The economy may be on life support, but it showed one sign of vitality in Durham this morning.

The sign: inner-city condos, a concept hot two years ago but (aside from Scott Harmon's under-construction Mangum 506 project) since then gone with the rest of the housing bubble.

Nearly two years after he first suggested it, Orange Community Housing and Land Trust Executive Director Robert Dowling is still trying to convince the Chapel Hill Town Council to stop requiring developers to build so many affordable housing units and start accepting more cash instead. The town's planning staff is recommending that the council refer Dowling's petition to its affordable housing committee during tonight's Town Council meeting. Below, read a story from when Dowling first proposed this approach in January 2007.