A short saunter from the East Campus bus stop and the pristine lawns of Trinity Heights, the sidewalk starts to crumble and Latin music beats boom from cruising pick-up trucks.
"You have this part, and then you have that part with the rich people," said Walltown resident Dana Dunn Sunday afternoon. "Snobby, rich kids that have long shaggy hair. I don't know how to explain it. They're just weird."
Walltown sits a short distance from the student-rented houses on N. Buchanan Boulevard, but to the residents of this predominantly black neighborhood, it is a world apart from Duke's Gothic spires and preprofessional associations.
Duke-Durham relations-long characterized by tension and unease-have recently been exacerbated by allegations that members of the men's lacrosse team raped, sodomized, strangled and robbed an exotic dancer at a party during Spring Break.
Television cameras and newspaper headlines continue to highlight the disparity between Duke and the world beyond its stone walls.
"Most people have been upset about what's happened in those houses for a long time," said Trinity Heights resident Wendy Goldstein. "It's almost like it's over the wall-it's the city's problem."
Goldstein said some of her friends attended the vigils outside the house where the alleged gang-rape occurred, but she chose not to participate.
"Everybody's suspicious of Duke," said Fred Lamar, who has lived in the University faculty-filled Trinity Heights for five years. "I hear a lot of people badmouthing Duke, but the fact of the matter is what's good for these neighborhoods is good for Duke."
Many of the neighborhood residents questioned the University's response to the incident, characterizing it as inadequate or otherwise sub-par. But the response is consistent with the University's past attitudes toward off-campus housing, they said.
"[The lacrosse team], in particular, thinks they can do anything they want and their daddies and lawyers will protect them," said Holly Francis, a 14-year resident of Durham and a University employee.
"The administration has, in a sense, reinforced that idea," added five-year Durham resident Chuck Davis. "You don't have to go to court to judge an asshole."
Friday night, Durham Police Department officers warned of threats of gang-related violence targeting Duke students.
Larry Moneta, vice president for student affairs, informed students that the DPD has increased patrol coverage in an e-mail to students Friday night.
In response, Durham resident Betty Greene wrote an accusatory e-mail to a Durham community listserv Sunday morning.
"Moneta's vague, inflammatory, racist e-mail was clearly intended to make students see Durham as too dangerous for them to venture out into it," Greene wrote. "Moneta's e-mail will only add more strain to Duke's rapidly deteriorating relations with the communities that already feel violated and ignored by Duke's behavior."
Down the street from Dunn, still farther from Buchanan Boulevard, many Walltown residents said they are withholding judgment. Some added that they think the allegations might be a hoax.
"I think it's BS-I don't want to believe it," said Alvin Black, a Howard University-bound high school senior. Black, who plays lacrosse for his high school, knows some members of the Duke lacrosse team and now lives with Duke students.
Other Walltown residents, however, said Duke students do have a reputation for partying, and the Duke campus-still called "The Plantation" by some older residents-has a reputation for racism.
"Me, being in Durham all my life, I was always told Duke was a prejudiced campus, that if you go there after dark, something might happen to you," said 39-year-old Hubert Albright, a Walltown resident who was born and raised in Durham. "Personally, I feel like the young lady was wrong for having the job. I feel the guys might have gotten out of hand. I don't think it's so much a race issue."
Sisters Ashley and Geniece Bey, like many students and Trinity Heights residents, said they are holding off judgment until DNA tests come back and charges are filed. As of Sunday, no charges had been filed.
"When I heard about it, I was a little disturbed-I'm not afraid to walk or anything, but it's kind of a shock," Ashley Bey said. "I think it would have been different if it was a white woman at a black school. I think if it was at another school they would find the evidence."
Geniece Bey noted that some members of the Walltown community do show an "animosity" toward Duke students, if not toward the institution itself.
What most irked many local residents was the perceived haughtiness of Duke students in their dealings with the broader Durham community.
"It's probably the kids that go there, thinking they're top notch," said 19-year-old Anthony Williams. "They think they can walk around with their nose in the air."
Still others noted the economic disparities between the University and its surroundings.
"People have the consensus that Duke is a power broker, and they do what they want to do," said a long-time Walltown resident who declined to offer her name. "They hold the purse string, and they use it.
"But all in all, [the University] hopes that they can bridge the gaps that do exist," she said.
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