As proud residents of Durham who care deeply about the perception folks carry about our community, we felt compelled to respond to an April 5 column poking fun at Durham.
The column was provocative and made some otherwise good points had it not been for the inaccuracies and condescension. At this time especially, we need to be looking for ways that we can come together. When some students put down Durham in an effort to explain their intense emotion and passion, things are only made worse.
Neither of us are sure why calling Duke the "gown" of town-gown relations is an issue, but in a spirit of cooperation, "town" works for us. We'd like to address the second question-on the importance of "town-school" relations.
The University is an important part of Durham-just as Durham is an important part of Duke. They are symbiotic, and one would not be the same without the other. It is safe to say that most Durham residents feel very fortunate to be in the home of Duke University.
In fact, Durham residents brought Duke to this community and nurtured it, many as Duke officials, to be what it is today. The importance of good town-school relations has many short and long-term effects. For example, the economic power of students is important to many small businesses' livelihoods.
The diverse mix of shops, restaurants, historic sites, museums, festivals, nightlife and other features that make Durham unique are largely supported by students and employees of the University.
Durham would be a very different place without Duke. People like James B. Duke and his peers chose Durham as the location for this school so that young students could come and receive one of the best educations in the country.
The facts show that many of the more extreme characterizations of Durham and Duke are just not true. It may be helpful to point out some clarifications:
Durham hosts more than 5 million visitors annually, the majority for leisure purposes. While Duke is a draw, and Durham promotes its many features of visitor interest, the vast majority of visitors to Durham come for other purposes.
Durham exceeds national fair market share for travelers coming here for cultural-heritage reasons. Fortunately, Duke provides a good share of Durham's cultural landscape and contributes significantly to the community's overall unique sense of place. But it represents only a portion of why visitors are drawn here.
Far more than communities of similar size, Durham has 26 local unique restaurants and 13 festivals that have earned national or regional acclaim. Overall, Durham has 18 performing arts theaters, 20 historic sites, 10 golf courses, six major nature areas, two art museums and a thriving arts community.
Durham is also fortunate to be home to NCCU, Research Triangle Park, half of the State's biotech firms and much more, all of which make it one of the leading business climates anywhere and ranked it as one of the top places to live.
The neighborhoods Duke students frequent are not remotely the most violent in the state. Overall, Durham ranks as average in crime for its 10 city and 29 city cohorts in the southeast and nation.
Durham ranks No. 1 in the Creative Class scorecard (developed by Carnegie-Mellon professor Dr. Richard Florida), which includes a very positive score for brain gain (number of college graduates staying or moving here versus those who leave after graduation). Durham has one of the largest concentrations of Duke graduates.
One of the most important things to remember about Duke and Durham is that each is really just a collection of people.
We are fortunate that we have an atmosphere that attracts talented students like Miller to a rich and diverse city that we call home. It's also great that we can disagree about characterizations of Duke and Durham-and that we don't have to use a broad-brush either because of a few events or experiences.
In that spirit, Durham has reached out to Duke for better relations, as has the University throughout its history. Both need to continue to do so. Duke and Durham are fortunate to have each other.
Reyn Bowman and Josh Parker are residents of Durham. Bowman is president of the Durham Convention and Visitors Bureau.
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