Mayor Bill Bell wants the City Council to have a conversation on “what our vision is for the city … what we would like to see in terms of physical development.”

Bell made the comment at today’s City Council work session, and with it some questions about the role of appointed committees in general and the Historic Preservation Commission in particular after its hearing on the City Center project Tuesday.

“I question some of the issues that were being raised,” Bell said, and mentioned comments about the 26-story building’s effect on the Durham skyline.

City Councilman Steve Schewel has added his voice to those calling on his colleagues to revisit the city’s new solicitation ordinance.

“We have a genuine problem,” Schewel said.

The ordinance, adopted by unanimous vote in December, put new restrictions on roadside solicitors – including panhandlers who work busy intersections – that, critics say, “criminalizes poverty.”

City Manager Tom Bonfield has said the ordinance is meant as a safety measure, to cut down on distractions for motorists and prevent persons from stepping into busy streets.

Opponents also claim the ordinance is clogging courtrooms with defendants cited for violations who cannot pay any fines imposed.

“Putting homeless people through the court system and into jail is not serving us well,” Schewel said.

Schewel suggested the city consider a version of the “outreach court” used in Orange County. The outreach court assigns community service to homeless people with misdemeanor convictions, in lieu of fines or jail time, and directs them into treatment for disabilities and addiction if called for.

Last week, the city-county Homeless Services Advisory Committee agreed to review the ordinance and recommend amendments to the city.

Among other provisions, the ordinance bans soliciting on highway medians. It also eliminated a previous requirement that solicitors register and buy permits, and requires them to wear safety vests.

Opponents have made repeated appearances at council work sessions and barraged council members with emails asking that the ordinance be amended or repealed.

“Don’t let me hear you say life’s taking you nowhere, angel”

If you’re looking at your golden years and feeling a little like Bowie in 1975 – heck, if you can ever remember 1975 – Bolton Anthony is ready to serve up some dessert.

The Chapel Hill resident and activist is organizing a workshop April 11-14 at the Friday Center that will ask older people to create a new vision for the next stage of their lives.
At a time when many begin thinking about slowing down, Anthony wants to put 60 Baby Boomers in a room for three days to reinvent how we look at “the second half of life.”

Anthony is the founder of Second Journey, which has put out “Aging the Community.” The book talks with people who are creating a new paradigm, or way of thinking, that keeps older people a vital part of society, rather than farming them out to golf courses and nursing homes.

Part of the book looks at new models like cohousing in which people live in cooperative communities with shared activities and facilities. A local group that recently broke ground on one such a project, the 24-unit Durham Central Park Cohousing Community, advertises “aging in place” and already has a waiting list.

But Anthony says the gathering will be about more than that. “What the Boomers are doing to housing is what they did to ice cream: The three flavors are now 1,000,” he says. “I’m as equally interested in a different vision of aging. It can be a transformative experience for individuals.”

Interested? Go to www.secondjourney.org/VC.htm for more information and to register.

Durham missed the cut in Bloomberg Philanthropies’ Mayors Challenge contest for innovative solutions to major urban problems.

Last fall, Durham was named one of 20 finalists in the nationwide competition. Winners were announced earlier this month. Providence, R.I. won the $5 million top prize and four other cities won $1 million each to use in implementing their innovations.

“I said all along that we’re already winners by virtue of having been selected among 20 out of 350 or so applicants across the country,” Mayor Bill Bell said.

“To have been the ultimate winner would have just been more icing on the cake that already had some, as far as I’m concerned,” he said.

Durham’s entry was a proposal to create entrepreneurship hubs in three distressed neighborhoods to foster job creation, family stability, workforce training, and overall economic growth in those areas. It was prepared by the Neighborhood Improvement Services department.

“The staff did an excellent job,” said Bell.

Providence’s winning proposal was a program to build vocabulary for young children growing up in low-income households.

Other winners were Chicago, Philadelphia, Houston and Santa Monica, Cal. For information on all the proposals, see http://bit.ly/LJ36TE.

A group of ministers and supporters plan to protest Durham' panhandling restrictions at 5 p.m. Monday at the intersection of U.S. 15-501 and Mt. Moriah Road near New Hope Commons.

“I am not willing to have my community transformed into a place where beggars are criminalized and pushed out of communal sight,” the Rev. Sarah Jobe of Watts Street Baptist Church says in a news release.

The new local rules outlaw public begging on roadsides and medians where panhandlers usually ask for help. Jobe is one of six local ministers who plan to publicly violate the new ordinance as an act of spiritual solidarity and public witness during Holy Week.

“Lent is the season when we call God’s people to pray, fast, and give to the poor. Giving has been difficult in Durham this year because it’s been illegal to beg,” says Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove, an Associate Minister at St. Johns Missionary Baptist Church.

Wilson-Hartgrove helped to organize a public meeting at Duke Memorial United Methodist Church on Thursday evening this week, where nearly 200 community members heard stories of people who have been affected by the new ordinance.

Event organizers say two people have already gone to jail for begging in violation of the new ordinance.

The ministers and their supporters have asked the City Council to rescind the ordinance and reconsider how to address safety concerns for motorists without harming panhandlers. They have also encouraged the council to work closely with homelessness service providers and the faith community as they develop a new ordinance.

When asked why they have chosen to not only challenge the law, but also to break it, Matt Gates of the Rutba House community said, “Jesus was a beggar, and they ticketed him, too. If anything, I think the question should be, ‘Why have we waited this long?’”

N.C. Transportation Secretary Tony Tata today named former Durham Mayor Nick Tennyson Chief Deputy Secretary of Support.

“Nick has a proven ability to build close working relationships and manage large-scale initiatives,” Tata said in a news release. “These will be key attributes as we carry out Governor McCrory’s directive to establish a long-range plan for North Carolina that builds on the department’s previous efforts to leverage our infrastructure for greater economic investment and growth.”

One of Tennyson’s key responsibilities will be to lead the development and implementation of a 25-year transportation infrastructure plan. He will oversee five business functions: the Division of Motor Vehicles, strategic planning, information technology, fiscal, and intergovernmental affairs and budget coordination. Tennyson will collaborate closely with Chief Deputy Secretary of Operations Jim Trogdon.

By Jane Stancill

U.S. Sen. Kay Hagan is in Durham today to promote a model to reward schools that manage to turn around a low performance track record.

The Greensboro Democrat visits Hillside High School to announce the School Turnaround and Rewards Act, or STAR Act. The act would allow high-poverty schools to compete for federal funding to design innovative programs aimed at improving student performance.

By rewarding low-performing schools that lift their performance and work to close achievement gaps, Hagan argues, the proposed law would take the opposite approach of Bush-era No Child Left Behind, which took a punitive stance.

The STAR Act would codify the policies embedded in the Race to the Top competitive grant program in the U.S. Department of Education. In 2011, 17 North Carolina schools won School Improvement Grants through the federal government, including Hillside High, which received $4.7 million and has been a successful example of turnaround.

The STAR Act would be incorporated into the federal legislation that guides public schools,
which is overdue for reauthorization. It's unclear what kind of chances it has this year.

Durham officials aren’t sure what effect, if any, the federal government’s “sequester” budget cuts would have on the city if they take effect Friday.

“I am just real hesitant to get involved in the rhetoric about that,” City Manager Tom Bonfield said.

The most direct possible effect Bonfield had heard of was a cut in Community Development Block Grant money the city uses for neighborhood revitalization and low-cost housing.

“But that’s just in very preliminary conversations,” he said.

Community Development Director Reginald Johnson, whose office administers CDBG grants, said he hasn’t had any information from the U.S. Housing and Urban Development department, or from private organizations that keep tabs on federal action affecting housing.

The sequester is “something we’re looking at,” Johnson said, “but right now … we have no idea what that means at the local level.”

Tuesday’s baseball game between Duke and North Carolina A&T at War Memorial Stadium in Greensboro has been postponed due to inclement weather.
The game, originally scheduled for a 3 p.m. start, has been moved to Wednesday, March 27 at 6 p.m., at War Memorial Stadium.
Duke returns to action Wednesday at home, hosting Campbell in a 3 p.m. matchup at Jack Coombs Field.

City stormwater chief Paul Wiebke made a good impression on City Councilman Eugene Brown Wednesday night.

Brown said he had some questions about an upcoming agenda item regarding the Jordan Lake Rules. It was around 9 p.m.

"So I decided to call Paul to leave a message on his answering machine," Brown said. "And, lo and behold, guess who answered the phone! He was there, working, at 9 o'clock. I was really impressed."