Dacian oaks

Most of the willow oaks that line the streets in my neighborhood were planted during the neighborhood's early development. This probably dates the trees to the 1910s-1930s. 

Which came first, the trees or the power lines? Did the electric company or urban foresters foresee the impending conflict between trees and lines a century ago? 

Eventually, as the trees grew, Duke Energy handled the problem by trimming the trees thus: 

Trimmed willow oak on North St. between Monmouth and Dacian

These butchered trees can be seen all over Durham's early near-downtown "suburbs." (A notable exception is Monmouth Avenue, where someone had the foresight to run the power lines through an alley rather than on the street.)

The normal life span of a willow oak is about 100-125 years--less, if they're butchered by the energy company.

A few weeks ago, the City of Durham notified neighbors on a block of Dacian Avenue (which runs parallel to Monmouth, one block north) that all of the old willow oaks on the public right-of-way were coming down. Some neighbors attempted to negotiate less drastic options with the city--for example, selective removal of the weakest trees, rather than all at once--to no avail.

Dacian before tree removal

So the neighbors thanked the trees:

And then the trees came down.

In the photo below, it's startling to see how much the unbutchered tree on the right towers over the power lines.

Remember the Dacian oaks, and go hug a tree today.

Banana split loop: Roxboro Road and the greenway at night

Last night, S came home from a bike ride and said downtown was stuffed to the gills with people out and about. Covid ain't over yet, but vaccinations are ramping up, state-mandated restrictions have been relaxing, and people are celebrating. We wanted to take a walk, so we headed in the opposite direction from the experimental germ soup brewing downtown, aiming instead to share a banana split at Goodberry's on N. Roxboro Road.

N. Roxboro isn't a quiet street during the day, and it seemed even busier and noisier than usual on Friday night. Ah, spring. Even with sidewalks along most of our route, the traffic and headlights made for a challenging walk.

We stopped for soft tacos at a food truck, but it was really the potassium-filled banana in the banana split at Goodberry's that made the walk worthwhile.

Way back in 2009, when we were on sabbatical in Germany, we went on a hike in the mountains with E and some longtime family friends. We didn't realize 8-year-old E had a slight fever--he was unusually cranky and whiny, and we thought he was just hangry. At one point he reached his limit. He stopped, began to cry, and then announced through his tears, "I need a banana." So we gave the poor thing a banana--a transaction that led to the discovery that he had a fever, but also amazingly re-energized him. Instead of turning around and going home, we continued the hike with E happily bouncing along the trail ahead of us. Bananas are amazing things, and the banana in the Goodberry's banana split was one of those mood-altering miracles.

S had brought along a bike light, so for our route home, we skipped Roxboro Road and instead headed for the greenway trail access on Stadium Drive. A Northern High School football game was just wrapping up in Durham County Memorial Stadium as we walked by, and although the stadium was far from full, it was nice to know some semblance of a normal high school experience was returning. 

On the greenway, we saw a lot of frogs...

...said hello to the brontosaurus...

...tried out a new dance move...

...and pondered the revolution.

NCCU loop

On Thursday, I extended an errand by adding on a visit to NC Central University, a UNC-system HBCU near downtown Durham. 

Near Loaf, downtown. I left it for someone else to find.

This mural memorializing the history of Black Wall Street and Hayti was painted in 1998. Alas, it needs some maintenance. See what it used to look like, and read about the challenges of maintaining murals here. A fabulous database of Durham's murals is maintained at muraldurham.com, which emerged as part of a project by Duke students. Later, a collaboration between Duke's Nasher Art Museum, Preservation Durham, the Museum of Durham History, and Bike Durham led to the creation of monthly bike tours of Durham murals.

Mural detail: Associated Cab. A 2013 article in the NCCU Campus Echo says "the cab driver represents the people who gave suggestions and constructive criticism to the artists and volunteers."

One of the many entrances to NCCU:

James Edward Shepard, 1875-1947, founder and president, North Carolina College at Durham, 1910-1947. Behind the statue is the James E. Shepard Administration Building, renamed in 2019, following student activism to change the name. The building was previously named for former NC governor, Clyde Hoey, who was a white segregationist. (Buildings at App State and Western Carolina University were also renamed, following the 2020 protests against the murder of George Floyd.)

The steps leading down to the athletic fields are steep enough to make folks with acrophobia teeter a tad...

Protecting the (NCCU Eagles') Nest at the Phys Ed and Recreation Complex:

NCCU's Centennial Garden:

NCCU's Centennial Chapel dates to 1939, and was relocated to Fayetteville St. from Alston Ave. in 2010. 

Bees and building reflections at the NCCU Biomanufacturing Research Institute and Technology Enterprise. It's quite the building!

My cell phone camera doesn't show looming hills very well, but as I looped back toward downtown on S. Roxboro Road, I was surprised to see that the building looming high above these apartments is the new Durham County Courthouse. (Eighty of the 132 units are reserved for income-restricted residents.)

Here, this photo shows the looming-ness better...

Crosswalk signal buttons. Priorities...

The renovated downtown Durham County Library building is gorgeous, with lots of space available for sitting outside in the sun and/or shade once the library re-opens for hanging out post-pandemic.

Durham County Department of Public Health loop

I put my name on the county waitlist for the covid vaccine, and they called Tuesday morning with a slot, so that was my loop walk for the day.

I received my shot in the DCoDPH building, where the process was running smoothly with an enthusiastic buzz in the air. Below: the DCoDPH building; note the giant yellow word "FUND" and the accompanying arrow painted on the road. The road was painted during the BLM protests last summer. 

N.C. Society of Engineers started right in this spot in downtown Durham in 1918, where an NC Highway Historical Marker reminds us of that auspicious occasion. 

Looking up the marker online, I learned that there's a historical marker database that lets you know what signs are "within shouting distance" of other markers, so maybe I'll plan a Durham walk built around historical markers. The NC Highway Historical Markers in Durham are listed here and mapped here (zoom out to see more markers). Such a walk would be enlightening both in terms of local history and in terms of how perspectives on local history change. For example, here's a glowing biosketch on Julian Shakespeare Carr. Carr is now remembered locally more for being a KKK-supporting lynching-celebrating white supremacist than for being an "eccentric," "generous," innovative tobacco magnate. The Carr historical marker is a block away from the Pauli Murray historical marker, and there are three Pauli Murray murals in town and no Julian Carr murals--signs of the changing times.

On to art! Mural at Main and Church, looking a little worn down by the covid-emptied parking lot.

On to advertising! Faded restored ads on the side of 107 E. Parrish. 

Pepsi Cola at founts or in bottles, Wrigley's doublemint chewing gum, and a barely-visible Piedmont Pentimento tobacco ad showing through behind the Wrigley's gum ad. Here's a color-altered image of the Piedmont ad. 

Chiclets Really Delightful: That Dainty Mint Covered Candy Coated Chewing Gum

Montgomery & Aldridge Recapping Plant Main Warehouse, viewed behind the Durham Centre Parking Garage between Foster and Roney:  

Back to art: the stunning recent Warli Mural at 313 Foster St.:

Here's some historic preservation, Durham style: part of the old Liberty Warehouse wall, with new apartment buildings behind it where the warehouse used to be. After receiving tax credits by promising the city they'd preserve the warehouse, the development company engineered a roof collapse through intentional neglect, opening up the opportunity to replace the historic warehouse with profitable new apartments. Read the gory details here.

People walk here:

I can't quite make out the text, but I'm guessing it says Liberty [Something? District?] Durham.

Neighbors have been helping neighbors during the pandemic; sign is at the corner of Bay Hargrove Park:

Peach blossoms--welcome spring!

Chapel Hill to Durham one-way

I occasionally hold keys down for an organ tuner, and we were working on an organ in Chapel Hill last Monday. Afterward, we headed to Trader Joe's, because that's what we always do after tuning this particular organ, and then I walked home.

Ta da! 12.9 somewhat meandering miles.

My route began in a part of Chapel Hill that had sidewalks on both sides of the street--so many choices!

Although like Durham, many places in Chapel Hill don't have sidewalks.

My route leaving town put me right behind the new Wegmans. I did not go in.

My plan was to take Old Durham Road (which is what it's called in Chapel Hill) / Old Chapel Hill Road (which is what it's called in Durham), but as soon as I turned right at Wegmans, I thought my plan might be foiled by construction.

I usually make it a rule to walk facing traffic, so I can make eye-contact with drivers before they run me over, but large construction equipment and no shoulder prohibited that. Instead, I walked east on the south side of the road, where to my relief, desire paths awaited.

Further down the road, the Pickard subdivision offered a few yards of closed sidewalk. This is because people are allowed to walk to the edge of the subdivision, but NO FARTHER.

Yet still I found a desire path--evidence that people indeed wanted to walk on this sidewalk-less road. Why might that be?

Aha--up ahead! It's a bus stop with no sidewalk access. At least there were traffic drums, thanks to this being one long construction zone. 

Ah, at last! Sidewalk! But only a few yards of it, because of that rule about never leaving a subdivision on foot....

It turns out those few yards of sidewalk were closed, which I would have known had I attempted to escape the adjacent subdivision on foot.

 

I forgot to get a photo when the road was still Old Durham Road, so I took a photo of Old Chapel Hill Road instead.

Now this is more like it! A roundabout, with clearly marked zebra stripes to reward rebellious walkers who manage to make it this far! 

Lo, Durham city limit! And a bridge with a very very very narrow shoulder. (The bike path here is the widest it gets, and then it narrows on the bridge. Cars first, safety second!) I actually crossed the road in an attempt to walk facing oncoming traffic, then ditched that idea in favor of walking in the same direction as traffic. The shoulder was equally narrow on both sides, but more people seemed to be driving from Durham to Chapel Hill than from Chapel Hill to Durham.

I-40, vroom vroom. I was grateful that the fence would keep my body from being flung over the bridge if I got hit by a car. And yes, I waited for a gap in bridge traffic before relaxing enough to take this photo. 

Roundabout on the other side of the bridge has sidewalks too--and even has a sidewalk in the circle in the center--not that anyone in their right mind would have any reason to cross over to it.

Here, I had to hand it to Durham: the section of Old Chapel Hill Road, from I-40 continuing at least all the way to Garrett Road, has sidewalks--sometimes on both sides of the street.

Sherwood Githens Jr. Middle School was named after a physics professor who once owned the land on which the school was built.

Old Chapel Hill Road Park:

Another bridge; this one is over New Hope Creek, and has shoulders ample enough that kids can bike to the middle school without getting squished.

New Hope Creek, viewed through the fence on the bridge.

Concrete drainage pipe flowing into New Hope Creek. (Exciting, I know, but read on...) 

Seeing the drainage pipe reminded me of the time I was channel surfing after school as a kid--my siblings and I would walk home from school, and during the years that we were latchkey kids, we'd sometimes attempt to rot our brains watching TV until our parents came home and made dinner--a good 2-3 hours--even though afternoon TV programming wasn't all that great back then. We mostly watched re-runs of The Brady Bunch, The Munsters, The Addams Family, and Gilligan's Island, and occasionally the boring WCIA "Early Show" movie if we were desperate. One day after school when I was channel surfing--and it's worth mentioning that "channel surfing" back then meant turning a knob on the TV through a number of channels that you could count on one hand--I landed in the middle of a Lassie re-run, at the point when a lost little girl has fallen into a concrete aquaduct in a field in the middle of nowhere, and has been knocked out, and then the aquaduct starts filling with water, and it's up to Lassie to find help--but will help come in time???? That little snippet scared the bejeezus out of me, so I either flipped to a different channel or turned off the TV, and to this day, I don't know if Lassie succeeded or if the little girl drowned. That's the memory that came rushing back, 45 years later, when I saw this drainage pipe along New Hope Creek.

Futher up the road was this big new house, on this nicely paved government-maintained road, with one of Durham's nicest and longest stretches of government-maintained sidewalk, flying a "Don't Tread on Me" flag. I don't know who lives in this house, and I don't know how they've been trodden upon thus far in life, but the flag struck me as a little...what...overly indignant? pouty?...given the surrounding decor.

I turned left onto Garrett Road, with the aim of eventually hitting Sandy Creek Park. Look, there's a sidewalk-less bus stop on the other side of the five-lane road: 

Once the sidewalk started up again, though, I was surprised to learn that it runs all the way up to Hwy 15-501. Here's a desire path at the start of the sidewalk, because walkers clearly prefer walking on the sidewalk to walking along the road:

The intersection at Garrett Road and 15-501 is heavily trafficked, but crossing safely is manageable. Only three of the streets have crosswalks, though, which I didn't realize at first, so it took me four light changes to get across instead of two.  

New subdivisions are going up by leaps and bounds on Garrett Road north of 15-501.

I accessed Sandy Creek Park through a trail extension behind Church of the Good Shepherd on Garrett Road.

I see that this Sandy Creek Park dog-poop can is full, and I appreciate that the dog poop baggies aren't strewn all over the trails, but I continue to be amazed that dog walkers can't brainstorm better solutions than this:

A huge heron, photographed from afar with an inadequate cell phone camera:

Can you find the lost soccer ball?

Eggs!

Lots of eggs!

I emerged from Sandy Creek Park onto Coachman's Way and then onto Pickett Road, where I appreciated this record of an exuberant dog:

Pickett Road crosses over I-40 with a fine view of the green weenie.

I then took a left onto the I-40 bypass road, because it would spit me out near Duke Forest's Al Buhler Trail. I was lured onto the bypass road because it had sidewalks--until, after a while, it didn't anymore. On the down side, I was walking in the same direction as the traffic was flowing; on the bright side, more traffic was coming toward me than was coming from behind me. Eventually, the sidewalk returned...

...and I finally found out where Triangle Ecycling is located.

I appreciated Triangle Ecycling's license plate:

I cut through Duke Forest on the Al Buhler Trail, then decided to exit into the Duke Forest neighborhood.

Someone parked a rental scooter on the egress trail. Scooter companies love a challenge, right?

Heading out of the neighborhood, I followed a jogger onto a short stretch of the Al Buhler Trail that I hadn't known existed.

Fast forward...

In the battle between vines and fence, vines win.

Bull Durham Tobacco ad on Buchanan

Mural across the street from Durham School of the Arts

Sunlit downtown water tower

Veggie mural on Stone Bros. & Byrd

...and home.