Congratulations to the winners of the Durham municipal race, including Leonardo Williams, Chelsea Cook, Shanetta Burris, and Matt Kopac. And congratulations to fellow Democratic Socialists outside of Durham and across the country from Danny Nowell in Carrboro to Zohran Mamdani in New York.

Local government has enormous power to regulate real estate. Let’s be clear: Accepting big real estate campaign money is incompatible with progressive local politics. We need big real estate donations and schmoozing with big developers OUT of Durham local and state legislative politics.

The Onion couldn’t write a better headline

It’s the most corrupt administration in American history and nothing else even comes close

North Carolina is not a democracy. We just cosplay democracy. We don’t need a strong GOP—they’re an existential threat to this country and world. I’d like to see NC democrats make resident ballot measures a top priority to show North Carolinians that the serves the billionaires over everyone else.

Disdain for democracy has ALWAYS been inherent to rightwing ideology, which is why we must always do everything we can to keep them from power. Now that they have full power, they are comfortable carrying out crimes & corruption. We must do all we can to defeat and dismantle this rotten system.

Because neoliberalism has failed to provide for the people but has provided great wealth for a few, it needs to be repackaged. A new name, a new coat of paint. We are seeing a lot of that happening these days among pundits who can’t stomach Trump’s personality and social policy.

Often when we talk about places being “overdeveloped” what’s actually happened is those places are just poorly developed. It’s not that there are too many people/jobs/things to do, it’s that car-centric development has made cities unbearable.

How did Dr. Monarez go from being “a public health expert with unimpeachable scientific credentials” who had the “full confidence” of Secretary Kennedy into being a “liar” and “untrustworthy” in less than a month? She refused to rubber stamp his anti-vaccine recommendations.

Locking thousands of acres into low density single-family sprawl, just because that’s what homebuilders want, is not pro-housing or pro-urbanist, despite what many well-funded organizations and individuals say. We can truly build sustainable cities but we need to cut through the noise and lies.

Amazing reporting by Lisa Sorg. Please read.

Durham’s Transportation Department wants to give one of the city’s busiest traffic corridors a major upgrade by developing its first Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) route.

For as long as I've known him, @natebakerdurham.bsky.social has preached the same policy agenda Zohran Mamdani has put a spotlight on in NYC. Here for @indyweek.bsky.social, he makes the case for this Democratic Socialist agenda as the last best hope against fascism. indyweek.com/news/opinion...

We do not want ICE in our community. We do not welcome ICE in our community. ICE makes Durham more dangerous. ICE is a waste of taxpayer money when we have many other urgent needs. ICE is Trump and Stephen Miller’s personal police force. ICE has fascist tendencies. Abolish ICE.

What’s at stake in the 2025 Durham municipal race? With municipal elections gearing up during a rise in state and federal fascism and oligarchy, you might be wondering if there’s much at stake locally. The answer is YES - the stakes are high.

How do we build a thriving, just, and democratic city in a declining nation? How can we fight locally against all odds to overthrow the corrupt and exploitative ruling class? These are questions Mamdani’s people-powered campaign in NYC are shedding some light on & our task in Durham & elsewhere.

What’s in the bill the Senate is about to vote on? -CUTS to Medicaid & SNAP -SELLING our public lands -LOOPHOLES for Big Oil to make even more money -BLOCKS AI regulations at the state and local levels -MORE money for war Call your Senators & tell them to vote NO: 202 224-3121

This weekend the North Carolina Democratic Party Executive Committee will be convening. They have an opportunity for TRANSFORMATIONAL CHANGE by approving the “People’s Primary” Policy banning billionaires and corporations from buying or unduly influencing Democratic Primaries. Approve it!

In Atlanta this weekend so I decided to read some of @danimmergluck.bsky.social’s book Red Hot City and it shows a lot of similarities to Durham and Raleigh. Reading some DuBois as well and that has tons of similarities too.

Durham now has record levels of residential vacancies. To build housing on city land not only would we have to subsidize affordable units but now market rate units too. 4 major residential/mixed use downtown projects are paused: GeerHouse 2, YMCA Redevelopment, ATC Phase II, Durham Center II

Inherent to human nature is a desire for human-scaled places. There’s a reason why—from an urban design perspective—people tend to feel comfortable me walking and standing in places like this.

The GOP continues its destructive assault against our country, workers, environment, and climate — it was just announced that EPA’s Office of Research and Development will be “reorganized” in a way that amounts to firing hundreds of Triangle-area workers.

The growing glorification and normalization of violence against people protesting war and Israel’s genocide in Gaza is despicable and should be condemned by all of our leaders in the strongest terms.

No, now is NOT the time to dissolve the Durham Workers Rights Commission. Now is the time to make it stronger than ever. As of today, I’m excited to be the Durham City Council liaison to the DWRC and ready to get to work making Durham a union city and fighting for a stronger working class.

Homelessness is one of our great challenges and directly tied to our oligarchical system. As New Deal programs become increasingly eroded, communities large and small across the U.S. are facing record levels of homelessness. Durham is not immune to this nationwide trend.

It is a foregone conclusion that we will have universal healthcare in this country because every other system is simply unsustainable. How soon that day comes depends on what we decide to do with our days.

Not a single time in this article glorifying the need for sprawl to address the US's affordable housing crisis is there a mention of the vast transportation costs of sprawling living patterns. Nor is there mention of the fact that sprawl is directly linked to disinvestment in urban cores.

Thrilled that Council has approved the Vision Zero action plan. Too many people are dying on our streets and we’re going in the wrong direction. We need to be bold and brave to make our streets safer.

I’ve received a lot of congratulatory comments regarding the Council’s rejection of Sheffield Farms rezoning/annexation case. It was the right outcome of this specific proposal, but it was representative of a broken system that needs to change.

One day we’ll look back on the present and ask why we allowed a whole street to cut through the heart of Durham’s primary civic gathering space. We need great spaces for people to gather for protests. We should convert Corcoran St downtown to the plaza it bisects.

Be in Raleigh tomorrow the 5th. #StopTheCoup

Have a project idea that uplifts young people in Durham? Apply by March 30 for our Durham Youth Leadership Fund! Young people ages 13-24 years, community groups, and organizations can now apply for one-year project funding ranging from $500-$25,000. ➡️Learn more: www.durhamnc.gov/4499/Durham-...

Dozens more pregnant and postpartum women have died in Texas hospitals since the state banned abortion, our analysis shows. As the maternal mortality rate dropped nationally, it rose in Texas by 33%.

Lots of inspiration from local labor leaders during the last Durham Workers Assembly meeting. Here are some quotes that these leaders shared: “We’ve got to stay unified like never before.” “We’re going to protect our veterans even if that means protecting them from the federal government.”

Durham homeowners have received letters with their new tax assessment from Durham County. Avg values have increased by 74% since 2019. I am pushing for expansion of the Low-Income Homeowners Relief (LIHR) program to minimize financial burdens on low and fixed income residents.

STOP ANALYZING MUSKS TWEETS: Their words aren’t the key. Research reveals patterns in authoritarian takeovers that provide a clear map of their playbook. To defeat this, we must first understand it. A 🧵:

The pervasiveness of preventable traffic deaths needs to be treated like the public health crisis that it is. Durham (and NC cities) loses 300-400% more ppl per capita to collisions than international peers. We need to end car-dependent sprawl and overhaul our existing street design standards.

@natebakerdurham.bsky.social imaging having so much untaxed land in Durham that you could erect a 20,000(?) square foot tent twice in a year for parties

As @naomiaklein.bsky.social said: we are witnessing a counter revolution to a revolution that never occurred. Our democracy was barely democratic even before the current billionaire coup. We need to fight for democracy but we do not need to defend the status quo, which is what got us here.

* Demonstrators hold signs that read "Workers over billionaires" during a protest against U.S. President Donald Trump and the actions he has taken in the first weeks of his presidency, outside of the Department of Labor in Washington. @reuters.com

Howard Zinn: "To be hopeful in bad times is not just foolishly romantic. It is based on the fact that human history is a history not only of cruelty, but also of compassion, sacrifice, courage, kindness. 1/4

Yesterday marked a passage into a darker period in our country. With local journalism hanging by a thread and continued consolidation of corporate media, it is more important than ever to find good independent sources of information. Here is a list of sources that I use for national news:

Hello, Bluesky!👋 We're just getting started here and may keep things light for now, but there's more to come. While you're waiting, visit DurhamNC.gov/Connect to explore all our social media accounts, podcasts, videos, and newsletters. Stay tuned!

🧵 THREAD: Our reporter spent the past year reporting inside the State Department, trying to answer the central question of Biden’s foreign policy: How did the U.S. let Israel get away with widespread horrors in Gaza?

@natebakerdurham.bsky.social you had us at equitable and sustainable! 🙌🙌

It is time for us to fix the downtown Durham loop, free up underutilized land, enhance the public realm, reconnect the public library and other assets to areas inside the loop, coordinate with the planning efforts on Roxboro and Mangum streets, and incorporate equitable and sustainable development.

Today I’m thrilled to begin my time as Vice Chair of the Durham Joint City-County Planning Committee alongside the new committee Chair, County Commissioner Wendy Jacobs.

We hear a lot about disruptions caused by labor strikes when those occur. But capital strikes are far more common and disruptive. We’ve simply been conditioned to normalize them. jacobin.com/2017/02/capi...