Important Update: Demolition Summit

The "Code Enforcement Summit" is scheduled for May 1st at 6pm-7:30 pm in the City Hall Council Chambers. I would like to ask all of you who are concerned about losing our historic housing stock to a demolish-first-and-refuse-to-ask-questions city department to please be there if you can - I feel strongly that this may be our one chance to try to make headway against a department that refuses to acknowledge the costs of demoliton to our community. Have no doubt - the department is stacking the deck; they sought no input on a date, choosing one that is the same night as a major Preservation Durham event. I will be flying back to town and miss much of the meeting. (NIS left me off the "invited guest" list anyway - think that was an oversight?)

In short, the tone of the release says it all:

"Fast Facts
· The City of Durham is hosting a code enforcement public forum to help educate residents and property owners on code enforcement and legal processes, the removal of unsafe structures as well as preservation and revitalization efforts.

· City Manager Patrick Baker will open the forum and the City's Department of Neighborhood Improvement Services will provide handout materials along with a slide presentation. After the presentation, a moderator will facilitate community feedback and a question-and-answer session for attendees."

No, NIS, we don't need to be 'educated'. Perhaps you should, for once, listen before presuming that the public is ill-informed.

Please make it if you possibly can - I cannot stress, in my view, how important this is to the future of the landscape in our city. I do not want us to look back on this time in the same way we look back at the East End, the West End, Hayti, McMannen St., Dunstan, Brookstown, Morehead Hills... every neighborhood that was demolished in the 1960s because a stubborn city government decided that demolition was the way to 'fix' Durham.