Durham Mayor Bill Bell highlighted his vision for poverty reduction in the 13th annual State of the City Address.
In the speech he gave Thursday evening, Bell outlined a number of strategies to combat poverty in Durham over the next few years—including greater economic diversity and development, particularly in the south side of Durham. In addition to his emphasis on poverty, Bell also addressed plans for increasing community input on policing and supporting transportation infrastructure.
"As I said last year, the road to reducing poverty is not easy and is mostly uphill," Bell said.
Bell highlighted major accomplishments from 2014 mainly in the areas of economic development, new construction and accolades Durham has received. Bell outlined five strategic goals he plans to work on in the coming year including economic development, reducing crime, neighborhood revitalization, securing fiscal responsibility in Durham city government and maintenance of city buildings and infrastructure.
In terms of reducing poverty, Bell prioritized neighborhood revitalization and new construction as ways to help mitigate homelessness.
“I would like to see us set a manageable goal for reducing homelessness in 2015,” Bell said.
He emphasized the importance of completing construction at Southside East—a revitalization project on the southern edge of downtown Durham—and building multi-family rental units, with some designated for families below the poverty line. The project is intended to create a mixed-income development.
Bell highlighted the city’s poverty-reducing initiative that incorporated the feedback of six task forces and community surveys. The task forces will remain active in the coming year and continue to develop their strategic plans, he said.
Bell also reaffirmed plans to support other infrastructural developments in Durham, including the Durham-Orange corridor lightrail transit project, which would extend 17.1 miles and connect an expanse from East Durham to UNC Hospital. Mayor Bell said he will support the city’s efforts to plan transit stops for the project. He encouraged citizens to attend meetings about light rail hosted by triangle transit.
Last month, Google announced that it will be launching Google Fiber in Raleigh-Durham, a move which has the potential to exponentially increase the speed of broadband available in the triangle. Bell was supportive of fiber installation in his speech.
“We must continue to work with Google, Time Warner, AT&T and Frontier in preparation for fiber installation,” he said.
In his remarks about crime reduction, Bell addressed the issue of police relations with the Durham community. Overall, he spoke supportively of the Durham police but acknowledged that the city has a duty to work to improve the police force when errors become apparent.
“Let me emphasize that we as a City Council and city administration respect and support the overall work that our police department does in providing services to the residents of our city.... At the same time, we must always evaluate how those services are being delivered and work to improve those areas in which they may be deficient,” he said.
Bell also announced plans for community input on the development of new police headquarters through a charette—a meeting in which the Durham community holds a conversation about police and community relations.
Though he acknowledged the budgetary constraints the city is under, Bell remained optimistic about his priorities.
“We always have the challenge of making decisions that lead to a balanced budget, while at the same time taking into consideration those priorities with which we have the resources to support,” Bell said.
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