Durham

The local free gazette, The Independent Weekly, just ran a long article detailing the fall of the Durham image in the local area. It made some good points about the abbreviation of the airport from "Raleigh-Durham" to "Raleigh" influencing the perception that business headed towards Raleigh. I know most people have no idea where Durham is on the map, and hear the phrase "Raleigh-Durham" expressed as if it were anything other than a naming convention for the airport between the two cities. And the Research Triangle Park and Duke University are too often depicted as enclaves separate and unrelated to the County and City in which they reside. It's true that the good things occurring locally get overlooked and the bad things get front page news. There were no national media outlets coming to Durham until the lacrosse players party fallout. It is hard to not lay some blame with the Durham Convention & Visitors Bureau - inconveniently located on two one way streets near no sights to see and near none of the roadways feeding into downtown or the city, and
closed on the weekends. I know the tobacco operations mostly vacated and the old money perhaps with it, but there is a reinvestment trend in these centrally located areas and of course the proximity to RTP driving continuing influx of people (like us). So it was great to read about someone else seeing through the unfair image the city has in the area and beyond. Most telling was how realtors either steered prospective buyers away from Durham or feigned to know not enough to recommend living there, with remarks about the school systems thrown in for good measure. Having just gone through this process with several realtors and having one ignore our desire to live in Durham completely in his recommendations, I could relate very much. I hope we made a great investment and that the image of the city turns in the future, because we have not experienced and reason to suspect otherwise. We've been here three years. We have many friends living all across Durham. We like it. More people should say nicer things about Durham than they do and it is hard to not read something into it, something about the racial demographics. I wish I were wrong, but it sure feels like that plays a large role.