I-WILS 08/;20/88 00000 **CHW1L
WILSON LIBRARY
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at!
; 65 - NUMBER 33
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DURHAM, NORTH CAROLINA - SATURDAY, AUGUST22,1987
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Mayor’s Race Challenges
Durham’s Traditions
.T-
[BEUl IJLK ONES MAO A GOOD TIME Tuesday during a pic-
is Eiaiira Park'. Checking ou'i thuse gyin-type Oiings da the
pound and seemingly enjoying the occasion are (l-r): Brandon
iin (partially bidden), son of Mr. and Mrs. Robert (.lanclie)
Brown; Scottie Brown, sen of Mr. and Mrs. Arthur (Katherine)
Bro^ii; and Jefei Chavis with Dad Otis Chavis keeping an eye on the
youngsters.
Durham Political Tradition On The Line
In 1987 City Council Campaign
By Milton Jordan
^•raani faces probably its
It challenging; city council
I ions this fall
lailenges include overcoming
traditions of racial politics
liave long divided this com-
py, identifying candidates
1 will bring new, balanced,
te to public debate, and who
Nso help improve the coun-
Itfficiency in conducting the
ft business.
An Analysis
I fact the 1987 city council
piign continues a trend that
! developed in 1983 when
iim voters made their first
Rs between old divisions and
progress.
ft incumbent council
its who are campaigning
election must stand or fall
tit four year records they’ve
b since the : 1983 elections,
tvaluation standards are
9 simple. Did they con-
tit more to old divisions, or
tio new progress?
fuse incumbents are: Matt
fi®gh, who holds and is
signing to retain an at-large
I Johnny “Red” Williams,
*>tr at-large incumbent who
I® campaigning for reelec-
l®d Peggy Watson-Borden.
taen, while an incumbent,
•It electedviji 1983. She was
Sled in 1986 to complete the
fed term of Mrs. Carolyn
Sc, a council member who
feted to the district court
i,
lise incumbents are being
%d by: Jeff Clemmons, a
'bondsman; Richard (Dick)
•i who operates a local ren-
Jiness; Shirley Caesar, a na-
Jy renowned gospel singing
artist: Mark H. Web-
■'local real estate executive;
^ Crain Farthing, a local
^woman; and J.T. (Tom)
•csinpaign for three ward
8lso hotly contested, but.
with only one incumbent in the
race — Virginia Engelhard, who
was also first elected to the coun
cil in that 1983 choice between
old divisions and new progress.
JTwo other 1983 winners,
Lanier Fonville and Richard
(Dick) Boyd, chose not to cam
paign for reelection.
Mrs. Engelhard, who
represents Ward 6, is being con
tested by Hilda P. Hudson. The
contestants in Ward 2 are Walter
B. Cain and Oscar Lewis. The
Ward 4 contestants are Sandy
Ogburn and Carolyn W. Lon
don.
This slate of candidates faces
essentially the same issues that
dominated the city council race
four 'years ago. Those issues in
clude land use and development,
transportation, housing,
economic development and jobs,
and citizen participation.
But new issues have joined the
agenda.
“There is a great need for the
city council to increase its effi
ciency and to get things done,”
declared Richard Smith during a
recent interview. “If the council.
makes a mistake, then the thing
to do is admit it, back up and
start over again, rather than to
continue trying to make a boon
doggle better.”
Other new issues, according to
Smith, include more eihphasis on
regional planning and a better
management of ‘ natural
resources.
So on the bottom line, the
challenges facing candidates in
this campaign might well be how
to choose between the issues to
discuss and then how to focus the
discussions.
For example, how can the
discussion about economic
development and jobs be joined
without having it reduced to a
pjo-growth, anti-growth argu
ment?
“One of the things we really
have to recognize in this area of
economic development,” ex
plained Mark Webbink, who
barely lost a council bid in the
was once a viable economic enti
ty. Now we are becoming a
bedroom community, with no
significant economic identity
within the city limits.”
What can the council-do?
“The council has done a
miserable job structuring public-
private partnerships,” said
Smith. “We are still thinking of
Durham being a little village.”
But Durham is no longer a lit
tle village.
In fact, Durham is one of the
fastest growing communities in
Che rapidly growing Research
Triangle area, and, as Webbink
notes, much of that growth has
been residential, rather than
economic.
“It is impossible to have viable
economic growth without a
sound comprehensive plan,” said
Ms. Farthing, a lifelong Durham
resident who says she thinks the
current council’s record isn’t ac
ceptable.
tContinued On Page 9)
By Milton Jordan
Tradition says that two
African Americans running for
the same office in the same local
government political campaign
virtually renders the African
American vote ineffective.
Durham’s 1987 Mayor’s race
challenges that tradition.
Tradition says the African
American is liberal; the European
American is conservative; and
moderate is somewhere in the
middle.
An Analysis
Durham’s 1987 Mayor’s race
challenges that tradition.
Traditionally, Durham politics
have been divisive, and the prin
cipal challenge of the 1987
Mayor’s race is to somehow over
come, that divisiveness while
challenging other traditions at the
same time.
Understated, Durham faces an
unprecedented mayor’s race this
fall.
Consider unprecedented!
* Three of the four candidates
in the mayor’s race are in
cumbents. Two are members of
the council — Ho-.vard Clement,
who holds the Third Ward seat,
and Chester Jenkins, an at-large
member and Mayor Pro-tem.
The other candidate is the incum
bent mayor, Wib Gulley, who is
completing his first term.
* Clement, who was appointed
to the council in 1985 to complete
an unexpired at-large term and
reelected to the ward seat the
following November, is con
sidered the conservative among
the three incumbents.
* Jenkins,.who is serving his se
cond consecutive council term
and who has been mayor pro-tem
for three years, has, more often
than not, been cast as the
council’s moderate.
* Gulley, who was elected
mayor two years ago, principally
on a platform of neighborhood
protection, carries the liberal
label.
* Clement and Jenkins are the
African Americans in the cam
paign.
Robert B. Jervis is the lone
challenger in this year’s mayor’s
race.
Tradition aside, the issues in
the mayor’s race boil down to
leadership, vision, the ability to
build bridges throughout the
community, records and perfor
mance.
“There is no question that
Durham’s next mayor must be
able to create a partnership with
the business community,”
declared Clement, “and build the
kind of coalitions that enable this
city to cope with the issues of the
90s.”
The three incumbent can
didates agree that the issues in
clude managing growth, balanc
ing development and en
vironmental issues, improving
public transportation and
building a more cooperative rela
tionship with officials in Durham
County’s government, plus
economic development.
“The city and the county must
learn how to work together more
cooperatively,” said Jenkins.
“We are really just one, though
traditionally we have thought of
ourselves as separate. We must
learn to accept that fact that the
city and the county are really
one.”
While that may be true. Mayor
Gulley says he still sees too many
separations throughout various
segments of the city.
“This is particularly true in the
area of economic development,”
Mayor Gulley said. “Our rapidly
changing economic base has
made it absolutely necessary that
we make job training an integral
part of our economic develop
ment efforts.”
According to Gulley, the ob
jective is to take a number of ex
isting programs and blend them
together into a comprehensive
response to the needs of those
people in Durham who live out
side of the mainstream of the ci
ty’s growth and development.
Interestingly, Clement agrees.
“The current leadership has
failed to put together a com
prehensive approach to economic
development that includes job
raining as a major component,”
said Clement. “We have to begin
developing workable programs
that serve the unemployed and
the underemployed.”
That’s one of several
(Continued On Page 9)
80MULUS, MICH. The wreckage of a DC-9 lies on the 1-94
freeway near Detroit Metropolitan Airport. The jet carried 149 people
and was enroute tp. Phoenix, Arizona when It crashed just after
takeoff, becoming the second worst air disaster in U.S. history. (UPI
Photo)