Friday, June 09, 2006

Good news, everyone!
I just found out that my e-penpal in Adelaide checks in on this occasionally. This doubles my readership! And since he's family, I may start throwing in more links like this.
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Yesterday it was announced that a member of the state legislature, a representative from Durham, was charged with fraud. He presented phony documents to the federal government to try to prove that he had repaid all his educational loans.
What did I just say in the post before this one? Slack, slack, slack.

Tuesday, June 06, 2006

Olde Durham Towne
The local free weekly recently ran this excellant article about why Raleigh seems to dominate this area, and why Durham has the reputation it does.
Since my trip to Savannah the other year, and reading about that city after I got back, it struck me that Durham and Savannah are really similar (although I always have to state this with the caveat that Savannah is much older and much cooler than Durham). They are both cities that were once more bustling and important, but as times changed the courses of commerce moved away from them.
The article linked above brought out more similarities, although not directly in a comparison to Savannah. The Book states that citizens of Savannah have an attitude of "We happen to like things just the way they are." They turned away the organizers of the Spoleto festical that ended up going to Charleston. They also turned away corporate development that would have brought in jobs and economic boost. It's theorised the city felt their local culture and way of life was being threatened by outside influences.
I think that's justifiable in a city that's 270-some years old.
The article above about Durham reveals a similar trend here. In 1990, it states, what is now the American Tobacco Campus, an adaptive reuse project of abandoned tobacco processing facilities in downtown, was put to a public referendum vote. It was voted down. Around the same time period the citizens of Durham voted down building a new ballpark and almost lost the Durham Bulls to Raleigh.
Like in Savannah this trend isn't new. In the 1930's an airport project was voted down, with the eventual result that the airport that was finally built is known as RALEIGH/Durham, not Durham/Raleigh, when Durham has always been the larger city - at least, until recently.
But Durham is only 130 years old. What way of life is there to protect from outside influcence?
Judging by the recent conduct of my apartment building's manager and the slack-ass morons she hired to work on the radiators, it's the freedom to be slack. When you're dealing with people spending $1000 a month on a loft in a converted tobacco warehouse, you have to behave professionally. When you're running an apartment building built in 1926 which you're gradually letting rot, and renting to a bunch of wage-slaves and college students, you can be super slack.
I heard a rumour recently that my apartment building may be sold, and it may go condo. I'd buy my apartment if I could afford it.