In an election cycle with enormous stakes at the state and federal levels, Durham has few competitive local races on the ballot this year.
The Durham Board of County Commissioner candidates who won their primaries in March are locks to win the five available seats. A handful of other candidates in races like Register of Deeds and Soil and Water Conservation District Supervisor are running unopposed. In state Senate District 22, Sophia Chitlik, the Democratic nominee, faces no Republican challenger and a Libertarian candidate who has never won more than three percent of the vote since he started running for the seat in 2018.
But even though Durham’s local races don’t seem that exciting this cycle, voting up and down the ballot—especially at the very bottom—is still important.
The Durham City Council included two bond referenda on the ballot for city residents to consider this November: one to improve Durham’s parks, and the other to improve Durham’s streets and sidewalks. Together, the two bonds, collectively called the “Connecting Durham” bonds, would cost taxpayers $200 million.
The city council passed its 2024-2025 fiscal year budget back in June, which included millions of dollars for infrastructure improvements. So why is the city opting to use bonds to fund additional projects?
In an op-ed for the INDY this week, members of the Durham City Council write that the city chose specific sidewalk and street projects for the bonds based on “prioritizing areas of historic disinvestment” as well as selecting projects that are already further along in the development process. Acquiring the additional funding will help the projects reach completion sooner, freeing up opportunities to tackle other items on the capital improvement plan.
Durham has a AAA credit rating, meaning the city can borrow at lower interest rates. Speeding up the construction timeline also allows it to purchase construction materials before costs rise, so the city can pass on a lower tax bill to residents for the bonds.
Expediency has been a point of frustration for Durham residents. Some projects on the city’s capital improvement plan have been delayed months due to costs and capacity. Community members also have raised concerns about inequitable distribution of city resources to fund new sidewalks and refreshing Durham’s parks.
Finn Katz, a Durham native, is an avid soccer and futsal player. Katz and others used to play on the futsal courts at East End Park, but the surface started to fray and peel due to wear and tear. In August 2023, the short but powerful wind storm that blasted through Durham exacerbated the issue. Players like Katz enjoy East End Park because the courts have lights for evening games after work. Now, the options are limited for futsal elsewhere. Katz decided it was time to step up to get the courts fixed and advocate for his community.
“My interest is pretty much completely in getting [new futsal courts] to happen,” he says.. “It will have so much value to such a large part of our community that, as far as I can see, doesn’t have an advocate for their interests.”
Katz joined the bonds steering committee alongside representatives from other organizations such as Bike Durham, Durham Parks Foundation, and the Durham Chamber of Commerce.
“To get traction, you need an advocacy group,” Katz says. “For example, pickleball has their own association, and they can go to Durham Parks Foundation and work up what grant funding they can find to help support facilities that make it easy to play pickleball. We don’t exactly have that yet.”
The Durham Parks Foundation, founded in 2015, is a nonprofit that aims to support park projects that “contribute to the environmental quality, economic growth, and beauty of Durham.” Through fundraising and volunteering, Durham Parks Foundation has supported transformative amenities like a new pavilion at West Point on the Eno and engaging murals at Hillside Park.
That type of collaborative investment in Durham’s recreational spaces motivates Julie Messina, treasurer at Durham Parks Foundation. Following a brief stint living in Durham after college, Messina moved back to the Bull City in 2011 after living in Europe for nearly a decade. One of Durham’s selling points, she says, are the city’s trails and green spaces. But Messina worries that Durham is falling behind neighboring cities where parents are more likely to take their kids to swim or enjoy the parks.
“I was just talking to a lot of parents at [a recent] event in Durham, and I kept hearing people say, ‘we go to Apex, we go to Cary, we go to Raleigh for something like this,’” Messina recalls. “Why not Durham? Why can’t they just stay right here and go to an amazing space like that [in Durham].”
Renderings of the new aquatic center at Merrick-Moore Park promise a world-class water park. Access to public pools in Durham has dwindled over the years, and residents, particularly those in East Durham where the Long Meadow Park pool recently closed, have been clamoring for new places to swim. The $85 million parks bond would not only help construct the aquatic center, but also revamp East End and Long Meadow parks. The additional funding from the streets and sidewalks bond would provide a safer transportation network for residents to access the park facilities.
Voting to improve streets, sidewalks, and parks might seem like a slam dunk, but the steering committee doesn’t want to take any chances. Some residents are skeptical of the city’s ability to work efficiently and have unanswered questions about the results from previous bonds.
In 2019, the city included a $95 million affordable housing bond on the ballot, which Durham voters overwhelmingly supported. Affordable housing remains a concern, but the city and its local partners have made strides towards putting all $95 million to work through the “Forever Home, Durham” initiative.
Capital improvement projects take time, but residents who have been dealing with potholes and inadequate park access are hungry for results. They also question whether the additional property tax increase, which could go as high as 3.46 cent per $100, is worthwhile. Katz says the critiques from residents are valid and a welcome part of the process.
“Healthy skepticism is an integral piece of democracy,” Katz says. “We are progressive liberal bastion, but we most embody those progressive values when we don’t echo chamber ourselves, when we are open to addressing concerns and criticism. Yeah, it can be so frustrating to see the pace or lack of progress.”
Even if the bonds vote fails, the projects would remain on the growing list of items on the capital improvement plan. But a failed referendum could delay project completion by months or years and comes with other drawbacks.
“If we delay paying for them, it just means they’re that much more expensive down the road. So everything comes with a higher price tag,” Messina says.
The city council is championing the bonds following conversations with community leaders who say these projects need the extra support and are willing to rally the community for them. In recent years, the city and county have passed bonds for affordable housing, museums, and schools, without much pushback. “Durham engenders that sort of civic mindedness,” Messina says,” and folks in her community are unwavering in their support for public goods like parks and sidewalks.
“If Durham is saying, ‘Hey, we want to have this for Durham,’ then my answer is always going to be yes,” Messina says. “And it’s just great to see that reflected in others in the community. It wasn’t surprising, but it was invigorating.”
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