By Alex Bass
Alex.bass@triangletribune.com
DURHAM – Tuesday’s Partners Against Crime/District 1 mayoral candidates forum inside the Holton Career and Resource Center began warm and finished hot.
Candidate discussions about accountability on issues like crime, housing and municipal rezoning were framed by not-so-subtle comments directed at incumbent Leo Williams. The two-hour session concluded with forum facilitator James Chavis being shouted at by a disgruntled attendee, identified as Victoria Peterson. She expressed disappointment over being unable to ask a question before leaving.
“If we don’t have air conditioning here, then how can we talk about other things,” asked candidate Pablo Friedmann, who noted the center is shared by the city and Durham Public Schools – the latter for whom Williams worked previously.
Williams, Friedmann, Anjanee Bell and Rafiq Zaidi participated in the forum. Chavis said candidates Lloyd Phillips and Angela Reddick also were invited but did not respond.
Zaidi wasted no time discussing how to combat crime, and said Durham, unlike cities like New York, has not used what would be its greatest information gathering resource – rewards. “You said, ‘See something, say something.’ Money talks,” Zaidi said.
Zaidi asked Williams about Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott, whom Williams referenced for effective efforts in combatting crime. “We need to invest in that mayor and get him here in Durham,” Zaidi said. “I’m willing to call him in, without hesitation.”
The gathered assembly asked the candidates’ stances on the Fayetteville Street Corridor Project and the forthcoming Hayti district rezoning vote scheduled for the Aug. 4 City Council meeting. “Obviously, I can’t say that right now. Just legally, I can’t,” Williams said about his vote. “It was the council that I was on that put $10 million into that (Hayti district). It is this council, under my leadership, where we’re making sure that in anything that happens over there, the acknowledgement of Hayti will be at the forefront and preserved.”
Bell spoke of reimagining Durham, and ensuring future plans include people at the center and in leadership. “It’s a gritty city. It’s scrappy. It’s diverse,” Bell said. “Do we want to be unimaginative buildings?”
Involving community leadership and building youth into leaders provided the evening’s strongest unity moment, which came full circle to combatting crime. “Sometimes, we need to just shut up and listen to our young people,” Williams said.
Bell recalled her childhood days to frame what she wishes for her own children. “I rode bikes around my neighborhood,” she said. “I can’t think about that with my children without understanding where they are and who is watching them.”
For Friedmann: “People will call law enforcement,” he said. “How do we report it is the million-dollar question.”
Zaidi shared a message he received from a Durham high school student as a reminder that HOW something happens is as vital as WHAT happens. “You’ve got to come to the people before you make a move,” he said. “Not the developers and not any outsiders.”
Friedmann added: “If the planning process actually worked from Day One – listen to the community and build it up with the community – then it would be a 7-0 (council) vote every single time.”
