727 North Mangum Upset Bid Process Approved
The city council on 10/20 approved the commencement of an upset bid process on 727 N. Mangum St., an essential structure in the historic commercial district at Little Five Points. The vote accepted UDI's opening bid of $30,000. When that bid can be published, likely 10/25, a 10-day window will begin to make an upset bid. (Usually an upset bid must exceed the previous bid by a fixed percentage - I can't remember whether it is 5% or not.)
The bid documents will likely be released Friday, 10/24, and will be available on the city's website on/in the General Services department page. (I'll update with the exact URL when released.
I very much hope that someone will come to the rescue of this little building; UDI's demolition of half of this commercial district will decimate the history and economic development of Little Five Points. It's a disservice to the public, in my mind, to be putting it out to general bid at this economic juncture - but it serves UDI's interests well, as their fund commitment from the city expires by the end of the year.
But as one supporter told a friend of mine at the council meeting.
"no matter what you say, they [the council] won't support you; they want to keep their offices and I have a way of making them come in or go out."
Good to know that we're doing what's best for Durham.
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6 comments:
Some of the Council members cast their votes on this issue (and on plenty of other issues) without regard to their re-election. You should be fair to them.
And are you going to praise those Council members who fought hard for the landmark status of the buildings that were also on their agenda Monday night? Some of them fought hard in the face of opposition from other Council members, the Planning department, and others.
What a joke. This vote was completely transparent and 99.999% rigged to benefit UDI and not server the public interest. All I can say is vote differently next time.
We should also be pushing for a Mayor that isn't so obviously conflicted on City owned properties.
Wouldn't it be nice if the newspapers actually did some investigative reporting. I suspect this topic wouldn't require much investigation.
doing investigative reporting? kinda presumes you have a functioning press. thanks to the (Republican-led) repeal of regulations limiting media monopolies, the newspaper.media industry has "consolidated" ... the Herald-Sun into practical non-existence. we don't have a free press - we have "media industry."
maybe our wonderful local holdout, the Indy, can take this one on. Teaser: Take one large pan of misguided stew. Stir in a heaping cup of profiteering and a dash of stinky corruption. Bake in community anger for several years.
Anon 1
Who is being unfair to particular council members? I didn't say the above comment; clearly some rather annointed folks speaking in favor of this believe they have power over some portion of the council. I have no idea if they do or not, but the boldness of the claim - the lack of humility in the context of what will be a publicly-funded project - is fairly nauseating.
Yes, I'll praise council members for supporting the landmarks. Good work, and thank you.
GK
What was the breakdown of the votes for this agenda item?
Durham reporter Jim Wise is always a good person to contact with regards to stories with a history slant...
Perhaps next election time around, Mayor Billy will finally be kicked out and will take UDI with him.
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