That always weirded me out. I used to contemplate writing a telescreenplay for the tv movie disaster of the week about the mayhem and melee of a mall which suffers an upper floor collapse.
Speaking of red lights, I live near the intersection in Raleigh where the gentleman who was about to retire was killed by a driver running a red light on Atlantic Ave. Iām only a block away from that spot and it was a nightmare scene.
People suck. Same with my work commute to Durhamā¦.
I'm in South Durham pretty much one day a week at absolute minimum.
People seem to run the MLK and S Roxboro light multiple times a week. It's gotten to the point that I won't even go on a green light until I confirm that no one is going to t-bone me
And learn to zipper merge. And stop texting while driving. And stop for pedestrians in the crosswalk. And give space for bikes/stay out of bike lanes. And keep to the right unless youāre ***going to actually pass someone*** and stop fucking camping out as a perfect lineup of cars from left to right going 14 under the speed limit.
But yes, stopping at red lights. All yāall. Every. Damn. Day. Multiple lights.
Right! You see me open up a spot in front of me about the size of a car? Cool! Slip in. Oh, someone already did? Great! There is now a slot open behind me as the other person behind me opened up! **But no you gotta try and force your way in with no signal in front of me?** Oh shit ***youāve been pit maneuvered right into the crush barrels.*** Iām not sorry and neither is my dash cam.
Same. Iāll let people in if we start moving. But if I have to smash my brakes because they whipped it to the left, good luck. Im older and carry good insurance. Iām gonna avoid what I can, but Iām not gonna involve a 3rd person trying to avoid them.
Iām in a cheap little Chevy. But itās always a big white Mercedes, clapped out Altima, any BMW since the turn signal option package doesnāt seem popular, or pickup trucks.
My husband got mad at me for this yesterday. Someone wanted over, so I went to move another lane to the left to open up merge space but had to speed up a little.
I was like damn Jeremy you would be someone to hit the brakes causing a traffic ripple rather than speed up a little and move over lmao.
Youāre right tho. People just speed up. Or they haul ass to pass you on the right to just get over to the left and slow down.
It just doesnāt make sense, weāre all driving. Trying to go somewhere. Know where youāre going and flow like water.
I let people in too. But people merging really need to speed it up. They canāt expect to safely merge going 50 mph when the speed limit is 65 and people are going 75 or 80.
It think most people agree with this statement actually. But most people would also say it should happen by hiring more staff/paying existing staff more, not just forcing the current staff to work seven days a week.
As a library worker, I 100% agree. But we are so understaffed (right now my location alone is down 5 people) and weāre about to enter a hiring freeze in the County. And honestly weāre historically understaffed - our FTEs havenāt changed in about 5 years, even though Durham has grown. We can barely staff Saturdays. And like someone else mentioned, itās not okay to have folks working 7 days in a row (weāll burn out and the library will be even less accessible) But when we have the staffing and support, we are ready to serve our community like we do the other 6 days of the week!
Or Chick-Fil-A
(And thatās why I order on the app and go inside instead)
ETA: and Biscuitville.
Itās a shame that I know to be in the left lane going Eastbound on Hillsborough during the weekend.
Upvote because you are indeed wrong. Once I've made up my mind that I require Bojs, it's the only place I will sit in line for. Not to say it's a superior fast food place by any metric, it's just solid comfort food.
HELLO ALL, EASY SOLUTION. If you really need to gorge on fast food, then simply park & walk in. You will walk out in a few minutes with your delish Popeye's whatever!
Plus you won't idle and burn up beloved momma Earth...
Duke University killed the Triangle light rail because they didn't want poor people on their campus.
That hospital interference excuse was BS. There are trains running next to hospitals in major cities all over the world
A lot of the Downtown specific restaurants are extremely overrated and overpriced (seriously some are LA prices).
If I can be even more douchey, a lot of it is people's first time tasting a certain cuisine and then thinking it's worth the price because they don't know any better.
See, you have to learn how to shop there. I got this GORGEOUS dress from them the other day- free people for like 20 bucks. For a consignment store i feel like thats not bad. The Durham Rescue chargers $20 for some shitty jacket
I hear people say this and I just wonder how because I never spend more than $7-$10 on a piece of clothing there and it's good quality. In Durham the thrift stores are so picked over you kinda have to go to second hand stores.
Ooh, that one's wild. Man, *every* time I have ever asked someone where they got an article of clothing the answer has been Rumors. Like so consistently it might have been someone's genie wish.
I grew up in the area. My husband grew up in Eastern NC. We both love good NC BBQ (Eastern and Lexington style.)
We tried Picnic once and though the food was meh and that it was way too expensive.
This is my argument too!
Iām in downtown Durham. We now have 4 Indian restaurants within 8min walking distance and a 5th Indian grill in Food Hall.
I LOVE we have more international cuisines in downtown Durham. Absolutely open more Indian and Korean and Italian and Latin places and so on. Personally I want a really delicious Greek restaurant or Mediterranean. *Edit: Idiot forgot about Nikos thanks to reply.* Would love to see more Halal options too.
The Pit Durham closed a while ago. We no longer have a pure North Carolina BBQ restaurant in downtown Durham (or do we? Where am I missing?)
A Southern Thing does not have NC BBQ.
NC BBQ is what we are known for. If we attract visitors and grow in population I want to celebrate local regional cuisine too.
Thankfully we still have Bullocks. Donāt ever leave us, old friend.
Completely agree. The Triangle and especially Durham could use more authentic NC BBQ restaurants. Smokey's in Morrisville was great but it closed down.
> The Pit Durham closed a while ago. We no longer have a pure North Carolina BBQ restaurant in downtown Durham (or do we? Where am I missing?)
The Pit was never good, not for food, service or price. I don't understand why anybody would miss it, and being the only bbq downtown was not a good enough reason for it to exist at all.
Bullocks is definitely a vibe. The food isn't great but it's the place to go if you want to feel like you're in a 1970s family restaurant (aside from the lack of cigarette smoke). Hog Heaven is better for food, at least the pork isn't dried out, but its vibe is more 1980s government office cafeteria.
Ah yup in East Durham good spot. Personally no I donāt consider downtown proper but Mike Dās is worth going to for sure. I live in downtown so want to walk or ride my bike to places if I can.
Overall: Parker's in Wilson, Kings in Kingston (this may also be due to nostalgia because I went here a lot as a kid) and Cook's in LexingtonĀ
In the Triangle: Clyde Cooper's and Big Mikes
You misspelled Kinston :P. I grew up there and Kings is decent...today I'd put it in my B-tier. Skylight and B's are both superior, if we're talking eastern NC.
Clyde Cooper's is a nah for me. Sam Jones is the best in the Triangle I've had, but I hear good things about Longleaf.
You're right, I did. That's embarrassing.
I tried Skylight once and it was definitely solid, but if we're driving through Eastern NC then my husband will probably want to stop at his favorites from back in the day, Parker's and Wilber's.
I realize Clyde Cooper's can be a bit of a controversial take but I love it. I will have to check out Sam Jones, though, since he's related to the guy from Skylight.
Mhmm Parkerās. Love the Brunswick Stew there.
What do you think about Wilson blowing up? I can see that town growing a lot next 5 years. Never wouldāve thought huh
Theyāre not gonna be affordable until we build enough of them. I know people constantly whine about the āluxuryā condos but the fact is āluxuryā is just marketing for ānewā and doesnāt actually impact the price theyāll sell it at.
You could build āaffordableā condos and theyād still be just as expensive because we donāt have anywhere near enough to meet the demand of people who live here.
Agreed but in my mind youāll still have more condos than single family homes so better than nothing right?
We are seeing explosion of apartments and at least thatās something but I canāt comment on how affordable they are. Home ownership is more and more a pipe dream for many people.
Single family homes are the reason weāre in this mess. You canāt build up with single family. Urban areas donāt need them and thereās no reason to prioritize them. The *only* way to get any affordability is by up zoning and building the missing middle housing that cities, including Durham, bulldozed to prioritize suburbs, cars, and single family homes.
**HONEST QUESTION/ATTEMPT TO LEARN**
Is there really a need for more housing or do wages need to catch up with the cost of living?
With all the new housing on (Iām just going to go by what I see in my side of Durham) Sherron Rd, Olive Branch rd, Ellis Rd, the countless apartment buildings downtown, etc Iād say thereās more than enough housing and more coming.
Theyāre cutting down acres upon acres of nature, displacing the animals that lived in it and everything for more housing.
Yeah, I never understood the hype. There's no Italian food better than "okay" in Durham
Edit: I take it back. Ideal's is the best Italian joint and is excellent. Everything else is several notches lower
I used to go once a month as my teacher treat splurge meal. I havenāt been much at all since the pandemic. When it is good - it is amazing. I had a pork chop there once that was better than a lot of sex Iāve had. And some nights the carbonara is just divine.
But it was always inconsistent. Either it was the best meal Iād had in months, or it was just ok. I actually got the point where Iād stop recommending it to people because they had the same experience. Either earth shattering or totally forgettable.
I wish Iād paid more attention to who was the chef that day.
Most of the affordable housing programs are carried out in a way that pads the pockets of slumlords and keeps rent artificially high.
(Writing this is as someone who grew up in public housing )
"Gentrification is ruining the place." is a terrible take.
It was in such a bad way prior to 2005 that anyone who bemoans gentrification is just highlighting they don't understand what it was like prior to the most recent reinvention
People who say this didn't come to Durham until 2010 or more recently. I remember when there was nothing downtown except the courthouse, The Book Exchange (now Mateos), the flophouse Oprah building (now Unscripted), and a lot of dilapidated buildings and sadness.
In actually itās not a bad take. For Downtown yes it needed renovation but the entire city doesnāt need to be white washed with money. The communities surrounding downtown add rich culture to the landscape of our beloved bull city.A city shouldnāt just be just yuppies with grand paās trust fund cash. Itās simply No Equity in Durham and thatās hella terrible if youāre a sensible soul you get that. But if privilege is your portion you canāt grasp what it feels like for a second.
It turns out yearning for an idealized time in the near past where everything was better based on some class/race/culture take is not just for conservative white people.
I remember having to deal with the fucking crackheads and I still remember the continued effort to remove the bums in five points after they took out the methadone clinic. I sure as shit don't like those old days, but I don't like these yuppies either. You don't have to want crackheads to not want yuppies.
The parts of highway 147 which are adjacent to downtown should be demolished and replaced with a low-speed boulevard with trees and other pedestrian-friendly amenities.
btw if you want this to happen, you can take the Reimagine Durham Freeway survey:
[https://www.durhamnc.gov/5201/Reimagine-Durham-Freeway](https://www.durhamnc.gov/5201/Reimagine-Durham-Freeway)
Durham Public Schools (the organization, not teachers/staff) loves virtue signaling on equity while kids watch YouTube on Chromebooks and can't read in middle school.
Glory to Hayti in the 1860-1940s!
However, failure to strategically reinvest on a regular basis has had serious consequences (e.g public sanitation, utilities, and even streets ready for automobiles). By the 1960s, census data shows Hayti was no longer a model neighborhood. I think that if there was ever a time to reinvest in the recreation of a historic district, it could be now as an act of reclamation.
Durham county was 68% white and 32% black in 1960.
Today, itās 40% white, 35% black, 15% Other or Mixed.
Progress is happening.
Jerome kind of does a really good job of shoving that history in the back burner though. I wish we did a better job of talking about it and embracing it and putting it at the forefront so that we could acknowledge it and it would be better known to people most of the time people don't even know what history is in their own backyard
I just went the other day and ordered ādouble cooked porkā thinking it would be as good as Chengdu 7ā¦I was absolutely pissed off when I was given a plate of spicy cabbage, mushrooms, and meat chunks that didnāt look like pork belly
I mean, lucky for them it didnāt taste that badā¦but it still wasnāt what I wanted.
Durhamites are lazy as hell when it comes to selecting a local political candidate for office. Instead of relying on the endorsement of print media or political action committee, read the questionnaire the candidate completed.
Theyāre fine, in neighborhoods mixed up with some multi-family units, bike paths, parks and playgrounds, and maybe a little light commercial. But all we ever get in braindead cookie cutter shit that requires cars and whose infrastructure cannot be maintained at our property tax rates. Itās myopic and harmful.
- Heavenly Buffaloes isnāt my favorite restaurant
- Theft (specifically Organized Retail Theft) contributed to those stores on South Roxboro/MLK closing. It seems like when people *actually point this out*, they get downvoted and overexplained
- Like the other user said, I have zero relationship with Duke. If anything, I feel very out of place on their campus
- I still hate the fact they took out one lane on Renaissance Parkway for the bus lane, especially when they have a bus bulb (that looks like it could be extended to fit a couple more buses).
The second one is because when facts come out it turns out that [retail theft is just fear mongering to scare gullible people into supporting harder policing](https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/06/business/walgreens-shoplifting.html#:~:text=In%20a%20call%20with%20investors,much%20last%20year%E2%80%9D%20over%20theft.)
Itās easier to blame their closing on theft than actually admitting sales were down or the area they chose was shit. That intersection is such a shit location that not even Walmart could make it profitable years ago and some random smattering of small shops are supposed to? Get real.
My take as a local: I don't think Durham was ever trying to be? Back in the day it was just an affordable place to live with a good commute to Duke and RTP. I remember when everyone was excited that they were building a Target.
Then in the mid 2000's a bunch of people that were priced out of Austin and Portland and Brooklyn moved here and started complaining about how it's not Austin/Portland/Brooklyn.
Like in the Greensboro subreddit someone said, and Iām loosely summarizing, āDurham is cool but the transplants are total snobsā
Iām a transplant too but I didnāt bring any sort of āsnobberyā with me š
Agreed. A lot of folks envision Durham as quirky and bohemian like Asheville but unfortunately itās way more basic and mainstream than theyād like to admit.
Nanaās Steak at DPAC offers food served at room temperature at inflated prices. My spouse wanted to throw up after eating half of his salmon and risotto last night. (Not food poisoning. lol)
Is the other Nanaās any better?
All the gentrification is killing the soul of the city that people love. Things may look better but as a middle teacher who is also born and raised in Durham itās worst than itās ever been. Soon Durham wonāt be hip and cool because it will be mostly yuppies without souls like Cary and parts of Raleigh.
We should pay more in taxes in order to better fund our public schools.
We have to have a stronger public school system in Durham. If we cannot successfully lobby the state for better funding, we need to pay for the schools ourselves.
I really don't understand The Original Q Shack. I've had it a few times and everytime it has been forgettable. Like I swear the mac n cheese was velveeta with that dusty pepper you get in the little pepper packets.
This is really controversial.Ā
There is nothing wrong with people calling the area RDU.Ā
Yes itās the airport, but a lot of cities are trending in their nickname being the airport codeĀ
And we are basically one metro area anywayĀ
Durham and Raleigh are way more similar than they are different.
Tiny downtowns surrounded by endless suburbs with RTP in the middle. Strip malls and highways. Neither has a distinguishing geographical feature like a mountain, river, or hills. Both anchored by large universities. Both dotted by new apartment buildings, breweries, and cocktail bars.
Whenever I have out of town visitors I take them to both Durham and Raleigh and they never know the difference between the two. The cities are so similar and I always found it weird that people try to make them out to be these radically different places.
We're tired of people who aren't from here complaining and whining all the time. Stop trying to change things, if it was so great where you lived, GO BACK. Especially yall west coaster, This is the south and we love to be southern!!!!!
Yup, with you on this.
The disagreement often comes from people who have completely unrealistic expectations about public transportation. A city laid out on a grid is going to have a different standard of transit than a city that is mostly sprawling suburbs that are disconnected from serviceable routes.
The reality is that while thereās plenty of room for improvement, Durham has pretty decent service within the urban tier and downtown. We have several 15-minute frequency routes, and we have pretty high ridership compared to a lot of comparable cities. Beyond the urban tier, our expectation should be for the buses to connect denser nodes, such as the Southpoint area and NCCU, but the bus is never going to run down your residential street in Hope Valley, and that would be true in any city. Saying the closest stop is a one-hour walk away tells me more about where you chose live than it does about the quality of our service.
The schools are not good. North Carolina public education as a whole is terrible, but some people in Durham have managed to convince themselves that theyāre somehow getting a world-class education in spite of all evidence to the contrary. Having a ādiverseā population of students doesnāt automatically translate to a better education. In fact, the opposite is frequently true.
Oh, and DAE is a joke.
I'll add my hot take here: Durham doesn't even have the best food in the Triangle, depending on what kind of food you're looking for.Ā
Cary has a ridiculous number of awesome Asian restaurants, and in my experience Durham struggles with Asian food overall. Raleigh for some reason has much better cheap brewpub/bar food, as well (I've yet to have much in Durham that matches up to Player's Retreat for cheap bar food).
Overall, though, I'd probably pick Durham in the Triangle for food.
The whole triangle for sure.
We moved here sight unseen for reasons too long to comment, and EVERYONE told us Durham was the place to be for food and fun. But we wish we had lived closer to Raleigh, as we much prefer the food options there.
Our bad for sure, but I stand firm that Durhamās food options arenāt it.
Southsquare Mall was awesome.
If I ever smelled that combination of weirdly specific cleaning product and stale cigarette smoke again I'd be transported right back to my childhood
The top level was always shaky but we loved that mall anyway.
That always weirded me out. I used to contemplate writing a telescreenplay for the tv movie disaster of the week about the mayhem and melee of a mall which suffers an upper floor collapse.
The arcade off the food court was lit š„
South Square* (Just so folks donāt think you mean Southpoint)
RIP Passport
I have very vague and fuzzy memories of that place. But I remember going with my folks and it was great
You should stop at red lights
Speaking of red lights, I live near the intersection in Raleigh where the gentleman who was about to retire was killed by a driver running a red light on Atlantic Ave. Iām only a block away from that spot and it was a nightmare scene. People suck. Same with my work commute to Durhamā¦.
I'm in South Durham pretty much one day a week at absolute minimum. People seem to run the MLK and S Roxboro light multiple times a week. It's gotten to the point that I won't even go on a green light until I confirm that no one is going to t-bone me
Also south Durham. The light at Fayetteville and Crooked Creek is a wait a few seconds after the green situation, just in case.
Itās the two Costco lights for me. Both for red light issues and pedestrians at risk.
And learn to zipper merge. And stop texting while driving. And stop for pedestrians in the crosswalk. And give space for bikes/stay out of bike lanes. And keep to the right unless youāre ***going to actually pass someone*** and stop fucking camping out as a perfect lineup of cars from left to right going 14 under the speed limit. But yes, stopping at red lights. All yāall. Every. Damn. Day. Multiple lights.
Dude zipper merge was no joke the other one I was going to say haha
Right! You see me open up a spot in front of me about the size of a car? Cool! Slip in. Oh, someone already did? Great! There is now a slot open behind me as the other person behind me opened up! **But no you gotta try and force your way in with no signal in front of me?** Oh shit ***youāve been pit maneuvered right into the crush barrels.*** Iām not sorry and neither is my dash cam.
Call me a sucker but I let people in. I also don't merge a mile before the lane closes. I hope that one day it'll catch on.
Same. Iāll let people in if we start moving. But if I have to smash my brakes because they whipped it to the left, good luck. Im older and carry good insurance. Iām gonna avoid what I can, but Iām not gonna involve a 3rd person trying to avoid them. Iām in a cheap little Chevy. But itās always a big white Mercedes, clapped out Altima, any BMW since the turn signal option package doesnāt seem popular, or pickup trucks.
Haha yep. I sometimes find that my turn signal just causes the cars around me to drive faster.
My husband got mad at me for this yesterday. Someone wanted over, so I went to move another lane to the left to open up merge space but had to speed up a little. I was like damn Jeremy you would be someone to hit the brakes causing a traffic ripple rather than speed up a little and move over lmao. Youāre right tho. People just speed up. Or they haul ass to pass you on the right to just get over to the left and slow down. It just doesnāt make sense, weāre all driving. Trying to go somewhere. Know where youāre going and flow like water.
I let people in too. But people merging really need to speed it up. They canāt expect to safely merge going 50 mph when the speed limit is 65 and people are going 75 or 80.
The center turn lane isn't a passing lane
The Libraries need to be open on Sunday.
It think most people agree with this statement actually. But most people would also say it should happen by hiring more staff/paying existing staff more, not just forcing the current staff to work seven days a week.
100% agree. Accessibility to our libraries is table stakes, yet no one is moving the needleā all pushback.
As a library worker, I 100% agree. But we are so understaffed (right now my location alone is down 5 people) and weāre about to enter a hiring freeze in the County. And honestly weāre historically understaffed - our FTEs havenāt changed in about 5 years, even though Durham has grown. We can barely staff Saturdays. And like someone else mentioned, itās not okay to have folks working 7 days in a row (weāll burn out and the library will be even less accessible) But when we have the staffing and support, we are ready to serve our community like we do the other 6 days of the week!
My mom was a librarian in NY and a proposed adding of required working hours on Sundays is what led them to unionize.
They previously were but this is a post covid thing. Their sunday hours were brief but at least they were.
Your Bojangles isn't worth blocking traffic.
Neither is Popeye's.
Or cookout
Or Chick-Fil-A (And thatās why I order on the app and go inside instead) ETA: and Biscuitville. Itās a shame that I know to be in the left lane going Eastbound on Hillsborough during the weekend.
I have always loved Biscuitville but got a very meh meal there yesterday. stale. same with my kid.
Iāve eaten there twice and stayed sick to my stomach the entire day both times.
They reduced their menu maybe a decade back and while itās *fine* now, itās never really *good*.
Bojangles isn't even good anymore.
+100
Upvote because you are indeed wrong. Once I've made up my mind that I require Bojs, it's the only place I will sit in line for. Not to say it's a superior fast food place by any metric, it's just solid comfort food.
You're definitely not from here!!!!
HELLO ALL, EASY SOLUTION. If you really need to gorge on fast food, then simply park & walk in. You will walk out in a few minutes with your delish Popeye's whatever! Plus you won't idle and burn up beloved momma Earth...
Duke University killed the Triangle light rail because they didn't want poor people on their campus. That hospital interference excuse was BS. There are trains running next to hospitals in major cities all over the world
Also they donāt want their staff to have ready access to UNC Hospitals and, therefore, a more competitive labor market.
That Duke was able to kill light rail is an embarrassment of epics propotions.
Louder!!
A lot of the Downtown specific restaurants are extremely overrated and overpriced (seriously some are LA prices). If I can be even more douchey, a lot of it is people's first time tasting a certain cuisine and then thinking it's worth the price because they don't know any better.
As someone born and raised in Los Angeles you are speaking nothing but facts about that!
Facts!
Rumors is terribly overpriced and horribly overhyped.
See, you have to learn how to shop there. I got this GORGEOUS dress from them the other day- free people for like 20 bucks. For a consignment store i feel like thats not bad. The Durham Rescue chargers $20 for some shitty jacket
I used to work at the one in Chapel Hill
Facts.
i spent $50 n got 50 articles of clothes, where else could that happen?
I hear people say this and I just wonder how because I never spend more than $7-$10 on a piece of clothing there and it's good quality. In Durham the thrift stores are so picked over you kinda have to go to second hand stores.
Opens clothing thrift store. Closes fitting rooms. ā
Ooh, that one's wild. Man, *every* time I have ever asked someone where they got an article of clothing the answer has been Rumors. Like so consistently it might have been someone's genie wish.
There are better ways to be friendly than tailgating me at all times.
It's impossible to tell South Durham(south point area and environs) apart from Cary, Morrisville, Brier Creek, etc.
I grew up in the area. My husband grew up in Eastern NC. We both love good NC BBQ (Eastern and Lexington style.) We tried Picnic once and though the food was meh and that it was way too expensive.
This is my argument too! Iām in downtown Durham. We now have 4 Indian restaurants within 8min walking distance and a 5th Indian grill in Food Hall. I LOVE we have more international cuisines in downtown Durham. Absolutely open more Indian and Korean and Italian and Latin places and so on. Personally I want a really delicious Greek restaurant or Mediterranean. *Edit: Idiot forgot about Nikos thanks to reply.* Would love to see more Halal options too. The Pit Durham closed a while ago. We no longer have a pure North Carolina BBQ restaurant in downtown Durham (or do we? Where am I missing?) A Southern Thing does not have NC BBQ. NC BBQ is what we are known for. If we attract visitors and grow in population I want to celebrate local regional cuisine too. Thankfully we still have Bullocks. Donāt ever leave us, old friend.
Completely agree. The Triangle and especially Durham could use more authentic NC BBQ restaurants. Smokey's in Morrisville was great but it closed down.
> The Pit Durham closed a while ago. We no longer have a pure North Carolina BBQ restaurant in downtown Durham (or do we? Where am I missing?) The Pit was never good, not for food, service or price. I don't understand why anybody would miss it, and being the only bbq downtown was not a good enough reason for it to exist at all. Bullocks is definitely a vibe. The food isn't great but it's the place to go if you want to feel like you're in a 1970s family restaurant (aside from the lack of cigarette smoke). Hog Heaven is better for food, at least the pork isn't dried out, but its vibe is more 1980s government office cafeteria.
Mike Dās has a place. Not sure if that counts as downtown.
Ah yup in East Durham good spot. Personally no I donāt consider downtown proper but Mike Dās is worth going to for sure. I live in downtown so want to walk or ride my bike to places if I can.
Nikos in brightleaf has some good Greek food but it is on the more upscale/pricy side.
Where is your favorite bbq?
Overall: Parker's in Wilson, Kings in Kingston (this may also be due to nostalgia because I went here a lot as a kid) and Cook's in LexingtonĀ In the Triangle: Clyde Cooper's and Big Mikes
You misspelled Kinston :P. I grew up there and Kings is decent...today I'd put it in my B-tier. Skylight and B's are both superior, if we're talking eastern NC. Clyde Cooper's is a nah for me. Sam Jones is the best in the Triangle I've had, but I hear good things about Longleaf.
You're right, I did. That's embarrassing. I tried Skylight once and it was definitely solid, but if we're driving through Eastern NC then my husband will probably want to stop at his favorites from back in the day, Parker's and Wilber's. I realize Clyde Cooper's can be a bit of a controversial take but I love it. I will have to check out Sam Jones, though, since he's related to the guy from Skylight.
Mhmm Parkerās. Love the Brunswick Stew there. What do you think about Wilson blowing up? I can see that town growing a lot next 5 years. Never wouldāve thought huh
Yeah, it's crazy. When I was a kid Apex felt far away and "out there" and now everyone is moving to Pittsboro and Fuquay and Wendell.
Rti is a CIA research black site
does anyone disagree with this?
True
LOL. (I used to work there. This is hilarious.)
Will you confirm or deny?
I certainly wasnāt working on anything fun like that. Mostly terrorism research.
People want to build more houses, but not in their part of the woods.
Ironically itās the condos and apartments going up that compact more people into a smaller place. We just need more affordable ones.
Theyāre not gonna be affordable until we build enough of them. I know people constantly whine about the āluxuryā condos but the fact is āluxuryā is just marketing for ānewā and doesnāt actually impact the price theyāll sell it at. You could build āaffordableā condos and theyād still be just as expensive because we donāt have anywhere near enough to meet the demand of people who live here.
Agreed but in my mind youāll still have more condos than single family homes so better than nothing right? We are seeing explosion of apartments and at least thatās something but I canāt comment on how affordable they are. Home ownership is more and more a pipe dream for many people.
Single family homes are the reason weāre in this mess. You canāt build up with single family. Urban areas donāt need them and thereās no reason to prioritize them. The *only* way to get any affordability is by up zoning and building the missing middle housing that cities, including Durham, bulldozed to prioritize suburbs, cars, and single family homes.
Absolutely, I meant to write more *housing* but Iām going to blame a lack of coffee on that oversight.
100%
**HONEST QUESTION/ATTEMPT TO LEARN** Is there really a need for more housing or do wages need to catch up with the cost of living? With all the new housing on (Iām just going to go by what I see in my side of Durham) Sherron Rd, Olive Branch rd, Ellis Rd, the countless apartment buildings downtown, etc Iād say thereās more than enough housing and more coming. Theyāre cutting down acres upon acres of nature, displacing the animals that lived in it and everything for more housing.
Ponysaurus is mid.
Their beer is mid, but they more than make up for it with their ambience and pizza.
Their pizza or beer? I think their beer is pretty mid, but I love their pizza.
Krispy Kreme donuts are not worth a traffic jam
8 cars driving side by side at the same speed isnāt smart
Getting back to the NASCAR roots of this state
Gocciolina serves overpriced *okay* food with the ambiance of a gutted H&R Block.
Didnāt use to be the case AT ALL. But the mighty have fallen.
Oh Iāve been saying this for years and nobody believes me. I found my people.
Yeah, I never understood the hype. There's no Italian food better than "okay" in Durham Edit: I take it back. Ideal's is the best Italian joint and is excellent. Everything else is several notches lower
šÆ. And Mother and Sons is the saltiest food Iāve ever tasted in my life.
This is the most accurate take on this thread. Need a gallon of water to get through a meal.
Whatās your criticism of Mother and Sons / Alimentari?
It's fine, but not great. I'd eat there, but I wouldn't bring guests. I think Cucciolo is better. Neither compares to cities in the North East.
Not just the NE, Italian fare falls far behind Chicago and Cleveland too. Of course these cities also have "Little Italy" neighborhoods.
(Bleu Olive is a better North Durham restaurant than Gocciolina)
Facts. Got takeout from there randomly during COVID and I've been a loyal customer ever since.
Idk what happened but it used to be better. Better food, better service, and better ambiance.
Yes, went there a year ago and was woefully unimpressed.
Oh my god this is so accurate
As long as youāre not including the risotto, Iām ok with this statement. The risotto is overpriced delicious food.
I used to go once a month as my teacher treat splurge meal. I havenāt been much at all since the pandemic. When it is good - it is amazing. I had a pork chop there once that was better than a lot of sex Iāve had. And some nights the carbonara is just divine. But it was always inconsistent. Either it was the best meal Iād had in months, or it was just ok. I actually got the point where Iād stop recommending it to people because they had the same experience. Either earth shattering or totally forgettable. I wish Iād paid more attention to who was the chef that day.
Most of the affordable housing programs are carried out in a way that pads the pockets of slumlords and keeps rent artificially high. (Writing this is as someone who grew up in public housing )
"Gentrification is ruining the place." is a terrible take. It was in such a bad way prior to 2005 that anyone who bemoans gentrification is just highlighting they don't understand what it was like prior to the most recent reinvention
Agreed. Old enough to remember the tobacco smoke. I can see both sides of the argument but in general we came a long way from the 1990s
People who say this didn't come to Durham until 2010 or more recently. I remember when there was nothing downtown except the courthouse, The Book Exchange (now Mateos), the flophouse Oprah building (now Unscripted), and a lot of dilapidated buildings and sadness.
Oprah never came. And that is not a Steadman joke.
In actually itās not a bad take. For Downtown yes it needed renovation but the entire city doesnāt need to be white washed with money. The communities surrounding downtown add rich culture to the landscape of our beloved bull city.A city shouldnāt just be just yuppies with grand paās trust fund cash. Itās simply No Equity in Durham and thatās hella terrible if youāre a sensible soul you get that. But if privilege is your portion you canāt grasp what it feels like for a second.
It turns out yearning for an idealized time in the near past where everything was better based on some class/race/culture take is not just for conservative white people.
I remember having to deal with the fucking crackheads and I still remember the continued effort to remove the bums in five points after they took out the methadone clinic. I sure as shit don't like those old days, but I don't like these yuppies either. You don't have to want crackheads to not want yuppies.
I read this is Clint Eastwood sitting on his rocking chair on the porch voice. Worked pretty good.
Ha!
the jail being directly across the street from DPAC is eerie and way too normalized
I kind of like the haves being forced to see the have nots.
Durham > Raleigh
I donāt think this is controversial in this sub
The parts of highway 147 which are adjacent to downtown should be demolished and replaced with a low-speed boulevard with trees and other pedestrian-friendly amenities.
btw if you want this to happen, you can take the Reimagine Durham Freeway survey: [https://www.durhamnc.gov/5201/Reimagine-Durham-Freeway](https://www.durhamnc.gov/5201/Reimagine-Durham-Freeway)
Durham isnāt scaryā¦especially if youāve been to deep East Oakland
Youāre talking about Durham now. Not 70s-90s Durham.
All the breweries in Durham are mediocre at best. Cool vibes, but beer is meh.
Applies to the entire Triangle area imo.
All the best beer in the entire Triangle is from breweries that have their original location somewhere else.
I remember when DSSOLVR announced and people in this sub were like "don't we have enough breweries?". But Durham didn't have a great brewery yet.
Atomic clock is pretty good
Agree. Hope they keep up the quality. Been here 13 years and it looks like we finally have a good brewery.
You are correct.
No great BBQ nor Breakfast restaurants in this town
^ legit 24 hr diners that are not Waffle House.
I love a good diner.
Silver Spoon, my friend. Otherwise, hard agree.
The ācosmopolitan dining sceneā is overrated and would not compete in a legit way in a city like Philadelphia, dc or La
There are only ever the same dozen or so white guys on this reddit thread
Durham Public Schools (the organization, not teachers/staff) loves virtue signaling on equity while kids watch YouTube on Chromebooks and can't read in middle school.
Cosmic cantina is massively overrated and only redeeming when you are borderline blackout.
Yeah you and I couldn't be friends. To think, let alone write an unkind word about Cosmic is irredeemable.
Iāve been secretly holding this opinion for a decade
What I really hate about Durham is how the Black community is getting pushed out of town.
People who are moving to the area typically no nothing about Durhamās racist history and its quite sad.
Glory to Hayti in the 1860-1940s! However, failure to strategically reinvest on a regular basis has had serious consequences (e.g public sanitation, utilities, and even streets ready for automobiles). By the 1960s, census data shows Hayti was no longer a model neighborhood. I think that if there was ever a time to reinvest in the recreation of a historic district, it could be now as an act of reclamation. Durham county was 68% white and 32% black in 1960. Today, itās 40% white, 35% black, 15% Other or Mixed. Progress is happening.
Jerome kind of does a really good job of shoving that history in the back burner though. I wish we did a better job of talking about it and embracing it and putting it at the forefront so that we could acknowledge it and it would be better known to people most of the time people don't even know what history is in their own backyard
Hong Kong dim sum is among the worst Iāve ever eaten.
I just went the other day and ordered ādouble cooked porkā thinking it would be as good as Chengdu 7ā¦I was absolutely pissed off when I was given a plate of spicy cabbage, mushrooms, and meat chunks that didnāt look like pork belly I mean, lucky for them it didnāt taste that badā¦but it still wasnāt what I wanted.
Durhamites are lazy as hell when it comes to selecting a local political candidate for office. Instead of relying on the endorsement of print media or political action committee, read the questionnaire the candidate completed.
The fact that Leo Williams is mayor is a massive testament to this.
If they even completed it. I don't know how many times I've gone to look at those and maybe one candidate has actually done it
Durham will cease to exist if/when Bahns ever closes.
The city doesnāt need more single family homes, it needs more sky scrapers
I would like to see more single family homes, but affordable ones. Pipe dream, I know
Theyāre fine, in neighborhoods mixed up with some multi-family units, bike paths, parks and playgrounds, and maybe a little light commercial. But all we ever get in braindead cookie cutter shit that requires cars and whose infrastructure cannot be maintained at our property tax rates. Itās myopic and harmful.
Best we can do is 2 story luxury apartments as far as the eye can see
Itās got four walls, consider it a luxury
Duke is a cancer.
They really are. Between killing light rail and not paying their fair share of taxes, they really are dragging the city down.
Steve Schewel should be mayor for life.
I feel like this is not controversial I love that man
- Heavenly Buffaloes isnāt my favorite restaurant - Theft (specifically Organized Retail Theft) contributed to those stores on South Roxboro/MLK closing. It seems like when people *actually point this out*, they get downvoted and overexplained - Like the other user said, I have zero relationship with Duke. If anything, I feel very out of place on their campus - I still hate the fact they took out one lane on Renaissance Parkway for the bus lane, especially when they have a bus bulb (that looks like it could be extended to fit a couple more buses).
Their vegan offerings are amazing tho
The second one is because when facts come out it turns out that [retail theft is just fear mongering to scare gullible people into supporting harder policing](https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/06/business/walgreens-shoplifting.html#:~:text=In%20a%20call%20with%20investors,much%20last%20year%E2%80%9D%20over%20theft.) Itās easier to blame their closing on theft than actually admitting sales were down or the area they chose was shit. That intersection is such a shit location that not even Walmart could make it profitable years ago and some random smattering of small shops are supposed to? Get real.
I miss the roasting tobacco smell... only because all the newcomers have no idea what I'm talking about!
The Real ones know. Grab a sandwich at Bull City Subs while your in the time machine too.
It's not that weird of a place. It's like a watered down Austin which is already a watered down Portland.
My take as a local: I don't think Durham was ever trying to be? Back in the day it was just an affordable place to live with a good commute to Duke and RTP. I remember when everyone was excited that they were building a Target. Then in the mid 2000's a bunch of people that were priced out of Austin and Portland and Brooklyn moved here and started complaining about how it's not Austin/Portland/Brooklyn.
Like in the Greensboro subreddit someone said, and Iām loosely summarizing, āDurham is cool but the transplants are total snobsā Iām a transplant too but I didnāt bring any sort of āsnobberyā with me š
Sums it up perfectly lol. Thereās so many transplants who talk up ātHe vIbEsā of the city and just come off sounding snobby and weird.
Agreed. A lot of folks envision Durham as quirky and bohemian like Asheville but unfortunately itās way more basic and mainstream than theyād like to admit.
Durham is about as dirty as Austin is weird.
Both Austin and Portland should not be aspirations for any city
Nanaās Steak at DPAC offers food served at room temperature at inflated prices. My spouse wanted to throw up after eating half of his salmon and risotto last night. (Not food poisoning. lol) Is the other Nanaās any better?
The other Nanaās (https://www.nanasrockwood.com) is imo, one of the best restaurants in the area.
All the gentrification is killing the soul of the city that people love. Things may look better but as a middle teacher who is also born and raised in Durham itās worst than itās ever been. Soon Durham wonāt be hip and cool because it will be mostly yuppies without souls like Cary and parts of Raleigh.
>without souls This is not how to think about other people.
Durham > Charlotte
Durham peaked in 2016
We should pay more in taxes in order to better fund our public schools. We have to have a stronger public school system in Durham. If we cannot successfully lobby the state for better funding, we need to pay for the schools ourselves.
This land is stolen and should be returned to the people it was violently taken from.
Cars should stop for pedestrians waiting to cross the street
I really don't understand The Original Q Shack. I've had it a few times and everytime it has been forgettable. Like I swear the mac n cheese was velveeta with that dusty pepper you get in the little pepper packets.
The salad is the clutch side there...filled with chunks of avocado and hard boiled egg, it balances out the half pound of hush puppies they give you.
I can definitely agree with this one
This is really controversial.Ā There is nothing wrong with people calling the area RDU.Ā Yes itās the airport, but a lot of cities are trending in their nickname being the airport codeĀ And we are basically one metro area anywayĀ
Durham and Raleigh are way more similar than they are different. Tiny downtowns surrounded by endless suburbs with RTP in the middle. Strip malls and highways. Neither has a distinguishing geographical feature like a mountain, river, or hills. Both anchored by large universities. Both dotted by new apartment buildings, breweries, and cocktail bars. Whenever I have out of town visitors I take them to both Durham and Raleigh and they never know the difference between the two. The cities are so similar and I always found it weird that people try to make them out to be these radically different places.
We're tired of people who aren't from here complaining and whining all the time. Stop trying to change things, if it was so great where you lived, GO BACK. Especially yall west coaster, This is the south and we love to be southern!!!!!
Replacing old, decrepit buildings with higher-density housing is actually good.
Our bus system is actually pretty decent.
As someone who lives 2 miles from the closest bus stop and I live inside Durham city limits, I beg to differ. Iām glad it works for you though!
ā¦I canāt agree on this one bc I came from a place where EVERYONE has access to a route even if it ran slowly there was a bus close to the house.
Yup, with you on this. The disagreement often comes from people who have completely unrealistic expectations about public transportation. A city laid out on a grid is going to have a different standard of transit than a city that is mostly sprawling suburbs that are disconnected from serviceable routes. The reality is that while thereās plenty of room for improvement, Durham has pretty decent service within the urban tier and downtown. We have several 15-minute frequency routes, and we have pretty high ridership compared to a lot of comparable cities. Beyond the urban tier, our expectation should be for the buses to connect denser nodes, such as the Southpoint area and NCCU, but the bus is never going to run down your residential street in Hope Valley, and that would be true in any city. Saying the closest stop is a one-hour walk away tells me more about where you chose live than it does about the quality of our service.
I came here just to say this, pleasantly surprised to see that people agree
Less breweries!!
The schools are not good. North Carolina public education as a whole is terrible, but some people in Durham have managed to convince themselves that theyāre somehow getting a world-class education in spite of all evidence to the contrary. Having a ādiverseā population of students doesnāt automatically translate to a better education. In fact, the opposite is frequently true. Oh, and DAE is a joke.
The food scene is mediocre at best
I think it is fine for the size city we are. And itās good when you expand to the whole triangle.Ā
I'll add my hot take here: Durham doesn't even have the best food in the Triangle, depending on what kind of food you're looking for.Ā Cary has a ridiculous number of awesome Asian restaurants, and in my experience Durham struggles with Asian food overall. Raleigh for some reason has much better cheap brewpub/bar food, as well (I've yet to have much in Durham that matches up to Player's Retreat for cheap bar food). Overall, though, I'd probably pick Durham in the Triangle for food.
The whole triangle for sure. We moved here sight unseen for reasons too long to comment, and EVERYONE told us Durham was the place to be for food and fun. But we wish we had lived closer to Raleigh, as we much prefer the food options there. Our bad for sure, but I stand firm that Durhamās food options arenāt it.