The Durham Morning Herald (Herald-Sun) on Urban Renewal in 1976

I thought I'd share this editorial from the Durham Morning Herald (later the Herald-Sun) - July 12, 1976 - to give some insight into how people viewed urban renewal.

"A series of stories in this newspaper that concludes today has given Durham residents a chance to reflect on the record of urban renewal in this community.

It is a solid, if not an unspotted record. The redevelopment program has been beset during its 14 years by controversies large and small. It has been faced by skepticism in many quarters. It has had to cope with bitter opposition from people who didn't want to leave their homes and merchants who didn't want to relocate their businesses

But a project of the scope of Durham's redevelopment program, which involved expenditures of millions of dollars of public funds and affected thousands of people, could hardly have been undertaken and carried out without prompting controversy, criticism, and doubt.

What has urban renewal accomplished in Durham?

It has cleared some of the city's worst slum areas. In some of those areas, dilapidated housing has been replaced by housing or commercial developments. In other areas, vacant land is waiting for development.

It has spurred the construction of public facilities in the central business district and private facilities in the business district and on its fringes.

It has given downtown Durham a whole new - and better - look. The central business district's main streets have been rebuilt to benefit pedestrians, and they have been attractively landscaped. Vest-pocket parks and pedestrian malls - which have been used for such things as a farmer's market and a crafts festival - have been developed. A traffic loop has been cosntructed, and new parking garages have been built to accommodate drivers who use the loop.

The new look of downtown Durham is important not only for the functional and aesthetic improvements it represents. It is also important as a symbolic indication of Durham's determination to prevent urban decay. It is evidence that Durham, unlike so many other cities, has refused to neglect its downtown area.

During the last 14 years, the redevelopment program has focused continuing attention on downtown Durham. It has fueled continuing debate on the role of downtown.

At the present, as the formal urban renewal program draws to an end, downtown Durham is a strong government and business center. A new city hall and a county judicial building are under construction. The main offices of many banks and businesses are firmly entrenched downtown. Thus, for the foreseeable future, downtown Durham will be a busy place from Monday through Friday during the hours of nine to five.

Will it become more than a business center that closes down at night and on the weekends? Will people come downtown for other purposes than to work or to pay a tax bill, register to vote, open a bank account?

The answers to those questions depends [sic] on the attitude of Durham's voters, on the vigor of city officials in pressing for continuing downtown revitalization and on the willingness of private interests to invest in downtown Durham.

The voters will have an opportunity to vote next month on a bond issue to finance a new main library, a facility that could serve as a community meeting place as well as provide traditional library services. City officials have the opportunity to encourage promising projects like the proposed conversion of the old county courthouse into an arts and cultural center and to explore the prospects for such major undertakings as the construction of a convention center. Private interests have the opportunity of investing in a downtown area that has stemmed decay and that is on the move again.

A number of commerical establishments have found it in their best interests to remain in the central business district rather than to move to suburban shopping centers. Of late, a couple of new small businesses have opened their doors in the downtown area, and the last year has seen the opening of a fine, new restaurant at Muirhead Plaza [GK: The rebranded Five Points] and a specialty delicatessen on Main Street.

Downtown Durham has already proved that it is the ideal location for communitywide events like street celebrations, parades and festivals. Only the future will tell whether it will become more than a place of those one-day events and a government and business center.

But it does not take too much imagination to envision a downtown Durham that will offer a diversity of attractions for Durham residents: a good library, an arts and cultural center, a convention center, theaters, specialty shops, and a variety of restaurants. The redevelopment program has provided the foundation for the development of that kind of downtown area. It now remains to build on the foundation."