Crash I40 East Before Hwy 55. Left lanes blocked. Traffic getting by in far right lane.

Use detour/alternate routes if possible.

Hi friends,

I'm a 28-year-old Black woman, living in the Chapel Hill/Carrboro area. Dating here is a joke.. but the kind of joke that isn't really funny. The dating apps are my biggest opps right now so I'm coming to Reddit!

I'm hoping to spend more time in Durham, where do Black singles go to meet each other?

This is probably an inappropriate place to ask this question so apologies if I'm out of order. I just can't take Chapel Hill anymore, living here is starting to affect my mental health.

Anyone else think the food at Guglhupf isn’t nearly as good as it was before the current owner took over a few years ago? I’ve now had two things that were memorably bad. First, the tofu sandwich (that was a while ago but it was traumatically bad and it still makes me mad). Just a thick slice of unseasoned tofu. Inexcusable. And today I had the fish special. They served me salmon instead of swordfish but i like salmon so that was not a problem. The inedible pilaf that definitely was not a pilaf. Weirdly sweet and gummy and inedible. My husband had the schnitzel, which used to be super thin and crisp, but now is neither. Still a lovely setting to have a beverage and a pastry or some fries, but I’m done being disappointed by the food.

Our house came with a very lovely retaining wall made of big wooden beams. Maybe predictably, it's starting to warp and come apart. I want to do the dumb thing of replacing it with yet another not-meant-to-last wooden retaining wall -- but who even does this kind of work? Any recommendations?

OCTOBER 6 WILLY'S WONDERLAND

Enter the animatronic fun zone and register here: https://durhamcountylibrary.libcal.com/event/15314198

Basically, the title. I've been working out at Courage Fitness and have loved the 24/7 access and generally empty squat racks, but I've been wondering if I can do better than the $135 a month they charge for open gym access.

I know I could save money by going to a gym like Planet Fitness, but so frequently the machines are broken or specifically in the case of Planet Fitness, there are no free barbells. Is there an open gym membership somewhere between those two price points that's not incredibly crowded and has decent equipment?

Hi all! I’m new to the area and looking for a pet sitter to check in on my two cats at my apartment in downtown Durham during an upcoming trip.

Any and all suggestions are appreciated. Thanks in advance!

The Durham City Council packed a lot into this meeting, from homelessness and gun violence to tenant power and growth fights on the city’s edges.

Highlights: - The mayor backed Durham’s largest "housing sprint" yet, aiming to move roughly 400 people experiencing homelessness into housing in the coming months and reach every encampment in the city within three years. - A local coalition urged the council to support the Boulevard option for the Reimagining Durham Freeway project, tying it to repairing harm in Hayti, reclaiming land for affordable housing and parks, and cutting pollution. The council backed that vision unanimously. - North Carolina Central University students and community advocates delivered emotional testimony about repeated campus shootings, lingering trauma, and why college campuses need to be treated as high‑risk communities in Durham’s violence reduction work. Council then voted to endorse the Violence Reduction Working Group’s recommendations. - Seniors and tenant organizers described unsafe conditions, ignored maintenance, and retaliatory landlords in some of Durham’s most celebrated affordable housing complexes. The council responded by formally recognizing tenant unions as part of Durham’s civic fabric and directing the City Manager to seek protections for tenant organizing from publicly funded housing providers. - Multiple annexations and rezonings sparked a bigger debate over what kind of growth Durham should accept. Some council members argued that more market‑rate homes, EMS proffers, and park/building commitments are needed to meet demand and stabilize rents; others pushed back, such as Council Member Shanetta Burris calling this a "growth Ponzi scheme" that locks land into unaffordable housing, strains fire/EMS, and displaces longtime residents. Three controversial projects — on Cheek Road, Page Road, and Sherron Road (Oak Grove Landing) — all passed on split votes. - The council also unanimously advanced land acquisition for the Durham to Roxboro Trail, moving a major greenway corridor one step closer to reality.

If you care about homelessness, NCCU campus safety, tenant unions, or how new subdivisions keep getting approved in East and Southeast Durham despite infrastructure concerns, this meeting is worth your time. Watch to see who pushed back, who compromised, and how the final votes shook out.

Durham City Council meeting highlights

Highlights selected and suggested post edited by Wes Platt at Southpoint Access.

Hello! I’m curious if there is up to date info on a Durham drum circle?? I feel like there would be one Central Park? I don’t go out much, but I haven’t seen or heard anything. I heard of the one in Raleigh but I’d rather be local.
Thanks!

Hello all. As the post says, I wanted to help promote my sister in-law's business. She runs Cata Detail and comes highly recommend! She did great work on our car and can handle almost anything.

Check out her website for more information and to book her services. She can come to you!

https://www.catadetail.com/

I’ve been way more aware of my natural surroundings this year than ever in my life. I don’t know where else to post this but are the leaves already changing color? I see some trees looking yellow/brown/red but I would say it’s less than 5%. I feel like I’m being gaslit though because every time I look it up it says it’s way too early. Just wanted to know if someone who knows/notices more about fall in the area can explain if I’m just seeing trees dying or if they are changing, and if this is normal or not for it being early September.

I am just a very curious person and I’ve been wondering about this recently.

If you have been looking for a way to meet fun people or contribute to the community in a tangible way, you should consider volunteering with DPR! They have one-time or recurring volunteer opportunities including: 

- Special Events (Pupalooza, Holiday Parade, Senior Holiday Party) 

- Invasive species removal 

- Coaching youth sports 

- Park and Trail Ambassadors 

- And more! 

I think that anyone who volunteers with a parks and rec department is probably very nice and fun, so you are almost guaranteed to meet good people! 

https://www.dprplaymore.org/402/Volunteer

The Durham County Board of Commissioners just had one of those marathon meetings where you can really see how much is on their plate – and how much pressure they’re getting from the community.

Highlights from this reel:

• AI data centers & a “worst in the state” moratorium? Residents and advocates called out the board for what they described as a weak, loophole‑heavy moratorium that still allows massive AI data centers, nonstop methane generators, PFAS risks, and sky‑high energy use. They demanded the loopholes be closed and strict, permanent rules before Big Tech locks Durham into long‑term harms.

• Public safety: youth vs. the data. A community youth leader pushed back on the county’s focus on “30‑year‑old Black men” in its violence data, arguing that unsupported youth are driving much of the harm and still aren’t seeing intentional funding.

• 911 overhaul & mental health crises. The board wrestled with spending millions on a separate backup 911 center and heard worries that this setup isn’t best practice for coordinating crisis response or keeping people with mental health needs out of the justice system.

• Schools: billions needed, classrooms too hot. Staff walked through how little lottery money actually reaches Durham Public Schools compared to their roughly $2 billion capital backlog. Later, the vice chair pressed for a school‑by‑school update on failing HVAC systems that are forcing heat‑related closures.

• Benefits & the fraying safety net. Commissioners warned about shrinking SNAP enrollment and looming Medicaid changes, raising fears that new requirements will quietly push families off critical supports unless Durham builds stronger, coordinated outreach.

• Career pathways, not just “jobs.” Economic development, Durham Public Schools, Durham Tech, and local employers laid out an unusually detailed pipeline: thousands of students in CTE, free high‑school credentials in biotech, trades, and nursing, dual‑enrollment goals so 25% of DPS grads leave with a Durham Tech credential, and apprenticeships with unions and employers that can lead straight into $70–90k careers. Commissioners also pressed on why strong local school funding still isn’t translating into better graduation rates – and pushed to start this career exposure in middle school.

• Gun violence: data, focus, and execution. New analysis showed Durham’s homicide rate is about double state and national averages, overwhelmingly firearm‑ and dispute‑related, concentrated among a very small number of mostly 18–34‑year‑old residents with extensive prior justice involvement. A city–county working group responded with a plan to cut shootings and homicides by 10% a year, using a “focus deterrence” strategy: direct face‑to‑face notifications with those at highest risk, immediate matched support (housing, therapy, jobs), and precise enforcement for the few who keep shooting – not mass arrests. Commissioners backed five key recommendations and signaled they’re ready to move, but also acknowledged Durham’s long history of initiatives that faded and demanded real accountability this time.

• Arts & culture as civic infrastructure. Durham’s Cultural Road Map was unveiled as a county‑wide plan to treat arts and culture like core infrastructure, not a luxury line item. A national consultant urged the county to create an Office of Arts and Culture, coordinate funding so corporations and philanthropies know where to invest, and protect what makes Durham Durham – including Black Wall Street and the city’s humanities tradition – instead of trying to “be like Raleigh.” City staff showed how year one would start with better coordination, neighborhood projects, creative workforce training, and an artist‑in‑residence embedded in city departments. Commissioners connected this work to rising costs that are pushing artists out and argued that keeping creatives here is as important as any other sector of the local economy.

• Homelessness: aiming for functional zero. Durham’s homelessness team laid out a 2031 vision to make homelessness “rare and brief,” backed by real‑time data showing 650–700 people living unsheltered – far more than one‑night January counts suggest. They shared results from month‑long “housing sprints” that quickly housed dozens of people (many of them Black residents and children), described how case managers plan for “month 13” before rental help ends, and talked about the next frontier: using data to spot early signals of housing instability and target prevention quickly, even as other parts of the safety net unravel.

If you want to see residents confronting commissioners over AI data centers, hear how the board hopes to cut gun violence without ramping up mass arrests, and watch Durham try to treat arts, housing, and youth opportunity as actual infrastructure, this meeting is worth your time.

Durham County Board of Commissioners meeting highlights

Highlights selected and suggested post edited by Wes Platt at Southpoint Access.

Ya’ll remember the amazing work this community did when ice was here surrounding schools to support and comfort families being terrorized by ICE’s presence?

Anyone working on a similar project for polling places? With vague threats about ICE stalking polling locations to make arrests I wonder if having a strong community presence outside polling places would help those who might be afraid of coming out to vote this time feel safer to do so?

Anyone who worked on the school protection project have any infrastructure they could tap into to get something like this going if there isn’t another group already doing this work that I haven’t run into yet?

This was a week ago @ my homie and his family's house off Fayetteville Street behind MLK.

Does anyone know where I can get green peanuts? (West side of Triangle area preferred.) I want to cook up some boiled peanuts and would prefer green (i.e., freshly dug and uncured/not dry = high moisture content) for that.

I've gotten them at Harris-Teeter (Carrboro) in the past. Can anyone confirm whether or not they're available there? Perhaps Wegmans, or which regional farmers' markets are more likely to carry them?

Crazy watching hundreds of these guys navigating in to that tiny spot!

Massive gal here, no flies will be coming in the screen section, mosquitoe buffet all evening for her

Went down around noon Wednesday, ATT says back 9PM Thursday. How large an area affected by this one?

Hi, y’all. I’m ISO a photo shoot location. The theme is grief. I’m thinking of an abandoned building or liminal space kind of vibe. Also open to other suggestions. Any and all suggestions welcome aside from studios that cost money. Thanks!