Alston Avenue - The Final Chapter?

And so the Alston Avenue widening appears to be, after several delays and last minute let's-pull-it-from-the-agenda moves, staying on the city council agenda for today's work session. The discussion revolves around whether or not the city will reject the NC DOT design for Alston Avenue. Were the city to do nothing, the NCDOT design will move forward (i.e. the default is to widen the road to 4-6 lanes.)

It doesn't look good, unfortunately, for a better solution for the road. It appears that Bell, McFadden, Clement, and Ali will likely endorse the NCDOT design, allowing the widening to move forward.

I find this terribly, terribly depressing. Not just because of the negative repercussions of this roadway - and it will have those - but because the vote will have very little to do with finding a road design that is best for the community, and a lot more to do with people staking out their territory for mayoral campaigns to come: to be viewed as the person who 'brought $28 million to East Durham' and sate the desires of a handful of East Durham power-brokers who have the ear of the mayor because of the voting blocs they can mobilize.

Never mind the opposition of residents from Angier Avenue/Uplift East Durham, residents from Cleveland-Holloway, residents from Edgemont/Morning Glory, residents from Eastway. Their concerns must be irrelevant, because they are represented by some unelected folks that 'speak for East Durham.' Never mind that the aforementioned neighborhoods are actually the ones that feel the negative effects of this road. Such is the fallacy of lumping "NortheastCentral Durham" or "PAC 1" together as one giant monolithic group. The reason that the boundaries keep expanding for groups like NECD? Power - pure and simple.

Never mind the opposition of the city's Economic and Workforce Development department - who know this won't bring economic development. Never mind the opposition of the city's Transportation Department, who know that this will do nothing to improve travel time, and do much to create hazardous conditions for pedestrians, including mass transit users.

Never mind the kids that will be hurt or killed trying to cross a 6-lane intersection. Never mind the kids that become obese because their parents, wisely, won't let them walk to school across a highway.

Never mind the people that won't buy and refurbish old/abandoned housing in the Golden Belt / Morning Glory historic district or Cleveland-Holloway because when they ask a realtor where the nearest park and school are, the realtor will say "across Alston Avenue."

Never mind the houses and business that will be destroyed. Never mind the loss of the neighborhood grocery store that the owner says he would invest $30,000 in tomorrow if he knew he wasn't going to be kicked out.

Never mind that East Durham is already on the upswing - with new businesses and new/renovated housing, with people excited to explore a neighborhood they didn't know, and longtime residents excited to see new businesses, people, and housing. Never mind that this is happening because investment in a human-scale landscape is already occurring - by the public and private sector - without Alston Avenue being turned into a freeway.

From the first point I saw this design, I advocated for a compromise design solution. Perhaps that was a mistake - perhaps I should have just advocated to kill this project from the start, before it, and neighborhoods, could become pawns in a local game of who-brung-the-money.

For the councilmembers who will endorse this project - I hope that this highway is your legacy. That every kid who can't cross the street without fearing for their life, every bicyclist run off the road, every speeding vehicle that runs off the road across a sidewalk on Alston Avenue reminds people that you voted for this boondoggle to feed your own political ambition. Thanks for showing that the politician's invocation of the oft-lamented destruction of neighborhoods by the Durham Freeway is absolute pandering b.s. - that, given the same choices, you would make the same exact mistake for the exact same reasons.