Mayor Bill Bell laid out the first steps in what he called an "ongoing strategy" to cut violent crime in Durham, especially crimes involving firearms.
In an afternoon press conference, he said violent crime went up 3 percent in 2011 over the previous year.
“This is a very disturbing trend that we as a community should not and cannot accept,” he said.
Bell said the four steps are “but the first” as the city develops ongoing crime-prevention strategies. ...
Mayor Bill Bell took a few minutes of Monday's city council meeting to plug the sales-tax proposals on today's Durham County ballots.
"We have two very important referendums," he said, referring to the half-cent tax for public transit and quarter-cent tax for education. The city council has endorsed both.
Bell has been a strong proponent of a unified transit system serving Durham, Wake and Orange counties. Much of the revenue from the transit tax is for Durham's portions of passenger-rail lines between downtown Durham and UNC Hospitals and eastern Wake County, as well as expanded bus service.
"Hopefully, we will set the pace for other counties to follow," Bell said, before showing a seven-minute video depicting successes for a 10-mile light-rail line in Mecklenburg County.
"It really highlights the attributes of the system in Charlotte," Bell said. "Similar to what will happen if the referendum is supported in Durham."
From correspondent Virginnia Bridges
Sylvester Williams held a 22-vote lead over County Commissioner Joe Bowser after approved provisional ballots were counted today, meaning he will face Mayor Bill Bell in the Nov. 8 election.
Bell, mayor since 2001, received 131 of those votes, bringing his total to 9,378, about 81 percent of the vote. Williams, a pastor at Assembly at Durham Christian Center, received 19 provisional votes, bumping to his vote total to 889. Bowser received 19 provisional votes and a total of 867 votes. Ralph McKinney received six provisional votes and a total of 471 votes.
Two members of the Board of Elections and Williams' wife and daughter Barbara and Adande Williams were the only visitors present as the board's interim director, Michael Perry, fed the approved votes into the ballot tabulator.
“In it to win it,” Barbara and Adande Williams repeated as they left the Board of Elections.
The Triangle Labor Council and North Carolina AFL-CIO have endorsed Mayor Bill Bell and City Councilwoman for re-election in this fall's municipal elections.
Bell is running for a sixth consecutive term, Catotti for a third.
Both were informed of the endorsements by letter. Labor Council President Michael Gravinese wrote that his group's policy is to leave announcement of its endorsements up to candidates.
Bell faces four challengers in a primary election Oct. 11. Besides Catotti, seven candidates are running for three at-large seats on the City Council.
Durham County Commissioner Joe Bowser is running for mayor.
Bowser, who has more than a year left on his current county term, filed this morning to challenge incumbent Mayor Bill Bell. Bowser followed Sylvester Williams, an East Durham pastor, who filed earlier today.
Filing for the 2011 municipal election closed at noon with four candidates for mayor and eight for three at-large seats on the City Council. Ralph McKinney Jr., who ran unsuccessfuly for Council in 2001, entered the race for mayor on Thursday.
Bell is seeking a sixth consecutive two-year term.
Donald Hughes, a previous, but unsuccessful, candidate for City Council and School Board, also filed this morning. He completed the Council field, joining private citizens Alice Bailey, Solomon Burnette, Victoria Peterson, Steve Schewel and John Tarantino.
Two-term incumbent Council members Eugene Brown and Diane Catotti are also in the race.
Durham holds a primary election Oct. 11. The general election is Nov. 8.
Mayor Bill Bell and City Council aspirant Steve Schewel are the first candidates to file in this year's municipal election. Filing opened at noon today, and by mid-afternoon both were officially in their races.
Filing is open until noon Aug. 12.
Both Bell and Schewel announced their intentions to run several months ago. No one has announced an intention to challenge Bell, who has been mayor since 2001. Schewel, a former member of the Durham Public Schools board, is one of four who have said they will run for three at-large council seats in this fall's election.
The others are incumbents Eugene Brown and Diane Catotti, and challenger Victoria Peterson.
Classify this as being either shameless or brilliant.
Raleigh Mayor Charles Meeker and Durham Mayor Bill Bell put out a press release today seeking interview subjects for a writer working on a piece about the Triangle.
Writer Carsten Morgan is working on an "in-depth look at the Triangle" for Delta Air Lines in-flight magazine Sky.
The magazine is planning a 45-plus page feature on the Triangle for its July edition, which will be available on all Delta flights and in select bookstores in the U.S. and Canada.
"The mayors are asking Triangle residents to open their doors and appointment schedules to accommodate Carsten Morgan," says the release.
"Don’t be shy; brag a bit, is the mayors’ implied message because potential visitors from across the globe will form a host of impressions and opinions from the piece."
The release even includes Morgan's email address and telephone.
Presumably, anyone with a sarcastic or snarky comment about the Triangle need not get in touch.
In his "State of the City" address Monday night, Durham Mayor Bill Bell (below) re-emphasized his support for the Rolling Hills/Southside revitalization, while acknowledging that the project has met setbacks and generated opposition from some quarters.
"I remain convinced that revitalization of Rolling Hills and Southside must happen," Bell said, "and we are making progress."
Improvements in the long-depressed 125-acre section near downtown, along with other inner-city neighborhoods, were one of four priorities the mayor set out for 2011. The others were:
Tomorrow night (Sunday at 8), the Sundance Channel presents the second season of "Brick City," six one-hour episodes chronicling the challenges facing famed mayor, Cory Booker, his police director Garry McCarthy, and the citizens of Newark, New Jersey.
We loved the first part, but this time Happiness decided to get an expert opinion of the series. So we turned to Durham Mayor Bill Bell. Bell, we figured, could gage the authenticity of the show and testify to the difficulty of handling budget cuts, angry citizens and crime.
His overall opinion after screening two episodes?
Mayor Bill Bell is quoted in a White House press release that came out the other day, commenting on the attempt to repeal last year's Affordable Care Act.
“This is simply not the time to turn back the clock on opportunities and access to Affordable Health Care. We need to move forward aggressively in support and implementation of the Affordable Health Care Act,” Bell's statement reads.
Bell is among eight mayors quoted in support of retaining the act. Some of the others are Stephanie Rawlings-Blake of Baltimore, Antonio Villaraigosa of Los Angeles and JoAnn J. Thomas of Hoffman, N.C. (In Richmond County, est. population 603.)
To see them all, use link below.
