After more than two hours' testimony and deliberation, the City Council voted Monday night to put off a decision on granting $175,000 for the Mok'e Jazz Cultural Center.
Mayor Bill Bell raised a concern about the center's estimated cash flow. Also, Know Book Store owner Bruce Bridges, who has said the Mok'e project will hurt his store, asked for city help to stay in business.
“I don't think we're prepared to make a decision tonight,” said Councilman Howard Clement.
The Know Book Store leases a building at 2520 Fayetteville St.. The owner, Mozella McLaughlin, has sought the city's help to renovate and enlarge the building to house the proposed Jazz Cultural Center.
In a letter presented to council members just before the meeting began, McLaughlin asked the council:
- To help assure he could remain in his location for six more months.
- To provide money for relocation expenses.
- To compensate him for six to eight months' income lost during the renovation work.
McLaughlin has invited Bridges to lease space in her renovated building, but Bridges has said the terms she offered are unacceptable, and he has been unable to find space elsewhere.
Council member Cora Cole-McFadden said she had favored the grant for McLaughlin. “But I am concerned now,” she said, “and I need to hear more about Bruce Bridges and the plight of the Know Book Store.”
Bridges said his is “the oldest African-American-owned bookstore in North Carolina ... as well as a local institution.”
Besides books on black history and culture, the Know includes a restaurant and holds a weekly jazz night. More than 20 citizens spoke to support Bridges and his store. Some complained that, in funding the McLaughlin project, the city would be using taxpayers' money to displace one business in favor of another.
Chris Tiffany, who said he had been a Know Book Store customer for more than 20 years, compared the city's subsidy for the Mok'e Center to “helping Rupert Murdoch take over the Carolina Times” — a long-established black newspaper in Durham.
