Taking back a Street Corner

Kevin over at Bull City Rising notes a grassroots endeavor to "take back a corner" at E. Club and N. Roxboro tonight at 7pm by having a little 'party' on the corner - and thereby dissuade ongoing ? - illegal activity.

I love to see this happening - people of Durham asserting their rights to have safety and ownership of the public realm, rather than relinquishing it and hiding indoors/in another part of town.

Of course, I firmly believe that part of the problem at W. Club and Roxboro is physical. This intersection (and I have a great old picture of the original Fowler's Grocery there) has become a car-dominated space. When you dissuade pedestrians, you dissuade people who are up to good rather than no-good from spending time there. These are the kind of costs that don't get counted in simplistic DOT level of service models.

So kudos to these folks, and to Kevin for getting the word out. Making it a place with ongoing eyes-on-the-street will require an ongoing effort to take back public space for a diversity of users - not just people getting from I-85 to Durham Regional.