What happens when Democrats get what they want? An NC city’s bumpy story
In Washington, the Republicans’ use of the filibuster has stymied the Democrats’ progressive agenda. In North Carolina’s legislature, liberals have been in the wilderness since Republicans took control a decade ago.
Amid this Democratic frustration, Durham offers a kind of progressive nirvana. Durham city and county are racially diverse. Eighty percent of the county voted for Joe Biden. Republicans, representing about 25,000 of the county’s 228,000 registered voters, are an endangered political species there
Durham is a place that would seem to answer the question: What would happen if Democrats got everything they wanted?
Well, in Durham at least, what’s happened isn’t a wave of peace and harmony. Durham Mayor Steve Schewel, who has called Durham a “progressive beacon in the South,” also describes it as “a rough and tumble political town.”
The former county manager, who is Black, said a liberal county commissioner had acted against him out of racism. A well-regarded Black female police chief left for the same post in Memphis after the City Council balked at her request for more officers. There’s racial and economic tension over gentrification and how to respond to rising shootings.
Jeffrey Billman, former editor of the Durham-based alternative weekly INDY Week, recently wrote for the website The Assembly about the Bull City’s political infighting. He wrote, “Durham is the face of a new liberal vision for North Carolina. But its political establishment is threatening to tear itself apart.”
The city of Durham, the state’s fourth largest municipality, is highly diverse, half of the city’s 287,000 residents are white and 40 percent are Black. Yet despite a notably “woke” white population, disputes at the city and county levels flare along racial lines. Often the issue is the perception by Blacks that progressive whites are making assumptions about what best serves the Black community.
Floyd McKissick, a former Durham state senator, said progressive whites are well intentioned but they can be tone-deaf when working with Blacks on government initiatives. “It can’t be a belief that I have a culturally enlightened perspective that I simply need to educate you about,” he said. “It has to be more about mutual respect and coalescing around what should be done.”
Bill Bell, who served as Durham mayor from 2001 to 2017, said when political disputes boil over, it hurts the appeal of the city. “It doesn’t help when you see the type of discord you’re seeing at the elected official level,” he said. “People ask, ‘Is this where I want to grow my business?’” He added, “Everybody is not going to be in agreement, but it’s how you disagree. Once it’s decided, let’s move on to something else. But some of these things just seem to carry over.”
While the traditional party divide is all but absent in Durham, people do split among politically active groups. In the process, though, the less politically active residents are left out.
Leonardo Williams, a Black restaurant owner, is trying to add balance. Williams, a former member of the Editorial Board’s community advisory panel, is running for City Council to bring a small-business perspective to local government.
“Durham is not a city where it’s Republicans versus Democrats. It’s really a war between progressives and liberals,” he said.
While Durham’s infighting draws attention, its progressive achievements are significant. The city passed a $95 million affordable housing bond, the largest is state history. It allocated $500,000 to defend tenants facing eviction.. It stresses community-oriented policing and requires that police get written permission to conduct searches during traffic stops.
In its accomplishments and its struggles, Durham offers a view of how a progressive agenda can both uplift and divide. And where Durham goes from here could suggest how progressives can change government in ways that bridge racial, economic and political divides.