, a train trestle butts up against the loading dock, with enough space for backdoor deliveries. But not for long.
“This new building that is coming in will be building a retaining wall where that train trestle is,” Dixon said. “As it currently stands, that retaining wall will keep us from being able to use our loading dock. Which means that we’re going to have to figure out our entire operation.”
That’s disappointing, Dixon said.
“The spirit of Durham has always been about caring for each other, giving to each other. This parking-land agreement, those agreements have been just historically such a big part of being a small business owner in the Durham area.”
Still another condo project is in the works a few blocks down Geer Street. Dixon is concerned that so much development may disrupt the character of the neighborhood.
“The people who’ve been here, who’ve been traditional Durhamites, are being pushed out,” Dixon said.
Some of Stone Brothers’ former neighbors, though, are philosophical about the changes.
Bill Whittington owns the Blue Note Grill, across the street from Stone Brothers’ old location.
“Ten years ago, you wouldn’t want to be down here,” Whittington said. “There was nothing going on, very little business, just buildings and warehouses or industrial-type stuff.”
Stone Brothers did not go too far—since February 26, it has been in its new location further north on Washington Street—but it still occupies a different space for the first time in decades.
Davis, who has been the sole active owner of Stone Brothers since he and a few family members bought the business in 1976, said he had a lot on his plate with the move.
“It was a lot of planning,” said Davis. “My right arm came up here and laid out a bunch of displays, had done measuring down [at the old location] then came up and measured spots up here…. We started a month ago moving warehouse merchandise ourselves.”
Debbie Swanner has been shopping at Stone Brothers since the 1980s. On a recent Friday, she was in the store searching for starter plants for her flower bed.“You don’t have to buy everything packaged up, you can say, ‘I want an ounce of cucumber seeds,’ and if you have a small garden, that’s great,” she said.
A customer browses in Stone Brothers’ new store | Photos by Milena Ozernova — The 9th Street Journal
Swanner sees pluses to the store’s spacious new location.
“If you have a garden center, you need sun to put your plants out for people to look at it,” she said.
Davis also sees some benefits from the move.
“We sort of have more parking space, which we think will aid our customers quite a bit,” he said.
Davis doesn’t envision any changes to the mission of the business. Being able to adapt to the ever-evolving needs of customers is “what keeps us going,” he said.
Fertilizer to seed. Avid gardeners to families simply looking for some outdoor supplies. It might have packed up and moved down the road, but 108 years later, Stone Brothers keeps on keeping on.
This story was produced through a partnership between the INDY and 9th Street Journal, which is published by journalism students at Duke University’s DeWitt Wallace Center for Media & Democracy.
Support independent local journalism. Join the INDY Press Club to help us keep fearless watchdog reporting and essential arts and culture coverage viable in the Triangle.
Comment on this story at backtalk@indyweek.com.
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https://indyweek.com/news/northcarolina/state-lawmakers-allocation-of-11-million-to-trosa-is-raising-questions/
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TROSA’s on-campus auto body workshop. Advocates, researchers, and some former employees and participants of TROSA say the program uses an outdated model that takes advantage of participants by making them work without pay. Photo credit: Taylor Knopf
This story originally published online at NC Health News in partnership with Kaiser Health News.
An addiction treatment facility, highly regarded by North Carolina lawmakers, sits in a residential neighborhood here and operates like a village in itself. Triangle Residential Options for Substance Abusers, better known as TROSA, hosts roughly 400 people a day on a campus with rows of housing units, cafeterias, a full gym, and a barbershop.
The program, which began in 1994, is uniquely designed: Treatment, housing and meals are free to participants. And TROSA doesn’t bill insurance. Instead, residents work for about two years in TROSA’s many businesses, including a moving company, thrift store and lawn care service. Program leaders say the work helps residents overcome addiction and train for future jobs. Of those who graduate, 96 percent of individuals remain sober and 91 percent are employed a year later, the program’s latest report claims.
Impressed with such statistics, state lawmakers recently allotted $11 million for TROSA to expand its model to Winston-Salem. It’s the largest amount in the state budget targeted to a single treatment provider and comes on the heels of $6 million North Carolina previously provided for its expansion, as well as $3.2 million TROSA has received in state and federal funds annually for several years.
Keith Artin is the president and CEO of Triangle Residential Options for Substance Abusers, better known as TROSA. The program provides free treatment, housing and meals to residents who work for about two years in one of TROSA’s many businesses, including a moving company, thrift store and lawn care services. Photo credit: Taylor Knopf
This latest influx of taxpayer dollars—coming at a time when overdose deaths are surging and each dollar spent on treatment is crucial—is drawing criticism. Advocates, researchers, and some former employees and participants of TROSA say the program takes advantage of participants by making them work without pay and puts their lives at risk by restricting the use of certain medications for opioid use disorder. Although those who graduate may do well, only 25 percent of participants complete the program—a figure TROSA leaders confirmed.
“If I had known about this funding, I would have been the first person on the mic to [tell lawmakers], ‘I don’t think you all should do this,’” said K.C. Freeman, who interned at TROSA in 2018 and later spent two months on staff in the medical department. “You can’t look at the small number of people who had success and say this works. It’s not the majority.”
The dispute over TROSA’s funding comes amid national conversations about how to allocate billions of dollars available after landmark opioid settlements with drug companies. Two flashpoints in the North Carolina debate may provide a window into heated conversations to come. First: Are work-based rehabs legal or ethical? And second: Should every facility that receives public funding allow participants to use all medications for opioid use disorder?
Work as treatment
Work-based rehabs are widespread across the country. The investigative news outlet Reveal identified at least 300 such facilities, including some that place participants in dangerous jobs at oil refineries or dairy farms with no training and exploit workers to bolster profits.
Many of these programs use a portion of their revenue to sustain the rehab and offer residents free housing or meals. That can make them attractive to state legislators, said Noah Zatz, a UCLA law professor who specializes in employment and labor law.
“Because essentially they’re running businesses off of people’s uncompensated labor, there is a built-in funding mechanism,” he said. “If the state doesn’t have to pay full freight to run a program … that might be a reason to like it.”
TROSA’s annual reports indicate more than half of its multimillion-dollar budget is funded through its businesses at which residents work, as well as goods and services that are donated to the program. About 30 percent of its funding comes from government grants and contracts.
Although TROSA and its leaders report no significant campaign donations, they spend upward of $75,000 a year on lobbying. In presentations, they often share a 2017 study—conducted by an independent research institute at TROSA’s request—which found TROSA saves the state nearly $7.5 million annually in criminal justice and emergency care costs.
The program’s self-financing aspect is part of its appeal for North Carolina Sen. Joyce Krawiec, a Republican who represents part of Forsyth County, where TROSA is building its new site.
“The good thing about TROSA: They raised most of their own funds,” she said in a phone interview.
It’s reasonable that residents don’t get paid for their work, she added, since they’re already receiving free treatment and housing. Other rehabs can be prohibitively expensive for many families, so TROSA provides a much-needed option.
But being a bargain doesn’t necessarily make it legal, Zatz and other labor experts said. A previous U.S. Supreme Court ruling suggests nonprofits that run businesses without paying employees could violate the Fair Labor Standards Act.
But TROSA administrators say they are not an employer; they are a therapeutic community. Clear policies guard against the exploitation of anyone, said Keith Artin, president and CEO. The jobs provide residents with structure and an opportunity to change their behaviors.
“The work-based element is essential to recovery,” Artin said. “We’re teaching people how to live.”
Toward the end of residents’ two-year stays, TROSA assists them in job-hunting and allows them to live on campus for several months while they work at a newfound job and build savings.
Diverging work experiences
TROSA’s model has widespread support among lawmakers and families affected by addiction. Benjamin Weston said it was “a blessing.”
Weston said he started using cocaine as a teenager and struggled with addiction for years. At 22, he entered TROSA. He said he was grateful for two years of free treatment.
After brief assignments in TROSA’s thrift store and moving company, Weston transitioned to the development office, where he solicited donations from local businesses. “It was meaningful work that also taught me a lot of good job skills,” he said.
Since graduating in 2016, Weston has worked in development for Hope Connection International, a nonprofit his mother started to support survivors of abuse and addiction.
Other graduates interviewed for this article talked about using the moving skills or commercial driving licenses they gained to obtain full-time jobs. Some said they’re buying houses and starting families— successes they credit to their experience in the program.
But not every resident finds the work model therapeutic. Several described working 10 to 16 hours a day, six days a week, in physically demanding moving or lawn care businesses. Several said there was little time for therapy and, with only a handful of counselors for hundreds of residents, wait times for a session could span weeks.
Freeman, the former TROSA employee who has a master’s in social work, said he thought residents rarely had an opportunity to process the trauma that made them use drugs in the first place. Although Freeman did not counsel clients—his role at TROSA focused on ordering and stocking medications—he said he noticed many graduates returned repeatedly to the program, struggling to stay away from substances once they left campus.
Richard Osborne first heard of TROSA while incarcerated on drug and theft-related charges. Like 38 percent of TROSA residents, he chose to attend the program as a condition of his probation.
One day in 2017, Osborne and other residents working with the moving company were unloading large boards of plywood from a trailer, when a board fell and smashed him against the trailer, he said. His vision became blurry and he worried about having a concussion, he said.
As he remembers it, no one suggested medical care. “The next day, they told me I had to get back to work,” he claimed.
That’s when Osborne said he decided to leave.
Today, Osborne, 31, said he has not used drugs in about four years, holds a steady job, and has a loving family. But it’s no thanks to TROSA, he said.
“They’re taking advantage of people at their low points in life,” he said. The moving company brings in $4 million a year, yet residents who work for it are not even allowed to keep tips, he added.
TROSA leaders confirmed the tips policy but said they could not comment on an individual residents’ experience. In general, CEO Artin wrote in an email, “when a resident is injured we ensure that they receive immediate medical attention and would never knowingly put a resident at risk.”
As a nonprofit, TROSA funnels revenue from its businesses back into the treatment program, he added.
The program’s 2020 tax documents show its top five employees combined earned over $750,000 in salary and benefits.
Medication hesitancy
TROSA provides psychiatric care through a contract with Duke Health and offers group or individual counseling to residents who request it. The program employs four full-time counselors and partners with local providers who donate physical therapy, dental care, and other medical services.
But TROSA does not provide access to some of the most effective treatments for opioid use disorder: methadone and buprenorphine. Both medications activate opioid receptors in the brain and reduce opioid withdrawal and cravings. It’s been well documented that these medications greatly reduce the risk of opioid overdose death, and the FDA-approved drugs are considered the “gold standard” for treatment.
Right now, TROSA leaders say the only medication for opioid use disorder the program offers is naltrexone, an injectable medication that works differently than the other two because it requires patients to fully detox to be effective. Because of this, some experts are hesitant to use it, saying it puts people at higher risk of overdose death.
About one-third of TROSA participants report opioids are their primary drug of choice.
TROSA leaders said they’ve discussed adding the other addiction treatment medications but face logistical barriers. All medications at TROSA are self-administered, and leaders worry about diversion of oral methadone and buprenorphine, which are classified as controlled substances. They say they’d consider injectable buprenorphine, but it’s costly for their mostly uninsured participants.
“People choose to come here because it is a behavior modification program,” said Lisa Finlay, lead clinical counselor at TROSA. “They know that we don’t offer buprenorphine or those medications. We have people who have tried those medications in the past and believe that they actually led them back to using.”
Evidence suggests that people using medications for opioid use disorder have the best outcomes when they have access to other recovery support services, such as housing, employment, counseling and a community. But while clinicians across the country have embraced these medications, leaders of residential treatment programs founded in the more traditional 12-step, abstinence-based recovery model have pushed back.
Some old-school recovery leaders claim the use of medications is simply replacing one drug with another, which has created stigma around this form of treatment.
A 2020 study found that about 40 percent of residential programs surveyed in the U.S. didn’t offer opioid use disorder medications and 20 percent actively discouraged people from using them. In North Carolina, there are 62 licensed long-term residential treatment facilities, according to the SAMHSA treatment locator, and fewer than half accept patients who take these medications. Only 12 facilities are licensed to prescribe buprenorphine.
This has resulted in tough conversations with patients for Kate Roberts, a clinical social worker on a UNC Health team that treats people with severe IV drug-related infections. Once patients are stabilized, many start buprenorphine, she said. Some say they want to go to a residential program for structure, job training and to learn coping skills. Roberts recalled one patient saying to her: “I need to go to residential treatment and I need this medication because I fear I’ll die.”
“That’s really heartbreaking to hear a patient clearly articulate what it is that they need … which is in line with the [research] literature,” she said. “And that you know there are very few places in the state that offer that.”
Doctors and public health experts nationwide are pushing for lawmakers to fund rehab facilities that allow these medications, saying they’re the best way to combat the opioid crisis.
Some medical and legal experts have said it’s in violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act to deny recovery services such as housing to people using medications for opioid use disorder. Health experts say that funding abstinence-based addiction programs could also inadvertently cause more overdoses if people leave the program and return to using drugs with a much lower tolerance, especially as fentanyl is rampant in the street drug supply.
These conversations will become only more important as opioid settlement funds arrive, said Bradley Stein, director of the national Rand Opioid Policy Center.
“The goal isn’t just to get people into treatment; it’s to get people doing better,” he said. “You want to make sure that you’re using the money effectively.”
The conversations have begun in North Carolina. When Rep. Graig Meyer (D-Durham) tweeted his support for TROSA late last year, clinicians reached out to him explaining their concerns about the program not allowing participants to use methadone or buprenorphine.
Although Meyer still believes it’s an effective program, he said, “I also have concerns from what I learned about TROSA’s approach to treating opioid addiction in particular. I’d like to see TROSA consider what their current practices are.”
This story first published online at North Carolina Health News. North Carolina Health News is an independent, non-partisan, not-for-profit, statewide news organization dedicated to covering all things health care in North Carolina.
KHN (Kaiser Health News) is a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues. Together with Policy Analysis and Polling, KHN is one of the three major operating programs at KFF (Kaiser Family Foundation). KFF is an endowed nonprofit organization providing information on health issues to the nation.
Support independent local journalism. Join the INDY Press Club to help us keep fearless watchdog reporting and essential arts and culture coverage viable in the Triangle.
Comment on this story at backtalk@indyweek.com.
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https://indyweek.com/news/voices/time-will-tell-a-story-rodney-king-officers-acquittal-30-years/
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Thirty years ago this month the city of Los Angeles went up in flames after a jury acquitted three police officers of criminal charges for the beating of Rodney King one year before.
When I watched that brutal police assault on television with my mother, she told me about a brutal attack her father had endured at the hands of police in Rockingham in 1953. Born 110 years ago on April 15, 1912, my maternal grandfather died in 1962. Happy birthday Gran’Daddy Willie Horne.
Time will tell a story.
The Leak Street Colored School in Rockingham, North Carolina opened in 1924, and Black families began migrating into town from nearby sharecropping fields to give their children the opportunity for an education they never had.
They came from places like Wolf Pit, Steele’s Township, Piney Grove, Beaver Dam, Galestown, and Tabernacle, along with Roberdel. That’s where my momma’s parents lived in a wood-frame house, while sharecropping on land owned by a man named Clyde Marie.
My Gran’daddy Willie Horne found other means of getting paid besides tenant farming.
Say my gran’daddy built himself a liquor still, opened up a liquor house, and in between selling moonshine and running card games, he was about as free as a poor colored man could be in the 1940s South.
Still, my Gran’daddy Willie Horne and his little family moved into town, where his children could go to school and he could help his brother, Tom Horne, whose life was in the gutter and headed straight to hell in a whiskey bottle.
My gran’daddy got his family settled into a white wood-frame house with black shutters at 709 Armistead Street. A pecan tree with a massive trunk that squatted like a cheerful wrestler stood guard in the front yard.
My Gran’daddy Willie Horne opened up another card house. This one sat atop of a red-dirt hill just above his house.
It wasn’t nothing but a shack, that card house: a bucket of blood really, a place where Black men could gamble and drink away the skin of their coins, because the meat was used to keep babies fed and a roof over their heads.
The police busted in on the men one day and rounded ‘em all up.
My Gran’daddy Willie Horne hauled ass.
I imagine he ran like a runaway slave, kicking it on an ill-fated North Star night.
The police caught him underneath that pecan tree that stood in his front yard. Then they pulled out their billy clubs and beat the audacity out of him for trying to escape.
They beat him down right there in front of his wife and children, including his 12-year-old daughter, who would become my mother.
Years later, during the early spring of 1991, whenever the Rodney King beating came on TV, my momma’s eyes would explode with memory.
She say, “Tommy, boy, the police beat your gran’daddy so bad, they made Rodney King look like a picnic.”
My momma would repeat that over and over while staring at the TV as the LA police billy clubs rained down cold-hot metal all over Rodney King’s body.
A church litany. A near-forgotten prayer. A Kodak moment. A revelation of lost faith, while remembering the softness of her father’s head.
“Boy, they beat your gran’daddy so bad, they made Rodney King look like a picnic.”
She say my gran’daddy Willie Horne wasn’t the same after that beating.
Seizures.
He couldn’t hold down a steady job.
My momma say, one day my Gran’daddy Willie Horne looked at her and my Aunt Peggy, and told them, “Y’all ain’t my children.”
“Yes we is, Daddy,” they cried. “Yes we is your children.”
“No you ain’t,” he answered. “Cause if you were mine, I’d be able to feed you.”
There was never any official acknowledgment from the town of what happened to my grandfather. Last year, my child AJ found his death certificate. On May 12, 1962 he literally died of a broken heart—a myocardial infarction—a heart attack at his home on Armistead Street. He was 50. His occupation was listed as “janitor.” The medical examiner determined that his heart failed him because he had been diagnosed with heart disease 12 years before, right around the time the police beat him like a dog.
The pathologist also listed his being “epileptic” as a contributing factor. I guess that’s about as close to an acknowledgement of police misconduct that a poor Black man could expect from the 1960s South. There certainly wasn’t an official investigation, or indignant town officials decrying excessive police violence. Black lives hardly mattered. My mother’s siblings don’t even have a picture of the man I’ve been told all my life by those who knew him that I resemble.
Soon after my mother told me that story about my gran’daddy, I walked up the now asphalt-paved hill where his card house once sat. That hallowed patch of ground is now the home of the Church of God in Christ. As a kid I was afraid to race down the hill on my Big Wheel to my grandmother’s house. I never knew my gran’daddy once ran down that hill from the wickedness that defined his time on Earth.
I knelt down and kissed that bitter earth.
I figured it was still damp, you know.
Wet, with the blood-stained memory of my grandfather.
Support independent local journalism. Join the INDY Press Club to help us keep fearless watchdog reporting and essential arts and culture coverage viable in the Triangle.
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https://indyweek.com/food-and-drink/news/starbucks-fires-raleigh-worker-unionizing/
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The Midtown East Starbucks in Raleigh. | Photo by Brett Villena
On February 13, while washing dishes in the back room of the Raleigh Starbucks she works at, Sharon Gilman says that the three-compartment sink separated from the wall, falling toward her. She stepped backward and called for her shift supervisor. The two documented the damage, taking photos and videos, and the shift supervisor called in a work order. Then Gilman went home.
On April 9, Ed Harvey, a Starbucks manager, showed up at the 2901 Sherman Oaks store that Gilman works at, called her out from her shift, and fired her.
In a notice of termination reviewed by the INDY, Starbucks cited "intentional miuse of store equipment" by Gilman that generated a "concern for personal safety."
"Ed sat me down and asked, 'Were you upset? Did something happen that night? Maybe you were frustrated'? I was like, No. First of all, this was literally a month and a half ago," Gilman says. "It just broke off the wall."
Gilman, 20, is one of the seven employees at the 2901 Sherman Oak Place location in Raleigh to put their names on a letter declaring intent to unionize. The letter was submitted to former Starbucks CEO Kevin Johnson—who has since been replaced by Howard Schultz—on February 15.
As reported in a feature by the INDY Week in mid-March, workers at the 2901 Sherman Oaks Starbucks location are the first Starbucks workers in North Carolina to file for a union election. Ballots for the company's union election are supposed to go out this week.
Over the phone, a Starbucks spokesperson maintained to the INDY that the termination is "unrelated to current unionization efforts at the stores."
"This is an extreme example of retaliation by Starbucks," says Chris Baumann, Southern Region Director of Workers United, an affiliate of Service Employees International Union (SEIU). "Instead of firing her, the company should have been apologetic that equipment in their store was in such disrepair that a sink almost fell on an employee."
Gilman, a student at North Carolina State University, says that she was surprised to be fired and agrees that the termination feels like retaliation.
"My name was on the letter," she says. "My name was in a news article, in the press release."
Since the first Starbucks store in Buffalo, New York, went public with a union campaign in August, an unprecedented organizing fever has swept through the company, with workers at more than 175 stores in 25 states filing for union elections as of early April. There are roughly 9,000 stores nationwide.
The company—which has largely enjoyed a progressive reputation since its 1971 founding—has responded strongly to organizing efforts with a full-court anti-union press, sending senior officials to stores, holding meetings with workers, and firing several workers in prominent organizing roles.
Gilman is at least the tenth unionizing Starbucks worker to be fired from the company. Last week—the same day that Howard Schultz started his role as interim CEO of the company—Laila Dalton, an outspoken Phoenix barista and union leader, was fired from her job for recording co-workers' conversations without their permission.
At a forum that day Schultz told employees that “we can’t ignore what is happening in the country as it relates to companies throughout the country being assaulted in many ways by the threat of unionization.”
The most high-profile store firings occurred at a Memphis Starbucks in early February, when seven unionizing employees were fired for violating company safety rules; earlier this week, NLRB officials determined that the Memphis worker terminations were illegal and announced intent to issue a complaint unless there is a settlement.
Baumann says that SEIU is planning to file charges with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) first thing on Monday morning requesting that Gilman be reinstated at her job.
"I love the people I work with," Gilman says. "They're some of the best friendships and relationships that I've formed. I'm not from Raleigh, I'm actually from Virginia, so when I moved down here for school they took me under their wing."
In a text message, Alyssa White, another barista at the 2901 Sherman Place store, told the INDY that organizing employees plan to protest at the store on Monday.
"Starbucks is determined to try to crush this union drive that's being led by Starbucks partners across the country," says Baumann. "Now that Howard Schultz the old CEO has come back, it sounds like it's his mission to destroy this union drive. He keeps trying to make it sound like it's this effort that's coming from outside the company. It's very much the reverse."
Support independent local journalism. Join the INDY Press Club to help us keep fearless watchdog reporting and essential arts and culture coverage viable in the Triangle.
Follow Arts & Culture Editor Sarah Edwards on Twitter or send an email to sedwards@indyweek.com.
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Congratulations to over 1,000 local businesses and people who have been nominated by the community as the "Best of the Triangle!" The final round of voting begins today through May 8. The top four vote-getters (plus ties) made it to the final multiple choice ballot. Take 10 minutes to support your favorite dives, healthcare providers, and museums from across the Triangle by clicking the banner below.
Winners will be announced in the June 15 print edition of INDY Week. The top vote-getters will receive an INDY branded "Best of" poster to proudly display, while all finalists will receive a window decal for rising to the top. *
For Businesses:
The finalist ballot receives over 500,000 votes from readers, and June 15’s "Best of the Triangle" issue is the most-read issue of the year. Reach out now to reserve your spot and thank your supporters in this memorable edition.
For promotional opportunities on the ballot, please take a moment to watch this video, and click here to download our rate card. For information on all print and digital advertising opportunities, please email sales@indyweek.com.
Click here to download additional resources to reach your customers and patrons, both in-person and online. You can download posters and images for your newsletters, social media platforms, and front doors. Share far and wide using the hashtags #bestofthetriangle #bestof2022 and #indyweek. Got questions? Please email sales@indyweek.com.
Lastly, consider joining the INDY Week Press Club. Support like yours allows us to continue to provide you with free local news coverage in both print and digital formats, as well as special issues like the “Best of the Triangle.”
*Note: Businesses that made it onto the finalist ballot will likely receive phishing attempts via whatever public-facing communication channel you use. Any offer to sell you a plaque, poster, sign or any other "Best of the Triangle"-related product should be handled as a scam. INDY Week provides window decals to all finalists, and winners receive a poster to proudly display. If you are a previous finalist or winner and have not received these for previous years, please contact sales@indyweek.com.
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https://indyweek.com/news/durham/four-people-killed-11-wounded-in-three-days-of-gun-violence-/
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Durham’s elected officials, law enforcement leaders, activists, and others have deployed an array of resources that aims to stop gun violence.
The past weekend was disheartening.
Police say 11 people were shot and four died between Thursday afternoon and Saturday night.
The gunfire started Thursday at about 4:30 p.m., in the 300 block of Avon Lake Drive.
Police found two people with gunshot wounds at an apartment complex in the neighborhood.
Investigators say Emily Montes de Oca, 22, of Durham, died at the scene. Paramedics also rushed a 27-year-old victim to the hospital with serious injuries.
Nearly two hours after the shootings police announced that the incident was “ongoing,” and remained “an active situation” because the shooting suspect, Erick Ray Hudson of Durham had “barricaded himself inside one of the apartments and refused to come out for several hours,” police reported.
Durham Police Chief, during a late afternoon press conference that took place near the apartments where Hudson was still barricaded, said there had been previous reports of gunshots fired in the community.
According to WRAL News, Hudson and the slain woman were roommates.
It was about 10:30 p.m. when members of the police department’s selective enforcement team made their way into the apartment and took Hudson into custody.
Police have charged Hudson, 26, with one felony count each of murder and assault with a deadly weapon with intent to kill inflicting serious injury.
Two days later police were alerted to a second shooting at West Durham’s Avon Lake Drive.
It was about 1:30 a.m. on Saturday when police were dispatched to the 3000 block of the neighborhood. When investigators arrived they found three people wounded by gunfire. One of the victims was pronounced dead at the scene.
Paramedics rushed the surviving victims to the hospital where they were treated for non-life threatening injuries.
A little over three miles away in the 3000 block of Auto Drive in West Durham, police were dispatched to another shooting that happened just after 1:30 a.m.
When the officers arrived, they were told three people had been shot. Police on Monday said one victim, Daniel Slack, 22 died at the scene. The other two people were transported to a local hospital with what appear to be non-life threatening injuries.
Again, investigators did not make public details about the shooting, or report a motive. However, they think the shootings were not random.
The gun violence in West Durham continued into the early evening when dispatchers alerted police to another fatal shooting on West Woodcroft Parkway.
It was shortly after 7:30 p.m. when Durham officers arrived at the 100 block of West Woodcroft Parkway and found three gunshot victims.
Police on Monday said one victim, Tylen Wesley Baldwin, 21, of Durham, died at the scene. The other two victims were taken to the hospital for treatment of non-life-threatening injuries.
Police have not filed any charges in the deaths of Baldwin, Slack or the third, unnamed victim.
Support independent local journalism. Join the INDY Press Club to help us keep fearless watchdog reporting and essential arts and culture coverage viable in the Triangle.
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https://indyweek.com/news/ninth-street-journal/durham-school-of-the-arts-may-move-to-northern-durham/
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Photos of Durham School of the Arts by Milena Ozernova
Durham School of the Arts is grappling with the choice between holding onto history and beginning a new era.
The arts magnet school, a fixture in downtown Durham since 1995, has been a source of pride in Durham for years. Now it may be relocating to a new campus in northern Durham.
That has left parents and community members with lots of unanswered questions.
Jeannine Sato, a DSA parent and PTSA volunteer, has been active with the school for two years. She supports the move and funding a new campus for DSA but says that parents she has spoken with have mixed feelings about the relocation.
“Part of the charm of DSA is its history, its location in downtown, and its connection to a lot of the arts downtown,” she said. “But I do have concerns about how we could safely renovate it with students in session.
“It just seems logistically challenging, very expensive, and there will probably be lots of unforeseen challenges. Building a campus seems like the most logical solution.”
Others, such as Karalyn Colopy, a DSA parent and Trinity Park resident, favor keeping DSA right where it is.
“I love that there’s a school in downtown Durham,” she said. “It would be a big loss if we lost a school campus right in the heart of the city.”
The current sprawling campus of eight buildings stretches across three blocks of Durham, housing 1,655 students from grades 6 to 12. The school boasts rigorous academics in addition to a focus on visual and performing arts.
The campus, previously home to Durham High School, includes some buildings built in 1922. Durham High was struggling in the 1990s, before DSA opened in 1995. DSA transformed the campus into a vibrant school attended by students from around the county, who gain entrance to the arts magnet school through a lottery system.
The concept of a new campus for DSA has been under discussion for some time. The county provided design and discovery funds for the project in early 2021. In May of 2021, the school board hired a third party to assess the viability of the current DSA campus. The consultant concluded that the campus was not adequate to house a school of the arts.
The Board of Education decided in October to pursue funding for a new DSA campus in northern Durham County and submitted the proposal to the Board of County Commissioners. The commissioners will decide this month whether or not to include the new DSA building as part of an upcoming fall bond referendum.
If funding for the new campus is approved by the county commissioners, Durham residents will have the opportunity to vote on funding for DSA as part of the proposed bond referendum on November 8.
If approved, the Board of Education anticipates that construction will begin in June 2023. They hope that the campus will be completed by May 2025.
The proposed location for the new campus, a 58 acre-site on Duke Homestead Road, was purchased in 2010 from Duke University. Unlike the current campus, it is isolated from major thoroughfares and provides opportunity for future expansion, said Julius Monk, deputy superintendent of operational services for Durham Public Schools.
Photos of Durham School of the Arts by Milena Ozernova
In a February 23 Board of Education meeting, Fredrick Davis, director of capital construction and planning for the Durham school system, highlighted the historical significance of the current campus, but also pointed to flaws with the building.“The current structure limits the class sizes, limits natural light and really does not lend itself to the modernizations that we need in order to attract the best and brightest,” he said.
Sato also cited several structural and maintenance issues with the campus, including electricity outages. “There are definitely some basement classrooms that feel like a dark dungeon,” she said.
In a recent interview, Monk highlighted accessibility issues with the current campus, and the age of the building. He also raised concerns about the size of the campus , explaining that DSA was designed for about 1,200-1,400 students.
Parents and administrators are also concerned about the traffic generated by the school’s location on two major thoroughfares. Traffic backups often cause significant bottlenecks through the campus and into the city streets beyond, inconveniencing drivers and posing a danger to schoolchildren, some said.
Natalie Beyer, a Board of Education member, said new North Carolina Department of Transportation regulations would require the entire car line to remain on the DSA campus and not overflow out into the roadways. “That site is landlocked and there’s not a possibility for us to afford more land or close city streets,” she said. “Those roads are major arteries.”
Beyer stressed the importance of receiving input from the community throughout the relocation process. She says as soon as the board knows if the county has approved funding for the new school, the school board will revisit the issue and welcome public comment.
A big concern shared by parents and community members is what will happen to the current DSA buildings if the school moves.
Allen Wilcox is a Trinity Park resident who lives one block away from the current DSA campus. He says DSA has been a source of pride for his neighborhood.
“I just hope that the old buildings are used in a way that still benefits the community,” he said.
Both Beyer and Monk said that the board is considering moving New Tech High School, which currently shares a campus with Hillside High School, to the current DSA campus.
As Hillside expands, Monk says, “it’s becoming harder to run both of those programs on the same campus.”
New Tech High School has a student population of only 285 students. Given that, Monk said the current DSA location could also potentially accommodate central office space or student testing facilities.
Colopy wants reassurance that the older DSA buildings will be preserved if the school moves to a new location.
“We don’t have that much history here in Durham,” Colopy said. “This is our history and what makes us Durham.”
This story was produced through a partnership between the INDY and 9th Street Journal, which is published by journalism students at Duke University’s DeWitt Wallace Center for Media & Democracy.
Comment on this story at backtalk@indyweek.com.
Support independent local journalism. Join the INDY Press Club to help us keep fearless watchdog reporting and essential arts and culture coverage viable in the Triangle.
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Photo of Durham Bulls Athletic Park by Henry Haggart — The 9th Street Journal
When the City of Durham was asked to spend twice as much as expected to make improvements to Durham Bulls Athletic Park, the result was never really in question. But that didn’t keep the council from debating the question when it met on Monday.
The city leases the Durham Bulls Athletic Park to the Durham Bulls team, and is required, under an agreement with Major League Baseball, to make upgrades to the Bulls’ stadium by April 2025 in order to keep the Bulls in Durham.
With that in mind, the Durham City Council voted 5-0 Monday to spend an extra $5.35 million to renovate the ballpark, on top of the original $5.22 million it approved in June 2021, for a total cost of $10.57 million. The Durham Bulls are contributing $1 million in renovation costs but it’s up to the city to cover the other $9.57 million.
During a work session in March, John Paces-Wiles, senior project manager with the city’s general services department, relayed that the upgrades will include renovations to player locker rooms, coaches’ offices and a new batting tunnel.
Prior to Monday’s meeting, Skanska, the company that won the bid for the project, reported to city officials that the higher costs resulted from the coronavirus pandemic, which has affected the entire construction industry. Costs for construction materials went up an average of 45 percent since March 2021, the company reported.
Though the council voted 5-0 to approve the additional expenditures, members were divided on whether the deal to keep the Durham Bulls, which was brokered with the council back in 2014, was truly worth the money.
Prior to the meeting, At-Large Council Member Jillian Johnson and Ward 3 Representative Leonardo Williams debated the topic on social media. The debate continued Monday as each member weighed in on the issue.
Johnson lamented that the council had committed itself to paying for upgrades to the stadium, and pointed out that the baseball league requires many cities across the nation to pay for upgrades to their stadiums. Durham’s lease with the Bulls expires in 2033. She urged the council to broker a better deal with the league at that time.
“I hope that we can have a little more equity in the future for how the city, the Bulls, and maybe even Major League Baseball can split the costs,” Johnson said. “I’m disappointed that it’s falling all on our residents.”
Paces-Wiles and the general services department provided information regarding the Durham Bulls’ cultural events, revenue and overall contributions to the community, statistics which Leonardo Williams reiterated in arguing that the Durham Bulls were, indeed, worth the monetary investment.
Williams pointed to the Bulls’ direct economic impact on the city, which included generating $48.5 million in revenue last year. In addition, the Bulls’ presence in Durham directly supported 23,130 jobs and indirectly supported over 25,00 jobs last year, according to the report from the general services department.
Williams and Mayor Pro-Tempore Mark-Anthony Middleton lamented that there was debate about whether to pay the money.
“This is a real city, and we got to put our big pants on,” Williams said at the council meeting. “Which means we need to have assets to welcome people to the city to spend so we can generate the revenue to address the social issues that we have.”
Mayor Elaine O’Neal echoed Williams’ statements, pointing to the Durham Bulls’ history in her life, and the life of Durham.
The Durham Bulls moved from Durham Athletic Park to the team’s current downtown home, Durham Bulls Athletic Park, in 1995.
Durham Bulls Athletic Park hosted 70 home games in 2021 and dozens of other events, including the city’s Fourth of July celebration.
Williams and O’Neal also mentioned the fame generated by the film “Bull Durham.” The Durham Bulls are at the center of the 1988 movie, which was filmed at Durham Athletic Park.
Elaine O’Neal’s family home is just three blocks down from Durham Bulls Athletic Park, and she recalled her father’s pride when “Bull Durham” was released.
“For my father’s 103rd birthday, he wanted to go to a Durham Bulls game, and we have a photo of him and the Bulls mascot up in our home,” O’Neal said. “The Durham Bulls…will never ever go away, if you have been a part of this community for as long as I have.”
Despite the lively conversation, the motion to fund the ballpark renovations passed unanimously.
Opening Day for the 2022 season is set for April 12, when the Bulls will face the Jacksonville Jumbo Shrimp.
This story was produced through a partnership between the INDY and 9th Street Journal, which is published by journalism students at Duke University’s DeWitt Wallace Center for Media & Democracy.
Comment on this story at backtalk@indyweek.com.
Support independent local journalism. Join the INDY Press Club to help us keep fearless watchdog reporting and essential arts and culture coverage viable in the Triangle.
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The restaurant parking lot where Pro-Life advocates stand. All photos by Kathryn Osygus.
This story was originally published by UNC Media Hub.
On this Saturday, two groups of people stand watch in the 20-space parking lot of a Japanese steakhouse, each staking out their own territory.
When a car pulls in, often with a woman driving, each group springs to action.
Those wearing rainbow-colored vests motion in the direction of the abortion clinic, guiding drivers to the proper place to park. Others, dressed in navy Sidewalk for Life hoodies, wave, smile, and put their hands in a praying position. Some wield signs, such as one reading “God loves you and your baby. We can help.”
While there’s no shouting or screaming, the scene is no less jarring for those arriving at the abortion clinic for the first time.
I felt overwhelmed when I drove in, and I had no life-changing decision to make. I was there to watch what happens outside the abortion clinic.
The restaurant parking lot is contested ground—an unusual place for actions so significant. Both pro-life advocates and pro-choice clinic escorts are represented there, and both sides are aware it can overwhelm those who come.
But both sides stand their ground outside a Woman’s Choice of Greensboro for hours at a time, five days a week. They feel compelled to be there. Both sides believe they are helping the women who come. I spoke to both.
***
Lauren O., 26, is one of about 50 people who serve as volunteer escorts.
Escorts serve as a friendly face when patients pull in. They offer to walk patients inside the clinic. They speak gentle, reassuring words. They play music over a speaker to dull the volume of the pro-life advocates’ words—a request made by patients.
Escorts are essential to the clinic, helping to reduce confusion and ensure patient safety. Wearing rainbow-colored vests, they position themselves on clinic property as well as the adjacent restaurant parking lot.
Because the clinic is not visible from the main road, patients sometimes miss the turn and enter the restaurant parking lot, which is consistently occupied by pro-life advocates. If this happens, pro-life advocates can be quick to approach the car and initiate conversations about the patient’s reproductive decisions.
“If we weren’t there to contextualize this and tell folks these are protesters, not random well-meaning citizens, not just kind Christian folks, people would be confused, more likely to be misdirected, and have a harder time accessing care,” said Lauren, who did not want her last name used to protect her personal security.
Escorts view their role as being there for patients’ needs, not influencing patients’ decisions.
“We’re here to make sure everyone's safe. That’s the priority, not that everybody gets a procedure,” said Ten H., 24, an escort who did not want their last name used for the same reason.
But Lauren said pro-life advocates perceive them differently. She said they push a narrative that escorts want to make the clinic money and force people to have abortions.
Saturday is the clinic’s busiest and most crowded day. As a result, 10-15 escorts are usually present, with about as many—and often more—pro-life advocates.
The crowd can be intimidating, though the protesters are rarely effective in halting an abortion. Escorts are there to combat their words with understanding and reassurance.
“It's given me the opportunity to be the person who looks them in the eye and says, ‘I believe you're a good person. I believe you're a good parent,’” Lauren said. “Seeing the relief and the weight roll off their shoulders when they hear that first encouraging word to then have the strength to go into their appointment and do what they need to do is so meaningful.”
Although the clinic may be calmer on weekdays in terms of volume, Ten said that pro-life advocates can act more boldly when escorts are in smaller numbers. Generally, there are three to five escorts during the week and a similar number of pro-life advocates. The clinic does not allow the pro-life advocates to come on its property
Ten, who is one of the few escorts of color, has heard explicitly racist insults.
“They choose to target me,” Ten said. “I expected that going into this because a lot of times I've seen that pro-life or anti-abortion people often have similar beliefs as white supremacists. And so I was anticipating that, but it was just alarming.”
Ten often wears sunglasses and Bluetooth headphones to tune out pro-life advocates as much as possible.
Similarly, Lauren said the name-calling has taken a mental toll. She’s been called evil, selfish, and “the demonic one.” In therapy, she discusses how hearing these repeated comments affects her sense of self and how she must resist internalizing the insults.
Bobby Singleton, co-founder of Triad Coalition for Life, an organization that compiles pregnancy resources and coordinates a daily presence outside the clinic, said name-calling is not allowed by anyone affiliated with his group. Each of the group’s pool of about 50 volunteers has agreed to a code of conduct he strictly enforces that prohibits verbal abuse of patients and escorts. It also bans obstructing entry to the clinic.
Singleton said there used to be a group outside the clinic unrelated to Triad Coalition for Life that was combative and shouted at patients and escorts. He said they haven’t been there for months.
Escorts keep coming back, despite the mental toll.
“I think it's essential that people know that they're supported when they go to a clinic because of all of the shame and stigma and all of the misconceptions about abortion and about the people who get them,” Ten said.
Lauren O., 26, is a volunteer escort at the clinic.
***
Positioned just beyond the trespassing boundary is a group of pro-life advocates. This is their preferred terminology, rather than the label of “protesters” the clinic and escorts use.
Before a wooden cross, they use a microphone and speaker to promote resources for single mothers and urge those entering the clinic to choose life.
“Remember you don’t have to do this,” Becky, a pro-life advocate, who did not want her last name used to protect her privacy, said on the mic. “We love you and are praying for you. We don’t want you to be harmed either through this. And this is harmful to you.”
At 10 a.m., about 30 people wearing turquoise Love Life shirts arrive at the parking lot. Love Life is a national group whose goal is to establish a consistent Christian witness at every abortion center across the country. Every Saturday, during its 40-week campaign, the group walks about a half-mile from Destiny Christian Center to the clinic to pray for the abortion providers, escorts, and women terminating their pregnancies.
“This is a business—a business that is making money off death,” a male Love Life leader said. “It's a place that has a culture of death, and we're praying that people would choose life. We pray that repentance would happen and people would choose life in Jesus’ name.”
A pink ultrasound bus from the Pregnancy Network, a Christian, multi-denominational organization seeking to serve Triad women facing unplanned pregnancies, is parked prominently. It’s available for free pregnancy tests, ultrasounds, and STD tests. The mobile unit started coming to the clinic in 2018. The organization also has its information plastered overhead on the closest billboard to the clinic.
For the past two and a half years, Becky, 38, has spent nearly every day at the clinic during its operating hours. She said it’s what God has called her to do and that he gives her the words to reach out to women.
“Any of the tough information that we tell women is because we want them to know now while they still have a choice instead of them finding out after they no longer have a choice, so any of the tough information is said in love,” Becky said. “We're here in love. We're not here in judgment.”
Shanda, 45, who also did not want her last name used to protect her privacy, started coming to the clinic more than two years ago. She said her first experience was confusing as she came by herself and was mistaken as a patient.
As a Black woman, she said she looked like most of the people who go into the clinic. That observation highlighted the need for her to represent her pro-life viewpoint. Black women in North Carolina have the highest rates of abortion, at a rate of 21 per 1,000 people, according to 2019 data from the NC State Center for Health Statistics.
Shanda comes to the clinic about three times a week. She tries to talk with patients about choosing life, but she doesn't scream at them.
It’s easy to get discouraged by the number of people going into the clinic, she said. On average, she said maybe one in 25 women will stop on their way into the clinic, but it’s always a guessing game.
“You can go all week and not have a single connection or you can go the following week and have like three or four a day,” Shanda said.
While pro-life advocates’ efforts may not stop many abortions, Shanda easily recalls success stories that inspire her to keep showing up in the hopes of adding to her list of patients who didn’t have abortions.
“When you start going through your phone and you're looking at the pictures of babies that are actually here because of you, the moms that call and say thank you for either walking me through this or thank you for referring me to post-abortive counseling—that's all the reward there is,” Shanda said.
Becky also said she’s held babies born after a mom continued a pregnancy to term, even thrown baby showers for them.
Both said it’s not their place to change someone’s mind, but they feel it’s important to be outside the clinic to offer an alternative viewpoint or be a sign that they don’t have to terminate the pregnancy.
“We stay as long as we can to reach out to as many women as we can, because we don't want to miss that one,” Becky said.
Safety, both in-and-outside the operation room, is a top priority for clinic employees and escorts.
***
The abortion clinic wasn’t always this fraught scene. Located just back from the main road, the 2,772-square-foot building with two operating rooms was known only to employees and those seeking its services.
But that all changed when pro-life advocates started having a daily physical presence outside the clinic.
“They have signs. They yell racially charged really disgusting language and say really inaccurate and harmful things to our staff and our patients under the guise of sidewalk counseling,” said Amber Gavin, vice president of advocacy & operations at A Woman’s Choice, in reference to the environment seen across the independent abortion provider’s clinics. “It's a challenge that we constantly see.”
The rise of activity outside the abortion clinic emphasized the need for escorts to help ensure patients could enter the clinic safely and prevent confusion from crowds unaffiliated with the clinic and lacking medical credentials.
Now, a scene of pro-life advocates and escorts is common outside clinics across the state and country.
In addition to the abortion clinic in Greensboro, A Woman’s Choice operates clinics in Raleigh, Charlotte, and Jacksonville, Florida. The independent abortion provider has had a presence in North Carolina for 14 years. In 2017, the Charlotte facility opened to expand access, specifically locating near the airport to facilitate easy travel.
Fifteen clinics offer some form of abortion services in North Carolina. They are located in Wake, Mecklenburg, Orange, Durham, Guilford, Buncombe, Cumberland, Forsyth, and New Hanover counties.
In 2019, the most recent year for which complete data exists, 143,004 pregnancies among North Carolina residents were reported to the NC State Center for Health Statistics. Of the known pregnancies, about 16 percent were terminated through an abortion procedure, amounting to 23,495 abortions performed.
“The history of violence against abortion providers, clinic escorts and abortion nurses is well documented and it's not that far in the past,” Lauren said. “It's not that far removed and it's still very present in my mind.”
A Preferred Women’s Health Center in Charlotte received a bomb threat credible enough to evacuate patients in January 2021.
Gavin said operating abortion clinics is a challenge in the midst of passionate pro-life advocates, employee recruitment, strict state regulations requiring mandated scripted counseling and a 72-hour waiting period and the looming threat of Roe v. Wade being overturned by the Supreme Court.
“Whatever the outcome is will have a huge effect on abortion care throughout the United States,” Gavin said. “And so I think it's fair to say that we're all anxious and that Roe has the potential to become decimated and so it really will be left up to the states, which is scary.”
The procedure room.
***
At age 20, Lauren terminated an ectopic pregnancy, one in which the fertilized egg grows outside the uterus. It was a vastly different experience than patients encounter at a Woman’s Choice of Greensboro’s clinic. Instead of going to an abortion clinic, she received a shot of methotrexate, a drug used to medically induce miscarriage, at the hospital.
“I was catered to as a white woman having an abortion for what society labeled a medical reason,” Lauren said.
She made her decision in consultation with her doctor and free from encounters with pro-life advocates. Without a crowd second-guessing her, she was able to feel at peace with her decision.
But spending days outside the clinic as an escort reveals that most women don’t get to have her experience, though she wishes it were the norm.
The recovery room, where patients go post-operation.
Lauren and Ten both dream of a day when clinic escorts aren’t needed and there’s cultural acceptance around abortions, so everyone feels safe and confident in their decisions.
Becky and Shanda dream of a day when abortion is no longer legal and practiced. They no longer wish to see abortion promoted or funded by the government, and instead want the emphasis to turn to pregnancy centers and adoption.
But, for now, the action and noise in the parking lot outside the clinic will continue to ebb and flow with its operating hours, as onlookers continue to take a special interest in the decisions being made inside. Neither group plans to go anywhere.
A cross posted outside the restaurant parking lot, right across from the clinic.
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https://indyweek.com/news/durham/durham-state-of-the-county-address-fair-housing-month/
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In the annual State of the County address Monday night, Durham County Board of Commissioners chair Brenda Howerton foregrounded the silver linings of the COVID-19 pandemic and laid out a plan to expand funding to transit, broadband, and crime reduction initiatives.
For the first time in three years, the address was delivered in person.
“While the pandemic has brought challenges, it has also released a newfound success and sense of collaboration and innovation,” Howerton said.
She applauded the resilience of the community and noted the county economy’s recovery to pre-pandemic levels.
“Durham County is attracting new businesses and expanding existing ones,” Howerton said, pointing to companies like Smart Wires, Beam Therapeutic, and Google Cloud Hub.
Howerton went on to discuss how the 2021 budget allowed for the formation of several new initiatives—the Long-Term Homeowner Grant Program, the City-County Racial Equity Commission, and the Safety and Wellness Task Force—as well as the hiring of a Refugee and Immigrant Affairs Strategist.
Looking ahead to this year’s budget, Howerton said the board is prioritizing an expansion of transit investments and displayed an accompanying visual of the Triangle Bike Study’s recommended 17-mile shared-use path, which connects Raleigh, Cary, Morrisville, Research Triangle Park, Durham, and Chapel Hill.
She also said the board hopes to allocate more money to supporting crime reduction and intervention initiatives.
Due to the county’s recent uptick in gun violence, Howerton said the board has reinstated the former Crime Cabinet to “develop new ideas that can be implemented to significantly reduce the impact of violent crime.” She added that Mayor Elaine O’Neal has called on citizens to volunteer five hours a week to help those experiencing violent crime in their neighborhoods.
Howerton also mentioned that the pandemic has illuminated the need for broadband expansion; the new budget will aim to increase broadband in rural areas to improve education and increase telehealth availability.
“While this list is not all our priorities, I feel it represents our current goals moving forward,” Howerton concluded.
The public hearing for the 2022-23 budget will be held on May 23.
After the address, the board proclaimed April 2022 as Fair Housing Month in Durham County and called local realtor Pete Eisenmann to the stand.
Eisenmann serves as co-chair of the Durham Regional Association of Realtors’ Diversity and Inclusion Committee, which was formed in 2020 to advocate for equal housing opportunities.
He said his interest in preventing housing discrimination came after the Durham association called the murder of George Floyd an “untimely death.”
“I absolutely blistered them with an email, I told them they were self-righteous racist bigots and I was embarrassed to be part of this profession,” Eisnemann said.
He challenged them to create a committee that would retrain their realtors, he said.
“I’m a 60 year old white man. I’m the hand grenade that goes in the room, because I can go anywhere in the white boy’s club. I’m welcome. Look at me,” Eisenmann continued, spreading his arms. “I sit in the middle of the room, I pull the plug, and they are in trouble.”
Citing data that the vast majority of appraisers are white men—and that Black households are undervalued by $48,000, on average—Commissioner Nimasheena Burns asked Eisenmann if the committee has plans to increase diversity among the association’s appraisers.
“There’s an initiative from the federal level; the new director of HUD is particularly interested in making [appraisals] non-personal,” Eisenmann replied. “We know discrimination takes place with people’s names, with people’s color, with people’s location.”
Eisenmann said he foresees the federal initiative bleeding down to the local level.
Eismann added that the committee recently released a diversity pledge and toolkit, which local brokers are required to sign—or not sign—as a commitment to both promote inclusion and provide clients with a document that outlines steps they can take if they experience harassment or discrimination. The committee has also invited an Elon professor who teaches Critical Race Theory to instruct the association on inclusive practices later this year.
Eisenmann wrapped up his remarks by stating that when he was growing up in Levittown, Pennsylvania in the ‘60s, the government would only guarantee federal loans to homebuilders if the deed stated that the house would not be sold to a Black person.
“It is systematic, it is institutional, and it is—excuse me, it’s just a white boy’s club and it’s been that way for years,” Eisenmann said. “I can’t wait to see it burn to the ground.”
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Follow Staff Lena Geller on Twitter or send an email to lgeller@indyweek.com.
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https://indyweek.com/news/northcarolina/why-nc-legislators-are-arguing-a-legal-theory-democracy/
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Senate leader Phil Berger (left) and House Speaker Tim Moore field questions at a 2015 press conference. | Photo by Carolina Public Press
This story originally published online at Carolina Public Press.
House Speaker Tim Moore, R-Cleveland, and Senate President Pro Tempore Phil Berger, R-Rockingham, tried out a legal theory in 2020 elections litigation that had the potential to change the balance of power between the state legislature and the executive branch.
It failed at every level of state and federal courts.
Now, they’re trying to apply that theory again with a petition to the U.S. Supreme Court, this time over a disagreement with the other branch of government, the state courts.
The argument, called the independent state legislature theory, takes the position that since Article 1 Section 4 of the U.S. Constitution says, “Times, Places and Manner of holding Elections for Senators and Representatives, shall be prescribed in each State by the Legislature thereof,” the state legislature should be able to write federal election law without check by the other branches of state government.
Since the state Supreme Court blocked partisan gerrymandering on state constitutional grounds, this legal theory is central to North Carolina legislative Republicans’ hopes of gerrymandering the state’s U.S. congressional maps, assuming they control the state legislature after the 2022 elections.
But there are problems with the argument, according to Carolyn Shapiro, a law professor at the Chicago-Kent School of Law who researched the reemergence of the once-obscure theory in 2020.
“It makes no sense and it will cause chaos,” Shapiro said.
Though the lay reader might think it’s pretty clear—legislature means legislature—Shapiro points to legal scholarship over the last two years that shows the founders’ original meaning of “Legislature thereof” included the legislative mechanisms and checks in a state, including the executive and judicial branches. Reading the line to mean only state legislature, as Moore and Berger do, is a misunderstanding of the constitutional text, she said.
That’s also the position the U.S. Supreme Court came to in the 2015 Arizona Independent Redistricting Commission case in a 5-4 decision. It then referenced that decision favorably in its 2018 Rucho case, meaning the high court would have to overturn or at least evade recent precedent to rule in Moore and Berger’s favor.
But in the last four years, the court has become more conservative, now with a 6-3 edge over liberal justices, and two of the new conservatives have shown interest in the independent state legislature theory.
Should a majority of the justices now accept Moore’s and Berger’s interpretation, state courts would no longer have the authority to review federal redistricting, or possibly any federal election law passed by state legislatures. It depends on if the high court takes the case and how much of Moore and Berger’s arguments it adopts.
But even in a narrow ruling, it would be hard for the U.S. Supreme Court to limit the consequences to just map-drawing, according to Derek Muller, a University of Iowa law professor.
“Once you open that door, you never know how far it can go or who could close it in the future,” Muller said.
Why only Republicans are pursuing the theory
Though only Republicans have brought claims based on the theory in this century, there’s nothing inherent to the argument that should favor one political party over the other, Shapiro said.
In New York, where Democrats control the state legislature and governor’s mansion, state courts blocked the gerrymandered political maps. In California, Democrats who had gerrymandered the state’s maps in their favor gave up the power to draw maps to an independent commission.
In theory, Democrats in those states could benefit from a concentration of power should the independent state legislature become the law of the land. But they haven’t brought the lawsuits, instead treating the theory as if it’s Pandora’s Box, Muller said.
Neither Moore nor Berger responded to questions for this story, including why they are bringing the lawsuits or whether they are worried about unintended consequences of the legal theory.
But examining the political landscape of swing states like North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, the places where the theory has emerged, helps to explain why only Republicans are making legal arguments that could upend how democracy functions in the country.
Should the U.S. Supreme Court accept this argument, the current political balance seems to favor Republicans because they control 30 state legislatures, including seven of the 12 states with split legislatures and executive branches. Those seven include the key swing states of Michigan, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.
By sheer numbers, that means there are more states where Republicans could pass federal election laws in their favor, either by gerrymandering or restricting access to the vote using laws like photo voter ID, without the usual state court checks.
But this approach is shortsighted, Shapiro said.
“Both parties are going to use it to what they believe is their advantage,” Shapiro said. “I don’t think that there’s anybody who’s going to say, ‘Oh, you know, we’re just going to unilaterally disarm.’”
Pandemic, split governments and theory resurgence
The specific context of the pandemic and political landscape in 2020 helped trigger the rise of the independent state legislature doctrine among Republican legislative leaders in several states.
Suddenly, in early 2020, with the spread of a new worldwide disease of unknown infectiousness or deadliness, elections officials were no longer sure how to run elections. COVID-19 came to North Carolina on March 3, 2020, the same day as the statewide primary.
That timing let North Carolina evade the initial confusion that beset most other states’ primaries, which came later in the year, but it also set up legal fights. Over the summer, the legislature passed a raft of bipartisan election reforms, most of them temporary, to help the election run smoothly during a pandemic.
But advocacy groups still had concerns, mostly around the anticipated explosion in the use of absentee-by-mail voting, so they sued the state, arguing the process at the time would prevent thousands of legitimate ballots from being counted.
Republicans in North Carolina opposed those proposed changes, and this dynamic played out nationwide.
Executive-branch agencies, like the N.C. State Board of Elections, made administrative changes to election procedures under states of emergency or through legal settlements. State courts also made changes, either by blessing legal settlements, as was the case in North Carolina, or by interpreting state constitutions to require changes, as happened in Pennsylvania.
This was outside the regular legislative scheme states usually followed, Muller said. In places like North Carolina, there was suddenly a new election battlefield laid among old foes—Republican-controlled legislatures and Democratic-controlled executive agencies and Democratic-controlled courts.
Faced with last-minute changes to election procedure, legislatures didn’t have time to call new sessions and pass their own laws, assuming they could even get around a gubernatorial veto.
So, to stop legal changes, such as extending the date by which by-mail ballots could be accepted if they were legally voted before Election Day, Republican legislators had to turn to the courts.
In North Carolina, Moore and Berger tried to intervene in a case the State Board of Elections settled in state court. The judge rebuffed them and approved the settlement. So, Moore and Berger appealed, but a strong majority of Democratic justices controlled the N.C. Supreme Court.
To win, the legislators would likely need a way into federal courts, a difficult task because the settlement was a matter of state law. To get there, North Carolina’s legislative Republicans needed a federal hook.
In these kinds of cases, there aren’t many, according to Muller. That’s what made the independent state legislature claim attractive. That, and Justice Brett Kavanaugh, appointed by then-President Donald Trump, had already signaled in a case from Wisconsin earlier that year he was open to the argument.
So, Moore and Berger argued simultaneously in state and federal courts that the State Board of Elections didn’t actually have the authority to agree to the legal settlement because it changed state law, something only the legislature should be able to do.
Trump’s campaign, the N.C. Republican Party, the national Republican senatorial and congressional committees also sued in federal court with the same arguments, showing North Carolina was at the tip of a national Republican spear seeking a way around the limitations of state courts.
Both sets of cases got up to the U.S. Supreme Court, which declined to take them up. This time, another Trump appointee, Justice Neil Gorsuch, indicated he was interested in the independent state legislature theory.
Then, the 2020 votes were in, and it slowly became clear Joe Biden won the election.
But the theory did not vanish.
Instead, Republican attorneys general from 18 states tried to use it to block certification of the presidential election, feeding into lies from Trump that the election had been stolen. Even after Trump’s insurrectionists raided the Capitol, 147 Republican members of Congress voted to overturn the election results on the ungrounded claims that nonlegislative changes could have introduced the opportunity for fraud.
Moore and Berger try again
The fight over redistricting gave Moore and Berger another shot at pushing the independent state legislature doctrine to the U.S. Supreme Court.
Back in November, the North Carolina legislature passed political maps along a party-line vote for state Senate, state House and U.S. congressional districts.
After three months of back-and-forth in state courts, in February the N.C. Supreme Court set new rules limiting partisan gerrymandering, and a three-judge trial court panel accepted the legislature’s redrawn state maps but rejected its congressional maps. To prevent the primaries from being delayed again, those three judges drew temporary maps only to be used this year and told the legislature to try again in 2023.
Moore and Berger disagreed with the ruling.
“Let me be clear: This court has effectively taken a hammer to our state constitution and the rule of law, and I will appeal this ruling with respect to the congressional map immediately on behalf of the voters,” Moore said in a statement after the trial court ruling.
In the past, it hasn’t always been Democrats who appealed maps they disliked to the courts.
In 2001, Republicans brought a state lawsuit called Stephenson that argued Democrats had gerrymandered state legislative seats in their favor. The Republicans won. Democrats tried to redraw the maps, but in 2003, a trial court ruled the new maps were not acceptable and redrew its own maps. Republicans did not appeal that decision.
But Moore and Berger did appeal this year’s trial court redraw of the Republican congressional map. The state Supreme Court rejected that appeal, indicating the lower court decision did not violate the state constitution. Once again, Moore and Berger had one option: try to get to the U.S. Supreme Court.
“Politicians and lawyers are opportunistic; they take advantage of the arguments that are in front of them,” Shapiro said.
Once again, the independent state legislature gave Moore and Berger a federal hook. They asked the U.S. Supreme Court to block the state decision on the grounds that redistricting is a “manner” of federal elections that state courts cannot review.
Once again, they were joined by the N.C. Republican Party and the National Republican Congressional Committee, with the Republican National Committee and the National Republican Redistricting Trust joining the fray.
Three conservative justices, Samuel Alito, Gorsuch and Clarence Thomas, said the court should grant the stay. It wasn’t enough. A fourth, Kavanaugh, said the argument deserved review but not on an emergency basis.
Four justices are how many it takes for the U.S. Supreme Court to accept a case, so Moore and Berger then filed a petition for the court to take up the case and get full written and oral briefings.
Per the court’s procedure, it will likely announce whether it will take up the case sometime in May.
“It’s a good thing to have this decided on the merits in a full with full opportunity for briefing and amicus briefs and for the new scholarship to be brought to the attention of the court,” Shapiro said.
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https://indyweek.com/culture/art/helen-frankenthaler-nasher/
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Helen Frankenthaler working on “Venice II” (1969-72) with Bill Goldston at Universal Limited ArtEditions (ULAE), West Islip, NY, March 1972 | Helen Frankenthaler Foundation Archives, New York
Helen Frankenthaler: Un Poco Más (A Little More) | Through Sunday, Aug. 28
The Nasher Museum of Art, Durham
Walking into the Nasher’s latest exhibition is like walking into a printmaking studio in the throes of production. In the foyer, you’re immediately met with three large black-and-white vinyl photos of the abstract expressionist Helen Frankenthaler.
The minimal triptych presents the artist at three distinct stages in her career, captured from contrasting vantage points—smearing paint with a scalpel knife, surveying proofs of the exhibition’s title print, and in consultation with a printmaker.
These photos present her not as she is known in the cultural eye—posed, for instance, in Gordon Parks’s famous Life magazine photo series, on top of her enormous stained canvases—but as an artist consumed in the process.
“A lot of photographs of her made her look very decorative,” says co-curator Alana Hyman. “And so I had the idea to put these large, really colossal photographs of her looking much more active and much more engaged with her art rather than as this decorative, passive art piece herself.”
Helen Frankenthaler: Un Poco Más (A Little More), which opened February 12, collects six prints and eight proofs made over five decades of printmaking, including the title print, “Un Poco Más,” which is displayed alongside five working proofs and a color trial proof.
Un Poco Más was co-curated by four Duke undergraduates—Claire Hutchinson, Alana Hyman, Tristan Kelleher, and Andrew Witte—for the Curatorial Practicum: Exhibition Development and Design course taught by Ellen C. Raimond, assistant curator of academic initiatives at the Nasher Museum. The works are grouped by curatorial theme: the title lithograph and its proofs; sculptural prints; prints inspired by Japanese motifs; an early screenprint; a lithograph that recalls Frankenthaler’s soak-stain paintings; and prints featuring etching and aquatint. Donated by the Helen Frankenthaler Foundation in 2019, they represent a broad range of printmaking techniques, studios, and working relationships with different printmakers.
“She was known as a painter, but she collaborated with ceramicists, sculptors, people in metalworking, and also printmakers,” says Hutchinson. “And in each of those different mediums, she kind of pushed to do something new. With printmaking, she sought out working with experimental printmakers who were doing really new things in the field.”
Helen Frankenthaler, "Weeping Crabapple | Photo courtesy of the Nasher Museum of Art
The mid-20th-century printmaking renaissance came at a perfect time for Frankenthaler, who was born in 1928. She’d played a critical role in the second wave of color field painting, pioneering a new “soak-stain” technique, in which she applied aquatint and house paint, then allowed it to soak or drip according to how she manipulated the canvas.
Her early prints—the screenprint “Untitled” (1967) and the lithograph “Altitudes” (1978)—highlight a transitional period in which she relied on a similar technique to create pools of color or soak more or less opaque splotches of ink into a print’s surface.
But in “Ganymede,” also from 1978, there is evidence of increased experimentation. Using etching and aquatint, she and the printmaker produce jagged, intersecting planes of line and color. These same gestural techniques recur in “Tout-à-coup” (All-at-Once), a large earth-toned print from 1987, marked by translucent streaks that stand out like hot scalds on a baking sheet.
She worked using a system of trial and error, a process clearly mapped out in the working proofs for “Un Poco Más.” In one proof, painted scraps of notebook paper are pasted on; in another, scraps of test prints show her alterations in tone and placement of secondary hues.
“She hasn’t even added in the other colors yet,” says Witte, gesturing at an initial proof. “She’s just seeing, how is this white going to appear on the black background? And you can see”—he points to the next proof—“she’s thinking, okay, I want color here; these three spots right here.”
On the far wall are two sculptural pieces made at two different studios: “Bay Area Wednesday I” (1982) and “Guadalupe” (1989). The former is a monotype; its central feature was made using a hydraulic press—a kind of crater with varying coloration around the edges and base, as you might see on a topographical map.
The latter was done using Luis Remba’s trademarked Mixografia process, unique to his studio. By pressing paper pulp into a copper mold, he and Frankenthaler were able to manipulate the surface of a print, adding three-dimensional relief, gashes, and textures. In printmaking, says Kelleher, Frankenthaler found a medium that not only was collaborative but also constituted a more indirect engagement with materials and surfaces.
“With printmaking, there’s another level of separation, which is a lot different than the singular artist working on this singular canvas where they’re directly touching it most of the time,” he says.
On the far left wall are two works that represent Frankenthaler’s abiding interest in Japanese motifs. The first, “A Little Zen” (1970), is a minimalist print consisting of red and green calligraphic marks and a small pool of blue on an open plane. The last print of her career, “Weeping Crabapple” (2009), made two years before her death, is richly layered, requiring the use of over 30 woodblocks to render different marks and patterns.
Frankenthaler conceived of her printmaking process as a conversation, says Hyman: “You talk to the work; the work talks to you.” With Un Poco Más, Frankenthaler’s prints are given a stage. A rapturous dialogue ensues.
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Margaret Szewcyzk | Photo by Brett Villena
Chef Chick’s Bakery | 2500 Meridian Pkwy Suite 135, Durham | Opening summer 2022
Stepping into Margaret Szewczyk’s kitchen, the unmistakable smell of pastry and baked butter hangs in the air. A hint of sweetness follows—sugar and apricot. All of a sudden, the baker’s townhouse feels like home.
The warm smell of bread and baked goods has followed Szewczyk around since she was a child. She’s not sure when she started baking, but it’s something she’s done “forever,” Szewczyk says. She has fond memories of sitting in her grandmother’s house in Poland, talking to her babcia as she shuffled around the kitchen.
“Even now when I bake, I feel her with me,” Szewczyk says. Her grandmother never wrote her recipes down, but the secrets behind her traditional Polish dishes were passed down to Szewczyk’s father, who then passed them to Szewczyk. This year, the Cary local is finally pursuing her vision of opening her own bakery.
“[Baking] is not what I went to school for … but it’s always been my passion,” Szewczyk says. “I figured when I retired, I’d open a bakery. I just decided not to wait anymore. It was something I would regret forever if I didn’t try it.”
Later this summer, Szewczyk will open the doors to Chef Chick’s Bakery, off Durham’s Meridian Parkway. And as she waits for equipment to be delivered and construction to finish on her storefront, she plans to bake treats at home for delivery around the Triangle. (Interested parties can order through the Toast tab on her website.)
The bakery’s name is a play on her last name. People are often stymied by “Szewczyk,” with its tricky z’s and w’s. When asked how to pronounce it, she always explains it the same way: “Imagine a ‘chef’ and a ‘chick,’ like a girl cook.”
Szewczyk’s is from Gdańsk, Poland, where she also spent her childhood. In 1983, at age seven, Szewczyk immigrated to the United States with her parents, who settled down in North Carolina.
Until the coronavirus pandemic hit, Szewczyk made frequent trips to Europe to see her extended family. Now that it’s difficult to visit, she says, baking things like mazurek, her favorite Easter dessert—a kind of large shortbread topped with chocolate and walnuts—makes her feel a little closer to home.
That’s the feeling she wants to offer people through her food, Szewczyk says. A feeling of comfort and belonging in a place that might otherwise feel strange. People don’t come to North Carolina just from California and New York but also from eastern European countries like Romania, Hungary, and Croatia.
Szewczyk, who has heard stories from her parents about how tough it was settling down in the United States, wants to offer what support she can for the eastern European community in the Triangle. Eastern European food isn’t easy to come by in the Triangle—specialty goods like kolaszcki, kielbasa, and pierogis often require a drive up North, especially since longstanding Durham institution Halgo European Deli & Groceries closed in 2020. Szewczyk wants the bakery to be a place for people who may not feel like they have one, she says.
“My parents really struggled when they first came here. It was very hard for them,” Szewczyk says. “I’d like [the bakery] to be a place where people can come and feel comfortable and feel welcome … and maybe you’ll find a food that reminds you of home or reminds you of something from your childhood, that brings back warm memories. That’s the feeling we want to create.”
Szewczyk also wants to give people who have never traveled to Europe an authentic taste of the continent’s food and culture.
“We really want it to be an immersive experience, where you walk in and you feel like you’ve been transported,” she says. “I’m hanging curtains like the ones my grandmother had. They get made over in Poland, I’ve never seen them here. My dad is making the cabinets, the bread displays. The floor is gonna look like what it looks like in Europe.”
Szewczyk plans to feature baked goods from a different country each month—treats like Welsh cakes, Swedish cardamom buns, and financiers, small French almond cakes that look almost like bars of gold, she says.
Szewczyk is also buying magazines from abroad for people to browse. She plans to put a map on the wall where people can show where they or their families are from. She hasn’t finalized all the details yet but says she’s brimming with ideas about how to help create and support a multicultural community.
For now, though, the baker is operating out of her home, from a renovated kitchen that is a culinary dream come true. Granite countertops, a bread oven, and a gas range create a clean, professional space where the baker can whip up everything from pączki, the Polish version of donuts, to kołaczki, a kind of cookie made from cream cheese and butter, often filled with jam and topped with powdered sugar.
Szewczyk’s kołaczki are a soft bite of sweetness, the dough tangy with a slightly sour undertone from the cream cheese. She’s filled some with homemade apricot jam, some with Ferrero Rocher chocolate, and some with black currant jam. It’s one of her favorite fruits: a small berry often used dried in scones and other English pastries.
In the Szewczyk family, food is a love language. Whenever she went to Poland, her grandparents would “pile on food,” she says. “They would cook enough for an entire army.”
Szewczyk’s got that gene too. Whenever someone comes to her house, her first instinct is to feed them. Now, as she starts her own bakery, she’s hoping to feed an entire community.
“My grandmother’s cooking always made me feel better, no matter what was going on,” Szewczyk says. “I think it’s possible to make people feel better through food.”
Support independent local journalism. Join the INDY Press Club to help us keep fearless watchdog reporting and essential arts and culture coverage viable in the Triangle.
Comment on this story at backtalk@indyweek.com.
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https://indyweek.com/music/features/kate-rhudy-dream-rooms/
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Kate Rhudy | Photo by Brett Villena
Dream Rooms release show | Friday, Apr. 22, 6 p.m., $20 | Rose Garden, Raleigh
One afternoon in 2017, the singer-songwriter Kate Rhudy met Mipso’s Joseph Terrell for lunch at Jade Palace, a decorating book called Dream Rooms for Real People in tow. Earlier that day, Rhudy—who’d just released her debut album, Rock N’ Roll Ain’t for Me—had picked it up while wandering around a Carrboro thrift store; she liked its photos of plush eighties carpeted bathrooms. Glancing at it, Terrell told her, “You should name your next album that.”
Thus was born Dream Rooms, Rhudy’s sophomore album. It’s an apt name for an intimate, intricate album full of jewel-like songs—folk, but with irresistible hooks and crisp pop production—that feel like worlds in and of themselves. Listening has the effect of drifting from room to room at a party, glass of wine in hand, catching snatches of emotional conversation.
It’s also an album that Rhudy had to put a pin in for several years: one song, “Janie Doe,” was written almost eight years ago, and most of the rest were written around 2019, pre-pandemic, before both of Rhudy’s main worlds—the service industry and the music scene—were thrown for a loop.
“I sat on this record for quite a little bit, thinking I was gonna send it out and shop it around,” says Rhudy, 26, sitting at downtown Raleigh’s Person Street Bar, where she also works. “But it didn’t seem like something that was viable in the industry the way it is right now, with everybody trying to get back to the way it was.”
Rhudy chose to forge ahead on her own and self-released Dream Rooms on April 8; on April 22, she’ll ring it in with a release show at Raleigh’s Rose Gardens.
To make it, she hired a band comprising Josh Oliver, Clint Mullican, Andrew Marlin, and Joe Westerlund; Marlin (one-half of the band Watchhouse) produced the album. Most songs, she says, were written over the span of two meaningful relationships that followed each other so closely that she anticipated having to emotionally “pay for” the sequence.
“You want to feel all your feelings at the rate that your heart wants to feel them,” Rhudy says. “But I was still very cognizant that I was maybe moving on too fast and not actually going through that grieving period of a relationship. I think I ended up doing that like halfway into that next relationship.”
“To the Nines,” a balladic song about trying to muster a going-out spirit after a breakup, is a perfect snapshot of that specific mixed mourning period. It’s a savvily executed two-minute song, beginning with the deadpan “I’m not having fun at this party / Wishing I’d stay at home / I could ask the man in the corner / He’s picking my brain all night long,” which then leads into the aching zinger: “Found better things to do with my hands / Now that you don’t hold them / You don’t hold them anymore / … Ain’t it awful always wanting more.”
Specificity is a boon and Rhudy’s songwriting is especially resonant for its witty, openhearted precision. Listening, I was reminded, at once, of singer-songwriter kindred spirits like Waxahatchee and Tift Merritt but also of the confident confessionals of pop-country stars like Maren Morris and Kacey Musgraves. Rhudy has the shine of a rising star who could mix credibly, and comfortably, with any of the above.
“She’s really fearless as a songwriter,” says Mipso member Libby Rodenbough, a close friend and collaborator of Rhudy. “There’s this perception that writing about your own life in a raw, direct way, is immature or cliché or something. But the more that I do it, and the more that I continue to listen to music, I realize that it can be wonderful to write in more abstract ways—but it’s also a lot safer. [Rhudy] has no fear about being extremely personal or being embarrassed. To me, that’s essential to doing a creative career.”
Rhudy was born in Raleigh and grew up in a music-playing family; she trained in classical violin and learned fiddle tunes at conventions in southwest Virginia. At Appalachian State University, where she began a music therapy degree, she started playing music more seriously, taking a brief Nashville detour for a semester, before dropping out her junior year and returning to Raleigh.
Here, she began waitressing and writing more songs. She carries a notepad around on shifts, she says, in case anything good comes to her at work. (For example, the line “I spent all my tips on a blouse I just stained / Another thing I have to explain” from “To the Nines.”) In Raleigh, she’s found kinship with musicians like Marlin and Emily Frantz of Watchhouse (with whom she has toured twice) and Rodenbough, with whom Rhudy says she shares a mutual “friend tab for musical favors.”
“I really like being home—I don’t know if I’ll ever move from Raleigh,” Rhudy says. “It felt really cool to have a job and go to work at like seven in the morning every day—that’s when I worked at a breakfast place. I had all this time in the afternoons for gigging.”
In 2017, just shy of her 22nd birthday, she released Rock N’ Roll Ain’t for Me, an album with stronger Americana overtones than Dream Rooms and maybe a bit more country fang. Lead single “I Don’t Like You or Your Band” contains the perfect breakup burn: “Your cigarettes, your leather shoes, you, your friends, and your white boy blues / You’ve become something I can’t stand.” (I’d quote fewer lyrics, but they’re all just too good.)
If Rock N’ Roll showed one spirited side of the relationship coin, Dream Rooms flips to show the other.
“My first album had a definite ‘fuck you’ to it,” Rhudy says. “I rationalized it by saying, ‘that’s how dramatic you felt in that moment—you deserve to honor how dramatic and angry and hurt you felt.’ But this one’s more about my part in all those situations.”
Dream Rooms is a touch softer and more self-reflective than the debut, but, now a few years removed from its source material, it’s also a bittersweet slant toward the sweetness that romance can offer, even when fraught. It sounds, in other words, a lot like love.
“I’ve been in love a few times,” Rhudy says. “But it’s never been the same feeling twice.”
Support independent local journalism. Join the INDY Press Club to help us keep fearless watchdog reporting and essential arts and culture coverage viable in the Triangle.
Follow Arts & Culture Editor Sarah Edwards on Twitter or send an email to sedwards@indyweek.com.
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https://indyweek.com/music/features/triangle-first-django-haskins-afraid-of-love/
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For years, the versatile singer-songwriter Django Haskins—also known for his work fronting The Old Ceremony—has been playing "Afraid of Love" at his sets; until recently, though, the song never made it onto any of his albums. (Which are many: Just this spring alone, he's released both Beforetimes 1 and Beforetimes 2; you can read the INDY review of the former here.)
"Afraid of Love," from Beforetimes 2, now premieres on the INDY website today. It's a slow, reassuring affirmation of the pursuit of romance—the kind of song you might expect to encounter in a Gene Kelly movie from the 1940s—with Skylar Gudasz joining in, for part of the song, for a duet.
I wrote it as a kind of love letter to the jazz standards I grew up on," Haskins says, "but also from an earnest place, saying to myself that I needed to realize that fear of fulfillment (and of losing it)—it's something that can define your life if you're not careful. When I play it live, I usually whistle an improvised solo (just for lack of extra hands), but on the recording, I thought a jazz banjo solo brought in a suitably off-kilter texture."
Listen to "Afraid of Love" below.
Support independent local journalism. Join the INDY Press Club to help us keep fearless watchdog reporting and essential arts and culture coverage viable in the Triangle.
Follow Arts & Culture Editor Sarah Edwards on Twitter or send an email to sedwards@indyweek.com.
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https://indyweek.com/news/Letters-to-the-Editor/backtalk-gentrification-PR-firm/
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a group of Wake County residents from the housing justice coalition ONE Wake who are putting pressure on the Wake County Board of Commissioners to provide some sort of property tax relief as the Triangle becomes increasingly unaffordable for renters and longtime homeowners. Reader Iain Burnett has some thoughts on these efforts:
Gentrification needs to hire a PR firm. It’s not a bad thing. It’s the reason the world has the population distribution it does now—for millennia have-lesses and have-mores competed over desirable patches of land, and generally the former had to move on and accept a slightly-less-desirable patch of land. Thankfully, the driving force is dollars now instead of swords and arrows. The desire for cheap farm land was what brought American settlers west of the Appalachians. Over time, their efforts created desirable patches of land for the cycle to repeat—look up best places to live Midwest or mountain west or west coast and you’ll find cities and towns aplenty that were once edge of the map, amenity-free census tracts.
Lately though, the youngest child of NIMBYism is baring its teeth here in Raleigh. It happened in California in the 1970s, when an aging population got legislation passed to forever limit property tax raises to 2% and to create excessive barriers to property development. It essentially said, those who are here now are locked in as winners; those yet to come, tough luck. In many measures it is what’s responsible for the housing crisis out there, as lone retirees can afford to hold onto their million dollar family-sized houses on a fixed income (which by the way, condemns public services who depend on taxes to a bankrupt future). Now I see an effort to propose property tax relief for longtime residents in Raleigh (woe to those who haven’t lived here “long enough” to qualify). No good comes from distorting the housing market like that. Yes, some people with limited incomes who’ve seen their neighborhood appreciate greatly will find the most economical decision is to move away to where land is cheaper. But by doing so, they open up a property by the schools, the jobs, and the parks for the next person to move in. Those jobs and great schools here that are attracting the influx? They aren’t going anywhere. When the housing stock is made artificially static, all that happens is the inbound people live farther away, commute more, and don’t get to have what previous generations had that made the community a desirable place to live. It encourages developers, who by previous NIMBY legislation have been locked out from making townhouses and secondary dwelling units, to instead build housing farms along highway corridors, further locking us into a car-dependent life.
I looked up ONE Wake’s proposed legislation, and it amounts to a 1cent/$100 property value tax. For a $500,000 property, that is $50 annually from people who can afford to live here, to subsidize people who cannot but get to anyways. The size of the tax doesn’t bother me—it’s the idea that our money will be used to break the natural housing cycle and condemn Raleigh to a future that can only mean sprawl and artificially chosen winners and losers. Let’s not stack a new problem onto the already existing problems around housing and transportation.
Support independent local journalism. Join the INDY Press Club to help us keep fearless watchdog reporting and essential arts and culture coverage viable in the Triangle.
Comment on this story at backtalk@indyweek.com.
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https://indyweek.com/news/durham/hayti-reborn-update-council-41322/
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Fayette Place in Durham's Hayti district | Photo by D.L. Anderson
Earlier this year, the Durham Housing Authority (DHA) rejected a visionary plan to develop a residential, educational, and commercial hub near downtown Durham known as Hayti Reborn. Last week, the director of the group behind that effort asked the Durham City Council to allow the community to weigh in on the development of Fayette Place, a 20-acre swath of long-vacant land in the southern shadow of the downtown district.
“Since [the] Durham Housing Authority plans to enter into a 99-year land lease with a development partner, what happens on this project will impact the Hayti community for the next century,” Henry McKoy, the director of Hayti Reborn, wrote in an email last week to Durham’s city council on behalf of the Hayti Reborn Community Action Council (HRCAC).
McKoy wrote that the council is “peacefully asking” Mayor Elaine O’Neal and her fellow council members to intervene “in the matter of Fayette Place and agree to support Hayti Reborn’s request for a public hearing (‘Public Healing’) on this matter—and host this event in full view of the public.”
The HRCAC email also asked the council members to “issue a city injunction on Fayette Place by asking the DHA to immediately cease and desist any and all current negotiations with any organization on Fayette Place’s development until this matter is fully settled through a public hearing.”
McKoy also asked the city council to make room for a diverse Durham public to be allowed time and space to offer feedback to its members following a public hearing on “competing Fayette Place visions.”
McKoy states in the email that the city’s elected leaders and city manager have a vested interest in the development of Fayette Place, per a 2017 contract between the City of Durham and DHA, along with the nonprofit Development Ventures Incorporated (DVI), when the federal housing agency repurchased the property.
McKoy notes that one of the provisions of the contract states that “DVI shall not develop, sell, convey or otherwise transfer the Site, or any part thereof or interest therein, without the prior written consent of the City Manager or his/her designee.”
McKoy told the city council that its action, or inaction, will impact the next five generations of Black Durham residents and determine “whether the next century will be spent re-creating wealth in Durham’s Black community or re-extracting wealth from Durham’s Black community.”
O’Neal told the INDY that the council did not discuss McKoy’s email during its work session on Thursday.
More than a half century has passed since a dramatically misnamed federal urban renewal effort during the 1960s and early 1970s destroyed 4,000 homes and 500 businesses in the neighborhood to make room for construction of Highway 147.
Last year, during the nation’s inaugural Juneteenth celebration, McKoy’s vision for the Fayetteville Street Corridor deeply resonated with stakeholders in the neighborhood who are concerned about the growing specter of gentrification, issues of equity, and whether the community will retain its historical character.
McKoy is also director of entrepreneurship at North Carolina Central University’s business school. He said that Hayti Reborn’s proposal wasn’t even given a seat at the table.
McKoy, in a 13-page appeal last month to DHA’s decision, and in the email this week to the city council, says that “out of the 10 developer proposals, Hayti Reborn was the ONLY team not allowed to present its plan through interview with the DHA Review Committee prior to their selection.”
“In our naive state, Hayti Reborn never anticipated that a local, minority and community-led team, based in the community with the project, and whom had over 50 individuals and organizations offer letters or signatures of support for the project, would be denied an interview at least, even if it was just for show,” McKoy states more broadly in the appeal. “These associated individuals, some of whom were actually part of the families whose homes and businesses were displaced when the Durham Redevelopment Commission led the way for the Durham Freeway to come through their homes. This project is for them.”
Hayti Reborn’s email to the city council is the group’s latest effort to resurrect the plan to revitalize the Hayti district with a 2,000-acre development with Fayette Place as the hub. That dream was deferred in January, when the DHA announced that it had chosen two developers, Durham Development Partners and the Atlanta-based Integral Group, LLC, for the $470 million construction of residential units across three downtown locations: Fayette Place in the Hayti district, Forest Hills Heights, and the county-owned land surrounding the current DHA offices.
On February 4, Hayti Reborn filed a protest letter that said DHA’s approach to redevelop Hayti will only reinforce the gentrification already taking place throughout the district.
On March 4, in response to the protest letter, DHA CEO Anthony Scott emailed and snail-mailed McKoy a five-page letter that outlined the procedural history of the developer selection process that included establishing a committee to review the development proposals.
Scott says that Hayti Reborn was among the four finalists, but the Black-led developer received “the lowest aggregate score, by a substantial margin, among the four respondents,” he wrote.
While knocking down Hayti Reborn’s protest as being “without merit,” Scott wrote that DHA had not violated federal policy with regard to community input, equity, land use, or due process with its selection of developers for its affordable housing project.
He added that Hayti Reborn “did not demonstrate a sufficient level of experience in relation to the objectives” mandated in the DHA’s request for development proposals.
“Given the magnitude of the award, it was not a ‘serious violation of principles’ of [DHA policies] to value a respondent’s financial capacity and prior experience to deliver its proposal as important criteria for award in this case,” Scott wrote.
McKoy, in the appeal letter, challenged Scott’s assertion that Hayti Reborn is unqualified to complete the Fayette Place project.
The Hayti Reborn team, McKoy wrote in the March 11 appeal, “is comprised of some of the leading real estate development professionals in Durham, the Triangle region, the nation and arguably the world (several of our team members have a global footprint) and have worked on some of the most renowned and acclaimed projects. So, which of these team members, specifically, was deemed unqualified or lacking qualification?”
McKoy added that the Hayti Reborn team includes Winn Companies, “the largest developer and manager of affordable housing in the United States of America.”
As for Scott’s assertion that Hayti Reborn is lacking in “financial capacity,” McKoy says the group’s lead financier, PNC Bank, was chosen “after a competitive bidding process where banks sought to offer financing to the Hayti Reborn vision of Fayette Place,” along with Partners in Equity, “a Durham-based and Black-founded and led entity that is the leading firm of its kind in North Carolina and likely the United States.”
McKoy admits that Hayti Reborn likely faced a greater challenge than the other proposals submitted by the developers.
“Hayti Reborn was proposing that its project on Fayette Place have the economic benefit accrue primarily to DHA and the local low income and historic community,” McKoy wrote. “This meant that we had a unique structure to our proposal.”
McKoy also questioned whether his status as “organizational leader of Hayti Reborn both made it unqualified and nullified any impact of the additional team members?”
The NCCU entrepreneurial scholar noted that he has over 25 years’ experience in community economic development working as a banker, in the energy industry, and as a state government official who worked “with DHA’s primary funder—HUD [the Department of Housing and Urban Development]—with over $1.5 billion in funding including for economic and affordable housing development.”
McKoy questioned whether DHA and DVI were qualified to be co-developers of the downtown affordable housing projects. He says DHA’s development experience and financial capacity came into question following a recovery agreement it reached last month with HUD that shows the local housing authority “scored a failing assessment.”
McKoy reminded the city council of previous city leaders’ decades-old deferred promise to rebuild the Black community, which led to its destruction, and how the $4 million the city gave to DHA in 2017 to repurchase Fayette Place is taxpayers’ money.
“The Durham Housing Authority has stated that the community-generated vision for the Fayette Place site was not worth listening to and consideration, and therefore they were justified in their singling out of Hayti Reborn’s plan for dismissal,” McKoy wrote to the council.
He noted that a number of HRCAC members “were actually in households that were razed by the Durham Redevelopment Commission [that] was formed in 1958 to drive urban renewal through Black Durham.”
“After 64 years, don’t these 70-plus and 80-plus year-old elders deserve to have their voices heard? FINALLY? By someone?” McKoy wrote. “Don’t other members of our Hayti Community Action Council—those currently living in crumbling and dilapidated public housing—with their children and families, deserve to have their voices heard? FINALLY? By someone?”
It’s not clear whether the city council will answer the call.
Support independent local journalism. Join the INDY Press Club to help us keep fearless watchdog reporting and essential arts and culture coverage viable in the Triangle.
Follow Durham Staff Writer Thomasi McDonald on Twitter or send an email to tmcdonald@indyweek.com.
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https://indyweek.com/news/ninth-street-journal/teardowns-durham-facebook-group-housing/
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The South Bank building downtown is among many Durham buildings undergoing demolition to make way for new construction. | Photo by Milena Ozernova/9th Street Journal
Addy Cozart’s first post to The Teardowns of Durham Facebook group features a series of emoji: angry, sad, crying.
“My block @ Hillsborough and Rutherford has been sold,” the February 21 post says. “Final day to move out March 4th. The buyers are developers. I’m assuming more apartments will go up …”
The comments came rolling in, mostly sympathetic, some angry and indignant.
Cozart’s is just one of the emotional posts that litter the walls of The Teardowns of Durham, an open Facebook group that focuses on pictures and information relevant to Durham’s changing housing landscape.
This is a place of solidarity: with over 3,500 members and counting, the group includes posts about hundreds of buildings that have been torn down, housing justice activism, and new, expensive housing in the area. Though the active member count is much smaller, the Facebook group is public for a reason: it’s a place for free information. And with about 50 posts per month in the group, and many more comments on each, there’s much to be informed about.
The Teardowns of Durham is partly just what it sounds like—a Facebook group about buildings that have been or are being torn down. But it has also become a forum where locals discuss how Durham is changing and shifting, where new developments are coming, and which buildings they once recognized are coming down.
The active discussion reflects Durham’s housing crisis: in the first three months of 2021, about 2,400 homes were sold in Raleigh and Durham. Of those, more than half were bought either by people from out of state or by companies, according to a report from the Triangle Business Journal. According to WRAL, 20 percent of homes in Durham were purchased by investors in the fourth quarter of 2021, up from 11 percent in the second quarter of 2020.
Durham housing prices and property taxes also have increased, making it harder for newcomers to buy and for residents to stay. Meanwhile, though Durham has made efforts to create rent relief programs, the demand for housing remains high, and housing stocks are low.
The Facebook group began as a way to exchange information among a small group of Durham friends and colleagues. It has now ballooned to include thousands of members, from Duke students to Durhamites who have been here since childhood.
There’s a catharsis that runs through each post about a demolished Durham building—a need to tell someone about the frustration of losing a property. A recent post by David Becker is typical of many.
“Big beautiful place on the corner of Gregson and Club was there yesterday when I drove by. This morning … gone,” Becker writes. Much of the frustration aired on the Facebook group reflects worries about losing Durham’s personality, including historic buildings that are dispersed throughout the city. Durham has 15 historic neighborhoods that are listed as National Register Historic Districts. In addition to the Facebook group, other activists and preservationist groups include Open Durham, Historic Preservation Society of Durham, and Preservation Durham.
Frequent poster Chris Jay notes that a homeowner refurbished an old home to make it a “weekend getaway” out in Narrowsburg, New York.
“Imagine if all the old homes in Durham that are getting torn down were revitalized and brought back to life to their original classic design, including decor,” Jay says. “That’s what this woman did!”
Another commenter echoes Jay’s sentiment.
“I’m sad we are losing so much of Durham’s history,” the post says. “When someone’s lived here all their life, the changes seem so overwhelming … not always a good thing.”
Some posters on the Facebook group push back, arguing that romanticizing old houses will not make Durham more affordable and will not stop gentrification.
The posts that consistently get substantial interactions, though? Questions. Many users in the Facebook group wonder what is happening to Durham’s warehouse district, around the corner from Fullsteam Brewery and the Accordion Club, where commercial buildings are being torn down on Geer Street. Another poster supplies a partial answer, responding that a Washington, DC, developer plans to create two large apartment complexes called GeerHouse.
One user laments the teardown of one home replaced by four modern tiny homes on Pritchard Place, near North Carolina Central University. Another user shares a tip: she heard that a century-old Pentecostal church in West Durham is being sold. Responses flood in. The overtone of the conversation: Will the church be torn down?
Concerned Durhamites started the Teardowns of Durham Facebook group in May 2019, when the pace of construction and demolition around Durham was ramping up in neighborhoods including Trinity Park, Braggtown, Watts-Hillandale, Campus Hills, and more.
In part, the group fills an information gap. Local journalism has been declining in most places in the country, including in Durham, and there are fewer local news sources to keep Durhamites informed about their changing city.
That is a major reason why Ellen Dagenhart, who previously served as president of the Historic Preservation Society of Durham, joined the Facebook group in September 2019.
“The few remaining reporters just can’t be at every meeting where so much of the sausage is brought up and made,” she said. “There’s an awful lot of mischief happening that is under the radar now. Teardowns is filling a void, a need, for a place where people can share, learn, question, vent.”
Bonita Green was born and raised in Durham. She left Durham for South Florida in 1999, and when she returned in 2012, she didn’t recognize the city she loved. Now, she lives in the Merrick-Moore Community and works with the Merrick-Moore Community Development Organization. Fed up with the rapid development, she has used the Teardowns group to air her frustrations, she said in a recent interview.
“I saw all the development in my community and the acres of land that the city bought on the west side of Durham. So I had a fear of being washed out. I was fighting to protect the legacy of this community,” Green said.
For people like Green, the Facebook group has become more than a place to simply share news and vent. It has also become a site of political organization and mobilization. There are almost as many petitions in the group as pictures of bulldozed buildings.
Urban planner and Durham resident Nate Baker said the petitions and political activism of the group tell a greater story: they reflect many Durhamites’ desire for control over the housing situation in their city. He believes Durham residents are not necessarily resistant to change, as long as they are included in the process.
“I think people have anxiety about the world changing around them and not really having much of a say in the matter,” Baker said. “There hasn’t been robust community engagement and planning processes to alleviate some people’s concerns over teardowns.”
He says the city could make changes, like building more affordable housing complexes, that would make Durham’s residents feel more empowered.
Dagenhart, the member who joined the Facebook group in 2019, said the Facebook group is also a place where residents can talk about their aspirations for what Durham could be. She recalled the joyous ceremony that took place in 2011, when more than 2,000 citizens took vows to “marry Durham,” promising to protect the city and its reputation and to honor its diversity.
“I think Durham is in need of some marriage counseling,” Dagenhart said.
This story was produced through a partnership between the INDY and 9th Street Journal, which is published by journalism students at Duke University’s DeWitt Wallace Center for Media & Democracy.
Support independent local journalism. Join the INDY Press Club to help us keep fearless watchdog reporting and essential arts and culture coverage viable in the Triangle.
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https://indyweek.com/news/wake/raleigh-senate-showdown/
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Lisa Grafstein (left) and Patrick Buffkin| Courtesy photos
The newly drawn state senate District 13, which spans North Raleigh from the inner beltline up to Durant Road, is a mixed bag.
On the west side, it’s a wooded suburban paradise, filled with towering oaks and homes sitting on almost an acre of land. Moving east, however, the neighborhoods get smaller and the streets more urban. Crossing over Capital Boulevard, the area is a working-class neighborhood surrounded by bus stations, discount grocery stores, and auto repair shops.
Here, like everywhere, growth is an encroaching force. Some residents are worried about rising rents, others about new development, and everyone about things getting more expensive.
This is the district up for grabs in November. Solidly liberal—about 64 percent Democrat, according to the Princeton Gerrymandering Project—it’s not so much a question of whether a Democrat will win but of which one.
Next month’s Democratic primary sets Patrick Buffkin, a traditional candidate with local experience, against Lisa Grafstein, a political newcomer with a yen for social justice.
Grafstein, a soft-spoken woman of 55, lives with her partner, Linda, near Millbrook. She didn’t plan on going into politics, but after working as a civil rights lawyer for more than 25 years, she began thinking about how she could make a bigger difference. It was a call from Lillian’s List, which supports progressive female candidates, that spurred her decision, Grafstein tells the INDY.
“My first reaction was ‘Obviously not. Why me?’” Grafstein says. “But then I talked to Linda some and thought, well, why not me? I want to contribute in this way and do some good.”
Buffkin, currently in his third year on the Raleigh City Council, won his seat in 2019 during an upswell of support for the pro-housing, pro-development candidates. He’s since supported the majority’s stance, working to pass the affordable housing bond and raise money for parks with a 1¢ tax increase.
“I’ve focused on challenges facing our community that affect people’s lives every day,” Buffkin says. “My experience has been that … all these issues are bigger than one city and need state-level solutions.”
Unsurprisingly, Buffkin and Grafstein agree on the big touchstones of the Democratic platform. Both think that the legislature should give more money to public schools, specifically by funding the Leandro plan, a $1.7 billion school improvement plan.
Buffkin and Grafstein also promise to fight to expand Medicaid. Grafstein adds the first thing she plans to do if elected is talk to colleagues about improving health care for people with mental illnesses and developmental disabilities.
“[Our behavioral health care] needs funding and leadership. We have to be putting the money in the right places,” Grafstein says. “We spend a lot of money to keep people in institutions and we could be supporting them in the community.”
For Buffkin, a renewable energy and utility lawyer, protecting the environment is a particular point of concern. He emphasizes combating climate change by supporting renewable energy.
“I have a good understanding of what it takes to make our communities resilient against the effects of climate change,” Buffkin says. “Here on the city level, that’s been funding our stormwater utility, changing our development regulations to keep development out of floodplains.”
“My experience on the city council, having to make the tough decisions and experience the trade-offs, distinguishes me [as a candidate],” Buffkin adds. “Often, governing is the difficult task of choosing the least bad option and trying to make progress where you can.”
What does Grafstein stand for?
Grafstein has a focus on economic justice, which covers more than the wealth gap, she says.
“There are two sides to the budget: there’s the cost of things, but there’s also what people are making,” Grafstein says. “Part of what makes housing unaffordable is low wages. Part of what it makes dramatically difficult when gas prices go up is that people are making low wages.”
Like most Democrats, she favors raising the minimum wage and wants to “get out of the way of unions.”
“It is a really exciting time right now because of the way the labor market is. Workers just have more power and less fear of being unemployed. So there’s more of an ability to organize,” she says. “From my point of view, unions have been one of the most effective ways of ensuring actual safe working conditions and good wages for people.”
For the first 16 years of her law career, Grafstein fought against workplace discrimination and wage violations. Today, she advocates for the rights of people with disabilities. Having spent her entire professional life fighting for the little guy, Grafstein plans to continue her leadership on social justice. That’s a reassuring prospect, especially in a state like North Carolina where civil rights seem to be continually under attack.
As the U.S. Supreme Court seems poised to overturn Roe v. Wade, Grafstein talks about protecting a woman’s right to have an abortion. She also wants to protect voting rights—creating more access to the polls, giving adequate funding to local electoral boards, and eliminating gerrymandering.
“We need to have nonpartisan redistricting reforms,” she says. “We’re not going to have it until Democrats get more power and force Republicans to think hard about the next census, but, you know, it’s a possibility.”
What does Buffkin stand for?
Where Grafstein is ideological, Buffkin is practical, focused on issues like affordable housing, infrastructure, and public safety.
On the council, Buffkin has been confronted with Raleigh’s rapid growth almost daily for the past two years. His stance on the city’s rising cost of housing is clear—he’s helped invest in affordable housing and reform zoning laws. If elected, Buffkin says, he’ll approach state issues the way he has local issues.
“We’re rolling out the [affordable housing] money in really smart ways and targeted investments. Contrast that with the state level, where funding for the housing trust fund has been reduced over the last several years,” Buffkin says. “A lot of these challenges just need greater resources, greater attention.”
Buffkin plans to give local governments more autonomy and funding. He and Grafstein each talked about stopping the Republican-dominated legislature from phasing out corporate tax and instead put that money to good use.
If elected, Buffkin says he’ll prioritize improving the state’s infrastructure to help water and sewer systems keep up with growing neighborhoods. Addressing climate change is also critical.
“We’ve got to start changing the way we live, work, and do business, so we have less impact on the climate,” Buffkin says. “That means reducing emissions in our electric sector; it means electrifying our transportation; it means rolling out more clean energy.”
Buffkin also wants to look at ways to reduce gun violence and hate crimes. When it comes to gun control, Buffkin says, he supports “smart reforms” like background checks, red flag laws, and crisis intervention for victims of violence.
On the issue of creating a police oversight board, Buffkin says Raleigh’s council did not have the authority to do so when the question last came up. If elected, however, Buffkin plans to vote to give cities more power over such issues. Oversight of policing needs to be part of the conversation, he says.
Ultimately, Buffkin says he wants to get the state legislature moving again. Things like criminal justice reform and health inequities “are solvable problems,” Buffkin says. “It takes resources. It takes careful decision-making, but that’s the kind of approach I want to bring to the state senate.”
Support independent local journalism. Join the INDY Press Club to help us keep fearless watchdog reporting and essential arts and culture coverage viable in the Triangle.
Follow Staff Writer Jasmine Gallup on Twitter or send an email to jgallup@indyweek.com.
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https://indyweek.com/news/durham/you-can-go-home-again-dha-chief-assures-mcdougald-terrace-residents/
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The chief executive officer of the Durham Housing Authority (DHA) said this week that his agency will meet with residents of the city’s oldest public housing complex to discuss its fate and what it could mean for them in the future.
DHA CEO Anthony Scott offered reassurances that a recovery agreement that the agency has reached with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to “reposition” McDougald Terrace and remove it from HUD’s public housing program does not mean its residents will have to find other places to live in an increasingly unaffordable housing market.
Scott on Monday outlined the DHA’s affordable housing plan over the next 20 years during a joint meeting with the Durham city council and members of the DHA board.
Scott said DHA staffers will, in the coming weeks, meet with McDougald Terrace residents to discuss whether the more than 300 units will be renovated or torn down and rebuilt.
Scott added that one of the options under consideration while McDougald Terrace is renovated or demolished will be to temporarily house McDougald Terrace residents at the Lincoln Apartments, a DHA-owned housing complex at Fayetteville Street and Cornwallis Road.
Scott said a preliminary analysis of the mammoth property that was built in 1954 indicates it will cost more than $53 million over the next 20 years to maintain the property, along with $2 million that’s “needed immediately.”
Scott said that with McDougald Terrace needing $53 million for renovations and upkeep over the next two decades—and with three other properties at Oxford Manor, Cornwallis, and Club Boulevard all failing inspections this year—the $15 million that the DHA currently has in capital funding for repairs at all of its properties “will barely make a difference.”
Scott has long maintained that HUD has underfunded public housing authorities across the country by about $70 billion and that it’s “an indication of how bad the problem is with America’s public housing stock.”
“That [$70 billion] figure, by the way, equates to about $70,000 per [housing unit] that public housing authorities should have received, but that the U.S. Congress has chosen not to fund over the years,” the DHA leader told the INDY last month.
“A lot of the issues that I talk about are not just related to Durham,” Scott told city council and DHA board members, city staffers, and members of the public during the virtual meeting. “These are issues that are taking place around the country and at all housing authorities.”
As the INDY previously reported, the DHA entered into a recovery agreement with HUD following a 2018 public housing assessment that rated all of the local housing authority’s properties as “troubled” based on the financial condition of the agency, management, physical inspections, and available capital funding.
Scott said in February and reiterated on Monday that the rating happened before the agency spent $6 million to address brick-and-mortar concerns, with $3.7 million spent on health and safety repairs since the 2020 carbon monoxide crisis.
DHA agreed to submit a redevelopment plan that calls for the “repositioning” of McDougald Terrace by February of next year. If HUD approves the plan, local public housing officials’ options include “substantial renovation” of the property—a so-called “voluntary conversion”—based on a physical needs assessment, according to a two-page letter the DHA made public that outlines the terms of the agreement.
“Relocation will be necessary, phased at best,” DHA officials stated in a letter made public about the recovery agreement.
The other option calls for issuing “tenant protection vouchers” to McDougald Terrace families and demolishing the city’s oldest and largest public housing complex, removing the property altogether from the federal housing program.
“In other words, HUD no longer wants McDougald Terrace in the Public Housing Program, which is not something we disagree with,” Scott told the INDY in an email last month. “The age and funding methodology does not serve a property like McDougald Terrace well. Other programs within the HUD tool box will allow much-needed renovations and/or redevelopment to benefit our residents.”
At the behest of city council member and mayor pro tem Mark-Anthony Middleton, Scott clarified how repositioning McDougald Terrace and removing the property from the public housing program might affect its residents.
Middleton asked Scott to “demystify the process around McDougald Terrace” and clear up the perception that “repositioning is part of a continuum” to move the current residents away from the property and permanently remove it altogether from the federal public housing portfolio “in perpetuity” before selling it to a private developer, or even nearby NC Central University.
Scott said the DHA had always planned to reposition all of DHA properties out of the public housing program, largely because capital support for public housing was “woefully underfunded” over the past three decades in comparison to housing choice vouchers that have been “consistently funded at 90 to 100 percent over the same time period.”
He added that there will always be housing at McDougald Terrace, and its current residents will certainly have a right to return.
Scott explained that one of the likely options that may take place at McDougald Terrace is a Rental Assistance Demonstration (RAD) voluntary program that seeks “to preserve public housing by providing Public Housing Agencies (PHAs) with access to more stable funding to make needed improvements to properties,” per HUD.
The DHA chief said that housing vouchers are based on the rent in a particular area to help determine “what those rents will be and ultimately what your subsidy will be.”
“We’re getting out of the public housing program [but] we’re still going to have 340 units that will be in McDougald Terrace in some capacity,” Scott said.
Middleton pushed for more clarification.
“So what you were paying before this redevelopment occurred, when it’s rebuilt, will you still be able to live there at that level?” the council member asked. “If your income hadn’t changed, provided all the other factors remained the same?”
Scott answered by pointing to the 447 units that will be torn down and replaced as part of the DHA Downtown Neighborhood Plan, and the agency’s commitment to constructing affordable housing that remains in the downtown district and not pushed out to the edge of the county.
“It was important that those units remain downtown because that’s where they’ve always been,” Scott said.
Similarly, Scott said, subsidized rents will remain based on 30 percent of a renter’s income.
“That has always been the case and that will remain the same,” Scott said. “So, rents can’t just go up just because it’s a new building.”
“And one other really critical thing,” he added, “you can’t be re-screened. So, if you are eligible for public housing now, you will be eligible for that unit whenever you come back, or wherever you go to.”
Support independent local journalism. Join the INDY Press Club to help us keep fearless watchdog reporting and essential arts and culture coverage viable in the Triangle.
Follow Durham Staff Writer Thomasi McDonald on Twitter or send an email to tmcdonald@indyweek.com.
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https://indyweek.com/news/northcarolina/covid-19-cases-are-predicted-to-increase-in-nc-wastewater/
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This story originally published online at NC Policy Watch.
Another increase in COVID-19 cases is expected in North Carolina, but it’s predicted to be not as big as the wave of infections that filled hospitals last winter, state health officials told legislators Tuesday.
Susan Gale Perry, state Department of Health and Human Services chief deputy secretary, detailed COVID-19 monitoring and responses for legislator Tuesday, as cases in the northeast United States and Washington DC are rising and the day after Philadelphia announced it is reinstating its mandate for indoor masking.
Last month, DHHS started updating its COVID-19 data dashboard weekly rather than daily, and redesigned it to deemphasize testing. With so much home-testing, the state no longer has complete information on testing and new cases.
North Carolina saw a slight uptick in cases between March 26 and April 2. From March 13-26, about one-third of the COVID-19 variants detected in the state were omicron BA.2, the subvariant behind the rise in cases in the United Kingdom and parts of Asia.
Trends in the United States mirror the United Kingdom, said Dr. Susan Kansagra, chief of the chronic disease and injury section in the state Division of Public Health.
“We can expect to see cases start to increase again,” she said.
In a webinar with reporters last month sponsored by Ethnic Media Services, Dr. John T. Brooks said more than 95 percent of people in the U.S. have COVID-19 antibodies from vaccinations or infections, possibly placing the country in “a slightly better position” than others. Brooks is senior science advisor for the CDC emergency COVID-19 response.
“We will see increases,” he said. “I hope it is not as high or severe as it has been in other places. We would not be surprised if there are regional variations. Some parts of the country may see increases where others do not.”
Perry told legislators that the state has an adequate supply of COVID-19 treatments, although Rep. Hugh Blackwell, a Burke County Republican, said he knew of people who were having trouble getting monoclonal antibody therapy.
North Carolina researchers started monitoring wastewater for COVID-19 in the first year of the pandemic. People who are infected shed the virus in their feces.
Checking COVID-19 levels in municipal wastewater has been elevated to be an early warning indicator in North Carolina, and has been endorsed by the CDC as a community-level COVID tracker.
“Sustained trends over time can give us an early indication of COVID-19 infections in communities,” Brooks said last month.
But wastewater monitoring can’t serve as an early warning sign in communities that use septic systems.
“We don’t have a direct answer to that question,” Brooks said. Cases that start in communities on septic systems would be picked up when infections spread to neighborhoods on municipal wastewater systems, he said.
North Carolina is checking wastewater at about two dozen sites, but there are wide swaths of the state where no such monitoring exists.
Perry said Tuesday that North Carolina considers wastewater monitoring a statewide early detection system, and has other indicators that can fill in the COVID picture.
DHHS counts the percentage of emergency room visits by people with COVID-19 symptoms as the other early indicator. That remained steady at 2 percent from March 26 to April 2.
Support independent local journalism. Join the INDY Press Club to help us keep fearless watchdog reporting and essential arts and culture coverage viable in the Triangle.
Comment on this story at backtalk@indyweek.com.
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https://indyweek.com/news/northcarolina/state-schools-superintendent-largely-ignores-reccomendations-for-parents-advisory-commision/
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This story originally published online at NC Policy Watch.
At the end of March, Every Child NC, a community-led, statewide coalition of organizations, parents, teachers, and students who advocate for every child’s constitutional right to a sound, basic education, sent a letter to state schools Superintendent Catherine Truitt with recommendations that would have strengthened Truitt’s new Parent Advisory Commission. Unfortunately, recent reporting has shown that Truitt ignored these recommendations. As a result, the commission is unlikely to represent the diverse stakeholders who are engaged in North Carolina’s schools.
The coalition’s recommendations sought to make commission membership more accessible and representative. Unfortunately, Truitt ignored the following recommendations:
- Making the application to serve, all subsequent documents, and both the review and selection process available to the public in Spanish, and ensuring language accessibility in all commission meetings, events and reports;
- Removing the requirement that all candidates receive a recommendation from either school personnel or a public figure;
- Ensuring that the commission is designed with an intention to be inclusive of significant and proportional minority representation and to make public the mechanisms by which such representation is achieved;
- Rethinking and reframing the composition of the commission so that public school families are adequately, equitably, and proportionally represented (currently, only one-third of the seats on the commission are guaranteed to parents of traditional public school students even though about 80 percent of children attend a traditional inclusive public school); and
- Opening commission participation to educators and students.
Every Child NC’s concerns were clearly prescient. We learned last week that nearly 80 percent of applications were thrown out for being “incomplete.”
The coalition further recommended that Truitt ensure the commission operates effectively, equitably and transparently by taking the following steps:
- Creating a plan to compensate commission members for their time, travel and childcare, to encourage a more economically diverse commission profile;
- Providing commission members with the technology appropriate to ensure that they may participate in virtual meetings, and for DPI to commit to hold in-person meetings in different regions throughout the state, to provide equity in access for families who would prefer in-person engagement but who cannot participate in extensive travel;
- Releasing the selection rubric used to evaluate applicants, the specific process by which commission members will be selected, and the names of the people responsible both for screening applications and for making final decisions on commission appointments, and being open to suggestions for improvement to the rubric that has been selected;
- Making public the answers of all selected applicants so that all North Carolinians may evaluate for themselves whether the commission represents the state’s ideological diversity;
- Providing a clear statement addressing how changes to commission membership will be handled.
Truitt has released the names of the DPI staffers who will review applications. But Truitt has yet to publicly commit to any of the remaining steps.
Truitt created the commission to “elevate the voice of parents in students’ education.” Her decision to ignore Every Child NC’s recommendations reveals a lamentable preference to elevate the voices of privileged over the voices of the families who have historically been excluded from public education policymaking.
With no selections having yet been made, it’s not too late to start over with a process that incorporates Every Child NC’s recommendations to ensure the commission will truly speak for all of North Carolina’s students.
Support independent local journalism. Join the INDY Press Club to help us keep fearless watchdog reporting and essential arts and culture coverage viable in the Triangle.
Comment on this story at backtalk@indyweek.com.
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https://indyweek.com/news/things-to-do-this-weekend-in-the-triangle-41422/
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It’s not summer yet, which means luckily there’s still a chance to enjoy the outdoors before it’s boiling hot. Learn about Raleigh raptors, take your kids on an Easter egg hunt at the animal park, or sit back and listen to some live music at the Carolina Brewery.
Raptors, owls, and hawks, oh my! If you’re a fan of birds of prey, dive into their world with a 45-minute walking tour of the Piedmont Wildlife Center. The Durham rehabilitation center houses animals who have nowhere else to go and teaches people young and old about wildlife conservation. They’re holding just two more days of pop-up tours: some this Friday and some on May 17. Tickets are $10 per person.
If you’re tired of traditional Easter egg hunts, take your children on a bigger adventure at the Animal Park in Burlington. The park, at the Conservators Center, is holding its annual hunt Saturday and Sunday. Families can roam the lawn looking for candy after a self-guided safari. Tickets are $16 for adults and $12 for children over age 4.
If you want a more relaxed, adult-friendly weekend, sit back with a beer at the Carolina Brewery, where Pittsboro is continuing its summer music series. The brewery is hosting Durham folk band The Pagan Hellcats on Saturday from 5:30-8 p.m. The Durham group is known for easygoing Americana that’s perfect for a warm summer evening.
Check out the INDY's calendar for a full list of events this weekend.
Support independent local journalism. Join the INDY Press Club to help us keep fearless watchdog reporting and essential arts and culture coverage viable in the Triangle.
Follow Staff Writer Jasmine Gallup on Twitter or send an email to jgallup@indyweek.com.
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https://indyweek.com/news/durham/durham-man-charged-in-shootings-killed-wounded-teens/
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Durham police over the week charged a 21-year-old man with a disturbing, end-of-year mass shooting that killed two teens and wounded four juveniles between the ages of 17 and 12.
Members of the Washington, DC Metropolitan Police Department’s Violent Crime Impact Teen took Keon Rayquan Beal into custody on Saturday, according to a Durham police release.
Officers transported Beal back to Durham on Wednesday.
Beal, 21, has been charged with two counts of murder for the shooting deaths of Isaiah Carrington, 19, and Ariuna Cotton, a 15-year-old Hillside student.
Police have also charged Beal with five counts of attempted murder. He has been accused of being responsible for gunfire that wounded three girls, ages 17-, 13-, and 12-, and a 13-year-old boy.
The shootings were a disturbing, macabre ending of a violent year that ended with a record 50 homicides.
It was about 3 a.m. on December 13, when police found the youngsters inside a sports utility vehicle that had crashed into a utility pole near the intersection of Mathison and Eugene streets.
Police have not made public a motive for the shootings.
To paraphrase the writer Ntozake Shange, even during a time when people accept gun violence as casually as morning coffee, the early morning shootings of the children disturbed and angered city and county law enforcement leaders and elected officials.
“We are better than this,” the city’s newly hired and clearly shaken Police Chief Patrice Andrews said at the press conference after offering condolences to the families of the victims.
Standing behind a podium at the downtown police headquarters 12 hours after the shootings, Andrews described the violent crime as a “tragic day for the city and community,” and asked the person or persons responsible for the shootings to put the guns down.
“Durham is better than this,” similarly intoned a distraught Mayor Elaine O’Neal, who had been sworn in one week before. “The Bull City is better than this.”
Brenda Howerton, chair of the Durham Board of County Commissioners, echoed the two new leaders’ sentiments.
“Durham is better than that,” she said
“This is not the Durham that I grew to love and still love today,” Durham County Sheriff Clarence Birkhead said. “We are better than this.”
As previously reported by the INDY, Durham may be better than this, but deadly gun violence has become a troublesome defining feature for the Bull City, and in cities big and small across the anatomy of the American landscape.
As the INDY reported this week, 11 people were shot and four died last week over a 72-hour period—between Thursday afternoon and Saturday night.
According to police statistics, the city's violent death toll so far this year is outpacing last year's record number of 50 homicides.
"According to our Crime Analysis Unit, through April 9 of this year, there have been 14 criminal homicides from 11 cases, one of which was an officer-involved shooting still under investigation," police spokeswoman Kammie Michael told the INDY this week. "During the same period last year, there were nine criminal homicides and one negligent manslaughter—10 total."
Beal is being held at the Durham County jail without benefit of bail, police reported.
Support independent local journalism. Join the INDY Press Club to help us keep fearless watchdog reporting and essential arts and culture coverage viable in the Triangle.
Follow Durham Staff Writer Thomasi McDonald on Twitter or send an email to tmcdonald@indyweek.com.
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https://indyweek.com/news/northcarolina/its-time-to-register-to-vote/
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May 17 isn't the date most people think of when they hear the words "Election Day," but it's still an important time this year to cast your vote.
This spring's primary includes dozens of contenders in both parties for local, state, and federal offices. The Democratic field is particularly crowded, with some young, progressive people of color competing with more traditional, moderate candidates. Cary town elections are also coming up, with voters set to decide the new make-up of the town council and the future of Cary's development.
The official voter registration deadline is 5 p.m. April 22. If you've moved in the last year, you should update your registration online at the DMV website.
If you don't have a valid NC driver's license or ID card, you can also update your registration by delivering a signed voter registration form:
— in-person, to the Wake County Board of Elections office (1200 N. New Hope Road) or any Wake County public library;
— by mail, to the Wake County Board of Elections, P.O. Box 695, Raleigh, NC, 27602;
— by email, to voter@wakegov.com
— by fax, to 919-231-5737.
Early voting for the primary runs from April 28-May 14, seven days a week. Get more information here. You can also vote by mail.
If you're not sure who's running, check out the INDY Week's coverage or download your sample ballot here. You can also find your voter registration information or polling place.
Support independent local journalism. Join the INDY Press Club to help us keep fearless watchdog reporting and essential arts and culture coverage viable in the Triangle.
Follow Staff Writer Jasmine Gallup on Twitter or send an email to jgallup@indyweek.com.
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https://indyweek.com/news/northcarolina/study-north-carolina-smokers-would-quit-cigarettes-for-some-money/
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My friend Braima Moiwai last week returned from a three-month visit to his tiny village home in Sierra Leone, West Africa.
“Yes,” he calmly answered while sitting on my porch before lighting the last cigarette in his box of American Spirits, when asked if he would stop smoking for $7,900. “Just give me the money first."
A couple of days later, Robert Arrington was even more adamant about kicking the habit while standing in line at a West End convenience store.
“I’ll get rid of every pack I got for that kind of money,” Arrington said.
Maybe the nation’s public health officials might consider the billions of dollars saved in smoking-related illnesses and dole out a different kind of stimulus payments that will motivate folk to jump on the no-smoking bandwagon.
A study made public this month found that the average North Carolina smoker said a cash incentive of no less than $7,930 from a federal program would be incentive enough to make them quit cigarettes.
The state’s smokers live where tobacco is king. Some of the nation’s biggest cigarette manufacturers, including R.J. Reynolds, Brown & Williamson, and Lorillard, were founded or are based in North Carolina. Still, the study found that North Carolina’s smokers are willing to stop at a significantly lower price that compared to a national average of $9,080, according to Oklahoma Smokes, which offers a nicotine-free, hemp cigarette alternative.
The company’s study, which surveyed 3,595 smokers to determine how much of a cash incentive would encourage them to curb their tobacco habit, found that smokers in Vermont “seem most eager to quit,” with the average coffin-nail puffer in the Granite State saying they would accept $1,694 to quit. By comparison, the average smoker in Hawaii said $16,500 is their quit price.
“While this might be an eye popping figure, it is worth noting that smoking-related illness in the United States costs more than $300 billion each year - as there are 34 million smokers, this works out to approximately $8,832 per smoker,” according to a press release.
The company’s press release notes that there was a time when lighting up a square was considered cool—from “the burly, Western masculine ideal of the Marlboro Man, who lit up in between lassoing cattle,” to “the iconic James Dean,” shown puffing away in 1950s photographs and films.
“On the silver screen,” the press release adds, “smoking cigarettes is a prominent feature: romantic scenes often inevitably end with couples enjoying a post-coital cigarette or three; busy newsrooms were once depicted in a fog of smoke; and nowadays, everyone from Brad Pitt to Scarlett Johansson has wielded a cigarette as part of their on-screen persona.”
But oh what a difference a few decades makes, especially when it's augmented by the deadly dangers of smoking and a late 1990s court settlement that ordered big tobacco companies to pay states $206 billion and comply with expansive advertising and marketing restrictions.
The release notes that the US spends more than $300 billion each year on illnesses linked to smoking. That total includes over $225 billion towards direct medical care for adults, and $156 billion towards lost productivity costs.
The release further notes that second-hand smoke contains more than 7,000 chemicals, “of which hundreds are toxic and some carcinogenic.”
The release reports that second-hand smoke is the cause of almost 34,000 premature deaths due to heart disease among non-smokers in the US each year, as well as more than 7,300 lung cancer deaths among non-smokers in the US each year.
“Essentially, non-smokers who are exposed to second-hand smoke are still inhaling many of the same carcinogenic substances and toxins as cigarette smokers themselves, which emphasizes the importance of specially designated smoking zones that are further away from general public exposure,” according to the release.
Nonetheless, “cigarette smoking is still the leading cause of preventable disease and death in the US, resulting in the death of over 480,000 people each year,” the Oklahoma Smokes release states.
“Much research has been conducted into the harmful effects of cigarette smoking, leaving many smokers in a predicament,” according to the release. “Although the negative impacts of tobacco smoke are very much evident and it's easy to wonder why so many smokers (an estimated 14 percent of American adults) continue the habit, many tobacco users find it difficult to quit, due to its addictive nature.”
The public at-large has responded to the health risks posed by smokers to themselves and others is well-documented: smokers can’t light up at the office, or restaurants, night-clubs, or airports, along with a host of other public places. Indeed, smokers often aren’t allowed to smoke in their own homes, and participants who use online dating sites routinely list smoking as a deal-breaker.
Accordingly, the study found that 15 percent of North Carolina smokers reported feeling “ostracized by society” because of their cigarette habit.
Oklahoma Smokes, with its nicotine-free alternative, certainly has a dog in the race. Still, the hemp stick manufacturer asks a relevant question: what would it take to convince smokers to ditch their habit—both for their own good as well as the greater health and wellbeing of society?
“Last year, California proposed a contingency management plan to pay people to stay sober in the form of cash incentives or payments for every negative drug test over a certain period,” according to the release. “Could a similar strategy help convince tobacco users to stay smoke-free?"
Support independent local journalism. Join the INDY Press Club to help us keep fearless watchdog reporting and essential arts and culture coverage viable in the Triangle.
Follow Durham Staff Writer Thomasi McDonald on Twitter or send an email to tmcdonald@indyweek.com.
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20220416
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https://indyweek.com/news/longform/sunday-reading-mackenzie-fierceton/
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During my senior year of high school, a college admissions counselor presented my class with a rundown on Common App essay clichés.
Don’t give a summary of your accomplishments—that’s what your resume is for. Avoid discussing your parents’ divorce or your grandmother’s death. That time you tore your ACL before the big game? No one cares. And never, ever, under any circumstances, write about your church’s mission trip to a developing country.
He offered two alternatives: one, write about a hobby (ideally something that doesn’t show up elsewhere on your application); or two, write about overcoming adversity (ideally something less common than death or disease). Illustrate how your trauma is a part of you, but doesn’t define you. In the eyes of admissions officers, he said, resilience in life translates to rigor in completing coursework.
But, as illuminated in a recent New Yorker investigative piece from staff writer Rachel Aviv, there’s another reason that writing about hardship might give an applicant an edge: Schools want to be applauded for their role in saving disadvantaged students from misfortune and propelling them to success.
Unless that misfortune is a bit too nuanced.
The article follows Mackenzie Fierceton, a University of Pennsylvania graduate whose Master’s degree and Rhodes Scholarship were rescinded after the administration raised doubts about her identity as a foster child and domestic abuse survivor.
Fierceton applied to college the same year I did. For my Common App essay, I took the hobby route, writing about my love for baking; Fierceton went with the other recommended approach, composing a piece that reflected on the abuse she’d endured from her mother. From the story:
Mackenzie responded to the prompt “Describe an experience which caused you to change your perspective” with an essay about finding herself in the pediatric intensive-care unit and looking at her bruised face in the mirror. She described “the one who almost killed me . . . the one who is my mother. She broke me.” She concluded, “I was never broken. She was.”
Because Fierceton had been placed in foster care during her junior year of high school, when she applied to Penn, she was listed as a first-generation student; as an independent estranged from her family, the information that her mother was a wealthy college graduate was not required.
Fierceton excelled at Penn, completing both a Bachelor’s and a Master’s degree in four years and receiving a Rhodes scholarship to continue her studies at the University of Oxford. As the scholarship is awarded to just 32 students nationwide, it came with media attention, including one article that stated, “Mackenzie Fierceton grew up poor.”
The father of one of Fierceton’s high school classmates wrote to the university to point out the story’s inaccuracies, and things began to come crashing down.
“Penn had once celebrated her story, but, when it proved more complex than institutional categories for disadvantage could capture, it seemed to quickly disown her,” Aviv writes.
It’s a riveting story that reads like a mystery and raises questions about the ulterior motives of universities and the boxes we fit people into. As Harvard professor Anthony Jack asks in the article:
“Colleges are in such a rush to celebrate their ‘first Black,’ their ‘first First Gen’ for achievements, but do they actually care about the student? Or the propaganda campaign that they can put behind her story?”
When you’re finished, check out the response to the story—in the two weeks since it was released, there’ve been some developments.
Support independent local journalism. Join the INDY Press Club to help us keep fearless watchdog reporting and essential arts and culture coverage viable in the Triangle.
Follow Staff Writer Lena Geller on Twitter or send an email to lgeller@indyweek.com.
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https://indyweek.com/culture/etc/price-is-right-live-religious-experience/
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Photo by Lena Geller.
On Good Friday, crowds flocked to the church of DPAC, mourned the loss of their Lord and savior, Bob Barker, and prayed for the chance to win a brand new car.
It was the Price is Right Live!, and it was a religious experience.
The staged production is based on the televised game show that airs weekday mornings on CBS. For those of you who haven’t seen it, the concept is simple: contestants in the audience are selected at random to stand at a podium and guess the price of everyday items like groceries, pain relievers, and cleaning supplies. If a contestant gets close to the price without going over, they’ll receive an advantage when they play one of the show’s hundred-plus games, where they can win cash, merchandise, or a trip.
I discovered The Price is Right during a bad bout of the flu in second grade. Since my family had basic cable, PBS shows were my main source of entertainment, but I was terrified of Barney, which came on at 11 a.m. Flipping through channels in search of an alternative, I discovered a brightly colored show where everyone seemed really excited. After two weeks, I was hooked; my mom walked in on me screaming “ONE DOLLAR!” at the TV and decided I was well enough to return to school.
I’d always fantasized about seeing the show in person, but I didn’t believe it could actually happen until the summer of 2020, when The Price itself summoned me to sit in Its Audience. Jobless and quarantined, I’d choreographed a dance to the show’s theme song and posted it on TikTok. Within the hour, the official Price is Right account had left a comment bidding me to “Come On Down!”
Two years later, I got my chance.
I arrived at DPAC three hours before the show to register as a contestant. When I got there, the line was already a quarter-mile long. As on the televised show, fans were dressed in hand-decorated T-shirts that said things like “My Horse Ate My Paycheck So I Need To Win The Showcase Showdown” and “Let’s Party Like It’s $19.99.” (I was wearing a shirt emblazoned with an image of my favorite games, Cliffhanger.) One woman had commissioned a balloon artist to twist together a replica of the Price is Right podium, complete with a huge blow-up microphone. She didn’t need to be called down—she was already there.
The women standing behind me in line were pondering how folks might dress up for other DPAC shows—at Hamilton, they wondered, will people show up in petticoats and colonial wigs?
I can confidently say that the Hamilton crowd, despite being one of the most fanatic in history, will pale in comparison to this bunch.
Photo by Lena Geller
The Price is Right is in its fiftieth season; it premiered in 1972 and has held the title of America’s longest-running game show since 1990.
Part of the show’s success comes from the accessibility of its premise; unlike Jeopardy! or Cash Cab, which favor upper-class, degree-holding contestants, The Price is Right rewards those who pay close attention to how much money they’re spending on groceries.
The DPAC production attracted the most diverse crowd I’d ever seen at the venue, and the most enthused. It was clear that many attendees had been watching the show religiously since it came on the air.
After signing up to be called down, we found our seats, took communion (soft pretzels and sippy cups of Chardonnay), and danced to pop hits until the show began.
While the televised show is hosted by Drew Carey, the live production features celebrity guest hosts; at the DPAC show, the announcer was Todd Newton, who’s hosted a smattering of game shows you probably wouldn’t recognize, and the host was Bob Goen, best known for his work interviewing Hollywood stars on Entertainment Tonight.
The show started with a lengthy montage dedicated to The Price is Right’s former host, Bob Barker—who, though you wouldn’t know it from the sniffles in the audience, is actually still alive—and then it was time to play.
“When you get called down, I need you to go crazy,” Newton said. “Let the holy spirit carry you.”
The first contestant, Wanda, took Newton’s words to heart: after correctly guessing the price of a treadmill, she sprinted onto the stage, screamed, and promptly knocked the microphone out of Goen’s hand. After strutting around and playing an air guitar for the next few minutes, she calmed down enough to successfully name the prices of a bottle of Windex, a can of soup, and a package of red solo cups, earning her an extra three “punches” in a game called Punch-a-Bunch. In Punch-a-Bunch, contestants are presented with what is essentially a giant Connect 4 set where the holes are covered with paper circles. If you punch the right hole, you might end up like Wanda, who danced off the stage $500 richer to a chorus of “Amens.”
Some contestants struck out—no one ended up winning a car—but most went home with at least one prize: a trip to Cancun, a year’s supply of Ben & Jerry’s, a Nintendo Switch.
Like everyone else, I was positive I would be called down. Like almost everyone else, I wasn’t.
But you can’t really lose on The Price is Right. The audience is the heart of the production; like on TV, the crowd was encouraged to help contestants by screaming suggested prices at the top of our lungs. At one point, I yelled “one dollar” after the rest of the audience had quieted down, and the contestant on stage actually listened to me.
Called down or not, I felt that my prayers had been answered: the show I’d only ever watched alone was happening all around me. I’ve never been more proud to find myself in a crowd of such joyous, Bob-fearing individuals.
Support independent local journalism. Join the INDY Press Club to help us keep fearless watchdog reporting and essential arts and culture coverage viable in the Triangle.
Follow Staff Writer Lena Geller on Twitter or send an email to lgeller@indyweek.com.
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https://indyweek.com/news/Letters-to-the-Editor/op-ed-tax-day/
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North Carolinians across the state are feeling the squeeze of rising costs, my family included, but Democrats are working hard to lower costs, make necessities like health care more affordable, and build an economy that bolsters the middle class. On Tax Day this year, I can’t help but wonder why Republicans are calling inflation a ‘gold mine,’ voting against legislation to bring down insulin prices, and proposing tax plans to raise taxes on nearly 40 percent of North Carolinians.
Before the pandemic, my family was already going through challenging times. In late 2019, my husband left his HVAC job last year to pursue his dream of becoming a police officer. He’s now working for a local police department, and we were living off just his income which is $15,000 less than what it was before. It’s been tough. After years of being a stay at home mom to my two boys, I recently took on a job at a warehouse in Raleigh to supplement our income.
I went hungry a lot as a kid, and it’s the last thing I want my children to face. That's why I do everything I can to make sure we have enough to eat, even if it means putting off other expenses or eating less myself. Now, as families are recovering from the economic woes of the COVID-19 pandemic, it’s deeply concerning that Republicans would have the heart to raise taxes on families like mine, who are just trying to make ends meet.
Increasing our tax burden would have a spiral effect on our life. My husband would have to pick up extra off-duty shifts and money would be tighter—threatening our ability to put food on the table or pay for my son’s ADHD medication. And I know my family’s story is similar to many families across North Carolina who are trying to do their best to provide for their kids and live a meaningful life.
Republicans like Ted Budd, Pat McCrory, and Mark Walker running for the U.S. Senate who would rather sell out families like mine to further their political career or appease the wealthy corporations and special interests that bankroll their campaigns have no place in Washington.
North Carolinians deserve leaders that are serious about tackling the most pressing issues that families are facing, not push the interests of the ultra-wealthy and big corporations that are getting rich by spiking costs on hard working Americans.
The choice could not be more clear. President Biden and Democrats are working to lower costs for families, including through efforts to lower premiums, cap insulin costs, send tax cuts to middle-class families, and lower prices at the pump, because they know that when families do well, we all thrive. Republican Senate candidates Congressman Ted Budd, Pat McCrory, and Mark Walker have failed to prove they’ll do the same.
On Tax Day, North Carolina voters deserve to know that Republican leadership would raise their taxes next year.
Support independent local journalism. Join the INDY Press Club to help us keep fearless watchdog reporting and essential arts and culture coverage viable in the Triangle.
Comment on this story at backtalk@indyweek.com.
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https://indyweek.com/news/elections-nc/durham-health-director-covid-update-raleigh-mayor-baldwin-tests-positive/
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In a one-hour webinar Monday afternoon, Durham County Health director Rodney Jenkins reflected on the county’s successes in navigating the COVID-19 pandemic and answered viewers’ inquiries about the potential reinstatement of a county-wide mask mandate.
The webinar came as the highly transmissible BA.2 variant fuels an increase in cases in the Northeastern U.S., an area which has historically served as an indicator for upcoming trends in the rest of the country.
Reported case numbers in the Triangle remain low, but there are signs that the region may soon be facing another surge; last week, the CDC confirmed an uptick in COVID-19 particles found in North Carolina’s wastewater, and experts say state case numbers may be higher than they appear due to the increased usage of at-home testing kits, which are not factored into official counts.
Jenkins began the webinar by thanking county residents for their work in keeping the community safe and well-informed over the past two years.
“I’m amazed by this vibrant community that has shown so much resolve, care and compassion throughout this pandemic,” Jenkins said.
COVID-related deaths in Durham County have yet to surpass 400, which Jenkins noted as “remarkable.” He expressed gratitude for school nurses, who stepped up to assist with contract tracing while schools were closed, and said he was “peacock proud” of grassroots organizations like Latin-19 and the African American COVID Task Force Plus, who ensured that testing and vaccines are made accessible to marginalized populations.
After concluding his remarks, Jenkins opened the floor to questions. One viewer asked if he planned to bring back the mask mandate, given the country’s recent spike in cases.
“The minute that our CDC level changes for a prolonged period of time, I will reimpose the mask mandate,” Jenkins said. “In the meantime… I think we can withstand a slight bump in cases.”
Another question interrogated the fairness of the county’s recent decision to remove the mandate, given that some immunocompromised residents are unable to get the vaccine.
“We don’t want it to appear as if rescinding the mask mandate is an act of aggression,” Jenkins said. “[But] we cannot mandate our way out of this pandemic.”
He added that continuing to wear a mask is “an act of kindness,” and stressed that for those who are able, getting a vaccine is imperative.
Halfway through the webinar, as Jenkins was reminding residents that the virus is “still with us,” The News & Observer reported that Raleigh Mayor Mary-Ann Baldwin has tested positive for COVID-19. The mayor said in a statement that she doesn't have any symptoms.
“We need to continue to be careful and be vigilant,” Jenkins said. “That’s the way that we make our march toward an endemic state.”
Support independent local journalism. Join the INDY Press Club to help us keep fearless watchdog reporting and essential arts and culture coverage viable in the Triangle.
Follow Staff Writer Lena Geller on Twitter or send an email to lgeller@indyweek.com.
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https://indyweek.com/news/northcarolina/nc-congressional-candidates-fill-coffers-with-own-money/
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This story originally published online at NC Policy Watch.
For prominent candidates in the 13th Congressional district, campaign fundraising has meant a lot of pitching in of their own money.
Some candidates have loaned their campaigns significantly more than they’ve raised from supporters.
The new district is considered competitive and does not have an incumbent. It includes all of Johnston County, the southern half of Wake, the northeastern half of Harnett and the western half of Wayne. Thirteen candidates are running in the primaries.
In the Democratic primary:
• Sen. Wiley Nickel of Cary reported raising a total of $1.4 million so far, which includes $900,000 he loaned his campaign.
• Former state Senator Sam Searcy of Holly Springs has raised nearly $251,000, including his $200,000 loan.
• Nathan Click of Raleigh raised about $80,500, which includes a $7,060 personal loan.
• Denton Lee, a special education teacher from Clayton, raised $10,600 in the first three months of this year.
• Fundraising information for Jamie Bowles of Clinton was not available.
In the Republican primary:
• Kelly Daughtry, a lawyer from Smithfield, has raised about $2.4 million so far, which includes $2.15 million she loaned the campaign.
• Renee Ellmers, a former congresswoman from Dunn, has raised about $21,000, which includes her $2,500 loan.
• Bo Hines of Winston-Salem has raised about $984,000, including his $525,000 loan. Former President Donald Trump and the Club for Growth have endorsed Hines.
• Kent Keirsey, a businessman from Apex, has raised about $602,000, including his $200,000 loan.
• Chad Slotta of Apex raised nearly $397,000, which includes his $335,000 in loans.
• DeVan Barbour of Benson has raised about $242,000.
• Fundraising information for Kevin Alan Wolff of Apex was not available.
Support independent local journalism. Join the INDY Press Club to help us keep fearless watchdog reporting and essential arts and culture coverage viable in the Triangle.
Comment on this story at backtalk@indyweek.com.
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20220419
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https://indyweek.com/news/northcarolina/durham-health-director-covid-update-raleigh-mayor-baldwin-tests-positive/
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In a one-hour webinar Monday afternoon, Durham County Health director Rodney Jenkins reflected on the county’s successes in navigating the COVID-19 pandemic and answered viewers’ inquiries about the potential reinstatement of a county-wide mask mandate.
The webinar came as the highly transmissible BA.2 variant fuels an increase in cases in the Northeastern U.S., an area which has historically served as an indicator for upcoming trends in the rest of the country.
Reported case numbers in the Triangle remain low, but there are signs that the region may soon be facing another surge; last week, the CDC confirmed an uptick in COVID-19 particles found in North Carolina’s wastewater, and experts say state case numbers may be higher than they appear due to the increased usage of at-home testing kits, which are not factored into official counts.
Jenkins began the webinar by thanking county residents for their work in keeping the community safe and well-informed over the past two years.
“I’m amazed by this vibrant community that has shown so much resolve, care and compassion throughout this pandemic,” Jenkins said.
COVID-related deaths in Durham County have yet to surpass 400, which Jenkins noted as “remarkable.” He expressed gratitude for school nurses, who stepped up to assist with contract tracing while schools were closed, and said he was “peacock proud” of grassroots organizations like Latin-19 and the African American COVID Task Force Plus, who ensured that testing and vaccines are made accessible to marginalized populations.
After concluding his remarks, Jenkins opened the floor to questions. One viewer asked if he planned to bring back the mask mandate, given the country’s recent spike in cases.
“The minute that our CDC level changes for a prolonged period of time, I will reimpose the mask mandate,” Jenkins said. “In the meantime… I think we can withstand a slight bump in cases.”
Another question interrogated the fairness of the county’s recent decision to remove the mandate, given that some immunocompromised residents are unable to get the vaccine.
“We don’t want it to appear as if rescinding the mask mandate is an act of aggression,” Jenkins said. “[But] we cannot mandate our way out of this pandemic.”
He added that continuing to wear a mask is “an act of kindness,” and stressed that for those who are able, getting a vaccine is imperative.
Halfway through the webinar, as Jenkins was reminding residents that the virus is “still with us,” The News & Observer reported that Raleigh Mayor Mary-Ann Baldwin has tested positive for COVID-19. The mayor said in a statement that she doesn't have any symptoms.
“We need to continue to be careful and be vigilant,” Jenkins said. “That’s the way that we make our march toward an endemic state.”
Support independent local journalism. Join the INDY Press Club to help us keep fearless watchdog reporting and essential arts and culture coverage viable in the Triangle.
Follow Staff Writer Lena Geller on Twitter or send an email to lgeller@indyweek.com.
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20220420
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https://indyweek.com/culture/art/sto-len-shadow-assembly-peel-gallery/
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The artist sTo Len at Peel Gallery | Photo courtesy of the subject
sTo Len: Shadow Assembly of the Haw | Through May 1, free | Peel Gallery, Carrboro
Usually, the Queens-based artist sTo Len picks up his own trash—and lots of other people’s, too. You’d expect no less from the New York Department of Sanitation’s official artist in residence, who uses traditional Japanese techniques like suminagashi (or “floating ink”) and gyotaku (“fish impression”) to catalog flotsam he trawls from waterways in ecologically damning, strangely beautiful prints.
But his residency at Level Retreat in Chapel Hill was short enough that he needed folks to wade in for him. Luckily, a Haw River Assembly river cleanup was perfectly timed to deliver “10 bags full of goodies, like Christmas,” just as he arrived. While the prints, and some of the goodies, are on view at Peel Gallery in Carrboro, we spoke with sTo Len about his fascinating day job, his journey into Japanese printmaking, and his deepening collaboration with the water.
INDY WEEK: What have you done as the New York sanitation department’s artist in residence?
STO LEN: First, I spent a lot of time interviewing and hanging out with workers and following the waste trail, from the household curb to the collection truck to waste transfer stations in all five boroughs. From there, the trash gets put on barges that go down the Hudson or East River to New Jersey, or it gets put on trains to landfills in Virginia or upstate New York.
I wanted a studio, so they took me to this place called the Central Repair Shop, which is the size of the Empire State Building if it were horizontal. Everything broken in New York goes there, from trucks to upholstery projects. They put me in an old silk-screen studio that hasn’t been used in 20 years, and I’m doing mash-ups of their old designs with my own. That’s been really fun to do around the workers, who come in and go, “Oh my god, I remember that!”
In the same building, there’s an old TV studio, and I’m working with the last guy who worked there to digitize this incredible film and video collection they have, dating back to the 1930s. I’m making video art with it, and I’m working on a television show that should have some episodes out by the fall.
An artist residency at the sanitation department sounds like something an artist came up with, not the city.
You’re absolutely right. In the 1970s, Mierle Laderman Ukeles wrote to the commissioner and said, “Hi, I’m really interested in sanitation and maintenance and in being an artist in residence,” and luckily, that commissioner said yes. It was an unsalaried, unfunded position that she turned into a career for 40 years. She’s in her eighties now, and I’ve hung out with her; she’s amazing. The city, inspired by her work, started the Public Artists in Residence program in 2015, and that’s what I’m in. I’m basically the second one after her.
How did you get into the Japanese printmaking techniques you use?
I did a show in Japan in 2009, and I fell in love with calligraphy. Coming back to New York and continuing to play with sumi ink, I realized that it floated. I thought I had invented something amazing because you could make a floating painting, and if you put paper down, you could actually print from the surface of the water. Then I discovered that Shinto monks had been doing this since the 12th century.
I got really into suminagashi, the floating-ink printmaking process. Shinto is an animistic religion, so the act of printmaking with water was this connecting of spirits—a non-hierarchical way of thinking about things like water and land and animals. You can’t control water; you have to collaborate with it, and that began opening up my ideas for collaborating with nature and situations. It taught me to be more fluid and adaptive in my art process.
It’s funny because we basically live on a series of islands in New York, but it’s not island life at all, and people don’t generally think about the water. The waterways are often some of the least-populated areas, and I was always finding these cool pockets to hang out in. In doing that, I was learning about the industrial histories and pollution of these waterways, and I realized they were like the floating paintings I was printing in the studio.
I had a eureka moment. I started going around New York City with paper, printing the surfaces of the water, which were often combined with sewage overflow and other detritus but came out really beautiful. I realized that my studio could be a boat, or the waterways. In New York, people would say, “I didn’t even know that was there!” So, it’s a placemaking process that also brings awareness to issues like combined sewage overflow.
What about gyotaku, which is the printmaking technique you use in this exhibit?
The fish-impression technique was something that I got interested in because I had continually done these river cleanups and had bags of stuff I’d collected laying around. I began inking the objects and printing from them. Gyotaku is considered an art form, but it’s also a way to document the catch of the day and a way of honoring that fish. I’ve done a lot of these river cleanups in Vietnam—I’m half Vietnamese—and it’s just an overwhelming sea of single-use plastic. For me, this process is about acknowledging these objects that we’ve created and abandoned, as they become part of the landscape.
Did your environmental consciousness breed this work or vice versa?
I’ve always been ecologically minded without always knowing how to voice that as an artist. Things like suminagashi sent me on this trajectory when I started to think about the waterways around me as potential collaborators in every town. Doing weeklong trips along the Saigon River, where my family used to live, and using water as a theme, has enabled me to voice environmental concerns and dig deeper into my cultural heritage while figuring out how to be a traveling artist. I’ve always been jealous of touring bands, but when I did tour in a band, I hated that you were only there for a night. How can you travel as an artist, create real relationships in a place, and get to know it, collaborating with it in a meaningful way?
Support independent local journalism. Join the INDY Press Club to help us keep fearless watchdog reporting and essential arts and culture coverage viable in the Triangle.
Comment on this story at backtalk@indyweek.com.
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https://indyweek.com/culture/page/treva-b-lindsey-america-goddam-rofhiwa-cafe/
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Lindsay B. Treva and her new book | Photos courtesy of the subject
In 1964, performing in front of a mostly all-white crowd, North Carolina native Nina Simone released what would be known as one of her first protest anthems: “Mississippi Goddam.” Disturbed by the 16th Street Baptist Church bombing in Alabama in 1963 that took the lives of Addie Mae Collins, Cynthia Wesley, Carole Robertson, and Denise McNair—all of whom were either 14 or 11—the genre-bending songstress vowed to use her voice to make a difference. Simone’s frustrations were further intensified by the murder of civil rights activist Medgar Evers, which took place in Mississippi in the summer of 1963.
Today, the repeated acts of violence and oppression against Black communities across America bring forth feelings for Black folks almost identical to those of Simone. And when we look specifically at the treatment of Black women and girls, the statistics reveal that they are at risk of dying at disproportionately higher rates than their white counterparts as relates to police violence, maternal and infant care, and intercommunal violence.
In her new book—America, Goddam: Violence, Black Women, and the Struggle for Justice, published on April 5—the scholar Treva B. Lindsey traces the uniquely harmful experiences of Black women and girls. As a self-identified survivor of multiple forms of violence, who has been writing and thinking about violence for many years, Lindsey blends the structure of a memoir with history and theory. “The ethical framework of this book is informed by Ntozake Shange’s call to handle Black women warmly,” says Lindsey, an associate professor and current chair of undergraduate studies of women’s, gender, and sexuality studies at Ohio State University.
Ahead of her April 25 book launch at Rofhiwa Book Café in East Durham—where she’ll be in conversation with Melissa Harris-Perry—INDY Week spoke with Lindsey over Zoom about her inspiration for writing and the effects of anti-Blackness, misogynoir, and capitalism on Black women and girls.
INDY Week: I can imagine what the inspiration for the book was, but I would love for you to share what led you here.
TREVA B. LINDSEY: You know, in college, I was thinking about violence against Black women. I was thinking about it in graduate school when I began looking at lynchings of Black women and thinking about the work of other scholars who were asking us to consider what kinds of cisgender-specific forms of terror Black women and girls endured. This includes looking at the pervasiveness of rape and sexual violence in the history of Black women. It has always been a part of my excavation as a historian to find the violence and to find ways that Black women and girls are distinctly targeted and why—what structurally and what systemically leads to persistent harm?
In addition to that, when I was writing my first book, in the intro, I literally talk about the different ways that we talk about anti-Black violence and how even our framings of anti-Black violence tend to be masculine …. I wanted to have a kind of historical understanding that allowed me to do a very precise and rigorous contemporary analysis of what violence and harm against Black women looks like. The data is right there and so alarming and heartbreaking. I wanted to be able to tell those stories in ways that goes beyond the data into a sense of urgency, but with care around the severity and gravity of various forms of violence and their impact on Black women and girls and gender-variant people.
Who are you imagining when you’re writing, and what do you hope that they can gain from this book?
I write for and with Black women and girls, and the “for” is very intentional. I want to make sure Black women see themselves in my work or hear their stories. This is a comprehensive but not exhaustive collection in terms of assessing what violence and harm against Black women and girls look like.
But I hope that people who are non–Black women and girls picking up this book take seriously the gravity of what we’re talking about. It’s important they understand the depths of history and how much work we have to do. It’s one of the reasons I included some of my own experiences with violence in the book so that I’m also a guide for readers. It’s a hard book. It’s very emotionally draining. The experience won’t be like, ‘I’m sitting, I’m reading, I’m finishing.’ Readers will have to sit with the things they read.
I also provided at the end a list of organizations that I think people should learn about, invest in, and support. I’m not necessarily asking co-conspirators or potential accomplices to look at things as much as I’m asking them to support and believe that Black women and girls and gender-expansive people are already building. We have organizations, collectives, institutions, campaigns, and initiatives that can absolutely benefit from support and resources. In order to come into these established spaces, as transparently and as informative as possible, here’s the book, and here are all the people I’m citing from …. There’s a whole body of work that’s asking us to contend with harm and violence against Black women and girls, and if you contend with that work, then you might be apt to be in those spaces and really be a genuine, generous, and generative co-conspirator or accomplice.
Because the book is so emotional, what did your research and writing process look like? How did you consistently care for yourself?
Citations for me are a collaborative and accountability practice. I am collaborating with thinkers who came before me and hopefully opening space for more collaboration for thinkers who are going to gauge my work in their work. I’m accountable to those thinkers, artists, activists, organizers, and ancestors who’ve done such incredible work that has helped me think through this and offer the ideas that I’m offering.
The research for this book really began almost seven or eight years ago. I did not want to write this book and had been putting it off for years. I started writing in more public outlets, and as I started cultivating a voice as a writer that wasn’t overly informed by my training as an academic and my training as a feminist historian in a very particular way, I wanted to have a voice in whatever my next book project would be that had both effective and affective registers. My goal is for people to read it and gain a lot of knowledge, but I also want them to feel and resonate with it, which meant a certain kind of bearing of witness, of baring of myself, and most importantly, the opportunity to think about what was the best way to write this story with care. That meant that in the book, I refer to everyone by their first names, not their last.
What does the future look like for Black women and girls? Specifically—what do you think is the realistic future and then also an imaginative future?
That’s a great question. So, you know, despite the epilogue, the conclusion was originally about the discipline of hope. My thinking is informed by prison and police abolitionist Mariame Kaba, specifically understanding what traditions are being created and what futures and worlds are imagined. And I bet on us! I believe so strongly in Black women’s and girls’ ability to create new worlds because we have done it before. We’ve created new ideas of liberation and we’ve practiced freedom all the time in the ways we love, dance, rap, and write. We are active practitioners of liberation. And so, in that way, I have always been about us, and I will never bet against us.
In reality, there are some really stark things to contend with. When I started diving into the writing for this book, a Black woman was being murdered every 17 or so hours. Crime data is about a year behind, so right now the available data reveals an average of four Black women and girls are murdered per day. So even in that two-year period, the shift is awful.
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https://indyweek.com/food-and-drink/features/moonbelly-meat-co-anna-gibala/
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Butcher Anna Gibala at work | Photo by Brett Villena
Moonbelly Meat Co. | moonbellymeatco@gmail.com
Anna Gibala was 11 years old when her dad pulled off the highway and told a police officer to shoot a deer in the head.
For context: the deer had just been hit by a car, and the officer, called to the scene of the accident, was preparing to put the animal out of its misery.
After Gibala’s father told the officer how to shoot the deer humanely, he said, “I’ll take it.”
He then put the carcass in the trunk, drove back to the family’s home in Durham, and hung it over the monkey bars in the backyard playset. They ate venison for dinner.
Watching her dad process deer so matter-of-factly is what first sparked Gibala’s interest in butchery. He frequently hunted, always utilizing every cut—and though “it might sound weird,” she says, he would sometimes pick up roadkill if it was fresh.
“I used to sit and watch him in the backyard while he’d clean and skin the venison,” Gibala says. “I’d help with some of the cutting and removing silver skin as a kid. And we were always cooking together.”
Gibala’s father passed away 11 years ago, and since then, she’s been mastering his craft. She went to culinary school at Johnson & Wales University in Charlotte, got a bachelor’s degree in food systems management from Appalachian State University, and spent the next six years working at a range of wholesale meat retailers and combination butcher-sandwich shops on the West Coast.
Three months ago, Gibala returned to Durham to turn her training into enterprise, opening a handmade sausage and charcuterie business called Moonbelly Meat Co. in January. She hopes to one day open a brick-and-mortar location; for now, she takes orders online and pays a monthly fee to use Redstart Foods owner Matt Northrup’s commercial kitchen in Braggtown. Customers can pick up their Moonbelly orders at the Redstart kitchen, or, if they spend more than $45, Gibala will deliver them to Durham and Chapel Hill locations herself. She’s also working on getting a stand at the Durham Farmers’ Market.
Moonbelly Meat’s menu was initially limited to sausages—breakfast links, smoked andouille, beer brats, Mexican chorizo—but business has picked up over the past few weeks, allowing Gibala to order half hogs instead of isolated pork shoulders. She’s since expanded to offer items that use other parts of the pig, like bacon, smoked ham, pork chops, and Old Bay chicharrones.
Gibala orders all of her pork from Durham’s Firsthand Foods; sourcing good-quality, humanely raised, hormone-free meat is important, she says, for both taste and ethical purposes. Moving forward, she plans to get more experimental with flavors. When she was working at Clove & Hoof in Oakland, California, one of her proudest accomplishments was creating barbecue-chicken-pizza-flavored sausage, modeled after the California Pizza Kitchen dish.
“I don’t think anyone’s really making the weird stuff I want to make,” she says.
Flavoring sausage is tricky because adding acidity can ruin the texture. The key, she says, is to dry out ingredients in a dehydrator, blitz them up in a blender, and work the powder into the raw meat. She’s hoping to make a kimchi-flavored sausage using this method. She also has an idea for a pho sausage, which would include mint, cilantro, warming spices, and chilled cubes of pork broth that partially liquefy when the sausage is cooked—kind of like a soup dumpling but in sausage form.
Beyond its uniquely flavored products, Moonbelly stands out as a woman-owned, Korean-owned business in a male-dominated field. Butchery and meat farming remain majority-male professions, but according to data from the US Department of Labor, women are beginning to enter the industry at higher rates: women now account for almost 25 percent of butchers nationwide, up from 21 percent in 2006; and in North Carolina, at least 30 percent of meat farms involve a female operator—twice the national average.
Moonbelly’s name is a nod to Gibala’s Korean surname, Moon (she was adopted from Seoul as a baby), and its logo—a powder-pink-spotted woman in the moon, long-lashed eyes closed and licking her lips—is an intentional departure from the branding of typical butcher shops, which usually feature crossed cleavers or a black-and-white outline of a pig. Gibala wanted to create an image that was less aggressive and more approachable and inclusive.
“I think as a consumer, your experience going into a butcher shop can oftentimes feel a little bit condescending or intimidating,” Gibala says. “My biggest goal has been ‘How can I make this as welcoming of an environment as possible?’”
Gibala’s emphasis on inclusivity also extends to her product. She recently altered one of her most popular items, a Korean-barbecue-flavored sausage, so that it would be accessible to gluten-free folks: it now contains tamari instead of soy sauce and sriracha in lieu of gochujang (Korean chili paste).
She’s even considering branching out to offer plant-based, Impossible meat–style products for the vegetarian crowd.
“I worked at one place that had [shop] stickers that said, ‘100 percent not vegan,’ and I would love to not do that,” she says. “It makes it feel overly exclusive.”
For now, though, her focus lies on the meat. She gets visibly exhilarated while discussing the technicalities of butchery and seems most in awe of the craft’s potential to be both uniform and endlessly versatile.
Gibala says most people don’t realize that butchered animals have nearly identical anatomical structures, just on different scales.
A certain cut of pork parallels the one you’ll find on a lamb, a cow, or even a deer on the side of the road.
“I find that so fascinating,” she says. “There’s almost a catharsis. When you break it down it’s really all the same, underneath.”
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Follow Staff Writer Lena Geller on Twitter or send an email to lgeller@indyweek.com.
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https://indyweek.com/music/features/2022-hip-hop-south-festival/
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Regina N. Bradley and Christopher Massenburg in conversation | Photo courtesy of Rohwifa Book Café
Regina N. Bradley and Christopher Massenburg started talking about their vision for a Southern hip-hop festival in 2016 when they were both Nasir Jones Hiphop Fellows at Harvard. But while what became the Hip Hop South Festival was born in an academic setting, it wasn’t originally intended for one. As a result, Carolina Performing Arts’ (CPA’s) rare foray into rap has a distinctly authentic terroir, from its local roots to its splashy headliner.
“The joke I give is that I’m an academic nine to five, but I’m 24/7 in the culture,” Bradley says via video chat.
An associate professor of English and African diaspora studies at Kennesaw State University—“30 minutes north of Atlanta on a good day”—Bradley cohosts Bottom of the Map, a Southern hip-hop podcast from PRX, and wrote the acclaimed fiction collection Boondock Kollage: Stories from the Hip Hop South. Last year, UNC Press published her scholarly book Chronicling Stankonia: The Rise of the Hip-Hop South. Its focus on Outkast might have something to do with Big Boi signing on to rattle the stately columns of Memorial Hall.
The festival took root in Chapel Hill through Massenburg, a fellow at CPA who is widely known in the Triangle as Dasan Ahanu: Raleigh native, Bull City Slam Team founder, performer, educator, and community organizer. The festival began in a conversation with Amy Russell, CPA’s director of programming, about the campus-wide Southern Futures initiative, which fosters creative collaborations between the university and local communities, with a focus on racial equity and social justice in the South.
“We started to talk about hip-hop because of its role in providing a response to some of the conditions of the South, especially for Black and brown youth, and how that needed to be part of the conversation,” Massenburg says. “I was like, ‘Well, I know who I want to work with.’”
Most of the performers are deeply connected to Massenburg’s home ground, as Big Boi is to Bradley’s. The festival opens at Cat’s Cradle on Friday (though at the distinctly un-Cradle-like hour of six p.m.) with bookings as Raleigh as Rapsody, as Durham as Shirlette Ammons, and as statewide as Miriam Tolbert’s Carolina Waves platform, which will present a showcase.
“We wanted to move away from essential ideas about what hip-hop culture is: it’s hypermasculine; it sounds a particular way,” Bradley says. “Highlighting women’s contributions to the culture and showing that it’s much bigger than a male gaze is something we were very intentional about.”
“Also, it was just the feel,” Massenburg adds. “Both Shirlette and Rapsody get busy. Rapsody’s very vocal that she’s not a female emcee; she’s an emcee. At the Cradle, it’s going to give you that real energy of being at a hip-hop show, where folks are just getting after it.”
The feel should be very different on Saturday night, when Washington, DC’s Sa-Roc—one of the only women signed to the storied Rhymesayers label—takes the proscenium stage of Memorial Hall to open for Big Boi, who has enjoyed a robust solo career after Outkast.
“The show he’s been traveling with lately is really dynamic,” Massenburg says. “He has a band with [Outkast producer] Sleepy Brown, and the energy is ridiculous. We wanted to have that big moment. That was one of the first thumbs-up responses we got, and we were like, ‘OK, we’re rocking now.’”
Each night, the main event will be followed by a looser session at CURRENT ArtSpace at 10:00 p.m., with The Raleigh Rockers’ B-boy jam on Friday and a beat battle featuring members of 9th Wonder’s Soul Council on Saturday. Here, the commercial predominance of the emcee gives way to hip-hop’s varied lived traditions, exemplifying the universally local aesthetic that kept the Bronx-born form intact as it splintered into thousands of microdocumentaries around the world.
“A low-key foundation of hip-hop is hyper localism: How do we represent where we’re from?” Bradley says. “When it took root in the South, it borrowed the cultural signifiers of Southern Black life—gospel, the church, funk—and utilized that to its advantage.”
But Southern hip-hop is as diverse as the Southern accent, even if neither is always perceived that way by outsiders.
“In the same way that Southern isn’t cookie-cutter, neither are the cultural expressions that come out of it,” Bradley says. “Houston sounds different than Atlanta or Memphis or the Florida Panhandle. But I think what most distinguishes Southern hip-hop is that it is in constant conversation with the South’s past. Ideas of racism, white supremacy, class, and literacy that continuously show up—we’re consistently revisiting the past to gain an understanding of not only the present but the future.”
CPA’s embryonic relationship with hip-hop is far from unusual among academic presenters, which typically focus on classical, jazz, modern dance, and certain refined strains of experimental music and pop. And in fact, CPA is already ahead of some, having brought Tierra Whack to Memorial Hall in 2019 and presented local hip-hop and spoken word in a virtual festival, the Digital Commons, last year. The latter, naturally, was a Dasan Ahanu production.
“What we’re able to do with the hip-hop festival is made easier by the work we did with the Commons, where we were really thinking about our relationship with the local artistic ecosystem,” he says. There is still much work to do, but there’s no doubt that Southern hip-hop is ready for the academy. If there is any question, it runs the other way.
“Hip-hop is a form of cultural resistance,” Massenburg acknowledges. “If you give that to the South, where else would there be so much to push back at? I think that will be reflected throughout the festival, pushing back against constrictions and characterizations. When you think about an institution that sometimes seems inaccessible, it’s important to say that there is room, and we deserve to be a part of this.”
“It’s like, if y’all rock with us, y’all rock with us,” Bradley adds, “but if you don’t, it’s not gonna stop the show.”
Regina Bradley says that Southern hip-hop is still underrepresented in scholarship, and she wanted to change that. She’s done so with a distinctly fresh point of view.
“I’m interested in what the American South looks like outside of the shadow of the civil rights movement, which, unfortunately, for a lot of folks, is the be-all-end-all of Southern Black modernity,” she says, recapping the central argument of her book Chronicling Stankonia, which casts Outkast as the avatars of a new Black South. “As somebody who was raised in the South in the nineties and early 2000s, I don’t fit into that conversation.”
Of course, her research is built on the work of the scribes who came before, sometimes toiling in relative obscurity. “There would be no Southern hip-hop scholarship without Southern hip-hop journalists,” she says. “One of the things we’re trying to do with this festival is give folks their flowers while they can smell them.”
To that end, Bradley organized Dirty South Scribes, a free art exhibit on view at CURRENT during the Hip Hop South Festival. It features painted portraits of five pioneering Southern hip-hop chroniclers by five different Southern artists, including locals like Claire Alexandre and Darius Quarles, with pull-out quotes and oral histories accessed via QR code.
“Their artistic styles are so unique and speak to different things,” Bradley says. “It shows how Southern hip-hop is not one-size-fits-all, and it’s not just emceeing. Everybody listens when André [3000] says, ‘The South got something to say,’ but Dirty South Scribes is honoring the folks who showed us exactly what was being said.”
As for who they are, Bradley isn’t saying, though she enjoys everyone asking. “I’m holding it tight,” she says, laughing. “It feels good to have power.” Find out for yourself at CURRENT during the daytime on Friday or late-night on Saturday.
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Comment on this story at backtalk@indyweek.com.
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Photo by Brett Villena
Tell me a little bit about yourself.
I'm an enrolled citizen of the Occaneechi Band of the Saponi Nation here in Alamance County. There's a big Native American presence here (in Alamance, Orange, and Caswell counties). We’ve been here for 400 years. District Four is the land of my ancestors, so running is really symbolic to me.
I used to work in DC for the federal government. I worked at Homeland Security as an analyst, and then I worked as a special assistant to the chief of staff for US General Services Administration.
I have a bachelor's in political science and a master's in public administration with a concentration on emergency management. I'm working on my doctorate at the University of Dayton in organizational leadership, but I will be defending my thesis on missing and murdered Indigenous women.
What experience do you have in community service?
I was a former tribal Councilwoman, but I stepped down in 2018 so I could advocate against the Mountain Valley pipeline. I co-founded 7 Directions of Service, which is an environmental education nonprofit. During this whole pipeline movement, (my husband and I have) been trying to educate people about sacred places, protection, eminent domain, and property rights. I also founded and I'm the executive director of Missing Murdered Indigenous Women Coalition of North Carolina.
What are the issues facing Native Americans right now?
So first, let me just say it's an honor to be the first American Indian woman to run for District 4. Representation really matters, because for so long, not many people knew about the history of this area. We have eight state-recognized tribes and one federal. (But not many people know), even, that Native Americans that exist today. (People) think we're historic or we're relics or something of the past, and they kind of have this Hollywood mentality. But we're real live people trying to live good lives, continuing the legacy of our ancestors.
What are your policy goals?
I’m focused on the environment, healthcare, and education. (Environment) is kind of a buzzword, especially in this election, but I'm not hearing the urgency (we need) with respect to our vulnerability. No one has been standing up for Mother Earth. Corporations are damaging our water, our land, and I'm telling you, we're not getting any more land. There's no more land being produced.
Environment kind of interconnects with healthcare because I always say the health of the water in the area determines the health of the people. As a country, we no longer reflect our prosperity as it relates to the health of our citizens. Healthcare for all is what I’m going for. We need to bite that bullet and reinvent that wheel and put the health of our people first, especially our children and elders.
I'm a mother of five with my husband (and) we are so behind in education. We're arguing whether education is too much information for our citizens or not enough, and we're just wasting money to argue these points. These politicians get on the floor and they just filibuster over crazy stuff. Meanwhile, our children are just academically left behind and they can't compete globally. Our children are our best citizens.
How do you plan to protect the environment?
We need to have environmental diversity. We need to also have environmental resilience. That means being able to adapt to climate change and move forward.
Once water is gone, you can’t get it back. These corporations that are doing fracking or carbon capture or whatever, they have to extract these resources out of the ground, and they use water. So not only do you use clean water to extract the resource, you now have dirty water, and they usually shoot that dirty water off into the air and it evaporates. It’s a vicious cycle. It gets into our food, it gets on our skin, it creates air pollution. We have to diversify our solutions to this climate crisis, use offshore wind, solar, all of that.
What are your priorities if elected?
I'm a former military spouse. My ex-husband served 18 years in the military, and…I was able to advocate about PTSD. Our soldiers, they serve in these wars, and then they come back broken or not a complete person. And it is really hard on the person themselves as well as their families. They need health care, especially mental health.
We also have to be able to bring everybody together. In the last four, five years, we've seen politics. People are so divided. My husband and I have just been trying to build a unity among the people because we saw how people were disconnected. We wanted to bridge that gap and start working together.
What distinguishes you as a candidate? Why should people vote for you?
We've seen what safe and predictable, PAC-funded representation looks like and what it feels like: apathetic, stagnant, disappointing. Now we have a chance to decide if we continue to vote for the suit or if we shift our trust and vote for the boot. We have to have that boot that’s on the ground.
I've been doing this work on the ground for so long, being out in the community, meeting people. I advocate, I educate. I'm no different from anybody else, but I just have gotten so fed up with how these representatives who we elect only come around when it's election season. I've been out here fighting for people’s clean water, whether they know it or not, I've been fighting. Social justice, racial justice, environmental justice, economic justice, all of those -isms that you can think of. It's all rolled in together. I always tell people, ‘Together, we will rise.’
Support independent local journalism. Join the INDY Press Club to help us keep fearless watchdog reporting and essential arts and culture coverage viable in the Triangle.
Comment on this story at backtalk@indyweek.com.
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Last week, reader Iain Burnett emailed us to say that gentrification isn’t necessarily a bad thing and criticized housing justice coalition ONE Wake for lobbying the Wake County Commission to create a grant to support homeowners at risk of displacement. On behalf of ONE Wake, Fr. Jemonde Taylor of St. Ambrose Episcopal Church and Rev. Lisa Yebuah of Southeast Raleigh Table take issue with a number of the assertions in last week’s letter, as outlined in the following response:
Iain Burnett’s letter to the editor last week (“Gentrification Needs to Hire a PR Firm”) criticized ONE Wake’s campaign to convince the Wake County Commissioners to create a new, countywide grant program to support long-time, low-income homeowners at risk of displacement in gentrifying neighborhoods.
The letter was inaccurate to the point of misinformation, so we at ONE Wake are writing to set the record straight. In his letter, Mr. Burnett equated our proposed grant program to Proposition 13 in California, which is statewide legislation that restricts property tax increases. ONE Wake is not proposing anything remotely similar to Proposition 13 (something which the Wake County Commissioners don’t have the authority to implement anyway).
Instead, ONE Wake is calling on the Wake County Commissioners to implement a grant program similar to what has already been passed in several other North Carolina counties, including nearby Orange and Durham Counties. This program would provide financial assistance for long-time, low-income homeowners who pay more than a certain percentage of their household income on property taxes.
Mr. Burnett also states that he looked up ONE Wake’s proposed “legislation” on our website, and that the cost “amounts to a 1cent/$100 property value tax.”
Unfortunately, Mr. Burnett is wrong again. It appears he mistakenly reviewed the details for an entirely separate ONE Wake campaign to create a designated fund to finance and preserve affordable housing developments in Cary. This campaign is limited to Cary; it is not designed to address the issue of rising property taxes, and the designated fund only has implications for the Town of Cary’s budget.
Throughout his letter, Mr. Burnett struggles with our idea to create a new grant that, in his words, would “distort the housing market” or break the “natural housing cycle.” This is a concept that deserves a strong refutation.
There is nothing natural about the housing market today. Many of the neighborhoods that have seen the highest increases in property taxes are historically Black neighborhoods where government at every level has intervened for generations to keep values artificially low through segregation and redlining.
Now, private investment is pouring into neighborhoods long considered undesirable by white lenders and families. The resulting gentrification in communities across Wake County like College Park and Rochester Heights in Raleigh, Kingswood in Cary, West Town in Wendell, and the Northeast Community in Wake Forest is the “kissing cousin” of this history of segregation.
ONE Wake is calling on the Wake County Commissioners to lead the way in addressing this injustice, either through a property tax assistance grant as we have originally proposed, or through a Homeowner Care Fund that could provide equivalent public investment to long-time, low-income homeowners.
You can learn more at www.onewake.org/tax_explainer.
Support independent local journalism. Join the INDY Press Club to help us keep fearless watchdog reporting and essential arts and culture coverage viable in the Triangle.
Comment on this story at backtalk@indyweek.com.
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https://indyweek.com/news/durham/dps-gop-stealth-slate/
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Last month, the Durham-based partisan science data firm EQV Analytics published a report entitled "Can the GOP Take Over Blue Durham County’s Board of Education? (They’re Betting On It)."
Days later, INDY staffers began receiving emails expressing alarm about what’s being referred to as the “Better Board, Better Schools, Better Futures” (BBBS) slate of school board candidates.
Meghan Lyon wrote in an email that she and her husband reached out to District 3 school board candidate Gayathri Rajaraman to learn more about her platform.
“Her answers alarm me,” Lyon says.
Lyon and her husband aren’t the only Durham residents alarmed at the prospect of the BBBS’s so-called stealth slate capturing seats on the county school board.
“I worry that many Durham residents may think we are immune to these extreme conservative challenges to our school board since we are used to being in our blue Durham bubble,” wrote Rebecca Bramlett in an email. “But it’s not the case, and I hope people are paying attention.”
Not one of Durham’s three most influential political action committees has endorsed any of the five GOP candidates who are running for seats on the county school board, including the nonpartisan Friends of Durham (FOD) PAC.
“We interviewed all of the [BBBS] candidates and chose not to endorse them,” Durham attorney and FOD PAC cochair Patrick Byker told the INDY this week.
Byker says a combination of factors dissuaded the FOD from endorsing the GOP candidates.
First and foremost: the BBBS slate finds it easy enough to play armchair quarterback and fling a barrage of criticisms about the school board and Durham Public Schools (DPS) policies but offers next to nothing by way of problem-solving.
“We really expect candidates to have solutions for the problems they identify,” Byker says. “It’s easy to complain about a problem. It’s difficult to put forth sound thinking about how we as a community can support our superintendent and students and then identify and implement cost-effective solutions.”
There are also questions in the community about the ethics of BBBS’s campaigning, and whether they are abiding by the rules.
This week, Paula Januzzi-Godfrey, a Glenn Elementary School librarian and 2020 school board candidate, told the INDY she received a text Monday morning from a teacher at Merrick-Moore Elementary. The teacher had requested donations of copy paper on her neighborhood listserv and received some reams of paper at the school with stickers of the BBBS candidates’ faces, Januzzi-Godfrey told the INDY in an email.
“When I was running for school board it was made clear that I was not allowed to campaign, wear a button or sticker for my campaign on school premises, and no other teachers could either,” Januzzi-Godfrey wrote.
Based on some of the candidates’ social media posts, the BBBS slate might be best described with the letter Q followed by “Anon.”
Consider that Joetta MacMiller, who is campaigning for the Consolidated District B seat, announced on January 5, 2021, on social media that she had “arrived in DC” at the “Stop the Steal’’ rally that morphed into violence at the US Capitol, where a mob thought it apt to attack police officers and smear feces on the walls.
“It is going to be WILD!!!!!” MacMiller announced, echoing the words of the January 6 insurrection’s chief instigator, Donald Trump, who on December 19 tweeted, “Big protest in D.C. on January 6th. Be there, will be wild!”
One day later, MacMiller announced, “My group got tear gased [sic] but we are safe and on our way home to NC.”
MacMiller could not be reached for comment.
In late January, MacMiller and Proud Boy member John Fischer—who is running for a seat on the Johnston County school board—were among the attendees of a statewide education forum held by the far-right groups Education First NC, Moms for Liberty, and No Left Turn in Education. No Left Turn describes itself as “a movement to combat racial indoctrination in our K thru 12 education system.”
District 1 candidate Curtis Hrischuk is a Canadian immigrant who registered to vote for the first time in December.
Hrischuk, in an email to the INDY, derided a description of him by EQV Analytics as “an evangelical Catholic” who “reveals himself on Facebook to be an antisemitic, climate-denying, anti-vaxx creationist in favor of starving local governments (including our public schools) of revenue.”
Hrischuk told the INDY that he views “eqvanalytics.com as a satire or humor site and they aren’t worth my attention.”
An INDY review of Hrischuk’s Facebook page shows that on August 30, 2016, he posted a Breitbart story about George Soros “manipulating [the] government for his own very sick agenda.” The Breitbart story claims that Soros was an unseen participant in efforts to reform law enforcement agencies after Black people across the country died at the hands of the police.
“Quote of the day,” Hrischuk posted in 2016 on his Facebook page. “People can and should do everything they can to pay as little in taxes as possible.”
Valarie Jarvis is a school board District 4 candidate and GOP Durham County precinct chair who is married to Immanuel Jarvis, the county’s GOP chair, who declared in a July 2020 podcast that being a Black Trumpist is akin to being a “homosexual Black man in the ’70s in a southern state.” Regarding Black voters, he said, “If they had a cardboard box running for president, 85 percent of the African American community would vote for the box.”
Immanuel Jarvis, during the podcast, said he agreed with Donald Trump’s claim that he has done more for Black Americans than Abraham Lincoln.
“That’s pretty close,” Jarvis said, offering as an example his daughter being the recipient of a financial grant owing to a bill the former president signed into law. Jarvis said it was imperative that Black Americans move from “poverty to prosperity.”
The other two candidates are Christopher Burns, vying for the District 2 seat, who EVQ Analytics reports is an independent contractor “with zero employees” and who “pocketed over $30,000 in subsequently forgiven Paycheck Protection Program loans in 2020/2021,” and Rajaraman, who announced that she’s running for the school board at the behest of Immanuel Jarvis.
Rajaraman, like Burns, has a scant social media presence but told the INDY she doesn’t think younger students should learn about topics like the historical racism upon which the nation was largely built.
“Especially at elementary and middle school age, children’s brains are still growing, they are hungry to learn. They should be taught math concepts and science at an early age like they do in countries like India,” Rajaraman wrote. “Instead we are distracting and overwhelming them with social topics such as racism, [gender identity] and political viewpoints in school classrooms. We are dumbing our kids down while other developing nations are putting focus only on math, science, arts and STEM programs.”
Perhaps the short answer to Rajaraman’s concern has to do with Black Americans’ lived experience in a nation that has a long history of targeting the group with racism, bigotry, and violence. Last year, GOP legislators at the General Assembly sponsored House Bill 324 that proposed to make white people feel less uncomfortable about the negative aspects of the nation’s racial history.
It appears no one in the GOP considered how not teaching those aspects of the nation’s history would make Black students and the Black community at large feel uncomfortable. As the INDY previously reported, Durham’s city council and school board each adopted resolutions opposing HB 324. Governor Roy Cooper vetoed the bill on September 10.
Last year, the website Right Wing Watch warned of a far-right “campaign to stifle teaching and discussion about racism in U.S. history and institutions” with “fear mongering about critical race theory to mobilize right-wing activists and conservative voters to take over local school boards.”
“Critical race theory is an academic analytical framework for exploring the existence and impact of systemic racism,” Right Wing Watch writer Peter Montgomery explained. “Over the past year, the term has been aggressively deployed as a right-wing culture-war weapon that is being used to smear educators and social justice activists.”
School board chair Bettina Umstead, who is up for reelection in District 2, echoed Montgomery’s analysis.
“I’m worried that they are not prepared to do the equity work here in Durham County on behalf of Black and brown students who are in our schools,” Umstead told the INDY this week about the BBBS slate.
The current school board is cited on a watchlist by Turning Point USA (TPUSA), a conservative nonprofit that states its mission is to “educate, train and organize students to promote freedom.”
According to TPUSA, the Durham school board is “actively trying to indoctrinate children with Critical Race Theory (CRT) and other hateful, divisive and Anti-American curriculum.”
TPUSA also asserts the school board has undergone “extreme scrutiny for publicly supporting a resolution that teaches CRT to the students throughout the district.”
Well that’s a lie, plain and simple.
“No, we do not,” school board member Natalie Beyer says about TPUSA’s claim that DPS is teaching CRT—normally taught in law schools—to K-12 students. “But we very much believe and are focused on equity, and we are not shying away from this nation’s difficult history.”
Beyer, whom Valarie Jarvis is challenging in District 4, told the INDY this week that she has never seen the BBBS candidates at a school board meeting or received an email “about anything” from them during her board tenure.
“It’s highly unusual for Durham, and they haven’t been showing up,” she says. “They aren’t out in public, and they haven’t been to any of the forums,” she adds, save for a virtual meeting that was hosted by a community located off of Leesville Road.
Beyer says the slate is trafficking in “fearmongering” and divisiveness.
“It’s not about the schools,” she says.
A review of the GOP candidates’ website, betterboardbetterschools.com, gives scant information about what the group is proposing to create a more effective learning environment in the county’s public school classrooms.
Their campaign promise says that they “will ensure that every graduating student is prepared for the workforce or college. Our students are cheated by lowering standards and curriculum deviations that do not directly aid in the competition of the worldwide marketplace.”
Rajaraman and Hrischuk were the only candidates to respond to the INDY’s questions. Rajaraman says “school exists to educate our children” when asked about “curriculum deviations.”
Rajaraman’s concerns run counter to the state’s board of education strategic plan adopted in 2019 that defined equity as a guiding principle and recently approved social studies standards “to ensure that a more comprehensive, accurate and honest history was taught to all students, including teaching on racism, identity and discrimination.”
“It’s important for teachers to be able to teach children to think critically from primary sources,” Beyer told the INDY last year. “And as we are more honest about our history we can learn from the past. We don’t censor teachers. We don’t ban books. We teach children to be antiracist.”
The BBBS’s QAnon slate faces a Sisyphean task in the Bull City, where there are 233,225 registered voters and Democrats outnumber Republicans by more than five to one, according to the Durham County Board of Elections.
However, Durham also has 81,300 unaffiliated voters, along with 1,270 Libertarian voters. With a historically lower voter turnout for primary elections, “the BBBS slate is a highly organized campaign conceived, organized, launched and supported by the Durham County GOP, in hopes of slipping a bloc of Republicans under the voters’ radar to take control of the school board of one of the most heavily Democratic counties in the state,” according to the EQV Analytics report.
When the INDY asked what specific policies or measures the BBBS slate would implement to improve the academic performance of DPS students, Hrischuk began by stating that the current school board is failing its main mission: education.
“In my district four out of five students are not ready to move to the next grade,” Hrischuk wrote in an email. “That is 80 percent of students not ready for the next grade.”
Michelle Burton, president of the Durham Association of Educators, which did not endorse the BBBS slate, told the INDY that Hrischuk and his fellow GOP candidates are focusing on end-of-grade test scores that do not take into account a student’s classroom performance or their total portfolio of academic performance.
“What’s never mentioned is funding of the public schools adequately,” says Burton, who pointedly notes that the BBBS slate is not speaking in support of the Leandro case that has been hamstrung for decades by the state’s GOP legislators and that would give public schools $1.7 billion.
“No one is talking about that,” she says.
Last month, the state supreme court agreed to hear the case after GOP state controller Linda Combs asked the North Carolina Court of Appeals to throw out Wake County superior court judge David Lee’s November 10 order requiring her to fund the $1.7 billion plan to fully support public schools.
Burton thinks the mission of BBBS’s slate “is to alarm and scare people, and get us off focus from what’s really needed and that is funding our schools adequately.”
But can the BBBS slate win seats on the Durham County school board?
William Busa, the director of EQV Analytics, thinks so. He wrote in last month’s online report “that even here in deep blue Durham, it is not impossible that these five radical Republicans might just succeed in wrestling control of the school board away from Democrats, thanks to meticulous planning, sophisticated organization, a stacked deck of election law, and—most importantly—a flurry of industrial-strength deception.”
Busa says that part of the deception the BBBS’s slate is relying on is a state law that mandates county school board members “shall be elected on a nonpartisan basis”— that is, Busa wrote, “without limiting candidates to a single nominee from each party, and without listing candidates’ party affiliations on the ballot, and that school board elections shall be held during the state’s primary election rather than the November general election.”
Even more insidiously, Busa notes, the state’s Republican-controlled legislature has been “selectively chipping away at this non-partisan status for partisan advantage” by “passing special ‘local laws’ that make selected Republican-heavy counties’ school board elections partisan while leaving Democrat-heavy counties’ elections non-partisan, with the effect of promoting Republican control in GOP-heavy counties while enabling potential stealth-Republican inroads into Democratic counties.”
“Durham thus remains a ‘non-partisan’ school board, with its election on primary day … and its five Republican candidates, campaigning together under the brand name of the Better Board, Better Schools (BBBS) slate, are taking every advantage of this cloaking device,” Busa wrote.
Last week Busa told the INDY that he’s worked with several political campaigns in the past and typically looks up the party affiliation of candidates campaigning in nonpartisan races.
“That’s an oxymoron,” Busa said late last week. “They’re all partisan.”
Busa says he became interested in Durham’s school board races when he noticed that registered Republican candidates had filed to run in each of the five seats, and they all shared the same campaign address of their joint campaign treasurer, “the $1 million home of a county GOP precinct chair, C. Donald Stanger.”
“And they were all recruited by Immanuel Jarvis,” Busa explains. “It became very clear that they were working in concert to pull a fast one on Durham County and take control of the school board.”
Busa says what’s happening in Durham is part of a nationwide attempt by “Republican fascists” to take over school boards.
Burton agrees.
“We’re seeing it all over the state, all over the country, with even more and more due to the pandemic and schools reopening,” she says. “In my assessment they need to do the research to understand what’s really going on in education.”
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Follow Durham Staff Writer Thomasi McDonald on Twitter or send an email to tmcdonald@indyweek.com.
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Missy Cummings, courtesy of Duke University; Elon Musk, from Wikimedia Commons.
It is not unusual for Tesla CEO Elon Musk to tweet 30 times a day. Twitter is his marketing platform, his customer service hub, and, unfortunately for his opponents, his battleground. (And now, he is seeking to buy it.)
Last October, Musk used Twitter to target Missy Cummings, a Duke University professor and automation expert. “Objectively, her track record is extremely biased against Tesla,” he tweeted in response to one of his fans.
Those nine words—just the latest in an ongoing disagreement between two outsized personalities in the booming field of automation—unleashed a fury.
Musk’s tweet mobilized an army of virtual trolls that attacked Cummings, who initially responded with grace. “Happy to sit down and talk with you anytime,” she tweeted back to Musk. This only enraged the trolls further, who smeared her online. And two days later, overwhelmed by the sheer amount of online harassment, Cummings deleted her Twitter account, stopped all public commentary, and for the next few months largely went silent online.
This is the tale of that feud, which represents two distinct viewpoints about the technology behind the nation’s most popular electric car. The feud continues to simmer in different corners of social media and will likely boil over in new ways in the future, especially if Musk succeeds with the Twitter takeover and his promise to make his favorite battlefield “broadly inclusive.”
This account is based on the tweets and public statements made by the many parties involved, a Change.org petition, LinkedIn posts by Cummings, and the syllabus she used for her Duke engineering course at the time of the tumult on Twitter. Cummings declined to comment to The 9th Street Journal. Neither Tesla nor Musk responded to requests.
“Killer robots”
The online feud traces back to at least 2017, when Cummings, a widely known former Navy pilot who became a professor in Duke’s Pratt School of Engineering, began tweeting her concerns about Tesla’s highly automated cars, saying that they were “killing people,” among other criticisms.
Sometimes she was clinical, tweeting that Tesla’s autopilot technology gave drivers “mode confusion.” Other times she was blunt, saying that Tesla’s “killer robots” are so dangerous her students who tested them in the lab should “get hazardous duty pay.”
On occasion, she got personal toward Musk. Cummings went as far as posting a GIF of a woman knocking a man out of his chair with a single punch, suggesting she might do the same to Musk.
Cummings has since deleted and apologized for that tweet. “I was trying to make an admittedly bad joke that I would pull no punches if in a conversation with Elon Musk,” she posted in February. She clarified that she loves Tesla as a company and believes electric cars are the future, but feels obligated to voice the safety concerns she has with an automation system that is “terribly flawed.”
The apology apparently didn’t do much to mend her relationship with Musk or his fervent supporters.
When President Joe Biden appointed Cummings to be a senior adviser for safety at the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) on October 19, Tesla supporters immediately took to Twitter to air their grievances, however profane and inappropriate.
Insults were hurled at Cummings calling her “anti-American,” a “tacky, petty woman,” an “obnoxious female,” and a “b*tt hurt old woman.” One since-removed tweet responded to the news of Cummings’s appointment by saying, “If they try and take Autopilot [Tesla’s automated driving system] away from us we will riot so hard January 6 will look like a day at Disneyland.”
A handful of users voiced their support for Cummings online, saying, “Missy, I’m sorry this is happening. I support you!” or “thank you for your service Missy.” The Naturalistic Decision Making Association, an organization that helps clients navigate high-stakes decision-making, issued a statement acknowledging its support of Cummings. But these voices were far outnumbered.
Following her appointment, Cummings refrained from responding to the trolls. She was still directing research at Duke’s Humans and Autonomy Lab, which focuses on the interactions between humans and computers with autonomous features. (The lab’s acronym is HAL, a nod to the evil computer in one of Cummings’s favorite films, 2001: A Space Odyssey.)
No stranger to stress
During the Twitter battle, she was teaching a class at Duke’s engineering school called The Human Element in Cyber Security, lecturing her undergraduate students about cybersecurity breaches. On the last page of her class syllabus, Cummings pasted a link to a list of Duke resources meant to help students who are experiencing “a range of issues that could pose a challenge to learning” including anxiety, stress, and feeling down.
Cummings is no stranger to stress. Her interests put her in situations where she has to regularly contemplate life-or-death scenarios. She’s also no stranger to sexism or to being challenged by powerful men.
In the Navy, men went out of their way to make Cummings’s life difficult. “I saw all the problems that come around with being one of a minority that’s trying to break into a majority,” she said in a podcast interview with Forward Thinking. One of her call names, nicknames given to aviators, was Medusa, a formidable woman in Greek mythology.
Cummings pivoted to a new career path. Her interest in preventing plane crashes led her to space systems engineering and eventually to Duke, where she focused on operator trust of autonomous systems and simulating unmanned robotic environments. The common thread: safety.
The trolls
Cummings has seen what can happen when there is miscommunication between human and machine. It’s what compels her to speak out against Tesla. Her main gripe is not with Musk, it’s with his refusal to incorporate a particular safety technology, LiDAR, into Tesla’s automation system.
LiDAR is a radar system that uses lasers to measure the distance between a sensor and surrounding objects. Cummings believes LiDAR is crucial for self-driving cars to accurately make sense of their surroundings. But Musk disagrees, calling the system “a fool’s errand.”
So, Cummings called him out.
The trolls responded right away. The day after her NHTSA appointment, one [troll] ventured beyond Twitter to create a petition on Change.org that called on the Biden administration to reconsider its appointment of Cummings to NHTSA due to “violation of agency guidelines and ethical principles concerning conflict of interest and bias.” It cited Cummings’s role on the board of directors at Veoneer, a Swedish automation company in competition with Tesla (she has since resigned); the unproven charge that she was a member of TSLAQ, an online collective of Tesla critics; and her public statements.
Written under the moniker “Autopilot Users for Progress,” the petition gained over 30,000 signatures in 48 hours before Change.org took it down due to “defamatory” content. The tweets however, continued to flood in, and on October 21, Cummings deleted her Twitter account.
This measure, though drastic, did little to tame the trolls. They continue to harass Cummings on Twitter, even if she may never see it. Some found her personal email and began to send her threats privately. The emails prompted Cummings, who had declined to comment on the attacks, to break her silence.
“In case anything happens to me”
Two months ago, on her LinkedIn page, Cummings posted screenshots of threatening messages she’s received “so that there is a traceable and public record in case anything happens to me.”
The use of words like “consequences” and “karma” in these messages are what scares Cummings, she said. “I am increasingly concerned about my personal safety around people who clearly are not capable of rational and reasoned thinking,” she posted.
One person suggested on LinkedIn that Cummings seek protection from the university, but Cummings responded “unfortunately Duke has not been supportive, they are afraid of controversy.”
Michael Schoenfeld, Duke’s vice president for public affairs and government relations, declined to comment on her critical LinkedIn post.
Cummings also wrote, “When women say they are afraid for their physical #safety, especially those of us who are public facing, they need to be believed.”
This story was produced through a partnership between the INDY and The 9th Street Journal, which is published by journalism students at Duke University’s DeWitt Wallace Center for Media & Democracy.
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Right now, as readers pick up a copy of this column, there are students at UNC and Duke who are smoking or otherwise consuming cannabis with little fear of repercussions.
Meanwhile, all over North Carolina, Black and brown users of the exact same drug are being arrested and convicted at over twice the rate of their white counterparts.
There’s nothing new here. The war on cannabis and broader “War on Drugs” has always been pursued selectively. And while we might want to dismiss the law enforcement zeal of the 1980s and 1990s—with its racist disparities between prison sentences for crack and powder cocaine—as a relic of another time, we cannot.
As Attorney General Josh Stein and I discussed recently, racial justice issues in North Carolina cannot be addressed without taking on the continued prohibition of cannabis. In North Carolina people of color make up more than 60 percent of convictions for marijuana possession, despite being only 30 percent of the population, and despite the fact that the drug is consumed roughly equally across racial lines, according to Governor Cooper’s racial equity task force.
Arrest and conviction have implications far beyond a fine and time behind bars. Criminal punishment often leads to crippling, lifelong issues, like the loss of housing, difficulty finding employment, and even challenges to a parent’s custody of their children.
It’s time for a change. Whether you care about safety in your community, honestly dealing with abuse and addiction, racial justice reform, or raising tax revenue, cannabis prohibition—which has always been rooted more in racism than in concerns over public health—is outdated and must end.
We can make this change responsibly, with a bipartisan effort in the General Assembly.
It is time for bold reforms. North Carolina should learn from states that have already gone down this path and do this in the way that is right for our people. We have to guard against growing cannabis outside the legal system. We have to carefully regulate the products for consumer safety. We have to deter underage use by avoiding harmful advertising and funding strong health and safety education programs. And we have to ensure that the economic benefits of legalization help reinvest in the communities most damaged by our terrible history with cannabis.
That’s why last year Senator Jay Chaudhuri and I pushed forward and introduced House Bill 576, the Marijuana Justice and Reinvestment Act. Our bill sets out a framework for decriminalizing marijuana and expunging the criminal records of those people who have been convicted of offenses that would no longer be illegal. The bill would regulate and tax the sale of cannabis. And it would dedicate portions of the economic opportunity and tax revenues to reinvesting in the communities most damaged by the war on drugs.
Broad majorities of Americans—Republicans, Democrats, and independents alike—agree that the draconian crackdown on drugs that ruined the lives of millions and continues to have repercussions today went too far and was largely a failure. Those numbers include upward of 80 percent of Republicans.
With the proper safeguards, planning, and regulation, I am ready to work across the aisle with my GOP colleagues to make cannabis legalization a reality. My Republican colleagues see legal sales ready to begin in Virginia as early as next year—and the billions that come along with it in tax revenue. They see a political environment where 21 states and territories, including Washington, DC, have already legalized.
In the South, even Louisiana and Mississippi have legalized medical cannabis, finally acknowledging the health benefits that cancer and other sufferers of chronic illness have touted from the shadows for generations.
What we can’t do, what I will not do, is continue to pretend that the use of cannabis isn’t widespread already. Turning a blind eye to this issue is no longer an option. It is time for a legal system to regulate and tax this widely used drug.
What North Carolina can do is put in place a system that is the gold standard and envy of the rest of the nation. We can do this by implementing a new legal cannabis regime in a framework that:
• Uses generated tax dollars to reinvest in communities of color. Taxation of cannabis will be a huge windfall for North Carolina. We must use a large portion of these proceeds to invest in communities that have been hardest hit by racist selective enforcement.
• Allows North Carolinians to benefit from raising, producing, and selling cannabis. In other states, multinational corporations control the marketplace and take profits away from the community. North Carolinians need a chance to prosper from every part of this new economy.
• Uses safeguarding mechanisms even stronger than our liquor distribution model. Love them or hate them, ABC stores allow the state to control place, price, and distribution, leading to one of the lowest rates of alcohol abuse in the country while also generating more revenue for the state than a private sales model. Cannabis should have even stronger state control, including the use of a state lab that is responsible for testing and labeling product.
• Supports a robust public health advocacy campaign. This will discourage underage and other irresponsible uses—such as driving while intoxicated—and inform residents about the science behind cannabis, not the hype. If there’s ever been an industry that doesn’t need advertising to be popular, this is it. Simply put, cannabis should be legalized but not glamorized.
There are many issues on which my Republican colleagues and I may never agree. But on this, I believe there is a chance for joint action. The people of North Carolina are ready. We should seize the opportunity to deliver a legalization regime that moves North Carolina past the fear and stigma of the drug wars and into a 21st century that responsibly ends prohibition and creates a fairer and more prosperous society for all.
I’m ready to lead us there.
Rep. Graig Meyer is a Democrat representing House District 50. He is a candidate for North Carolina Senate, District 23, in the Democratic primary on May 17. The new state senate district includes Orange, Person, and Caswell Counties.
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Ten candidates. When there are 10 candidates in a political race, you know something is wrong. It’s only when people are clamoring for change—a shift in policy or leadership—that 10 people throw their hats in the ring.
The Wake County Sheriff’s Office has been in flux for the last several years, ever since Democrat Gerald Baker was elected in 2018. Baker, then an underdog who raised just $15,000 in donations, upset Republican sheriff Donnie Harrison, who had held the office since 2002.
Harrison’s policies during his 16 years as sheriff were a mix of moderate and conservative. He called for bail reform and pretrial release programs but also proposed the creation of an independent police force for Wake County schools and began cooperating with ICE to deport immigrants.
Harrison’s participation in the 287(g) program became a flash point during the 2018 campaign season, as liberals accused him of pushing then President Donald Trump’s anti-immigration agenda. Baker, a deputy at the time, pledged to end the county’s cooperation with ICE and improve relationships with heavily policed communities. He took the election with a solid margin of about 10 percent, joining the wave of local Democrats who won races during the midterms.
Since then, however, Baker has faced significant criticism. In 2020, hundreds of people gathered downtown to protest the deaths of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and the many other Black men and women killed by police. They were met with tear gas and less-lethal bullets fired by Raleigh police officers and Wake County Sheriff’s Office deputies.
“We want to see a sheriff who is committed to upholding folks’ constitutional rights to assemble and to protest without the fear of facing chemical weapons,” says Dawn Blagrove, executive director of Emancipate NC, a nonprofit aimed at ending mass incarceration and dismantling structural racism.
Blagrove and other advocates are unhappy with the pace of change since the Black Lives Matter movement resurged in 2020. Although Baker has done a “commendable job” of ending cooperation with ICE, ending overpolicing in Southeast Raleigh and changing the culture inside the sheriff’s office, he’s not the “pillar of progressive policing reform” people hoped for, Blagrove says.
“The elected officials of Wake County are definitely on some kind of time delay. They are not in tune with the needs of their constituency, and I think they are not responding rapidly enough to demands for change,” Blagrove says.
“We know [strong and sweeping changes] are possible. We’ve seen really progressive policies being implemented all over the country, and we have seen positive outcomes from those changes.”
What do people want from the next sheriff?
Emancipate NC supports a variety of law enforcement reforms that are becoming increasingly popular nationwide, according to polls by the American Civil Liberties Union.
Republicans and Democrats alike say communities will be safer when officials reduce the number of people in prison and increase treatment of mental illness and addiction, according to a 2015 survey. Overall, voters say they think officials should focus more on rehabilitation than incarceration.
Blagrove says Wake County’s next sheriff should be someone with a deliberate plan to reduce jail populations, especially given that detention centers are understaffed. He or she should also ensure incarcerated people are being treated humanely—that they have adequate access to health care, education, nutritious food, and phones so they can speak with their family, Blagrove says.
In another survey last year, the ACLU found that 66 percent of voters support “eliminating criminal penalties for drug possession and reinvesting drug enforcement resources into treatment and addiction services.” Again, those views align with those of Emancipate NC, which is pushing for a reduction or elimination of prosecution of low-level marijuana charges, Blagrove says.
In past years, there’s been little transparency and less accountability from law enforcement, Blagrove adds. Emancipate NC wants to see the next sheriff publicize information about disciplinary actions that are taken against deputies, as well as who is promoted and how. Investigations into misconduct should be outsourced to an independent group, Blagrove says.
“We have a lot of pretend progressives, people who say the right thing, who show up during election time and promise things, but when it comes to actually using the power that was given them to implement those transformative changes, they no longer have the political will to do so,” Blagrove says.
“Hopefully with these upcoming elections, the people will once again use the power of their vote to find people … who will be actual progressives and use the power of their offices to implement real systemic change.”
Who’s likely to win?
Among the candidates for Wake County sheriff, seven are Democrats and three are Republicans. With such a crowded field, name recognition may end up counting for a lot. In that arena, Baker and Harrison have the advantage.
Next month’s primary will whittle the number of candidates down to just two, a Democrat and a Republican, who will ultimately face off in November’s general election. Despite the upswell of support for liberal police reform, Harrison or another Republican may have a shot at taking back the sheriff’s seat. Democratic turnout will likely be low with President Joe Biden in office during the midterms.
Whoever does win the race will control the flow of nearly $102 million through the sheriff’s office, plus oversee more than 900 employees, some on patrol and some in Wake County’s detention centers. The sheriff also heads up the county’s permitting process for guns, serves warrants and eviction notices, and patrols the Wake County Justice Center and courthouse.
Who are the Democratic candidates?
Gerald M. Baker, 59
Baker’s platform has remained unchanged since his 2018 election. If reelected, he plans to continue his work “restoring the integrity” of the office, he says. Baker points to his reorganization of the agency as a success and says he and his employees have “answered the call” to address the COVID-19 crisis and civil unrest.
Baker’s hiring and firing policies have caused some controversy, however. The sheriff got into hot water this year when it was reported he faced four lawsuits from five different employees. One suit, in which former longtime deputy and chief of operations Richard Johnson alleged wrongful termination, was settled for $99,999 last week. Three other people allege discrimination and retaliation.
Baker says the Johnson lawsuit was “frivolous” and other allegations are purely political. In a report from The News & Observer, Baker said the lawsuits he’s facing are from people who would not accept the new leadership and expected to continue problematic practices that existed under the previous administration.
During a conversation with the INDY, Baker dropped a lot of buzzwords—“transparency,” “diversity,” “accountability”—but some may question whether his efforts to prioritize those principles have resulted in real change. In talking about changes he’s made, Baker cited his creation of a community relations unit, the seizure of 40 million grams of drugs in the past three years, and increased patrol of lakes and waterways.
“Being accountable for your staff, the training, the policy, [setting] expectations, it starts at the top,” Baker says. “I did that immediately, when I walked in. We’re accountable for who we are and what we do.”
Randolph Baity, 46
Baity, like the five other Democratic candidates, is a political outsider with years of law enforcement experience. He currently works as a police officer with the Clayton Police Department in Johnston County, continuing a 22-year career in policing.
Baity says one of his top priorities is community engagement, a major talking point among all candidates in the race. Baity plans to build trust between law enforcement and citizens with a quarterly meeting between the sheriff, police chiefs, and residents.
“[People] don’t want to fear police intimidation, fear excessive force, police brutality,” Baity says. “In order to bridge those gaps we got to have not only communication, but you got to have leadership in the community. The sheriff needs to be available and visible.”
Baity also wants to enact a “duty to intervene” policy, which means if an officer on the scene sees another officer engaging in misconduct, they have a duty to do something. When officers do “egregious things,” they shouldn’t be given the opportunity to resign and move to a different department, Baity says.
“My vision is to bring resources to the community,” he says. “I want to bring in a human trafficking task force. I want to implement a citizens’ academy program, so citizens can be a part of law enforcement, so we can learn from each other.”
Joe Coley, 51
Coley is a sergeant with the State Capitol Police, which guards government buildings. Like other candidates, he’s hit on some of the biggest issues currently facing the sheriff’s office, namely understaffing.
“The first major thing that’s got to be done is we got to get more deputies and more detention officers,” Coley said in an interview with WRAL. “Right now, the jail’s working on emergency staffing. That makes it unsafe for the people who are incarcerated there. Definitely makes it unsafe for the officers.”
Coley says he wants to make the county safe again by hiring more officers and lessening call response times. His plan for community involvement revolves around historically successful programs like senior well-check and citizen’s academy.
Ultimately, Coley is a solid candidate, but he’s mostly running on issues that are widely accepted as necessary to the continued survival of the sheriff’s office. His talking points don’t include some of the progressive reforms activists are pushing for.
Cedric L. Herring, 53
Herring, a retired sergeant of State Highway Patrol, has an audible passion for social justice. He speaks ardently about the need for sweeping change in the sheriff’s office, including ending overpolicing, releasing body camera footage, and reallocating money from guns to de-escalation training.
Herring says change starts with recognizing the current culture of policing, that “Black and brown people are treated a certain way.”
Today’s police culture rewards making arrests, even if it’s for low-level offenses like vagrancy, Herring says. He plans to meet with police chiefs to talk about why officers are taking so many people to jail for low-level crimes. Next, he wants to talk to the magistrate about releasing people on a promise to appear instead of a $500 bond they can’t pay.
“If everybody is on board where we’re trying to go with this, then we can have true police reform,” Herring says. “But it won’t happen until you got a sheriff that is in agreement that there’s a true issue with the way officers have been conducting themselves out here.”
Herring’s first priority, if elected, is to recruit and retain more officers, he says. Like other candidates, he notes the current lack of patrol and detention staff creates a public safety issue. When Herring worked for the sheriff’s office in the early 2000s, there were about 20 or 25 cars on the road to patrol half a million people, he says. Today, there are eight cars on the road, patrolling 1.2 million people.
Herring is determined to implement reform, but is it enough? Although he has plenty of on-the-ground law enforcement experience, he lacks political experience that may enable him to hit the ground running. Herring says he will be a “working sheriff,” getting out into the community and leading by example.
“The sheriff’s office is struggling right now because they have no structure. No one knows what the other person is supposed to be doing, so no one’s doing anything,” Herring says. “Walking in the door, that is one of the first things we have to do.”
Tommy Matthews, 68
Matthews, after spending about 25 years in the investigations department of the sheriff’s office, first retired in 2004 as a major. He then went on to serve under Republican sheriff Harrison as the assistant director of detention services, working to improve medical and mental health care for people who were incarcerated.
Matthews has a good record on improving the conditions in the detention center, including training staff on federal labor standards, sexual harrasment, and the use of personal protective equipment. He’s also talked about increasing transparency and improving the relationship between Wake County schools and school resource officers.
But Matthews’s platform doesn’t revolve around progressive police reform. Rather, he stands on issues widely supported by the majority of people—improving mental health care, improving community engagement, and reducing the officer turnover rate.
Willie Rowe, 62
Rowe, yet another former law enforcement officer aiming to take the top job in the county, has a little more management experience than some other candidates. During his 28 years at the sheriff’s office, he helped develop policy, manage the budget, and supervise staff and daily operations, he says.
Rowe is also deeply embedded in the community he hopes to serve. He is a deacon at First Baptist Church, where he has worked to increase affordable housing, reduce homelessness, and reach out to at-risk youth. If elected, Rowe plans to hold weekly meetings with community members, he says.
“The purpose of those meetings is for me to listen and learn, to hear concerns and gather the input of the community,” Rowe says. “[We need to] establish open and honest communication so the community and law enforcement can work together to prevent crime and create opportunity. This way, people don’t feel like they have to resort to crime as a means of survival or acceptance.”
Rowe has a somewhat old-school approach to policing. When people vote for him, they will get “proven leadership, proven experience, and proven relationships,” he says.
On reform, Rowe says the sheriff’s office needs to ensure it has a qualified, diverse, and inclusive workforce. Rowe also supports a pretrial release program and increased education opportunities for people in jail.
“We can’t arrest our way out,” he says. “It’s really a matter of prevention, deterrence using education, awareness, and engagement.”
Roy Taylor, 59
Taylor, also a former employee of the Wake County Sheriff’s Office, brings some more diverse experience to the table. In addition to spending 40 years in law enforcement—including serving as chief of police for several agencies—Taylor is a military veteran whose jobs included inspecting prisoner of war camps and managing disciplinary barracks.
In that role, Taylor had to ensure that the constitutional rights of imprisoned people were upheld, he says. If elected, one of his priorities is to improve conditions for people in Wake County detention centers. Taylor plans to restart education programs, counseling programs, clergy visits, and substance abuse support groups in the jail, he says.
“With 1,500 people, you’ve got to house them, you have to clothe them, you have to feed them, you have to care for them,” Taylor says. “That means you have to be cognizant of their religious beliefs, their dietary needs, their medical needs, their psychiatric needs, their dental needs.”
Taylor also has a doctorate in criminal justice from Walden University and works as an expert witness. Having testified in cases where police officers shot and killed people, he’s a strong advocate of providing de-escalation training, demilitarizing the police, and teaching officers how to deal with people with mental illnesses.
“One of the things that happened to our country after 9/11 was that police officers were trained to be warriors and not guardians,” Taylor says. “Warriors occupy territory. We go in as soldiers and take over a piece of ground and control it. Well, that’s not the job of law enforcement. Our job is to protect the community residents from harm.”
Who are the Republican candidates?
Donnie Harrison, 76
Despite calls for change, Harrison’s vision for the sheriff’s office hasn’t changed much—not necessarily a bad strategy given that his former policies won him more than a decade in the seat.
If reelected, Harrison seems likely to reinstate the controversial 287(g) program, resuming cooperation with ICE. He stood by previous statements that the program helps keep immigrant communities safe, saying it keeps people who are wanted for crimes off the streets. Harrison says he will support the program “if I think it can make this county safer for the Hispanic community, or for anybody in this community.”
Harrison also plans to continue investment in mental health training and community engagement, he says. He cited his open-door policy as evidence he was available and willing to talk to residents.
Like other candidates, recruitment and retention of officers is a priority for Harrison. Harrison criticized the current administration, saying his experience will help him hit the ground running and reunite the agency.
“So many people don’t understand what law enforcement officers do,” Harrison says. “Even the news media don’t understand how quickly we have to make decisions involving our life and other people’s lives. So we’ve got to educate the public. One thing I’ve said probably millions of times to my deputies [is] ‘Put God first, your family, your job, and treat people like you want to be treated.’”
David Blackwelder, 36
Harrison’s defeat in 2018 has drawn other Republican candidates out of the woodwork, hoping to usher in a new era of leadership. Blackwelder, an attorney who works in antitrust law, presents a more liberal alternative to Harrison.
The former police officer has a checkered background, however. He was arrested in October for driving while intoxicated, a charge that was ultimately dismissed due to lack of witnesses. He’s been a strong critic of Baker’s administration, saying if elected, he will remove the sheriff’s right to hire and fire based on political affiliation.
Blackwelder worked as a police officer for 10 years before becoming disenchanted with the profession, he says. As sheriff, he thinks he can make a bigger difference in changing internal policies and ultimately rebuilding trust between law enforcement and the public.
If elected, Blackwelder says he plans to empower people in their interactions with police by educating them about their constitutional rights. He wants to start using consent forms for police searches to ensure people know what they’re agreeing to. Blackwelder also supports the legalization of marijuana, he says.
Tivon Howard, 46
Howard, an officer with the Zebulon Police Department, has a platform almost identical to that of other candidates. Like some of his opponents, he supports mental health and de-escalation training for officers. He wants to address the opioid epidemic and engage the public with a Wake Citizen Corps program.
“I’m here for the community,” he says. “I’m willing to listen.”
Howard prioritizes transparency and wants to create a civilian board to oversee the promotion process, he says. He also has some ideas for improving officer morale—annual cost-of-living increases, for one—and reducing recidivism through education and community service. Overall, however, there’s nothing eye-catching about his platform. And although he has on-the-ground experience, some may question whether he’s ready to take charge of the sheriff’s office.
Support independent local journalism. Join the INDY Press Club to help us keep fearless watchdog reporting and essential arts and culture coverage viable in the Triangle.
Follow Staff Writer Jasmine Gallup on Twitter or send an email to jgallup@indyweek.com.
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https://indyweek.com/news/durham/durham-school-board-candidate-says-influential-durham-political-groups-infiltrated/
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Red-baiting emerged in the Bull City on April Fool’s Day.
It’s a helluva accusation that would make ol’ Joe McCarthy proud: communists in the Bull City are secretly working to overthrow democracy.
That’s the reason a lifelong Durham resident and county school board candidate alluded to this month when he announced he wouldn't seek endorsements from two of the city’s most influential political action committees, the People’s Alliance (PA), and the Durham Association of Educators (DAE).
Donald Hughes, a 2014 school board candidate who is now vying for a District 2 school board seat said he could not in good conscience participate in the endorsement processes” of the Durham People’s Alliance or the DAE because of their desire “to use Durham to build and push a national agenda.”
Hughes cites as evidence a blog account by journalist, activist, and pastor Carl Kenney, who wrote last month that organizers trained by Freedom Road Socialist Organization (FRSO) and the Workers World Party met to discuss taking control of local government.
“The plan involved infiltrating People’s Alliance and Durham Association of Educators to impact who gets elected,” Kenney wrote. “They set their eyes on the Durham Committee on the Affairs of Black People, but white guilt couldn’t be used to penetrate one of the nation’s most prominent Black political action committees.”
Kenney told the INDY earlier this month that he wrote the blog post after having conversations with people who are directly connected with both organizations “who believe [they] are putting forth a strategy to propel Durham forward in a positive way, but the agenda is not good for Black people.”
Kenney adds that “people who are not from Durham are sending resources and organizers to shift the political canvas in Durham,” and that it becomes “problematic” because the PA and DAE are not being “honest about what their agenda is.
“Durham is being infiltrated by people not from Durham,” Kenney says. “This is not a red scare. This is not anti-union. This is not anti-socialism. I’m supportive of all that. It’s about not being honest and transparent, and we can’t have that.”
Hughes in his April 1 statement echoed the sentiments in Kenney’s blog.
“Over the last decade, I have watched many politicians and political groups use my hometown of Durham, North Carolina, as a pawn in their efforts to build national profiles and push agendas that do not include the very communities and individuals who they claim their advocacy efforts support,” he wrote.
This month, the non-partisan Friends of Durham political action committee endorsed Hughes, who is challenging school board chair Bettina Umstead, as did the Durham Committee on the Affairs of Black People PAC. The People's Alliance did not endorse Hughes and endorsed Umstead instead.
Sheila Huggins, a Durham attorney and the FOD’s PAC co-chair struck a moderating tone, saying not every candidate wants to interview with the political group that endorses elected office-seekers based on what’s best for Durham.
“Everyone is looking for their place, their fit, when it comes to finding the organization that aligns with their thoughts around policies and values” Huggins told the INDY. “Sometimes that’s an opportunity for self-reflection for the person and the organization.”
The pushback against Hughes’s and Kenney’s claims are considerable.
Nana-Asante Smith, a Durham attorney who chairs the PA’s PAC, told the INDY that for decades, the organization has “worked tirelessly to advance a progressive vision for Durham.”
She called Hughes’ accusation of socialism an old Republican trope often aimed at progressive, left-leaning politicians, activists and organizations.
“Untruths like theories of a nefarious takeover are akin to the dangerous rhetoric espoused by far-right politicians and media outlets like The Epoch Times,” she wrote in an email to the INDY.
Smith says that like any organization, the People’s Alliance has been, and continues to be, imperfect.
“However, it is indisputable that we are a member-led, member-centered, and member-powered organization,” she says.
Smith also notes that “criticisms that call into question the integrity of our endorsement process are meritless and opportunistic, particularly when those criticisms augment untruths disguised as forward-thinking critical analysis.”
The People’s Alliance, Smith adds, “is not a dictatorship, it is a democracy.”
But Hughes says he has participated in the local endorsement process several times as a candidate for elected office in Durham and that each time, he "was struck by the same few individuals who were members of the interview committees and endorsement process of both organizations—the People's Alliance and Durham Association of Educators."
"This is about the influence of outside money and individuals on Durham's political process," Hughes told the INDY. "This is about transparency. If organizations are going to pour money and resources into Durham to win elections, then we want to see the outcome of this work. Growing income inequality, health disparities, housing insecurity, and educational achievement gaps in Durham do not represent the progressive values I hold close to my heart."
At the center of Hughes’ one-page statement is the People’s Alliance 2014 endorsement of Sendolo Diaminah, who won a District 2 school board seat.
Hughes says that Diaminah, starting in 2008, “had only voted in three elections in Durham before his run for the school board seat.”
Hughes says that after Diaminah won the election, he “resigned from the Durham School Board after only two years in office and devoted his efforts to pushing an agenda with ties to the national Freedom Road Socialist Organization (FRSO).”
Hughes says those individuals “set out on a mission to infiltrate numerous Durham organizations and give the appearance that these organizations represented different individuals when in reality they were being controlled by the same small group of people,” who are part of a movement funded by individuals and organizations outside of Durham with no connections to the community's unique challenges and needs.
Diaminah is a native of Michigan, who moved to Raleigh from New York in 2007.
Given Hughes’ accusation, in Diaminah’s estimation, perhaps now is not the time for Bull City progressives to abide by Michelle Obama’s axiom “when they go low, we go high.”
“There’s a Youruba word, ‘bolekaja,’ that means, ‘Come on down. Let’s fight,” says Diaminah, who is a member of Liberation Road, (formerly known as FRSO), a socialist organization here in Durham.
Diaminah says he lived in Raleigh for a year not to become involved in a political conspiracy but because he wanted to escape an abusive relationship and live where he didn’t know anyone as a Black queer person who had just come out to his family.
Diaminah says he moved to Durham 15 years ago because of Southerners On New Ground (SONG), a social justice organization that advocates on behalf of the LGBTQ community.
Diaminah says before moving to Durham, he talked with SONG’s co-director, Paulina Hernandez and board member Caitlin Breedlove, who “listened to me crying my eyes out.
“They heard my story before telling me about the South and Durham specifically as a refuge for exiles. That’s why I’m here. I’m not closeted about any of my identities.”
“I think when people don’t want to do the hard work of organizing, they like to throw out the conspiracy thing,” Diaminah adds. “It’s not conspiratorial at all to knock on doors, and talk to people and earn their trust. When I moved here I met people who were committed to doing the hard and beautiful work of earning peoples’ trust.”
DAE president Michelle Burton issued a statement in response to Hughes’ accusation.
“The Durham Association of Educators represents educators across the Durham Public School System,” Burton wrote. “We are also parents, neighbors, church-synagogue-mosque-goers. We work second jobs, and we are sorority, and fraternity members. Learning that DPS School Board candidate Donald Hughes' decision to not meet with Durham Public School educators, a diverse constituent group, ahead of this year’s election is disheartening.”
Hughes concluded his statement by saying that he would continue to listen to and talk with students, parents, school staff, teachers, and voters across District 2 about the challenges faced by Durham Public Schools.
“In a school system where 75 percent of the student population is Black and Hispanic, and Black students perform at 35 percent proficiency on average compared to 78 percent for white students, we must put our students above politics,” he says.
Burton clapped back, hard.
“For a school board candidate who “refuses to meet with, listen to and answer questions from teachers, bus drivers, cafeteria workers and other support staff after everything educators and students have gone through over the last two years is indefensible,” she wrote.
“It’s an insult to the voters and our representative democracy when those who seek elected office refuse to listen to the people they seek to represent.”
Editor's note: This story, including the headline, has been updated to reflect that the reference to Marxists infiltrating the Durham PACs is from Carl Kenney's blog and not from Hughes's statement, and that, in addition to being endorsed by the Friends of Durham PAC, Hughes was also endorsed by the Durham Committee on the Affairs of Black People.
Support independent local journalism. Join the INDY Press Club to help us keep fearless watchdog reporting and essential arts and culture coverage viable in the Triangle.
Follow Durham Staff Writer Thomasi McDonald on Twitter or send an email to tmcdonald@indyweek.com.
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https://indyweek.com/news/orange/orange-county-register-of-deeds-election/
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These days, when a real person sets foot into the Orange County register of deeds office, Mark Chilton’s heart skips a beat.
Providing residents with hands-on assistance in searching for records is one of his favorite parts of the job. Since the onset of the pandemic, more than 90 percent of the office’s transactions have taken place online—but he still gets the occasional visitor.
A month ago, for instance, a mother and daughter came in to see if Chilton could help them verify that one of their ancestors, Tony Strayhorn, was the first Black landowner in what would come to be Carrboro.
“We dug deep and searched for those records, and found that the oral history within the family is indeed well-supported by the documents at the register of deeds office,” Chilton says.
After finding the property records, Chilton unearthed Strayhorn’s original marriage certificate from 1883 and “put it into their hands.”
“It brought all of us to the edge of tears,” Chilton says, “to hold it in hand and see this original document about two people who were real leaders in this community.”
Chilton is a NC Central law school alum who previously practiced real estate law and served as both a Chapel Hill town councilman and the mayor of Carrboro. He’s held the register of deeds position since 2014, when his vow to issue same-sex marriage licenses in the ultra-progressive county gave him an edge over incumbent Deborah Brooks.
Since taking office, Chilton has added passport services to the office, implemented an alert service to guard against real estate fraud, and completed the digitization of every deed book dating back to 1755.
One of his main goals has been ensuring that records from the Civil War era are brought to light. He and his staff have combed through 18,000 pages of handwritten documents from 1761 to the mid-1860s, digitizing those relating to the sales of enslaved people to make them more easily available to historians and so that “descendants have the resources they need to be able to tell those stories themselves.”
“We want to uncover a suppressed history of Orange County,” Chilton says. “We’re never going to get over what happened—what white people did to people of color—without, at a bare minimum, a first step, an open acknowledgement of what was done.”
If re-elected, Chilton plans to complete this current undertaking—there are a number of documents left to upload, and he’s also in the process of compiling records referencing free people of color in Orange County before the Civil War. He also aims to continue his work in creating a system that will eliminate about 100,000 pages of unnecessary printed paper per year.
In the upcoming primary, Chilton will be up against Penny Rich, a former personal chef and caterer who has served on the Orange Water And Sewer Authority board of directors, the Chapel Hill town council, and Orange County Board of County Commissioners.
If elected, Rich says her experience in public service and her degree in communications technology will be of good use in fulfilling her two main priorities: improving customer service and revamping the office’s website.
“It’s just awful. It’s almost like we’re in the past, where you had to get three or four clicks to get your information,” she says about the website, adding that “my opponent says everything is digitized—everything isn't digitized."
Chilton says the website was redesigned to be more user-friendly last year and refutes Rich’s claim that there are deed books yet to be uploaded.
According to Chilton, residents come into the office for an expert’s assistance in researching complex topics, but Rich highlights these kinds of visits as proof that the database is difficult to navigate and lacks information.
“We still have people going to the office and pulling out the dusty old books prior to 1932 to possibly do a little research on deeds,” Rich says.
Like her opponent, Rich notes the importance of digitizing Civil War-era deeds, but she says it’s a problem that the project is only partially done.
Similarly, Rich says the current office is too leisurely in conducting its primary services—namely property closings, which “sometimes take over an hour.” (Chilton says this recording function typically takes about 20 minutes.) If elected, Rich says she hopes to maximize efficiency by streamlining procedures and providing service during lunchtime.
Rich’s last grievance with the incumbent Register of Deeds is “he claims to be a progressive Democrat” but supported Pat McCrory’s 2008 bid for governor of North Carolina. Chilton says he “deeply regrets” the endorsement.
“I worked with him when we were both mayors, advocating for better funding for public transportation,” Chilton says. “[But] he was a terrible Governor who showed himself to be shallow and to sink to any depth for political gain.”
Since Chilton and Rich are both Democrats, the May 17 primary will effectively decide the winner—only one candidate will proceed to the general election on November 8. Early voting begins next Thursday, April 28.
Support independent local journalism. Join the INDY Press Club to help us keep fearless watchdog reporting and essential arts and culture coverage viable in the Triangle.
Follow Staff Writer Lena Geller on Twitter or send an email to lgeller@indyweek.com.
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https://indyweek.com/news/wake/raleigh-residents-concerned-about-growth-community-engagement/
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As the Raleigh City Council election approaches in November, local activist group Livable Raleigh commissioned the left-leaning local research group Public Policy Polling to survey residents on issues including growth, affordable housing, and community engagement.
The group—led in part by former city council members Stef Mendell and Russ Stephenson, who lost their bids for re-election in 2019—has been critical of Mayor Mary-Ann Baldwin's strategies for increasing affordable housing, saying she's too lenient with developers.
Baldwin says her pro-density approach to zoning and development helps increase the housing supply and ultimately lowers prices, a strategy that has been somewhat effective in other cities.
Poll results show, unsurprisingly, that Raleigh residents are concerned about a lack of affordable housing and an increase in gentrification as Raleigh grows at an unprecedented rate. The Raleigh-Cary area was the second-fasted growing metro area in the nation from 2010 to 2019, according to data from the US Census Bureau.
The increase in population has led to a growing demand for housing, an increase in the cost of living, and concerns about increased traffic and crime. Growth is likely to be one of the biggest issues in the upcoming city council elections.
Survey Results
Of the 665 Raleigh voters Public Policy Polling surveyed, 48 percent said "Raleigh's growth rate is too fast," while 36 percent said, "it's about right." Another 9 percent said it's not fast enough, while 7 percent said they weren't sure.
Almost half of the respondents, 49 percent, said "a lack of affordable housing for middle and low-income families" is the biggest problem facing the city, according to the poll. When asked about the second-biggest problem the city faces, about 22 percent of respondents said "something else/not sure," 16 percent said "traffic congestion," and 12 percent said "gentrification."
About 45 percent also said they think Raleigh's infrastructure is starting to fall behind the current growth rate. About 53 percent said they agreed (rather than disagreed or were not sure) that "Raleigh's growth is destroying neighborhoods and forcing large numbers of people to relocate outside of Raleigh."
Respondents are also concerned about the elimination of citizen advisory councils, public forums that were designed to engage citizens and allow residents to vote on issues set to come before the city council in an advisory capacity. CACs had been part of Raleigh's political landscape for nearly 50 years before the city council abruptly voted to dismantle them in 2020 without public input or notice.
Critics of the system have long said citizen advisory councils needed to be reformed or changed to make room for more effective community engagement—but the less than transparent behavior of the city council fostered distrust in their promises to do just that. Among respondents, 69 percent disbanding CACs was a bad decision. About 49 percent said city officials were "doing a bad job" of "keeping Raleigh residents informed about what they’re doing."
Who was surveyed?
The poll was conducted in February and the people surveyed were a random selection of registered voters in Raleigh, according to Jim Williams, a polling analyst with the group.
The population surveyed is relatively representative of the population of Raleigh voters, although white Democrats are slightly overrepresented.
Of the 324,629 people registered to vote in Raleigh, about 44 percent are Democrats, 17 percent are Republican, and 39 percent are unaffiliated, according to municipal voter registration statistics. Of the people surveyed, about 55 percent are Democrats, 16 percent are Republicans, and 29 percent are independent, according to the poll.
In Raleigh, about 26 percent of voters are Black, 54 percent are white, and 4.3 percent are Hispanic. In the survey, about 26 percent of respondents are Black, 62 percent are white, and 5 percent are Hispanic.
Respondents were about equally divided in age, with 36 percent age 18-45, 38 percent 46-65, and 26 percent older than 65. Respondents were also scattered around each of Raleigh's five city council districts—22 percent in district A (represented by Patrick Buffkin), 14 percent in B (David Cox), 20 percent in C (Corey Branch), 19 percent in D (Stormie Forte), and 25 percent in E (David Knight).
Half of the interviews for the survey were conducted by telephone and half by text message. The margin of error for the results is +/- 3.8 percent. Read the full survey below.
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Follow Staff Writer Jasmine Gallup on Twitter or send an email to jgallup@indyweek.com.
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https://indyweek.com/guides/festival-guide/festival-events-directory-2022/
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After a long two years, our masks are coming off and festivals are back. There's a lot planned: from music festivals to food and wine festivals, art festivals, film festivals, Pride festivals, beer festivals, strawberry picking festivals—you name it. Browse our exhaustive listing below (or download a copy) to see what's on tap this spring, summer, and fall.
And don't forget to stay current on all the events happening around the Triangle by signing up for our newsletter and bookmarking our calendar page.
To promote a festival or event, feel free to contact us.
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Comment on this story at backtalk@indyweek.com.
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https://indyweek.com/news/Letters-to-the-Editor/op-ed-primary-determines-future-for-orange-county-students/
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Carrie Doyle serves on the Orange County school board and is not currently running for reelection. This piece reflects her personal opinion and not the opinion of the OCS Board of Education
In the upcoming May election, four of the seven seats are up for the Orange County Schools Board of Education; this election will determine whether or not our district continues in a progressive and equity-centered direction.
OCS has protected safe spaces for in-person learning these past two pandemic years. Board meetings have frequently featured health experts from the Orange County Health Department and the ABC Science Collaborative to guide our decision-making for a safe return to schools in SY2020-21, and for safely keeping our classrooms open throughout SY2021-22. To date, our district has not had to re-close a single classroom, school, or bus.
Within the broader goal of supporting our diverse student population and their families, OCS has drastically increased our language and translation services. Our Communications team launched multi-lingual Parent Academies, teaching families how to use Powerschool, complete FAFSA forms, and even providing computer classes for adults. For the first time, the district provided regular Karen and Burmese language translation to serve the growing refugee community in Orange County. We now have at least one bilingual staff member in all our front offices so that everyone feels welcomed entering our schools. We’ve also hired school-based family liaisons to help all families overcome barriers to the school environment.
In the middle of the pandemic, our district’s previous Strategic Plan sunsetted; this spring, we launched a 5 Year Strategic Plan with an interwoven Equity Plan. Beginning in the Spring of 2020, we hosted various forums for input from teachers, staff, students, and community members to shape the values and vision of our new 5 Year Plan. For the first time ever, our district designed an interwoven Equity Plan with our Strategic Plan; last week, we hosted local Electeds for a launch of the Plan at Central Elementary School. Currently, district staff and Board members are determining which metrics to monitor over the coming school year to track progress for those plans.
We are currently addressing head-on and with transparency several long-standing and deep-rooted problems in our district:
- Literacy: Reading proficiency had stagnated or declined by School Year 2017-18. As we hired TNTP to audit K-12 literacy curricula across the district, we began implementing researched-based curriculum supporting the Science of Reading. TNTP’s examination of student work found the new SOR approaches in the early grades improved instruction and learning; new curriculum is needed in some upper grades so that students have consistent access to grade-level content.
- Equity: Surveys of students and staff suggest a long road for the creation of truly equitable school environments that foster a sense of belonging for all. Millennium Learning Concept’s audit found that while our Equity Policy, Equity Department, and school-level equity leaders are pillars of an equitable school community, we yet have only islands of excellence district wide. Better training and communication of expectations would deepen a culture of equity, as well as support administrators, teachers, and students doing the work.
- Classified Salary scales: The HIL audit determined that salary compression for Classified Staff worsened over the past decade; this compression has demoralized staff and caused us to lose staff to neighboring districts, county government, and the private sector. Our upcoming local budget request to the Commissioners addresses the financial need our district has to meet this demand. Nevertheless, we have recently funded first steps towards undoing that compression for Classified Staff. We also recently approved funding to recognize years of experience of certified staff; the district’s previous practice was to only recognize years in OCS itself. Also, just before the pandemic took place, we overhauled our salary schedule for bus drivers and transportation workers; we continue to uphold competitive salaries for those workers, who with Child Nutrition were the backbone of feeding families throughout pandemic summers as well as getting our students safely to schools.
To sum up: OCS has worked overtime to not just come out of the pandemic safely, but to come out with: broader support for our diverse community; better educational programming for our students; recognition of the need to better compensate our hard-working staff. Our schools need to continue the direction taken by our district leadership over recent years. Our students need opportunities to succeed in a setting that supports them—all of them. Likewise, our teachers and staff need salaries that reflect their efforts and excellence.
Only a couple of the OCS board candidates express the intention of continuing the forward-looking, difficult work that is well under way. In our small North Carolina district, we are gaining momentum on these critical issues because of personal commitment by members of our board, staff, and students—holding us to the vision of an excellent and equitable community for our kids. Please vote to continue the work.
Support independent local journalism. Join the INDY Press Club to help us keep fearless watchdog reporting and essential arts and culture coverage viable in the Triangle.
Comment on this story at backtalk@indyweek.com.
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https://indyweek.com/news/durham/why-are-sheriffs-deputies-from-alamance-county-patrolling-durham/
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A bullet pierced the windshield of an unmarked police car patrolling public housing in Durham on the night of April 9, flying straight through to the back window and shattering it, photos show.
What remained was more than shards of glass. Questions about the investigation and the officers in the vehicle arose following the shooting.
The unmarked police car wasn’t a Durham County Sheriff’s Office vehicle and only one of the deputies worked for the Durham sheriff’s department. The reward money put up for information leading to an arrest in the shooting isn’t all from Durham County coffers, either.
The unmarked Jeep SUV belonged to the Alamance County sheriff’s office and one of the deputies inside worked for the Alamance sheriff’s office, Sheriff Terry Johnson told INDY Week on Monday. Johnson says that he “put up some money for a reward on whoever perpetrated that crime.”
In the wake of the shooting, the Durham sheriff’s office released a statement with an offer of $5,000 to anyone with information leading to an arrest.
So why was an Alamance County vehicle and at least one deputy patrolling within Durham city limits that night, and what authority does a deputy from two counties over have? And does the presence of a deputy from a much more conservative county who is answerable to a sheriff known for his anti-immigrant rhetoric and pro-Confederate monument stances clash with Durham’s progressive values?
Strike Team
The night of the shooting, the two deputies from different counties rolled along Keystone Place near Dearborn Drive, passing by the brick-and-siding apartment buildings and a picnic area, according to police reports. They were investigating in Oxford Manor, a Durham city public housing community, the reports say.
At about 9:30 p.m., the Durham and Alamance County deputies ducked for their lives. At least two men shot multiple rounds at the unmarked SUV, hitting it and nearby housing, according to the Durham sheriff’s office.
Little has been said about why the deputies were patrolling Oxford Manor, but the Durham sheriff’s office told the public that the two law enforcement officers were working on an “active and ongoing investigation.”
Durham County Sheriff Clarence Birkhead gave sparing details about the shooting in a talk with INDY Week on Tuesday.
The officers were investigating “an area where we had incidents of gun violence,” according to Birkhead.
At a forum of sheriff candidates on April 13, Birkhead might have given some general insight as to why an Alamance County police car and deputy were out of their jurisdiction.
At the forum, Birkhead said Durham County had a “strike team” with Alamance, Orange, and Guilford Counties. He described the strike team as a regional partnership aimed at picking up gun and drug runners and stopping gang activity in the areas of Interstates 40 and 85.
“I’m working with Alamance, Orange, and Guilford counties because we know that the 85 corridor is a delivery pipeline for weapons and we see it all the time,” Birkhead said. “Alamance is overrun with drugs and guns … and we’re working together (with the other counties) because we know what’s coming up and down 85 and I-40.”
For this regional type of partnership to work between police agencies, they typically have to sign onto what’s usually called a “memorandum of understanding” or “mutual aid agreement.” Such understandings or agreements allow officers of disparate agencies to investigate outside their borders and within the jurisdiction of the other partnering agencies. These partnerships aren’t without limitations, though. Usually, one police agency needs to invite the other into its jurisdiction or an agency needs to let another know they’re crossing over a border for policing purposes.
In his conversation with the INDY, Birkhead said that his office signed a memorandum of understanding with Alamance and the other two counties that formed the strike team in March 2021.
The counties wanted to pool their resources to address gang, drug, and gun crime and “to rid our neighborhoods of violence” while also gathering the best evidence for prosecutors to convict people charged with crimes.
The strike team has made more than 84 arrests and filed 278 charges, Birkhead says. The team has seized 38 guns and between the four counties assisted in 41 operations resulting in arrests.
“We’re committed to keeping resources allocated” to the strike team, Birkhead says.
‘Terry Johnson style of policing’ in Durham County?
Kerwin Pittman, a policy director at the nonprofit Emancipate NC which advocates for police and criminal justice reform, says Durham should not embrace a partnership with the Alamance County sheriff’s office.
A partnership with Alamance County is “extremely problematic given the history Terry Johnson has of pretty much blatant racism,” Pittman says.
On its website, Emancipate NC says it is committed to replacing “criminalization and incarceration with alternative approaches that address violence and repair harm” in communities of color.
That approach is at odds, to say the least, with Johnson’s style of policing, his personality, and associations.
Johnson had in the past partnered with the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, through a controversial program that allowed Alamance deputies to detain immigrants.
The partnership with the controversial 287(g) program ended when the Department of Justice investigated Johnson’s office for discrimination. The investigation concluded that the Alamance County Sheriff’s Office had “a culture of discrimination against Latinos” who Johnson was alleged to have called “taco eaters.” The investigation and ensuing court case resulted in an agreement that Johnson’s office would implement a bias-free policing policy and track, analyze, and submit traffic-stop data to the Justice Department.
Johnson’s policing garnered comparison in The New Yorker to the garish anti-immigrant policies of former Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio, who then-President Donald Trump pardoned of a conviction in 2017.
That year Johnson tussled with an activist over a Confederate or Christian flag (it’s unclear which from police reports) that officers thought the activist was going to burn, the INDY reported.
In 2020, Johnson’s deputies along with officers from the Graham Police Department pepper-sprayed marchers in a voter turnout rally, resulting in a lawsuit.
And earlier that year, Johnson sent deputies to protect a Confederate monument in Graham and cracked down on protesting.
Activists, students, faculty, and staff criticized Elon University’s campus police for participating in that crackdown. The university’s police’s participation was facilitated through an agreement with Alamance sheriff’s office—the same kind of agreement that Johnson now has with Durham’s sheriff’s office.
Pittman worries how far Johnson’s influence might spread through such partnerships.
“If you have a continuation in Alamance County doing dual investigations, this might become a habit,” he says. “And I definitely don’t want to see Terry Johnson style of policing in my county [of Wake].”
The agreement could be seen as more than a partnership to prevent crime, according to Manju Rajendran of Durham Beyond Policing, which is committed to building alternatives to policing in the city and Durham County.
“I would hope that Durham County would not be tacitly condoning that kind of racist leadership by maintaining a memorandum of understanding between the sheriffs’ offices,” she says.
The troubling past of Alamance’s sheriff’s office could make for a disturbing present in Durham County.
“I’m specifically concerned about Durham sheriff’s office having an understanding with Alamance County Sheriff’s Office which has a known, well-documented practice of bigotry and protest suppression, and what that means about Alamance County sheriff’s deputies roaming Durham’s streets, unaccountable to Durham’s residents,” Rajendran says.
When asked what he thought about the critique that the values of deputies of conservative Alamance County Sheriff’s Office will clash with the left-leaning, diverse constituents of Durham County, Birkhead says political views weren’t a factor in the partnership that appears to be ramping up.
“Violent crimes, gun violence, it’s not conservative or progressive,” he says. “Any sheriff who’s willing to partner to keep my communities safe, I’ll stand by them.”
It’s a different tune from a statement Birkhead made at a Leesville Road Coalition candidate forum last month, when he said he’s “not responsible for the violent crime that occurs inside the Durham city.” At the forum, Birkhead added, “This is my county, this is my city, I have citywide jurisdiction, but I do not carry the stats.”
Would Rajendran want an Alamance County deputy investigating in her community?
“There’s not some circumstance where I think they [Alamance County deputies] could offer something helpful,” she says.
Support independent local journalism. Join the INDY Press Club to help us keep fearless watchdog reporting and essential arts and culture coverage viable in the Triangle.
Comment on this story at backtalk@indyweek.com.
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https://indyweek.com/news/durham/durham-mayor-oneal-state-of-city-address/
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Durham Mayor Elaine O’Neal encouraged city and county residents to volunteer with the city’s boards, commissions, and community-based organizations on behalf of a “city in crisis” still recovering from a global pandemic and unprecedented gun violence.
O’Neal, while delivering her first "State Of The City" address three months after being sworn in, also said it’s past time to rebuild the Hayti District, the historically Black residential and economic hub destroyed more than a half-century ago by the federal urban renewal program.
“I am struck by the fact that there are two Main Streets in Durham,” O’Neal said. “Yes, on one end of Main Street, you see the high-rises, the shops, and the amenities that illustrate the leaps toward prosperity that many in Durham have experienced over the last few years. On the other end of Main Street, you see a community that has not kept up with the prosperity. Main Street runs through the heart of Durham. The time has come to stitch the quilt and make Durham equitable for all.”
For all of Durham to share in the city’s prosperity, O'Neal described a “rebalancing” that takes into account neighborhoods “negatively impacted by urban renewal and decades of neglect.”
“The Black community, and thus Durham, has never recovered from the loss of the 150 businesses in Hayti,” she said, before announcing that the city “is supporting a partnership between Hayti Heritage Foundation and the Urban Land Institute on a mission to explore the redevelopment of the Fayetteville Street corridor.”
The redevelopment, O’Neal said, will have “a community-centered mindset, ensuring the community is involved in both planning and economic participation.”
The mayor did not say if the “community-centered mindset” would include the input or participation of officials with Hayti Reborn, the Durham developers who asked the city council for a public hearing after their proposal to develop a residential, economic, and educational hub at Fayette Place in the Hayti neighborhood was not selected by the Durham Housing Authority.
“Hayti will come back,” O’Neal said. “We want prosperity in every corner of Durham.”
In addition to shared prosperity, O’Neal talked about creating safer neighborhoods, affordable housing, infrastructure, public health, the pandemic, and the importance of being “an inclusive and welcoming city.”
O’Neal told city residents that 21 people have applied for the council seat left vacant when Charlie Reece resigned last month to move to Paris with his family.
“Holding public office is serious business, and I am grateful that we will have a strong pool of candidates from which to select,” O’Neal said. “We intend to choose an applicant who will represent the interests of all Durham residents.”
In her estimation, a better Durham starts with “creating a safe city and safe neighborhoods for all.”
“Our city is in a crisis, and gun violence is taking the lives of far too many of our residents and our young Black males,” the mayor said. “Over these past few months, since I have taken office, gun violence has marched towards seemingly new levels of violence and chaos. Just this past week, we have seen six deaths.”
“I also want to recognize the city-wide trauma that our residents are feeling,” O’Neal said after offering condolences to families who have lost loved ones to gun violence. “We are a city in pain. And we are struggling to make sense of the violence we continue to witness.”
In advancing the cause of citywide volunteerism to help the Bull City heal from gun violence grow and become stronger, the mayor pointed to a question Martin Luther King, Jr. asked in 1957: "Life's most persistent and urgent question is, 'What are you doing for others?'”
“Find any local organization, especially where our youth are involved,” she suggested. “Zoom has provided a great way to read to a class, offer a tour of a local museum through a video and volunteer to assist [at] a school an hour or two each week. Food pantries, school supply drives, neighborhood cleanup and beautification, coding brigades, libraries, literacy and youth organizations, gun violence prevention groups ... the list goes on. Bring a friend or two and grow the network that we need.”
The mayor shared a bundle of high points, including a partnership between the city, the county, and Duke University to make available loans to small businesses that have been affected by the pandemic.
The initiative, known as the Opportunity Loan Fund, has disbursed $860,000 funds to 39 businesses, with 29 owned by people of color or women.
“There are $140,000 of city funds and $800,000 of county funds remaining in this Opportunity Fund to provide low-cost financing via loans of $5,000 to $35,000 to eligible businesses,” O’Neal said.
The city’s first Black woman mayor also touted the more-than $50 million the city is set to receive from the federal American Rescue Plan that will be used to offset revenue losses as a consequence of the pandemic.
"These funds can be used to address other community needs,” she said.
O’Neal praised the YouthWorks Program, where 1,500 young people between the ages of 14 and 24 have applied to participate in a summer program that “allows our young people to develop critical skills and explore career opportunities through paid summer internships."
She added that the number of interest applications the program received are the largest in recent history.
“More than 77 percent of those who have submitted interest applications are between the ages of 14 and 17 years old,” said O’Neal. She noted the importance of employment outlets as a young person in her own life trajectory.
“My first jobs were with the city of Durham as a teenager,” O’Neal added. “I worked for the Fun Caravan, as a tennis court attendant and as an assistant in the Law Library at the Law School that I later attended and led as Dean.”
O’Neal also lauded the efforts of the city’s transportation department, noting that Durham was awarded a $9 million federal grant for a 1.76-mile-long, multi-use trail along an abandoned Norfolk and Southern rail bed to connect pedestrians and cyclists from north Durham to the downtown district.
O’Neal began her nearly two-hour address with a story about her paternal grandmother, Cora O’Neal, a quilter who taught the craft to girls in the West End neighborhood where she grew up.
“She was known to collect bags full of scrap material. Each scrap was different—not one looked exactly like another,” O’Neal said about her grandmother's work.
“They consisted of assorted colors from various garments, bedspreads, towels, curtains,” the mayor continued. “She patiently and painstakingly taught us how to stitch them together to make warm and beautiful quilts. Her quilts cover me at night and inspire me by day to believe that we can each connect to make a quilt that covers Durham with safe neighborhoods, stable housing, well-paying jobs, and quality schools."
Support independent local journalism. Join the INDY Press Club to help us keep fearless watchdog reporting and essential arts and culture coverage viable in the Triangle.
Follow Durham Staff Writer Thomasi McDonald on Twitter or send an email to tmcdonald@indyweek.com.
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Photo by Caitlin Penna
The former Harriet Tubman YWCA
Change is coming to the historic Harriet Tubman YWCA.
On Monday, Durham community members accepted a $1 million grant from the Department of Housing and Urban Development to restore and renovate the historic location into affordable housing.
The center will be renovated by Reinvestment Partners, a Durham nonprofit that seeks to revitalize locations with a focus on positively impacting communities and combating social inequities.
According to the group, the Harriet Tubman building was first built in 1953. The building originally contained 12 women’s dorms that housed Black student nurses, and was a community hub for events and organizing, especially during the Civil Rights Movement. Yet the center ceased operations in the 1970s, and has been fully inactive for 30 years.
Peter Skillern, executive director of Reinvestment Partners, told ABC News 11 that the renovation will include six studio apartments, alongside a congregate area that will include offices, computers and a kitchen. The units will be rented specifically to those making 30-60 percent or less of the area median income, and at least four units will be allocated to individuals who have formerly experienced homeless, or come from other special needs groups.
“We’ll be able to provide both services and housing here,” Skillern said. “That's building back better.”
Despite its historical significance, the building was nearly demolished in 2018, following concerns over unsafe building conditions and reports of illegal activity on the property.
When the community voiced concerns over its historical significance, the demolition was put on hold, and in 2019, Reinvestment Partners purchased the building.
Skillern said renovation will seek to keep the building as historically preserved as possible. The renovation is expected to take approximately 18 months.
In an interview with the station, Mayor Elaine O’Neal recounted spending time at the center growing up, and expressed excitement for its new purpose.
“Thank you for bringing a part of my life back alive and for all of those young people and all of the memories that were made,” O’Neal said. “We want them to now have a chance of a new generation of memories like I did, and they too can grow up and be mayor.”
Support independent local journalism. Join the INDY Press Club to help us keep fearless watchdog reporting and essential arts and culture coverage viable in the Triangle.
Comment on this story at backtalk@indyweek.com.
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https://indyweek.com/news/northcarolina/things-to-do-this-weekend-in-the-triangle-042222/
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Teach our next generation about the power of renewable energy with a free all-day science festival at the Kidzu Children's Museum in Chapel Hill. Kids will have the chance to explore electricity and conductive materials, build a water turbine, learn how solar power works, and play with the museum's wind tunnel. The family-friendly event is 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Saturday. Pre-register here.
Learn about urban agriculture (and enjoy some tasty local food) during a 9-mile bike tour of Raleigh organizations working to create a more sustainable food system. Stops include the Raleigh City Farm Community Food Lab, Black Farmer's Hub, and The Women's Center Microform. Afterward, stick around to celebrate Raleigh City Farm's 11th year in business with live music, locally-sourced lunch (limited supply only), and a pay-what-you-can farm stand. The bike tour is 10 a.m.-1 p.m., starting from Raleigh City Farm. The celebration runs from 10 a.m.-2 p.m.
Help clean up our planet this weekend with litter pickup in Garner, a cleanup of Marsh Creek, or a trash sweep of Raleigh. Wherever you live, there are plenty of volunteer opportunities year-round to help give back to the Earth.
You can also enjoy gardening, education, and recycling programs at Earth Day festivals this weekend at the North Carolina Museum of Art and in Apex, Raleigh, and Durham. Search for volunteer opportunities, family-friendly festivals, and other environmental education events based on your location and availability here.
For more, check out our calendar page.
Support independent local journalism. Join the INDY Press Club to help us keep fearless watchdog reporting and essential arts and culture coverage viable in the Triangle.
Follow Staff Writer Jasmine Gallup on Twitter or send an email to jgallup@indyweek.com.
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https://indyweek.com/news/longform/sunday-reading-a-i-and-the-fragmentation-of-everything/
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This week’s Sunday Reading is a technology-themed two-parter.
The first piece, out last week on The Atlantic from social psychologist Jonathan Haidt, offers a bleak chronicle of the social media age and its role in dividing our country; the second, a recent New York Times Magazine article from contributor Steven Johnson, lays out an even bleaker preview of where we’re headed.
Haidt compares the rise of social media to the fall of Babel.
“Babel is not a story about tribalism; it’s a story about the fragmentation of everything,” he writes. “It’s about the shattering of all that had seemed solid, the scattering of people who had been a community.”
He’s equally critical of liberals and conservatives, dating the “fall of the tower” to 2015—“a year marked by the ‘great awokening’ on the left and the ascendancy of Donald Trump on the right.”
Each faction has become dominated by activist wings, Haidt writes, whose rigid values and propensity toward public shaming have functioned to not only deprive themselves of the ability to understand the opposing party, but also silence vast swathes of their own communities.
Within the right, a wave of threats toward those who renounce popular right-wing conspiracy theories—namely that the 2020 election was “stolen” from Donald Trump—has caused “remaining moderates to quit or go silent, giving us a party ever more divorced from the conservative tradition, constitutional responsibility, and reality.”
And on the left, callout culture has created a narrative that focuses solely on “equality of outcomes” and turns a blind eye to nuance and individual rights.
“When our public square is governed by mob dynamics unrestrained by due process, we don’t get justice and inclusion,” Haidt writes. “We get a society that ignores context, proportionality, mercy, and truth.”
Though you’re likely already aware of the ideas presented by Haidt, his story is a sobering refresher on the state of things, and it’s a perfect set-up to Johnson’s piece, which is a more eye-opening look at how the Internet’s current climate will shape the future of artificial intelligence.
Johnson takes a deep dive into an organization called OpenAI, founded in 2015 with a mission to “advance digital intelligence in the way that is most likely to benefit humanity as a whole.”
OpenAI’s crown jewel is a “large language model” called GPT-3 that can generate complex, human-like prose. GPT-3 was trained using a surprisingly simple method: pulling from a massive set of web data, the model was prompted with trillions of unfinished sentences and tasked with guessing the missing word.
“The software then strengthens whatever random neural connections generated that particular suggestion and weakens all the connections that generated incorrect guesses,” Johnson writes. “And then it moves on to the next prompt. Over time, with enough iterations, the software learns.”
If you ask GPT-3 to write an essay discussing stream of consciousness as a narrative technique in James Joyce’s Ulysses, it will generate a concise, thoughtful, and articulate composition in half a second. It will do this as many times as you like. And each essay will be unique.
But the model isn’t perfect; since it was trained on our own digital content, it carries biases and falls victim to misinformation in the same way we do. It’s been known to spew racial slurs and create persuasive arguments founded entirely on conspiracy theories. In light of Haidt’s story, GPT-3 could be an incredibly dangerous tool—our digital selves are the most outraged, the least factual, and the most divided. Is unfiltered Internet data really the best way to teach an A.I. about humanity?
Or—and this is the nagging, unsettling question the article leaves you with—could we, humans, be the result of a similar model?
Critics say the model isn’t actually intelligent, arguing that it relies on blind mimicry and is bereft of the everyday knowledge integral to human intelligence. But, as Johnson counters, “maybe predicting the next word is just part of what thinking is.”
Support independent local journalism. Join the INDY Press Club to help us keep fearless watchdog reporting and essential arts and culture coverage viable in the Triangle.
Follow Staff Writer Lena Geller on Twitter or send an email to lgeller@indyweek.com.
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https://indyweek.com/news/ninth-street-journal/nearly-100-firearms-turned-in-at-gun-buy-back-event/
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Firearms of all sorts were collected at Durham’s recent gun buy-back event. Photo by Sophie Horst — The 9th Street Journal
On a recent Saturday, nearly 100 shotguns, handguns, and assault rifles of all shapes and sizes were unloaded from police vehicles outside of the Durham County Detention Facility.
Some were rusty muskets that looked straight out of the Revolutionary War. Others were sleek black pistols with added metal devices making the gun fully automatic and equipped to kill quickly. Most ominous of them all were revolvers with shiny metal barrels that conveniently don’t drop shell casings when they’re fired.
Michael Taylor, a member of District Court Judge Pat Evans’ community outreach team for her reelection campaign, pointed at one of the revolvers. “That’s the murder weapon,” he said.
The assortment of guns had one thing in common: they had all been bought back from Durham residents by the sheriff’s office April 9 in the county’s first-ever “Bull City Gun Buy Back.”
The sheriff’s office offered Visa gift cards as compensation, $100 for a shotgun, $150 for a handgun and $200 for an assault rifle. At both the Mount Vernon Baptist Church and Durham County Stadium, residents could bring their guns in for a financial reward.
The buy-back event officially began at 2 p.m., but by noon cars had lined up down the block at both locations. The event was scheduled to last until 6 p.m., but by 3 p.m. the officers had run out of their rewards gift cards at both locations. In one hour, they bought back nearly 100 firearms, giving away $10,000 worth of gift cards.
At each location, deputies turned more than 40 people away after they had run out of gift cards.
One man brought in 13 guns. “If someone had broken into his house and robbed him, that’s 13 guns hitting the streets,” Taylor said.
“I was thinking if we got 10 that would be amazing. I’m stunned,” said Lieutenant John Pinner as he unloaded firearms from his trunk.
The buy-back event was organized by Durham County Sheriff Clarence F. Birkhead in partnership with Evans. Both Birkhead and Evans are running for reelection and are on the ballot in the May 17 primary.
The buy-back process was anonymous and voluntary, and there was no limit to how many guns an individual could turn in. The press release from the sheriff’s office stated, “No questions will be asked.”
Guidelines for the event were straightforward: Individuals were instructed to drive up in their vehicles, making sure their firearms were visible, so deputies could then retrieve the guns. Participants were compensated only for firearms that were operational.
“Some people gave us their guns even after we ran out of gift cards,” Evans said.
Evans, a former lawyer with the Durham County District Attorney’s office, has lived in Durham County for 39 years and served as a District Court Judge for the last four.
Fighting gun violence in Durham is one of the main promises of her reelection campaign. She proposed the buy-back event about a month ago as a way to get guns off the streets.
Evans noted that gun violence in the past four years has been especially bad. More than 1,900 shooting incidents have occurred in Durham since the start of 2020, wounding 650 people and resulting in nearly 90 deaths.
The sheriff’s office will catalog the guns collected during the buy-back event, then keep them for six months and issue public notices to verify that there are no legal owners who wish to claim them. Then, Evans will sign an order to have the guns either destroyed or used for training purposes, she said.
After both locations ran out of gift cards, the guns were brought to the Detention Center and loaded onto two large carts. Evans posed triumphantly behind them for photos. As Taylor recorded her on his iPhone, Evans said, “Thank you Durham, for joining us and taking ahold of our vision to make Durham a safer place.”
Evans said another buy-back day may take place later this month. Many residents who brought guns after organizers had run out of gift cards want to come back next time, she said.
Taking guns off the streets is only a first step, Evans added. She favors additional solutions that address the root of the gun violence problem.
“It’s not enough to just take these guns,” Evans said. “We need to replace them with jobs, with mental health treatment, with substance abuse treatment, with tools for people to have a sustainable life.”
This story was produced through a partnership between the INDY and 9th Street Journal, which is published by journalism students at Duke University’s DeWitt Wallace Center for Media & Democracy.
Comment on this story at backtalk@indyweek.com.
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Graphic by Makayla Williams.
This story originally published online at UNC Media Hub.
Police officer Bradley Evans drove down Highway 55 in Cary, North Carolina, but he wasn’t paying much attention to the road. He was thinking about killing himself.
He was thinking about vivid scenes of police officers being shot, parts of a video his department had shown the day before about surviving a shooting. But his thoughts of suicide had been building for a long time.
In 2010, Evans was patrolling in Monroe, North Carolina, just after midnight. He was sent to a Sunoco gas station where a young man was threatening a customer, Glenn Mitchell Bullard, with a gun. When Evans attempted to arrest Bullard, they struggled and, in self-defense, Evans shot Bullard in the thigh.
Bullard survived, but Evans was devastated. He suffered from anxiety and depression. And he needed help.
“I felt like I was alone, nobody at the time had even been through a shooting at my police department in Cary,” Bullard said. “There wasn’t even any sort or program I could get into to talk to people.”
He tried to escape by moving to a new city, by drinking too much, and pushing his family away. Nothing worked. “I just shut down. I said things I should have never said, it was just grueling,” Evans says.
His breaking point came on Highway 55.
“As soon as my eyes opened that morning,” he said. “I was thinking about it: shootings, my shooting, I survived, I shouldn’t have survived.”
The fear and flashbacks grew more powerful as he got out of bed and went to work. His life felt more fragile than ever.
His knuckles were white from gripping the wheel in front of him, and his body shook like a flag whipping in the wind. He wanted the pain to end.
To fight off his suicidal thoughts, he pulled his gun from the holster and threw it across the front seat. It landed on the passenger floorboard. Then, he made a beeline for the district office.
“I was tired of hurting and I didn’t want to leave my little girl fatherless,” he said.
He was shaking, terrified of the repercussions of admitting he was suffering. But he was more afraid of what would happen if he didn’t. He sat down in the chair across from his sergeant and made a plea for help.
***
A first responder’s day-to-day life is already stressful. When they are placed into traumatic situations that impact their mental health, the job can become unbearable. In 2021, the CDC reported that, “law enforcement officers and firefighters are more likely to die by suicide than in the line of duty.”
What is lacking in departments across the state are outlets for first responders who go through trauma to recover emotionally and return to the job. But independent groups and nonprofits are working to mitigate these holes.
Efforts to address mental health issues for first responders have slowly taken root. The state legislature has begun to address it in terms of compensation and recruitment—filtering out those with mental health issues from obtaining a badge in the first place.
The General Assembly approved House Bill 436 in 2021. It requires officers pass a mental health screening before joining the force.
While the efforts of the North Carolina legislators are important and necessary, so is the recognition that first responders often undergo traumatic experiences that leave them psychologically damaged. But, they fear seeking help will cause them to lose their jobs.
A huge part of the problem is the stigma of admitting a problem. Officers fear appearing weak, being ostracized, or losing their jobs.
“I started reliving the shooting, thinking it could have been me, but back then I was scared to go to anybody and say ‘Hey, I am having some crazy thoughts, I need to talk to somebody;’ my fear was that they were going to say they need to take my gun and badge and that I couldn’t do this line of work anymore,” Evans says.
Many counselors and mental health professionals believe they’ve found the right formula—peer groups plus trained professionals who understand the first responder culture.
“Peer support is one thing North Carolina is doing right,” said Rick Baker, clinical director and founder of Responder Support Services. “There are a couple of different types of formal peer support utilized statewide. Having that validation and acceptance from your peers is powerful and helping impact that stigma in a positive way.”
Baker started working exclusively with first responders 10 years ago, focusing on providing cognitive behavioral therapy in Buncombe County.
“When we started doing this,” Baker said, “the stigma was a barrier to responders coming to work with us, nobody really came to talk. Slowly, it changed and folks started coming in and dipping their toe in the pool and saying that the water wasn't that bad. So, they would come in and participate in treatment.”
***
In the case of Bradley Evans, his department placed him on Family and Medical Leave after he told his sergeant that he was in a dark place.
A few days later, Evans got a visit after his sergeant reached out to contacts specializing in first responder trauma. A man named Andy Gruler drove from South Carolina to Evans’s Cary home, and the two sat on the couch to talk.
“Have you ever heard of a Post Critical Incident Seminar?” Gruler asked.
Gruler explained that a Post Critical Incident Seminar (PCIS) is designed for officers who’ve experienced trauma on duty to come together to talk, as well as work with trained clinicians and peer counselors. He suggested that Evans should come to South Carolina for the PCIS led by a nonprofit called the South Carolina Law Enforcement Assistance Program (SC-LEAP), because the next North Carolina PCIS wasn’t for several months.
“He basically said, without really saying it,” Evans recalled, “‘you’re too screwed up to wait that long.’”
Evans joined the 35 or so officers sharing their stories, while other certified peer responders observed from chairs behind them. A microphone was passed around so each person could talk as long as they needed. Over the next few days, they broke into small groups and met with clinicians and the trained peers.
“I can’t even explain it but that was the first time I felt like I wasn’t alone, the first time that I could relate to somebody else,” Evans said.
By the time the weekend was over, he knew peer support was something he wanted to be involved in for life.
***
Lt. Aaron Back had a similar experience the first time he attended a PCIS in South Carolina.
In 2005, Back’s brother Benny—a police officer in Virginia—was called in because a car had hit and killed an 8-year-old girl. When he arrived on the scene, he realized the young girl was his daughter, Isabella.
That emotionally wrecked Benny. He started drinking heavily and isolating himself. When he wasn’t returning to work, Aaron Back took Benny to a PCIS in South Carolina.
Despite his eagerness to get his brother to the PCIS, the truth was Aaron Back didn’t really believe in opening up about mental health. As a long time-officer himself, he usually pushed those feelings down. “I didn't believe in talking with people about my issues, through my career we've always been taught to suppress it.”
But, over the course of that three-day PCIS, Aaron watched his brother open up. He had people around him who could look him in the eye, honestly say they knew what he was going through, and that he would get better.
From that point on, Aaron started to help. He drove to South Carolina every few months to help SC-LEAP run their PCIS seminars as a trained peer member, because he knew the difference it could make for so many officers.
What didn’t sit well for him was the fact that others in North Carolina might not be as lucky as his brother because there wasn’t a nonprofit like SC-LEAP running PCISs there.
In 2011, along with the help of law enforcement Chaplain Danny Leonard, Back began NC-LEAP and the duo ran its first PCIS.
Now, they’re getting ready to run their 22nd event.
***
There are similar peer-focused support organizations popping up across the state. The North Carolina First Responder Peer Support Team (NCFRPS) is made up of first responders trained to aid those struggling with their mental health.
Brian Campbell works in the Apex Fire Department. He struggled with mental health issues for years after the death of his brother. Despite the toll it took on Campbell, none of his coworkers had any idea he was struggling—despite how close they were.
“They would all just invite me out for a drink,” Campbell said. “We would never talk about what was going on and no one ever really offered to help me or talk about real issues. There definitely was that stigma there.”
He eventually sought out therapy and worked through things on his own. A few years later, Campbell got involved with peer support after taking a class with NCFRPS. He saw how much that type of support would have benefitted him and facilitated his journey to recovery. He became certified as a peer supporter later that year.
“You hear from so many guys that they don’t want to go talk to a shrink, so peer support opens that door for them to actually talk to you then you are able to connect them with resources to help them,” Campbell said.
***
Consider the cost of not having these life-saving resources available. Chad Webster was a police officer for 19 years in Charlotte.
In 2020 he was on duty for many of the riots that occurred after George Floyd’s death.
“They were throwing fireworks and frozen water bottles,” Webster said. “All kinds of things were exploding around me. And I was just helpless because we were told not to do anything, to just keep pushing them back.”
In that instant the panic was so unsettling, his feelings were scrambled. Webster began laughing—almost uncontrollably.
“I didn't understand it at the time, but for several weeks after that, I just wasn't right,” he said. “I didn't know what happened. I didn't know how to process what I was going through. I kept taking vacation days and sick days. I just wasn't ready to go back to work.”
It got to the point where Webster couldn’t come out of his bedroom for six weeks, coupled with nightmares and drinking problems.
“If you start saying you're losing your mind, you become a liability and if your supervisor or all the way up thinks you're crazy, then your job’s at risk. So, that's another reason that many will suffer in silence.”
The turning point came when he was diagnosed with PTSD. “My primary care physician, my therapist, and my psychiatrist all said, ‘you can't do this job anymore,'” he said.
Realizing he couldn’t go back to work, Webster applied for workers compensation. His request was initially denied until he got an attorney.
“My retirement wasn’t approved until 2021 after mediation with the city. So, I went six or seven months with no pay,” Webster said.
Unlike Bradley Evans, Webster didn’t attend PCISs and he didn’t even know about NC-LEAP.
At no point over the course of the year Webster struggled did he have anyone talk to him who could relate to his trauma and help him through it.
“I think having routine Mental Health Awareness class classes and training would help,” Webster said. “And I think if they had officers that had been through some sort of mental health challenge, come in and help teach those classes would be great.”
***
Bradley Evans still drives past the section of Highway 55 where he almost ended his life. But, today he is miles away from the destructive feelings that plagued him after his shooting
Back then, he had mostly bad days. Today, he is still serving Cary as an officer, but he is also a peer coach helping other first responders who are working to get past traumatic experiences. Evans chuckles a bit, as he mentions that he is sure his wife and daughter have some thoughts on how he could still improve.
He has mostly good days now, and on bad days he doesn’t feel alone.
Support independent local journalism. Join the INDY Press Club to help us keep fearless watchdog reporting and essential arts and culture coverage viable in the Triangle.
Comment on this story at backtalk@indyweek.com.
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https://indyweek.com/news/northcarolina/nc-afl-cio-endorses-beasley-other-democrats/
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The state’s largest association of unions, which represents more than 100,000 workers and fights for their rights, has endorsed Cheri Beasley for U.S. Senate.
The North Carolina AFL-CIO endorsed 72 candidates, including Beasley, who they say will fight for working people. Beasley is one of six union members running for office this year. Others include:
— Braxton Winston II, a member of the International Alliance of Theatrical and Stage Employees, who is running re-election to the Charlotte City Council, and
— Yvonne Y. Kinston, Communications Workers of America, who is running for re-election in Fayetteville.
The association has also endorsed Wiley Nickel for the US House of Representatives in District 13 and Valerie Foushee for the US House in District 4.
State Sen. Valerie Foushee is a strong competitor for the seat, but lost some support from progressives this month when worrying ties to a right-wing, pro-Israel PAC were reported. Foushee is backed by the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (or AIPAC), a group that supported former President Donald Trump’s Middle East agenda and said they appreciate Foushee’s “solid support for the US-Israel relationship.”
Foushee recently received $165,000 from AIPAC, prompting the Progressive Caucus of the North Carolina Democratic Party to pull their endorsement.
In statewide races, the AFL-CIO has endorsed Sam J. Ervin IV and Lucy Inman for NC Supreme Court, and Darren Jackson for the NC Court of Appeals.
Locally, the group has endorsed:
— Don Davis, US House District 1
— Lisa Grafstein, NC Senate District 13
— Graig R. Meyer, NC Senate District 23
— Rosa U. Gill, NC House District 33
— Christine Kelly, NC House District 37
— Joe John, NC House District 40
— Renee Price, NC House District 50
— Allen Buansi, NC House District 56
— Sarah Crawford, NC House District 66
— Roy Taylor, Wake County Sheriff
— Damon Chetson, Wake County District Attorney
— Pat Evans, District Court District 14, Seat 3
“Workers across North Carolina are standing up, organizing, and fighting to make our voices heard,” said President MaryBe McMillan in a news release last week. “We are proud to support candidates who are willing to stand alongside us and fight for higher wages, safer working conditions, and stronger labor rights.”
See the group's full list of endorsements here.
Support independent local journalism. Join the INDY Press Club to help us keep fearless watchdog reporting and essential arts and culture coverage viable in the Triangle.
Follow Staff Writer Jasmine Gallup on Twitter or send an email to jgallup@indyweek.com.
Support independent local journalism. Join the INDY Press Club to help us keep fearless watchdog reporting and essential arts and culture coverage viable in the Triangle.
Follow Staff Writer Jasmine Gallup on Twitter or send an email to jgallup@indyweek.com.
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https://indyweek.com/news/wake/march-to-the-polls-one-wake-cary-town-council/
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In a precursor to next month's local election on May 17, candidates for the Cary Town Council are coming together Thursday to talk about what they're willing to do to solve the area's affordable housing crisis.
ONE Wake, a grassroots community group advocating for the creation of a local housing fund in the town, is organizing a rally, followed by a march to an early voting site in Cary.
ONE Wake is asking current and future town council members to commit to putting about $3.5 million per year (the equivalent of a penny from the property tax) into a new fund to develop and preserve affordable housing. A similar fund was created in Chapel Hill and has since led to the creation of nearly 300 new affordable housing units, according to a news release.
Like other towns in Wake County, Cary is facing a sharp rise in housing prices. Between 2010 and 2020, Cary lost about 3,900 rental units that are affordable to people, including essential workers like educators and grocery store clerks, who earn $40,000 or below, according to the release. ONE Wake members are also worried about rising property taxes and elderly residents getting priced out of historic, lower-income neighborhoods.
Those elected to the town council this year could determine the future of affordable housing in Cary.
“On April 28 [the first day of early voting], every candidate will have to make their case to us: how they will represent our affordable housing priorities, not just this year, but for the long haul," the Rev. Javier Almendarez-Bautista, associate rector of St. Paul's Episcopal Church and ONE Wake co-chair, said in a news release.
Candidates attending the rally include Mary Inspruker, George McDowell, and Amanda Murphy, all of whom are running in District C, which includes areas around Tryon Road and southeast of U.S. 1. The seat is currently held by incumbent Jack Smith, who was elected in 1989. Also in the race is Renee Miller.
Also attending the rally are each of the candidates for District A (centered around Davis Drive and High House Road): incumbent Jennifer Robinson and her opponent Chase McGrath.
At-large candidate Carissa Johnson will also make an appearance. Johnson is running against Ken George and incumbent Ed Yerha.
The rally is 6 p.m. Thursday at at First UMC Cary in Community Room A. Following discussion, around 6:30 p.m., people will march from the church to the Herbert Young Community Center to cast their votes.
Where and When to Vote
Early voting runs from April 28 to May 14. During this period, people can register to vote or change the information on their registration in person at any early voting site.
Wake County sites are open Monday through Friday from 8 a.m.—7:30 p.m., Saturdays from 8 a.m.—3 p.m., and Sundays from 1 p.m.—6 p.m.
Historically, lines are shortest in the first days of early voting, according to a news release from Wake County. The busiest times are around lunch on weekdays and between 10 and 11 a.m. on Saturdays.
For details about wait times and early voting sites, visit WakeVotesEarly.com. Voters can also check their registration and download a sample ballot here.
There are eight early voting sites in Wake County. The Fuquay-Varina site has changed because of construction delays, according to a news release from Wake County. The new site is the W.O. Council Gym, 106 N. Ennis St., Fuquay-Varina, 27526.
The other sites are:
— Cary Senior Center, 120 Maury Odell Pl., Cary, 27513
— Herbert C. Young Community Center, 101 Wilkinson Ave., Cary, 27513
— Wake County Northern Regional Center, 350 E. Holding Ave., Wake Forest, 27587
— Thomas G. Crowder Woodland Center, 5611 Jaguar Park Dr., Raleigh, 27606
— John Chavis Memorial Park Community Center, 505 Martin Luther King Jr Blvd., Raleigh, 27601
— Optimist Park Community Center, 5900 Whittier Dr., Raleigh, 27609
— Wake County Board of Elections Office, 1200 N. New Hope Rd., Raleigh, 27610.
Support independent local journalism. Join the INDY Press Club to help us keep fearless watchdog reporting and essential arts and culture coverage viable in the Triangle.
Follow Staff Writer Jasmine Gallup on Twitter or send an email to jgallup@indyweek.com.
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https://indyweek.com/culture/etc/arcane-carolinas-podcast/
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From left: Arcane Carolinas hosts Charlie Mewshawand Michael G. Williams | Photo by Andre Watson
It’s fitting to meet the duo behind Arcane Carolinas at the heart of a cemetery.
Surrounding our makeshift interview location are grand graying obelisks, headstones dating as far back as the early 1800s, and humble monuments in various stages of decay.
Of course, amongst the dead are plenty of young and very much alive students walking to and from class: the cemetery sits directly between a medium-sized residence hall and a massive complex of intramural fields at the mouth of UNC-Chapel Hill’s campus.
It’s fitting to meet the duo here because the idea that folklore, legends, and the downright weird exist directly under all of our noses is at the core of Arcane Carolinas, which started as a podcast in the fall of 2020 and has since grown to include live events, trading cards, a fanzine, and even an apparel line featuring trademarked shirts and hats.
“There’s a nice little gazebo in a cemetery that has an interesting story right on campus,” Charlie Mewshaw, one of Arcane Carolinas’ founders and hosts, tells me when I ask where we might meet up.
The cemetery is a little plot of land I pass nearly every day and not far from Chapel Hill’s most famous landmark of sinister lore, Ghimghoul Castle.
“This place was started when a student died in the late 1700s,” he says as we walk amongst the cemetery’s tombstones. “And the university realized they needed a place to put corpses in times of pestilence.”
Michael G. Williams, Mewshaw’s partner in the podcast, points to an entirely separate section of the cemetery where many of the enslaved people who built the university were interred, often with only wooden crosses or flowers to mark their burial sites.
The pair often explain things in tandem, both eager and excited to outline the history that lives beneath our feet.
Mewshaw and Williams worked together in the information security department at UNC for two years before realizing they shared common ground. After a spate of departures from the department, the two often found themselves alone in the office, talking over their adjoining cubicles. Soon, they realized they both had a passion for the unexplained.
And while Mewshaw’s obsession was forged watching shows like The X-Files as a young boy in Raleigh and Maryland, Williams was born and raised in a part of Appalachia where storytelling, legend, and lore were deeply interwoven with daily life.
“I grew up in a place rife with belief in the weirdest, bloodiest serrated edge of the supernatural,” Williams, an award-winning writer of work aimed at LGBTQIA+ readers of horror and science fiction, said in an early podcast episode.
Mewshaw and Williams launched their series with a 25-minute episode about a longstanding rumor that the devil often wanders the woods surrounding Bear Creek, a small town about 40 minutes southwest of Chapel Hill.
From there, the community around Arcane Carolinas grew fast, soon clocking around a thousand downloads each week.
With a laugh, Mewshaw describes the podcast as “Ghostbusters meets Mythbusters meets Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives.” He follows that up with a more detailed explanation of the vision he and Williams share about how important storytelling is to Southern culture and how respect for the source material is paramount.
But in a way, Mewshaw’s elevator pitch is the perfect diagram to describe his and Williams’ budding mini-empire: they seek to not just uncover the strange and often spooky history that exists everywhere—if you just look a little bit deeper—but also to honor the people and places that are integral to these stories.
There are ghosts and there are myths, and they’re kept alive by the locals who remember and retell those stories. That’s something Mewshaw and Williams make a point to recognize in each episode.
“Wherever possible, we’re going to try and promote the local businesses and culture of the town and county that our story comes from,” Mewshaw said at the top of the podcast’s first episode.
“One of the things we’re trying to do is not just celebrate the history of North Carolina and South Carolina but also to celebrate the places that are there right now,” Williams added.
Both are quick to note that while chasing the stories behind these often-unexplained phenomena is fun, it’s the discovery of our shared history and the way storytelling functions as a universal coping mechanism that drives so much of their passion.
“The South is a haunted place, but a lot of the haunting isn’t ghosts,” Williams says. “It’s being aware of what our ancestors did and what a lot of our contemporaries continue to do.”
To date, Arcane Carolinas has published over 50 episodes, exploring legends like sea monsters off the Outer Banks, UFO sightings along the coast of the Carolinas, and vampires in Appalachia.
And while the podcast is currently focused on North and South Carolina, Mewshaw and Williams hope to someday grow the scope of Arcane Carolinas enough to highlight legends and lore nationwide, not unlike the beloved legends-and-lore magazine Weird NJ, which originated in, but expanded beyond, New Jersey.
An Arcane Carolinas book is in the works and convention appearances are on the schedule. Later this fall, they’ll publish a limited-run series of episodes focused on legends they’ve been sent by their community of listeners. Mewshaw and Williams have also been in talks with a few production companies about the possibility of taking their podcast to a television audience.
And though they have been approached by a variety of podcast networks, Mewshaw and Williams prefer to remain independent in an effort to reach as many people as possible.
“Wider distribution is more important than running ads about cereal or razors or whatever,” Mewshaw says.
For now, the pair will continue to chase the legends, the fairytales, the phenomenal and the mysterious, the unexplained and the inexplicable, all while furthering the tradition of Southern storytelling with an air of curiosity rather than authority.
“In this space of the unexplained, there are a lot of people trying to present that they understand things that can’t be explained,” Mewshaw says. “And it’s very important that we make sure people know that we are not claiming to be the keepers of some hidden knowledge.”
“A lot of people are out there trying to sell secret sauce,” Williams adds, “and secret sauce is always snake oil.”
Support independent local journalism. Join the INDY Press Club to help us keep fearless watchdog reporting and essential arts and culture coverage viable in the Triangle.
Comment on this story at backtalk@indyweek.com.
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https://indyweek.com/food-and-drink/features/bad-oven-a-cary-micro-bakery/
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Peanut Dela Cruz with Bad Oven baked goods | Photo by Brett Villena
In parking lots across the Triangle, you’ll find Peanut Dela Cruz warmly greeting customers. Some regulars have, by now, become friends; other shop customers are first-timers. All, however, receive beaming smiles and hugs as the Cary baker hands out bags of coffee cookies and Ube Latte buns from the trunk of her gray Hyundai.
Dela Cruz is the one-woman force behind Bad Oven, an “online micro-bakery” specializing in Filipino sweets that she founded in October 2020, just as restaurants were being devastated by the COVID-19 pandemic. Despite this, the small bakery has managed to thrive and even take on a minor cult appeal.
The Bad Oven system is simple: customers place orders online for weekly pickup at outdoor locations in Cary, Raleigh, and Durham. The routine of the model, it turns out, is exactly what customers have sought during the pandemic. The model also suits Dela Cruz’s needs. Scheduling around her full-time marketing job at an internet publishing company, she bakes limited quantities in her home kitchen, where she is unencumbered by some of the regulatory barriers to entry faced by large-scale food businesses.
And for Dela Cruz, who moved to the U.S. from the Philippines in 2017 and settled in North Carolina in 2019, Bad Oven has been a wonderful introduction to the Triangle.
“I had no idea what to expect from North Carolina,” Dela Cruz says. “The people that I’ve met so far, they’ve all been so welcoming. Like, I have not met a single asshole.”
Personal connection is central to the bakery’s appeal.
“People at that time were longing for human interaction,” says Dela Cruz, reflecting on the early pandemic days. She does her part to facilitate these connections using social media, which is where many customers initially discover Bad Oven. When customers make the leap from social media to in-person pickups, she encourages them to pose for photos and boomerangs when they pick up their orders; often, in a sort of chain reaction, the photos shared on Bad Oven’s Instagram page are reposted by bakery loyalists. These faces of the Bad Oven community have become integral to its success.
Bad Oven’s playful existence, in fact, can be attributed to Instagram. As a home baker sharing her failures and successes on her personal account, Dela Cruz was surprised when the popular local foodie Instagram account Cheerwine and Dine messaged asking to purchase baked goods. From there, the craze for her products spread by word of mouth. When That Vegetarian Couple, another local Instagram account, first tried her products, they waited until Dela Cruz had established a name and a logo, then posted to their wide audience.
In the early days, whenever Dela Cruz baked something that turned out less than perfect, she would jokingly blame the failure on her oven, as if it had a mind of its own. “Bad Oven,” she’d say as if chiding a dog, and thus the name came to be.
One Saturday in April, standing beside her trunk in a Starbucks parking lot in Cary, Dela Cruz chats with Megan Cataldi, a patron who worked at UPS when the two first met last year. Cataldi says that Dela Cruz was her favorite customer and that the baker often dropped off a Bad Oven shipment order with free samples in hand for the UPS team to try. Another customer arrives, and Dela Cruz retrieves a gift she’d brought for the man’s young daughter.
A Bad Oven customer does have to jump through some hoops, though, which Dela Cruz recognizes: first, they have to order on a Tuesday evening and pick up their order at a specified location, the following Saturday, within a 15-minute window. But she aims to make the experience, as well as the flavor, something that customers look forward to. She includes personalized notes with each order, often throwing in a free bun, or—on this particular Easter weekend—a plastic egg filled with candy.
The business, Dela Cruz recognizes with a laugh, is “definitely not scalable.” There is only so much time in the day, and Dela Cruz only has two hands. Bad Oven goods come in limited quantities and are in high demand. A seasoned regular knows to set an alarm and be at their computer when the clock strikes 8 on Tuesday night. It can take first-timers several weeks to learn the ropes, having repeatedly visited the shop website at 8:10 p.m. to find everything was already sold out.
The most beloved Bad Oven item is the Purple Bun. The bun, pandesal, is a yeasted and slightly sweet Filipino bread roll. Several years ago in the Philippines, a modernized version became hugely popular; it’s dough-flavored and filled with ube, a variety of purple yam. The unique flavor, as Dela Cruz describes it, has earthy notes of vanilla and taro.
The Purple Bun is so beloved at Bad Oven that Dela Cruz has made the bun into a character, creating a fully-fledged personality named “ponpon.”
Dela Cruz’s communications background is evident across Bad Oven’s online content, which is alive with lighthearted, eye-catching graphics. The coffee buns take on a personality of their own, adorably branded with a sad face.
For all its deliciousness, this micro-bakery is more than a bakery; it is a micro-community. No traditional food business brings people together such that individuals hang around parking lots chatting, swapping ramen recommendations, or offering to help change a flat tire.
“I just thought it would be a side hobby for me,” Dela Cruz reflects, as she pulls out of the parking lot after the last pickup of the day, “but it’s been amazing.”
Support independent local journalism. Join the INDY Press Club to help us keep fearless watchdog reporting and essential arts and culture coverage viable in the Triangle.
Comment on this story at backtalk@indyweek.com.
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https://indyweek.com/food-and-drink/features/med-deli-profile/
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Jamil Kadoura at the Med Deli counter | Photo by Brett Villena
In Palestine, Jamil Kadoura would not be called Jamil. Traditionally, once a Palestinian man has a son, he is usually called by his son’s name, with the prefix “Abu,” which translates to “father of.” Jamil and his wife, Angela, have three children: two daughters and a son, Zidane. Technically, Jamil should be called Abu Zidane.
But this is not what Jamil’s mother, Ayshi, called him before she passed away six years ago. Ever since he was a child growing up in Jerusalem, she called him Abu Iieta, which means “Father of Giving.”
He doesn’t remember exactly when she started calling him this. Maybe it was after Ayshi gave him her signature chickpea dish to sell in town and he gave every cup but two out for free. Maybe it was because she used to tell him, “When you give, throw it in the ocean, and it will somehow come back to you,” and she saw that he took it to heart. Likely it was a culmination of many things because giving is as significant to who Kadoura is as his exuberant hand gestures and the wide breadth of his arms as he leans in for a hug.
For our interview, we met mid-morning, coffee in hand, at his restaurant, Mediterranean Deli, which occupies a coveted spot on West Franklin Street in Chapel Hill. Though it was long before the usual lunch rush, multiple people still entered the deli—from businessmen to delivery workers to employees. The first thing all of them did as they entered was to head straight to Kadoura, hug him, and tell them they loved him.
After opening in 1992, Mediterranean Deli has steadily grown into a Chapel Hill institution. In the beginning, the cafe only fit 12 tables and a small six-foot deli case. Today, it’s a popular lunch stop for college students, visiting parents, professors, and townies alike, with a 60-foot-long deli case.
Kadoura was born in Israeli-occupied Palestine in 1960. One night in 1967, when he and his siblings were playing marbles in their pajamas, Israeli soldiers knocked on the front door of their home, telling them to leave. In refugee camps, Kadoura received food, blankets, and kindness from humanitarian organizations, which is why he says he invests so much in the Chapel Hill community.
Eventually, his family settled in the town of Qalqilya in Palestine, where he attended a United Nations elementary school. It was here, in his mid-teens, that he discovered his passion for cooking at the schoolyard falafel stand at recess.
Though the green stand was small and simple, its owner managed to make and sell falafel to hundreds of kids at recess. Like Kadoura, many of the school’s students had been displaced. When so much is lost, he realized, food is what binds us together.
“You make love over food; you make peace over food,” Kadoura tells me. “Food is the most important connection in the community.”
Magid, the owner, only had two sandwiches on his menu: a falafel sandwich and a hummus sandwich. It took a lot for the normally shy Kadoura to offer his boss some new ideas. Why not combine the two into a falafel-hummus sandwich, for starters? It was a hit.
It was this moment, many years before the deli was even an inkling in his mind, that started Kandoura’s journey towards Med Deli’s creation. For college, he moved to Minnesota and attended the Minnesota School of Business. The unemployment rate in Minneapolis was high, and with only $35 dollars in his pocket, Kadoura needed money.
He walked in the snow every day, he says, searching for work. Eventually, his persistence won him a dishwashing job at Jolly Troll Smorgasbord, an all-you-can-eat Swedish restaurant.
Though it was at the falafel stand at his school that Kadoura was introduced to ingenuity in the food industry, it was here that he learned about the business and decided he wanted to enter it. Soon after, he moved to North Carolina.
He opened Mediterranean Deli, three doors down from its current location, with the help of his wife, his mother, and his sister. Guests would sit at one of the 12 tables, and though the profits were small, Kadoura knew it was worth it.
“You can’t do it just for the money,” he says. “It’s too stressful and too hard to make it.”
Kadoura remembers coming into work at 3 a.m. and watching UNC students walk home from bars as he prepared food for the lunch rush, sweat dripping down his forehead. After dawn, he’d head to UNC’s campus to hang flyers to post the specials for the day.
“Sometimes he would be frying falafel out back because he didn’t have room inside the restaurant,” his friend Robert Smith tells me.
After two years, Kadoura had grown his business enough to move to the larger Franklin Street location. He expanded five more times before he purchased the entire building in 2012.
“The most important thing about any restaurant is consistency,” Kadoura says. His case is filled with mostly the same food every day. He knows if someone comes in and loves what they eat, they’ll want the same thing the next time.
At Med Deli, there is that consistency. From the creamy chicken salad with the crunch of walnuts to the tangy kale salad to the fresh and sweet peach salad, to the traditional falafel pita with bright vegetables and crunchy falafel (and a side of tzatziki that patrons are often seen grabbing to go for their home-cooked meals), the food is what patrons come and stay for.
The real consistency, though, comes from Kadoura’s enduring relationship with his staff.
“The average employee here has been here for over 10 years,” he says. “They know my kids. I know their kids . . . We’re not just like family. We are family.”
On a visit to Med Deli, Kadoura takes me to the kitchen to introduce me to each member of the staff, sharing their names and how many years they’ve worked for the restaurant. Seven years here; 16 years there; 12 years for another. One employee, in fact, is opening his own Guatemalan/Mexican restaurant down the street. Kadoura is cosigning the lease.
“There are so many times where we think of new recipes because employees come with an idea,” Kadoura says. “If you have a better idea of how to make a better hummus, let’s make it and try and test it and see what people say.”
Beyond investing in his employees, Kadoura is invested in the community.
“When I came here, my goal was to ask, ‘How are we going to really pay back what people did for me when I was a kid?’ And you shouldn’t do it to make your business better; you do it because you want to,” Kadoura says. “A community relationship in a business is fundamental.”
Awards and fundraiser certificates crowd the walls of the restaurant by the kitchen. From natural disasters to efforts to help Syrian refugees, Kadoura has used Med Deli as a space to raise money for causes he is passionate about.
“A lot of restaurants have a little benefit, you know, for charity and stuff, but he’s been a real leader in that,” says Smith. “When most restaurants do these benefits, it’s more typical to give the profits to charity. But when Jamil has a benefit, he gives 100 percent of the money to charity. He’s buying the food and paying the employees out of his pocket.”
In March 2020, Kadoura’s success ground to a halt. After learning from the county health department that he was going to have to close his restaurant for an indefinite amount of time, he set up a conference with all his employees in the back room of the restaurant. He wasn’t worried about himself; he knew he would make it through. But what about his staff, many of whom had depended on him for years?
When he entered the conference room, though, the first thing he was struck by was the sheer volume of people; he so rarely spoke with all his employees in one place or saw them at the same time. But here were all 70 of them in one space.
He explained to them that anyone who wanted to leave, could, and he would understand. Then one employee stood up and told Kadoura that employees had held a meeting behind his back. They had already decided that they would not be paid until things got better and they would all stay on.
“I started crying,” Kadoura says. “I broke down completely.”
While at the restaurant, I was struck by how many visitors told Kadoura they loved him—and how often he said it back.
“I don’t think I say I love you casually to any of my other guy friends except for him,” says Newt Heilman, a friend of 15 years.
Smith remembers making an offhand comment to Kadoura about his love of the deli’s olives. One day, he left his home to find two 10-foot-wide, restaurant-grade containers of olives outside his front porch: Kadoura had ordered two extra containers just for Smith.
“I consider Jamil one of my closest friends,” Heilman adds, “But I think there’s a lot of people that feel that way.”
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Sam Logan of Nightblooms | Photo by Reed Benjamin
Lilac Shadows first debuted in 2013, an "ominous shoegaze" quartet fronted by Sam Logan. Since then, the psych-rock band has made on-and-off appearances, finding no shortage of ominous material with a news cycle saturated by Trump (and everything that has followed since Trump). The band's most recent—and final—release, The Other Side of Night, had lighter touches, but the music's existential disposition had begun to feel synonymous with its dark, post-punk sound, Logan says.
"Once the pandemic hit, I really had the time to sit and think about what kind of music I wanted to make—or allow myself to make. The influences for Lilac Shadows were always pretty narrow, but I love so many different artists that I never would let find their way into my own writing. But after I wrote the song "Matters of Time" (the only demo I've released so far) after hearing this really beautiful Weyes Blood song, I realized how nice it was to do something so completely different from Lilac, and I let myself start exploring new sounds and ideas."
After this revelation came Nightblooms, Logan's new band, and as many as 17 songs, some of which will end up on the Nightblooms record, which Logan is recording in June, and which will come out on local label Sleepy Cat. Nightblooms also has two late spring shows, at the Pinhook on Thurday, April 28, and at Ruby Deluxe on Friday, April 29, respectively.
"Heart to Heart," premiering on the INDY Week website today, demonstrates Nightbloom's new sound—less industrial and more acoustic and stripped down, with more personal-feeling songs. This new material may still have plenty of shadows—depression, grief, climate change, aging—but they're thrown into relief by a light sound, and beams of lightened perspective.
"Heart to Heart" is a sort of musical homage to the music I grew up listening to—Tom Petty, The Beatles, George Harrison, ELO, etc," Logan says. "Those bands are all such a huge part of my musical upbringing, and I wanted to play around with some chords and ideas I had floating around that would be a nod to those songwriters. Of all the Nightblooms songs that predated "Heart to Heart," I didn't have anything that you might classify as one of those songs you want to listen to "with the windows down when you're driving" kinda vibes. I think it is as close to a "classic rock" sound as I'll ever get."
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Durham District Attorney: Satana Deberry
When Durham voters first elected Satana Deberry in 2019, she was often cited as part of a group of reformist DAs from across the country, including Rachael Rollins in Boston and Larry Krasner in Philadelphia. Deberry cited Krasner as a model, someone who argued that a system born from reactionary zero-tolerance, tough-on-crime policies was intrinsically racist and counterproductive, producing a carceral state that had ripped apart communities of color.
“We’re looking at different ways we can protect children in Durham County,” Deberry said two years ago after announcing her office would no longer accept court referrals for school-based incidents and would stop threatening criminal charges against parents of students who miss school. “We want to focus on getting kids what they need instead of locking them up.”
Six months into her tenure as the county’s top prosecutor, Deberry made public nearly 20 policies designed to limit county residents’ involvement with the justice system while freeing it up to focus on serious crimes that harm community members. Along with partnering with the Durham Expunction and Restoration (DEAR) program that has led to the dismissal of thousands of old traffic charges and the restoration of driver’s licenses, Deberry’s office partnered with defense attorneys and judges to safely reduce the jail population to mitigate the spread of COVID-19. Deberry’s work has not gone unnoticed. Last month, Deberry told members of the US House Judiciary subcommittee there is no evidence that the rise in gun violence across the country is linked to criminal justice reforms.
We endorse Deberry for another term.
Other candidates: Daniel Meier, Jonathan Wilson
Durham Clerk of Court: Archie Smith and Aminah Thompson
The INDY endorses incumbent Archie Smith, but also endorses challenger Aminah Thompson, who has secured endorsements from the Durham Committee on the Affairs of Black People and the People’s Alliance.
Smith, who was first elected in 2002, told the INDY recently that since being elected, his office has deposited over $311 million received by the court system.
“People forgive you for a lot of things,” Smith said at the time, “but they don’t forgive you for messing with the money.”
Smith, who has been endorsed by the Friends of Durham, said that his overarching mission has been to create a diverse workplace with qualified people who are responsive to the needs of people on the other side of the counter.
Thompson is a formidable opponent. She works as a magistrate judge, and her previous political experience includes serving as vice-chair of legal redress with the Durham Committee and co-leading the People’s Alliance Racial Equity Action Team.
Thompson says she wants to improve people’s ability to navigate the county’s complicated court system and advocate for more accountability throughout the judiciary.
She also wants to create a community-based law library and resource center, and partner with the sheriff’s office, along with superior and district court judges, to create more remote court hearings and night court to “alleviate some of the barriers to access that comes with job, school, and childcare constraints.”
Other candidates: LiBria Stephens
Durham County Sheriff: Clarence Birkhead
The INDY endorses incumbent Clarence Birkhead, but with several caveats.
Birkhead was first elected in 2018 among a wave of Black candidates elected to serve as sheriff in seven of the state’s largest counties. He says the highlights of his first term includes navigating the county through the pandemic and mandating that all sheriff’s office employees receive a COVID-19 vaccine, providing leadership during a period of civil unrest following the police murder of George Floyd, and partnering with the nonpartisan “You Can Vote” initiative in order to educate and assist pre-trial detainees and residents serving misdemeanor sentences with the opportunity to register to vote, along with opposing the 2019 NC House Bill 370, which would have required sheriffs to comply with immigration detainers for residents accused of being in the country illegally.
But there have been several misfires. The most recent was this month when the INDY reported that the sheriff’s office has a mutual aid agreement with Alamance County that enables the patrolling of Bull City streets with deputies from one of the most conservative counties in the state and led by a sheriff who is known for his anti-immigration trash talk and pro-Confederate monument values. There are also questions of transparency after the mysterious death of J’Mauri Bumpass, the 18-year-old who died in late 2019 during a sheriff’s deputy's traffic stop. The deputies first said he died as a result of crashing his car into a power pole, but later said he died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
The teen’s family filed a federal civil rights lawsuit that accuses the two deputies who pulled over Bumpass of killing him and conspiring to cover it up. Birkhead was among those named in the complaint for his role in the alleged conspiracy.
On the other hand, Birkhead’s opponent, Paul Martin, does not appear to be a serious contender for the office.
Other candidates: Paul Martin
Durham Board of Education, District 1: Emily Chávez
The INDY endorses Emily Chávez, who is director of DREAM, a UNC-Chapel Hill School of education program that was created in partnership with Durham Public Schools (DPS) “to recruit and retain teachers of color and those from underrepresented backgrounds” on behalf of DPS.
Chávez cites racial equity, greater support for LGBTQ students, and teacher working conditions and wellness as her highest priorities. Chávez is running for the seat left vacant by school board member and former chair Mike Lee. She has won an endorsement from the Durham Association of Educators and the People’s Alliance.
Opponent Jasper Fleming has been endorsed by the Durham Committee and the Friends of Durham, who described him as “a young father with children” who attend DPS, and “a relentless researcher” who will find “cost-effective ways to improve student achievement.”
Other candidates: Jasper Fleming, Curtis Hrischuk
Durham Board of Education, District 2: Bettina Umstead
Bettina Umstead, who works as an associate with the Equity Collaborative, a group that supports school systems in promoting equity in schools across the country, was appointed to the DPS Board in 2016. Umstead won election to the board in 2018 and was appointed vice chair. She was then appointed to chair the board in 2020, a role she still holds.
A career-long educator, Umstead successfully helped the DPS system navigate the COVID-19 pandemic, helped develop the Racial and Educational Equity policy for the district, and worked with the City of Durham and Duke University to expand internet access to the Durham Housing Authority communities.
Umstead, described as an adept listener and communicator by those who know and work with her, takes a collaborative approach to policy-making, and maintains a focus on improving equity in the district.
Umstead’s opponent, Donald Hughes, has some interesting ideas around extending learning times for students who have fallen behind during the pandemic and addressing mental health in schools. But Umstead has proven herself to be effective on the board and her work and experience have earned her another term. Christopher Burns, another opponent, has no public presence and is one of the ostensibly conservative Better Board, Better Schools slate of candidates.
Other candidates: Donald Hughes, Christopher Burns
Durham Board of Education, District 3: Matt Sears
Former Hillside High School math teacher, and current director of education programs with Duke University’s Talent Identification Program, incumbent Matt Sears told the INDY in 2018 that he was most proud of his record of challenging the Durham Public Schools' “status quo that has produced unacceptable outcomes for students over the last 25 years despite the amazing work of teachers and some school leaders.”
He also took aim at legislation that lifted the cap to limit the number of charter schools as having a “devastating” impact on public education, adding that “communities can now pop up charter schools on a whim” and that, far from charters being “petri dishes of innovation,” they are “places of institutionalized racism in our community." He's also no fan of SROs in schools.
Sears’s challenger Gayathri Rajaraman has no political experience and is running with the conservative Better Board, Better Schools slate of candidates.
Other candidates: Gayathri Rajaraman
Durham Board of Education, District 4: Natalie Beyer
In what will probably shape up to be a highly contested race, the INDY endorses incumbent Natalie Beyer. In our 2018 endorsement of Beyer, we noted that she “has long demonstrated a commitment to Durham Public Schools and an ability to stand on her principles.”
That commitment has been readily evident in recent months. Beyer and her fellow board members unanimously approved a $1,000 retention bonus for DPS's 4,900 full-time employees and permanent part-time employees.
And in November, when more than a quarter of DPS employees were not in compliance with a DPS vaccination mandate two months before, Beyer took the school employees to task.
“This board set a mandate and this is the expectation for our employees,” she said. “We are charged in an amazing way with caring for children. Some of them are as young as four. Some of them are medically fragile and unable to be vaccinated. And some of our co-workers and colleagues cannot be vaccinated for immunocompromised reasons. … This is to save and protect yourself and your family, and your work with Durham Public Schools.”
Beyer will face a stiff challenge from Myca Jeter, who has been endorsed by the Durham Committee for the Affairs of Black People. Jeter is a longtime social worker and DPS parent who says that “education can be a vehicle for equity, healing, opportunity, and a thriving future for every student that attends DPS,” according to her website.
Beyer, endorsed by the Durham Association of Educators, the People’s Alliance, and the Friends of Durham, took state legislators to the woodshed last year for the GOP-led House Bill 324 that sought to make white people feel less uncomfortable with the negative aspects of this country’s history.
“It’s important for teachers to be able to teach children to think critically from primary sources,” Beyer told the INDY. “And as we are more honest about our history we can learn from the past. We don’t censor teachers. We don’t ban books. We teach children to be anti-racist.”
Other candidates: Valarie Jarvis, Myca Jeter
Durham Board of Education, District B: Millicent Rogers
The INDY endorses newcomer and former People’s Alliance co-president Millicent Rogers. In February, while announcing her intent to run for a school board seat, Rogers denounced state legislators who called for the banning of books in public schools and Lt. Mark Robinson’s assertion that teachers should be punished for being “culturally responsive.”
Rogers also criticized “years of underfunding” by the state and county education administrators, with the end result being “a dearth of nurses, school counselors, and social workers and unequally resourced neighborhood schools.”
Rogers, who serves as advocacy committee chair of the NC Parent Teacher Association, has been endorsed by the People’s Alliance and the Durham Association of Educators. The Durham Committee on the Affairs of Black People and the Friends of Durham both endorsed Ravin. The FOD describes Ravin as a “calming influence” whose strong background in technology and fiscal accountability, two of the most important issues facing our schools, will serve our county well.” But we think some of Ravin's votes on COVID measures, including one to prematurely end the masking requirement for students and staff, were ill-advised.
Other candidates: Frederick Ravin III
NC District Court 14, Seat 1:
Incumbent Dave Hall brings first-hand experience to a city in the throes of a gun violence epidemic: in 2013 he was an innocent bystander when he was struck by gunfire. The NC Central Law School graduate says he left private practice to determine what safety looked like for his family and community. He concluded that it begins with accountability and opportunity for individuals who come into contact with the legal system.
First elected as district court judge in 2018, Hall previously worked to end mass incarceration as a civil rights attorney with the Southern Coalition for Social Justice, along with working to expunge criminal records for more than 5,000 clients, and helping them restore their driver’s licenses.
While working with the Southern Coalition for Social Justice, Hall was involved with the lobbying efforts of the Raleigh-based NC Second Chance Alliance, a nonpartisan agency that advocates on behalf of justice-involved individuals.
“That lobbying work led to dismissed charges being automatically expunged,” Hall told the INDY this week. “Now that I’m on the bench it’s exciting to see the work we did come to fruition with automatic expungements.”
Opponent Jessica Major would likely make a fine judge, too. But Hall is more experienced.
Other candidates: Jessica Major
NC District Court 14, Seat 3: Kevin Jones
First elected in 2002, incumbent Pat Evans did not garner endorsements from the city’s two leading political action committees, the Durham Committee on the Affairs of Black People, or the People’s Alliance. However, the veteran judge is endorsed by the nonpartisan Friends of Durham PAC who describes her as an experienced and caring judge who demonstrates a “tough love approach” to young offenders who have made poor choices, but need a second chance to become productive citizens.
Her challenger, Kevin Jones, a former elementary school teacher who has practiced law in the Bull City for more than two decades, did win Durham Committee and People Alliance’s influential PACs’ endorsements. The INDY, too, is impressed with Jones’ progressive vision and shares his concern about a judicial disconnect from ordinary people’s lives often leading to unfair prison sentences and unrealistic court fines. The INDY also agrees with Jones’ assertion that “in an effort to avoid being labeled 'soft on crime' those who are tasked with the responsibility of administering justice are 'hard on people.'”
We endorse Jones.
Other candidates: Pat Evans
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NC Senate District 13: Lisa Grafstein (D)
Grafstein and Patrick Buffkin (her opponent in the primary) and are both qualified candidates and agree on many of the big-ticket progressive priorities championed by Democrats in the NC General Assembly: expanding Medicaid, funding the Leandro mandate, investing in renewable energy and public transit, and combating a growing affordable housing crisis that affects not only constituents of this North Raleigh district but residents statewide. We believe Grafstein is the best candidate to tackle them.
A civil rights attorney with a history of representing North Carolinians facing various types of discrimination, Grafstein is an advocate of justice in all its forms. Currently, she works for Disability Rights North Carolina, a nonprofit that advocates on behalf of those with disabilities. Her world experience working closely with the mistreated and underserved speaks to a selfless passion to improve the lives of others. It’s a great recipe for a state senator and offsets any concern about her lack of political experience.
As a member of Raleigh’s city council, Buffkin no doubt understands the minutiae of governing and has a deep knowledge of the issues plaguing the city, and state, from housing affordability to infrastructure demands to unaddressed public safety reform. He’s not a bad choice, but we’re swayed by Grafstein’s idealism and force of will.
Other candidates: Patrick Buffkin
NC House District 33: Rosa Gill (D)
Rosa Gill has served in the General Assembly since 2009, when she was appointed to her seat by then-Gov. Bev Perdue. A reliable advocate for public education (and a former educator herself), Gill has championed higher pay for teachers, funding for Pre-K through post-secondary education, and professional development for teachers in order to best serve a diverse student population. Additionally, Gill served on Wake County’s school board, and in the legislature, served as the Democratic Minority Whip and chaired the Democratic House Education Workgroup.
We don’t know much about Gill’s challenger, Nate Blanton, except for what’s on his website. Admittedly, Blanton has an interesting background as a Navy veteran who studied nuclear waste policy and nonproliferation at NC State. Currently, Blanton works as an operator with Duke Energy at Harris Nuclear Plant. Blanton has worked as a precinct chair but is otherwise a political newcomer; we’re going with Gill for her experience.
Other candidates: Nate Blanton
NC Senate District 23: Graig Meyer (D)
Encompassing all of Orange County (plus Person and Caswell), North Carolina’s newly drawn Senate District 23 will be fairly blue and the state at large needs as many proven progressives within its legislative ranks as possible.
That’s why we’re endorsing Graig Meyer. Meyer has served as a state representative since 2013 and first ran while working in the state’s public schools on a pro-public education platform. And Meyer has solid accomplishments to show for his time in Raleigh, including leading on legislation that would promote social equity through cannabis legalization, create universal paid family leave for those who have a child or need to care for a family member, and provide voter registration services and other assistance to would-be voters should a voter ID requirement become law. That’s not to mention the important work Meyer has done to pressure the legislature to support the Leandro mandate and to strengthen the Democratic caucus through service as Recruitment, Finance, and Campaign chairs.
Meyer’s opponent, Jamie DeMent Holcomb, has an impressively diverse life experience as a Capitol Hill aide, restaurant owner, farmer, cookbook author, and the director of Chapel Hill’s Kidzu Museum, but she lacks the proven track record and legislative experience that Meyer has. We hope to see Holcomb run for office again in the future.
Other candidates: Jamie DeMent Holcomb
NC House District 37: Elizabeth Parent (D)
Elizabeth Parent, a server and host at a local restaurant, is 28 years old and makes $2.50 an hour, plus tips. In a state legislature dominated by geriatric white lawyers and business owners, we need more people like her.
If elected, Parent will represent the younger generation, millennials who are eager for change and ready for more progressive policies. In the most conservative district in Wake County, Parent offers a refreshing take on issues of affordable housing, the environment, and rights for women and LGBTQ people.
Parent supports Medicaid expansion, increased pay for teachers, and investment in renewable energy. She is also in favor of legalizing recreational marijuana, independent redistricting, and raising the minimum wage to at least $15 an hour. Parent’s working-class background could make her a solid foil for Republican Erin Parè in the fall.
Christine Kelly, a former member of the Holly Springs Town Council running in the primary, championed slow growth policies during her four-year tenure. Last fall, Kelly lost her race for mayor by a wide margin to a Republican opponent—that’s concerning. But Kelly is a solid candidate and she would be a reliable vote in the state House.
Mary Bethel, a former AARP lobbyist and candidate in the race, is an advocate for seniors and those with disabilities and is running on a health care-focused platform. Like Kelly, Bethel is also a perfectly good candidate, but neither are as compelling as Parent.
Other candidates: Mary Bethel, Christine Kelly
NC House District 40: Joe John (D)
Again, we’re going with incumbent experience in our endorsement of Joe John, and John has a long record of service to North Carolina. A state representative first elected in 2016, John has also served as a judge on state district and superior courts as well as as an associate justice on the North Carolina Court of Appeals. Additionally, John served as the director of the State Crime Laboratory from 2010 to 2014 after he was appointed by then-attorney general Roy Cooper. Formerly, John headed the NC DMV. In the House, John has made the fight to end partisan gerrymandering a signature issue, the topic of the first bill he sponsored. John has also worked on bipartisan legislation that allows inmates to work toward community college degrees and job training before release. John’s platform is straightforward: advocating to fund the Leandro mandate, ending gerrymandering, pushing for Medicaid expansion, and preserving the independence of the judiciary.
John’s opponent, Marguerite Creel, who owns a tutoring company, looks to have a fairly detailed platform around strengthening education, ensuring reliable energy services, and caring for the elderly in the wake of COVID-19. But Creel has no political experience that we can discern. John is the stronger candidate in this race.
Other candidates: Marguerite Creel
NC House District 50: Renee Price (D)
This was a tough choice between two hard-working, experienced candidates. In the end, we decided to endorse Renee Price because what we heard most from the people who know and work with her is that Price really cares about other people.
From early on in her career, Price has worked for nonprofits and government organizations in the realms of housing and neighborhood revitalization, environmental justice, farmworkers’ rights, and natural resource conservation. Price has served on the Orange County Board of Commissioners since 2012, and in 2020, her colleagues on the board elected her to serve as chair. Price is also active with the NC Association of County Commissioners, and she received an award for her work as an outstanding county commissioner in 2020.
Matt Hughes, her opponent, would also make an excellent state representative. Appointed chair of the Orange County Democratic Party in 2011 and having served as Second Vice Chair of the NC Democratic Party since 2017, Hughes also serves on the Hillsborough town board after he was appointed following a vacancy in 2018 and then elected in 2019.
Both Hughes and Price are solid candidates. We’re going with Price for her deep connections to, and engagement with, the people of her district.
Other candidates: Matt Hughes
NC House District 56: Allen Buansi and Jonah Garson (D)
This was truly an impossible choice to make and while it’s somewhat of a cop-out, we didn’t feel we could choose between Jonah Garson and Allen Buansi. And so, as with a few other races, we’re endorsing both candidates in this Democratic primary race.
Buansi, a civil rights lawyer, served on Chapel Hill’s town council from 2017 to 2021 where he helped create and pass the town’s Criminal Justice Debt Fund (see our story on page 3), assist in increasing funding for Chapel Hill’s Emergency Housing Assistance program, and pass the town’s $10 million affordable housing bond and a non-discrimination ordinance.
On top of that, everyone says Buansi is just a really nice guy.
But ditto for Garson, who is popular among college students on UNC’s campus.
Though Garson hasn’t held elected office, he is described by people who know him as a workhorse and his contributions to the Democratic Party are innumerable.
Formerly the chair of the Orange County Democratic Party, Garson has traveled all across the state in the past decade as a field organizer working to get Democrats elected to the legislature. Garson’s tenacity and dedication will serve Democrats—who have been sidelined by gerrymandering over the past decade—well if they are to continue to organize, push a progressive agenda, and win many more future elections with the potential to secure a majority this decade. Garson has a vision for that path forward.
NC House District 66: Sarah Crawford (D)
A one-term state senator (whose senate district boundaries changed after redistricting), Crawford is now running for the NC House to represent the residents of eastern Wake County. Currently the CEO of the Tammy Lynn Center for Developmental Disabilities, Crawford worked previously to serve constituents in the congressional offices of US Reps. Bob Etheridge and David Price. Crawford also has significant nonprofit and community leadership experience, including serving on the board of directors for a domestic violence support group. In the legislature, Crawford cites her bipartisan achievements in lowering taxes for families by increasing the child tax deduction, raising the minimum wage to $15 for workers under Medicaid, and investing $1 billion for broadband access.
One of Crawford’s challengers, Jeremiah Pierce, is an 8th-grade teacher at Wake County public schools and a strong advocate for public education. The other challenger, Wesley Knott, is a former precinct chair and district coordinator. While both Pierce and Knott are no doubt strong progressive candidates, Crawford has a record of getting elected—and getting things done—in an area of Wake County that can lean conservative.
Other candidates: Wesley Knott, Jeremiah Pierce
Support independent local journalism. Join the INDY Press Club to help us keep fearless watchdog reporting and essential arts and culture coverage viable in the Triangle.
Comment on this story at backtalk@indyweek.com.
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Orange/Chatham County District Attorney: Jeff Nieman and Kayley Taber (D)
Read Nieman’s candidate questionnaire here and Taber's questionnaire here.
Jeff Nieman and Kayley Taber have a lot in common. Both have worked for the Orange/Chatham District Attorney’s office for many years. Both differ from their predecessor, Jim Woodall, who is not running for reelection, in their opposition to the death penalty. And both are committed to criminal justice reform and would likely make progressive, effective district attorneys who can balance public safety with a commitment to equity. Both are outstanding candidates.
Nieman, a nearly-lifelong Orange County resident, is the better-known of the two candidates. He has a particularly strong reform platform, including mandating racial equity training for all DA office staff, promising to recruit applicants from underrepresented communities, and using rehabilitative and therapeutic approaches to criminal justice. Having co-founded the Driver’s License Restoration Project to help people escape the cycle of court costs and fines, Nieman also has a demonstrated ability to get things done.
With Roe v. Wade currently on life-support, it’s not unthinkable that sanctuary districts for people who receive abortions could be a reality sometime in the not-so-distant future. So, it was striking to us that in her candidate questionnaire, Taber writes, “There is a nationwide movement to enact laws criminalizing access to reproductive care ... I will not be part of re-victimizing women and children by prosecuting them for accessing medical care that is appropriate for them, complies with our medical standards of care, and is protected by the Constitution.” Indeed, Taber has worked on behalf of sexual assault victims for nearly a quarter-century, witnessing trauma firsthand and seeing women and girls trapped in abusive relationships with unwanted pregnancies. We commend this work—and Taber’s foresight.
That’s why we’ll leave it up to voters to make the choice between Taber and Nieman.
Orange County Board of Education: Sarah Smylie and Ashley Wheeler
Read Smylie's candidate questionnaire here and Wheeler's questionnaire here.
With a slate of conservative (think mask-bashing, “parents’ choice”) candidates on the ballot this spring, it’s not unthinkable that the current progressive majority on the Orange County school board could be under threat. That’s why, although there are four open seats on the board, we’re only endorsing two candidates. All OCS candidates run at large, and progressive candidates Sarah Smylie and Ashley Wheeler need the most votes to win.
Smylie is an incumbent who has, in her first term on the board, played a critical role in developing strategic school improvement and equity plans—including racial and LGBTQ equity and protocols for students who want to transition—for the Orange County school system.
Ashley Wheeler, while a political newcomer, has a solidly progressive platform and understands the county’s pressing needs on infrastructure, teacher and staff recruitment, and equity. An ER nurse at Duke Health, Wheeler says she will take a collaborative approach on the board.
The other candidates we’d recommend (though are not endorsing) are Will Atherton, another incumbent, and André Richmond, a school resource officer.
Though they haven’t espoused explicitly conservative views, Atherton and Richmond have been campaigning with a more conservative slate of candidates on the ballot: Anne Purcell, a former OCS principal who has publicly said she supports keeping controversial books off of library shelves and that she’s observed more racism among students of color than among white students; Penny Carter King, who says on her website that the current board has been “more focused on furthering political agendas;” and Bethni Lee, who’s received a lot of money from “parental rights” group Moms for Liberty. Pass, pass, pass.
Other candidates: Will Atherton, André Richmond, Anne Purcell, Penny Carter King, Bethni Lee
Carrboro Town Council: Eliazar Posada
Read Posada's candidate questionnaire here.
At 29 years old, Eliazar Posada has accomplished a lot. The son of working-class immigrants and the youngest-ever executive director of El Centro Hispano, the state’s largest Latino organization, Posada knows how to work hard. This is why we think he’s the candidate best-positioned to get results around affordable housing, public transit, and racial equity in Carrboro.
Posada has also been politically active for a long time, serving on an exhaustive list of local government boards and commissions, including several in Carrboro. He has also worked on voter registration and education initiatives, on political campaigns, and held leadership roles with the North Carolina Democratic party.
Posada’s opponent, Aja Kelleher, ran for a seat on Carrboro’s council last fall and was unsuccessful. Kelleher, an engineer, has interesting ideas around sustainability, but for this election, Posada is the stronger candidate.
Other candidates: Aja Kelleher
Orange County Register of Deeds: Mark Chilton
Chilton's candidate questionnaire is forthcoming.
Register of Deeds incumbent Mark Chilton is a NC Central law school alum who previously practiced real estate law and served as both a Chapel Hill town councilman and the mayor of Carrboro.
During his two terms in office, Chilton has added passport services, implemented an alert service to guard against real estate fraud, and completed the digitization of every deed book dating back to 1755. He has also worked to digitize records relating to the sales of enslaved people with the goal of uncovering a suppressed history of Orange County.
Chilton’s opponent is Penny Rich, a former personal chef and caterer who has served on the Orange Water And Sewer Authority board of directors, the Chapel Hill Town Council, and Orange County Board of County Commissioners. Rich is running because she believes the office’s website is out-of-date and its procedures should be more streamlined.
While user-friendliness and efficiency are important components of the register of deeds office, Rich’s complaints don’t seem particularly well-founded. We believe Chilton has proven himself to be a competent and caring public servant for the people of Orange County and will continue to expand and protect the office’s database when re-elected.
Other candidates: Penny Rich
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Comment on this story at backtalk@indyweek.com.
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Wake County District Attorney: Damon Chetson
We like incumbent Lorrin Freeman. She is an honest, even-tempered, forthright public servant who takes the work of her office seriously. She is transparent with the media and is clearly guided by a worldview that shapes her moral and ethical approach to the job. Additionally, we applaud the criminal justice policies she worked to implement with other court officials, including lowering bail bond minimums and enhancing pretrial services.
But a progressive, reform-minded DA Freeman is not. Freeman prosecutes low-level drug possession and opposes a bill that would prohibit juveniles from receiving life sentences. In the past, she has sought the death penalty, which she says “should be reserved for the most egregious cases.”
As a progressive publication, we don’t feel we can endorse a prosecutor who will seek the death penalty. And although Freeman notes that her office has not declared a case capital since 2017, she has tried six capital cases before a jury during her tenure as DA, resulting in one death sentence for a man convicted of a double murder at a Raleigh hotel.
Chetson, Freeman’s challenger, is reform-minded—if not, as a former Republican-turned-Bernie volunteer, terribly exciting. But he’s sound on reform and opposes capital punishment. That makes Chetson the clear choice.
Other candidates: Lorrin Freeman
Wake County Sheriff: Willie Rowe
Incumbent Sheriff Gerald Baker was a good pick in 2018 when Democrats were coming out in numbers to end Republican Donnie Harrison’s 16-year reign. But after Baker’s mishandling of the Black Lives Matter protests in 2020, when sheriff’s deputies fired tear gas and rubber bullets at protestors, we’re not endorsing him for another term.
Baker’s victory brought seven other Democrats out of the woodwork, all vying to take the sheriff’s office in a progressive direction. Two in particular stand out—Willie Rowe, a former major in the sheriff's office with decades of law enforcement experience, and Cedric Herring, a former sergeant in the State Highway Patrol with a passion for social justice.
Rowe, 62, has a long record of community service, advocating for at-risk youth and treatment of substance abuse. He’s a deacon at First Baptist Church and currently serves as the chairman of the Wake County ABC Board and Raleigh Inter-Church Housing, where he works to increase affordable housing. Law enforcement, Rowe says, is a matter of preventing crime by engaging with the community, rather than making more arrests.
Rowe supports reform of the school resource officer program (to reduce criminalization of minority students), pretrial release programs, and education programs for people in jail. Rowe has also said he would not reinstate the 287(g) program nor honor detainer requests from Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
Another good candidate is Cedric Herring, 53. He has less experience as a manager in law enforcement but is determined to reform the sheriff’s office by demilitarizing the force, investing in de-escalation training, and releasing body camera footage to the public. Herring wants to reduce arrests and eliminate bonds for low-level crimes, he says. He also opposes the 287(g) program.
Still, we endorse Rowe.
Other candidates: Cedric Herring, Randolph Baity, Gerald M. Baker, Joe Coley, Tommy Matthews, Willie Rowe, Roy Taylor
Wake County Board of Commissioners, District 1: Donald Mial and Shaun Pollenz
Incumbent commissioner Sig Hutchinson is vacating his seat, leaving it open to a newcomer. And two strong challengers are vying to take Hutchinson’s place.
Wake County voters may know District 1, covering the far eastern part of the county, as Wake’s conservative district and the subject of grumbles from Republicans as it’s usually held by a Democrat (county commissioners are elected at large).
Democrats swept the board of commissioners in 2014 and, to our knowledge, a Republican hasn’t served on the board since.
This election cycle sees two types of Democrats running for the District 1 seat: Donald Mial, in the more traditional mold, and Shaun Pollenz, a staunch progressive.
Mial, who has the endorsement of Hutchinson, is retired from the NC Department of Public Safety and has a platform focusing on the county’s explosive growth and sustainability, and supporting and funding the county’s public schools.
Pollenz, the son of an English teacher who grew up in Wake and is now an attorney who has represented Black Lives Matter protesters in court, ran for the county school board in 2018 to be “a voice for teachers.” His platform is focused on education, affordable housing, and economic development.
Both solid candidates, Pollenz and Mial would likely vote the same way on most issues that come before the Board of Commissioners. While Wake voters at-large—younger, more liberal—might prefer Pollenz, district voters may prefer Mial.
We’re endorsing both.
Wake County Board of Commissioners, District 3: Cindy Sinkez
At the very western end of Wake County sits District 3, which Commissioner Maria Cervania is vacating to run for the state House. That has opened the race to three qualified Democratic women—Cindy Sinkez, Cheryl Stallings, and Lisa Mead.
If only two candidates were running in this race, we would endorse them both. But since there are three, in order to give voters a little bit of guidance, we’ve decided to endorse Sinkez.
A former PTA leader and public schools champion, local Democratic party volunteer, and state Equal Rights Amendment advocate, Sinkez is the most progressive candidate in the race—endorsements from the Progressive Caucus of the NC Democratic Party and Progressive Democrats of Wake County make that clear. A longtime advocate for public education, this Cary-based mother and grandmother seems best-positioned to lead on issues ranging from education, to transit, to the environment.
Mead and Stallings would also make excellent commissioners.
Mead is a substitute teacher in Wake County schools and a former grant writer and fundraiser for nonprofits with a strong growth-oriented platform. Stallings is a psychologist, small business owner, and member of the Apex Town Council, the only candidate of the three with experience as a local elected official.
Other candidates: Cheryl Stallings, Lisa Mead
Cary Town Council, Districts A, C, At-Large
We're not endorsing in Cary's municipal election as we don't feel informed enough on the issues that the town is facing to make a decision.
That said, we find two candidates running this cycle to be pretty exciting: Carissa Johnson, who is running at large, and Amanda Murphy, who is running in District C, would both bring fresh ideas to a council that's traditionally been dominated by wealthy conservatives. Both have been endorsed by the Wake County Democratic Party—we trust the party's judgement.
Support independent local journalism. Join the INDY Press Club to help us keep fearless watchdog reporting and essential arts and culture coverage viable in the Triangle.
Comment on this story at backtalk@indyweek.com.
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Welcome to the INDY's 2022 primary endorsements!
Here you'll find our recommendations in 29 races covering the US House and Senate, the state legislature, sheriffs, judges, district attorneys, town council and county board of commissioners candidates, and more. It's a lot, and for some of these races, we couldn't pick just one candidate—so we endorsed two.
Click the links below to learn more about our choices. We've also included a printable voting guide to take with you to the polls. Early voting starts tomorrow (April 28) and Election Day is May 17. Be sure to cast your ballot and make your voice heard.
Endorsements:
Support independent local journalism. Join the INDY Press Club to help us keep fearless watchdog reporting and essential arts and culture coverage viable in the Triangle.
Comment on this story at backtalk@indyweek.com.
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Name as it appears on the ballot: Ashley Wheeler
Age: 44
Party affiliation: Democrat
Campaign website: ashleywheelerforoc.org
Occupation & employer: registered nurse, Duke University Health System
Years lived in the area: 35 years
1. In 300 words or less, please give us—and our readers—your elevator pitch: Why are you running? Why should voters entrust you with this position? What are your priorities, and what would you want to see the school board do differently or better over the course of your term?
Earlier this year, I stood outside of a school board meeting with parents and students who were concerned about the anti-LGBTQ rhetoric that was emerging around banning certain books. In that moment, I realized that the progressive community needed more people to step up to run, and I knew that I could offer a fresh perspective as an outsider with very relevant skills. I am learning an incredible amount about the complexity of the issues facing our teachers, administrators, staff, students, and families. There are no easy answers, but I am a very curious person who seeks first to understand.
I am steadfast in my commitment to equity. I do not see equity as a zero-sum game and I firmly believe that the path to student excellence is through creating an equitable educational system. I am excited that our district has a new strategic plan that incorporates equity, but its implementation will be critical. I will use skills developed through my professional work implementing healthcare plans, policies, and procedures as well as revisiting and reevaluating those procedures to ensure implementation of the new strategic plan is successful. Continuous improvement methods that are being applied now in schools have been developed from decades of work to achieve excellence in healthcare systems, which means I am familiar with these particular methods and their application.
Finally, I am relationship-driven. The challenges our school community has faced in the last few years – and the challenges we will face in the future – require relationship building. This takes time, requires trust, communication, and vulnerability. I am committed to building relationships and creating inclusive communities for all of our students, teachers, staff, and families.
2. Given the direction of the school district, would you say things are on the right course? If not, for what specific changes will you advocate if elected?
I believe things are on the right course. It is impressive to me that our board has navigated an incredibly challenging pandemic while still advancing a new 5 year strategic plan. Part of the strategic plan has included an audit of literacy curricula and a revision of professional development to better meet the needs of students and reduce achievement gaps. Many of the board votes have been unanimous, despite the challenges and division in our community. I would like to continue the momentum toward unity. Disruptions can be really challenging for schools and districts to overcome and I know that change takes time. What I will prioritize in my first few months is building relationships and hearing from constituents, including teachers, students and families, to hear what is and isn’t working from their perspective. I will also prioritize communication. I do think communication is important for building trust, and I think we can always improve on the ways we communicate and have a clear message for parents, aligned across our schools.
3. What are the three main issues that you believe the Board of Education needs to address in the upcoming year?
We have profound infrastructure needs that far exceed our budget. We will have to prioritize and develop a short-term plan to address the facility needs that are impacting students and staff on a daily basis (classroom safety, bathrooms, cafeteria, etc.). We can do this while continuously advocating, and encouraging parents to advocate, at the state level for appropriate funding for our district (as specified in the court-order Leandro plan).
Just like many counties in the state and nationwide, we face a teacher recruitment and retention crisis. It is an incredibly challenging time to be a teacher or staff member in our public school system. We know that filling open positions, bolstering teacher morale, respecting teachers’ autonomy, protecting their time, and supporting professional development can help our teachers receive the time, support, and training they need and desire to work more effectively.
The third issue is trust. The last few years have taken a toll on our community. There is a lot of division, and it is doing a disservice to our entire school community. Through my work as a nurse in the ER, I am skilled at meeting people in their most challenging moments. I am proficient at identifying core needs and values while finding common ground. There will be a learning curve of how the school system works, but my experience in the complex world of the health care system has taught me that at the end of the day we don’t get anywhere without trusting relationships. I commit to building trust with our school board, teachers, and families. Receiving the endorsements of Equality NC PAC, the Orange County Association of Educators, and the Progressive Democrats of Orange County meant a great deal to me because it is a reflection of the trust I have established with community members and educators already – a trust I intend to continually earn in the years to come.
4. Describe something you think the school board should have prioritized differently in the current budget. Do you think the budget supports students from lower income families as well as from wealthy families? Does the budget meet the district’s infrastructure needs?
All budget questions are very challenging. It is hard to do so much with so little. I feel like our board has done a great job of supporting diverse needs during the pandemic and making sure that communities had access to what they needed (such as broadband, hotspots, laptops, meals, etc.) In my view, the current board has had to make incredibly difficult decisions and I support the priorities reflected in the current budget. That includes renaming of schools as one in a series of steps to dismantle white supremacy, which was essentially paid for through a modest carryover amount that would not be available for recurring costs such as salaries. The question of whether budget allocations are equitable is critical, and to my knowledge, that close look is planned for the upcoming year. One important step OCS has taken toward equity is hiring to make sure that there is at least 1 bilingual staff member in the main office of every school, and expanding language and translation services.
I would love to see future budget conversations take a more participatory budgeting approach. This helps everyone feel heard and valued and seeks a broader degree of input. There are numerous models of participatory budgeting, even just down the road in Greensboro, and I think we can learn a lot by looking at those practices. This is something that another candidate for board, Sarah Smylie, has also mentioned as a possibility for our school board. I whole-heartedly support that.
The district’s budget does not meet our infrastructure needs. Our local infrastructure budget is woefully inadequate to cover the repairs and improvements needed across our schools. In the absence of a solution that involves federal and state funding for infrastructure, I am encouraged that the Orange County BOCC and the two school districts have created a task force focused on prioritizing and funding infrastructure needs. I will continue this work if I am elected.
5) What is your understanding of what Critical Race Theory is? Is CRT currently taught in K-12 public schools? What are your thoughts on House Bill 324, the bill Gov. Cooper vetoed because he said it “pushes calculated, conspiracy-laden politics into public education?” Would you support such a bill?
Critical race theory (CRT) is an advanced theoretical framework that originated in the field of graduate level legal studies. The essence of CRT is that race is a socially constructed, and that racism is embedded in legal systems and policies. It is not being taught in our K-12 public schools. There is a misconception that any teaching that turns a critical eye to systems and policies and asks us to self-reflect and understand how we live, move, and grow in different systems as CRT. That is highly problematic. I would not support any such bill as House Bill 324 and I am thankful the governor vetoed it. We are in a time of teacher burnout and retention challenges. Targeting their teaching, infiltrating teacher groups, creating reporting systems – all that does is create an unwelcoming and hostile environment for our teachers. We have far bigger concerns in our school district than to be distracted by a debate about a curriculum that isn’t being used in the schools.
6) Does the General Assembly have a constitutional obligation to comply with the state Supreme Court order in the Leandro case to fully fund public schools and give every child in North Carolina a sound basic education?
Yes, I believe that the General Assembly has a constitutional obligation to comply and ensure that all children in the state have access to a sound, basic education. The NC Supreme Court decision affirms this obligation.
7) Do you agree with the school board’s unanimous decision this winter to support decisions made at the school and administrative levels to keep the books Gender Queer, Lawnboy, and Out of Darkness on the shelves in school classrooms/libraries? Please explain your answer.
I wholeheartedly support the school board’s decision because I trust the librarians and educators who are part of the Media and Technology Advisory Committee to uphold the interests of all students. That committee’s review of these reading materials affirmed that each of these books is literature that is a valuable part of our high school libraries’ collections. I also trust the policy we have established for hearing and responding to parental concerns. Parents absolutely have a right to input over what their children read, but no parent has the right to make that determination for the children of others. It would be wonderful to think that every child went home to an open, accepting family who were prepared to guide them on their adolescent journey. But we know that that is not the case. And we know from research that access to information and recognition of identities is a key to keeping young people safe and helping them feel supported. Some of our students will only find recognition and support in a book. Others will only learn how to understand life experiences different from their own through books. I will not take that away from them.
8) Orange County’s Board of Education has passed some of the most progressive policies in the state around strengthening racial equity and providing a safe, inclusive environment for LGBTQ+ students to learn. Do you support these policies? Please explain why/why not.
I support these policies fully and it is a key part of why I am running. We should be incredibly proud of our bold policies. I would seek to strengthen and improve the measures of safe and inclusive environments so that we can understand how the policies are being implemented, what is working and what isn’t, and how we can improve upon them. I also think these policies are critical for our teacher retention challenges. We can recruit diverse candidates, but if we do not have inclusive environments that welcome them and honor their expertise as educators and champions of students, we will lose them. Teacher turnover comes at a very high cost to the district. I see these policies as a critical part of improving our work environment for teachers. I want to make sure that they are being implemented effectively, and make improvements where needed. It is my support of these policies that has earned me the endorsements of Equality NC PAC, Orange County Association of Educators, and the Progressive Democrats of Orange County.
9) Do you support the Orange County School District’s Gender Support guidelines that create a protocol for students who are transitioning or want to?
I fully support the Gender Support Guidelines. These are evidence-based guidelines that are designed to meet the needs of LGBTQIA+ youth. The Trevor Project National Youth Survey presents devastating statistics regarding the challenges our LGBTQIA+ youth face. These Gender Support Guidelines are designed to help mitigate these challenges and prioritize the health and safety of our students. They are not designed to hide information from parents. The guidelines explicitly state that parents are to be worked with unless it appears unsafe to do so. Again, the core of these policies is the protection, safety, and support of students.
10) Do police officers (School Resource Officers) have a role in schools? Do you agree with the way the current board is trying to address the role of SROs in Orange County Schools?
I believe there is a role in schools for SROs, so long as the focus of officers is on maintaining a safe environment for students (rather than policing student behavior), and clear policy is in place to ensure that educators/administrators address discipline issues. SROs are only effective when they build relationships with students, earn trust, and act with integrity. At the same time, we know that the presence of SROs has the potential to create a less welcoming environment for students, and a disproportionate negative impact on Black and brown students and students with disabilities. Therefore, I would advocate for SROs to participate in anti-bias and equity training designed specifically to support SROs in understanding the role they can play in disrupting the school to prison pipeline.
11) Research has shown an achievement gap for Orange County Schools students based on race and socioeconomic status. What specific policies would you support or what actions would you take to help close the gap so that race and socioeconomic status don’t persist as predictive factors?
This is where we can leverage two critical components of decision making: looking at our own extensive data, and hearing directly from our families. Achievement gaps are often revealed in the numbers but they are influenced by the entire school environment. I support the policies the board has enacted around recognizing that Black Lives Matter, renaming schools, overhauling our literacy curriculum, and focusing on recruiting teachers of color so that the racial composition of our teachers reflects that of our students. I plan on continuing to examine the data through a lens of race and class while also meeting regularly with students, teachers, and families to understand their everyday experiences in our system. The data only tells one part of the story. Working in collaboration with the communities of color who have been advocating for equity work in the district for years at this point is critical. I am prepared to follow their lead and work in service of their efforts.
12) How can the school board better assist students who lack broadband access?
It’s critical that the board continue to collaborate with the County Commissioners and our local NCGA members to make use of the opportunity to build out broadband in rural areas of our county. In the meantime, the board must continue to provide hot spots to students.
13) Is the district currently doing enough to assist disabled students? What more could it do?
The pandemic has been so hard in so many ways, and I have heard that remote learning may have been hardest on disabled students. I have heard this especially from families of elementary school children. I know the district took important steps to engage families in the IEP process virtually, and I am committed to learning more from students, families and our exceptional children educators.
14) If there is anything else you would like to address, please do so here.
Eighteen years ago, I voluntarily entered a plea for a DWI in Durham, North Carolina. I deeply regret this mistake and I regret having put anyone at risk. This is public record and I consciously decided to not have it expunged. I disclosed this misdemeanor to my nursing school, the North Carolina Board of Nursing, and to the health system that hired me as a registered nurse. Subsequently, I have been a valued employee and an upstanding citizen. I follow the law and I conduct myself with kindness, honesty, compassion, and strength. I have carried this regret with me every day since, but I am also grateful for the lessons I learned along the way. I am grateful for the perspective I have gained, for the way I have grown in understanding, and for the powerful connection I can experience with people in the grasp of the imperfect moments in life. It is these lessons that I will bring with me to the Board. I am not running for office simply to win. I am putting my authentic self forward, having been formed by the sum total of my decisions, and declaring that I have the capacity and the desire to serve my community. I refuse to let any discomfort keep me from what I think is extremely crucial service to the students of OCS, the educators of OCS, and the community at large. I refuse to sit back and watch as destructive forces seek to push marginalized and powerless people out of their rightful place in our society. It is happening every day in this nation. There is a concerted effort to narrow opportunities and protections for a large part of our student population. Someone had to stand up for justice, for mercy, and for equality. I am an imperfect person, but here I stand, willing to fight and protect.
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Name as it appears on the ballot: Jeff Nieman
Campaign website: www.jeffnieman.com
Years lived in Orange/Chatham County: 40 years, since I was 5
1. What do you believe are the most important issues facing the District Attorney’s Office? What are your top three priorities in addressing these issues?
I believe that systemic racism and implicit bias affect nearly every aspect of our lives, including racial disparities in the criminal justice system. As District Attorney, I will make implicit bias training mandatory for all DA staff. I also believe that hiring decisions should be made with an appreciation of the community served. I will make intentional recruiting efforts to encourage more applicants from under-represented communities to consider future careers in a district attorney’s office, especially in our district. For equity reasons and many other reasons published on my campaign website, I have also made a public commitment not to seek the death penalty in our district.
The criminalization of poverty is another important issue that I will continue to fight against. I co-founded the Driver’s License Restoration Project to help revoked, indigent individuals escape the vicious cycle of court costs and fines and help safe drivers to regain their licenses. Going forward as DA, I will continue to advance our district’s practice of working with our local specialized restoration attorney to help those with revoked licenses to get back to licensure in a fair way. I will also ensure the DA’s office considers a defendant’s ability to pay fines and court costs when making prosecutorial decisions and sentencing recommendations.
Finally, the U.S. criminal justice system is plagued by mass incarceration, which in many cases is not creating positive societal results for those convicted nor better outcomes for our broader communities. I have a 16-year career track record of creating, utilizing and advocating for rehabilitative approaches to criminal justice in lieu of traditional criminal justice consequences, including incarceration, and as DA, I will continue to lead in this effort. Additionally, I have committed to expunge all juvenile criminal records eligible under the Second Chance Act as an effort to enable young people to build paths to productive adult livelihoods.
A therapeutic court is a type of specialized court program that seeks to focus on rehabilitation of underlying issues for individuals charged with crimes. This alternative path is especially important when traditional criminal justice system consequences (i.e. monetary fines, probation or incarceration) are not shown to likely address the core problems leading individuals to commit similar crimes in the future. When individuals charged with crimes are referred to a therapeutic court, they can have their criminal cases moved to a path where the court system offers them an opportunity to avoid incarceration or a criminal conviction, which often involves substance use disorder treatment, mental health treatment, and social services engagement.
I have personally witnessed better results for our Chatham and Orange County communities in utilization of rehabilitative approaches in thousands of cases over my career. I will continue to engage community resources, including in therapeutic court programs, to create better outcomes for all.
As DA, I will work to ensure that courts treat all people fairly, regardless of their race, identity and socioeconomic status. I will utilize our local community resources and equity considerations to seek justice.
2. What in your record as a public official or other experience demonstrates your ability to be an effective district attorney? This might include career or community service; be specific about its relevance to this office.
Our district deserves a District Attorney with not only sufficient experience to do the job but also a proven track record of utilizing progressive approaches to criminal justice to achieve better outcomes for all. I have spent my 16-year career as an Assistant District Attorney and personal community service time to create and advocate for multiple initiatives to stop the criminalization of poverty, reduce mass incarceration and empower youth in our community. I created our district’s Outreach Court, the first therapeutic court for individuals experiencing homelessness in the state. I also helped to launch the Misdemeanor Diversion Program for juveniles charged with adult crimes to help young people build rehabilitative paths to productive adult livelihoods.
When I recognized the surprisingly high percentage of those whose driver’s licenses are revoked for financial reasons, I started the NC Driver’s License Restoration Project to help individuals become lawfully licensed. I then successfully advocated for a change in state law to make the system more fair for those revoked for financial reasons. The US Department of Justice called on me to testify as an expert on this topic in a federal case that overturned North Carolina’s Voter ID law.
I have also volunteered and held leadership positions on local homelessness, juvenile crime and NAACP committees, including as Volunteer Teen Court Judge in the Volunteers for Youth diversion court program, active Member of Orange County NAACP Criminal Justice Committee, Chair of the Orange County Juvenile Crime Prevention Council and Vice-Chair of the Orange County Partnership to End Homelessness.
I have strong 16-year career experience prosecuting cases of every type of offense from DWI to First Degree Murder. I take the responsibility of listening to victims of crime and supporting them through difficult traumas very seriously. I’m proud of my reputation for using the discretion entrusted in a DA to do that which is fair and just. I’m also proud to have earned public endorsements from 36 current and former public officials and the Progressive Democrats of Orange County, as well as the support of over 70 local attorneys because of my career track record, strong alignment with our community’s values and priorities as District Attorney.
3. What changes to the cash bail system, if any, do you support? Why? If you don't support any changes, please explain why you think the current system is successful.
I believe the cash bail system should be abolished. The only factors for holding an individual charged with a crime pre-trial should be his/her risk to the community and flight risk before trial. That analysis should be made as an independent, non-financial decision. A cash bail system inequitably rewards individuals who can afford to pay bail and punishes those who cannot and is part of the larger criminalization of poverty issue I have fought against for my entire career.
Judges have the authority to set bail in the court system, but as DA I would require all assistant DAs to recommend alternatives to secured bonds (i.e. pre-trial release supervision, treatment programs, electronic monitoring) whenever possible with the exception of cases where there’s a deemed risk to the community or risk of flight.
4. Do you support the expanded use of citations as an alternative to arrests? Under what circumstances do you believe citations should be issued?
Yes, a citation allows for a lower level of life disruption than a traditional arrest process. In North Carolina citations are legally permissible alternatives for certain misdemeanor offenses. I support the use of citations for cases where there is not a risk of ongoing community threat.
5. What do you think is the most effective way to deal with low-level drug offenders? What are or what would be your policies regarding plea bargaining in drug offense cases?
Drug abuse is a public health issue and should be addressed when possible through treatment, not incarceration. For low-level drug offenses, deferral and deflection should be the rule. Whenever possible, low-level drug offenses should be deflected to substance use disorder treatment pre-charge, and I would encourage our law enforcement partners to follow that practice. For charged low-level drug offenses, I support a therapeutic and rehabilitative approach, including deferrals or routing through a therapeutic court, like our district’s Recovery Court program that I’ve long supported, that utilizes substance abuse treatment in lieu of traditional criminal justice consequences.
6. In terms of juvenile justice, what do you believe can be done to prevent delinquency and gang involvement?
I don’t believe in the criminalization of children. We shouldn’t want children branded as “criminals” before adulthood and we should instead help them access rehabilitative paths out of the criminal justice system and into productive adulthoods whenever possible.
I was a longtime advocate of the “Raise the Age” law change to end adult prosecution of 16-17 year-olds that was finally passed in 2019. I have helped create and participate in several juvenile diversion programs, including as a volunteer Teen Court Judge in the Volunteers for Youth diversion program since 2007. I also helped to launch the Misdemeanor Diversion Program for juveniles charged with adult crimes in our district and served as Member, Vice-Chair and Chair of the Orange County Juvenile Crime Prevention Council from 2008 to 2014.
As District Attorney, I have committed to expunge all juvenile criminal records eligible in our district under the Second Chance Act in order to help young people focus on productive adulthoods out of the criminal justice system. I will continue to utilize diversion and therapeutic juvenile court programs and rehabilitative approaches for youth charged with crimes to access pathways to positive adult livelihoods and create better societal outcomes for all.
7. As an assistant DA, how have you dealt with fatal use of force by the local police? If you are a challenger, how well do you think the former DA has dealt with use of force by local law enforcement officers?
The DA’s office serves an important oversight function of law enforcement. While we should have a cooperative and collaborative relationship with law enforcement, everyone, including most police, expect us to hold those that engage in misconduct fully accountable. As an assistant DA I have had the responsibility of reviewing cases of use of deadly force by law enforcement, and I take that responsibility very seriously. In all cases, including those involving law enforcement, the duty of the DA is to look at the facts and to seek justice. A DA should never lose sight of the primary objective of justice above all else.
8. It has been more than a decade since North Carolina executed anyone, and there is no one who was sentenced in Orange County on death row. Do you support capital punishment? Under what circumstances would you think it proper to seek the death penalty?
In the first week of my campaign for District Attorney, I announced a very important decision and shared it in a self-recorded video. I have publicly committed not to seek the death penalty if elected as DA.
Ultimately, a jury decides whether to impose the death penalty, but the DA has the discretion to seek or not seek it. If elected, the DA’s Office I run in Chatham and Orange Counties will not seek the death penalty. I’m making this decision because the death penalty goes against the values I hold and because of what I’ve learned in my 16 years of experience in the court system.
Here’s why I’m against the death penalty:
- It is the only punishment we can’t undo. You can let someone out of prison, but you can’t un-kill them.
- It is cruel. No matter the actual means of how you physically end someone’s life, there’s nothing more inhumane than telling someone when they’re going to die, then taking them into a room, strapping them down and killing them. Regardless of what that person did, I hold myself and our government to a higher standard than vicious murderers.
- It is racist. Defendants of color are far more likely to receive the death penalty than white defendants, and those convicted of killing black victims are less likely to be sentenced to death than those with a white victim. While we work to make the criminal justice system more fair and equitable overall, we need to stop killing people of color.
- It is not a deterrent. Research shows no evidence that jurisdictions with the death penalty have a lower violent crime or murder rate than those without. - It is expensive. It’s actually less expensive for our society to imprison someone for life than to execute the death penalty.
But what about victims of violent crime and families left behind by murder? Sadly, I have sat and cried with victims and their families in grief many times over the past 16 years. Listening to victims is a responsibility I take very seriously as DA. But the death penalty does not provide closure to victims. Decades or life in prison can allow victim’s families to move on, while the death penalty triggers years of appeals. We can seek justice without the death penalty.
The death penalty is a complicated societal issue, one that I am ready to discuss in greater depth with our community members. But for the reasons briefly cited above and more, I will not seek the death penalty in this district. And as an ADA I’ve never sought the death penalty in any cases I’ve handled. I hope our district can lead the state and the nation in taking a stance against the death penalty.
9. Identify and explain one principled stand you would be willing to take if elected that you suspect might cost you some points with voters.
I already know for certain—given community member outreach and response upon my public announcement—that I have lost votes in my district because of my decision that I will not seek the death penalty in any case if elected as District Attorney. While I respect each community member’s view on the issue, I uphold my decision and reiterate the reasons I’ve publicly outlined on my campaign website that I will not seek the death penalty in our district.
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https://indyweek.com/news/elections/candidate-questionnaire-kayley-taber-orange-chatham-da/
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Name as it appears on the ballot: Kayley Taber
Campaign website: KayleyTaber.com
Years lived in Orange/Chatham County: I have worked in the Orange/Chatham District Attorney’s office for 23 years. I previously lived in Orange County for about 5 years, in addition to that residency, I commuted to Orange County for an additional three years as a student at UNC School of Law. I am currently a resident of Pittsboro in Chatham County and have lived here for about 8 years. As the daughter and wife of a veteran, I had the opportunity to live in Europe, Asia, California, Arizona, & Virginia prior to returning to our home state of North Carolina.
1. What do you believe are the most important issues facing the District Attorney’s Office? What are your top three priorities in addressing these issues?
Over-representation of Communities of Color in CJS
The School of Government has recently released a dashboard that shows that there are significant racial disparities in Orange County & Chatham Counties in the arrest and charging of Black & Hispanic citizens in relation to representation in the population. In Chatham those identified as Black are 12% of the population and 33% of those charged. Hispanics in Chatham are 9% of the population and 16% of those charged. In Orange those identified as Black are 12% of the population and 45% of those charged. Hispanics in Orange are 7% of the population and 11% of those charged. It is important to note that these disparities may be explained by a multitude of factors. Comparisons to local demographics are imperfect because cases charged may include people who reside in other counties. In Chatham County, bilingual advocates have been working very hard for the last 15 years to provide Hispanic women and children the support they need to feel safe reporting sexual assaults. I have personally advocated with the Hispanic community that they too can seek justice, regardless of the length of time that has passed. They understand that immigration status and language are not a barrier to seeking justice. I believe that this community outreach has helped them come forward and to feel safe working with local law enforcement and the District Attorney’s Office. This has resulted in offenders within the Hispanic community being charged. The science tells us that the majority of child physical and sexual abuse occurs in a family environment, is committed by males, and is rarely reported at the time of the offense. Many of these cases charged in Chatham involve offenses that occurred 1 years prior to the report date or occurred multiple times over many years. I would expect that the data would reflect this. (See Footnote 1) Regardless of my perception, it is critical that we dig into these numbers to determine if these disparities are the result of explicit or implicit bias, systemic racism, unjustified or disparate policing, race-neutral causes or a combination of factors. We must be prepared for the answers and stand ready to work to eliminate our policies that contribute to these disparities and inequities. How can we do better if we are not willing to take a hard look at ourselves? I will continue to advocate for policies and procedures that I believe stand the best chance to reduce these disparities. I will set standards for our office that focus on treatment instead of incarceration, pre-arrest diversion, post-arrest diversion, pretrial release and bond reforms, restorative justice practices and trauma informed prosecution. I also believe our work to reduce mass incarceration discussed below will provide significant benefit for marginalized communities that are over-represented in the CJS.
Prosecutors must understand the science of bias and that it contributes to the systemic over prosecution of persons of color. I will require continuing professional development and the completion of specialized training in trauma, implicit bias, equitable prosecutorial practices, as well as understanding and embracing diversity. I am committed to developing diversity in our office by actively recruiting attorneys and staff that represent diversity in race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, gender identity and life experience. I believe that an office that is diverse builds public trust, improves cultural competence, informs decision making, and helps develop policies that are both fair and equitable.
Mass incarceration
Mass incarceration is not only a predictor of poverty it is a cause. Incarceration destroys financial security, creates debt, and severely limits a person’s ability to get and keep a job. We must redirect our public spending to smarter investments like community-based drug treatment, expansion of Medicaid and mental health/substance abuse treatment and diversion programs. As your District Attorney I will continue to advocate for these supports and reforms both locally and on a state level.
Orange County is currently diverting the unhoused/unsheltered, and mentally ill through SOHRAD, the Street Outreach, Harm Reduction and Deflection Program. This program is a truly innovative way to reduce harm and incarceration by sending social workers, not police, for the so-called “nuisance” calls that often result in unnecessary arrest and incarceration. This program needs to be further supported in Orange County and expanded to Chatham County. Access to justice should not depend on your zip code.
I will work to expand our pretrial screening of criminal cases to divert more people out of the local jail using proven risk assessment tools and community support. I plan to add a trauma screening to each assessment so we can develop a treatment plan that considers not just what a person may have done, but what has been done to them. Our goal is to create a positive treatment, pretrial release or diversion plan that helps them not only survive their prior trauma but thrive in the community. I believe that pretrial confinement should be the exception, reserved for those who are dangerous to themselves and others. We need to understand what a person’s life experience has been. Have they experienced lack of health care, over policing, racism, homelessness, loss of a family member to incarceration, domestic violence, do they have a family member with mental illness? I am on the Bail Policy Workgroup that is meeting now to work on more reforms to expand our evidence-based release and treatment programs.
I will expand and support the Restorative Justice process. The RJ process brings together those who have been harmed with the person who caused the harm to talk about how they have been impacted by the event and what would provide them a sense of justice and peace. All participants work together to create an agreement on how the person who caused harm can take responsibility for their actions. It is a voluntary program that I plan to make available to victims of crime in our district. When I talk with victims of crime, they often are seeking more than just a resolution to a criminal prosecution. They want answers to key questions. Why me? Why now? Does the person that harmed me feel remorse? Do they want to get help for substance abuse or mental health? RJ can be used confidentially and safely to get those answers for victims of crime. RJ can be most effective in cases where the harm is the most severe and traumatic. What better use of the RJ process than in cases where the ultimate harm was caused? There is nothing that the criminal justice system can do to bring back the loved ones lost. But we can help the surviving family members heal by giving them the opportunity to participate in RJ. As a family of a murder victim, I understand the value of this program and will be committed to its integration into the prosecutions in the district.
Criminalization of mental health and addiction
Mental health and substance abuse treatment should be funded and supported just as physical health. Incarceration is not the answer and can be counterproductive and harmful. I believe in using a medical model to provide treatment for the addicted and the mentally ill who are also criminally involved. With this goal in mind, I helped to create and expand our mental health diversion court for Orange and Chatham (Community Resource Court). CRC is a community-based program that helps those with severe and persistent mental illness navigate out of the criminal justice system and provides them the support to not just survive but thrive. I will also continue to divert the addicted to treatment to give them the best available tools to achieve sobriety.
I will advocate for a new program diverting mental health 911 calls to social workers and improved training for dispatchers to understand and properly code these calls. Police involvement during a mental health crisis can be dangerous and deadly. It often results in unnecessary incarceration and even death. This is personal to me. I have family members that struggle with mental illness. I understand how quality support and care can provide a pathway to health and well-being. At the end of the day a family who calls for help, should get that. Not more trauma. Specialized police training is part of the solution, but the use of mental health social workers should be a component of the response as well.
Devastation of our communities by loss of life through overdose and suicide
We do not have enough community resources to meet the need for addiction and mental health services. People are suffering, and the conditions brought on or exacerbated by the pandemic are straining our systems of care. The loss of life from overdoses and suicides over the last few years has devastated our community. As the District Attorney, I will work with our law enforcement, community advocates and public health partners to identify and target areas of our community hit hardest by these losses. I will create a taskforce to gather data to determine patterns of overdoses and suicides. We can then use that data to create targeted intervention and prevention plans.
2. What in your record as a public official or other experience demonstrates your ability to be an effective district attorney? This might include career or community service; be specific about its relevance to this office.
I have over 25 years of experience as an attorney in North Carolina. I graduated Phi Beta Kappa from UNC-Chapel Hill in 1988 with a degree in Political Science and received my Juris Doctor with honors from UNC Law in 1996. I am a NC Board Certified Criminal Law Specialist. I teach doctors, nurses, law enforcement, and attorneys on the best practices for investigating, documenting, presenting, and testifying in criminal cases. I am an expert in criminal prosecutions of child sexual abuse which are considered the most difficult and technically challenging cases to handle. I have handled serious felony cases in both Orange and Chatham County and have developed strong community connections in both. This training and experience allow me to mentor attorneys in the skills needed to do the job and provide them a positive role model of a compassionate, innovative, and community-oriented prosecutor.
With over 15 years of management experience in the District Attorney’s Office, I have demonstrated my ability to be an effective leader. I will continue to build on the strengths of our employees and create a positive and supportive office environment. I believe that an office that is diverse builds public trust, improves cultural competence, informs decision making, and helps develop policies that are both fair and equitable.
I have spent my entire career working with survivors of trauma and understand how adverse experiences impact physical and mental health and increase the likelihood of criminal involvement. It is a sobering and humbling to see children that have experienced physical or sexual abuse, come back into the system as victims or as criminally involved. It is heartbreaking to see them as adults suffering from addiction, domestic abuse, homelessness, and mental health challenges. This experience drives my commitment to treat all involved in the criminal justice system with compassion and to help provide them the community support they need to progress toward healing.
Prior to becoming an attorney, I worked with the American Red Cross, first as a volunteer substance abuse counselor then as an emergency services provider. I believe that to whom much is given, much is expected. My entire life has been dedicated to public service. I believe I have a duty to give back to my community. Compassion, innovation, and community service are the keystones of my campaign.
3. What changes to the cash bail system, if any, do you support? Why? If you don't support any changes, please explain why you think the current system is successful.
Cash bonds are prohibited in criminal proceedings in our district. We have converted to a pretrial release program that uses risk assessments and interviews by specially trained evaluators to provide the Court recommendations for conditions of release. Our bond policy also favors citation over arrest and release over detention. If I am elected District Attorney, I will advocate for additional social workers to work with the criminally involved to develop plans for safe and beneficial release, including release to substance abuse and mental health treatment. I also will advocate for the additional step of performing a trauma screening at first appearance so that we can identify past trauma that may be affecting a person’s ability to remain substance free, physically and mentally healthy, employed, and housed. This additional step will also provide us with a data set that we can use to determine what prior traumatic experiences are most prevalent in the detained population. Once we develop that data, we can craft community solutions to address trauma in our youth population. With this information, we can intervene early and help kids build resilience against negative outcomes. Together, we can help them build a life where they not only survive but thrive.
4. Do you support the expanded use of citations as an alternative to arrests? Under what circumstances do you believe citations should be issued?
Yes. This is the current policy of District 18. (See Footnote 2). Our bond policy states: “To promote efficiency and least harm resolutions, law enforcement officers are encouraged to issue a citation rather than make a custodial arrest in appropriate cases.” I believe that citations are the appropriate method to provide notice of charges and court date for criminal offenses that do not require arrest under the law. These include non-violent misdemeanors, city code violations and infractions. I fully support the Model Policy published on the School of Government Justice Innovation Lab website that states:
Citation is the appropriate process unless the law requires an arrest (Domestic Violence or misdemeanors that require fingerprinting for example); or release on a citation will not reasonably assure the defendant’s appearance in court; will pose a danger of injury to any person; is likely to result in destruction of evidence, subornation of perjury, or intimidation of potential witnesses; or exigent circumstances require an arrest (ex: officer observes a crime in progress that requires immediate intervention to stop the criminal act).
Even in cases that originate with magistrates instead of law enforcement, the majority of cases in Orange and Chatham Counties are processed without arrest. Magistrates in Chatham are issuing criminal summons in lieu of arrest warrants in 63% of cases, and Orange County magistrates are issuing them at a rate of 56%. The average for the state is 35%.
5. What do you think is the most effective way to deal with low-level drug offenders? What are or what would be your policies regarding plea bargaining in drug offense cases?
Low level drug offenders will continue to be provided the opportunity for treatment and diversion instead of conviction or incarceration. These programs have provided a path to well-being for many in our criminal justice system. Addiction is not a crime, but it can result in criminal involvement. In my experience, most property crimes and some crimes of violence are influenced or exacerbated by substance abuse addiction. With quality substance abuse treatment, we can reduce recidivism, improve community safety, and improve the life of the individual.
6. In terms of juvenile justice, what do you believe can be done to prevent delinquency and gang involvement?
I believe that safe homes make for safer communities. I will work with our juvenile courts, department of social services and our schools to identify and help at-risk children using the Adverse Childhood Experiences assessment tool. The ACEs tool identifies risk factors for future criminal involvement. (See Footnote 3) Once we identify those factors, we can help build resilience in the kids. The goal is to provide them the kind of community support that will help them overcome their trauma and move towards a safe and healthy future. Our action plan must address economic stability, family resiliency, early childhood education, mental and physical health, and community education and awareness of factors that contribute to child abuse and neglect. I will use the science of ACEs to craft treatment plans for adult offenders as well to address their own underlying trauma with the goal of reducing their court involvement and increasing public safety. (See Footnote 4).
I will advocate for and assist in the implementation of restorative justice circles in juvenile court. I believe this type of dedicated community intervention has the best chance to prevent delinquency and gang involvement. Children who are drawn to criminal gangs are often looking for a “family”, a sense of belonging that they do not have at home. We need to work to wrap them in support and services so they do not feel alone and can resist the lure of gangs. Restorative justice helps an offender to own what they did, make it right for those hurt or affected, and involves the community in helping both the victim and the offender. Restorative justice acknowledges that those who do wrong need healing as well. My plan is to reinvigorate our current program and expand it to both adult and juvenile court and into Chatham County.
7. As an assistant DA, how have you dealt with fatal use of force by the local police? If you are a challenger, how well do you think the incumbent DA has dealt with use of force by local law enforcement officers?
As an Assistant District Attorney, I have not dealt with a fatal use of force review. I am not running against an incumbent. The current District Attorney, James R. Woodall, Jr. is not seeking re-election. He has handled all prior fatal use of force investigations. I am not aware of any issues with his handling of these cases. I believe that everyone has a stake in assuring appropriate, proportional, and compassionate police response. I will work to identify and remedy problematic practices, identify bad actors, and use the tools of my office to pursue and punish those who violate the public trust.
8. It has been more than a decade since North Carolina executed anyone, and there has never been anyone sentenced to death row from District 18, Orange and Chatham County. Do you support capital punishment? Under what circumstances would you think it proper to seek the death penalty?
I do not support capital punishment in North Carolina. I will not authorize the office to seek capital punishment in Orange & Chatham Counties.
I would recommend that citizens interested in the science behind my position review Dr. Robinson’s 2021 Report: The Death Penalty in North Carolina (appstate.edu). I think it provides compelling data to support elimination of the Death Penalty in North Carolina. Those who support the death penalty as a sanction should take a hard look at that data, as well as the data on the cost of continuing to fund death penalty prosecutions in North Carolina. The data on the historical racial inequities is compelling. The Death Penalty has been presented to our citizens as the ultimate deterrent to crime. However, study after study has shown that the death penalty sanction has no significant deterrent to crime, is imposed inequitably, is cost prohibitive, and provides no finality of judgment to surviving families. Any way you examine the facts, there is no rational, equitable, justifiable reason to continue pursuing this sanction.
I understand the anguish of families of murder victims. My family has felt that pain and suffering. I know what it is like to attend court and confront a person that has committed the ultimate harm. I understand the desire for retribution for the harm caused. However, the death penalty does not, and cannot provide the solace the surviving family seeks. I have learned that anger and vengeance must be released in order to heal. I am at peace with my belief that the death penalty was not appropriate then, and I support the repeal of the death penalty today.
9. Identify and explain one principled stand you would be willing to take if elected that you suspect might cost you some points with voters.
There is a nationwide movement to enact laws criminalizing access to reproductive care. I have worked closely with women and girls who have been victims of rape and incest for over 23 years. I have seen first-hand the trauma they suffer. I have seen women trapped in relationships with abusers by unwanted pregnancies, and children made into mothers as young as 12. Access to abortion in North Carolina is already restrictive and difficult to access, especially for marginalized communities. Our highest courts have repeatedly found that our Constitution guarantees everyone the right to make personal decisions about family and childbearing. I will honor my oath to uphold our Constitution. I will not be part of revictimizing women and children by prosecuting them for accessing medical care that is appropriate for them, complies with our medical standards of care, and is protected by the Constitution.
Footnote 1: Chatham, population 78,000, has approximately 39 served and pending served sexual assaults. 17 identified as White, 16 identified as Hispanic, 6 identified as Black, all but two offenders are identified as male. Orange County, population 149,000, has approximately 39 served and pending sexual assaults. 7 identified as Hispanic.
Footnote 2: 2 Chatham County uses citations in lieu of arrest in over 95% of cases. Orange County uses citations in lieu of arrest in over 92% of cases. The average for the state is 91%.
Footnote 3: 3 Individuals in high-risk groups have significantly higher ACE scores than in the original Kaiser Study. In one Florida study of juvenile offenders, 50% had ACE scores of 4 or more, meaning that they had experienced high levels of adversity presumably contributing to their behavioral health risks. https://www.cdc.gov/violenceprevention/aces/index.html & https://pinetreeinstitute.org/aces
Footnote 4: The ACE Score serves as a proxy for the level of adversity and has a “dose” relationship to adult health issues: The higher the ACE score, the more likely a person is to experience serious health challenges. Individuals with ACE scores of 4 or more were 12 times more likely to have attempted suicide, 7 times more likely to be alcoholic, and 10 times more likely to have injected street drugs. People with ACE scores of 6 and higher have an almost 20‐ year shortening of lifespan. https://www.cdc.gov/violenceprevention/aces/index.html & https://pinetreeinstitute.org/aces.
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https://indyweek.com/news/elections/candidate-questionnaire-nida-allam-primary-2022/
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Name as it appears on the ballot: Nida Allam
Age: 28
Party affiliation: Democrat
Campaign website: nidaallam.com
Occupation & employer: Durham County Commissioner
Years lived in North Carolina: 23
1. What are your primary concerns for the State of North Carolina?
Our district is facing several overlapping crises because of conservative roadblocking locally and federal inaction. Healthcare is a human right, and one of the most urgent issues facing North Carolinians. Republicans in the NCGA refuse to expand Medicaid, leaving thousands uninsured and billions in federal funds on the table. I am one of thousands of North Carolinians who was laid off during the COVID-19 pandemic and thus lost access to affordable healthcare during one of the biggest public health crises in recent memory. Every person deserves healthcare, regardless of their employment status or personal wealth. Workers’ rights and wages are another huge issue that I will champion at the federal level. The NC GOP has kept the minimum wage at $7.25 for over a decade and refused to allow public employees to unionize, but the cost of living in NC-04 requires a $23 minimum wage to live with dignity, so that’s what I’ll fight for. We must also pass the PRO Act at the federal level to guarantee all workers the right to a union. We must also safeguard our democracy by protecting access to the ballot box and ensuring that corruption has no place in our elections. Over the past few years, the NC GOP has used its power to gerrymander our maps and systematically disenfranchise people of color– we need federal action to prevent future attacks on voting rights.
2. What in your background qualifies you to represent the people of this state effectively? What would you cite as your biggest career accomplishments?
I served as political director for the Bernie Sanders campaign, then was elected Vice Chair of the NC Democratic Party and served for four years, helping to found the Interfaith Caucus and working with Governor Cooper to break the supermajority. I also advised Durham Mayor Steve Schewel as the Chair of his Mayor’s Council for Women. I currently serve on the board of directors for Planned Parenthood Votes! South Atlantic, where I advocate for reproductive rights in the face of unprecedented attacks. As Durham County Commissioner, I voted to raise the minimum wage for county employees to $15 per hour and led the charge to provide property tax relief for low-income Durhamites. I also collaborated with the Durham City Council to pass and fund an Immigrant and Refugee Services Coordinator position, to make sure that newly arriving community members feel welcomed by helping bridge language gaps, connecting them with local services, and easing the transition of children into our school system. I am proud of the work we have done in our community and I am ready to be an unapologetic progressive fighter in Congress.
3. If elected, what three policies would you prioritize and how would you work across the aisle to enact those initiatives?
In Congress, I will fight for legislative solutions to the urgent problems facing my constituents. To make healthcare a human right, we need Medicare for All now to ensure that no one dies because they can’t afford basic care. We must work to raise the minimum wage at the federal level—which I did successfully for county employees as County Commissioner—and pass the PRO Act in order to guarantee every worker the right to organize for better wages and working conditions. In Congress, I will make sure that the GOP cannot undermine the voting rights of people of color by advocating for the For the People Act and the John Lewis Voting Rights Act. I would also advocate ending Citizens United in order to get big money out of politics. If necessary, we must abolish the filibuster in order to pass these crucial bills.
4. What factors are fueling the country’s growing political polarization and how will you work to mend it?
As the first Muslim woman elected to office in North Carolina ever, I know first-hand the impacts of hate in our politics. We must wrestle with the role that big tech companies like Facebook play in spreading misinformation about minority groups and our elections, profiting off their sowing political divisions. Both I and members of my family have received countless threatening messages on these platforms. The attempted coup on January 6th was planned in plain sight on social media platforms that do little work to regulate hateful content. To truly protect the integrity of our elections and mend political divides, we must hold Big Tech accountable. I support recent efforts by the House Judiciary Committee to expand antitrust laws so that companies like Alphabet and Meta cannot gobble up competitors and evade regulation. Part of this work will involve getting corporate money out of politics, and ending Citizens United will be an important first step.
5. November’s general election race is expected to be close, regardless of who wins the party primaries. What makes you an attractive choice to centrist voters?
As Vice Chair of the NC Democratic Party for four years, I worked with people across the ideological spectrum in order to push forward hate crime legislation in the NC General Assembly. Additionally, as part of my work with the State Innovation Exchange, we met with folks in both parties, holding press conferences in order to bring attention to this issue and fighting to build bridges between Democrats and Republicans in the state legislature. There are so many issues on which both sides agree, but the corrupting force of big money in politics prevents us from being able to take action. If elected, I will work with anyone who wants to stand up for working people to pass much-needed policy–Republicans and Democrats alike.
6. With rent, property taxes, and home sale prices all rising, what, if anything, should the federal government do to address this growing affordability crisis?
Housing is a human right. On the County Commission, I was proud to work with my colleagues to implement the Low Income Homeowners Relief program, which helped many Durham residents stay in their homes during the COVID-19 pandemic. In Congress, I would support the Keep Renters Safe Act and other legislation to end the unhoused crisis by 2025. In my home county of Durham, 49% of renters are cost-burdened, equating to nearly 29,000 households. We have to repeal the Faircloth Amendment, which puts an artificial ceiling on the number of affordable housing units we can maintain. We must also pass a National Tenants’ Bill of Rights so that landlords can’t arbitrarily raise rents and to make sure that tenants have rights to legal representation in court proceedings.
7. What specific policies or programs do you endorse or would pursue to combat inflation?
Like every member of our community, I’ve felt the sting of higher prices at the pump and the grocery store. We must recognize that a main cause of our current inflation problem is price-gouging from large corporations that don’t have adequate competition. While working people struggle to make ends meet, the largest corporations have increased their profits by over $3 trillion. While the price of meat shoots up, four companies own 85% of the beef market. The price of diapers is sky high, and just two companies dominate that industry. To bring inflation down, we must pass an Essential Workers Bill of Rights and enforce our antitrust policies because when companies have competitors, they improve their products and bring down prices which makes us all better off. I also support a Windfall Profits Tax on Big Oil, which would levy a 50% tax on profits the largest oil companies earn above $66 per barrel. This would give an incentive for these companies to bring prices down, and allow us to send rebates of $360 to every American family.
8. The U.S. Supreme Court may issue a ruling this summer that guts, or even overturns, Roe v. Wade. What must Congress do to protect abortion rights if that happens?
We need to fight for reproductive rights, as they are increasingly under attack across our country. I recently had an abortion that saved my life due to an ectopic pregnancy, and that same procedure is now illegal in many states. I know first-hand how important it is that we all have access to this vital care. In addition to single payer healthcare, I support legislation like the Women’s Health Protection Act to codify Roe v. Wade, and the repeal of the Hyde Amendment, so we can safeguard people’s right to choose and make sure that cost is never a barrier in accessing those rights.
9. Please state three specific policies you support to address climate change.
I am the only candidate in this race to reject all fossil fuel lobbyist money, self-funding, and corporate PAC contributions, because my constituents deserve a progressive champion who is accountable to them, not special interests. My office will center climate as a top priority. First, we must acknowledge the damage that has already been done and work to bring justice for the communities bearing the brunt of environmental degradation. We must invest in revitalizing our public housing to weatherize units and transition them to solar energy and improve ventilation in our public schools in minority communities hit hardest by environmental racism. Second, I will fight to end fossil fuel subsidies, oil and gas leases on federal lands, and enact a ban on all fracking, because the fossil fuel sector doesn’t need any more government handouts. I will also support legislation to build energy-efficient power grids, retrofit our buildings for energy efficiency and invest heavily in zero-emission manufacturing and infrastructure. Lastly, I support the Green New Deal, which would create thousands of union jobs and ensure we have a livable planet for future generations.
10. Do you believe Congress should pass the Freedom to Vote Act to guarantee free and fair elections for every American, limit the impact of money on elections, and restrict gerrymandering?
Yes. The battle over voting rights presents the great civil rights challenge of our time. Thanks to years of Supreme Court negligence in cases like Shelby County v. Holder, our democracy is fragile. For years in North Carolina, we had a racist voter ID law that targeted people of color. Right now, the Republican legislature is obstructing progress on voting rights and considering legislation that would further restrict the rights of people of color. I will follow in Rep. Price’s footsteps to ensure that everyone can make their voices heard in our democracy by being an outspoken supporter of legislation like the Freedom to Vote Act and do everything in my power to ensure its success, including supporting filibuster reform in order to ensure its passage. We must end partisan gerrymandering and provide funding for election administrators to do their jobs effectively. In North Carolina, we have seen the impact of racist and partisan gerrymandering – that’s why I’m making democracy reform a centerpiece of my campaign.
11. Are there any issues this questionnaire has not addressed that you would like to address?
I am an immigrant, and it is important for me to fight for a humane immigration system that centers human dignity. We must expand asylum laws and recognize the right to enter a safe haven as a fundamental human right. Once immigrants are here, we must make sure that they are not targets of over-policing and surveillance. That means creating a pathway to citizenship for all immigrants and passing the DREAM Act so millions of our loved ones and neighbors no longer have to live in fear.
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https://indyweek.com/news/elections/candidate-questionnaire-sarah-smylie-orange-county-schools/
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Name as it appears on the ballot: Sarah Smylie
Age: 45
Party affiliation: Democrat
Campaign website: www.sarahsmylie.org
Occupation & employer: Talent management advisor to non-profits (self-employed)
Years lived in the area: 13
1. In 300 words or less, please give us—and our readers—your elevator pitch: Why are you running? Why should voters entrust you with this position? What are your priorities, and what would you want to see the school board do differently or better over the course of your term?
Our children deserve schools where every single student feels a sense of belonging and graduates prepared to succeed in life. I’m a parent of two OCS students. I’m also a former teacher, and in my day job I advise education nonprofits on how to hire and support strong, diverse teams. As a board member, I believe in: working together to solve problems; deep listening; looking at the data; and learning from what’s working within OCS and in other districts. The focus of my career for over 20 years, and my focus as a board member, has been on expanding excellence and equity for every single student. And I’m proud of the groundwork we’ve laid, despite the massive boulders COVID has thrown in our path.
In this election, we need to make sure that OCS ends up with a school board that’s truly committed to sustaining the direction we’re headed. Pivots in direction stop any momentum towards progress; research shows that sustained leadership matters for academic success. We have got to keep moving forward with our focus on academic excellence and equitable, inclusive schools.
I am focused on ensuring that Orange County Schools becomes a place where:
Every student gets what they need to excel academically and thrive personally
Every teacher and staff member experiences a positive, supportive, collaborative workplace
Every family is embraced as a real partner in their children's education
Through the district’s new strategic plan, we have many important efforts underway to get there, but for me, right now we’ve got to especially focus on staff recruitment, retention, and supports, and student mental health and well-being.
2. Given the direction of the school district, would you say things are on the right course? If not, for what specific changes will you advocate if elected?
I do believe we are on the right course - but that we are just at the beginning of it. COVID has been an immense disruption, and the negative effects on academics and overall well-being/mental health continue to impact students, staff and families. We aren’t yet back to where things were. However, for many students, things weren’t great before COVID, either - for a long, long time. I believe we’re on the right track because we’re finally being honest with ourselves about that, with a commitment to doing something about it.
We’ve got a strong foundation laid (new strategic plan, equity plan; school improvement plans; incredible educators; etc.) and are finally tackling persistent problems with focus. And we’re starting to see the effects on learning. For example, this year we changed how we teach early reading skills, and we saw that almost half of the kindergarteners who started school below grade level had already caught up to grade level in reading by the middle of the year. We also added math coaches, and thanks to them and our teachers, students from K-8th grades are growing in math this year at an exciting rate. Seeing tangible academic progress, even just from the start of the year to the middle of the year, is really encouraging. We’re going to keep building on this and moving forward together.
3. What are the three main issues that you believe the Board of Education needs to address in the upcoming year?
1) Academic progress: Our students’ success is why we’re all here, and should be the top priority of every board every year. The board should support the district’s efforts to grow student learning by staying focused on the few, most important things that matter most. We should also establish clear metrics to regularly monitor progress, so we can adjust course as needed. I’d also like to see us hearing directly from school staff and students more often about how it’s going.
2) Staff recruitment/retention/culture: PEOPLE are the key to success. We need to make sure that OCS is a great place to work - a place where a diverse cohort of teachers work together towards inspiring goals in a positive and supportive climate. We need to respect and compensate educators and staff and give them space to collaborate and learn from each other. The board should keep close tabs on progress in these areas and invest resources where necessary. We should broaden our partnership with teachers and staff themselves on finding solutions to the challenges we face.
3) Budget: We have two years remaining of supplemental ESSER funding. How can we transition away from this without students experiencing a decline in supports? How can we make the best use of our existing dollars to ensure students get what they need? If we want to invest even more in some areas, where will the money come from? These are not easy things to answer. Resources are limited. But to do so, I’d also like to see us do a deeper dive into the budget next year to identify possible areas of savings, so we can do even more with what we’ve got.
4. Describe something you think the school board should have prioritized differently in the current budget. Do you think the budget supports students from lower income families as well as from wealthy families? Does the budget meet the district’s infrastructure needs?
I am disappointed that we were not able to invest more of our budget this year on adding high-dosage tutoring, because research says this is one of the most impactful strategies for catching students up. This wasn’t initially a line-item in our ESSER spending, and then the district wasn’t able to identify an effective partner for this district-wide - the bids they received were not strong. Tutoring is now in place at most schools, but it’s taken a lot at the school level to make it happen, and likely isn’t at the scale that students need. We should have invested more here.
I’m an advocate for creating systems for more equitable resource allocation. In order to ensure that we’re meeting all of the needs of students from lower-income families, we must figure out a process to systematically allocate resources equitably across schools – so resources align to the student needs at a school. Having a defined, systematic process for doing this will ensure that it’s done fairly and consistently and transparently.
And to put it bluntly, no, our budget doesn’t currently meet our numerous infrastructure needs. It’s unlikely that the state will fund these. To make big improvements, we will need the county to put out an additional bond. (With the 2016 bond funds and some additional money from BOCC, we’ve been replacing roofs and HVAC systems, added an addition to CRHS, added a geothermal system to OHS, and created security vestibules and key card access across the district to enhance security.) Currently, both Orange County districts and our county commissioners are working together via a capital needs working group. I’d like them to work together creatively to ensure that the highest-need projects in the county get prioritized first – rather than giving each district a set share of the funding. I’d also like to explore using what’s known as “performance contracting” as a mechanism for funding some capital projects.
5) What is your understanding of what Critical Race Theory is? Is CRT currently taught in K-12 public schools? What are your thoughts on House Bill 324, the bill Gov. Cooper vetoed because he said it “pushes calculated, conspiracy-laden politics into public education?” Would you support such a bill?
Governor Cooper was exactly right. Legislation like HB324 is harmful to students, and this national CRT “scare” is a distraction from the important work of educating children. I will stay focused on what matters. This statement from the Public School Forum of NC summarized my concerns: “[This bill] incites a fear-based approach to limit teachers’ ability to discuss the reality of racism in the United States and would limit students’ engagement with history, current events, and personal health, as well as their social and emotional learning. The bill will also hinder efforts at the school district level to understand and tackle the root cause of inequities in our educational system and address the opportunity gap. While non-discrimination and unity are worthy ideals for which we should all strive every day, this bill would take us further from these goals…By denying our students these opportunities, we also deny them their constitutional right to a sound basic education, and we put them, and our nation at a future disadvantage. We must not deny students this right simply because these truths are challenging and uncomfortable.”
6) Does the General Assembly have a constitutional obligation to comply with the state Supreme Court order in the Leandro case to fully fund public schools and give every child in North Carolina a sound basic education?
100% Yes. This is a constitutional obligation and a moral obligation, and the state has the funding sitting there. In September, I introduced a resolution in support of the Leandro Plan, which the board passed unanimously. I believe we were the second district in the state to do so. What some people do not realize is that all districts would be impacted by the plan. Under the Leandro Plan, OCS is calculated to gain over $15 million in state funding by FY28, including 48 instructional support positions (TAs) to better meet the needs of our students.
7) Do you agree with the school board’s unanimous decision this winter to support decisions made at the school and administrative levels to keep the books Gender Queer, Lawnboy, and Out of Darkness on the shelves in school classrooms/libraries? Please explain your answer.
Yes, I do. School boards cannot just remove content that they consider objectionable. Legally, one must consider things like literary value, age appropriateness, and a work as a whole. After reading each book, I came to believe this about each one: 1) That the book had literary value in our HS libraries - each had won awards for literature 2) That it was age-appropriate - each had won national literary awards specifically targeting books for teens. As I said in the meeting, “Upon review, I can see why the two previous committees of our own educators determined that it was appropriate to have in our HS collection. I will not vote to ban this book over the expertise of both the school library field and our own educators.” I also noted the broader national efforts to ban books by/about people of color and LGBTQ people. Seeing the spread of these efforts can be intimidating to young people who are already experiencing racism and homophobia, and it’s important to be visibly supportive. I said, “The context matters. Our students see it, they know it - and our marginalized students need their school board to state clearly and unequivocally that they matter, and that in this district we are committed to creating learning environments where every single student belongs and is valued, and where all students are taught to think critically and use good judgment and engage with hard history and engage in a diverse world.” I’m frustrated by these political distractions, but when they come we’ve got to stand by our students.
8) Orange County’s Board of Education has passed some of the most progressive policies in the state around strengthening racial equity and providing a safe, inclusive environment for LGBTQ+ students to learn. Do you support these policies? Please explain why/why not.
Yes, I do. These efforts to have a more equitable and inclusive school system are essential for the academic success of our students, and I am proud of the groundwork we’ve laid through policy over the past four years. This is about holding ourselves accountable to success for ALL students - including directly addressing the disparities that exist for students of color. It’s about holding ourselves accountable to being a welcoming environment for ALL students - including directly addressing the unique challenges experienced by gender non-conforming students. For people who want to learn more about what OCS means by equity, in this video OCS teachers and students talk about it better than I ever could.
9) Do you support the Orange County School District’s Gender Support guidelines that create a protocol for students who are transitioning or want to?
Yes, I strongly support these guidelines. I helped to refine them as a member of the board’s Policy Committee. These guidelines were developed after hearing directly from transgender students and their parents about challenges they were having in OCS, and hearing that clear guidelines were needed to prevent future incidents that can be harmful to student well-being. (Mental health concerns are acute for transgender and gender non-conforming students; a 2021 survey from Trevor Project found that nationally more than half of these students had considered attempting suicide within the past year.) These guidelines are also necessary to provide school staff with clear expectations and protocols for how to proceed when a student is in need of a gender support plan. For students, families, and staff, it is helpful to be transparent and specific upfront about how an individual’s needs will be addressed.
10) Do police officers (School Resource Officers) have a role in schools? Do you agree with the way the current board is trying to address the role of SROs in Orange County Schools?
Currently, from what I have seen, SROs play a positive role in their schools in OCS. Now, I want to be clear that the school to prison pipeline is a huge concern in education, and it's important to address disparate discipline and overly punitive responses to student behavior. We know that in some schools, law enforcement is misused and helps to fuel that school-to-prison pipeline. We need to avoid that ever being the case in OCS. I believe that the role of school resource officers should be limited only to protecting the school from external threats; there is no role for SROs in school discipline. While on the board, I've supported steps to limit the use of suspension, to limit the potential for bias to influence discipline decisions, and to make the lines between staff/SRO roles clear. We have revised our student code of conduct and our dress code policy to be more restorative, less punitive, and more consistent. I haven't seen indicators that SROs in OCS are overstepping in school discipline or fueling the school-to-prison pipeline for our students. I've also met a number of SROs who have built positive relationships with students and are valued members of their school community, and we've had security incidents when having an SRO on the grounds was helpful. Last year we (the board) established a discipline task force which, among other things, is looking at the relationship between OCS and SROs, and I am interested in the group’s recommendations to see where we have opportunities to make improvements.
11) Research has shown an achievement gap for Orange County Schools students based on race and socioeconomic status. What specific policies would you support or what actions would you take to help close the gap so that race and socioeconomic status don’t persist as predictive factors?
The gaps in student outcomes by race and economic status have existed in OCS for decades, and are wider than in many other districts. But we can absolutely change this reality for our students. Researchers have studied what distinguishes schools that beat the odds from those that don’t. In her book Districts that Succeed: Breaking the Correlation Between Race, Poverty, and Achievement, Karin Chenoweth describes the findings from some of this research from University of Chicago: “Schools improve as the result of people working together cooperatively over extended periods of time to develop coherent instruction and build a culture of improvement. What was required? 5 things:
Involved families - Does the school partner with families and communities?
Supportive Environment - Is the school safe and supportive with high expectations?
Ambitious Instruction - Is instruction focused, challenging, and engaging?
Effective Leaders - Does leadership focus on results and school improvement?
Collaborative Teachers - Do teachers work well together and strive for excellence?
When school had all 5 essentials firmly in place, they were 10 times as likely to improve than if they didn’t - in fact, only three of five would do it, if one of them was an effective leader focused on results and school improvement.”
As we’ve developed our plans to recover from COVID, accelerate learning, and address gaps, OCS has taken steps towards strengthening each of these areas above through its strategic plan and equity plan. These plans also include essential related actions, like increasing the racial diversity of our teaching staff and developing the skills of culturally-responsive teaching in all staff. We know that each of these will positively impact the academic achievement of students of color - and benefit all students. Now is the time for building momentum - for the follow-through on what we’ve started in order to speed up improvements and eliminate these gaps in student outcomes.
12) How can the school board better assist students who lack broadband access?
This was one of the biggest challenges of remote learning, and even the best solutions we came up with (investing in hotspots) were insufficient for meeting the needs in the most rural parts of the county where phone service is also inconsistent. The Board of County Commissioners’ Broadband Task Force has just recently identified a provider who can expand fiber broadband in the county all the way to peoples’ homes, which is a huge step forward, and hopefully we’ll have more complete information about this soon. As a district, I’d like to see us connect lower-income families to programs that allow this access to be affordable. Even if fiber exists, presumably it won’t be free! A family’s resources shouldn’t prevent them from getting online in ways that are necessary for learning.
13) Is the district currently doing enough to assist disabled students? What more could it do?
I don’t believe so, and I think we can see it in students’ academic outcomes. Some of the things we need to do:
Address turnover of Exceptional Children teachers and TAs: Turnover is highest for these staff members, and stability can be especially important for students receiving EC services.
Establish a Special Needs Advisory Committee: Other school districts have these committees of families, teachers and perhaps students, who work with the district to better support the needs of disabled students. Some early work was done last year, but I don’t believe it’s been established yet. This is really essential! No one can better come up with solutions than the people most directly impacted.
The two areas above are the top priorities. The Advisory Committee will be able to best-identify what specific improvements must be made, via their first-hand experience. However, a few other things that I believe are good opportunities to improve are: 1) Ensuring that students’ evaluations are processed quickly so that students are identified as early as possible, 2) Strengthening the individualized supports that students receive - ensuring that each student’s IEP / 504 is followed, and ensuring that tailored interventions are happening via the MTSS process to ensure that disabled students learn and succeed, and 3) Helping all classroom teachers to better meet the needs of their Exceptional Children students - for example, via team teaching with an EC teacher, opportunities to observe, professional development opportunities, adapted curriculum, etc.
14) If there is anything else you would like to address, please do so here.
It has been an honor to serve the students of Orange County Schools over the past four years. They are world-changers. If we stay focused on them, there’s nothing we can’t do.
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https://indyweek.com/news/elections/district-37-democratic-primary-candidates-2022/
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Thirty-five years ago, Holly Springs was a sleepy farming community. According to local lore, cows used to cross Sunset Lake Road twice a day. Today, however, that once rural two-lane road is set to expand into a four-lane thoroughfare, one of the many changes wrought by the town’s population boom.
In the past decade, as Raleigh has grown, young professionals and aspiring homeowners have spilled into Holly Springs and Fuquay-Varina on the outskirts of Wake County. The rapid change has thrown the area into an existential crisis: embrace the “progress” of new apartment buildings, high-end restaurants, and busy highways, or fight tooth and nail to preserve the old, ranch-home style way of life?
After raging in local elections for years, that battle is now moving to May’s legislative primary. Three Democrats, all hoping to win a seat in the NC House of Representatives, are facing off in the District 37 race, an election dominated by issues of affordable housing and infrastructure.
Historically, District 37 is the most conservative in Wake. The predominantly white suburban neighborhoods in this southern part of the county are home to upper- and middle-class families, farmers, veterans, and small business owners.
Following the decennial redistricting (in which the district’s borders retreated from downtown Apex and expanded north to Lake Wheeler Road), District 37 remains one of the few competitive districts in the state and is key in determining which party will control the state House.
Democrat Sydney Batch narrowly won the seat in 2018 amid an upswell of support from anti-Trump voters, besting Republican incumbent John Adcock by just 944 votes. But 2020 was a different story, as Republican voters turned out in unexpectedly high numbers. The GOP took back the district, with Republican Erin Paré defeating Batch by 3 percentage points.
Republicans, who currently make up about 52 percent of the district’s vote share, according to the Princeton Gerrymandering Project, will likely have an edge in the upcoming election, says Andrew Taylor, a professor of political science at NC State University.
One reason is that Paré, the Republican incumbent, is running for reelection, and incumbency has its advantages; another is the natural cause and effect of politics.
“Midterms are generally unkind to the party that has the White House,” Taylor says. “Obviously, this is felt most dramatically in congressional races at the federal level, but it does also often permeate down the ballot and affect state legislative candidates. You put those two things into place and what is a competitive district on paper, in 2022 at least, makes it more favorable to the Republicans.”
The three Democrats in May’s primary are Mary Bethel, an advocate for aging and disabled adults; Christine Kelly, a marketing manager at SAS and former member of the Holly Springs town council; and Elizabeth Parent, a server at a local restaurant and transplant from Washington state.
The winner will face Paré in November. During her two years in office, she has opposed mask mandates in Wake County schools and supported a bill that would have prohibited discussion of systemic racism and white privilege in U.S. history classes (HB 324, which Gov. Cooper vetoed). She has also expressed concern about the effects of the proposed U.S. 401 bypass on local landowners and farmers in Holly Springs and Fuquay-Varina.
Bethel and Kelly are each longtime residents of southern Wake County, having lived in the area for 20-plus years. Both have seen their neighborhoods change with population growth, but their reactions to that change differ significantly.
Kelly, a vocal opponent of the rapid growth in Holly Springs, was elected to the town council in 2017 on the promise of slowing construction, building up infrastructure like roads and water systems, and preserving trees and green space. After a bitterly divisive election, she got to work doing just that, trying to preserve the area’s small-town feel and advocating for more community input on development projects.
Bethel has a more proactive approach to dealing with growth. While she also feels “steps must be taken to preserve the quality of life,” as she writes on her website, she wants to help aging and disabled adults stay in their homes with home repair help and property tax relief. She also supports offering incentives or tax breaks to first-time buyers.
“This issue needs to be addressed not only by localities (and) the General Assembly but also by the housing community, the advocates, the builders, developers,” Bethel says. “There won’t be easy solutions. But if we don’t (do anything), then people are going to continue to move out of the area. A lot of moderate-income and low-income people are finding it really hard to make ends meet.”
Bethel also wants to consider solutions like housing trust funds, affordable housing bonds, relaxed zoning regulations, building reuse and revitalization, and incentives for the construction of affordable housing.
Bethel is a little more progressive than Kelly on issues of affordable housing, but ultimately, Parent blows them both out of the water. For Parent, a millennial and working-class mother, affordable housing is a top priority. Like many others, she struggled to afford a home and was only able to buy one with financial assistance. For her, it came in the form of a loan program for veteran families.
Parent says she wants to expand a home loan program that was successfully used in Chapel Hill to a statewide basis. The Community Home Trust helps people purchase a home through an income-based loan. Parent also wants to ban foreign investment in North Carolina, a practice that has decimated the housing supply and sent prices skyrocketing. The ban would apply to out-of-state buyers who have no intention of making a purchased house their primary residence.
“I’m from outside of Seattle, so I saw how that affected us firsthand,” Parent says. “I want to incorporate things that other places have used as a potential solution to this affordable housing issue. Why can’t we set the standard for other states?”
More About Mary Bethel
Bethel, a kindly grandmother with a Southern twang, is a fierce advocate for seniors and people with disabilities. She was a lobbyist for AARP of North Carolina for 10 years and worked for the North Carolina Coalition on Aging. Healthcare is among her top priorities.
“The number one cause of personal bankruptcies in this country is medical debt. As many as 600,000 people could be eligible for benefits if North Carolina expanded Medicaid,” Bethel said during a candidate forum last week. “It also would help our struggling (rural) hospitals.”
Bethel thinks there is a lot of momentum for the expansion of Medicaid, particularly because Republicans may be softening on the issue, she says. An expansion could bring up to $2 billion into the state’s economy.
Like the other Democrats running in District 37—an area with a large number of veterans and law enforcement officers—Bethel is in favor of “responsible gun reforms,” such as expanded background checks and red flag laws. Bethel seems like she might take a stronger stance on gun control if elected, however.
“I think our country is ready to talk about this more and make real hard decisions,” she said during the forum.
More About Christine Kelly
Kelly, a confident public speaker and energetic candidate, is on the same page as her primary opponents when it comes to issues like education and healthcare, but her plans seem more specific and actionable. At the candidate forum, Kelly discussed how she would work with Republicans by starting with a common goal.
“We will win some; we’ll lose some. But we’ve got to keep trying,” Kelly said.
On universal healthcare, “the solution is to sit down and start somewhere,” she says. “Bring in some universal healthcare provisions as they did in other countries. You start and then you make it better.”
Kelly is also a strong proponent of building up infrastructure and transportation. During her time on the Holly Springs council, Kelly supported the passage of a $40 million transportation bond. She also supported the adoption of tree preservation and historical preservation ordinances and helped ban the open carry of guns in public parks and government buildings.
“The gun lobby that came to attack us was incredible,” Kelly said, adding that their voices faded after the law was approved. “The common sense thing to do was the right thing.”
Kelly is running for state office after losing a bid for Holly Springs mayor in 2021 when she was defeated by Sean Mayefskie by nearly 22 percentage points, a margin that doesn’t bode well for her winning this House seat.
More About Elizabeth Parent
Parent, 28, has a unique take on problems facing the state. As a former resident of Washington, she’s now seeing North Carolina struggle with many of the same problems her former neighbors did—housing affordability, weakening infrastructure, and the tech boom.
“If we don’t break ground on solutions like the commuter rail now, we are going to be grappling with more and more congestion every single day as more and more corporations move here,” Parent says, adding that public transportation would also help protect the environment and lower housing prices.
Parent is passionate about protecting the environment. She wants to expand the state’s recycling program, create algae farms to pull carbon out of the air, and take advantage of potential solar power inland and wind power offshore. She also strongly supports legalizing recreational marijuana, a move that massively boosted the state of Washington’s tax revenue.
“Once we legalized marijuana, our public funding went way up,” she said during the forum.
Parent, a survivor of sexual abuse, is also a strong advocate for women’s rights, survivor’s rights, and mental healthcare. She is all for bodily autonomy, she says, adding she will vote to uphold abortion and LGBTQ rights.
Ultimately, Parent says she is tired of politics as usual.
“It’s time to hold our politicians accountable,” she says. “North Carolinians deserve results. I believe that it takes a fresh perspective and a new voice, not the same old same old, to break things up and say, ‘Hey, this is a problem.’ It takes one person who is passionate, proactive, and is willing to have those conversations across the aisle to get work done.
Support independent local journalism. Join the INDY Press Club to help us keep fearless watchdog reporting and essential arts and culture coverage viable in the Triangle.
Follow Staff Writer Jasmine Gallup on Twitter or send an email to jgallup@indyweek.com.
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https://indyweek.com/news/elections/district-56-primary-2022-allen-buansi-and-jonah-garson/
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In Chapel Hill, Carrboro, and Hillsborough, local political activists often say the primary elections are more impactful than the midterms.
This year, in Orange County, that’s never been truer.
It’s common knowledge that Democrats outnumber Republicans so vastly that whoever wins the Democratic primary is almost guaranteed to win in the fall. In 2018, for instance, state House Representative Verla Insko won reelection by a margin of 86 percent—the highest Democratic majority in North Carolina that year.
But last fall, Insko announced she is retiring after 26 years in the House. Two men—both young lawyers—have placed bids to take up her work in Orange County’s NC House District 56.
Allen Buansi first announced his run in an exclusive with the INDY Week back in September. Buansi served on the Chapel Hill Town Council from 2017 to December 2021, and has experience practicing law at the UNC Center for Civil Rights.
Jonah Garson, the chair for the Orange County Democratic Party, announced his bid that month, too, just a week after Insko made her retirement plans public. Garson is an attorney at Parry Law in Chapel Hill with a focus on corporate law, and he served as the Democratic voter protection director during the 2019 special election.
Despite their differing backgrounds in the political arena, both Garson and Buansi say they bring the experience that will be vital to the role.
Buansi says his experience serving on Chapel Hill’s town council is critical.
“I’m the only one who has served in elected office,” Buansi says.
During his time on the council, Buansi helped to create and pass the Town Criminal Justice Debt Fund, a program which provides debt relief to community members facing excessive court fees, the first of its kind in the state. Buansi also helped to increase funds to the town’s Emergency Housing Assistance program, approve a $10 million affordable housing bond, pass a nondiscrimination ordinance, and issue the town’s first Climate Action and Response Plan.
Buansi also notes his service at the state level. In 2018, Governor Roy Cooper appointed him to the Local Governmental Employees’ Retirement System Board of Trustees.
“I’m the only one that has that experience of actually working with Republicans to move forward important government business,” Buansi says.
Buansi says he believes his lived experiences also bring essential insights to his work. He says he’s been involved in politics since a young age, as he was first inspired by his mother’s work as an environmental justice activist.
“She was such an important part of my upbringing, such an important part of orienting me towards equity and civil rights for everyone,” Buansi says.
Being a working parent to young children also informs his work.
“That’s a perspective that is sorely lacking,” Buansi says. “And there’s so much more that our state can be doing to make life easier for working families, including providing childcare subsidies, funding more childcare subsidies, and paid parental leave for our teachers. And those are the kinds of issues that I have come to know well because I’m a working parent, because my wife and I have children under 18.”
Those who have worked closely with Buansi say they think his background in civil rights law gives him an important perspective, an ability to listen to disparate voices and to center communities of color.
Austin Hahn, Buansi’s campaign manager, says he feels Buansi’s experiences on town council and as a civil rights lawyer mean he knows how to “get in the weeds” with policy, and pass legislation across party lines.
“He really does his due diligence on policies, and knows how to build coalitions and go from split votes to unanimous voices,” Hahn says. “And [if] we’re in the minority in the House, that’s something we need.”
Max Winzelberg, a student field captain for Buansi who attends East Chapel Hill High School, says he believes Buansi has a sincere passion for the state and local community and wants to make them more equitable.
“I feel like Allen’s shown that he’s dedicated to this community,” Winzelberg says. “He’s grateful to have grown up here, and I think that sense of pride about North Carolina is what he wants everyone to experience
Garson says Insko’s successor needs experience as an organizer.
“I’m running because, at a time when it’s not at all hyperbole to say that there’s a war on democracy in this country, we need legislators who are also organizers,” Garson says.
Garson highlights his experiences working as an organizer across both statewide and local politics, including holding multiple roles as a field coordinator for statewide legislative campaigns, working as the NC Democratic Party’s voter protection director for NC’s 2019 Special Congressional Elections, serving on the executive committee of the Chapel Hill Carrboro NAACP, and chairing the Orange County Democratic Party.
Garson says his experience organizing across the state is vital to pushing through the progressive policies he believes are important to voters in the district to a statewide level.
“If we want huge reinvestment in public education, if we want UNC governance reform to prevent destructive interference with our university and university system, if we want climate action with all urgency, if we want to win healthcare as a right—we need apower shift,” Garson says. “We don’t win that policy without changing the way we organize.”
Garson views the current political moment as a tipping point for statewide politics, one that hearkens back to his work as a student organizer at UNC-Chapel Hill, where he saw Democrats lose major footing during the 2010 midterm election due to what he views as a lack of involved organizing.
Garson notes that while he hasn’t served in elected office, he does have experience in working and aiding in legislative roles, including working as a policy staffer and voting rights attorney.
“My opponent does not have that legislative experience,” Garson says. “These positions are not rungs on a ladder. I’m running to do a job, and that job requires a particular experience set.”
As a UNC alumnus who had his “political coming of age” during his undergrad years, Garson says he tries to center student leaders within his campaign. Cora Martin, a UNC junior who serves as Garson’s field director, says they appreciate how Garson has prioritized student concerns, which they believe are often overlooked.
“That’s not something that candidates for office do, mostly because they assume that students don’t care and that they don’t want to vote. But students have always been organizers,” Martin says. “Jonah knows that students are the most powerful advocates for students, and he wants to hear what we want, so that when he’s elected he can enact meaningful change.”
Ali Fazal, a current legal fellow for a Democratic US Senator and a UNC alum who worked alongside Garson through Young Democrats, says Garson’s investment in student leadership could create meaningful progressive change for North Carolina.
“He will give so many students representation and a voice, where they feel like they’re actually being represented and it’s not just that ‘safe blue district,’” Fazal says. “We’ve been missing that sort of exciting progressive candidate, and I think Jonah will be that person.”
Representative Insko says she hopes that whichever candidate succeeds her will be dedicated to the district’s constituents.
“This is a very well-informed district with very informed, active voters,” Insko says. “It’s really important for whoever succeeds me to be willing to stay in touch and provide a lot of information.”
In recent years, Insko says she’s focused on issues of higher education, economic resilience, and climate change. She says she hopes whoever her successor is will take up those torches and stress their importance to voters
“Make sure that people are well-informed on any issue that’s really going to impact them,” Insko says. “Not just climate change, but any current issue that’s really going to impact people.”
As far as the two candidates, Inkso says she knows both Buansi and Garson, and feels confident in the experience both would bring to the role.
“They’re both very active and have made contributions,” Insko says. “I have two good candidates running to replace me and so the voters are fortunate to have to have that option.”
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U.S. Senate: Cheri Beasley (D)
Thirty-four US Senate seats are up for grabs in November’s general election; fewer than 10 are considered competitive. One is the seat left open with the pending retirement of Republican Senator Richard Burr, which makes the question of which candidate to choose in the Democratic primary all the more pressing since that person might actually get to Washington. The good news is you don’t have to think too hard.
Ahead of the May primary, we endorsed candidates in 29 races, and this one was by far the easiest: Cheri Beasley. Check the box, return in November, and check it again.
From public defender to chief justice of the state Supreme Court, Beasley is not only eminently qualified but outspoken in all the best ways. Reform-minded, she used her judicial pulpit to raise awareness of the systemic racial inequity that has long plagued the criminal justice system and spearheaded the creation of a commission tasked with studying ways to bring more equity and fairness to the courtroom.
Now running for Senate, Beasley’s priorities have broadened to include expanding affordable healthcare, improving housing affordability, and protecting reproductive rights. We join Planned Parenthood, the National Education Association, NC AFL-CIO, and many others with a wholehearted endorsement.
Other candidates: James Carr Jr., Robert Colon, Alyssia Rose Hammond, Constance Johnson, Tobias LaGrone, BK Maginnis, Rett Newton, Marcus Williams, Greg Antoine, Chrelle Booker
US House District 4: Nida Allam (D)
Read her candidate questionnaire here.
Longtime US Rep. David Price will be a hard act to follow, but two of the frontrunners in the race to fill his seat—Durham County Commissioner Nida Allam and State Senator Valerie Foushee—are both exceptionally qualified public servants who would make history if elected: Allam as the first Muslim woman to represent the district, and Foushee as the first African American woman.
As a county commissioner, Allam successfully implemented an Immigrant and Refugee Services Coordinator position and spearheaded a movement to provide property tax relief for low-income residents.
She previously worked as a political director for Sen. Bernie Sanders’s 2016 presidential campaign and served as Third Vice Chair of the North Carolina Democratic Party. Allam says she would be an “unapologetic progressive fighter in Congress” and champions Medicare for All, a Green New Deal, and a $23 federal minimum wage.
Foushee has more than two decades of experience in elected office. She has served on the school board, the Orange County Board of Commissioners, and in the state House and Senate. But Foushee, whether fairly or not, has recently come under fire for accepting more than half of her campaign funding from AIPAC, a right-leaning, pro-Israel organization that has endorsed more than 100* Republicans who believe Donald Trump to be the lawful winner of the 2020 presidential election.
While both candidates would make excellent representatives in the US House—and there’s maybe a case to be made for a vote for American Idol star Clay Aiken (see our story on page 7)—ultimately, Allam’s commitment to running a grassroots campaign, and the fact that she makes young people in her district excited about voting and gets them engaged with political issues—makes her the best choice to represent the progressive district.
Other candidates: Valerie Foushee, Clay Aiken, Crystal Cavalier, Matt Grooms, Stephen Valentine, Ashley Ward, Richard Watkins
US House District 13: Sam Searcy (D)
All 435 voting members of the US House are up for reelection. But in our gerrymandered country, fewer than 30 seats are projected to be true toss-up races in November between the eventual Democratic and Republican primary winners. This is one of them.
So, if you’re pragmatic (and we are this year), the question comes down to this: which candidate is most likely to win over centrists, unaffiliated, and swing voters in southern Wake County and a whole lot of rural Johnston, Harnett, Wayne counties. For us, that’s Sam Searcy.
Also, we like the guy: a vodka distiller turned politician, he fought to expand Medicaid and increase school funding as a state senator in District 17, or southern Wake County (as mentioned earlier). Like other Democrats in the race, he’s also an advocate for voting and reproductive rights. But unlike his opponents, Searcy is the only Democrat to flip a state district from red to blue, which he did in 2018 by defeating a three-term Republican incumbent. Unlike presumptive favorite (and money frontrunner) Wiley Nickel, Searcy also lives in the district (and presumably knows some folks there by name). Democrats are going to lose seats in November. This one, we believe, Searcy can get.
Other candidates: Wiley Nickel, Nathan Click, Denton Lee, Jamie Bowles
*Editor's note: This number has been updated from 37 as was originally reported.
Support independent local journalism. Join the INDY Press Club to help us keep fearless watchdog reporting and essential arts and culture coverage viable in the Triangle.
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Nida Allam giggles and shows me her phone.
She’s on the “Students4Nida” TikTok page, watching a video set to an Alvin and the Chipmunks-esque cover of Taylor Swift’s “You Belong With Me.”
The five-second video uses one of TikTok’s most common formats, where the subject lip syncs to a song and overlays text that sort of matches the theme of the lyrics. In this one, a UNC-Chapel Hill freshman named Sam pairs the lyrics “Sitting on a park bench, thinking to myself” with text that reads “Being a true progressive that supports climate and economic justice.” Then, as chipmunk Taylor sings, “Hey, isn’t this easy,” Allam’s name flashes across the screen.
Among the eight candidates running in the Democratic primary for North Carolina’s 4th Congressional District, Allam is the only one with a student-led TikTok account, she tells me proudly.
Like New York Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez—whose name has been hashtagged in so many TikToks that, when totaled, videos with #AOC have a cumulative 1.1 billion views—Allam excites young people.
When Representative David Price announced in October that he would retire after more than 30 years in office, Allam emerged as a bright-eyed and bushy-tailed replacement with a staunchly progressive platform that includes support for a Green New Deal and Medicare for All.
“I think it’s high time for North Carolina to have a fighter,” Allam told the INDY upon announcing her candidacy in November.
Allam is one of three frontrunners in the congressional race. She’s up against Valerie Foushee, a state senator with over two decades of experience in public office, and Clay Aiken, a former American Idol contestant and activist for children with disabilities with zero experience in elected office.
The newly redrawn 4th district includes all of Durham, Orange, Person, Alamance, and Granville Counties and the northeast corner of Caswell County. As the region is solidly liberal, the primary will most likely decide the general election, though if none of the candidates receive more than 30 percent of the vote, there will be a runoff election on July 26.
Allam and I are sitting in her dining room, which doubles as her campaign office. She opens her laptop to kick off a virtual phone bank and I see Sam from TikTok, this time framed in a box on Zoom. Like Chase, most of the phone bank volunteers are UNC students who seem wildly energetic despite it being exam season.
As an icebreaker, Allam asks participants to propose a name for her baby (she had announced her pregnancy that morning), and after they drop a few suggestions in the chat—Khadija, Lex, Leia—she gives them a script and a list of phone numbers and sets them off on their own.
The next day, the phone bankers joined 100 other UNC students, including basketball star Caleb Love, at a town hall on UNC’s campus. As encouraged, most attendees wore green shirts to celebrate Earth Day and endorse a Green New Deal.
Allam isn’t much older than her student supporters—she’s 28. She was born in Canada to Indian and Pakistani immigrant parents and moved to the Triangle at age five when her father got a job at IBM. (She became a naturalized US citizen in February 2008). She grew up in Wake County, attending public schools, and went on to get a degree in sustainable materials and technology from NC State.
In 2015, during Allam’s last year of college, three of her best friends—Deah Barakat, his wife, Yusor Abu-Salha, and Yusor’s sister, Razan Abu-Salha—were murdered in their apartment in Chapel Hill. Barakat was a student at UNC’s School of Dentistry; Yusor and Razan were Allam’s classmates at NC State.
“The week they passed away, we were all supposed to go get our ears pierced together,” Allam says. “We were still kids.”
While many, including Allam, viewed the triple-homicide as a hate crime—all three victims were Muslim—federal authorities ultimately claimed they could not find sufficient evidence to categorize it as such and wrote the shooting off as a violent reaction to a parking dispute.
“That’s what really pushed me to realize that we need to start stepping up and speaking up, not just for the Muslim community, but for all communities that haven’t had advocates for them in leadership spaces,” Allam says.
She started a club called NC State for Bernie while she was finishing school, and after graduating, landed a job as a political director for Senator Bernie Sanders’ 2016 presidential campaign. In 2017, she was elected third vice chair of the North Carolina Democratic Party—the first Muslim American elected to the party’s executive council—and went on to make history again three years later when she was elected to the Durham County Board of Commissioners, becoming the first Muslim woman elected to public office in North Carolina.
Durham City Council member Javiera Caballero, who has worked alongside Allam for several years and recently endorsed her congressional run, says that Allam is unparalleled in her ability to identify and draw attention to the issues of young people and underrepresented communities. Specifically, she emphasizes Allam’s work in fighting for a living wage, drumming up support for food pantries during the COVID-19 pandemic, and adding an Immigrant & Refugee Affairs Coordinator position to the county office.
“She has a lot of connections into communities that, in a lot of ways, people don’t even know they exist,” says Caballero. “How do you serve communities like that if you don’t even know they’re around?”
In addition to Caballero, Allam has received endorsements from other local leaders, notable elected officials like Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren and Minnesota Representative Ilhan Omar, and more than 20 organizations, including the Durham People’s Alliance and Communication Workers of America.
Her platform for the upcoming election builds on the issues she’s championed during her years in office, including comprehensive healthcare coverage, a green energy economy, reproductive rights, and a $23 minimum wage.
“I just keep reminding myself, ‘Who am I doing this for?’” Allam says. “This isn’t just about me getting a title. This is about all the people’s faces that I’m going to bring with me.”
* * *
Valerie Foushee’s hands are at “10 and 2” on the steering wheel, eyes fixed on the road.
“We’re gonna make sure we don’t make any sudden movements,” she says, preparing to switch lanes.
It’s the third time she’s said this while we’ve been in the car. She drives the same way she speaks: assertively, and with measure.
We’re heading to the home of an officer who works at local non-profit El Centro Hispano (and who asked not to be named, so we’re calling her Rosa). Rosa has offered to give Foushee a tour of neighborhoods in southeast Durham, particularly those with new housing developments, to help deepen Foushee’s understanding of the area’s constituency.
As far as the 4th district goes, Foushee is most knowledgeable of Orange County. She grew up in Chapel Hill during the 1960s as the oldest of six children and the child of teen parents and attended segregated schools until sixth grade. She graduated from Chapel Hill High School as class president and studied at UNC-Chapel Hill, ultimately leaving college after two years; attending school while working multiple jobs was “too much at the time,” she says. Years later, at age 50, Foushee returned to the university to complete degrees in political science and Afro and African-American studies.
Between her stints at UNC, Foushee worked for the Chapel Hill Police Department and volunteered at her children’s elementary school; for a period of time, she would work 12-hour overnight shifts as a desk officer in the jail, get off at 7 a.m., and head straight to the school to help out in classrooms. There, she witnessed first-hand the achievement gap between majority and minority students, motivating her to run for school board. She later became the first African American woman elected to the Orange County Board of County Commissioners, then joined the North Carolina General Assembly, serving in the House and, most recently, the Senate.
Two of Foushee’s colleagues, state senators Natalie Murdock and Mike Woodard, spoke to me at length about Foushee’s achievements in office. Murdock, who returned my call despite being sick because “I’d do anything for Senator Foushee,” highlighted Foushee’s role as a champion of education and her work in passing legislation that banned child marriage, increased access to healthcare, and outlawed race-based discrimination against natural hair.
“I’ll brag on her because she won’t do it herself,” Murdock says.
Woodard emphasized Foushee’s environmental record—she’s worked on bills related to water quality, sustainable energy, and cleaning up coal ash—and complimented her connection to her constituents.
“Her knowledge of her district is among the best of any colleague I’ve worked with,” Woodard says. “She just knows her community so well.”
In addition to Murdock and Woodard, Foushee has been endorsed by a number of other state senators plus US Representative G.K. Butterfield, North Carolina Attorney General Josh Stein, the Congressional Black Caucus, and the Durham Committee on the Affairs of Black People.
When Foushee and I arrive at Rosa’s house, we hop into a sedan and set off on an hour-long crawl around a dozen surrounding neighborhoods. As we circle through cul-de-sacs and parking lots, Foushee asks Rosa the same two questions again and again: who lives here? And what are their most pressing needs?
The majority of people down this road have children, so they care a lot about education, Rosa says, cruising through one development.
“Where are the activities?” Foushee asks, noting that the neighborhood doesn’t have a park. “Where can the children go for passive recreation?”
There are plans to build a playground, Rosa says, but the plot of land is right next to a thicket of high voltage power towers, so parents are worried about radiation. Foushee takes a mental note.
When we pass a house with a “Valerie Foushee for Congress” sign in the front yard, Foushee shrieks with delight.
Back at Foushee’s campaign office near downtown Durham, we sit down for a more formal interview and I ask her one question: “Tell me about your upbringing,” which she answers—and then, unprompted, goes on to answer nearly every other question on my list. She lays out her qualifications, discusses how her upbringing shaped her values, and walks me through her priorities if elected to Congress—reforming the criminal justice system, enhancing equity in education, implementing affordable healthcare, combating environmental racism—in a concise 20 minutes.
Foushee has clearly done this many times before. But when I ask the one question that she didn’t preemptively address, her disposition starts to shift.
* * *
After we order sweet tea, I ask Clay Aiken if he chose to meet me at The Blue Note Grill because of the symbolism of the restaurant’s name: he’s a Democratic candidate (“blue”) and a famous singer (“note”) who I’m going to “grill.”
Unfortunately, he’s not that clever, he says: he’d just spoken to the Friends of Durham PAC in the adjoining event room, so lunching here made sense. He’d also been at Blue Note the previous night to sing at an open mic—the only time he’s performed publicly in the past decade, aside from starring in a 2019 stage production of Grease (“obviously, I played Sandy”).
Aiken was born in Raleigh in 1978. For the first five years of his life, he spent most of his time at his grandparents’ house in Bahama, where he and his mother camped out to hide from his abusive alcoholic father. When his mother remarried, they moved back to Raleigh.
His family has lived in North Carolina for at least 10 generations, and most of his relatives are Republicans. But during the 1992 presidential election, Aiken grew interested in the values Democrats hold and invited Rep. David Price to speak to his eighth-grade class. He was immediately sold.
“I gravitated towards the group that spoke up for the underdog,” Aiken says. “Democrats were the empathetic party who were fighting for the needs of others.”
While pursuing a degree in special education at UNC-Charlotte, Aiken worked as a caregiver for an autistic boy named Mike. During his last year of college, Aiken competed on American Idol, finishing in second place; after that, he returned to Charlotte to complete his degree and co-found the National Inclusion Project—a nonprofit committed to creating programs that allow disabled children to participate in activities with their non-disabled peers—with Mike’s mother, Diane Bubel.
Bubel says Aiken’s dedication to the disabled community exemplifies how he would be a strong representative in office.
“As small, tired minority community members, we needed a champion,” Bubel says. “That’s who he’s been for us. And that’s the kind of representative he’s going to be for District 4.”
In the years following Idol, Aiken also made music and traveled as a UNICEF ambassador. He largely retired from the music industry in 2014, when he decided to run for the US House in North Carolina’s 2nd Congressional District, losing the election to Republican incumbent Renee Ellmers. (After losing her seat in the 2016 primary, Ellmers is running for Congress again this year, in the 13th Congressional District).
Aiken has received substantial criticism online from people who claim that unlike Allam and Foushee, who live in Durham and Orange Counties, Aiken doesn’t live in the 4th district. In a written statement, Aiken’s campaign clarified that though the redrawn congressional map placed the district line 900 yards from his house, Aiken has lived in the 4th district for the majority of his life and plans to relocate before the new map takes effect.
After briefing me on his background, Aiken takes a bite of baked beans and jumps into his priorities for the 4th district: transportation, affordable housing, and education are the big three.
Despite his lack of experience in office, he seems informed on both the region’s pressing needs and political history, constantly referencing former elections and bits of legislation. He speaks at length about addressing the unintended consequences of Title 1, a program that was “wonderful on paper” but has “incentivized certain school districts to create high poverty schools.”
When I ask Aiken about LGBTQ rights, mentioning that this seems to be a central part of his platform—if elected, he would be the first gay man from the South to join Congress—he shakes his head.
“I haven’t focused on it simply because I don’t want people to think that that’s why I’m running,” Aiken tells me. “And gosh, it’s a little sad that you did.”
It’s an important issue, he adds, but he’s tired of being seen as a single-issue candidate. At county party meetings, when others have announced that they would be the first this or the first that, he says he comes close to labeling himself as “the first person over six feet who lives on my street to be elected to Congress.”
What sets him apart is not his identity as a gay man, he says; rather, it’s his desire and ability to combat increasing political polarization by collaborating with representatives across the aisle. Aiken describes his opponents as more focused on “activism than action.”
“We need action and attention and intention to actually get some shit done,” he says.
Aiken loves expletives—over the course of our two-hour meal, he curses dozens of times, always dropping his voice to a low whisper but mouthing the words dramatically. The words he won’t say are “Madison Cawthorn” and “Mark Robinson,” whom he calls “he who shall not be named” and “you know who.” He likes to punctuate statements by saying, “and you can quote me on that”—for instance, he drops the phrase after stating that Allam is not a terrorist and “anyone who says she is can kiss both cheeks of my ass.”
Most of all, for a celebrity, Aiken is exceedingly normal; when our server asks for a picture with him, for a moment I forget why she would want one. One of my earliest memories is watching Aiken climb out of a helicopter to throw the first pitch at a Bull’s game in 2003, and it’s hard to believe that this is the same guy.
But his ability to pass as an average Joe doesn’t negate the fact that, if it weren’t for name recognition, his lack of experience would’ve likely quashed his ability to raise money and secure votes.
Instead of running in this election, I ask, did he consider using his notoriety to throw support behind a different, more qualified candidate?
He cackles, tells me I’ve been on Twitter too much, then says, “No,” reminding me that he’s the only candidate who’s won a Democratic congressional primary before.
And, he says, his fame is actually what will help him accomplish things with the opposing party.
“Are Republicans interested in talking to me about policies? Not first, of course; they want to talk about American Idol. They want to take a picture for their daughter or their mother,” Aiken says. “But it’s a way to get people to sit down and talk to you.”
* * *
After wrapping up the phone bank, Allam and I head over to a meet-and-greet in Durham City Council member Jillian Johnson’s front yard, where Allam mingles with some 25 people as they sip cans of La Croix and snack on finger foods from Costco.
This cohort of supporters is significantly older than the group I saw on Zoom, with most attendees looking to be in their 40s or 50s. As noted in a recent News & Observer article, it’s important that Allam focuses as much on older voters as she does on young ones; if the primary leads to a runoff in July, many college students won’t be in town to cast a ballot.
At the meet-and-greet, everybody seems to be talking about the same thing. In hushed tones, they ask me if I’ve heard about the massive amount of money that the pro-Israel group AIPAC recently donated to Foushee’s campaign.
Many interpret the contribution as an attempt to prevent Allam, who has criticized Israel’s treatment of Palestinians, from being elected, and view it as extremely concerning given AIPAC’s endorsement last month of 37 Republicans who believe that the 2020 presidential election was stolen from Donald Trump.
Johnson says that up until recently, she saw Foushee as a strong second choice. But since the contribution from AIPAC, which she describes as a “right-wing fear mongering organization,” she no longer holds this belief.
“Raising money from the people you are asking to represent is a way of staying accountable to those individuals,” Johnson says. “So raising half of your money from a single source, it doesn’t show that you have the ability to appeal to and represent a broad group of people.”
Attendees also discuss the Islamophobic polls that have been circulating online and conducted through phone calls, one of which asks participants to respond to a statement that describes Allam admiring a woman who “showed support for a terrorist who was convicted of bombing a supermarket.”
Allam tells me that she’s received a number of death threats during her campaign—probably many more than she’s aware of, as there’s an inbox that only her campaign manager can access and her husband makes a point to sift through their snail mail before Allam can see it.
“These polls, they’re just words, but unfortunately, we know from this district having one of the most heinous Islamophobic attacks in recent history, people act on it,” Allam says.
There are rumors that Foushee or her allies are responsible for the polls. In a written statement to the INDY, Foushee’s campaign refuted these allegations.
“They are not polls from our campaign and we have no knowledge of where they are coming from or who is paying for them,” the statement reads. “That said, if we saw an ad on any platform that used that kind of rhetoric or language, we would denounce it and call for it to be taken down.”'
* * *
According to FEC reports, Aiken has raised the least amount of money of the three frontrunners, with $444,389 in pocket as of April 1. Foushee, with deep roots and years of public service in the district, has raised $480,540, the second most. And Allam has raised the most money so far, $657,127.
While Foushee’s large individual donations are the most localized of the three—people associated with Duke University and UNC-Chapel Hill are two of her top contributors—more than half of her quarterly funding came in the form of bundled local and non-local individual contributions from AIPAC, which led to a Twitter firestorm from local progressives and caused the Progressive Caucus of the North Carolina Democratic Party to pull its endorsement.
In addition to AIPAC’s bundle of donations, a super PAC called Protect Our Future recently spent more than $800,000 on advertising for Foushee. Protect Our Future is backed primarily by Sam Bankman-Fried, a 30-year-old cryptocurrency billionaire. The PAC has also spent roughly $11 million in support of four other Democratic House candidates, including Ohio Rep. Shontel Brown and Georgia Rep. Lucy McBath in their bids for reelection.
When I ask Foushee why she hasn’t denounced the bundled contributions from AIPAC and outside spending by Protect Our Future, she stiffens in her seat. Foushee is not a woman who likes any sudden movements, and though the question didn’t seem to catch her off guard, it’s also not one she has much experience answering.
She thanks me for giving her an opportunity to share her side of the story, then says she wishes money was not so crucial to running campaigns.
“I’ve never had to raise funds to this extent,” Foushee says, later adding that, “It is a thing that Black women in particular are not very successful in raising capital.”
She doesn’t comment on the support from the crypto billionaire—she just learned about it a few hours ago, she says. Regarding AIPAC, Foushee says the organization supports her because of her position on Israel, which is fairly mainstream: she believes we should be working toward a two-state solution, but also that Israel should have the ability to defend itself.
“Israel has been an ally to this country for more than 70 years with keeping peace in that area, the most volatile area in the world,” Foushee says.
She feels like a scapegoat—a number of other state Democrats have accepted donations from AIPAC, including state Sen. Jeff Jackson and Reps. Deborah Ross and Alma Adams—and she’s also frustrated that the contribution is overshadowing her lifelong commitment to progressivism.
“It’s very painful to be painted as something I’m not,” she says. “I was fighting for a progressive Congress before those folks on Twitter knew how to spell ‘progressive.’”
After this line, Foushee steps out of the room to gather herself. When she comes back, there are tears in her eyes.
“They may be successful in having me defeated in this election,” she says. “But they won’t stop me from serving.”
Support independent local journalism. Join the INDY Press Club to help us keep fearless watchdog reporting and essential arts and culture coverage viable in the Triangle.
Follow Staff Writer Lena Geller on Twitter or send an email to lgeller@indyweek.com.
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Name as it appears on the ballot: Eliazar Posada
Age: 29
Party affiliation: Democrat
Campaign website: EliazarForCarrboro.com
Occupation & employer: Founder & President of Posada Strategy Consulting
Years lived in Carrboro: 6
1) In 300 words or less, please give us—and our readers—your elevator pitch: Why are you running? Why should voters entrust you with this position? What are your priorities, and what would you want to see the town council do differently or better over the course of your term?
The son of working class immigrants, I learned early in life the importance of representation, especially within communities who have no voice. I have decided my professional and personal life to make space for everyone. I believe that as an openly gay millennial Latino and all the lessons I have learned throughout my work will allow me to bring a new voice to the Carrboro Town Council.
When in office, I will focus on providing more Affordable Housing, address social justice issues to insure Equality for All, and review our transit system to provide Equitable Public Transportation. I strongly believe that decisions made by the council must reflect the needs of the entire community. I will work with my colleagues and town staff to better engage all sectors of Carrboro. I am ready to roll up my sleeves to welcome and celebrate the diversity in our town, energize our community, and help Carrboro continue to thrive. Together we can make a Carrboro home for all.
2) Given the direction of Carrboro’s government, would you say things are on the right course? If not, for what specific changes will you advocate if elected?
The current council are great public servants and have worked hard to ensure Carrboro is moving forward in the right direction. I want to join them and ensure we continue to move Carrboro forward. With the implementation of the Carrboro Connects Comprehensive Plan and all the strategies proposed, I think Carrboro will address so many issues in the best way possible. I want to make sure to ensure the town priorities strategies and goals in that plan that impact the communities most in need in Carrboro.
3) Please identify the three of the most pressing issues Carrboro currently faces and how you believe the town should address them.
Affordable Housing: Affordable housing should be at the top of our priorities. As a town we must find creative ways to build new, and sustain current, affordable housing units, evaluate our land use ordinances and improve our zoning to build new development and opportunities for affordable housing, and encourage new and diverse housing. We must pursue new apartment developments, improve existing units, build tiny homes, support manufactured homes and home ownership programs. Making housing affordable should not be our only goal in addressing housing in Carrboro. I believe we should use our resources to improve our town so that our communities can live, work, and play in Carrboro. By investing in our town’s Affordable Housing Fund, creating partnerships with landlords and developers we can support our neighborhoods in making any improvements needed, and ensure that Carrboro remains the best place to call home.
Equality for All: Carrboro is a growing and diversifying town that strives to be welcoming to all. To ensure our town is a home for all members of our community, we have the collective responsibility to engage all faces of our community. Together we can make our town boards and commission more representative and inclusive, expand the town’s reach to inform and engage our community, and work to find solutions to address our community’s growing needs. I am from this community, have served this community, and am a reflection of the ways in which this community has invested in the leadership of young people of color. I know we can achieve real progress by working together with local leaders, businesses and nonprofits, to build equitable community engagement where we can all thrive.
Equitable Public Transit: Public Transit is vital to our communities in Carrboro. The town must expand and ensure equitable access to bus routes, bike lanes, walkways and greenways to ensure all our community can interact with our town in a safe and secure way. Carrboro’s parks, downtown, businesses and restaurants are wonderful places and ways our community can engage with the town and each other, yet not all of our communities have equitable and safe access. As we move forward and grow we must invest in areas with limited or unsafe connectivity to all our Carrboro has to offer.
Much work has been done over the years to address transit, and we have some great transit advocates on the council today. I want to work with my colleagues to ensure the areas where transit can be improved for those who need it most. Carrboro is a beautiful place to walk, bike and bus into and around town, let's make sure everyone in our town can do that safely.
4) What’s the best or most important thing the town council has done in the past year? Alternatively, name a decision you believe the council got wrong or an issue you believe the town should have handled differently. Please explain your answer.
There are a few things Carrboro has done in the last year that will be extremely important for our town. For me the most important is the passing of the 203 Project, also known as the library. This development will not only bring a much needed library to Carrboro and southern Orange County, but will be a huge economic boost to Carrboro and will move our community forward. The building will not only have the new library, it will also include a teen center, workers center, community programming and several services that are important to our residents.
Yet Carrboro has some work to do. Recently a racially charged event at a local coffee shop owned by a black and queer woman, resulted in charges being press against the person who trespassed onto a private event and the decision from the owners to temporary close down the shop until they can better security measures. After learning of the circumstances and the work the owners have done in the past to secure their shop, I believe we as a town could have done more to prevent the situation and provided support the owners had already requested from the town. While we can not change the past, I believe that the town has a responsibility to support the owners so they can get to a point where they are comfortable in the security of their shop in order to reopen. This shop is a vital part of our community and a critical space for so many of our people of color in Carrboro. Moving forward, I want to see the town take up much needed conversations about how we support our local POC businesses and continue to have conversations about racial equity and how the town can ensure our communities of color feel seen, respected and a critical part of our community.
5) What prior experience makes you qualified for and passionate about the town council and its duties? What made you seek this position?
Since my college years I have held several positions in the political field and here in Carrboro. I have served in committees, boards and commissions for local governments across the triangle, led efforts to educate and register voters, worked with political campaigns, held leadership roles in the North Carolina Democratic Party and served on many Boards and Commissions for both our local government and nonprofit organizations. Some examples of Boards/Commissions and Political Roles are; Board of Directors - The Camber for a Greater Chapel Hill - Carrboro Board of Directors - PORCH Chapel Hill-Carrboro Board of Directors - Enlace Latino NC Town of Chapel Hill Reimagine Community Safety Task Force - Member Criminal Justice Debt Relief Program Advisory Committee - Vice-Chair City of Raleigh Hispanic and Immigrant Affairs Board - Professional Co-Chair City of Durham Compact Board of Advisors - Co-chair of Community Strategic Engagement Committee Town of Carrboro Emergency Fund Review Committee - 2020 Town of Carrboro COVID-19 Mitigation Business Grant Review Committee - 2021 Town of Carrboro Planning Board - Appointed April 2020 Town of Carrboro, Carrboro Connects, Comprehensive Planning Task Force - Member Orange County Democratic Party - OWASA Precinct - Chair, Elected 2019 - 2021 Orange County Democratic Party - County Executive Committee North Carolina Democratic Party - State Executive Committee
6) As with most places in the Triangle, Carrboro is grappling with issues related to affordable housing. How would you like to see the town approach affordability issues over the next few years? Should it promote apartment living, duplexes, and/or triplexes? Encourage density in single family housing? What do you believe the town is doing right? What could it do better?
Expanding and creating new affordable housing in Carrboro is vital. Carrboro is a beautiful place to live, but it is expensive. Finding affordable housing is becoming more difficult every year with rent prices continuing to increase, the insecurity around manufactured homes in the area and the need for more multi family housing. As a town we must find creative ways to build new, and sustain current, affordable housing units, evaluate our land use ordinances and improve our zoning to build new development and opportunities for affordable housing, and encourage new and diverse housing. We must pursue new apartment developments, improve existing units, build tiny homes, support manufactured homes and home ownership programs. Making housing affordable should not be our only goal in addressing housing in Carrboro. I believe we should use our resources to improve our town so that our communities can live, work, and play in Carrboro. By investing in our town’s Affordable Housing Fund, creating partnerships with landlords and developers we can support our neighborhoods in making any improvements needed, and ensure that Carrboro remains the best place to call home.
The town has recently approved plans and projects with local nonprofits to add affordable housing units in our town and is currently reviewing the Orange County manufactured home plan. I want to seek more opportunities to partner with nonprofits and developers and review our land use policies to encourage diverse housing.
7) For those who rent or own homes in Carrboro already, how should the town and county address tax revaluations that increase property taxes and rising rents, particularly for residents in public housing and those low-income residents who face displacement?
As a renter myself, I have first hand knowledge of the impact of the continued increase of housing cost. I want to find ways for the town to provide assistance to those facing displacement, especially anyone who is still suffering from the economic impacts of the pandemic. I would also be in favor of finding ways to reduce property taxes and its impact on the most vulnerable in our community, that won't happen overnight but it is important to find ways to reduce the tax burden of our residents while not impacting our ability to provide essential services. This means we must diversify our tax base by creating economic development which will grow Carrboros ability to provide services and review ways of providing residents with tax relief.
8) In what ways should Carrboro work on growing its tax base?
I want to see Carrboro grow and better develop downtown, by doing that we can grow our tax base. Making space for new development that includes new housing, new business and multi-use development projects in Carrboro can allow us to meet all of our economic needs while moving our town forward. With the 203 project breaking ground on May 5 and the plans from the economic development staff for Carrboro, I think we can move in the right direction.
9) What do you think is the best course of action for the town’s parking issues?
Carrboro businesses are relying on parking and public transit to ensure they can prosper and have residents interact with them. Carrboro has done a parking study that is going to be presented to the Council in the next few months, including a better understanding of available parking and where improvements can be made, but I would like to move past parking. I want us as a town to look at multiple ways to encourage our residents to interact with our downtown. That includes our public transportation and the ability for all members of our community to walk or bike into Carrboro. I am curious to read the parking study and see possible solutions for our town.
10) In your view, how can the town improve public transit, especially in terms of serving lower-income residents? How can the town recruit and retain more bus drivers? How can bike lanes be made safer and more efficient?
Similar to housing, transportation is an integral part of life in Carrboro. Currently many of our community members are unable to access downtown without putting themselves in danger because they have to walk alongside a busy highway. Council must find ways of expanding ways for community members to interact with the town by expanding options to walk, bike or bus into downtown while staying safe. In the comprehensive plan, we have outlined several strategies that will increase the ability of our communities of color and low income residents to fully engage with Carrboro. The Transportation Strategy Map and subsequent strategies outlined in the plan makes great efforts to ensure equitable access for our residents.
11) Carrboro has traditionally struggled to attract businesses run by people of color. Why do you believe that is? How can the town work to attract minority-owned businesses?
One of the largest challenges for local businesses has been finding affordable space to have a business. It is also no secret that people of color have had significant institutional barriers to owning their own businesses. We also must look at what resources are available from the town to support business of color to be successful. The recent statement from the Carrboro Business Alliance highlights the importance of supporting and providing ways for business owners of color to feel safe to run their business in town. As a member of the covid-19 business mitigation grants review committees, I worked with my colleagues to provide much needed financial support to Carrboro businesses with a special focus on businesses of color. I am looking forward to working with the CBA and the town’s economic development staff to ensure we attract and maintain business of color as we move forward and seek new development projects.
12) The Town of Carrboro currently contributes around $340,000 to affordable housing projects each year. Could or should the town contribute more?
I would like to see the town find ways to implement the funds we already contribute to ensure the most impact for those funds. With the cost incurred in the 203 project, I do not think we should increase our contribution if it will be a burden for the town or increase taxes on our residents. I think there are ways partnerships can be made with nonprofits and land owners to encourage new and affordable housing.
13) What role does Carrboro have in developing the Greene Tract in partnership with Chapel Hill and Orange County? How do you think that land should be developed? What are your priorities for the property?
I believe that the Greene Tract would be a great opportunity for Carrboro to pursue our goals. I would support the development of affordable housing that would benefit our community and ensure to preserve part of the land for green spaces and recreation. Since 1984 the county and towns have been considering in which ways or if there should be development in the Greene Tract, I am in support of the latest plan for development and had I been on the council last November I would have agreed with Susan Romain’s comments about the resolution being a step in the right direction.
14) How is the Carrboro police department doing in building trust between the community and the police officers? What, if anything, should the town be doing differently in regards to policing?
In my time at El Centro Hispano I led the work in building trust between the community and police department and I also served on the Reimagining Community Safety Taskforce. Through that work I gained a better understanding of the police here in Carrboro and how much better our police department is than other places in North Carolina in providing training on mental health, problem solving and racial equity. Of course we have some work to do and we will never be perfect, but I believe we are on the right path when it comes to your police department. As we come out of this pandemic we will have to do more community engagement and ensure that our community feels like they can be intact with our police officers and feel safe living in Carrboro. I was glad to see the council approve of an increase in the salaries of our town staff earlier this year and I would like to see them also institute a community task force to ensure we explore other ways of policing other than traditional policing.
15) If there are other issues you want to discuss, please do so here.
Carrboro is a town that strives to make space for everyone. I love Carrboro because of how openly it has loved me - an openly gay millennial Latino. I want to bring that Carrboro experience to others by joining the Town Council.
My career has focused on ensuring historically marginalized and underrepresented communities are heard and have a seat at the table. As a son of immigrant farmworkers and part of several marginalized communities, I have many unique experiences and lessons I will bring to council.
On council, I will work to ensure when decisions are made at the council table, they are a reflection of the entire community. The time is now for perspectives that reflect our growing and diverse town. I am ready to roll up my sleeves and help Carrboro continue to thrive.
Learn more about me and chip in what you can at EliazarforCarrboro.com. Together we can make Carrboro a home for all.
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https://indyweek.com/news/elections/candidate-questionnaire-allen-buansi-primary-2022/
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Name as it appears on the ballot: Allen Buansi
Age: 35
Party affiliation: Democratic Party
Campaign website: www.allenbuansi.com
Occupation & employer: Assistant City Attorney, City of Greensboro Years lived in North Carolina: 20
1. What in your background qualifies you to represent the people of North Carolina effectively? What would you cite as your three biggest career accomplishments?
I am qualified to represent the people of North Carolina effectively because of my experiences as a civil rights lawyer, an elected Town Council member and a working parent. I will be able to hit the ground running from day one to be a fighter for our community.
First, as a civil rights lawyer, I have experience on the ground with people suffering from harmful laws and practices by our state. I have also built connections with leaders outside of our district on common-ground issues, such as supporting public schools, affordable healthcare and the environment. I have worked on public education cases such as Leandro and school desegregation cases. I worked with families and children at poorly funded schools that face teacher shortages and inadequate school facilities. Other cases I have taken on include environmental justice cases. I have represented black, brown and poor communities and advocacy groups in suits against the Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) due to the outdated, inadequate standards it maintained for industrial hog farms, which are among the most significant sources of greenhouse gases in our state. These industrial hog facilities have also contaminated drinking water and contributed to disproportionately increased rates of hypertension and heart disease among black and brown residents close to these facilities. The work I did yielded significant, much needed changes in the way that DEQ monitors hog farms and enforces its regulations on emissions and waste management. Much more work is needed from a legislative standpoint, such as updating regulations and restoring funding to DEQ so that it can effectively enforce its regulations. I also point to tangible work I did that moved the needle in protecting black, brown and poor communities, which border these industrial hog farms. In the wake of the passage of the “monster” voting law of 2013, I worked for voting rights organizations like Democracy North Carolina to challenge the component of the law that restricted early voting. In short, my experiences as a civil rights lawyer have steeped me in the ongoing challenges and hostile conditions that North Carolinians and advocates have long faced in the context of education, the environment, land use law and voting.
Second, as an elected Chapel Hill Town Council member, I have a track record of spearheading innovative and progressive policy initiatives and working across the metaphorical aisle to get these initiatives passed. I led on the adoption of policies including but not limited to:
• The first-ever town-created criminal justice debt fund, which assists low-income defendants in getting relief from the excessive court costs and fees that are imposed upon them, even without or before a conviction.
• The Town’s first climate action response plan, with a goal of zero carbon emissions by 2050. Commitments include but are not limited to the following: net-zero emissions for new municipal facilities and upgrades for existing ones, an all-electric bus fleet and a town-wide electric vehicle (EV) charging station network.
• The Town’s first affordable housing bond in 2018, dedicated to developing 400 new affordable housing units and preserving 300 existing affordable units over a five year period.
• A long overdue nondiscrimination ordinance which extended civil rights protections to more people and added sexual orientation, gender identity and gender expression as protected classes.
• Resolution in the wake of George Floyd’s murder, to prohibit chokeholds as a policing tactic, prohibit low-level traffic regulatory stops and reimagine public safety led by a Town-appointed task force.
Third, in the 2020 legislative session, only three members of the State House had children under 18. This is a critical perspective our General Assembly is lacking, particularly when it comes to decisions to not increase the number of childcare subsidy slots, deny state funding for after-school programs and to otherwise not provide needed support to working parents across the state. My wife and I have three young children and have personal experience with education and the high costs of childcare. We see the need for our state legislature to alleviate these burdens on other working parents. I want to bring this perspective and push for much needed support for the parents and children of North Carolina.
Colleagues and constituents have recognized my ability to listen and be responsive to concerns, my ability to find common ground with others, my thoughtfulness, my work ethic and my ability to get impactful things done.
My three biggest career accomplishments include the following:
• The creation of the aforementioned Town Criminal Justice Debt Program, which is the first in North Carolina. It assists people who are working to get their lives back on track but who are burdened with excessive court costs and fees.
• Settlement with DEQ that yielded commitment to an adequate system for receiving and responding to third-party complaints and information against operators of industrial hog farms for violating permit standards and regulations. This provided affected communities with a powerful tool for holding industrial hog facility operators accountable for their violations.
- The creation of the Training for Action and Progress (TAP) program in 2018, which recruits and trains young people and people of color for public service, including town advisory boards and elected office. A few of the participants have served on town advisory boards, and one who helped plan and was a participant, has been elected to local office – Chapel Hill Town Council Member Tai Huynh.
2. What do you believe to be the three most pressing issues facing the next General Assembly? What steps do you believe the state should take to address them?
I believe the three most pressing issues facing the next General Assembly include: (1) public education, (2) the climate crisis and (3) lack of access to affordable healthcare.
Public education. I am a proud product of the Chapel Hill-Carrboro public schools. I am also a son and nephew of public-school teachers. From a young age, my mother and aunt taught me to always respect, value and advocate for teachers. So, I am committed to expanding access to quality education across the state, from pre-kindergarten to post-secondary education and training. I will push for the following measures, including but not limited to:
(1) Pay our teachers and other school personnel fair and competitive salaries;
(2) Fulfill our obligations under Leandro, commit resources to close the achievement gap and properly fund school infrastructure, in dire need of repair. Right now, there is over $12 billion in needed school building repairs across the state, which a state bond can help alleviate;
(3) Expand the North Carolina Teaching Fellows Program, so it can accommodate five times the number of current slots, from 200 to 1,000. This will help build a sustainable pipeline of teachers in North Carolina
(4) Increase parental leave for teachers from 8 weeks to 12 weeks and ensure paid leave is provided, so we can better support teachers and their families; and
(5) Make the UNC Board of Governors subject to more conflicts of interests rules and less partisan. I would support measures like Senate Bill 546 from the 2021 legislative session, which would keep members of the General Assembly, lobbyists and their spouses from serving on the UNC Board of Governors.
Climate justice. Many of my first experiences with organizing came in my teenage years when I helped communities fight for environmental justice (which I discuss more in my response to question 6). I have continued that fight in the years since then, as a civil rights lawyer and a member of the Chapel Hill Town Council. We must consider all North Carolinians in climate action and mitigation measures. Measures I would support include but would not be limited to:
(1) re-shifting the focus of key state departments like the North Carolina Department of Transportation (NCDOT), so that people and the environment are the priorities, not cars;
(2) repealing a 2013 law that prohibits NCDOT’s financial support to towns and metropolitan/rural planning organizations for standalone bicycle and pedestrian improvement projects. Repeal of this law would open the way for more bicycle and pedestrian projects to be funded and help communities move away from cars as the only and main mode of transportation;
(3) removing the cap on NCDOT funding for non-highway projects and devoting more substantial resources to improving and in many cases, providing, public transit in all parts of North Carolina, especially in our rural areas;
(4) actively supporting clean renewable energy like solar and wind and fighting against efforts that would allow fracking or drilling offshore and;
(5) supporting and enhancing Governor Cooper’s Executive Order 246, with its goal of 1.25 million electric vehicles by 2030 and its direction to state agencies to incorporate environmental justice and equity in agencies’ decisions and work.
Healthcare. Even in a community like Chapel Hill and Carrboro, which has world-class healthcare, disparities in access persist. I will be a champion for affordable access to quality healthcare, including in our rural communities, and I would work for the following, including but not limited to:
(1) the long-overdue expansion of Medicaid;
(2) fighting against measures that would impose work requirements for those receiving Medicaid coverage; and
(3) restoring North Carolina’s Earned Income Tax Credit, so working families do not have to make hard choices in paying for healthcare, life-saving medications and other basic necessities;
(4) eliminating arbitrary restrictions on reproductive rights; and
(5) increasing funding for our local departments of public health services, so they each can provide family planning services, OB-GYNs and pandemic relief and preparedness.
3. To what extent do you support municipalities exerting local control over issues such as regulating greenhouse gas emissions, criminal justice reforms and police oversight, and passing development-regulating ordinances?
One of the reasons why I am running for office is to empower local governments to provide better for their residents. I have a great deal of experience in municipal law, having served on the Chapel Hill Town Council, taught a law school course on municipal law and practiced in this area of law as a civil rights attorney and assistant city attorney. I have seen up close how towns and counties are constrained by the General Assembly. Only a handful of the current State House members have previously served on a town or city council.
Greenhouse Gas Emissions
As a Chapel Hill Town Council member, in 2019, I was proud to support and pass the Town’s first climate action and response plan, with a goal of zero emissions by 2050. We also set goals for the town to transition to 80 percent clean, renewable energy sources by 2030. According to studies conducted and reviewed by Town staff, they uncovered the fact that 95 percent of our community’s emissions comes from buildings and transportation. In light of this, I was also proud to support the Town’s acquisition of electric buses with the goal of having an all-electric bus fleet. In a town that has one of the largest fare free bus systems in the entire U.S. that provides more than 6.5 million rides a year, an all-electric bus fleet will make a significant impact. The response plan also involved measures to make owning an electric vehicle easier by developing a mapping tool that property owners can use to accommodate charging stations across town.
Statewide, industrial hog and poultry facilities are among the most significant sources of greenhouse gas emissions. Under state law, local zoning authority for industrial hog facilities is preempted, which means that neither counties nor towns can regulate these facilities, their emissions or their waste management in the interests of public health and safety. Currently, industrial poultry facilities are not subject to any regulations. I would fight to empower towns and counties to exercise zoning authority over these industrial operations.
In the most recent session of the state legislature, several dangerous bills passed the State House and failed in the State Senate and in some cases, passed both Houses but did not overcome the Governor’s veto. These bills will almost certainly be proposed again in the next session, and I would fight to defeat these measures. These bills include the following:
• House Bill 496: This would have prohibited local governments from passing local tree ordinances unless expressly authorized by the General Assembly. This passed the State House in 2021, but did not pass in the State Senate.
• House Bill 794: This would have required that schools be a permitted use in every zoning district (including industrial), and it would exempt them from any local government development regulations. This bill would threaten the safety and wellness of our children, since a town would not be able to impose safety standards or development requirements on schools. This passed the State House in 2021, but did not pass in the State Senate.
• House Bill 220: This would have prohibited a city from adopting an ordinance that bans connection, reconnection, modification, or expansion of an energy service based on the type or source of energy. For example, a city would be prohibited from adopting an ordinance that forbids the city from drawing energy from a gas-fired power plant. This passed the State House and State Senate, but Governor Cooper vetoed this bill in 2021.
I will fight to defeat these bills if proposed again. I will fight to empower local governments with zoning authority over industrial hog and poultry facilities. I will fight for more state funding to support alternative modes of transportation such as public transit.
Criminal Justice and Police Reform
My Council colleague, Karen Stegman, and I led criminal justice reform in Chapel Hill. We spearheaded the first-ever town-created criminal justice debt fund in North Carolina. This program provides low-income defendants with financial relief from excessive court costs and fees that are imposed upon them.
We also led other needed measures to decriminalize poverty and ensure racial equity in policing by prohibiting low-level traffic regulatory stops and police chokeholds and eliminating criminal penalties associated with activities like sleeping on park benches or panhandling. I and other Council colleagues successfully pushed for the creation of the Reimagining Community Safety Task Force. This Task Force made bold recommendations challenging the status quo and called for a fundamental re-shifting of our public safety paradigm, so everyone feels safe. For example, providing mental health resources, facilitating non-armed responses and supporting more crisis counselors to respond to nonviolent situations were among a groundbreaking set of recommendations. I want to elevate these measures to the state level.
Our state should also support community-based policing approaches in every community. This approach mobilizes and involves community leaders in concert with law enforcement. Supporting the increased use of foot and bicycle patrols can help integrate law enforcement better in a community. Providing funding for crisis counselors to respond to situations that do not require law enforcement presence would help communities too. Our state also should allow municipalities the authority to create civilian review boards that have the authority to act.
A community-based approach also invests in the prevention of youth violence and promotes restorative justice practices as opposed to simply increasing penalties. There is currently no state funding for after-school programs in North Carolina, despite the over 600,000 children in need of them. Providing funding to support after school programming to engage all youth is a must. Supporting job growth and improving the availability of affordable, safe housing especially in vulnerable areas are all measures that can help reduce and prevent violent crime. Just as I led on criminal justice reforms on the Chapel Hill Town Council, I am committed to leading on criminal justice reforms in the State House.
Development-Regulating Reforms
Local governments are constrained in providing affordable housing, transit-oriented development and using environmental protections to more effectively combat climate change. Now, more than ever, we need action to empower local governments with needed tools, including development regulations. First, I would fight to restore development authority to local governments that have been taken away in recent years. For example, Session Law 2018-145 prohibited local governments from requiring stormwater controls for existing impervious areas (e.g., parking lot and street surfaces). It is much harder for water drain in impervious areas, and so water is prone run off and flood lower lying areas. This exacerbates conditions for residents in low-lying lands and areas, who are more easily flooded with this runoff. We need to restore this regulatory authority to local governments, so they can better protect vulnerable residents in low-lying areas from flooding. Next, I would fight for greater protections for residents of manufactured home parks to better ensure housing stability. These residents are particularly vulnerable to displacement without other housing options.
The following measures passed the State House in the 2021-22 Legislative Session, and they are anticipated to be reintroduced in the coming sessions. They would restrict local government authority when it comes to affordable housing, regulating erosion control, tree canopies and traffic.
• I would fight House Bill 712. This bill would limit the use of conditional zoning if a project contained affordable housing. This measure ties the hands of local officials when trying to work with developers and neighbors in designing affordable housing that is harmonious with the surrounding neighborhood.
• I would also fight House Bill 853. This measure would prohibit local governments from requiring tree surveys as part of the approval process for developments, from requiring certain road designs and erosion control measures. This impacts important local aims for tree preservation, traffic management and safety and protecting natural ecosystems.
Lastly, I would explore requiring local governments to consider environmental justice factors in permitting decisions.
4. Do you support raising North Carolina’s minimum wage, and if so by how much? If not, what other initiatives would you take to support low-income families in North Carolina?
Yes, I support an increase in the minimum wage in North Carolina to at least $15 per hour, automatically indexed for inflation. I am open to a minimum wage higher than $15 per hour, but the fight for $15 per hour wages is a necessary first step. Two states have already implemented a $15 per hour minimum wage and nine others, including our neighbor to the north, Virginia, will reach that milestone in the next four years. There is no reason why we cannot and should not pursue the same change that would greatly improve the lives of low-income and working-class people and families in North Carolina.
Now is a prime time to act with this kind of measure. Labor shortages abound and many businesses, in response, have already undertaken efforts to recruit workers with higher pay.
I would work to implement this increase through a similar framework as California and New York, which each used a phased-in approach. California’s phased-in approach involved a five- year runway between passage of its wage increase and implementation for two classes of employers. Employers with 26 or more employees had to adopt a $15 minimum wage starting in January 2022, while employers with 25 or fewer employees must adopt a $15 minimum wage starting in January 2023. Meanwhile, New York’s phased-in approach is marked by different transition periods for different regions of the state and differently sized employers. Determining the best phased-in approach for North Carolina must include engaging with stakeholders, such as workers’ rights advocates, unions, business leaders and others to determine the best timeframe for a $15 minimum wage increase for employers in urban, suburban and rural areas. I would push for an increase as soon as possible.
5. With rent, property taxes, and home sale prices all rising, what, if anything, should the state legislature do to address this growing affordability crisis?
First, there have been a number of ongoing efforts in the General Assembly to undercut impactful work that had been done to increase and support affordable housing. I will fight these efforts at every turn. Among these harmful efforts are the following:
(1) reducing funding in budget appropriations for community development corporations, whose missions include building and maintaining affordable housing in poorer parts of urban areas and in rural North Carolina; and
(2) restricting state and local funding sources for affordable housing projects.
In the 2021-22 legislative session, a bill gained traction that would have prohibited local governments from negotiating for affordable housing when it exercises conditional zoning. Conditional zoning is an increasingly common form of zoning across towns and cities in North Carolina. Such a measure would remove one of the few significant tools local governments have to facilitate affordable housing. If proposed again, I would vigorously oppose it.
I would fight for the following to make housing more affordable to North Carolinians:
(1) increasing the budget appropriations for community development corporations, so they can provide much needed housing for low-income and working-class people and in doing so, relieve the burden on local governments as sole actors;
(2) empowering local governments with the ability to pass inclusionary zoning ordinances, so requirements can be made of developers to ensure a certain proportion of their new housing is accessible to working people and families; and
(3) increasing funding to the North Carolina Housing Trust, so the North Carolina Housing Finance Agency can effectively distribute significantly more money to support affordable housing projects across the state. The General Assembly created the NC Housing Trust Fund in 1987 and the North Carolina Housing Finance Agency administers this und. The Fund supports home ownership and rental apartments, new construction, rehabilitation and emergency repairs to homes.
Our tax revaluation process is well worth reexamining in order to ensure equity in the process. We need to create programs for tax abatements, so low-income people are not priced out of their communities when new development comes.
6. Do you believe that the state government has an obligation to prevent the impacts of climate change? If so, please state three specific policies you support to address climate change.
Yes, since my teenage years, I have believed that the state government has an obligation to prevent and mitigate the impacts of climate change and to protect our vulnerable communities while doing so.
As I teenager, my mother recruited me to help organize communities in eastern North Carolina against landfills and industrial hog facilities. In the late 1990s, she was a founding member of the North Carolina Environmental Justice Network (NCEJN), and she taught me from a young age the importance of the natural environment and the importance of the environment as a place where we eat, work and play. I would later go on to represent NCEJN as a civil rights attorney.
Later in my life, as a civil rights attorney at the UNC Center for Civil Rights, my work helped in two landmark settlements with the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ). First, I was part of a challenge to DEQ in a Title VI complaint, due to DEQ’s insufficient regulations and inconsistent enforcement against industrial hog farms. I, along with two other attorneys at the Center for Civil Rights, represented the NCEJN, the Waterkeeper Alliance and the Rural Empowerment Association for Community Help in this complaint and in subsequent mediation. In North Carolina, industrial hog facilities are part of a powerful industry. Industrial hog facilities are among the most significant sources of greenhouse gas emissions, due to the enormous amount of animal waste produced, which is then kept in open air lagoon ponds and sprayed, often leading to the contamination of water and air. The standards and regulations in place did little to control animal waste and did not hold the operators of these facilities accountable. African Americans, Latinx and Native Americans who live near these facilities have been suffering disproportionate impacts, in their health, quality of life, air quality and water quality.
One settlement reached in May 2018 yielded several commitments by DEQ. First, DEQ committed to changing their draft industrial hog farm general permit to reflect updated standards and new technologies to mitigate the impacts of industrial hog farms on neighboring communities’ homes, water and air. DEQ also committed to developing an Environmental Justice tool to examine demographic, health and environmental characteristics of communities affected by DEQ policies. Lastly, DEQ agreed to create and maintain a language access program, to enable people whose primary language was not English to engage with DEQ on its policies and on complaints of noncompliance by industrial hog facilities.
The other settlement involved Cape Fear River Watch, Waterkeeper Alliance and NCEJN. The complaint alleged DEQ did not have an adequate system for receiving and responding to third- party complaints and information against operators of industrial hog farms for violating permit standards and regulations. This prevented environmental watchdogs from lodging complaints with accompanying evidence. DEQ committed to a new protocol with clear timelines for complaint investigation, consideration of all information submitted by complainants and the maintenance of monthly lists of complaints. DEQ also agreed to publish annual reports detailing the number of received complaints about animal operations, the number of complaints investigated and the number of complaints that resulted in a finding of violation. This settlement too broke new ground, as DEQ’s complaint process, to that point in December 2017, had no transparency or accountability to the public. Now, nearby residents, advocates and watchdogs can file complaints and submit evidence if they observe violations by industrial hog facilities.
As referenced earlier, I was proud to support the Town of Chapel Hill’s first climate action and response plan in 2019. We have set ambitious goals for transitioning to clean, renewable energy sources by 2030 and 2050. While on Council, I also supported the Town’s acquisition of electric buses. We also have encouraged the installation of charging stations for electric vehicles in all new development projects. The Town is committed to developing a town wide electric charging station network and mapping tool that electric vehicle drivers can use.
So much more work remains to be done, and I have seen the limitations of litigation and local measures in fighting climate change. We need change to come from the General Assembly. Combating climate change in the General Assembly will require implementing a range of immediate measures, so my three specific policy objectives below represent a start, not a finish, to my approach:
• First, I will strongly support reinstating the renewable energy tax credit. In the 2021-22 Legislative session, Representatives Harris, Autry, Lofton and Hurtado introduced House Bill 563, which would have re-established the renewable energy tax credit. The General Assembly allowed this credit to expire, as part of its agenda in the 2010s, to halt state incentives altogether to prioritize oil and gas and to de-prioritize renewable energy. This incentive had become one of North Carolina’s largest economic incentives. At that time of the tax credit’s expiration, North Carolina was the country’s second largest solar power market and the largest in the South. In 2014, the year before it expired, it brought in more than $700 million in investments. This tax credit helped to create jobs and spurred economic development throughout the state. In particular, utility-scale solar installations proliferated in the rural areas of the mountains and the coastal plain of North Carolina. Ultimately, the tax credit is a significant tool in the larger mission to lessen dependence on oil and gas for electricity. We need as many tools as possible in this fight to mitigate climate change.
• Second, I will prioritize repealing a 2013 law that prohibits NCDOT’s financial support to towns and metropolitan/rural planning organizations for standalone bicycle and pedestrian improvement projects. We need to re-shift the focus of key state departments like the North Carolina Department of Transportation (NCDOT), so people and the environment are the priorities, not cars. Repeal of this law would open the way for more bicycle and pedestrian projects to be funded and help communities move away from cars as the only and main mode of transportation.
• Third, I will push for increasing state funding for mass transit projects across the state, such as bus rapid transit and light rail. Local governments should be able to choose the right mass transit option for their jurisdictions and not have to bear the principal burden of funding it. The expenditures of NCDOT need to shift dramatically, as currently, 94 percent of NCDOT expenditures have to go to highway projects. Furthermore, state transportation funding for bus rapid transit (BRT) depends heavily on gas taxes. Use of cars has been falling during the pandemic and probably is not helped much by recent circumstances involving shutoff of oil imports from Russia. We need a different funding mechanism, and we need the General Assembly to step up and provide more funding here. Restoring corporate taxes can contribute to the state’s General Fund and fund priorities like BRT. Mass transit is a terrific mode of transportation because it involves the movement of multiple people using one vehicle, rather than the use of multiple vehicles carrying one or two individuals. Communities can also be better connected to one another across the state through mass transit (e.g., commuter rail). There is a particular need for mass transit in rural, low wealth parts of the state. Whether on-demand mass transit, micro transit or mass transit with regular stops can be developed, it would be well worth the investment of our state. Mass transit can spur economic development because a workforce is able to use reliable transportation to get to work. It can also help increase the number of jobs for a given area, due to the need for mass transit vehicle operators, staff, maintenance and administrative support.
7. Would you support an independent process for drawing new legislative and congressional districts?
I strongly support independent redistricting and oppose gerrymandering. I have been a strong proponent for independent redistricting commissions since my law school days. I first learned about these commissions in my 2014 Election Law course with Professor Kareem Crayton, who later became the director of the Southern Coalition for Social Justice. Later, I joined the Board of Common Cause North Carolina in 2018. There, I advocated for these commissions, and I even hosted a town hall session with three members of the California Citizens Redistricting Commission—California’s independent redistricting commission. The session featured the commissioners, Representative Verla Insko, and Bob Phillips as they discussed with members of the public the merits of adopting a similar commission in North Carolina.
My civil rights work also informs my position on independent redistricting, especially when it becomes an infringement on the right to vote. I have dedicated my career to empowering people and ensuring people’s voices are heard. Over the years, many voters have confided in me their difficulties in voting and their lack of confidence in elections due to being in heavily overrepresented districts. Gerrymandering has been used over time to dilute citizens’ votes and to pack or split communities of interests – especially African American communities – so they cannot effectively speak for themselves through voting. There have been hundreds of cases under the Voting Rights Act that have challenged gerrymandered maps. In 2022 alone, there have been 58 cases challenging gerrymandered maps. The best solution is to have properly structured independent redistricting commissions, which decide state legislative and congressional maps at the state level. These commissions can help restore confidence in our election system, and they can ultimately result in fairer maps where voters are more empowered.
8. Does the General Assembly have a constitutional obligation to comply with the state Supreme Court order in the Leandro case to fully fund public schools and give every child in North Carolina a sound basic education?
The North Carolina General Assembly continues to fall short of its constitutional obligation by underfunding our public education system. In 1997 and 2004, the N.C. Supreme Court ruled the State has an obligation to provide every child the opportunity for a sound basic education. In 2003, then-deputy director of the UNC Center for Civil Rights Jack Boger came to my high school and spoke to my class about this constitutional obligation under Leandro. Shortly before that time, I had also read about Justice Thurgood Marshall and his work in Brown v. Board of Education. So I understood from a young age that the State has a constitutional duty to fund schools at such levels that each school can provide well-trained and qualified teachers and principals and sufficient resources to their students. Later on, as an attorney, I would contribute to the Leandro case and the fight for a sound, basic education for all.
The North Carolina Department of Public Instruction continues to highlight the inadequacy of public-school facilities across the state. According to the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction, $12.8 billion is needed for school facility repairs. This is nearly $5 billion more than what it reported last in its 2015-16 report. Inadequate school facilities impair safe learning environments for our children and hurt teacher recruitment efforts. Underfunded schools tend to be those in lower income areas, with lower property tax revenues and higher proportions of students of color and low-income students, who deserve a sound, basic education as much as their wealthier counterparts.
Average teacher pay in NC continues to rank in the bottom half of U.S. states. Teachers continue to not have paid parental leave. In fact, they don't even get enough unpaid leave (only 8 weeks) - we should give them at least 12 weeks of paid leave.
Since 2013, school vouchers have diverted millions of public dollars from public schools to private schools, further hindering the State in meeting its Leandro obligations. These schools are free to discriminate against students of color and LGBTQ students, which our state should not support in any form or fashion. The total amount of school vouchers for the 2020-21 school year alone was $61,241,959. Per the budget approved in fall of 2021, school vouchers are estimated to cost North Carolina more than $3 billion over the next 15 years. That is $3 billion less for our public schools.
As a civil rights attorney, I have worked to hold our State accountable for its constitutional duty. At the UNC Center for Civil Rights in 2017, I worked on the Leandro case. Our involvement, at the time – on behalf of some parents and students in the Charlotte-Mecklenburg school system and the Mecklenburg NAACP – was a result of the State continuing to fall short of its obligation to adequately fund our public schools.
One of the greatest challenges and barriers to increasing funding for public education is the agenda that Republican legislators have pursued over the past decade-plus. This agenda devalues public education, diverts public funding away from public schools, and attacks the credibility of our schools and teachers. As part of this agenda, attempts to pay teachers better and fund school infrastructure have been systematically blocked or undercut; instead, school vouchers and attacks on the teaching profession through measures to restrict school curriculum persist.
Another challenge is political will. Even when Democrats controlled the state legislature in the 2000s, the State still did not meet the state’s Leandro obligations. Regardless of party control, our state has consistently underfunded public education.
Regardless of state legislative district, quality public education ranks high on voters’ priorities for what government should provide to the people. This is a key priority shared by voters in both parties. The polling supports this.
According to a 2021 High Point University poll, 61 percent of respondents indicated they would support a state bond referendum to fund $8 to $10 billion of school construction and renovation. Public school teachers and principals garnered the highest level of respect in the same poll out of several listed government officials. This poll indicated two-thirds of respondents think that public school teachers are paid too little, and over half expressed a willingness to pay more in taxes, so public school teachers would be paid at the national average within five years.
Education cuts across rural and urban communities, and I hope to form a common cause with a variety of legislators to make progress on this. If not, I will work to leverage my connections in various rural North Carolina districts to work with, support and empower pro-public education candidates to win, so we can have a working majority to move the ball forward.
9. The U.S. Supreme Court may issue a ruling this summer that guts, or even overturns, Roe v. Wade. As a state lawmaker, would you support legislation that limits or prohibits abortion in North Carolina, or punishes/criminalizes abortion providers or patients?
No, I would not support legislation that limits or prohibits abortion in North Carolina or that punishes abortion providers and patients. I am a proud supporter of the right to choose, and my commitment runs deep. When I was 12 years old, my mother took the opportunity to talk to me about access to reproductive care. She explained that it was not only important to know about sex, contraceptives and consent, but “it is important to realize that women should have control and agency over their own bodies.” That means women should have access to safe abortions. Her words have stayed with me and inform my commitment to reproductive justice.
My wife has a PhD in public health. She consistently informs and reminds me of the barriers facing people in accessing healthcare, including abortion care and family planning services. She continues to guide me with resources that she shares regarding the experiences of women and their inequitable access to care, including safe abortion access. Reproductive health is a fundamental public health issue that I will always champion. When my wife was pregnant, I remember how she told me that she could never understand how someone could be forced to continue a pregnancy they did not want. Pregnancy takes a significant physical, emotional, and mental health burden on people and it is unfathomable that someone could be forced to continue one they did not want.
Women should be allowed to have the freedom to choose whether they want to experience it or not. My wife also taught me how most people who have abortions are mothers themselves. They understand the burden (and joys) of motherhood and are making a conscious decision to prioritize their existing children. I know people who have had abortions, including family members, and I will always recognize that it is an intensely personal choice.
Furthermore, I am a civil rights attorney, and I recognize that the right to an abortion is a fundamental constitutional right. Restrictive laws, like those of Texas and Mississippi, effectively undermine Roe v. Wade and make abortion punishable by law. These laws also have disproportionate impacts by race and class because women seeking an abortion have to take on burdensome costs, including travel expenses, child care expenses and arrangements or missing time on the job, in order to get an abortion out of state. Many low income women just cannot afford to take on these costs, and they have to risk their own health with self-managed abortions or by going through an unwanted pregnancy. As has often been proved, restricting access to abortion does not eliminate abortions; it makes them unsafe.
Here is what North Carolina has put in place to dissuade women from exercising their right to choose and shaming women: pregnancy crisis centers, ultrasound requirements and 72-hour waiting periods. Abortion access is also about reproductive justice and racial equity. Women from marginalized communities get short shrift when it comes to access to safe abortions and to healthcare. We need to expand access to reproductive support and family planning services. We need to fund public health departments. We need to repeal the restriction on public health insurance that keep women from using their insurance for safe abortions. We should allow anyone in our community to choose how and when to start a family.
In promoting reproductive justice, I am committed to advocating for the following:
• Pass the Whole Women’s Health Act, which would eliminate arbitrary restrictions on the right to choose, such as the currently required 72-hour waiting period to get an abortion. This presents an undue burden and obstacle on the constitutional right to choose.
• Increase funding to local public health departments, so each one may provide an OB- GYN and family planning services.
• Protect pregnant workers from discrimination by employers. North Carolina is one of a few states left that provides no protections for pregnant workers against discrimination, outside of federal law.
• Codify the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Roe v. Wade, so the law upholds a pregnant person's constitutional right to an abortion without interference.
I look forward to the opportunity to use my experiences as an ally since childhood, an informed husband, a civil rights lawyer and a candidate endorsed by #VOTEPROCHOICE to ardently support pro-choice in the North Carolina State House.
10. Should North Carolina expand Medicaid? Where do you stand on increasing the number of slots for the Innovations Waiver for special needs individuals?
We must expand Medicaid. Medicaid expansion would add over a half million North Carolinians to needed healthcare coverage. It would add over 37,000 good paying jobs to our state. And it would throw a critical lifeline to rural hospitals at risk of closure. Five rural hospitals have closed since 2013 and dozens more are on the brink. Medicaid expansion would generate nearly $2 billion annually in hospital reimbursements and rural hospitals, in particular, would receive a substantial share of these financial benefits.
In the summer of 2015, I sat next to Reverend Dr. William Barber II during a trial that saw the North Carolina NAACP and the Republican mayor of rural Belhaven – Adam O’Neal – work together to challenge the closure of a nearby hospital. Rural hospitals are at particular risk in North Carolina for closures because a much higher proportion of patients who enter the hospitals are uninsured. Caring for uninsured patients means the hospital must spend scarce resources on a patient who is unable to pay for the critically important healthcare services they receive. As a result, hospitals are placed in a precarious financial position, when caring for a high proportion of uninsured patients. Medicaid expansion would turn many of these uninsured patients into insured patients, meaning that the hospital could recoup the money it spends on the patients through hospital reimbursements from the federal government with no cost to the state.
Even if we successfully expand Medicaid, our work will not be done. We would still need to fight measures that would impose work requirements for those receiving Medicaid coverage. Work requirements ignore the reality in some parts of the state where few jobs exist and the reality that some recipients have disabilities that prevent them from satisfying such requirements.
In short, Medicaid expansion has proven in other states to yield job gains and more importantly, health insurance coverage gains, which have then reduced hospitals’ uncompensated care costs. Medicaid expansion has helped those hospitals stay afloat and has also saved vital jobs in those rural areas.
Furthermore, we need to eliminate the waiting list for the North Carolina Medicaid Innovations Waiver and increase the number of slots immediately. The Innovations Waiver is a federally approved measure intended to help Individuals with Intellectual or Developmental Disabilities (I/DD). These are individuals who prefer long-term care services and support in their home or community, as opposed to receiving services in an institution. We have a crisis on our hands, where our state is not supporting and meeting the needs of more than 15,000 people with intellectual or developmental disabilities. The waitlist for the waiver has 15,000 people on it due to the current, limited number of slots. Many families whose loved ones are on the waitlist have waited more than 10 years for this assistance.
Eliminating this waitlist would mean relieving an unnecessary burden on more than 15,000 families. Currently, these family members must provide financial and physical care in keeping their loved ones out of institutions. This takes a toll on families and cuts off a needed lifeline for their loved ones who need the help. In the 2021-22 Legislative Session, a bill would have added 1,000 slots. Just this month, NC Medicaid received approval to increase its Innovations Waiver by 1,000 slots. However, this is a paltry number compared to the need. A good start is a commitment to adding at least 2,000 new waiver slots per year, as Disability Rights NC has recommended, until the wait list is eliminated.
11. Do you support reforming North Carolina’s marijuana laws? Do you support full legalization? Please explain your position.
Yes, I support legalization of medical and recreational marijuana in North Carolina.
Medical marijuana has been shown to be a safer treatment for chronic pain in adults than some current legal treatments. It also reduces vomiting induced by chemotherapy and can improve outcomes for other health conditions. The majority of the country (37 states) has legalized medical marijuana and there is bipartisan support for it here.
In North Carolina, 22 percent of the state’s population is African American, yet over 50 percent of arrests for marijuana possession involve African Americans. This is in the face of data that indicates that people in every racial category use marijuana at the same rates. Legalization can remove one of the largest racially disproportionate practices our state has and keep many young people out of our justice system, where recidivism becomes increasingly likely.
Legalization and regulation of marijuana would create jobs, eliminate racially-disparate enforcement and promote safe use of marijuana through formal, science-based product testing.
12. Are there any issues this questionnaire has not addressed that you would like to address?
Please see below for my proposals and stances on other important issues facing our state.
Preventing Gun Violence
My plan to reduce gun violence starts with working with the advocates on the ground who, for decades, have told state lawmakers exactly what they need to do. I have spoken at a number of rallies across the state on our need to institute gun safety reforms now. Over the years, one of these advocates endorsing my campaign – Kaaren Haldeman, the former director of the Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense – has consistently informed me on the steps we need to take. Thus, I would advocate for taking the following steps to reduce gun violence:
• Keep pistol purchase permits on the statutory books. Over the past several years, Republican lawmakers have consistently tried to repeal these permits, more recently through HB 398 in the 2021-22 session, which Governor Cooper vetoed. Pistol purchase permits remain one of the few effective methods of gun safety that North Carolina has at its disposal;
• Pass red flag laws that would empower healthcare providers, law enforcement and family members to petition a court to temporarily restrict a person's access to guns when they show warning signs that they are a threat to themselves or others. Rep. Marcia Morey introduced such a bill (HB 525) in the 2021-22, which I strongly support; and
• Pass legislation that would require registration and a purchase permit for long guns and rifles. Currently, no state permit is required even though federally licensed dealers are required to run background checks on potential buyers of long guns. Rep. Julie von Haefen filed a bill (HB 623) in the 2021-22 session, to require such a permit, which I strongly support.
Defending LGBTQ+ Youth
Our LGBTQ+ youth and community have been under attack in recent years through legislation, most notably House Bill 2. We need systems in place to embrace our LGBTQ+ youth and community. Equality NC has laid out good first steps, and I am proud to be endorsed by the Equality NC PAC. I would look forward to working with advocates like Equality NC to provide needed support through the state legislature. With that in mind, here are the following ways in which I would try to create more inclusive spaces and support for our LGBTQ+ youth:
• Advocate for budget allocation for quality educational training programs for school staff, faculty and students on why trans inclusive spaces are important and how to support people of all gender identities;
• Pass House Bill 354, a bill introduced in the 2021 legislative session that I worked on, which would increase the scope of hate crimes to include disability, gender, sexual orientation and gender identity and establish a hate crimes database in the State Bureau of Investigations, among other steps;
• Fight against any efforts to pass “Don’t Say Gay” bills, such as the one recently adopted in Florida. We must be especially vigilant in North Carolina because in the 1990s, our state passed a law that prohibited discussion of same-sex relationships in schools in response to the HIV/AIDS crisis;
• Fight against any efforts to prohibit families and their trans children from using gender affirming medical services; and
• Fight against efforts by GOP leaders to exclude transgender student-athletes from participation in school sports, such as House Bill 358, which would prevent transgender girls and women from competing in school sports.
Supporting Workers
North Carolina must do better to improve workers' conditions and to respect their rights. Hard working North Carolinians should be able to earn a living wage to support themselves and their families. I would look forward to working with workers’ advocates such as the NC State AFL- CIO and SMART Union, and I am proud to have their endorsements. I share with these organizations the commitment to the principle that workers should be able to organize, especially when faced with unfair conditions. North Carolina has the lowest private employer participation in unions of any state in the U.S. As such, I would support the following steps:
• Repeal North Carolina General Statute § 95-98, which would overturn the ban on collective bargaining for public employees;
• Amend the NC Wage and Hour Act to end wage theft. Low-income and immigrant workers are often subject to being underpaid and forced to work “off the clock” without pay and denied overtime;
• Repeal right to work laws, which currently make unions extremely difficult to operate; and
• Pass Senate Bill 598, which was proposed in the 2021 legislative session and would have required employers to give employees at least one paid break of at least 20 minutes. Right now, the North Carolina Wage and Hour Act does not require any rest breaks or meal breaks for employees 16 and older.
Supporting Small Businesses
Small businesses form the backbone of North Carolina’s economy and collectively, the greatest job providers in our state. They generate an excess of $29 billion in exports for North Carolina. Yet, during this pandemic, sorely needed economic relief and other assistance is not reaching every small business that needs it in North Carolina. I would support the following:
• Expand affordable broadband access in our rural communities. Rural communities continue to be at a decided disadvantage due to the lack of broadband access or spotty broadband access. Affordable broadband access will improve job access and support economic development;
• Allocate funding every year to expand Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFIs) across the state. CDFIs can assist historically underutilized businesses (minority- owned) and low-to-moderate income small-business owners with securing capital needed in the startup and growth phases;
• Provide more support (e.g., state ombudsman offices) to assist small businesses with navigating the regulatory framework and overcome compliance challenges. Over time, these can also identify and inform on extraneous and burdensome regulations and how to improve regulations; and
• Increase state funding for Career and Technical Education program to build out the entrepreneurship curriculum at middle and high schools, especially in rural communities.
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Name as it appears on the ballot: Cynthia (Cindy) Sinkez
Campaign website: www.CindySinkez.com
Party Affiliation: Democratic
Profession or Occupation: In November, I resigned from my position as Administrative Assistant for a Raleigh Law Firm so that I could take care of my infant grandchild. Prior to working for Bowens & Averhart, PLLC, I worked for 2 minority-owned businesses in Cary, NC. I formerly worked in tech for a Fortune 500 transportation company.
Years lived in Wake County: 21
1. In your view, what are the three most pressing issues facing Wake County? If elected, what will you do to address these issues?
A. TRANSIT AND AFFORDABLE HOUSING INFRASTRUCTURE: By taking care of the needs of the people who already call Wake County home through continual investments in public education, housing, community services, environmental spaces, and accessibility, we show the world that we have the infrastructure and capacity necessary to continue to grow and welcome both new residents and exciting opportunities. Investing in transit will ensure that the opportunities and benefits of growth are available to a wider population, further enhancing our county’s attractiveness to outside investors and businesses. Creating affordable, accessible, and reliable public transportation should be a concerted, multipronged effort. Envision transportation as a wheel, while education, affordable housing, and renewable energy are spokes. Everything ties into transit. Equitable, intentional affordable housing that is truly an investment in our community requires transit that’s accessible, reliable, clean, and useful so residents can get to work, or visit downtown and community cores including retail areas. Education, particularly higher education, needs transit that makes it easier for students or staff to attend classes, as well as for parents to attend school events.
I believe we need to be smart about transit. The intent should be to increase ridership. That doesn’t necessarily mean more stops but streamlined service that’s timely and consistent. We must create a system people actually want to use and one that doesn’t bring any stigma to its ridership. This means the system has to be useful. Bus Rapid Transit is unrolling in the county; this is a step in the right direction. I believe transit will ultimately be a combination of several different options. I want to investigate the availability of abandoned rail beds for potential point-to-point trolley service. The infrastructure won’t be as expensive as light rail and yet offers timely public transit.
Investing in transit is an important way to address environmental justice. Affordable, reliable transit is key to accessing healthy food, especially in food deserts. Covered bus shelters and sidewalks enhance neighborhood safety and walkability, making healthier residents. Transportation should include creative ways to reduce our carbon footprint while encouraging the use of renewable energy. I want to transition Wake’s fleet to electric vehicles.
B. FUNDING PUBLIC EDUCATION: I am committed to investing in public education and supporting both our teachers and students so that they can thrive in an inclusive, inspiring environment. The largest portion of Wake County’s budget is allocated to public education. The role of the County Commission in terms of public education has and should continue to be one that supports the needs of our public education system not just through budgetary funding, but also by being staunch advocates for our school system in the face of tightened restrictions and funding cutbacks from the NC Legislature. Accordingly, the real issue is that the General Assembly is not properly funding our schools. The county will need to continue supplementing the WCPSS budget. Wake County spends 57% of its budget on education. This funding will continue because education is a priority to the Wake County Commissioners. It’s also a funding priority for me. The General Assembly needs to step up and make education a priority.
NC’s Constitution states students have the right to a sound basic education. Today that education looks different from a few years ago. The pandemic made us acutely aware students need access to technology and broadband internet. There is a tremendous need for additional school nurses, psychologists, and counselors and to increase the base pay for teachers and support personnel. Teachers deserve to be treated with respect for the professionals they are. We don’t ask librarians to provide books for libraries; we shouldn’t ask science teachers to provide beakers. We must compensate teachers for their years of experience and additional degrees pursued. They work countless hours for pay that isn’t keeping pace with the growing economy and housing market in Wake County. Our children benefit the most learning from experienced, prepared, happy teachers. Our community is the long-term beneficiary of investments government makes into schools because a well-educated citizenry means a larger talent pool of employees, as well as a greater incentive for recruiting both great companies and other talented individuals to move into the area. Moreover, investing in our children is the moral thing to do.
I believe that the County Commissioners need to continue to do what they can to help erase the deficit that the State has not filled. This means I will have an open-door policy when it comes to meeting with and visiting our schools, administrators, staff, teachers, and parents. The best way to truly understand the needs of WCPSS is by interacting with the people who are a part of it. Our students, teachers, and support staff are worth the investment.
C. PROTECTING OUR ENVIRONMENT: Protecting the environment through parks, open space, and agricultural lands needs to continue to be a priority in the county. Ensuring clean air and drinking water is the bare minimum. The health of our residents is dependent upon development decisions being made now. I will make certain that all future projects make use of renewable energy, by being equipped for solar power on physical buildings, and make certain that the County follows the proposed goal of 100% renewable energy by 2030. My personal goal would be to meet this ultimate benchmark sooner. We only have one beautiful, precious Earth; there is no Planet B.
There are groups of people who are more vulnerable to the effects of pollution due to their proximity to toxins, which is a result of racism and redlining. Those who have been marginalized are often exposed to more toxins than other people. That said, I’m committed to environmental justice work in my role as a County Commissioner. We should be asking how every policy we plan to enact will affect not just the environment, but the people who live in these environments.
Climate change is real. We should all do our part to address it, and pledging not to accept money from fossil fuel executives or their PACs is one of the ways I’m standing up and fighting back on behalf of our environment.
2. With Wake County’s rapid growth comes challenges related to suburban sprawl, transportation, and affordable housing. What have been the county’s successes in managing this growth in recent years? What about its failures? What would you do differently?
Wake County continues to grow, being an economic force that attracts large corporations and is an incubator for small businesses alike. In recent years, the Raleigh-Durham area has consistently ranked the second-best place to live by US News & World Report as well as Livability. A record-breaking 173,000 new businesses were formed in Wake County in 2021. 96,000 of these new businesses were formed from January to the end of June. This was an 80% increase from the previous year. However, Wake County is suffering growing pains with regard to transit, affordable housing, and school funding. Our roadways are overcrowded, causing longer commute times to get to work. Our infrastructure needs continue to outpace the growing corporate population and we can’t continue to place housing needs on the backburner. Long commutes and high home prices have been sold to us as the consequences of being a desirable place to live, but they don’t have to be.
Wake County has an affordable housing problem. It will take working with the municipalities, nonprofits, and government agencies to address this issue. Transportation is going to be a key issue with regard to affordable housing. We will need to address both issues simultaneously in order to effect meaningful, lasting change.
First-time homeowners, the workforce, low-income earners, and the homeless all need housing that’s affordable to them. Some people believe that affordable housing means low apartment rents and the need to build higher for more density. Some people believe that affordable housing means that those employed as teachers, EMS, fire, and police should be able to live and work in the same area. Affordable housing to someone looking to purchase a home often means housing that costs under $300,000. I believe all of these are affordable housing needs. I don’t want to see any municipality in Wake County have the mantra of “you are good enough to work here but not good enough to live here.”
Due to laws passed by the Legislature, municipalities have fewer options to entice lower home costs in our area. Commissioners have added a lot of new affordable housing options. County and local governments must collaborate to address affordable housing within the confines of the laws. Municipalities need to work with builders and developers to ensure there are more affordable options available. Preserving existing affordable housing isn’t easy. Developers have purchased land in large swaths, tearing down existing homes, and replacing them with more expensive ones. They’ve acted similarly when it comes to purchasing farmland and redeveloping the area to build subdivisions throughout what used to be the rural portions of Wake. Rezoning laws can address some of this but if rebuilding fits the current zoning laws then municipalities need to address affordable housing elsewhere. As Commissioner, I’ll support current initiatives, like the Veterans Plan to address homelessness, and develop ways to expand affordable housing.
Former Wake County Commissioner Jessica Holmes had a brilliant idea when she ran for the Commission and it needs to be pursued. She proposed using the school system’s surplus property as a location to build affordable housing. This boosts diversity without the stigma and issues of bussing. Placing affordable housing near public schools helps balance the system by giving more students the opportunity to attend those schools and placing them in areas where transit is available. Today, Wake County, like so many others, is faced with an affordable housing deficit. Offering this land to nonprofits like Habitat for Humanity is a step in the right direction. We need to get the community involved in this process and support an affordable housing committee that would help us find creative solutions like this to address our issues.
Keeping in mind that many people either can not or are struggling to afford the current property taxes, I do support higher pay for our school teachers and personnel, as well as living wages for County Employees. The most powerful tool of a County Commissioner is the budget. Budgets should reflect a community’s values and priorities. What we fund matters. As budgets are a balancing act, it means Commissioners must balance the needs of the County with the costs to our residents for these services. Carteret County has the lowest property tax at .33% for $100 of valuation and Scotland County has the highest at 1% for $100 of valuation. Wake County is somewhere on the lower end at .6% for $100 of valuation. That makes living in Wake County a good value and a great steward of our resources. That said, the County should always prioritize equity in its taxing decisions and should ensure marginalized folks are not being displaced by increasing property tax values.
3. What should be the county’s role in addressing issues of economic inequality, such as gentrification and affordable housing? Do you believe the current board is doing enough to help its municipalities manage Wake County’s growth in order to prevent current residents from being priced out?
I believe that Wake County can do a better job of including diverse groups of individuals in the decision-making process. This means taking the issues to them and ensuring that they are part of the discussion. We must go to where the people are. I propose that we rotate around the County with a listening tour, giving people the opportunity to speak with us and work together to create a collaborative community.
The practice of redlining has disproportionately affected minorities and historically marginalized communities. The Holly Springs Landfill is a good example of this. When the landfill was planned and developed, the surrounding areas were generally populated by socioeconomically disadvantaged people in redlined communities. Today, with the population growth in Holly Springs and the surrounding areas, the landfill affects many people. There is an odor issue with the landfill that must be addressed. This is a quality of life issue, as well as an air and potentially a water quality issue. By taking a hard look at this landfill and discussing its future with the County Commissioners, I hope to address all of these issues together.
Perhaps more critically though, we should continue to examine wage and pay structures in Wake County and at the state level. I believe in equal pay for equal work, which is why I’ve long been an outspoken activist fighting for the passage of the Equal Rights Amendment. I also believe in paying folks a living wage, not just some arbitrary minimum wage that has not been adjusted in decades. The County passed policies regarding wages a couple of cycles ago. This is work that must be perpetually done to ensure folks aren’t being priced out of their homes.
Over the last year, billionaires got $5 trillion richer. It’s abhorrent. It’s unacceptable, especially as folks are homeless or houseless, our Legislature is debating whether or not to fund free student breakfast and lunch programs, and people cannot afford medical treatment for very real illnesses—and that’s on top of living through what is still a global pandemic.
A livable wage ensures we’re prioritizing equity and looking forward to a future where folks don’t have to struggle to afford the absolute bare minimum necessities just to survive. This goes hand in hand with ensuring there is an adequate supply of high-quality, affordable housing available; safe and walkable communities where neighborhoods and children are free to enjoy their surroundings; a robust, accessible, and reliable public transit system; a reformed justice system where we’ve reimagined policing and prioritized community wellness or services that ensure folks have better options available to them; as well as strong public schools and great job opportunities no matter what zip code someone calls home. We want Wake County residents to thrive, which isn’t possible if they are worried about where their next meal is coming from or if they can afford to go to the doctor for a checkup or if gentrification is going to mean they can’t continue to live in a place they’ve always called “home.”
Despite having formerly served as my HOA President, I chose not to seek the endorsement of the Realtors Association this cycle. I felt that their focus on increasing unfettered homebuilding capacity and lobbying for reduced restrictions on both buying 6 Cindy Sinkez Questionnaire and selling homes was not in alignment with my values. It’s time to put people before profits, especially the unchecked profits many realtors and home buying companies are experiencing right now while many of our county’s residents struggle to pay ever-increasing rents. Affordable housing and increased capacity in our urban cores are vitally important to seeing additional investments being made in a robust, accessible, affordable, and reliable public transit sector. I’m displeased by the perpetual displacement and gentrification of neighborhoods in order for realtors and private companies to line their pocketbooks.
Equity and inclusion are important facets of who I am. I know there is power and strength in building a more just and inclusive world.
4. The Wake County Public School system is asking for a $56 million budget increase next year to hire more employees and raise teacher pay. Given the General Assembly’s longstanding reticence to adequately fund public schools, does this seem like a reasonable request to you?
I believe that the current budget from the General Assembly falls woefully short of meeting the needs of our public school students. Students have the right to a sound education under the NC State Constitution and I believe that the state needs to do more to meet the Constitutional rights of our students.
I believe that teachers are rock stars and should be compensated like the professionals that they are. We should pay teachers for their years of experience and any additional degrees they have pursued. Our children are the ones who benefit the most learning from experienced, prepared, and happy teachers. Our community is also the long-term beneficiary of investments the government makes into a strong educational system because a well-educated citizenry means there is a larger talent pool of employees, as well as a greater incentive to use for recruiting both excellent companies and other talented individuals to move into the county. Moreover, investing in our children is the moral thing–the right thing–to do.
I also believe that more school nurses, social workers, and psychologists are needed on staff. I’ve heard of many teachers, especially since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, who have experienced burnout as more demands are placed on them with little hope for relief. Teachers are experiencing overcrowded classrooms, a lack of available assistants, decreases in planning time, more restrictions being placed on their leave time or days off, and other burdens that reduce the energy and joy they once had to bring to their work. In addition to what the State Budget lacks, the Legislature attempting to impose additional restrictions around the Governor being able to institute future school mask mandates, and many Legislators refusing to acknowledge the danger that both teachers and children are still facing as a result of this virus puts our educators at an increased risk. Teachers and public school staff have been left with little to no recourse for addressing COVID spread in their classrooms or if they are unfortunate enough to end up with Long COVID as a result of lessened restrictions around masking and other mitigation measures. Teachers should not have to risk their lives in order to do their jobs. That is asking too much and should be seen as yet another indication of the disrespect some politicians have towards our educators.
Additionally, it is clear that there is a proven need for funding for capital improvements and I will support increased funding to assist in getting projects underway. Students and faculty need to know facilities are safe, clean, dependable environments that support learning and effective instruction. Children nor adults can be expected to focus if there isn’t heat in a classroom, there aren’t enough tables and chairs in a lunchroom, or libraries don’t have access to superior resources for student success. The pandemic has taught us the need to make sound investments in virtual instructional technology and broadband connectivity to ensure our students can succeed in any environment at any time. It’s critically important to ensure proper compliance with the ADA; no students or faculty should experience undue burdens in accessing facilities or technology or any other resources necessary for success.
In short, I do not believe that the current State budget provides adequate compensation to recruit and retain talented staff. Our Wake County Commissioners need to continue to do what they can to help erase the deficit that the State created while persisting to pressure Legislators to fulfill their obligation to our children.
5. Wake County has received $216 million from the American Rescue Plan and so far has allocated about half of those funds. Has the county done a good job investing that money into its COVID-19 response, healthcare, housing, public safety, and other community initiatives? What would you like to see the county do with the remainder of those funds?
To date, Wake County has used ARPA funding for the public health response to the pandemic. This includes testing and vaccinations. The County Commissioners issued a community survey and received almost 30,000 responses about how to prioritize the distribution of ARPA money. The Wake County Commissioners created a committee and used the survey responses as the guidelines for distributing ARPA funds. Most of the survey responses focused on public health, housing, and educational non-profits. About 20 million dollars of ARPA money was distributed to non-profits. There are 71 non-profits that are receiving funding from ARPA; this includes the Boys and Girls Clubs. About 10 million dollars was sent to Bridge To Home, which provides services to help people to get into permanent housing. I believe the intent of ARPA funding is to be used to enhance financial stability, cover temporary shortfalls, rebuild reserves, and maintain vital public health services.
I would like to see any additional ARPA funds go towards supporting mental health needs in Wake County. While the County can not own or build a mental health facility, it can use some of the funding for the purpose of supporting vital health services. Wake County will need to keep a significant amount of ARPA funding in reserves. Daycare is a tremendous issue for most families of young children. The cost of childcare often makes the determination of parents’ work schedules and opportunities. I would like to see ARPA funds go to assisting families with this costly burden. I can personally attest the pandemic is not over as I was recently diagnosed with a breakthrough case despite having been fully vaccinated, boosted, and continuing to wear my mask often. We must be prepared to respond in the future if needed.
Applying funds to existing programs that support our collective health and wellness, as well as helping the community, are the best uses of future ARPA funds. Bridge to Rent is another great program that should have ARPA funding; this assists our displaced renters. The program offers vouchers to renters and incentives to rental agencies. This is a great opportunity to assist our community in their time of need. Helping people is the best use of ARPA funds.
6. How would your experience―in politics or otherwise in your career―make you an asset to the county’s decision-making process? Be specific about how this experience would relate to your prospective office.
For the past 20 years, I have been working and volunteering in Wake County. I have a background working for and with major nonprofits, as well as in tech for a Fortune 500 transportation company, CSX, which makes me uniquely qualified to reimagine how public transit could advance in our county. I believe access to transit is connected to our way of life. Transportation affects our education system, carbon footprint, health, economy, and housing infrastructure.
I’m also the President of and a percussionist in the Cary Town Band, as well as a highly engaged member of political and civic organizations in Wake County. I am the Past President of the Downtown Cary Children’s Museum and The Reserve HOA. I was twice nominated as Cary’s Hometown Spirit Award nominee (one nomination was from the committee itself), won Cary’s volunteer group of the year, served on Cary’s Citizen Issue Review Commission, and was a Institute of Political Leadership (IOPL) fellow. I ran for Cary Town Council in 2009 against an incumbent. I have been a member of the Wake County Democratic Party’s County Executive Committee, the North Carolina Democratic Party’s State Executive Committee, and the chair of my precinct for many years. I have taken a leave of absence from most of those roles so that I can run for Wake County Commissioner.
I have spent most of my adult life supporting public schools and fighting for our students and teachers so our children may receive the education they deserve. I’ve been PTSA President at Mills Park Middle School; school advisory council chair; Band Boosters President at Salem Middle School and Mills Park Middle School; Panther Creek High School Band Boosters fundraising chair, 3rd VP, and Panther Creek Invitational Committee member; and dubbed classroom mom to multiple classes at High Croft Drive Elementary School. I don’t shy away from any task. For example, I was asked to raise money so students could attend a band competition out of state. I wanted every eligible child to attend, so I created several ways to fund the trip. Students have since attended this competition for many years.
Another illustrative example of how hard I’ll fight for what is right and what is fair is when I organized around addressing crowded classrooms and student outcomes. Panther Creek High School was very overcrowded and my children were having class in the library with 3 other classes, or in the gym where they didn’t have access to the needed materials for their class, or in the auditorium with up to 5 classes at a time. The mobile classrooms were installed but the students were unable to use them because there was an issue with the Certificate of Occupancy. I stood in the halls at Meet the Teacher Night and handed every parent in attendance the phone number and email address of all the elected officials who had any say in getting the Certificate of Occupancy approved. These elected officials received so many emails that the server shut down and we overloaded their voicemails. It was a short time later that the permit was approved and the students were able to learn in classrooms that were set up for their needs. This is the exact same energy I will bring to the Wake County Board of Commissioners. My determination to right wrongs and assist the teachers, parents, and employees has never wavered. My determination to advocate for our students has never waned.
I have also spoken at WCPSS School Board Meetings around reassignment plans in Western Cary and in regards to year-round schools. Additionally, I have attended NCAE advocacy days at the NC General Assembly and Wear Red for Ed events.
I hope it’s clear that my experience is vast, but I want to tie it all together and extrapolate the soft skills that came from these very tangible experiences. As an IOPL Fellow, I learned about working with those whom you disagree with. As a graduate of the Cary School of Government (currently referred to as “Cary 101”), I learned the value of municipal government and what all it entails. As President of the PTSA, I learned the value of leadership and being a team player. My Presidency with Democratic Women of Wake County and my local-level political organizing work gave me a countywide view of government and introduced me to many of the policy makers, along with a network of community advocates. When I was appointed to the Cary Citizen Issue and Review Committee, I learned about how to connect constituents with the decision makers. As President of the Reserve Homeowners Association, I learned how to successfully negotiate contracts and assist my neighbors. All of these experiences combined make me the well-rounded candidate that I am so that I could truly understand the benefit of public-private partnerships which will assist me in stewarding collaborative opportunities for various projects to succeed in Wake County.
Most importantly though is my lived experience. I know what it is to struggle with familial healthcare challenges and disabilities. I am also a proud mother to 3 children who graduated from our public schools, a caregiver for my beloved new granddaughter, a loving wife, a champion for the Equal Rights Amendment, and an active volunteer with organizations that make our community stronger. Above all, I am a staunch believer in people.
7. North Carolina is a “Dillon Rule” state, meaning that the only powers municipal and county governments have are the ones granted to them by the legislature. Would you like to see this changed? How would you work with state legislators from Wake County, as well as mayors and council members from the city’s municipalities, to ensure that Wake County, its municipalities, and the state are on the same page regarding policies that affect residents of Wake?
In Dillion Rule jurisdictions, the state must grant or delegate authority to local governments in order for them to pass or adopt particular policies. This also means that the state can essentially tie the hands of municipalities in passing laws or local-level ordinances which better reflect the values of the citizens who live there. The state does this by invalidating any policies adopted locally that the state has not granted authority for a local level of government to pass. These preemption laws undermine the authority of local government.
When Dorothea Dix closed, it left very few beds available to serve the mental health needs in Wake County. Dillion Rule tied the hands of Wake County Commissioners in response to this crisis. Wake County can not build a mental health facility due to state restrictions. Because of Dillion Rule, Wake County can not decide to increase the tax base by .01% and give that money directly to education. More Dillon Rule restrictions include the inability to initiate a homestead rule. Wake County’s unincorporated areas used to have the strictest building codes with regards to septic systems. These restrictions were in place to protect the environment. Now Wake County can not have septic rules that are more stringent than the state. Dillion Rule doesn’t allow local communities to govern in a manner that best fits the needs of its residents.
Cary had a reputation for being a tree-friendly town. Dillion Rule removed the local government’s ability to preserve its natural tree lines with regard to new construction. Local governments are arguably more connected to the needs of their unique community and therefore can pass policies that better reflect the values and needs of their citizens if not for this stringent policy imposed by the Legislature in what can essentially be deemed the ultimate power move.
I would work with Legislators to restore the ability for local municipalities to have more control over the services and needs their residents are requesting. Restricting local governments undermines democracy. When a community comes together to pass laws that are appropriate to them, the state government overturning those laws undermines the community and the utility of local governance. It is not hard to imagine how this can erode faith in politics and make voters apathetic in the long run if they rarely witness meaningful progress being made in their hometowns.
8. Is the county doing enough to protect, preserve, and maintain its natural resources, including parks, waterways, and green spaces?
I believe there is always room for improvement. Utilizing smart growth ideas, we can look to continue to build neighborhoods that are bikeable and walkable, pedestrian-friendly communities with access to public transit, healthy groceries, and work, along with mixed land use and a range of housing opportunities. Other concepts of environmentally responsible development and land use planning include farmland, open space, parks, and critical environmental areas. Preserving our tree canopy is one facet of this. Planting native trees and shrubs should be part of every development. We need to protect our waterways by being conscious of the effects of runoff containing pesticides and chemicals. Sidewalks make neighborhoods safer places to walk and help build a sense of community if folks can travel freely about. Covered bus shelters ensure folks are protected while waiting for rides. I believe all people have the right to live in an environment that’s healthy, walkable, accessible–especially for disabled folks, clean, and affordable.
The Wake County Commissioners have set a goal of 100% clean and renewable energy use by 2050. The Governor has signed a bill that supports this. I would make sure that all of the projects that come before the County Commissioners take a look at renewable energy as they are being planned. In order for us to make this goal a reality, we will need to keep an eye on ways to reduce emissions and include renewable energy along the way.
Protecting our drinking water and addressing climate change through the goal of 100% renewable energy use in the public areas of Wake County is a priority. Supporting our agricultural spaces by funding the work of the Wake Soil and Water Conservation District, which is now officially a county department, is also critical to ensuring we work with both public and private landowners to advance water quality and reduce runoff and erosion that affects the entire water supply for the county. Utilizing renewable energy, especially solar, and installing high-performance windows to reduce the need for artificial lighting while increasing energy efficiency are additional examples of environmentally responsible development. We should be looking at solar installations not just on new construction, but also in established open spaces, as well as on school grounds, parks, and public libraries.
At the end of March, President Biden issued a directive to strengthen the nation’s clean energy economy. He moved that the Defense Production Act could be utilized to secure American supply chains for batteries and other materials that go into both electric vehicles and storage of renewable energy sources. This should have happened sooner, but we must keep working towards progress. The IPCC report practically yells out the dire consequences we all will face if we do not immediately correct course.
Transportation is an important part of addressing environmental justice concerns. I want to fight for transitioning Wake County’s vehicle fleet to electric vehicles. A recent Lung Association report found that North Carolina could avoid 3,210 deaths, along with 79,100 asthma attacks, and $35.3 billion in public health spending over the next 30 years by transitioning to 100% electric vehicles. The same report found that the state would avoid over 387,000 lost workdays over the same period if we made the switch to EVs. While this is statewide data, it’s clear car-centric metros such as Wake County would benefit from reduced smog and pollution that comes with fossil fuel-powered vehicles, which would have the added benefit of enhancing quality of life for our community.
Additionally, I recently signed the “No Toxic Money” pledge, which reads: “I will take no money or gifts from Duke Energy, Dominion Energy, or their affiliates, including from their Political Action Committees (PAC), lobbyists, and executives. In addition, I support a moratorium on all of their new fossil fuel infrastructure projects.”
Climate change is real. We should all do our part to address it, and this is one of the ways I’m standing up and fighting back on behalf of our environment. Not only is taking climate action the moral thing to do, but I see it as my responsibility as a mother, a grandmother, and as a candidate with a platform to use to speak up and speak out on an issue that affects each and every one of us.
As a County Commissioner, I will be our county’s first line of defense in standing up and speaking out on behalf of our quality of life. I will advocate for sound, environmentally friendly policies and work with our Legislative delegation to ensure laws are made that support moving us into a greener future. The time to act is now. Let’s not waste our moment.
9. Identify and explain one principled stand you would be willing to take if elected that you suspect might cost you some points with voters.
While I believe that a well-rounded education includes learning to discuss topics from multiple points of view, what is currently happening with these attacks on curricular content—from so-called Critical Race Theory to the banning of LGBTQ+ inclusive library books—in our schools is a calculated, well-organized attempt at obscuring the truth and allowing a particular political agenda to dominate what our children learn. When I was in school, I joined the debate team. It was an enlightening experience on how to discuss topics and learn from others. History in its very essence is both good and bad. We must have our students learn about all of it in order for them to truly understand our past and our future. Not teaching about all of history does not mean that those events did not occur. Whitewashing history does no favors to anyone, let alone the minds of our future leaders of society.
I also want to be clear that it is a disservice to all students to purposely deny them the ability to think critically about very serious and meaningful moments throughout history, to derive and examine deeper contextual meanings from literature, to question the motivations of artists and poets alike, and to synthesize the symbolism inherent in the words of political and civic leaders. It is particularly troublesome that many of the discussions around tightly contriving and controlling curricular content intentionally seeks to limit the exposure of students to Black, Brown, and Indigenous history, as well as to LGBTQ+ history. Students–especially those from these historically marginalized groups–deserve to know their history, to be taught information relevant to their own lived experiences, and to see themselves reflected in the curriculum. How else can we inspire and inform our children if they never learn about anyone who looks like them? What does removing these diverse voices and experiences from the curriculum teach all of our children?
Additionally, I have refused to accept money from donors whose values do not align with my own; recently, I was on the phone with a neighbor during fundraising call time when he brought up his thoughts regarding Critical Race Theory and Trans children. I promptly informed him where I stood when it came to protecting trans kids at all costs and supporting Black lives as we do not restrict what teachers are allowed to teach in their classrooms, especially when they are educating our children about the truth of this country’s history.
10. What sets you apart from the other candidate(s) in this race?
I consider myself politically Progressive and I recently received the endorsement of the Progressive Caucus of the North Carolina Democratic Party in this race. I may not have always known I was a progressive, but as I’ve watched so-called political leaders and governments trample upon the rights of the already marginalized members of society in the past few years–when things should have been getting better and brighter in the world–it became crystal clear to me. Whether I’m attending Moral Monday Marches and listening to Rev. Barber rally our collective power to fight back against gerrymandering or attacks on Black and Brown bodies or on our LGBTQ+ friends or whether I’m marching with teachers to fight for living wages, I know where I stand. My dear friend, the late Ron Sanyal, used to say, “the sun rises equally for all.” I live this every day. I believe it to my very core. As I tell my infant granddaughter, “Love who you love, be true to yourself, and I will stand beside you when you need someone to walk with you.” I am here as a staunch ally for the LGBTQ+ and BIPOC community, for our immigrant friends, for the homeless and housing insecure, for women everywhere fighting for reproductive justice and passage of the ERA, for those needing access to healthcare and mental health treatment, and the working class. I have a voice. I have privilege. I’m going to use both for good.
It is my belief that everyone benefits from a more diverse and representative government. I would encourage members of diverse communities to apply to be on Boards and Commissions both countywide and in their municipalities. I will ensure that information is easily accessible and available about how to apply for those positions. I am also interested in establishing an internship program to support minority, LGBTQ+, disabled, and nontraditional students who wish to learn more about county government or political campaigns. I will continue to attend events and build relationships in the diverse and marginalized communities and neighborhoods throughout the county in order to expand my awareness of issues directly impacting folks and will seek advice in developing policy affecting the community from people who are a part of that community of interest.
Equity and inclusion mean to me that we don’t just ask people to attend the dance, we ask them to dance and give them every tool necessary to ensure they can participate without facing undue burdens. We include them in the discussions that directly affect them. This can start with the appointments to our current boards and commissions, where there is an opportunity to put power back in the hands of people as we build more inclusive and diverse pipelines for community leadership. Finding workable, lasting solutions to our problems–both big and small–requires more than one perspective. Oftentimes in government, we see the same type of people holding power and imposing their perspective on everyone’s situation. What we all would benefit from is the lived experiences of folks who look and think differently than the people who have always been in power, but that requires empowering folks who have traditionally felt unwelcome in these spaces. That’s work I’m committed to doing because I think that’s a legacy that would endure and make far more of a difference in our community in the long run than a single policy change or line item in our budget could in one term.
Most importantly, I won’t just disappear from attending community events once I’m elected. I’ll keep showing up. I will continue to be an advocate for and stay involved with causes to encourage people to vote, volunteer, and get engaged with countywide events. I want to foster an atmosphere of collaboration between my office and the community in order to perpetuate a dialogue so that together, we may bring awareness to the unique issues faced by the most impacted communities when it comes to the policy and funding decisions made by the Board of Commissioners. There is power in organizing. There is power in our collective action. Simply put, my door will be open and I’ll always be ready to listen.
It is my belief that this campaign for Wake County Commissioner is about each of us growing and thriving together in a community that we're proud to call home. I'm confident I'm the best candidate to help us invest in the promise of our collective whole through nurturing and tending to the parts that make us whole–from ensuring great public schools which support both our teachers and our students; to designing and funding public transit that is accessible and affordable and reliable; to enhancing veterans’ services; to protecting our environmental services and natural resources, including our special agricultural spaces. The use of a shade tree in my campaign logo has significance. There is this really beautiful quote attributed to a man named Nelson Henderson that embodies the type of leader I promise to be. He said, “The true meaning of life is to plant trees, under whose shade you do not expect to sit.” This election is about more than just whatever we will accomplish together in one term; it’s about creating a legacy of thoughtful policy and progress that will endure for generations.
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Name as it appears on the ballot: Clarence Birkhead
Campaign website: birkheadfordurham.com
Party affiliation: Democrat
Years lived in Durham County: 34
1. What do you believe are the most important issues facing the Sheriff’s Office? What are your top three priorities in addressing these issues?
The top three issues facing Durham are:
- Violent crime
- Lack of equitable access to good-paying jobs
- The mass exodus of qualified (government) employees
1) My strategy for addressing violent crime is based on a targeted enforcement approach. I will continue to work with state, federal, and local agencies to identify and apprehend the most violent offenders in Durham. We must hold these individuals accountable for their actions – actions that continue to destroy the quality of life in our most marginalized neighborhoods. To that end, I have:
- Created the Strike Team (like a tactical team) that works with our regional partners, identifying offenders who commit crimes across county boundaries.
- Created the Sheriff’s Targeted Enforcement Program (STEP) that focuses on being responsive to complaints and concerns presented by Durham residents and developed from local intelligence-sharing with Durham Police.
- Partnered with local, regional, and federal partners to address crime in Durham County and along the I-85/I-40 corridor.
2) As Sheriff, I encourage business owners to hire people who were formerly incarcerated. A second chance can provide residents with a life-changing opportunity to earn a living. A job is the quickest way to exit a life of crime and reduce recidivism.
3) Durham County Sheriff’s Office (DCSO) must do a better job compensating employees. As the sixth-largest county in North Carolina, salary is among the lowest for deputies and detention officers. On average, one DCSO employee is lost per month to other Triangle-based law enforcement agencies paying up to 20% more.
2. What in your record as a public official or other experience demonstrates your ability to be an effective county sheriff? This might include career or community service; be specific about its relevance to this office.
My first term as Durham County Sheriff has given me a first-hand perspective on the ongoing challenges facing Durham and I have made plans to continue addressing them. With nearly four decades of diverse law enforcement experience, I am well qualified to continue to serve. I have:
- Vast knowledge of how local government works
- A clear understanding of how the Office of the Sheriff operates as a constitutional office, and what it means to be a servant leader
- The formal education, life experiences, and leadership skills needed to direct more than 450 employees
- Community service throughout the Durham community over the past 34 years which provides the foundation for community engagement and community collaboration in addressing public safety concerns
3. If you are challenging an incumbent, what decisions has the incumbent made that you most disagree with? If you are an incumbent, what in your record and experience do you believe entitles you to another term?
Although I am the incumbent, I don’t believe anyone is “entitled” to another term. I ask voters to review my record as Durham County Sheriff and choose the best candidate to become the Democratic nominee in the 2022 primary election. My first-term achievements include the following:
- Actively engaged in the fight for criminal justice reform. Being the first black Sheriff of Durham County gives me a unique viewpoint. I’m honored to serve on Governor Cooper’s Task Force for Racial Equity in Criminal Justice to use my perspective to affect positive change.
- Drugs and guns are deteriorating the rich fabric of the black and brown communities of Durham City and County. I’ve increased efforts to rid our communities of drugs and remove guns from our neighborhoods. I’ve developed a regional strike team of highly trained Sheriff’s deputies cooperating across four counties to carry out high-risk operations to remove violent offenders from our streets. We’re making progress. There is still much to do.
- Implemented the Sheriff’s Targeted Enforcement Program (STEP) to address quality of life concerns in our community regarding public safety, gun violence and criminal activity
- Advanced technology like body-worn cameras (BWC) and in-car dash cameras ensure accurate portrayals of interactions between law enforcement and the community and increase transparency and accountability. The cameras are being issued to all deputies, school resource officers (SROs), and eventually to detention officers. Further, additional benefits include:
- Improving evidence collection
- Gathering the evidence to corroborate or dismiss accounts of an interaction
- Strengthening trust between law enforcement and the community
- De-escalating conflicts
- Fewer complaints were lodged against officers relative to officers without BWCs
- A higher number of citizen complaints resolved in citizens’ favor
- Training opportunities
- In service to the residents of Durham County, under my leadership, DCSO properly trains deputies and detention officers as public servants and guardians of the peace. Training includes:
- A model policy on use-of-force
- A policy on an officer’s duty to intervene
- De-escalation training
- Body-worn cameras and in-car dash cameras
- Crisis intervention training (CIT)
- Ongoing training as best practices evolve [Add Fair and Justice Police Training]
- Banned by policy “no-knock warrants”
- Implemented all aspects of “8 Can’t Wait”
- Rejected ICE detainers without a judicial warrant or a Notice to Appear; detainers target marginalized communities
- Signed on to Faith ID program
- A focus on appropriate and humane ways to care for detainees including medication-assisted treatment (MAT) for substance abuse, 24/7 mental health care, peer support and transition services, mental health treatment and programming for all women, and implementation of the male mental health pod.
- Improvements to communications for detainees, increasing and encouraging detainees to retain or add family connections to support re-integration and decrease recidivism by reducing phone rates and implementing a communications program with emails, video visits
- Engaging the community with the help of established leaders and dedicated community groups like Partners Against Crime (PAC), local advocacy groups, and regular meetings with the Black and Hispanic/Latinx communities, religious leaders, and the business community.
- The creation of the first-ever Citizens Advisory Board (CAB) has 27 members and offers citizens the opportunity to communicate with the Sheriff about their community concerns during quarterly meetings.
- Under my leadership, the DCSO has earned the “Triple Crown” of accreditations: Commission on Accreditation of Law Enforcement Agencies (CALEA), American Correctional Association (ACA), and the National Commission on Correctional Health Care (NCCHC). Most of the work behind this achievement took place during the pandemic.
4. Durham has seen a record number of homicides and shootings over the past few years (and is on track to break another record again this year), with local officials and law enforcement seemingly unable to successfully address it. What needs to be done about gun violence in Durham? What role does the sheriff, who is elected by voters who live within city limits, have in addressing it?
A multi-pronged approach is required to address the proliferation of firearms, reduce gun violence, and address gun trafficking in our region and throughout the I-85/I-95/I-40 corridor. The Sheriff’s Targeted Enforcement Program (STEP) allows deputies and investigators to be laser-focused on apprehending and holding accountable those who commit gun violence and drug crimes. This targeted approach to violent offenders has been successful.
Additionally, I will continue DCSO’s regional approach, working with our local, state, and federal partners in fighting gun crimes and the flow of guns coming into our community.
Further, I am working with several state legislators to strengthen gun laws, ban “ghost guns,” which are untraceable and unregulated, and pass “red flag” laws that would allow for the temporary removal of guns from persons found to be a danger to themselves or others.
I support universal background checks and sensible gun ownership.
I’m proud to announce that DSCSO’s first gun buyback program, which took place on April 9, was successful. The program was held in partnership with the judiciary and a faith-based organization and there are plans to do additional gun buyback programs in the future.
Over the years through my work in the community, I developed relationships with people involved with gangs, as well as those working to reduce gang activity. I use these relationships to help facilitate conversations with current and former gang members to address gun violence. Other community leaders and elected officials are engaging in similar conversations. Our collective work and collaborations are leading to a better understanding of why young people in Durham join gangs and why they stay.
Now is time for the entire community to focus on addressing the social and economic causes that underlie gang activity, gang participation, and gun violence.
Creating opportunities for young men and women to provide for themselves and for their families, by providing access to good-paying jobs, access to vocational training, and establishing a robust training and job placement initiative is imperative to the community.
I am mindful that gun violence, shootings, and violent crime occurs outside of gangs, too. To address the proliferation of drugs, I am laser-focused on the apprehension and prosecution of those individuals committing crimes. These crimes are closely related to social and economic issues underlying criminal activity in the community – such as substance use disorder, domestic violence, and mental health disorders.
5. Would you support the creation of a civilian review board to review use-of-force incidents by sheriff’s deputies and recommend reforms to make the sheriff’s office more accountable to residents?
No, I do not support the creation of an independent review board. The Office of the Sheriff is bound by the Constitution and state law, which prohibit the Sheriff from delegating any constitutional and statutory duties and authorities.
However, I have created a Community Advisory Board (CAB) to solicit input from the community, a first in North Carolina. In CAB meetings, I discuss policies, programs and, answer community questions about specific incidents, events and crimes to the extent permitted by law.
6. In a recent survey of 947 residents of Durham County, 56.8 percent of residents listed the quality of protection from law enforcement as their No. 1 concern and 51 percent of respondents said they were happy with the sheriff’s office’s relationship with the community. How do you account for these numbers? What can the sheriff’s office do to offer better protection to residents and improve relationships with the community?
There is always more work to do. Any public safety leader and/or elected official would desire a higher favorable rating, residents are unhappy with the amount of gun violence in the community and the survey reflects that. I would note, however, that only 947 residents responded to the survey out of a county population of nearly 325,000.
Throughout my first term, my staff (community engagement office, command staff, and deputies) and I have regularly met with community members and have talked and communicated with more than the 947 people who responded to the survey. These efforts to work in partnership with the community have positively touched many lives. Have those efforts touched 325,000 residents? No, they have not. So, yes, there is more work to do. DCSO must continuously work to engage the community, hear their concerns, and take steps to address their concerns.
I will continue to lead efforts to reform public safety to achieve racial justice. I will continue to provide public safety updates to the community, with emphasis on information to victims’ families. Updates will include information about DCSO efforts without compromising the integrity of criminal investigations. I will continue working with local, regional, and federal partners to address crime and gun violence in Durham County.
I will continue to engage with community groups to spread the word about DCSO’s crime-fighting efforts. DCSO will continue to be part of the community by meeting the public where they are and participating in outreach efforts to all members of the community. I will continue to grow the Community Advisory Board, to hear input directly from community members.
7. No-knock warrants have resulted in the deaths of innocent people across the country, including Breonna Taylor and Amir Locke, yet Durham county sheriff’s deputies still use them. Should the sheriff’s office ban the use of no-knock warrants by its employees?
The DCSO prohibits by policy the use no-knock warrants. As I do not support the use of no-knock warrants, I instituted a policy prohibiting them. An unannounced entry into someone’s home creates a chaotic and potentially dangerous situation as the occupants may be inclined to protect themselves, which could lead to the use of force by police. And, in the interest of safety, the majority of our search and/or arrest warrants are served during the day.
Additionally, North Carolina law requires the following of law enforcement: “before entering the premises, give appropriate notice of his identity and purpose to the person to be searched” unless “the officer has probable cause to believe that the giving of notice would endanger the life or safety of any person.” N.C. Gen. Stat. 15A-249, 251, 401.
9. Under North Carolina law, body-camera footage is not public record. Under what circumstances do you believe the public should be allowed to review body camera footage?
We must strike the balance between using body-camera footage to hold our law enforcement accountable while also honoring the privacy of those residents who appear in the footage and the concerns of residents about increased police surveillance or use of force. In some cases, the footage can be used to bring closure to family members and accountability to law enforcement.
Viewing of such video footage should be decided on a case-by-case basis. Depending on the nature and severity of the case, the decision to release a body camera video should be made after careful consultation with the district attorney and family members along with their representatives. North Carolina’s process strikes this balance by allowing the disclosure (or the viewing) of video footage to people depicted in the video or their representatives without a court order.
Regarding the release of video footage, I agree with North Carolina’s approach of requiring judicial approval of the release. A judicial release order can set the conditions. This approach strikes the balance among all the issues – maintaining the integrity of any criminal investigation and prosecution, the defendants’ right to a fair trial, the family’s privacy concerns, and the public’s right to be informed.
The changes enacted in Senate Bill 300 shift the responsibility to file a petition for release of the video to law enforcement personnel, which I support. Previously, the parties seeking the release of the video were required to file a petition for release. This could ultimately lead to faster release of video footage as law enforcement is more familiar with filing procedures for video release.
Another change in Senate Bill 300 is to permit and require the immediate disclosure of any video depicting death or serious bodily injury. I support this change.
10. Similarly, police officers’ and sheriff’s deputies’ personnel files, including disciplinary records, are not public documents in North Carolina. Given that law enforcement in some cases literally has the power of life and death, do you believe it is appropriate for members of the public to know whether a law enforcement agent has been disciplined and why?
If North Carolina laws protecting employee privacy were decreased, I would have greater latitude to discuss personnel matters related to alleged wrongdoings.
Currently, officer-involved shootings and use of force resulting in serious injury or death are reported in Critical Incident Reporting to NC Criminal Justice Standards for Police Officers and Sheriff’s Training and Education Standards for Deputies, in accordance with Senate Bill 300, which is now law. Further, a review of personnel records is available to other law enforcement agencies in relation to hiring.
I’m hopeful that the deliverables of the Governor’s Task Force on Racial Equity in Criminal Justice as it relates to critical incident reporting will bring greater transparency and improve confidence in the criminal justice system.
11. Do you support the expanded use of citations as an alternative to arrests? Under what circumstances?
The justice system should be fair and equitable for all it serves. From a law enforcement perspective, that means we should not criminalize poverty and should understand the impact adverse childhood experiences or trauma has on adult behavior.
We must recognize that the court system can adversely impact working families in other ways than being detained in a jail. Many residents will forgo a portion of their salary in order to attend court, while others may not attend court at all (risking a bench warrant) because of the lack of affordable childcare or transportation.
With the remote hearing technology we are currently working to implement, individuals will be able to participate in certain court hearings from their home, their desk or on a personal device, such as a cell phone. Residents will be able to log in at the time of their hearing, participate and then return to their other responsibilities.
I encourage the use of citations instead of arrests for certain misdemeanors.
12. What policies would you support to reduce recidivism, particularly among youthful offenders?
The following are some actions I’ve taken to reduce recidivism:
- Research opportunities to expand educational programming to address job skills in addition to the literacy and GED courses currently offered.
- Champion for improvements to communications for detainees, encouraging detainees to retain or add family connections to support re-integration and decrease recidivism.
- Creating opportunity for equitable access to good-paying jobs – I encourage business owners to hire people who were formerly incarcerated. A second chance can provide residents with life-changing opportunities to earn a living. A job is the quickest way to exit a life of crime and reduce recidivism.
- Working with local organizations. Also, our medical personnel work closely with our detainees to address their physical and mental health needs. Many of our detained individuals have untreated and/or unmanaged chronic illnesses. Addressing these medical needs and providing an avenue for medical care outside of the detention facility helps provide stability and reduce recidivism.
- Working with Durham County Public Health’s FIT Program and the local Reentry Council to ensure our detainees have the wrap-around services for a successful transition back into the community
- Regarding our youth, the “Raise the Age” legislation, which became effective December 1, 2019, overhauled the criminal justice system for our youth. Not only did the changes raise the age of juvenile court jurisdiction to 18, it also incorporated diversion and case review before prosecution. The legislation requires law enforcement, juvenile court counselors and prosecutors to use diversion to community resources, programs and therapy instead of prosecution with the goal of helping our youth make better choices, choose a better path and address the underlying causes of delinquent behavior. Additionally, juvenile court counselors must review every potential case of juvenile delinquency and approve a juvenile delinquency petition before a case can proceed through the juvenile delinquency process in our courts. With these changes, not only Durham, but North Carolina has taken a tremendous step to reducing our youth involvement in the criminal justice system.
- DCSO helped lead the efforts to establish the School Justice Partnership which involves elected leaders, local law enforcement, the judiciary, social services, community organizations, the school system and other community partners. This group works to identify additional local resources to support our youth diversion efforts.
- In 2019, the DCSO and the Durham Public School System revamped the School Resource Officer program to clearly emphasize that school resource officers should not be used for school discipline but to help promote a safe school environment free from crime. As a result, the number of cases referred to the court system has significantly reduced [add numbers]
- To address recidivism of young adults or our youth who have aged out of juvenile court, DCSO is working with the Criminal Justice Resource Center and Duke University to study and improve our county’s misdemeanor diversion program.
13. Identify and explain one principled stand you would be willing to take if elected that you suspect might cost you some points with voters.
As Sheriff, I make a clear and uncompromising commitment to not cooperate with ICE. I do not deploy checkpoints to check immigration status. DCSO does not honor ICE detainers and does not participate in ICE roundups.
Currently, local law enforcement can decide whether or not to cooperate with ICE. To be clear, the only detainer requests that DCSO will honor under my leadership are those that come with a judicial warrant or a Notice to Appear.
ICE detainers generally target members of the community who have brown skin. Members of the Hispanic and Latino communities have suffered discrimination and been maligned by the federal government. While some may view ICE detainers differently and not support my position, it is not a Bull City value to target members of the community based on the color of their skin. As a black man, as a compassionate humanitarian, I reject the premise.
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