INDY Week December 13, 2023 by Indy Week

Raleigh 2 Durham 2 Chapel Hill VOL. 40 NO. 35

CONTENTS NEWS 8

Five questions Durham's new city council will have to answer in its upcoming term. BY JUSTIN LAIDLAW

10 Construction is starting on Raleigh's Bus Rapid Transit line along New Bern Avenue, but some residents worry it will do more harm than good. BY JASMINE GALLUP

14 A mother lost both her children to Durham's Department of Social Services. She didn't stand a chance agains the state's child welfare system. BY WHITNEY CLEGG, JEFFREY BILLMAN, AND NICK OCHSNER

47 A father relocated to North Carolina to care for his son who has been with foster families for the past five years. Now, Durham County wants to put the boy up for adoption. BY WHITNEY CLEGG, JEFFREY BILLMAN, AND NICK OCHSNER

Exploring the Icons of 17th-Century Dutch Art with Audio Description, 10:30 a.m. North Carolina Museum of Art, Raleigh. (See calendar, page 58.)

FEATURES 19

PHOTO COURTESY OF NCMA

Best of the Best of the Triangle 2023 BY INDY READERS & INDY STAFF

52 INDY's Most Impactful Stories of 2023 BY JANE PORTER 54 2023's Reasons to Love the Triangle BY SARAH EDWARDS

CULTURE

THE REGULARS 6

Backtalk

Voices

COVER IMAGES FROM PEXELS

December 13, 2023

P U BLISH ER John Hurld EDITOR IAL

56 Scott Avett reflects on more than two decades of making music ahead of an Avett Brothers New Year's Eve concert in Raleigh. BY CHASE PELLEGRINI DE PAUR

W E M A D E T H IS

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Editor-in-Chief Jane Porter Culture Editor Sarah Edwards Staff Writers Jasmine Gallup Lena Geller Reporters Justin Laidlaw Chase Pellegrini de Paur Contributors Desmera Gatewood, Spencer Griffith, Carr Harkrader, Matt Hartman, Brian Howe, Kyesha Jennings, Jordan Lawrence, Glenn McDonald, Thomasi McDonald, Nick McGregor, Gabi Mendick, Shelbi Polk, Dan Ruccia, Harris Wheless, Byron Woods, Barry Yeoman

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INDYweek.com December 13, 2023

BACK TA L K

Back in November, we published a story by freelance writer Ted Vaden about the Chapel Hill venture capitalist Greg Bohlen and his plans for growing muscadine grapes at Union Grove (formerly Maple View) Farm in Orange County. Readers were intrigued to discover what’s happening on the farm, where regenerative farming practices are contributing to growing a new strain of grape that’s being marketed as a superfood. But there were some gripes about the report as well, including this letter from reader MARK OGLESBY sent to us via email and lightly edited for space:

As a concerned native of Orange County and as someone who is very familiar with the neighborhoods adjoining Union Grove Farm (UGF), I’d like to bring to your attention some aspects of UGF that were seriously overlooked in the piece. Despite the farm’s willingness to appear as a regenerative, eco-friendly operation, Greg Bohlen has been responsible for massive amounts of environmental destruction and other problems on Dairyland Road, Tree Farm Road, and Union Grove Church Road. I feel it is irresponsible that the farm has been cast in such a positive light, considering that they have shown a marked disregard not only for the environment and local ecosystems, but also for the quality of life of the residents of the neighborhoods surrounding the farm. I’ve outlined just a few of these key points, and am able to substantiate these, mostly via emails between UGF and concerned residents in the area. UGF is responsible for hundreds of acres of deforestation. While some land has been converted into vineyards, some sites, such as the farm’s property on Tree Farm Road have been slashed and abandoned—an ecological nightmare. Instead of even putting the wood to use UGF burned massive piles of the trees, emitting tons of CO2 (theoretically much more than grapes will ever be able to sequester). Some of the areas that were cleared around the farm contained massive old trees, such as tree buffers between UGF and the Green Rise Road and Meadowview Road neighborhoods, and were cut for no other purpose than

a misguided sense of aesthetics. UGF seems to think that the people of Orange County would rather look at rows and rows of the red plastic cones around their grape vines (supposedly to help them grow faster) than a stand of beautiful old trees. Greg Bohlen has publicly stated that he wanted to save the land he bought on Dairyland Road as a greenspace preserve and to protect it from development. However, much of the Maple View Farm land, including the area directly across from the Maple View ice cream store, was already put in a conservation easement by Bob Nutter, meaning the land was already protected and could only be used for farming or remain as open space. Furthermore, UGF plans to develop the land themselves by building a concert venue, restaurant, distillery, and hotel (see below), which clearly violate the easement as well as Orange County zoning laws. UGF has drawn criticism from members of the local chapter of the Audubon Society. In the spring of 2023, the members repeatedly tried to convince UGF to not mow the large fields on Dairyland Road for just two weeks, because hundreds of red-wing blackbirds and dickcissels (an uncommon bird in this area) were nesting there. They pleaded with UGF to wait until the birds had fledged and flown from their nests, which they estimated would be in about two weeks. The farm refused and mowed over the fields, undoubtedly killing hundreds of fledglings. ...

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The HOA of the neighborhood on Green Rise Road wrote a request to UGF asking them to not kill beavers that were inhabiting a pond that’s on the edge of the neighborhood (UGF controls one side, the neighborhood controls the other). UGF ignored this and killed the beavers. [The] reason for doing this is unclear as he clearly is not concerned about losing trees.

ery, music venue, restaurant, and hotel despite many complaints from neighbors about the noise, light pollution, and high levels of traffic this will bring. The farm is not zoned for any of these uses but UGF seems confident they will find a loophole and continue with construction.

When Bob Nutter requested to build the agriculture center on Dairyland Road, he was granted a special use permit that stipulated he could not cut down a barrier of trees adjoining the land the center was built on. Despite this, UGF violated the permit and had the trees cut down. Several of these rolled into the pond behind the neighborhood on Green Rise Road, where they were left until neighbors repeatedly pleaded with the farm to remove them. A spokesman from UGF said he thought that Orange County had granted a waiver for this permit but was unable to produce said waiver and also seemed to not be aware of what the permit required in the first place.

Finally, it seems to me like there is nothing demonstrably regenerative or unusual about UGF’s practices. Simply using worm compost to fertilize grapes, planting cover crops, and having sheep on the farm does not set them apart. There are many farms in Orange County that also use organic compost fertilizer made in-house, plant cover crops, and take advantage of animals to control weeds and keep areas clear. Furthermore, many of these farms do so without the wonton destruction and disregard for others that has been a hallmark of UGF. Nor are the majority of these farmers suffering from low profits, as is implied in the article—Orange County is lucky to be home to many successful and conscientious farmers (feel free to contact me for examples).

UGF’s actions have caused many problems for the neighborhoods surrounding the farm. Their cutting of tree buffers has led to a dramatic increase in traffic noise. They refuse to turn off their silo light at night, the only purpose of which is to illuminate a mural. Their large burns of tree trunks and brush filled the air with smoke. Often dump trucks can be heard coming and going from the farm one after another all day. Additionally, UGF is in the process of building a distill-

With so many farms in the area actually doing positive, regenerative work, it’s unfortunate that IndyWeek chose to highlight a farm that has demonstrated a total unwillingness to reduce their harm to the environment or accommodate the wishes of the people living around them. I’m not sure what can be done at this point, but I hope that a more fair depiction of whats happening at this farm can somehow be put out there. I personally do not plan on buying any grapes from UGF.

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VOICES

I Met Jesus on a Farm Can a church be anticapitalist? At Durham’s Farm Church, they know how to give a feast and invite the poor. BY ELIM LEE backtalk@indyweek.com

arm Church operates on a precious plot of land around the corner from my house. I always pass it on walks. Their front lawn is where I got my “We Support Fair Wages for City Workers’’ sign, and their Instagram advertises mutual aid opportunities before pleading for congregation numbers. All an indication that something radical might be happening, I follow my curiosity. Sunday service resembles a discussion group at a liberal arts college more than a pulpit-led sermon. Handouts circulate from a book on food inequity, and we dismantle the welfare queen myth together. Read next to a passage from the Bible, the idea arises that scripture is not always a “moral” but can often be a “mirror.” We remember Matthew as an anti-imperialist author to inform our view of the Parable of the Talents. The slaves in the story parallel those submissive under capitalism; the master would reap where he did not sow, punitive and ever-demanding. The slave who could not earn more than he was given was thrown to a place with “weeping and gnashing of teeth.” That transitions seamlessly into a question for the group. We are asked where there is “weeping and gnashing of teeth” today and to utter aloud suffering in the world that needs to be held. We would carry it together. A core belief Farm Church operates around is that calling for justice and liberation within one’s community is a holy act. The gathered community for each Wednesday and Sunday is nontraditional. It carves out an alternative space to the classic steepled chapels, the places that ask themselves, “Where are the young people?” The assumption is that the youth are not spiritually concerned. Farm Church disagrees, simply positing that young people don’t like to conform—tradition for tradition’s sake is always asking for some 6

December 13, 2023

INDYweek.com

degree of conformity. I grew up Southern Baptist in the Bible Belt of deep South Georgia. We sat obediently in the congregation and learned that there was something inherently wrong with us for being gay, that women should submit to the male leaders of the household, and that CNN was the Communist News Network. Imagine my surprise sitting at Farm Church, reflecting on Matthew 25:14-30, and hearing people call it a denunciation of capitalism. The Parable of the Talents was taught to me as a warning to heed, that God had entrusted me with a life and it was a privilege and my duty to drive it into the ground and make it worth it. Or else there would be hell to pay, literally. All my hometown friends left the church as soon as they could. But I held on, imagining something like Farm Church was possible. My renouncing of the organized religion I grew up with was held sacred by my own view of Jesus: full of radical care, righteous anger, and deeply anticapitalist. But the question in today’s world remains, Can a church be anticapitalist? Every Sunday morning at Farm Church is divided between farming and gathering. Kristen Sommerfield acts as lead gardener first and pastoral leader second. She tells us what the garden needs today, how to prevent the microbes in the dirt from getting bleached by the sun, and how to encourage sustainable long-term farming by continually topping off the rows, and she shows us a fancy stake-filled device called a broadfork. We go row by row, weeding and thinning turnips, beets, carrots, and lettuce. All of this food will go to the community. We are shown how to thin the sproutlings, a rather callous-seeming measure of ripping up swaths of potential plants. This way each vegetable will have space to grow. Kristen acknowledges the emotional

Top: Bonny Moellenbrock thins vegetation at the Farm Church garden. Center: Farm Church members worship and discuss a food insecurity passage after gardening at the garden on Watts Street. Bottom: Kim Brummel waters plants at the Farm Church garden. PHOTOS BY ANGELICA EDWARDS

distress that can come with having to pick what to leave and what to take, and this comforts me. As does the little bucket that appears where we can save all the sprouts for a tasty microgreen snack. Kneeling in the dirt, I strike up a conversation with a guy in his thirties who started his career in bioethics and has come around to a passion for food security. I make a new friend in an older man who grew up in the 1950s and drove from Alaska to the tip of Chile when Pinochet was in power. A man stands to the side and plays a fiddle as we garden. As it turns 11:00, folks hit a natural stopping point and complete the tasks for the day. We gather around the benches, and a little girl in overalls plays in a pile of dirt, shovel and bucket in hand as if she’s making sandcastles at the beach. The congregants sing a chorus from a song in a bonfire style. One man plays a gui-

to-making party spent in a kitchen, creating something out of all the basil the church rescued before the frost. We measure oil by the cup and fill many containers of pesto to donate to Feed Durham for the nonprofit’s Thanksgiving meal initiative. Nohemi, a member of Farm Church, says a big draw of the community was the “space for 20-to-30-year-olds to gather.” That and helping families who are food insecure, a hands-on alternative to the usual act of simply donating money to removed organizations. As a member of the Latino community, she says it has been illuminating to realize how much of Durham’s food insecure population looks and speaks like her. Farm Church, while mainly white, presents an interesting path of advocacy; Nohemi calls them “real allies.” When I sit down and talk with Kristen on Monday, we are on similar pages of having arrived in the real world ready to build the

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“As it grows, Farm Church is constantly asking, ‘What are the needs of the gathered community? What are the needs of the community we serve?’” tar and sings the loudest. The Batya Levine lyrics are written in Sharpie on a piece of cardboard: “May I be empty and open to receive the light May I be empty and open to receive May I be full and open to receive the light May I be full and open to receive.” Kristen emphasizes that what makes Farm Church successful in its mission is hyperlocality. They are not seeking to be a megachurch, and their organizational structure is horizontal: Kristen’s “boss” is a council of church and community members. The church’s original founders chose Durham for its unique community with an already active scene addressing food insecurity. Farm Church has simply plugged itself in with partners already working toward the same goal. As it grows, Farm Church is constantly asking, “What are the needs of the gathered community? What are the needs of the community we serve?” That means a Wednesday night pes-

reality we wished for—only to be pleasantly surprised by the fulfillment already waiting. Farm Church is her first job out of seminary, and seminary itself was a path change from the corporate food production world she was slated for. During a “breath of hesitation,” she calls it, she took a year after college to do service with the Presbyterian Church and fell in love with the spirituality of organic produce farming. I find myself relating to her imaginative questioning of the status quo. “You’re a manic pixie dream church,” I say. Kristen laughs. “Honestly—there could be no better compliment.” W Elim Lee is a Georgia peach who took a detour in New England and came back to her roots in the South this past year. Her least-in-progress, most-finished project is her children’s book Needle and the Too Big World. Follow her on Twitter at @wellwhatgives and Instagram at @elimscribbles.

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Durham

A Look Ahead Five questions Durham’s new city council will have to address in the upcoming term BY JUSTIN LAIDLAW jlaidlaw@indyweek.com

From left, former Durham mayors Nick Tennyson and Steve Schewel, Mayor Leonardo Williams, former Durham mayors Elaine O’Neal and Wib Gulley PHOTO BY JENNY WARBURG

ecember 4 marked the end of a tumultuous era for Durham City Council. Elaine O’Neal, who served just a single two-year term, officially retired as mayor of Durham. Her council colleagues Jillian Johnson and Monique Holsey-Hyman also had their last evening on the dais. Each of them gave final remarks before walking out of city hall to raucous applause and back into life as private citizens. Moments later, hundreds of people watched as mayor-elect Leonardo Williams and three of his future city council colleagues—Nate Baker, Javiera Caballero, and Carl Rist— were sworn into public office, ushering in the next chapter in Durham politics. “We are officially writing our new story together because we are greater together,” Williams said during opening remarks after taking the city’s top seat. The winning slate of candidates shared overlapping endorsements, including from the INDY, but their policy priorities are considerably varied, says former council member Johnson. “Endorsements play an important role in cutting through some of the noise,” Johnson says. “What was tricky about this election was that two of the major endorsement processes, both the INDY and the Durham Committee [on the Affairs of Black People], endorsed people with highly opposing political ideologies.” Williams ran on a platform of “peacemaking” and pragmatic governance. As one of the four council members who often votes yes on new development projects, he is seen as more friendly to the industry by his constituents. 8

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Williams is also a restaurant owner along with his wife, Zweli, giving him unique insight into the business community in Durham. Baker is now the youngest member of the city council, at the age of 35. He was able to unify a large coalition of voters around a platform focused on labor rights, affordable housing, and environmental justice. Progressive organizations like the Triangle Democratic Socialists of America and the Sunrise Movement rewarded Baker with their endorsements, but he says the major political institutions like the People’s Alliance and the Durham Committee still wield outsized influence during elections. “PACs are still really important endorsements in this city,” Baker says. “Whether you like that or not, this election showed that those endorsements hold true in their value.” The new-look city council may have different groups of supporters, and varying political ideologies, but they will have to find common ground to address key issues that will impact the city in this upcoming term. Here are five questions for the council as we look ahead to 2024.

Will the city council raise taxes during the next budget cycle? Salary raises for city employees including firefighters and sanitation workers became a hot-button issue during campaign season, pitting council members who voted to pass the 2023-24 fiscal budget back in June against others who wanted more money allocated to employee

pay. City workers did receive onetime bonuses in October but are still holding out for permanent raises in next year’s budget. Other city departments have echoed the need for more resources. Sean Egan, the director of the City of Durham’s transportation department, told the INDY in October that “funding has not kept up with the level of need from the city’s public works department.” Public works is in charge of implementing infrastructure improvements such as sidewalks and bike lanes, features that community members have been clamoring for. Meeting these needs requires the city council to raise more revenue. Rist says the jury is still out on whether a property tax increase is necessary to meet demand. “There’s critical needs coming up,” Rist says. “The [planned city employee] pay study is one. We already have things on the books like the fare-free buses. But I don’t know if we can assume we need a tax increase.” North Carolina state statute prohibits flexible property tax rates. So whether you just bought a new million-dollar McMansion or have lived in your modest home for years, you pay the same rate in Durham: roughly 55¢ per $100 of assessed value. Raising taxes would be a hard sell to a community already struggling with affordability. To mitigate the burden on lower-income households, the city offers property tax assistance, a program Rist says he’s proud to have worked on. “By creating the property tax assistance, we actually have a safety belt,” Rist says. “So we can raise taxes without harming lower-income folks the worst.”

How will the city council address development and housing? The battle over housing has made some council members the targets of ire from residents who have repeatedly aired their grievances at council meetings. Folks who live in the outskirts of Durham are concerned that large housing developments are causing irreparable damage to the environment by clear-cutting trees and allowing sediment to run off into some of the area’s main water sources. Urban residents worry about ongoing gentrification and rising housing costs across Durham neighborhoods. No one seems satisfied with the current state of housing, and the city council has limited options to fix the problems. “There’s literally nothing that we can do to mitigate the burden,” Johnson says. “Building is going to happen. What we can do is change what kind of building happens.” City council took steps this fall toward bolstering the tools it has to solve these issues. The council passed a new Comprehensive Plan in October, which includes the Urban Growth Boundary, a marker that signals to residents and developers where the city plans to limit future projects in an effort to protect the environment and create more incentives for building density in the urban core. But the Comprehensive Plan is not a legally binding document. It’s a framework through which the city says it intends to approach growth based on feedback from residents. To enforce its vision, the city will have to revise its Unified Development Ordinance (UDO), the rules for building in Durham. “There was a lot of conversation on the campaign trail about development. The truth is, our UDO allows it,” Rist says. “So, if we really don’t want certain types of development, we need to change it altogether to not allow it.” After months of meetings, op-eds, and task forces, the city council voted in November to adopt a number of changes to the UDO proposed in SCAD (Simplifying Codes for Affordable Development), a series of privately initiated text amendments. The reforms that council chose to approve, such as eliminating parking mandates, had wide consensus. Other proposals were sent back to the city planning department for further review as it prepares for a full examination and rewrite of the entire UDO, which is already under way. Durham is not alone in facing these housing and development challenges. Cities across the United States are struggling to meet housing demand. Rist points to plac-

“My hope is that we can find common ground and work in good faith.” es like Minneapolis, which recently eliminated single-family zoning in an attempt to increase housing stock, as a model for Durham. He says we should learn from other communities whenever possible instead of trying to reinvent the wheel. “Durham is special but not that different,” Rist says. “Every community is wrestling with these same issues.”

How will the city council address public safety? In 2021, Durham voted overwhelmingly to elect former judge Elaine O’Neal as its next mayor largely on the belief that she was the right person to address the issues of crime and public safety. During her tenure, city staff introduced the HEART (Holistic Empathetic Assistance Response Teams) program, a new unit within community safety that supports residents dealing with nonviolent quality-of-life issues. The city council also included a Vision Zero coordinator in this year’s budget, aimed at reducing traffic violence. Unfortunately, public safety remains a serious concern, particularly in Durham’s most vulnerable communities, where young people are repeatedly the victims of gun violence. The city council needs to continue exploring proactive alternatives to direct police enforcement that help them limit pathways to crime before they become the last resort. One method is to connect residents to education resources and meaningful employment opportunities. Rist has spent much of his career educating residents on the importance of financial literacy and working with community organizations to support working-class families through programs like the Durham Living Wage Project. He says Durham has some of the best jobs in growing, dynamic sectors such as life sciences and that all residents should have access to Durham’s economy to discourage folks from turning to crime to meet basic needs. “We need job training to make sure kids in Durham schools, no matter what high school you go to or zip code you grew up in, are connected with opportunities to actually get training beyond high school,” Rist says. “Whether it’s a two-year degree at a community college or a certificate, we need to help students develop skills beyond high school education to be able to compete for

these good jobs that are here.” Youth opportunities have been a consistent call to action from Williams. He is a vocal advocate for mentorship programs and recreational activities, especially for young Black men. Those opportunities took a hit during the COVID-19 lockdown when gathering in person was dangerous. Time spent at home on screens went up, and so did teen mental health challenges. On the campaign trail, Baker says a recurring issue for residents is reinvesting in Durham’s parks and recreational activities, and providing outdoor and community spaces is another way to reduce crime. “It’s a unifying topic that cities are particularly well positioned to be great at,” Baker says. The city plans to make significant improvements to park facilities in 2024, highlighted by the redevelopment of Wheels Fun Park, which the city bought two years ago. Accessible, equitable recreation is emphasized throughout Durham’s new Comprehensive Plan as part of the vision for “complete” neighborhoods, a design approach that brings essential amenities like health care, schools, and parks within close proximity to residents regardless of where they live. Baker says he plans to make youth recreation a priority. “We need to make sure that young people never have a moment where they don’t have any options for things to do,” Baker says. “They need real, legitimate choices for fun and stimulating activities that are close to where they live all year long. We can make sure that’s a goal.”

Will the new council members get along? The last year for Durham City Council left more than a few scars. “The road to where we are tonight was not easy at all,” Williams said at the December 4 council meeting. “It was physically taxing, psychologically taxing, emotionally taxing, and yet, here we are.” During a campaign speech back in November, Williams told the crowd that his car windows had been smashed multiple times, a problem he attributed to the escalating rhetoric and personalized verbal attacks that became customary during city council meetings and candidate forums.

An alleged physical altercation back in March put council members DeDreana Freeman and Mark-Anthony Middleton at odds on more than just policy. When Williams made a motion to retain Middleton as his mayor pro tem earlier this month, Freeman was the sole dissenting vote. Baker, one of two newcomers, believes introducing a handful of new members could be a fresh start and an opportunity to rebuild trust among his colleagues. “I’m willing to sit down at the table with every single one of the council members,” Baker says. “My hope is that we can find common ground and work in good faith. I’m going to remain optimistic until proven otherwise.”

How will city council fill the vacant Ward 3 seat? The six current city council members still have to fill the Ward 3 seat that Williams left vacant. Policy expertise will be important for candidates interested in the position, but temperament and the ability to work with a team, Johnson says, are characteristics she thinks the council will give serious attention to when voting. “There’s not really any sort of ideological majority on the council anymore. It’s more about attitudes toward governance than politics,” Johnson says. “I feel like someone who’s got a collaborative approach and a strong work ethic who wants the government to function regardless of their ideology is going to be attractive to the majority of the council members.” The rules set forth by the City of Durham’s charter gives the council 60 days from the time the seat was officially vacated, December 4, to vote on a replacement. If the council cannot come to an agreement within that time frame, the city will hold a special election on March 5, and Durham voters will decide who fills the final council seat. Possible candidates include Shelia Ann Huggins, who ran for city council in 2017 and 2023. Huggins finished fifth in this year’s primary and suspended her campaign soon after, though she said at the time that she would be interested in applying for the Ward 3 seat should Williams become mayor. Applications for the position are open until December 21. Candidates are verified by the city clerk’s office to ensure their eligibility before having to complete a questionnaire and in-person interview with the other six city council members. The council plans to vote on the position at the January 16 council meeting. W INDYweek.com December 13, 2023

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Raleigh

No Silver Bullet After years of work by Raleigh and Wake County officials, construction is finally starting on a new Bus Rapid Transit line along New Bern Avenue. But some Raleigh residents worry it will do more harm than good. BY JASMINE GALLUP jgallup@indyweek.com

Raleigh community activist Octavia Rainey photographed in front of J.E. Tires on New Bern Avenue. PHOTO BY ANGELICA EDWARDS

tepping up to the podium to talk to Raleigh City Council members, lifelong resident Octavia Rainey is visibly angry. “I am here to talk about the TOD [Transit Overlay District],” she says, snapping out every syllable. “As I look at New Bern Avenue, I am not happy. You have no right to change our zoning.” “Y’all did a great job of removing the Blacks [from downtown] in 1986,” Rainey adds scornfully. “The footprint of downtown should not be on New Bern Avenue.” Rainey, in a months-long campaign, attended the October 17 meeting to talk about the city council’s plan to redevelop more than 700 acres of land along New Bern Avenue, a major roadway through Southeast Raleigh. She and others are worried that the proposed zoning changes—which would allow taller buildings, allow more apartments and townhomes, and discourage driving— will worsen gentrification in the historically African American community. The issue is deeply personal to Rainey, who has lived in the College Park neighborhood almost her entire life. She has been talking about issues of gentrification and public transportation in Raleigh since at least 2007. “I love New Bern Avenue,” Rainey tells the 10

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INDY. “That is my beloved community. And when it comes to my beloved community, you’re gonna hear my voice.”

It started with a bus line The argument over whether to enact zoning changes along New Bern—which has played out in neighborhood and city meetings for more than a year—started with a bus line. In 2016, Raleigh and Wake County officials proposed investing in Bus Rapid Transit (BRT), a new bus system that would operate like the subway, giving people regular, convenient access to downtown Raleigh. At the time, residents demanded that Southeast Raleigh be prioritized over other locations, says Mayor Pro Tem Corey Branch, who was involved in the planning process and represents District C, where the New Bern BRT is now being built. “The community back then was always saying, ‘Why are we always last to get things done?’” Branch says. “‘Why do things have to happen to other communities and then you come to Southeast Raleigh?’” In light of those sentiments, city council members decided to start their rollout of BRT on New Bern. In an effort to ensure the

success of the bus system (and secure federal funding), the city council also proposed a set of zoning changes dubbed the Transit Overlay District (TOD). These changes, they said, would encourage denser development along the bus routes and increase ridership. Today, however, some critics argue that the proposed rezoning will also encourage developers to build bigger and more expensive housing, leading to the displacement of longtime Black residents and the disappearance of Black-owned businesses. “What I’ve heard today are all the reasons this is going to promote economic development,” said Russ Stephenson, a former city council member and planning commissioner, during a Planning Commission Committee of the Whole meeting last month. “I haven’t heard anything that said, ‘This is how these are going to serve the lowest-wealth communities’ … or ‘[Here’s] how we’re going to protect those families from displacement.’ I’m very concerned that everything here is framed around growth and development and all the promises we made to the community back in 2016 seem to be missing.” The proposed zoning changes—encompassed in cases Z-92-22 and CP-7-22—are expected to come before the city council on January 30, where a massive and

complex conversation about gentrification, housing equality, and Black neighborhoods will likely continue.

A legacy of distrust For Charles Thomas, a Charlotte philanthropist working for the Knight Foundation, investment in Black neighborhoods starts with talking to the community. In longtime African American communities like Raleigh’s Battery Heights, which government officials have historically neglected, there’s a lot of distrust, Thomas says. “You’re going to have people who just think any kind of investment is bad because of gentrification,” Thomas says. “[But] don’t all communities deserve certain amenities? It is a very fine line, so that’s why trust is critical. Otherwise people feel rolled over.” Thomas has watched many skilled community engagement professionals retreat in the face of harsh criticism from residents, but “it’s not personal, it’s historical,” he says. That historical distrust is clearly on display with activists like Rainey. She argues that the BRT and proposed zoning changes will “destroy Black neighborhoods.” For years, she’s tried to get city council mem-

bers to invest in the area, only to be met with denials or empty promises. “The city didn’t meet us halfway on nothing,” Rainey says. “They came in with change in mind.” Rainey cites one provision of the TOD that might remove some working-class businesses from New Bern Avenue—businesses that already employ and serve residents. The provision prohibits land around the transit corridor from being used for drive-throughs (like the ones at the existing Bojangles and Cookout locations), major vehicle repair businesses, gas stations, and other uses that are “incompatible with a high level of transit service.” “The reason why I talk about gentrification and how the city wipes out Black neighborhoods goes back to the Raleigh Redevelopment Commission back in the 1940s,” Rainey adds, referring to a time when city officials openly attempted to oust Black residents from certain areas of Raleigh. “The city hasn’t changed at all.” In Charlotte, Thomas says, the Knight Foundation is focused on including residents in conversations about development. The nonprofit helped fund the Five Points Forward Plan, a vision for the city’s West End developed in part by residents. The Knight Foundation also gives money to local community groups that are already

doing work to improve their neighborhoods. “The idea is that by providing resources to residents to influence development, they will be the best ones to guide it towards benefiting the historic Black community,” Thomas says. “We fund resident-based organizations who have started economic development groups that are doing small business attraction and retention. They’re brokering deals, they’re getting control of land, and they are actually the group leading the planning effort as well.”

A changing community Gentrification is already under way along New Bern Avenue, according to Bynum Walter, Raleigh’s assistant director for planning and development. Since 2000, property values and housing costs along New Bern Avenue have increased, Walter reported during a city council workshop in mid-November. Developers are tearing down older homes to build bigger and more expensive ones, and the supply of housing is increasing only “incrementally,” she added. “If we just leave things to the existing market and zoning, the result is just gonna be more of the same,” Walter bluntly told

the city council. “We can expect to see these same patterns of an increasingly white population with higher household incomes and increasing housing prices. Doing nothing is probably the least equitable choice that we have.” Making the proposed zoning changes— which include incentives for developers to build below-market-rate housing—will “create a different outcome from what we have been seeing in the New Bern corridor over the past 10 years,” Walter argues. The city’s plan to support the Black community also includes dozens of government-funded programs designed to build more affordable housing, help people buy homes for the first time, and prevent the displacement of existing residents and Black-owned businesses. So far, the city has invested more than $2 million in this work, funding local nonprofits such as Southeast Raleigh Promise and El Centro Hispano in addition to its own programs. City money has also led to the construction of 200 units of affordable housing along New Bern Avenue, with 672 more to come. The city is also in the process of purchasing both a nearby gas station (Zack’s Gas 76) and the old DMV headquarters, in an effort to bank land for affordable housing or other public projects. In the meantime, city staff are working on a plan to increase

assistance for low-income renters in the area, which city council members agree will be key.

How do we fight gentrification? Research has shown that the way local officials plan for development around transit can make a difference. In Portland, Oregon for example, neighborhoods near light-rail stations experienced “counter-gentrification … due to more residents with high transit needs being able to occupy [light-rail transit] station areas,” according to a 2017 study. Some, however, are still worried that the city is not doing enough to ensure a good outcome for people who live along New Bern Avenue. “Since we know [gentrification is] happening already, we’ve got to take extra care to not further that problem,” says Reeves Peeler, a longtime activist and now member of the city’s Planning Commission. “How do you keep people in this corridor that currently rely on the bus? That should be the underlying point of what we’re trying to do.” Peeler says the city should be more serious about acquiring land in the corridor. He, like Knight, also supports the creation of a community land trust, which guarantees some housing remains permanently affordable.

Raleigh’s Transit Overlay District and Development/Density Changes

LEGEND TOD overlay BRT route Green Plus frontages Rezoned to allow for up to 5 stories in height Rezoned to allow for up to 7 stories in height

DATA FROM THE CITY OF RALEIGH

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In addition, Peeler says the city should be more aggressive in preserving naturally occurring affordable housing and disincentivizing the construction of luxury apartments. Ultimately, he’s also skeptical that some of the policies included in the TOD will work to produce enough affordable housing and other community benefits. “As it currently stands, I don’t support a TOD being put in New Bern,” Peeler says.

Non-TOD vs. TOD Scenarios

Will a density bonus work? One controversial provision in the TOD is the “density bonus,” which allows developers to build taller buildings if they include below-market-rate housing. This bonus kicks in if developers plan to construct buildings above four, five, or seven—or in some areas, 12—stories. Peeler, however, is doubtful that there’s a demand for buildings over four stories, he says, which “is gonna guarantee we get no density bonus.” Rainey, similarly, is worried that the density bonus won’t serve the people most in need of affordable housing. The bonus encourages developers to build units affordable to people making at or below 60 percent of the area median income—which, in Raleigh, is $47,640 for one person and $67,980 for a family of four. “The whole thing needs to be [at or below] 30 percent,” says Rainey. She also wants the city to consider building a mental health center in the corridor, as well as single-room-occupancy housing, which could serve low-income workers and parolees. Walter, the city’s assistant director for planning and development, argues that the density bonus is based on market research and that these kinds of incentives have been successful elsewhere in Raleigh, on Hillsborough Street and Glenwood Avenue north of the beltline. Projects along these transit corridors include affordable housing and take advantage of the city’s Frequent Transit Development Option (FTDO), says Walter, which was implemented last year. “The requirements of the FTDO and the TOD are pretty similar,” Walter says. “So the fact that the market is interested in this suggests to me that the math of the TOD bonus is likely to be appealing to the development market.” For one affordable housing developer—who is building 192 units of rental housing at 3600 New Bern Avenue—the FTDO allowed them to move forward without a rezoning. “So their project cost is less,” says Walter. “Everything we can do to bring down project costs for affordable housing is—that’s always the goal.” The other projects, she adds, are being built by private developers without a financial contribution from the city of Raleigh, freeing up money for even more affordable housing. Ultimately, Walter believes the BRT will benefit the New Bern Avenue community because the density bonus isn’t the only tool city staff are using to try and create equitable development. “[The BRT is] not just a construction project,” she says. “There are all these other components that work together so that as many people as possible, especially existing residents and businesses, will benefit from that infrastructure investment.” “The whole is greater than the sum of the parts,” she adds. “To me, that’s why it’s going to work, because there’s no silver bullet that we’re relying on here.” 2 12

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OFFER DENSITY BONUS FOR AFFORDABLE HOUSING Allow additional height in return for providing affordable units.

NON-TOD

TOD

DISTRIBUTE DENSITY AROUND TRANSIT

TOD TOD

NON-TOD Non-TOD

ALLOW A MIX OF USES

NON-TOD Non-TOD

Retail Office Varying Residential Types Mixed/Flexible Commercial

TOD TOD SOURCE: CITY OF RALEIGH

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Durham

No-Win Scenario Jatoia Potts lost both her children because she couldn’t explain her baby’s injuries. She never stood a chance against the state’s child welfare system. BY WHITNEY CLEGG, JEFFREY BILLMAN, AND NICK OCHSNER backtalk@indyweek.com

Jatoia Potts lost both her children after she couldn’t explain injuries on the younger one. PHOTO BY KATE MEDLEY FOR THE ASSEMBLY

This is the second in a three-part investigation published as a partnership between The Assembly and WBTV in Charlotte. Read part 1 in our November 29 print edition or online. Part 3 is also in this issue, beginning on page 47.

lizabeth Simpson vividly recalls her first day in Durham’s abuse, neglect, and dependency court, which decides child welfare cases. While she’d represented prisoners and immigrants, and recently started working for the civil rights group Emancipate NC, she had no background in the field back in January 2020. But a colleague had introduced her to Jatoia Potts, who was fighting to regain custody of her children after the Durham County Department of Social Services (DSS) accused her of abuse and neglect. Two years earlier, her youngest son had suffered unexplained injuries that doctors attributed to “non-accidental trauma.” Potts was unhappy with her court-appointed lawyer. Simpson hadn’t taken her case, but she was curious. What she saw startled her. Potts’s family had driven to Durham from Georgia for the hearing, expecting her attorney to file motions to place Potts’s children with them instead of foster care, or at least reinstate visitation with Potts, which had been suspended. But that didn’t happen. Nothing happened. No motions were filed. No witnesses were called. Potts’s children remained in foster care. She wasn’t allowed to see them. The cases that followed Potts’s went the same way, 14

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Simpson said. Attorneys appointed to represent parents, lawyers for the DSS and the guardian ad litem—a program run by the Administrative Office of the Courts that represents children—and the judge and clerks shared jokes and stories while nervous parents looked on. “It just seemed like a clubhouse,” Simpson said. “I hadn’t really experienced anything like that.” Simpson, who is also an adjunct professor at the University of North Carolina School of Law, agreed to become Potts’s lawyer. Though child welfare wasn’t her specialty, she figured she couldn’t do worse than Potts’s previous attorneys. But in July 2021, district court judge Shamieka Rhinehart terminated Potts’s parental rights. Representing Potts opened Simpson’s eyes to a part of the legal system that operates unlike any other and disproportionately affects Black, low-wealth parents who have been accused of abuse or neglect in Durham and across the state. According to state records, Potts, who is Black, was one of 34 Durham parents who lost their rights in the 2021-22 fiscal year; only one was white. Since 2018, North Carolina courts have terminated the rights of nearly 1,200 parents per year, including an average of 32 per year in Durham, according to state records. Only 30 percent of the 5,020 North Carolina children who left foster care in the 2022-23 fiscal year were reunited with their parents. In Durham, the reunification rate was just 22 percent, less than half of the national average.

“It’s almost impossible to get the court to give the child back,” said Wendy Sotolongo, who heads the Office of the Parent Defender for the state’s Indigent Defense Services, which helps people who cannot afford attorneys. This is the second in The Assembly and WBTV’s threepart investigation into Durham County’s child welfare system. The first part told the story of a mother charged with neglect—by far the most common allegation in these cases, and a term often synonymous with poverty. The final part details the bureaucratic and legal machinations that have prevented a father who has never been accused of abuse or neglect from gaining custody of his son. Potts’s legal battle shows what can happen within the state’s slow-moving, secretive child welfare courts—and why critics say the system needs reform. “Nobody wants children to be abused or neglected,” Simpson said. “But the way this system is being operated is harming families. It’s harming both children and parents. It is multiplying trauma.”

No plausible explanation Jatoia Potts’s problem was that she couldn’t explain what happened to her son. She hadn’t planned to give birth to her second child, Kimoni, in North Carolina. She lived in Decatur, Georgia, but was in Durham visiting her mother, who had lung cancer and was in hospice care, when she went into labor two

months early in August 2017. WBTV covered her case in depth earlier this year. According to court filings and medical records Potts provided to The Assembly and WBTV, the baby spent the first 11 weeks of his life in the neonatal intensive care unit battling respiratory complications and a bacterial infection. Potts said she and the father of both her children, A.J. Thompson, got an apartment near the hospital. Doctors sent the baby home on November 7, 2017, and his doctor’s appointments over the next few weeks showed no concerns. But on December 3, his parents rushed him to the emergency room. He was suffering from “a head bleed, seizures, and possible blood loss in the abdomen,” according to court records. The injuries were life-threatening, and he remained in the hospital for the rest of the month. Doctors and social workers suspected abuse. In January, the DSS petitioned for custody of not only Kimoni but their older son, Mansa, though there was no indication he’d been abused. Potts and Thompson denied harming Kimoni, but the petition noted that they “could not offer any explanation” for his injuries. Child Protective Services investigators took that as evidence of guilt. In August 2018, Rhinehart declared that Kimoni had been abused and neglected and Mansa was the victim of neglect. (Under state law, children can be deemed neglected based solely on the fact that they live with an abused sibling.) Court records say Potts “consented to all the facts” underpinning Rhinehart’s decision—that Kimoni had severe injuries stemming from non-accidental trauma, and she and Thompson were the sole caregivers—though neither parent admitted to harming the baby. Potts says her attorney

told her that going along with the court would help her get her kids back. In November 2018, police charged Potts and Thompson with abusing Kimoni, and they were jailed on $250,000 bonds that neither could pay. Potts spent the next eight months behind bars before being released following a change in Durham County’s bail policies. Thompson was freed a month later. Potts said she refused several plea offers that required her to admit guilt or blame Thompson. “I’ve never seen anybody do anything, nor have I hurt my own kids. So I just sat there for that,” she said. During the first year that her kids were in foster care, Potts offered a few guesses for Kimoni’s injuries: She suggested his fractures might have come from being swaddled too tightly or from his treatments in intensive care. She also said a family member who had abused her as a child had access to Kimoni, according to court records. But she was consistent that she didn’t know. Just as consistently, Rhinehart didn’t believe her, saying she had “continued concerns” that “there is no plausible explanation for [Kimoni’s] injuries.” While Potts was in jail, the judge ruled that the DSS should plan to put the two boys up for adoption. The court scheduled a final hearing on their permanent plan for February 2020.

Bizarro-land Simpson prepared for her first hearing as Potts’s attorney like she would for any other court appearance. She

lined up testimony from family members and readied arguments that the children should be placed with relatives in Georgia rather than a foster home. (State law prioritizes kinship placements.) But abuse, neglect, and dependency courts don’t operate like other courtrooms. Simpson learned this when Rhinehart threatened to jail her for bringing people to the hearing to support Potts or discussing the case with third parties. “She was like, ‘This is a confidential courtroom, Miss Simpson. You cannot share anything that happens in this courtroom.’” In North Carolina, child welfare courtrooms are open to the public unless a judge declares it closed, which they can do for any reason. And while all court filings in these cases are sealed—the records used in this series have been provided by parents or referenced in appellate court opinions, which are public records—state law prohibits judges from barring observers, including journalists, from reporting what they witness. But that’s not necessarily what happens. As The Assembly reported in September, a Guilford County judge imposed a legally dubious gag order on a journalist and seized her notebook. A bailiff in Durham County also ordered an Assembly reporter not to take notes during an open hearing in child welfare court in September, saying, “What happens in there stays in there.” (The reporter was covering a hearing about a restraining order imposed on an adult activist.) Simpson said the docket was packed that day in February 2020, and the court moved rapidly. When they got to Potts’s case, and Simpson began calling witnesses, “it seemed like it was an act of war,” she said. “The anxiety

“When everybody is coming at you, it’s like, maybe I should have known, but I just didn’t. If I did, I would do anything in my power to make sure nothing happens to my child.” — Jatoia Potts

Jatoia Potts and her children. PHOTOS COURTESY OF THE POTTS FAMILY

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The Durham County Human Services building in downtown Durham. PHOTO BY KATE MEDLEY FOR THE ASSEMBLY

and the tension was just ratcheting up to a level I’d never seen in court before.” Simpson tried to admit expert testimony from April Harris-Britt, a psychologist appointed by the court to evaluate Potts’s capacity as a parent. According to court records, after interviewing Potts and people who knew her, Harris-Britt believed Potts could “provide safety to her children.” But Rhinehart dismissed her testimony because Harris-Britt had not reviewed the children’s complete medical file. However, court records say Harris-Britt could not review the documents because the compact disc the DSS had given her was password-protected. Simpson said she asked Rhinehart to allow Harris-Britt to review the records and return, but the judge refused. “I was just very shocked by this because it was so unfair,” Simpson said. “I was like, this is bizarro-land.” They didn’t finish the hearing, and Simpson expected it to resume the next day. Instead, Rhinehart scheduled it for April. Then, because of the pandemic, it was pushed back to July. (A recent report from the Durham Community Safety and Wellness Task Force found that the county’s child welfare courts continue to be “notoriously backlogged and slow.”) In October, three months after the hearing, Rhinehart issued an order saying the DSS should abandon attempts at reunification. By then, prosecutors had dropped charges against Potts. Thompson had accepted a plea deal and told a social work16

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er that he accidentally dropped Kimoni when Potts was not home. But Rhinehart said that didn’t matter. Potts had previously testified that she had “continuously” cared for her children at home, which the judge took to mean that she never left them with their father for even a few minutes. In Rhinehart’s view, Potts’s statements that she constantly watched her kids but didn’t know what happened to Kimoni contradicted each other. Potts “continues to have no explanation for [Kimoni’s] injuries, which is a risk to their health and safety,” Rhinehart wrote. Without an explanation, Rhinehart ruled that Potts couldn’t make “reasonable progress” toward proving she was a good mother. “At the end of the day, I’m a mom. When everybody is coming at you, it’s like, maybe I should have known, but I just didn’t,” Potts said in a recent interview. “If I did, I would do anything in my power to make sure nothing happens to my child.” The DSS filed a petition to terminate Potts’s parental rights. Rhinehart held a five-day trial in May 2021, where Simpson called experts and character witnesses on Potts’s behalf. But the result wasn’t in doubt. Experts say that when DSS attorneys seek terminations, they almost always win. “There really is a feeling across the state that judges—not all, clearly—but there are a lot of judges who pretty much defer to DSS,” Sotolongo said. State law provides 11 grounds for terminating parental rights. A judge only needs one—and a finding of abuse

or neglect counts. So does not paying to offset childcare costs or not completing court-ordered classes. And by this point, many children have been in foster care for years, some living with families who wish to adopt, and judges are often reluctant to break up what they perceive to be stable situations. That was the case with Kimoni and Mansa. On July 5, 2021—two months after the trial—Rhinehart ruled that it was in the children’s best interest that they not see their mother again. “Returning these children to their parents is a risk that this court cannot afford to take,” she wrote. Rhinehart—whom Governor Roy Cooper elevated to the superior court earlier this year—did not respond to requests for comment. The Durham DSS said it could not comment on specific cases.

Deferential to judges Simpson asked the Court of Appeals to overturn Rhinehart’s decision, but Potts faced an uphill climb there, too. From 2021 to October 2023, the North Carolina Supreme Court and the Court of Appeals issued opinions on more than 250 appeals from parents seeking to reverse district court decisions. Only about 20 percent of the parents prevailed—and in many cases, the appeals court wanted to fix technical defects in a lower court’s ruling that seemed unlikely to affect custody.

“They are bound by what is presented at trial, so if you have poor representation, it’s not like you can get new evidence,” said state senator Sydney Batch, a Wake County Democrat and attorney who has spent 18 years defending parents in court. “What they say is, ‘We were not in the courtroom to determine the credibility of witnesses and to get the tenor of what occurred, so we’re going to be deferential to judges.’” The Court of Appeals scheduled oral arguments in Potts’s appeal, a rare move for a parental termination case. At points during the August 2022 hearing, the three-judge panel appeared sympathetic to her case. “So what is required of the mother more than saying, ‘I didn’t do this, and I wasn’t there’?” Judge Allegra Collins asked. She added, “Although [the father’s] explanation is insufficient, if the mother was not there, how can she make his explanation any more sufficient?” “The mother’s testimony was that she was with both boys through the entire time,” a DSS attorney responded. “She was with both boys, and she had no explanation.” “But you will concede that it was likely that she slept at some point?” Collins retorted. However, the unanimous opinion, released a month later, said that while “there is no direct evidence of exactly what happened,” the appeals court’s hands were tied. The district court hadn’t made any obvious legal mistakes or unreasonable decisions, so the judges upheld Rhinehart’s ruling. “We conclude the trial court properly determined reunification efforts would be inconsistent with the children’s health or safety based on [Potts’s] failure to fully explain

[Kimoni’s] injuries and condition when admitted to the hospital,” Chief Judge Donna Stroud wrote.

Assembly line In Simpson’s view, Potts never had a chance. “I think that goes back to the roots of this type of courtroom,” Simpson said. “Family courts are supposed to be more touchy-feely and looking at holistic-type things. But what it’s led to is a lack of advocacy, a lack of adherence to the legal standards.” Three weeks after the Court of Appeals ruling, Emancipate NC published a report that proposed reforms to Durham County’s child welfare system. “The purpose was really to start a public conversation,” Simpson said. Elected officials in Durham, a liberal stronghold, responded to her concerns about mass incarceration or policing. “But when I started talking to some of them about DSS, it was like, ‘Oh, no, you’re wrong about that.’” “Parents and their children are forced to reckon with inefficient processes, long court delays, and a system that adjudicates weighty questions of family rights in a courtroom better designed for traffic matters,” the report said. “Vicarious trauma” and “layering bureaucratic processes on top of human suffering” led to burnout and high turnover among caseworkers and attorneys, and the child welfare court had become an “assembly line of paperwork and case plans.” According to interviews with attorneys and lawmakers, these issues aren’t unique to Durham.

Most parents in the system can’t afford their own lawyers, so their attorneys are usually court-appointed private contractors. (Public defender’s offices in Durham and some other jurisdictions have a few staff attorneys assigned to parent defense—Durham has two—though they can’t handle the volume of cases.) However, fewer have been willing to take these cases since the General Assembly slashed pay rates for attorneys representing indigent clients in 2011. When the pandemic shut down courtrooms—leaving no cases to be assigned—even more attorneys abandoned parent defense, Sotolongo said. And because court-appointed lawyers aren’t eligible for loan-forgiveness programs that help public defenders pay law school debt, there’s little incentive to return. “It is a struggle on many levels to get attorneys who have the time, resources, and commitment to really provide the level of representation that the clients need,” Sotolongo said. Their clients are usually low-income and sometimes struggle with housing instability, substance abuse, and mental health issues. They don’t always respond to calls or emails, and lawyers sometimes don’t even meet them until minutes before a hearing. “We start off with the odds against you,” said Timothy Heinle, a professor at the UNC School of Government who specializes in civil indigent defense. They don’t improve from there. The guardian ad litem attorneys appointed to represent the children support the DSS’s position “99.9 percent of the time,” Heinle said. And many judges “rubber-stamp

“Nobody wants children to be abused or neglected. But the way this system is being operated is harming families. It’s harming both children and parents.” — Elizabeth Simpson, attorney with Emancipate NC

Attorney Elizabeth Simpson is the strategic director for Emancipate NC. PHOTO BY KATE MEDLEY FOR THE ASSEMBLY INDYweek.com December 13, 2023

what DSS is doing because they’re the experts,” said state representative Marcia Morey, a Durham Democrat and former judge who presided over these cases. But as Sotolongo pointed out, county social services departments are “also in crisis.” Statewide, 45 percent of all frontline social services staff left during 2021, according to NC Department of Health and Human Services data. In Durham, 51 percent did. Last year, 40 percent of frontline DSS workers departed, including 37 percent in Durham. Social workers are “in defensive mode,” Sotolongo said. “They don’t have time to work the cases. They’re like the sixth social worker who comes in. They don’t think the parents are engaged, so they’re just like, ‘We’re done here. We’re not recommending reunification. We’re gonna go to termination.’” The result, Heinle said, is that “parent wins can feel hard to come by.”

as assistants, though there’s not enough money for every case. Cases with allegations of physical or sexual abuse don’t qualify, nor do ones where social workers are pushing to terminate parental rights. The social workers help parents navigate the system. They drive them to court-ordered parenting classes, therapy appointments, and drug tests. They also help them find jobs and housing, coordinate with their attorneys, and advocate outside the courtroom. Sotolongo says her office hasn’t yet analyzed data about the pilots’ first-year outcomes. But the qualitative results are promising. “What we’re finding is that, just like other states, it increases parental engagement,” Sotolongo said. “Giving a trained social worker to help the parent really increases their ability to access resources. They’re building trust. They’re building relationships.”

Building trust Emancipate NC’s proposals include creating a space in Durham’s courthouse for attorneys to privately discuss cases with parents—something that doesn’t currently exist. The report also said the court should assign each child welfare case a time slot to prevent parents from waiting all day and called on the county to better fund parent defenders and provide lawyers to parents before their kids are removed. And judges should rotate more frequently to avoid “overly familiar relationships” with DSS and guardian ad litem officials, the report argued. It’s unclear what Durham County plans to do with these recommendations. The DSS director did not respond to a request for comment. Simpson also asked Durham’s court system to change its rules so that multiple judges hear cases. She wrote in a June letter that by the time judges decide whether to terminate a parent’s rights, they might “harbor bias about incidents that occurred many years prior.” At this final stage, she argued, assigning a new judge “will permit unbiased adjudication.” The court system rejected her request, she says. Durham’s Community Safety and Wellness Task Force echoed many of Emancipate NC’s recommendations in its July report. Like Emancipate NC, it said the county should fund more partnerships between parent defenders and social workers, which studies show reduces time in foster care and promotes reunification. Durham’s public defender’s office has only one social worker to assist its two staff parent defenders, who handle most abuse and neglect cases. The private attorneys appointed to represent the other parents have no help. The Office of the Parent Defender is slowly taking this concept statewide. Over the last year, Sotolongo launched pilot programs that pair social workers with attorneys in Buncombe, Cleveland, Mecklenburg, and New Hanover Counties. Wake County came online in October, and Lincoln County will do so soon. Modeled after programs in New York City, Washington State, and Colorado, the pilots became possible after a 2019 policy change freed up federal funds. The pilots allow a handful of trained parent defenders to hire social workers 18

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“It’s almost impossible to get the court to give the child back.” — Wendy Sotolongo, parent defender for the state’s Indigent Defense Services

Win on the law Simpson was back in Durham’s child welfare court on September 15, representing Child Protective Services investigator turned activist Amanda Wallace. Late last year, Judge Doretta Walker issued a restraining order against Wallace and her advocacy organization, Operation Stop CPS, after an attorney for the guardian ad litem program accused her of harassment. In this case, at the guardian ad litem’s request, Walker had declared the mother incompetent. At this point, Wallace said, the mother’s case had been ongoing for three years without any questions about her competency. Wallace said all that changed was that “we started advocating for her,” and “more awareness started to come to the situation.”

Wallace wanted to appeal the restraining order on First Amendment grounds, but she needed transcripts of several court hearings to do so. Walker ruled that Wallace had no right to appeal the restraining order because she was not a party to the mother’s case, and she rejected her request for the transcripts. That same day, Simpson filed a motion on behalf of members of a national organization investigating child welfare proceedings, Civil Rights Corps, whom Walker had ejected from her courtroom earlier that week. She asked the court coordinator to schedule a hearing, but the coordinator refused. “You will need to speak to an attorney,” the coordinator responded in an email reviewed by The Assembly and WBTV. Simpson—who is an attorney—asked the Court of Appeals to order the court to give her a hearing. That appeal is pending. Simpson says she’s embraced a more adversarial approach to Durham’s child welfare court and regrets not going public with Potts’s case earlier. “I thought I could win on the law because I naively thought they would follow the law,” she said. Last month, Emancipate NC sponsored a conference at Duke University’s law school on reimaging a system that “truly values children and families.” Among the panelists were activists, attorneys, and law professors from across the country—and Jatoia Potts, who is now an organizer with Emancipate NC. Simpson hasn’t given up on Potts’s sons. In September, she filed a federal lawsuit on behalf of Potts’s grandfather Felton Woods, who says that the DSS and a court clerk conspired to block his petition to adopt his great-grandchildren earlier this year. Simpson said she sees “some possibility” that the lawsuit will lead to Woods gaining custody of Kimoni and Mansa. But it’s a “very, very long shot.” Potts hasn’t seen either of her boys in over four years. “I see them in my dreams sometimes,” she said in an interview last week. “To live every day without my children, without seeing them, not knowing what they’re doing, not knowing how they are, not getting any updates, not getting any pictures—it’s hard. I have good days, but I also have days where I’m just, like, this is a lot. This is really overwhelming.” Potts said she wants to share her story to “leave a trail for my children. They’re going to look for me one day. And they’re going to see that [I] never stopped fighting.” W WBTV’s Jamie Boll contributed reporting. Whitney Clegg is an investigative producer at WBTV. She has previously reported for Reveal, ProPublica, and CNN’s investigative unit, as well as for books on Jeffrey Epstein, Donald Trump, and Turning Point USA. Email her at whitney.clegg@wbtv.com. Jeffrey Billman reports on politics and the law for The Assembly. He is the former editor-in-chief of INDY Week in Durham. Email him at jeffrey@theassemblync.com. Nick Ochsner is executive producer and chief investigative reporter for WBTV. He is also co-author of the book The Vote Collectors. Email him at nick.ochsner@gray.tv. Scan the QR code for a link to Part 1 of this series on our website

Bestof theBest of the

Triangle

 Welcome, INDY readers, to our inaugural Best of the Best of the Triangle! For the first time ever, we spread our annual, onetime Best of the Triangle contest into three mini contests across the year, with competitions taking place in Durham, Orange/Chatham, and Wake Counties. For our final installment, our Best of the Triangle Reader’s Poll winners went head to head, county versus county. The winners of Wake, Durham, and Orange/Chatham Counties competed against one another to determine who is the very Best of the Best of the Triangle in 2023 as determined by you, our dedicated readers. In 139 categories that run the gamut from food and drinks to local stores and local service providers, doctors, vets, lawyers, health and fitness purveyors, museums, parks, concert halls, theaters, and everything in between, thank you for taking the time to tell us your favorites. Our winners this year really do represent the very best of what the Triangle has to offer; they’re who make us proud to work, live, and play in the 919. Keep your eyes out next year for your chances to vote. We’ll be back and asking for your favorites once again in February of 2024. And remember, shop local to support your favorites in the Triangle community. Congratulations to all of our Best of the Best of the Triangle 2023 winners! —The INDY team

INDYweek.com December 13, 2023

Arts Read our review for this winner on this or a nearby page

BEST ART GALLERY

BEST LOCAL/REGIONAL PODCAST

Durham Arts Council - Durham

Discover Durham - Durham

Runners-up: FRANK Gallery - Orange/ Chatham, Artspace - Wake

Runners-up: The Hill - Orange/Chatham, NC F&B Podcast - Wake Best Best of the

of the Triangle

BEST ART MUSEUM

BEST RADIO STATION 

North Carolina Museum of Art Wake

WUNC

Runners-up: Nasher Museum of Art Durham, Ackland Art Museum - Orange/ Chatham BEST COMEDY CLUB/EVENT

Goodnights Comedy Club Wake Runner-up: Mettlesome - Durham

Runners-up: WNCU, WKNC BEST SCIENCE/HISTORY MUSEUM

The Museum of Life and Science Durham Runners-up: North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences - Wake, Morehead Planetarium and Science Center - Orange/Chatham

BEST DRAG SHOW/EVENT

House of Coxx Drag Brunch Durham Runners-up: Cat's Cradle Music Hall "Drag Queens are Coming."- Orange/Chatham, Ruby Deluxe Drag Brunch - Wake BEST ELECTRONIC CONCERT VENUE

The Fruit - Durham Runners-up: Red Hat Amphitheater - Wake, The Kraken - Orange/Chatham

Best Best

f FILM THEATRE VENUE/EVENT oBEST he tChelsea Theater, Chapel Hill Orange/Chatham

BEST THEATRE COMPANY

PlayMakers Repertory Company - Orange/Chatham Runners-up: Raleigh Little Theatre - Wake, The Durham Savoyards - Durham BEST UNPLUGGED CONCERT VENUE

The Blue Note Grill - Durham Runners-up: Community Church Concerts - Orange/Chatham, The Pour House Music Hall & Record Shop - Wake

of the TriaRunners-up: ngle The Carolina Theatre of Durham - Durham, Alamo Drafthouse



Cinema - Wake

WUNC BEST RADIO STATION

We love print journalism, but even we have to put down our copies of the INDY when we get on our bikes or into our cars or need to fold laundry. That’s why we are so lucky to have WUNC 91.5, the premiere public radio station serving the Triangle and beyond that delivers exceptional local, national, and international news directly into our ears. It’s thriving, too: just this year, the station added two new shows (a daily show and podcast, as highlighted in our November 29 issue). -CP 20

December 13, 2023

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Best of the Best of the Triangle 2023

INDYweek.com December 13, 2023

Arts Goodnights Comedy Club - Wake BEST COMEDY CLUB/EVENT

When Goodnights Comedy Club moved out of its old location in a historic ice-cream factory on West Morgan Street, many longtime fans were worried about its future. But Goodnights’ move underground turned out to be a great decision for the owners, audiences, and comedians. Since relocating to the Village District earlier this year, Goodnights has hosted national headliners as well as local up-andcomers. On the main stage, comedians like Pete Davidson and Dave Attell have played to a packed house, but laughter also rang out in the back room, where Ali Macofsky cracked “Singles Awareness Day” jokes in February. -JG

The Fruit - Durham BEST ELECTRONIC CONCERT / DANCE VENUE

Whitney says she wants to dance with somebody. ABBA says you’re the dancing queen. Gaga says just dance. Find all those lovely ladies and their hip-shaking tunes—plus a lot more tunes—at the Fruit in Durham. First constructed as a fruit and produce warehouse in the 1920s, the Fruit has since been transformed into a banging bar and events/performance space. An LGBTQ+-friendly business, the Fruit has enough flashing lights and subwoofers to help you leave your troubles at the door while you shake some ass with some friends, whether on the main dance floor or in one of the many nooks and crannies. -CP

PlayMakers Repertory Company Orange/Chatham BEST THEATRE COMPANY

With increasingly creative concepts, new interpretations of the classics, and stunning set designs, the PlayMakers Repertory Company always puts on a few can’t-miss shows every season. This year, the Chapel Hill–based theater put on an equally enrapturing and horrifying production of Misery, along with a version of Much Ado about Nothing set in post–World War II North Carolina. And there’s a lot left to look forward to. With its foundations built on a resident company—albeit one that frequently shares the stage with guest artists from across the country—PlayMakers constantly seeks to push the envelope, challenging audiences in the tradition of theater while also working to break down historic barriers. -JG

December 13, 2023

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Best of the Best of the Triangle 2023

g n i m Co n! Soo

2024 INDY Summer Camp Guide Calling all camps: the 2024 Summer Camp Guide is around the corner!

Two issues Jan 24 th ! Mar 20 th&

The INDY’s Summer Camp Guide is an annual, comprehensive guide to camps around the Triangle and North Carolina for the upcoming summer. Listings are FREE OF CHARGE and must be submitted by January 17th. Please use the QR code below or email sales@indyweek.com to provide your camp’s name, location(s), age range, and url.

INDYweek.com December 13, 2023

December 13, 2023

INDYweek.com

Thank you! for voting us

The Best Painters in the Triangle 2023!

Best B of the

of the Trian gle

est

 www.fgpainting.com / (919) 477-6058

INDYweek.com December 13, 2023

Businesses Rumors Chapel Hill - Orange/ Chatham

BEST ARCHITECT/ ARCHITECTURE STUDIO

ARX Design Co

BEST CLOTHING CONSIGNMENT

Got some old clothes that used to be trendy, went out of style, and are now inexplicably so back “in” right now? Bring them to Rumors to sell! And while you’re there, check out their racks and stacks of previously loved and presently reasonably priced clothing. If you can’t make it out to the store, check out @rumorsnc on Instagram. While the Chapel Hill branch was the winner of this category this year, we can’t help but point out that Rumors has a Durham location also full of clothes guaranteed to make your Gen Z coworkers bombard you with nonsensical but complimentary colloquialisms. (Examples: It’s a slay. It’s literally giving. It’s Rumors.) -CP

Runners-up: Fred Astaire Dance Studio - Durham, 7 Dance Centre - Orange/ Chatham

BEST ATTORNEY

BEST DOG BOARDING

Cara Gibbons - Wake

Green Beagle Lodge - Orange/ Chatham

BEST AUTO DEALER

Johnson Lexus of Raleigh - Wake Runners-up: Southpoint Honda - Durham, Fred Anderson Toyota - Wake BEST AUTO MECHANIC

Wasp Automotive - Durham Runners-up: Auto Logic - Orange/ Chatham, Precision Autowerks - Wake

BEST FLORIST/FRESH FLOWER

Where do you go for Mother’s Day, prom, or to get a gift for your coworker when they pass their American citizenship test, as one of our own here at the INDY did recently? Where else but Fallon’s Flowers? With two locations in Raleigh, this Oak City staple has the brightest and best selection of farm-fresh flowers delivered to customers since 1920. And with a helpful, knowledgeable staff that can rustle up a red-white-and-blue bouquet in a jiff (or help you design a bespoke custom order), at Fallon’s, you won’t feel dumb if you don’t have a green thumb. From classic red roses to vibrant tropical blooms, Fallon’s has the best floral selection and service around. -JP

BEST BICYCLE SHOP

Bullseye Bicycle Runners-up: Back Alley Bikes, Oak City Cycling

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Eno Animal Hospital - Durham Runners-up: Woofgang Bakery & Grooming - Wake, Ooh La La Pet Spa Orange/Chatham BEST DOG TRAINING

Paws4ever - Orange/Chatham Runners-up: Learning to Dog Training and Enrichment - Durham, Sit Means Sit Dog Training - Wake BEST DOG WALKING

Sofia's Boutique - Orange/ Chatham

Runners-up: Pack&Pride - Wake, Walk & Wag - Orange/Chatham

Runners-up: Gilded Bridal - Wake, Smitten Boutique - Durham

BEST ELECTRICIAN

BEST CBD/HEAD SHOP

Bonneville Electric - Durham/ Orange/Chatham

BEST CLOTHING CONSIGNMENT

4810 Hope Valley Rd Ste 110, Durham, NC 27707

BEST DOG GROOMING

Kate's Critter Care - Durham

Runners-up: MagikCraft - Bull City Magic Durham, Aloha Plus Cannabinoids - Wake

Thank you for the support!

Runners-up: Sunny Acres Pet Resort Durham, Suite Paws Pet Resort & Spa - Wake

BEST BRIDAL STORE/BOUTIQUE

Carolina Hemp Hut - Orange/ Chatham

Visit the Best Draft-Slinger in the Triangle & Say Hi to Bear.

CC & Co. Dance Complex - Wake

Runners-up: Maurer Architecture, PA, Ellen Cassily Architect

Runners-up: Cedar Grove Law - Orange/ Chatham, Larry Rocamora - Durham

Fallon’s Flowers - Wake

BEST DANCE STUDIO

Rumors Chapel Hill - Orange/ Chatham Runners-up: Rumors Durham - Durham Triangle, Dorcas Ministries - Wake

Runner-up: Chris Lee Electric - Wake BEST EROTIC GIFT STORE

Frisky Business Boutique Runners-up: Cherry Pie, Adam & Eve BEST FLORIST/FRESH FLOWERS

Fallon's Flowers Runners-up: Blossom and Bone Florals, Pine State Flowers

BEST COMIC BOOK STORE

Best B of the

of the Triang le

est



Atomic Empire Runners-up: Ultimate Comics, Capital Comics

Best of the Best of the Triangle 2023

Businesses BEST GARDEN STORE

BEST NEW BUSINESS

Southern States Carrboro

The Cheese Shop - Orange/ Chatham

Runners-up: Logan's Garden Shop, Stone Bros & Byrd BEST GIFT SHOP

Runners-up: Auroraflow - Durham, Longleaf Swine - Wake

WomanCraft Gifts

BEST PAINTERS

Runners-up: Vaguely Reminiscent, Parker & Otis

Gonzalez Painters & Contractors Inc. - Orange/Chatham

BEST HARDWARE STORE

Runners-up: Zarazua Painting - Durham, Anderson Painting - Wake

Triangle Ace Hardware - Durham Runners-up: Fitch Lumber & Hardware, Ace Hardware, Burke Brothers Hardware BEST HVAC COMPANY

Boer Brothers Heating & Cooling Orange/Chatham Runners-up: Air Innovations Heating and Cooling- Durham, Wake Heating and Air - Wake BEST INSURANCE COMPANY

BEST PLACE TO BUY LOCAL CRAFTS

WomanCraft Gifts Runners-up: My Muses Card Shop, Hillsborough Arts Council, Freeman's Creative BEST PLACE TO BUY LOCALLY MADE ART

My Muses Card Shop, Carrboro Orange/Chatham

State Farm Insurance - Durham

Runners-up: The Artisan Art Market at 305 - Durham, Artspace - Wake

Runner-up: American Farm Bureau, Federation - Wake/Orange/Chatham

BEST REAL ESTATE COMPANY

BEST JEWELER/JEWELRY STORE

Triangle Key by Flex Realty Orange/Chatham

Jewelsmith - Durham Runners-up: WomanCraft Gifts - Orange/ Chatham, Bailey's Fine Jewelry - Wake

Runners-up: Raleigh Realty - Wake, Urban Durham Realty - Durham BEST REALTOR

BEST LANDSCAPER

TROSA Lawn Care - Durham Runners-up: Bombadil HomsteadsOrange/Chatham, Triangle Environmental - Wake BEST LOCAL BOOKSTORE

Justin Burleson - Orange/Chatham Runners-up: Marie Brockenbrough - Durham, Autumn DuBois - Wake BEST SALVAGE/REUSE COMPANY

The Scrap Exchange

Flyleaf Books - Orange/Chatham

Runners-up: Habitat for Humanity ReStore, TROSA Thrift Store and Donation Center

Runners-up: The Regulator Book Shop Durham, Quail Ridge Books - Wake

BEST VINTAGE STORE

TROSA Thrift Store and Donation Center - Durham Runners-up: Rumors Chapel Hill - Orange/ Chatham, Father & Son Antiques - Wake

Best of the Best of the Triangle 2023

INDYweek.com December 13, 2023

Food & Drink Ponysaurus Brewing Company Durham BEST BREWERY

Ponysaurus, whose flagship location is in east downtown Durham on Hood Street, is at the center of the brewery Venn diagram: The brewery offers beers to entice connoisseurs and satisfy casual drinkers. Kids are allowed but not empowered to run without supervision. It has a TV that sometimes plays sports but is decidedly not a sports bar. With a menu that features tasty pizza, Swedish fish, and wasabi peas, as well as ample heated outdoor seating, it’s no wonder that Ponysaurus is packed most nights of the week, even during the colder months. Ponysaurus also has a long-standing history of supporting LGBTQ rights with its Don’t Be Mean to People golden saison beer, which the brewery created in 2016 in response to NC House Bill 2, a.k.a. “the bathroom bill.” -JL

The Cheese Shop - Orange/Chatham BEST CHEESE SHOP

Finding the Cheese Shop for the first time might be a little tricky, since it’s tucked away in the corner of a Carrboro wine bar. But once you’re in front of the chilled deli counter, a whole world of cheese opens up. Cofounder Stevie Webb has a wealth of knowledge about regional cheeses and a true love of sharing unique flavors and favorites. Originally from the UK, he guides visitors through a rotating selection of cheeses in his distinctive accent, gently steering even skeptics into trying something new. Before relocating to North Carolina, Webb worked at a specialty grocery store in Brooklyn—and he’s brought that corner-store energy with him to the Triangle, lucky for area cheese lovers. -JG

BEST ALCOHOLIC COCKTAILS

BEST BURGER

Alley Twenty Six - Durham

Al's Burger Shack - Orange/ Chatham

Runners-up: The Crunkleton - Orange/ Chatham, Bittersweet - Wake BEST BAGEL

Brandwein's Bagels - Orange/ Chatham Runners-up: Isaac's Bagels - Durham, Benchwarmers Bagels - Wake BEST BAKERY

Guglhupf Bakery & Restaurant Durham Runners-up: La Farm Bakery - Wake, Guglhupf Bake Shop - Orange/Chatham

BEST LATE NIGHT MEAL - PAST 10 P.M.

Cosmic Cantina has had lots of different eras during its 28 years in business. For a time, the Mexican joint offered burritos wrapped in nori. During a fleeting period in the early 2010s, the (now sealed-off) staircase inside the Durham location descended into an eclectic open mic space called Crazy Camp Music Park. And for nearly a decade, there was a third Cosmic location in the Bronx that The New York Times once described as selling “well-nigh perfect” chicken burritos. What hasn’t changed about the restaurant in decades, though, are its extraordinary hours: in the barren late-night foodscapes of Durham and Chapel Hill, Cosmic is an oasis, open most days until 4 a.m. -LG 28

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BEST CATERING

Mediterranean Deli, Bakery, and Catering - Orange/Chatham Runners-up: Foster's Market - Durham, Catering Works, Inc. - Wake BEST CENTRAL AMERICAN RESTAURANT

Luna Rotisserie and Empanadas

BEST BARBECUE

Runners-up: El Chapin Guatemalan Grill & Catering, Taqueria La Vaquita, Blue Corn Cafe

The Original Q-Shack - Durham

BEST CHEAP EATS

Runners-up: The Pig - Orange/Chatham, Longleaf Swine - Wake BEST BEER RETAIL STORE

Sam's Bottle Shop - Durham Runners-up: Beer Study - Orange/ Chatham, State of Beer - Wake BEST BISCUITS

Mediterranean Deli, Bakery, and Catering - Orange/Chatham Runners-up: Cosmic Cantina - Durham, Cook Out - Wake BEST CHEESE SHOP

The Cheese Shop - Orange/ Chatham

Sunrise Biscuit Kitchen - Orange/ Chatham

Runners-up: Durham Co-op Market Durham, Wegmans - Wake

Runners-up: Rise (Downtown) - Durham, Rise (Village District) - Wake

BEST CHINESE RESTAURANT

BEST BREWERY

Cosmic Cantina - Durham

Runners-up: Bull City Burger & Brewery Durham, MoJoe's Burger Joint - Wake

Ponysaurus Brewing Company Durham Runners-up: Steel String Brewery, Pluck Farm - Orange/Chatham, Trophy Brewing - Wake BEST BRUNCH RESTAURANT

Guglhupf Bakery & RestaurantDurham

Gourmet Kingdom - Orange/ Chatham Runners-up: Happy China - Durham, Five Star Restaurant - Wake BEST COFFEE SHOP

Cocoa Cinnamon (Geer Street) - Durham Runners-up: Caffè Driade - Orange/ Chatham, Sola Coffee Cafe - Wake

Runners-up: Breakaway Cafe - Orange/ Chatham, Hummingbird - Wake

Best of the Best of the Triangle 2023

Food & Drink BEST DESSERTS

BEST ITALIAN RESTAURANT

Guglhupf Bakery & Restaurant Durham

Gocciolina - Durham

Runners-up: Guglhupf Bake Shop Orange/Chatham, Hayes Barton Cafe & Dessertery - Wake BEST DONUTS

Runners-up: Tesoro - Orange/Chatham, Bella Monica - Wake BEST JAPANESE RESTAURANT

M Sushi - Durham

Runners-up: Duck Donuts, Krispy Kreme

Runners-up: Akai Hana Japanese Restaurant - Orange/Chatham, Waraji Japanese Restaurant - Wake

BEST DRAFT SELECTION

BEST JUICE BAR

Wooden Nickel Pub - Orange/ Chatham

Raleigh Raw Juice Bar & Cafe

Monuts

Runners-up: Raleigh Beer Garden - Wake, Growler Grlz - Durham

Runner-up: Juicekeys BEST LATE NIGHT MEAL PAST 10 P.M.

BEST ETHNIC GROCERY STORE

Cosmic Cantina - Durham

Li Ming's Global Mart - Durham

Runners-up: Cosmic Cantina - Orange/ Chatham, Cook Out - Wake

Runners-up: H Mart - Wake, Mediterranean Deli, Bakery, and Catering Orange/Chatham

BEST LIQUOR

BEST FOOD TRUCK

Durham Distillery - Conniption American Dry Gin

Chirba Chirba Dumpling Truck Durham

Runners-up: Young Hearts Distilling Vodka, Grandma Scalabrino's - Oak City Amaretto

Runners-up: Bulkogi - Orange/Chatham, Gym Tacos - Wake

BEST LOCAL CIDER/WINE/MEAD

BEST HOT DOG

Bull City Ciderworks

Snoopy's Hot Dogs and More

Runners-up: Botanist & Barrel, HoneyGirl Meadery & Tasting Room

Runners-up: King’s Sandwich Shop Durham, Jimmie's Famous Hot Dogs BEST ICE CREAM

The Parlour Runners-up: Two Roosters Ice Cream, Maple View Farms Ice Cream

BEST MEXICAN RESTAURANT

Fiesta Grill Restaurant - Orange/ Chatham Runners-up: Taqueria La Vaquita Durham, Dos Taquitos - Wake

BEST INDIAN RESTAURANT

Vimala's Curryblossom Cafe Orange/Chatham Runners-up: Lime & Lemon Indian Grill & Bar - Durham, Cheeni Indian Food Emporium - Wake

Best of the Best of the Triangle 2023

INDYweek.com December 13, 2023

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Food & Drink BEST MIDDLE EASTERN RESTAURANT

Mediterranean Deli, Bakery, and Catering

1305 E. Franklin St. Chapel Hill, NC 27514 www.sunrisebiscuits.com

Thank you for voting us

Winner of: The Best Biscuits Across The Entire Triangle!

Runners-up: Bullock's Bar-B-Cue Durham, Beasley's Chicken + Honey Wake

BEST NEIGHBORHOOD BAR

BEST SUSHI

Wooden Nickel Pub - Orange/ Chatham

M Sushi - Durham

Runners-up: Players Retreat - Wake, Growler Girlz - Durham

Runners-up: Akai Hana Japanese Restaurant - Orange/Chatham, M Sushi Cary - Wake

BEST NEW RESTAURANT

BEST THAI RESTAURANT

Bluebird - Orange/Chatham

Thai Cafe - Durham

Runners-up: Mezcalito - Durham, Longleaf Swine - Wake BEST NON-ALCOHOLIC DRINKS

Alley Twenty Six - Durham

BEST PIZZA

Runners-up: Irregardless - Wake, Luna Rotisserie and Empanadas - Durham

Vin Rouge - Durham

BEST SEAFOOD

Runners-up: Angus Barn - Wake, Glasshalfull - Orange/Chatham

Mateo Bar de Tapas - Durham Runners-up: Glasshalfull - Orange/ Chatham, Barcelona Wine Bar - Wake

December 13, 2023

INDYweek.com

BEST WINE LIST

Runners-up: Pizzeria Mercato - Orange/ Chatham, Oakwood Pizza Box - Wake

BEST SMALL PLATES/TAPAS



BEST VEGETARIAN EATERY

Mediterranean Deli, Bakery, and Catering - Orange/Chatham

Runners-up: Tom Robinson's Carolina Seafood - Orange/Chatham, 42nd Street Oyster Bar - Wake

le Triang

Runners-up: Cham Thai Cuisine - Orange/ Chatham, Lemongrass Thai RestaurantWake

Runners-up: Caffé Driade - Orange/ Chatham, Sitti - Wake

Saltbox Seafood Joint - Durham

of the

Mama Dip's Kitchen - Orange/ Chatham

Runners-up: Sasool, Neomonde Mediterranean

Pizzeria Toro - Durham

st e B t s Be of the

BEST SOUTHERN FOOD

BEST SOUTH AMERICAN RESTAURANT

BEST WINE RETAIL STORE

Wine Authorities - Durham Runners-up: The Raleigh Wine Shop Wake, Rocks + Acid Wine Shop - Orange/ Chatham BEST WINGS

Heavenly Buffaloes - Durham Runners-up: Wooden Nickel - Orange/ Chatham, My Way Tavern - Wake

Luna Rotisserie and Empanadas Runners-up: Alpaca Peruvian Charcoal Chicken, Mi Perú Peruvian Cuisine

Best of the Best of the Triangle 2023

Food & Drink Bull City Ciderworks - Durham BEST LOCAL CIDER/WINE/MEAD

If you hate friendly bartenders, two dozen delicious ciders and beers on draft, and a dog-friendly ambience in downtown Durham, you should steer clear of Bull City Ciderworks. With themed holiday parties, Thursday night trivia, and a side room with a pool table and arcades, Ciderworks is a great spot to bring a friend or to go alone and find a friend. Check online for the food truck schedule, and we recommend you try the blueberry-forward Bludacris for a refreshing sip. -CP

Luna Rotisserie and Empanadas Durham BEST SOUTH AMERICAN RESTAURANT

Luna does the impossible. Somehow, the restaurant, conveniently located on Durham’s and Carrboro’s Main Streets, routinely delivers upscale taste and quality at fast food speeds. Order from your office, and food will be ready almost as soon as you walk in the door. Luna’s menu, billed as “South American meets American South,” keeps things simple, and even the pickiest eaters can satisfy their limited palates with one of Luna’s jam-packed empanadas or the savory collard greens, while more exploratory eaters might try the arepas or the jackfruit, an excellent meat substitute. The staff at Luna were also some of the first to act during the onset of COVID-19 in 2020, working with neighboring local businesses like Ninth Street Bakery to provide meals and other support for families in need. -JL

Wine Authorities - Durham BEST WINE RETAIL STORE

To shop at Wine Authorities is to indulge in an experience: Here, crate-shaped shelves offer wines sourced from small farms at truly reasonable price points (it is possible to buy either a $60 or $10 bottle). Friendly staff are on hand to provide expertise, but they don’t hover or—for the slightly wine-uneducated among us—shame. In fact, if you create a membership profile, your history of funky orange wines or affordable cabernet sauvignons can be saved and pulled up for future reference. Other assets worth highlighting: Wine Authorities, which has locations in both Raleigh and Durham, hosts tastings, sends customers off with bottles wrapped in that deliciously thick brown paper (perfect for making a good dinner-party-guest impression), and has a sweet curation of cheeses and treats on hand to round things out. -SE

Best of the Best of the Triangle 2023

INDYweek.com December 13, 2023

Thank You!

to all our loyal patrons and friends for the votes

Love the

es s s e n i s u b he t t r o p p ... u s S u t r o p p that su

! l a c o l S hop

December 13, 2023

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Deﬁning the Mediterranean Diet • Best Cheap Eats in the Triangle • Best Vegetarian Eatery in the Triangle • Best Catering in the Triangle • Best Middle Eastern Restaurant in the Triangle www.mediterraneandeli.com 410 W. Franklin St • Chapel Hill • 919.967.2666 116 N Williamson Ave • Elon • 336-524-6644

Best B of the

of Trianthge le

est

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A pay-what-you-can cafe. A Place at the Table provides community and good food for all regardless of means. We are serving everyone. We believe that all people deserve dignity to eat in a restaurant and have a healthy, affordable meal. Wherever you may come from, you are welcome to dine with us. We hope you will.

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*Ten percent off any job over $2500 up to a max of $525. Coupon must be presented at time of inspection. Offer may not be combined with any other offer. Limit one per customer. Ask inspector for further details. Promo valid through 12/31/2023.

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Health BEST BARBER SHOP

BEST MARTIAL ARTS STUDIO

Rock's Bar and Hair Shop Durham

Chapel Hill Quest Martial Arts

Runners-up: Chapel Hill Barber Shop Orange/Chatham, Arrow - Wake BEST CHILDCARE

Runners-up: Karate International, Master Chang's Martial Arts BEST MASSAGE THERAPIST

Schoolhouse of Wonder - Durham

Carole L Pope, LMBT # 12671 Orange/Chatham

Runner-up: Emerson Waldorf School Early Childhood - Orange/Chatham

Runners-up: Kim Turk - Durham, Awakenings Health - Wake

BEST CHIROPRACTIC PRACTICE

BEST PEDIATRIC PRACTICE

Bull City Physical Therapy Durham

Chapel Hill Pediatrics - Orange/ Chatham

Runners-up: Advance Physical Therapy Orange/Chatham, Oak City Chiropractic - Wake

Runners-up: Regional Pediatrics - Durham, Oberlin Road Pediatrics - Wake BEST PILATES STUDIO

BEST DENTAL PRACTICE

Holman Family Dental Care Orange/Chatham Runners-up: Durham Pediatric Dentistry and Orthodontics - Durham, Signature Smiles - Wake BEST DERMATOLOGICAL PRACTICE

Chapel Hill Dermatology Orange/Chatham Runners-up: Duke Dermatology - Durham, Blue Ridge Dermatology - Wake

Thank you, Triangle Community

BEST GYM

Duke Health and Fitness Center Durham

For recognizing WomanCraft Gifts as Best of the Best Gift Store and Place to Buy Local Crafts. We are proud to be all local, all handcrafted and celebrating creativity since 1973.

Runners-up: Planet Fitness - Orange/ Chatham, Oak and Iron Fitness - Wake

Pottery -Jewelry - Home Furnishings

Decorative Glass - Fine Art - Clothing Accessories Greeting Cards -Children’s Corner

December 13, 2023

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Runners-up: Fitness @ the Cube, The Movement Studio, InsideOut Body Therapies BEST SPA

Hillsborough Spa and Day Retreat - Orange/Chatham Runners-up: Bella Trio Salon & Spa Durham, Blue Water Spa - Wake BEST VETERINARY PRACTICE

Carrboro Plaza Veterinary Clinic Orange/Chatham Runners-up: Southpoint Animal Hospital - Durham, Bayleaf Veterinary Hospital Wake BEST WOMEN'S HEALTH PRACTICE

BEST HAIR SALON

Best Be of the

Womancraft Gifts features the work of more than 60 local artisans.

Bull City Pilates and Massage

of th Triangele



Willow Hair Studio - Durham

Runners-up: Purple Coffin Hair Studio Orange/Chatham, Lux Salon - Wake

Chapel Hill OBGYN - Orange/ Chatham Runners-up: Chapel Hill OBGYN (Southpoint location) - Durham, Kamm McKenzie OBGYN - Wake

BEST HOLISTIC MEDICINE

Duke Integrative Medicine Center - Durham Runners-up: UNC Wellness - Orange/ Chatham, Renovo Natural Health - Wake

BEST YOGA STUDIO

Franklin Street Yoga Center Orange/Chatham Runners-up: Yoga Off East - Durham, Alchemy Hot Yoga - Wake

Best of the Best of the Triangle 2023

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t s e B t Bes of the of the

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carolelpope.com / (919)619-6446 INDYweek.com December 13, 2023

Places BEST ARBORETUM OR GARDEN

BEST HIKING TRAIL

Sarah P. Duke Gardens - Durham

Eno River State Park Trails

Runners-up: North Carolina Botanical Garden - Orange/Chatham, JC Raulston Arboretum - Wake

BEST HOTEL

BEST CAMPSITE

Jordan Lake State Recreation Area

Runner-up: William B. Umstead State Park

The Umstead Hotel and Spa Wake

Runners-up: Falls Lake, Shinleaf Campground at Falls Lake

Runners-up: Carolina Inn - Orange/ Chatham, Washington Duke Inn & Golf Club - Durham

BEST CHARTER SCHOOL

BEST HOTEL LOUNGE

Raleigh Charter High School

The Roof at The Durham Durham

Runners-up: Central Park School for Children, Discovery Charter BEST DANCE VENUE

Runners-up: The Umstead Hotel and Spa Wake, Colonial Inn - Orange/Chatham

The Fruit - Durham

BEST LGBTQ+ BAR

Runner-up: Legends Nightclub - Wake

Pinhook

BEST FARMERS' MARKET

Runners-up: Legends Nightclub, Ruby Deluxe

Durham Farmers' Market Runners-up: North Carolina State Farmers Public Market, Carrboro Farmers Market BEST GOLF COURSE

BEST KARAOKE PLACE/EVENT

Pinhook - Durham Runners-up: The Northside District Orange/Chatham, Flex - Wake

Washington Duke Inn & Golf Club - Durham Runners-up: UNC Finley Golf Course Orange/Chatham, North Ridge Country Club - Wake

Pinhook - Durham BEST LGBTQ+ BAR

Has it only been 15 years since the Pinhook opened on Main Street? The bar/venue feels indelible to the Durham community, as if it’s always been there. But of course these places take grit and a lot of hard, unseen work to stay open—especially as certain North Carolina GOP politicians do everything they can to dim the lights of queer spaces like this—so we raise our glasses high this year to owner Kym Register and their team and a decade-and-change of glittery, effervescent concerts, drag shows, dance parties, and good times at the Pinhook. May its doors always stay open. -SE

December 13, 2023

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Best of the Best of the Triangle 2023

tate Park

e/ & Golf

THANK YOU!

AFTER WINNING 5 YEARS IN A ROW FOR BEST DENTAL PRACTICE IN ORANGE/CHATHAM COUNTIES.

We are so excited to be recognized as the Best of the Triangle this year!

and Spa ham

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le 2023

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Places Sarah P. Duke Gardens - Durham BEST ARBORETUM OR GARDEN

Do you ever get the urge to leave behind your spreadsheets and keyboard and skip down a wooded pathway while pretending you’re a woodland fairy and not a nine-to-five office worker with carpal tunnel syndrome? If so, take an afternoon to explore the Sarah P. Duke Gardens. With miles of trails and more benches than one person could experience in just one lifetime, Duke Gardens is a beautiful place for a family picnic, a lunchtime walkabout, or a flirty first date. The gardens are open from eight a.m. till dusk, and entrance is free. (Please be respectful of plant and animal life, including any Duke freshmen who may be experiencing psychedelics for the first time.) -CP

BEST PEOPLE-WATCHING

Weaver Street Market - Orange/ Chatham Runners-up: Durham Farmers' Market Durham, NCMA Park - Wake BEST PLACE TO ADOPT A PET

Animal Protection Society Durham Runners-up: Saving Grace, Safe Haven for Cats, Independent Animal Rescue

BEST PRESCHOOL/EARLY EDUCATION PROGRAM

Temple Beth Or Preschool - Wake Runners-up: Carolina Friends School, Durham Early School - Durham, Emerson Waldorf School - Orange/Chatham BEST PUBLIC PARK/PLAYGROUND

Pullen Park- Wake Runners-up: Laurel Hills Park, Durham Central Park

BEST PEOPLE-WATCHING

The Triangle certainly has plenty of viable contenders for this category, but the Weaver Street Lawn, with its open seating and crunchy co-op snacking options, is a clear shoo-in for the best watching perch. As for the people to focus on: Whole Chekhovian dramas have played out on this grassy town square over the years as hungover students post up for breakfast gruel, Tinder matches flirt over beer, families sprawl on picnic blankets, elders pore over crosswords (likely INDY ones, if we may), and, all in between, locals embrace the lawn as a place to hula-hoop, play music, and get a little weird. Grab a lentil salad and kombucha from inside the market and eavesdrop away. -SE

BEST SPORTS BAR

BEST TRIVIA BAR/EVENT

Players Retreat - Wake

Hammered Trivia @ Gizmo Brew Works - Durham

Runners-up: Tobacco Road Sports CafeDurham, Four Corners - Orange/Chatham BEST SUMMER CAMP

Runners-up: My Way Tavern Raleigh Wake, Music Bingo @ Gizmo Brew Works - Orange/Chatham

Carolina Friends School Summer Programs - Orange/Chatham

BEST UNDERGRADUATE UNIVERSITY/COLLEGE

Runners-up: Temple Beth Or Preschool Wake, Piedmont Wildlife Center - Durham

UNC-Chapel Hill Runners-up: Duke University, NC State University

Pullen Park - Wake

Player's Retreat - Wake

BEST PUBLIC PARK/PLAYGROUND

BEST SPORTS BAR

That feeling of desperately needing to get the kids out of the house is a familiar one to parents. And for countless Triangle families, when that feeling strikes, their destination of choice is Pullen Park. Situated on the edge of NC State's campus near downtown Raleigh, Pullen Park is a veritable wonderland for children and parents alike. Antique carousel? Check. Choo-choo train? Check. Kid- and grown-up-sized pedal boats? Double check. That’s not to mention all the playgrounds, tennis courts, and athletic fields, plus the aquatics and arts center. Fun fact: Pullen Park is the fifth-oldest operating amusement park in the country, and the 16th oldest in the world. Dix Park may be getting a lot of attention these days, but Pullen will always be the Triangle’s true crown jewel of parks. -JP 40

Weaver Street Market - Orange/ Chatham

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What’s better than a PR Hawaiian burger and a beer out on the patio on a warm spring day? Not much, though sitting inside the bar with a PR Hawaiian burger and beer and catching a football game on a cool fall evening offers some competition. This 70-plus-year-old stalwart of the Raleigh social scene is known as much for its culinary offerings and companionable staff as it is for its welcoming spirit. When it opened in the segregated South of the 1950s, the Player’s Retreat opened to everyone, and that sense of community has never changed. After navigating the COVID-19 pandemic responsibly, the PR has come out on the other side as bustling as ever. And as Raleigh grows up around it, true Raleighites have high hopes for the PR to persist and prosper for another 70-plus years. -JP Best of the Best of the Triangle 2023

INDYweek.com December 13, 2023

People & Miscellany Luxe Posh - Wake BEST DJ

It takes a special set of skills to be a good DJ: A deep knowledge and appreciation of music genres and styles, of course. Familiarity with your equipment and the ability to transition seamlessly. An adeptness at reading a crowd and what can only be described as an overall good vibe. Luxe Posh, a.k.a. Breniecia Reuben, the definitive Triangle DJ, has all of these skills in spades, and this accolade is a long time coming. Whether spinning tracks at City of Raleigh events at Dix Park, dance clubs like Neptunes, queer clubs like Legends, or GAG! at Durham Fruit, when DJ Luxe Posh is on deck, you can always expect to have a blast. -JP

Gregg Museum of Art + Design - Wake BEST-KEPT SECRET

While it’s nice to keep some secrets to ourselves, the Gregg Museum of Art + Design, quaintly ensconced in NC State's leafy brick campus, is an institution that deserves all the light it can get. With more than 54,000 objects in its permanent collection, the Gregg boasts the largest collection of outsider art in the state and, bolstered by its prestigious design programs, is an especially prime spot to admire ethnographic materials. And it has range, as the kids say: museum exhibits this past year (it hosts six annually) ran the gamut from a retrospective of South Carolina shadowbox virtuoso Aldwyth to a playful contemporary exhibition of blow-up inflatables. -SE

Festival for the Eno - Durham BEST TRIANGLE-WIDE EVENT

On a hot day in summer, what better way to spend your time than on the Eno River? At the Festival for the Eno, thousands gather in a 4,300-acre state park north of downtown Durham to enjoy local art, folk music, and a babbling brook. With several stages, the event always welcomes dozens of musicians every Fourth of July weekend, from locals to East Coast up-and-comers. Performers in past years have included now legendary artists such as Doc Watson and groups like Lake Street Dive. The festival isn’t a place just to catch great music but to soak in the sun with family and friends. And there are always those who will take the plunge into the festival’s namesake river for a refreshing dip. -JG

December 13, 2023

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BEST CHEF

BEST NON-PROFIT

Vimala Rajendran - Orange/ Chatham

TROSA - Durham

Runners-up: Ricky Moore - Durham, Scott Crawford - Wake

Runners-up: Orange Rape Crisis Center - Orange/Chatham, Urban Ministries of Wake County - Wake

BEST DJ

BEST POLITICIAN

Luxe Posh - Wake

Governor Cooper - Wake

Runners-up: DJ Wicked - Durham, DJ Special K (House of Hops Music Bingo) - Orange/Chatham

Runners-up: Nida Allam - Durham, Graig Meyer - Orange/Chatham

BEST DRAFT-SLINGER

BEST REASON TO LEAVE THE TRIANGLE

Bear (Growler Grlz) - Durham

Greedy Developers

Runners-up: James Peery at The Kraken - Orange/Chatham, Cameron Herbert at Tasty Beverage Company - Wake

Runner-up: Cost of Living

BEST-KEPT SECRET

The People/Community

The Gregg Museum of Art and Design - Wake Runners-up: Piedmont Wildlife Center Durham, Speakcheesy Secret Supper @ Belltree Cocktail Club - Orange/Chatham

BEST REASON TO LOVE THE TRIANGLE

Runner-up: All the Trees, Parks and Greenways BEST TRIANGLE-WIDE EVENT

Festival for the Eno (Enofest)

BEST KIDS NONPROFIT

Runners-up: Hopscotch Music Festival, IBMA World of Bluegrass

Book Harvest - Durham

Best Best

Runners-up: Note in the Pocket - Wake, Learning Outside - Orange/Chatham BEST LOCAL ACTIVIST GROUP

Planned Parenthood - Orange/ Chatham Runners-up: Livable Raleigh - Wake, LGBTQ Center of Durham - Durham

of the

of the Triangle

BEST USE OF  PUBLIC MONEY 

Public Schools Runner-up: Affordable Housing BIGGEST WASTE OF PUBLIC MONEY

Incentives for Big Developers Runners-up: Politicians' Paychecks, Increased Policing Budget

BEST MIXOLOGIST

Shannon Healy, Alley Twenty Six - Durham Runners-up: Britton Murray, Wooden Nickel Pub - Orange/Chatham, Mara Sudol, freelance - Wake

Best of the Best of the Triangle 2023

st Best of the

of the Triangle



Public Schools

Catering multiple cuisines for all occasions

BEST USE OF PUBLIC MONEY

Here at the INDY, we heart public schools, and we can’t think of any better way to spend taxpayer dollars than on ensuring that all of our Triangle kids have access to a solid, wellrounded education. Our state lawmakers are quite a bit less gung-ho on public education than we are here at your friendly, local, progressive, alternative, biweekly newspaper, and that’s why it’s extra important that all of our Triangle counties find the money to give our public schools what they need for our students to thrive when the state won’t. Public schools are where students of all backgrounds, incomes, races, and religions come together to learn, play, and grow. In other words, public schools are “the manifestation of our civic values and ideals,” to quote educator Randi Weingarten. They’re the very best of what’s still good about our shaky democracy. -JP

Award-winning Local Fare with a Global Flair

Thank you for voting us! Winner of : Best Indian Restaurant in the Triangle

Best Chef in the Triangle - Vimala Rajendran

431 W Franklin St #415, Chapel Hill, NC 27516 919-929-3833 www.curryblossom.com Best of the Best of the Triangle 2023

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To advertise or feature

Thank you for being a part of a pet for adoption, the cocktail culture!

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The Best Seafood Restaurant in the Triangle

est B t s Be of the of e th

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2637 Durham-Chapel Hill Blvd, Durham, NC 27707 46

December 13, 2023

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N E WS

Durham

Presumption of Guilt Garnell Hill has never been accused of abuse or neglect. But Durham County has kept his son in foster care for more than five years—and now wants to put him up for adoption. BY WHITNEY CLEGG, JEFFREY BILLMAN, AND NICK OCHSNER backtalk@indyweek.com

Ryan O’Donnell PHOTO BY KATE MEDLEY FOR THE ASSEMBLY

This is the final installment in a three-part investigation published as a partnership between The Assembly and WBTV in Charlotte. Read part 1 in our November 29 print edition or online. Part 2 is also in this issue, beginning on page 14.

hristopher was nervous when he arrived at Raleigh’s Pullen Park to meet his biological father for the first time. “I wonder if he likes Spider-Man, too,” the then six-yearold told his foster dad, Ryan O’Donnell, as he pushed him on the swings. Christopher had been in foster care in Durham County for three years at that point in 2021, and spent the last two with O’Donnell and his wife, Kelly. (This article refers to Christopher by his middle name to protect his privacy.) His biological father, Garnell Hill, had only recently learned his son even existed. O’Donnell saw Hill approaching the park’s entrance and stopped pushing the swing. “Do you see your dad?” he asked. “That’s my dad,” Christopher said. He bolted across a field and into Hill’s arms. They played together for two hours. It was an “instant connection,” O’Donnell said. “I knew I was no longer the number one dad in his life,” he said. “I instantly, like at the drop of a dime, fell in love,” Hill recalled. “He gave me purpose.” Hill, 41, uprooted his life once he learned about Christopher, relocating from the Washington, D.C., area to North Carolina. Being a father, he said, meant “having your presence known, being there for your child, teaching them right

from wrong, and being someone he can look up to.” Social workers assured him he’d have custody within a few months. Hill is still fighting to bring his son home two years later. On December 14, the Durham Department of Social Services (DSS) will ask a judge to move toward severing his parental rights, even as DSS records indicate that Christopher is struggling in what is now his fifth foster placement. (He left the O’Donnells’ home in January 2022.) Hill had passed a DSS background check and has never been accused of abuse or neglect. But according to a review of confidential court records and DSS reports obtained by WBTV and The Assembly, social workers decided that he shouldn’t be Christopher’s father—though it’s unclear why. North Carolina reunifies only 30 percent of children in foster care with their parents, well below the national average—and Durham County’s reunification rate, 22 percent, is among the lowest in the state. North Carolina spends more than 13 times as much on foster care and adoption as it does to prevent family separation, according to NC Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) data. Despite recent federal legislation prioritizing reunification and prevention, many social services agencies are steeped in a culture that prizes adoption and finding permanent placements quickly, said Matt Anderson, a former executive at the Children’s Home Society, the largest nonprofit foster care agency in North Carolina. “Our North Star needs to be the integrity of the family,” Anderson said. “The North Star needs to be the well-be-

ing of parents—and if parents are doing well, their kids are going to do well.” Hill’s case shows a father’s quest to get his son out of foster care and the seemingly endless obstacles placed in his path. “They want me to just quit,” Hill said. “I’m not giving up on my kid.”

The gauntlet In September 2018, district court judge Doretta L. Walker declared that Christopher had been neglected, writing in a court order that his mother “has a long-term substance abuse history” and had occasionally left him alone. His father’s whereabouts were “unknown,” Walker wrote, and “Durham DSS unsuccessfully researched its databases to locate” him. It’s unclear which databases the DSS searched. Though Christopher’s mother gave social workers Hill’s name, no one from the department contacted him. Hill says he left North Carolina in 2014 after his girlfriend, who was pregnant at the time, told him the baby wasn’t his. He didn’t learn otherwise until six years later, when the mother told a relative about Christopher. Hill says he reached out to the DSS after learning his son was in foster care. Hill had owned a D.C.-area catering business before the pandemic and helped raise two boys and a girl to adultINDYweek.com December 13, 2023

hood. He moved in with his mother in Burlington and took a paternity test in October 2020. Social workers told Hill he’d probably take Christopher home by the end of the year. Hill stepped into Walker’s courtroom that December expecting to “get commended for stepping up to the plate,” he said. “Instead, I get the complete opposite. I get treated like a criminal.” Walker told Hill she believed he had abandoned Christopher, and she put him through a gauntlet usually required of parents accused of abuse or neglect. Hill had to find stable housing and employment in North Carolina, meet with Christopher’s therapist, attend parenting classes, and learn more about Christopher’s mild autism diagnosis. He had to “prove that he’s good enough,” said O’Donnell, who was in the courtroom that day and became Hill’s most prominent advocate. In November 2021, a social worker wrote in a report that “it is possible and in the best interest of Christopher” to be reunited with Hill within six months. “Mr. Hill had worked to establish a bond.” Christopher stayed with Hill on the weekends, and the report said the DSS planned for Christopher to live with his father on a trial basis. But the department’s enthusiasm soon waned. In January 2022, the DSS halted Christopher’s weekend visits after learning that Hill had rented a room in a Burlington boarding house. Hill had stayed with his mother while he tried to gain custody of Christopher, but her small home didn’t have a bedroom for Hill and his son. The boarding house was a temporary solution, but the DSS deemed it unacceptable. A social worker then added a new demand: Hill had to drive to Durham to take a drug test within the next two days. (DSS reports don’t provide the department’s ratio-

nale; drug-testing decisions are made case-by-case.) Hill’s test came back positive for cannabis. But subsequent tests were clean, and Hill maintained steady work in a restaurant. O’Donnell also bought a house for Hill to rent, and Hill was participating in parenting classes. “The evidence is clear that Mr. Hill is putting in the work,” Walker wrote in a court order following an October 2022 hearing. In December, a court-appointed psychologist reported that Hill “does not present with any symptoms that would suggest a mental health or substance use disorder” and does not show “any significant cognitive impairments or judgment issues that would impact his ability to appropriately provide a safe and developmentally appropriate environment” for Christopher, according to a letter provided to WBTV and The Assembly. But Hill’s case was delayed for months, and a March 2023 drug test was positive for cocaine, setting the process back again. (He claimed his drink was spiked.) Following positive results for cannabis and alcohol in June and July, respectively, Hill completed a voluntary substance abuse program in September. No DSS reports or court orders reviewed for this article allege that Hill was intoxicated while caring for Christopher. An August DSS report still recommended reunification, albeit with reservations about Hill’s past marijuana use. Two months later, the department changed its mind, announcing that it wanted to put Christopher up for adoption. A report cited Hill’s “inability to be truthful” about his past drug use as an explanation. It also noted Hill’s “concerning statements” to Christopher—among them, “With me is where you need to be.”

Christopher’s guardian ad litem, appointed to represent his interests in court, also recommended adoption, arguing that the process had dragged on too long: Christopher “has been in care since 2018 and permanency has not been achieved.” Walker scheduled a hearing for December 14. “I feel like every time I go to court, I’m on trial for doing something wrong, and I don’t understand why,” Hill said. “Why am I getting railroaded like this?” Walker did not respond to a request for comment. But in a 2018 candidate questionnaire, Walker said she decides “from the facts what’s in the best interest of the child.” (She ran unopposed in 2022.) Acknowledging that judges “have broad discretion,” Walker said her responsibility is “to discern the truth and the credibility of witnesses and the evidence presented in any given situation. This requires patience and a willingness to listen to each side present their case.”

Breaking point The O’Donnells signed up to be foster parents after a presentation at their church. They didn’t yet have kids of their own when Christopher came to live with them in Cary in July 2019. He was their first foster child. They were his third foster family in a year. Social workers told them he had autism, developmental delays, and behavioral issues, was “basically nonverbal,” and had been kicked out of preschool, Ryan O’Donnell said. But the DSS had provided limited speech and occupational therapy and no services for autism.

“I instantly, like at the drop of a dime, fell in love. He gave me purpose.” — Garnell Hill

Garnell Hill moved back to North Carolina to seek custody of his son. The two have become close, but the child, now 9, remains in foster care. PHOTO COURTESY OF THE FAMILY

December 13, 2023

INDYweek.com

The O’Donnells bonded quickly with Christopher. “We were there to absorb a lot of trauma for him, to just be there, to hold him until he falls asleep,” O’Donnell said. “Socially, emotionally, he’s just been through so much.” With a new preschool and a stable home life, Christopher improved. A month later, a social worker told the O’Donnells that if they wanted to adopt him, the department would seek to terminate his mother’s parental rights. “Family will come out of the woodwork when we do this,” O’Donnell said he was warned. “We’ll handle them for you.” But the DSS didn’t file for parental termination, the pandemic sent the world into lockdown, and Christopher’s behavior regressed. O’Donnell said he and his wife felt overwhelmed. By the time Hill emerged that summer, they were starting to wonder how long they could care for Christopher. The DSS initially told the O’Donnells that as a “non-offending parent,” Hill could likely take Christopher home within months. But months became a year, and the couple grew increasingly frustrated with social workers’ resistance to letting Hill raise his son. In their view, Hill had done everything the department asked, and Christopher kept saying he wanted to live with his dad. “What more do you expect from him?” O’Donnell said. “We kept pressing this. I felt like a broken record.” Meanwhile, social workers had loaded Christopher’s schedule with mandatory weekly meetings and appointments, and by January 2022, the O’Donnells had reached a breaking point. “We finally put our foot down,” O’Donnell said. “He’s only really with us for maybe an hour and a half a night. We’re like, ‘Y’all need to take a look at what you’re expecting from him, because this kid’s exhausted.’” They told the DSS they were done, and suggested the department try to place Christopher with Hill’s mother. But Walker declared in a court order that Hill’s mother’s

house was unsuitable for Christopher because a ditch in the backyard might be “dangerous” after a rainstorm. (O’Donnell said his own home had a pond in the backyard.) The DSS moved Christopher to another foster home instead.

Support or surveillance?

Photos of Garnell Hill and his son. PHOTOS COURTESY OF THE FAMILY

When he was a student at the North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics in 2011, O’Donnell helped organize a food drive that still holds a Guinness World Record for largest 24-hour food drive, collecting nearly 560,000 pounds of food. Now a tech entrepreneur, O’Donnell said he’s always wanted to “attack the root issues of a problem.” After fostering Christopher, he applied his skills to the child welfare system, which was still “a world of fax machines and snail mail.” He created a website that aggregates public data and people’s experiences with social services agencies, and launched an app to assist parents like Hill as they navigate court dates, meetings, and appointments. “No one’s really helping parents,” O’Donnell said. “No one’s building things for them. There’s very little investment.” O’Donnell says the home he bought for Hill to rent illustrates this dynamic, and provides a model that social services agencies could emulate. Durham’s DSS was prepared to terminate Hill’s rights because he didn’t have adequate housing. Hill “wasn’t looking for a handout,” O’Donnell said. “But he couldn’t afford

the type of place that DSS would actually approve.” (Hill pays $700 a month in rent.) Critics say that despite a federal law that prioritizes keeping families together, the child welfare system subjects parents to scrutiny rather than finding ways to assist those in difficult circumstances. “This is one of the fundamental flaws that we’ve not come to grips with yet with the child welfare system,” said Anderson, the former Children’s Home Society executive. “We are intervening in the lives of families every single day that [face] challenges they need help to deal with. And instead, they’re getting mandated requirements placed on them that if they don’t comply with, the court system is going to turn against them, and they may never get their kids back.” Last year, Anderson left to found Proximity Design Studio, a media production and consulting firm that works to keep families together. Reform advocates point out that the federal government spends $8.4 billion per year on foster care and adoption, but only about $700 million on programs that prevent famINDYweek.com December 13, 2023

ilies from being separated. In the most recent fiscal year, North Carolina spent about $450 million per year on foster care and adoption and $34 million on prevention. DHHS spokesperson Kelly Haight noted that North Carolina has historically had one of the country’s worst-funded child welfare systems, though this year’s state budget makes “key investments” in behavioral health and initiatives to improve outcomes for children in foster care. She said the department “makes every effort to ensure that children and families have the services they need to keep their children at home safely and reduce entry into foster care.” Haight also said the DHHS supported a reform package that unanimously passed the Senate earlier this year. Among other things, the legislation would give the DHHS greater oversight of county social services departments, require DSS attorneys to undergo training in child welfare law, make it easier for fathers like Hill who didn’t know about their kids to seek custody, and tighten some criteria for terminating parental rights. State senator Sydney Batch, a Wake County Democrat who cosponsored the bill, said she wants to shift the child welfare paradigm. “You can prioritize safety without eliminating parental rights,” said Batch, a lawyer who has represented parents in child welfare cases for almost two decades. “They are not mutually exclusive. You’re actually doing more harm than good by creating legal orphans by terminating rights instead of putting services in place that would prevent people from being in that situation.” The state House had different ideas. In May, it passed a bill on a near-party-line vote requiring courts to terminate parental rights more quickly and in more circumstances.

Neither chamber considered the other’s bill this year. While statewide changes appear stalled, critics say local social services departments can make meaningful reforms. A decade ago, Mecklenburg County’s child welfare system focused on “support rather than surveillance,” as a 2021 report from the Annie E. Casey Foundation described it. Between 2014 and 2019, Mecklenburg cut the number of children entering foster care nearly in half, according to the report. And DHHS records show that Mecklenburg’s 40 percent reunification rate is almost double Durham’s. “Their leadership set a vision around ‘We’re going to support families. We’re going to keep families together. That’s going to be our priority,’” Anderson said. “That’s going to change the culture over time, and that’s going to change outcomes.”

1,978 days Recent DSS reports say Christopher—now in his fifth foster home—is “regressing without clear cause” and was hospitalized in August following a mental health crisis. The DSS wouldn’t let Hill see him. Social workers said Christopher, who turned nine on Halloween, is upset that he “could not be good long enough to go home” and questioned why it’s taken so long to be reunited with Hill. The two are currently allowed supervised visits for one hour a week. At a December 14 hearing, Walker will decide whether to accept the DSS recommendation to move Christopher toward adoption. On that day, Christopher will have been in DSS custody for 1,978 days—and for more than half of

that time, his father has been trying to take him home. Hill won’t go into the courtroom alone. Since WBTV and The Assembly began publishing this series, the Durhambased Operation Stop CPS has started advocating on Hill’s behalf, rallying supporters on Instagram to “pack the court” by arguing that “the family policing system in Durham has villainized and criminalized this Black father.” Walker seems unlikely to appreciate this scrutiny. She previously imposed a gag order blocking Operation Stop CPS founder Amanda Wallace from discussing a different case and has ejected legal observers from her courtroom. But Hill says he needs all the support he can get. “I just can’t imagine they give him up for adoption,” Hill said. “I know God’s got a plan for everybody, and I think we’re going to be reunited. I can’t think any other way.” W WBTV’s Jamie Boll contributed reporting. Whitney Clegg is an investigative producer at WBTV. She has previously reported for Reveal, ProPublica, and CNN’s investigative unit, as well as for books on Jeffrey Epstein, Donald Trump, and Turning Point USA. Email her at whitney.clegg@wbtv.com. Jeffrey Billman reports on politics and the law for The Assembly. He is the former editor-in-chief of INDY Week in Durham. Email him at jeffrey@theassemblync.com. Nick Ochsner is executive producer and chief investigative reporter for WBTV. He is also co-author of the book The Vote Collectors. Email him at nick.ochsner@gray.tv. Scan the QR code for a link to Part 1 of this series on our website

“What more do you expect from him? We kept pressing this. I felt like a broken record.” — Ryan O’Donnell

The Durham County Human Services building in downtown Durham. PHOTO BY KATE MEDLEY FOR THE ASSEMBLY 50

December 13, 2023

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FEATURE

The INDY's Most Impactful Reporting of 2023 BY JANE PORTER jporter@indyweek.com

It’s hard to believe that another year is almost in the books. The year 2023 has seen day-to-day life return to mostly normal for many of us as we’ve become better armed against the COVID-19 pandemic with widespread vaccine availability. The majority of Triangle residents are back to their daily routines of work, school, and play. Restaurants are fully open again—those that haven’t closed permanently, anyway—as are music venues and theaters. And our parks and greenways are still as busy as ever: opting to spend time outside is a message we seem to have taken to heart during those many, many months of quarantine. Still, it’s been a tumultuous year, both at home and abroad, and the pandemic has changed our Triangle towns in ways we’re just beginning to understand. The cost of living in the Triangle has soared as both residents and businesses face displacement due to rising rents. Office spaces are grappling with high vacancy rates, and our downtowns are struggling to recapture their pre-pandemic vibrancy. Local leaders are torn, as ever, over questions of growth and development. We’ve captured many of these dynamics in our coverage this year, including the turbulence on the Durham City Council, Triangle residents’ struggles to find and maintain housing, and the decisions that Triangle cities faced when it came to housing, policing, and more. We believe that the INDY’s coverage made tangible differences in our communities and helped inform voters when they went to the polls this fall to vote in our local elections—both Durham and Chapel Hill will have new mayors and some new members of their governing councils. Next year brings national and statewide elections as well as the municipal election for the state’s capital city. There’s a lot of work to do, and certainly a lot to look forward to, but before we bring 2023 to a close, take a look back with us at some of the INDY’s memorable, impactful reporting from the past year.

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INDYweek.com

Discouragement at the Durham Food Hall Early last year, the INDY published a sprawling report on some of the issues that many vendors—mainly small, locally owned businesses—were having at Durham’s new food hall. The food hall, according to its founder Adair Mueller, was created to give just these types of small businesses their start in a space with lower overhead and costs on rent. But instead of making things easier for the vendors, their complaints ran the gamut from poor upkeep and an allegedly hostile work environment to financial and legal troubles. Several vendors exited the food hall, not because they were growing and expanding but because they were fed up. Following the INDY’s reporting, the food hall effected a change in leadership.

Durham Council Comes to a Resolution on SCAD When SCAD—Simplifying Choices for Affordable Development—was set to go before the Durham City Council earlier this year, many community members had deep concerns about the massive series of text changes that the document, if passed, would make to Durham’s development code. Ostensibly a joint proposal between the Raleigh developer Jim Anthony and Habitat for Humanity of Durham, it soon became clear that SCAD wasn’t exactly what it seemed. Durham Habitat, in fact, hadn’t authorized its sponsorship of SCAD and the organization went to great lengths to distance itself from the proposal. Durham’s council continually punted on voting for the set of text amendments, and at a meeting in August, the applicant, Anthony, asked the council to delay a vote on SCAD until after the city’s municipal election. When SCAD came back before the council in November, members were finally ready to vote on a version of the proposal that excluded some of the more controversial, and potentially damaging, text amendments. In the 4-3 vote, Durham got ADUs by right and the elimination of parking minimums; it didn’t get the proposed PATH program that would keep affordable housing affordable for a paltry five years. What the council didn’t adopt in SCAD it will likely address in the upcoming rewrite of Durham’s Unified Development Ordinance in the council’s next term. And the city could (and would be wise to) reevaluate an option that entitles the wealthy to make massive changes to municipal rules in a process that is, as our reporting shed light on, decidedly undemocratic.

Durham’s Tumultuous City Council Following a contentious work session in March that saw allegations of impropriety aired against council member Monique Holsey-Hyman, news station WRAL captured audio of council member DeDreana Freeman screaming profanities at fellow council member Mark-Anthony Middleton, apparently in defense of Holsey-Hyman. But there was more to the incident than just words, as the INDY reported. Then, in July, it surfaced that Durham’s mayor, Elaine O’Neal, plus Freeman and Holsey-Hyman, directed the city attorney to take formal action against users of the online encyclopedia Wikipedia who had written unflattering but true things about the council members on their Wikipedia pages. In September, Holsey-Hyman was cleared of the allegations against her by a local developer that prompted the March screaming match and fistfight, but the damage had been done; she lost her bid for election to a full term on the council. Meanwhile, with O’Neal declining to run again, Freeman placed a distant third in the city’s mayoral primary.

Grosvenor Gardens Residents Reach a Compromise with New Landlord This summer, the INDY reported on a new Raleigh and Wake County fund aimed at preserving affordable housing in the capital city and the rest of the county. Mission-driven affordable housing developer CASA was one of the first groups to use the fund in its 2021 purchase of the historic Grosvenor Gardens property on Hillsborough Street for $12 million. Grosvenor Gardens has provided affordable housing to tenants for decades, but to make the numbers work, CASA had to raise rent on tenants by 30 to 50 percent. Panicked residents scrambled to find the extra money to make rent or, in some cases, find new housing likely

to be located outside of the Triangle. But in September, Raleigh’s City Council intervened, authorizing funding to CASA to help address the gap. The city gave $68,000 to the nonprofit, money that prevented a rent increase for 22 people living in Grosvenor Gardens who make less than $39,700.

High Hopes for Durham’s Next City Council After a tumultuous two years that saw multiple scandals and bitter acrimony at the dais and elsewhere (see above), many Durham voters breathed a sigh of relief on election night with the election of a new mayor, two newcomers, and one incumbent who all seem well suited to getting on with city business minus the interpersonal drama. In the run-up to the municipal election, the INDY published a four-part series that put some of that council drama into context and expounded on two key issues—community safety and housing—that were key to this year’s election results, no matter how much they’d been overshadowed. The series left readers asking themselves what they want to see in Durham’s new council, which will have some heavy decisions ahead, not the least of which is whether to raise taxes on residents in order to bring pay to city workers in line with living wage levels following a recent sanitation workers’ strike. The newly elected (and reelected) council members—Mayor Leonardo Williams and at-large members Javiera Caballero, Nate Baker, and Carl Rist—were all endorsed by the INDY. This deeply reported politics series no doubt helped weary, yet hopeful, voters make up their minds at the polls.

Chapel Hill Elects a Pro-growth Council Come election season, it was a familiar story in Chapel Hill: a CHALT-supported, development-skeptical slate of candidates was up against a more growth-friendly slate in the mayor’s race and for several seats on the town council. High-profile development proposals, such as the West Franklin Street Longfellow life sciences project that the council approved last month, clashed with the interests of beloved small businesses, such as the Purple Bowl, that

were and are facing displacement (the Purple Bowl has since secured new digs on Franklin Street). The INDY captured these dynamics and more in several stories leading up to the Chapel Hill municipal election, even when it looked like that election was very close, with mayoral candidates (and town council members) Adam Searing and Jess Anderson polling neck and neck at one point. In the end, progress won the day—Anderson was elected mayor, and pro-growth candidates picked up three of four seats on the town council.

Henderson Atwater is Released from Jail In November, the INDY published a deep-dive report on the case of Henderson Atwater, a 47-year-old Holly Springs man who had been jailed for nearly three years on charges related to a series of air gun shootings in various areas of Wake County. An August trial in Atwater’s case resulted in a hung jury, but despite the mistrial, as well as scant evidence against Atwater and notable police incompetence, Wake County district attorney Lorrin Freeman says her office intends to try Atwater again on more than 30 charges connected to the non-fatal air gun shootings. Part of the reason Atwater had been in jail for so long was that his bond was set at $1.5 million. At a November bond reduction hearing, Atwater’s lawyers were able to persuade a Wake judge to reduce the bond to $100,000. Atwater’s family paid the bond, and Atwater was recently released from jail. Still, Atwater endured a number of personal hardships while he was incarcerated, including the death of his son and mother, his fiancée’s battle with cancer, and his own strugle with insulin-resistant diabetes. While Atwater’s case will likely go to trial again, his attorneys are confident that, next time, armed with more evidence and time to prepare, they’ll be able to make the case to a jury to acquit their client. W

Scan the QR code for links to these stories on our website INDYweek.com December 13, 2023

FEATURE

2023’s Reasons to Love the Triangle BY SARAH EDWARDS sedwards@indyweek.com

Rialto Theater PHOTO BY ANGELICA EDWARDS

Because The Legendary Can Because More of the Eno Opener Bridge Begat a Food River Is Preserved and Truck Park Accessible to Wander Durham’s low-riding Norfolk Southern–Gregson bridge, which has claimed the tops of many a tall truck, has a Wikipedia page and YouTube compilation; soon, it will also have a nearby food truck park—the Can Opener, a permanent station for five food trucks, plus a bar located inside the old American Postal Workers Union building— named after it.

Nature lovers, rejoice: In early April, the Eno River Association opened the Panther Branch Natural Area to the public. Located in Efland, as the INDY reported, the park includes “over two miles of walking trails through 56 acres of forest, with opportunities for hiking, fishing, and picnicking. The park is open from dawn to dusk, seven days a week, and has on-site gravel parking.” Lace up your hiking boots and get to it.

the American dream. Founded by Arcana’s Lindsey Andrews and opened this past fall, Night School Bar is a collective of instructors “offering evening classes in the arts and humanities to curious adults” on a sliding scale. Initially started during the pandemic as an online school, the school’s brickand-mortar at 719 Mangum is now a friendly neighborhood bar with space for classes (a selection from this winter’s offerings: Introduction to Literary Analysis, Writing for the Revolution, Black Feminist Paths to Freedom, and Mutual Aid as Social Transformation). This access to thoughtful pedagogy—alongside thoughtful cocktails, should you just want to drop by for a Night School nightcap—feels like the very best that the Triangle has to offer.

Because Carlos Miguel Prieto Is Taking the NC Symphony to New Heights

Because Hopscotch Is Back, Because Now You Can and So Are the Small Clubs Access Academic-Level Festivals haven’t had it easy the past few years, and HopClasses without a Degree— scotch has taken some hits. But this year—the three-day festival’s 13th—Hopscotch was back in full swing with a slate Last February, the NC Symphony hired Prieto as its new of ticketed small-club shows, “programming eight indoor music director. The renowned Mexican conductor has big and with a Twist of Lime ambitions for the orchestra: “I like to challenge the orchestra,” he told the INDY in October. “I like to challenge the audience and expand everyone’s horizons.” Don’t miss some of the symphony's upcoming special events concerts, alongside the classics: This December, you can experience holiday standards among the glow of candlelight. In May, the symphony performs John Williams’s Star Wars: Return of the Jedi soundtrack among the glow of lightsabers. 54

December 13, 2023

INDYweek.com

Like the enduring green light at the end of Daisy Buchanan’s dock in The Great Gatsby, a colorful neon sign on a Mangum Street storefront has been drawing in passersby. But if that fictional light symbolized the allure of wealth and excess, Durham's Night School Bar’s signage represents something very different: equity in education and the chance to learn about all the, er, poisonous pitfalls of

rooms a night to compliment its two outdoor main stages.” Pavement (the festival’s “biggest get ever,” director Nathan Price told us) headlined, the introduction of comedy sets kept things interesting, there was a dash of rain, there was dancing amid a downtown sea of Blundstones and crop tops—and we feel more thankful than ever that Hopscotch has weathered the hard times. Next year, the festival returns September 5-7. Early bird tickets are already on sale.

Because the Rialto Is Back, Too I screen, you screen, we all screen: in one of the most heartwarming local arcs of the year, downtown Raleigh’s 90-year-old Rialto Theater—the oldest in the city— reopened to the public. “The theater survived the pandemic, somehow, but closed in August 2022 when longtime manager Bill Peebles retired,” reporter Jasmine Gallup wrote in October. “The theater’s future was uncertain until it was bought by SportsChannel8 reporter Hayes Permar and a group of Raleigh investors earlier this year.” As streaming services slowly drain theaters of business— in Durham, two AMC theaters have closed in just the past few months—the endurance of a cozy local theater is something to celebrate. Here’s to more movies and popcorn in 2024.

… and Because Full Frame Is Also Back

feature from early last year on the opening of the Isaac’s Bagels brick-and-mortar—a venture with more than one kind of full circle.

And Because Nana’s Is Reborn as Nanas Opened in 1992 by Scott Howell and closed in 2018 (and then reopened in 2019 and closed again in 2020), chef Matt Kelly (Mothers & Sons, Mateo) has reopened the beloved Rockwood restaurant, dropping the apostrophe but retaining the matriarchal tribute as moniker, alongside its identity as a classy neighborhood joint. The plaid carpets! The jewel tones! The risotto! As 2022 drew to a close, last year, Lena Geller previewed the reopening, describing Nana(’)s as “a lavish eatery with the soul of a dive bar.” This year, that vision came to life when the restaurant opened back up on December 12.

Because the ArtsCenter This one comes with a caveat, because—as reported in Finally Has a Beautiful depth by our partners at The Assembly—Duke’s Center for Documentary Studies has had an institutionally dubious few New Home years, with its staff and programming shrinking dramatically and the in-person film festival put on indefinite hiatus. But as we ride the optimistic coattails of other resurrections (see: the Rialto, Nanas), we are thrilled that the beloved documentary festival will be back in action, this April 4-7, and hope that it has many years of movie magic to come. “I am proud of the documentaries Full Frame has screened online in recent years,” longtime director Sadie Tillery told the INDY, “but nothing compares to seeing a film illuminate the darkness of a crowded movie theater.” We agree.

block off the intersection of Main and Weaver Streets. The $4 million, 17,000-square-foot digs will play host to the ArtsCenter’s more than 260 arts camps and 294 courses. “We serve as an economic force for change and transformation,” director Jenny Schultz-Thomas says, “and our number one goal is that arts are accessible to everyone.”

Because Cicely Mitchell Is Bringing Jazz Back It's not easy sustaining a jazz venue these days—an INDY feature from earlier this year reflected on the difficult years that jazz dynamo Carol Sloane spent in the Triangle, as clubs waned—and 2022 saw the closure of Raleigh's beloved C. Grace. But we're thrilled about the possibilities that the impressive Missy Lane's Assembly Room, located off Main Street in downtown Durham and opened last month, can bring to the Triangle scene. “I think one thing that was missing [up until now] was a place that truly carries Black American music and Black culture in an authentic way,” says founder Cicely Mitchell (formerly of the Art of Cool). "The top venues in the area have been known to champion punk or indie rock. This is a space where jazz, funk, and R&B music is going to be booked regularly.”W

At the end of this summer, the ArtsCenter in Carrboro broke ground on its spacious, sunny new home, just one

Scan the QR code for links to these stories on our website

Because Restaurants Persist and Continue to Reinvent We don’t want to sugarcoat things: as it has been the last few years, the restaurant industry is a difficult one, perennially functioning on the margins, and several beloved Triangle mainstays have had to close their doors. But in a list of reasons to love our region, we also celebrate the new beginnings around us. In Raleigh, Humble Pie has closed, but pasta restaurant Figulina will open in the space soon in a way that feels all in the family (the restaurant is helmed by David Ellis, who has worked with Ashley Christensen, who got her start at Humble Pie), just as it feels appropriate that Cheetie Kumar gets to slow down with the closure of downtown Raleigh’s Garland as she embarks on a new chapter with the sweet, scaled-down Five Points spot Ajja. And in Durham, though we were very sad to see downtown diner Jack Tar close, we are happy that the corner is staying lively with the second location of Preeti Waas’s Cheeni, which opened this fall. For more in this vein, you might revisit Lena Geller’s

Cicely Mitchell in front of the future Missy Lane’s Assembly Room at 310 Main Street in Durham. PHOTO BY BRETT VILLENA INDYweek.com December 13, 2023

M U SIC

THE AVETT BROTHERS

PNC Arena, Raleigh | Sunday, Dec. 31, 8 p.m.

A Settled Perspective Scott Avett reflects on more than two decades of making music ahead of an Avett Brothers New Year’s Eve concert in Raleigh. BY CHASE PELLEGRINI DE PAUR chase@indyweek.com

he arc of The Avett Brothers’ career is a bit like their 2009 song “Laundry Room.” Scott Avett begins the song with a simple plea—“Don’t push me out”—crooned over his banjo and Seth Avett’s guitar. Seth layers harmonies over his older brother’s voice, and then starts echoing lines (“Teach me how to use the love that people say you made”). It’s easy to imagine the brothers in the late 1990s, mailing recordings to each other across North Carolina, back when Scott was in college and Seth was at home in Concord. By the time the pair signed to a major record label with legendary producer Rick Rubin, the band had grown to include Bob Crawford and Joe Kwon and started gaining traction. In “Laundry Room,” Kwon’s cello— very nearly a third human voice—starts to rise and fall to meet the brothers, and Crawford’s plucked upright bass sets up hints at the intensity to come. Sure enough, like a snowball rolling down a hill, the song gains mass and speed until, with a minute to go, The Avett Brothers are more than singing—they’re strumming, bouncing, hollering, jamming, and just straight up having a dang good time. Now, with several more albums, three Grammy nominations, and a 2017 documentary that gave a raw look into the stories behind the lyrics, The Avett Brothers are getting ready to celebrate New Year’s Eve with a performance in their home state—for the 20th time. INDY: You’re performing your 20th

New Year’s Eve show in Raleigh this year. Why New Year’s Eve?

December 13, 2023

INDYweek.com

SCOTT AVETT: Well, originally New Year’s Eve made sense to us because after the first year [of the band] we realized we were embarking on something that was going to get us very busy. We were embarking on something that was going to take all of us and we were giving ourselves to it completely and we thought, well, if we’re going to do something around the holidays, we should do it in at least our state, maybe at least our region. And so that was the first thinking around 2004 or 2005, and then we put that in place [and] it just stuck.

The Avett Brothers PHOTO BY CRACKERFARM

Did you go to shows in Raleigh when you were younger? Yeah, very much so. When I was at art school at [East Carolina University], I had a handful of friends that had moved to Raleigh specifically, because at the time— the mid-’90s—the scene was specific to its time and it was really charged. The Brewery was a place that we would go to, there was a place called Marzz, there was the Ritz. So Raleigh had a scene that was a central part of my intake for shows and music.

Your latest album, The Third Gleam, was out in 2020 and now it’s 2023. What have you all been up to? How is everything? Any big updates? Even when we were working on The Gleam, we’ve been in the process of the record-

ings that would be the next Avett record, as well as other … I don’t really like the word “side project” but other creations. So we’ve been very, very busy at home making things. But we approach it slower these days than we used to because it’s a more contemplative process, in that I think our work is revealed to us more, I think we listen more than we act and build. So to simplify, it’s a process of revelation versus a process of construction.

Do you think that different process comes from feeling that you have less to prove these days because you’re “successful”? I mean, that happens with age. But absolutely, I mean, “successful” is one way to look at it, but I think when you get some

success, you get a chance to see the positive value as well as the limited value …. Your success as a writer, my success as an artist, et cetera, we realize, “OK, it has a ceiling to it.” And there’s a liberation in seeing that. We struggle to free ourselves of that but there’s a liberation and understanding that it doesn’t do everything that you thought. And with that comes “Hey, we are in wait. So be in wait, and allow for it to happen.” It doesn’t have to happen fast or slow, and it will happen both ways.

Part of your documentary [2017’s May It Last] was about struggling with being applauded for turning your very personal life into songwriting fodder. Where do you stand now on that journey?

I remember in the documentary, how it was hard to watch because I made a lot about me and romanticizing this struggle. If I was doing it again now, I think I would have said, “Great job, everybody.” I would have just praised our efforts and left it at that. And I think I was just working that out. And I’ve since worked hard to look at that and address that and work that out. So yeah, [I have] a much simpler perspective now than I did then. Settled—maybe settled is better than simple.

Could you elaborate on that? What do you mean by “simpler”? I should say that it’s more settled. There’s a song, “Faster Horses” by Tom T. Hall, where he’s a poet, and he’s going out there to find the truth and find himself and solve the problems that lie within his spirit, his conscience, and all those things. And a cowboy is sitting there telling him, “Look, son, it’s faster horses and it’s older whiskey, it’s more money and younger women,” just sort of saying, “Look, these are the ways of the world right here.” And I’m not saying at all that those are acceptable. They are not our ending point. But if you’re going to look at it deeply—if we can make something out of our personal lives and tell a story out of our personal lives, be settled with that. The simpler look would be: Use it, it’s a gift, it’s a blessing. Go with it, use it, make it the best you can, and give each other a pat on the back if it shows itself to you, if it comes out in the form of a gift or a creation, great. Don’t overthink. The thinking will just destroy you.

The band is built on a relationship between two men, you and your brother, and the legacy of your grandfather and your father. Does your vulnerability in songs ever feel at odds with social expectations for American men? No, because I think American men—probably all men—are very tender, and I think there’s a harder side that is shown. I have a group of guys that I play basketball with, and it’s a men’s group, ultimately, it just turned out that way. Nobody planned it that way. But we get time together and we get to talk about things. I think we’re all tender. I don’t know all the guys involved that well, but we can share, you know? We can share, and I don’t necessarily see a lot of holding back when someone wants to say, “This happened and this sucked, this hurt.” We’re all very boy-like, at times. For the good and the bad, you know?

I always struggle to write endings. The endings of your songs, though, usually feel so powerful and capture a summarizing ethos. How do you know when a song is over? I don’t know. I think we show up, and we get together and we start working. There’ll be a presentation of “Here’s how I want to end it” or “Here’s how I hear it.” And if that’s right, we’ll feel that we’ll all know it. But if something reveals itself as a more natural option—“natural” is a good word for it—then we’re going to test that, so we A/B everything a lot. We A/B/ C/D/E/F it. And Rick Rubin really—we did that already, but then we really started doing it. We removed individual ownership, and we started looking at this thing that we want to turn inside out and upside down and that was really healthy for us, and it’s a habit I foresee us having for a long time. So the endings come after quite a bit of consideration and living with the songs, and they usually reveal themselves versus us deciding what it’s going to be.

I’ll bring it back to New Year’s. I love New Year’s. It feels like an ending and a beginning and just something really special. Does New Year’s feel particularly special to you? And I’ve got to ask: Do you have any New Year’s resolutions you’re thinking about? Well, the New Year’s resolution has not come to me. I’m extremely busy right now, and busier than I’d like to be before the holidays, because I truly believe that the holidays are a model for us for peace, for us to settle and pause. I think it starts back at Halloween, there’s this prep for it that I think is such a gift, and New Year’s tends to be the cap on that renewal of it all, and that’s incredible. I love that. I’ve been consistently, year by year—good shows, bad shows, some of them feel better than others—but all of them, I’ve found I recognize that they all, in the moment, never fail.

Thank you for your time. Is there anything you want to add? I want readers to just read the words that this is a very meaningful event that has a history to it. And those layers of that time spent, they live in the room. They show up with us and they show up with the people. W This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity. Visit our website to read the full version of this article.

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C U LT U R E CA L E NDA R

WED 12/13

THURS 12/14

LIKE TO PLAN AHEAD?

SAT 12/16

FRI 12/15

MUSIC

STAGE

MUSIC

STAGE

Candlelight: Holiday Special Various times. Hayti Heritage Center, Durham.

Live Jazz with Marc Puricelli and Friends Thursdays at 7 p.m. Imbibe, Chapel Hill.

Anjimile / Libby Rodenbough 8 p.m. The Pinhook, Durham.

Cary Ballet: The Nutcracker Dec. 15-17, various times. Cary Arts Center, Cary.

ABYSS: Closing Party 9 p.m. The Fruit, Durham.

A Christmas Carol $20+. Dec. 16-17, various times. PlayMakers Repertory Company, Chapel Hill.

Dorrance Dance: Jazz Nutcracker Suite 7:30 p.m. Memorial Hall, Chapel Hill.

Setting 8 p.m. Cat’s Cradle, Carrboro.

Girl Named Tom 7:30 p.m. Duke Energy Center for the Performing Arts, Raleigh.

STAGE

Music on the Roof: Ally J 7:30 p.m. The Durham Hotel, Durham. Trans-Siberian Orchestra 7 p.m. PNC Arena, Raleigh. STAGE The 1940’s Radio Hour Dec. 13-24, various times. Theatre Raleigh, Raleigh. A Christmas Carol Dec. 13-17, various times. DPAC, Durham. Elf the Musical Dec. 13-17, various times. Duke Energy Center for the Performing Arts, Raleigh.

December 13, 2023

Carolina Ballet: The Nutcracker Dec. 14-24, various times. Martin Marietta Center for the Performing Arts, Raleigh. Cinderella Dec. 14- 17, various times. Raleigh Little Theatre, Raleigh. The Monti: The Naughty List Storyslam 7:30 p.m. Motorco Music Hall, Durham. Moonlight by Harold Pinter Dec. 14-17, various times. Burning Coal Theatre Company, Raleigh. ART Exploring the Icons of 17th-Century Dutch Art with Audio Description 10:30 a.m. North Carolina Museum of Art, Raleigh.

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Dexter and the Moonrocks 8 p.m. Cat’s Cradle, Carrboro. The Gone Ghosts / Old Heavy Hands 7:30 p.m. Cat’s Cradle Back Room, Carrboro. NCCU Jazz Faculty Holiday Concert with Joey Calderazzo Various times. Sharp 9 Gallery, Durham.

The Harry Show Fridays at 10 p.m. ComedyWorx, Raleigh. Hush Hush: Comedy Based on Secrets from the Audience 9 p.m. Mettlesome Theater, Durham. Let It Show: A Holiday Comedy Special 7:30 p.m. Mettlesome Theater, Durham. PAGE Kate Medley: Thank You Please Come Again 7 p.m. Letters Bookshop, Durham.

Amanda Anne Platt and the Honeycutters 8 p.m. Cat’s Cradle Back Room, Carrboro. An Evening in December with Voices Chapel Hill Various times. Moeser Auditorium, Chapel Hill. The Glenn Miller Orchestra: In the Christmas Mood 8 p.m. The Carolina Theatre, Durham. The Raleigh Ringers Holiday Concert Dec. 16-17, 4 p.m. Martin Marietta Center for the Performing Arts, Raleigh. Scott Sawyer/Keith Waters Duo 8 p.m. Sharp 9 Gallery, Durham. Taxicab Preacher 4 p.m. Durty Bull Brewing Company, Durham. Yarn / The Dune Dogs 7:30 p.m. Lincoln Theatre, Raleigh.

The ComedyWorx Show Matinee Saturdays at 4 p.m. ComedyWorx, Raleigh. Primetime at ComedyWorx Saturdays at 8 p.m. ComedyWorx, Raleigh. A Very Harry Christmas Show 10 p.m. ComedyWorx, Raleigh.

C U LT U R E CA L E NDA R

FIND OUR COMPLETE COMMUNITY CALENDAR AT INDYWEEK.COM/CALENDAR

SUN 12/17

TUES 12/19

WED 12/20

THURS 12/21

FRI 12/22

SAT 12/23

MUSIC

Idlewild South and Friends 2 p.m. Cat’s Cradle, Carrboro.

Gabe Dixon 8 p.m. The Pinhook, Durham.

Fundraiser for Don Eason: Idlewild South–The Allman Brothers Tribute Band 8 p.m. Lincoln Theatre, Raleigh.

Live Jazz with Marc Puricelli and Friends Thursdays at 7 p.m. Imbibe, Chapel Hill.

Baron Tymas Quartet 8 p.m. Sharp 9 Gallery, Durham.

Bring Out Yer Dead 8 p.m. Lincoln Theatre, Raleigh.

Raleigh Flute Choir Holiday Concert 3 p.m. North Carolina Museum of History, Raleigh.

Saxophonist Kirk Whalum at Smooth Jazz at the Improv 7 p.m. Raleigh Improv, Raleigh.

Midnight Remedies DJ & Drag 11 p.m. Rubies on Five Points, Durham.

STAGE The Nutcracker Various times. DPAC, Durham. Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs: Christmas Ballet Show 7 p.m. The Carolina Theatre, Durham.

The Gunline 8 p.m. Local 506, Chapel Hill.

Holigay Dance Party 10 p.m. The Pinhook, Durham.

North Carolina Symphony: A Candlelight Christmas Dec. 22-23, various times. Martin Marietta Center for the Performing Arts, Raleigh.

Katie Basden 4 p.m. Durty Bull Brewing Company, Durham.

Smell the Glove / Midnight Snack 10 p.m. Lincoln Theatre, Raleigh.

The ComedyWorx Show Matinee Saturdays at 4 p.m. ComedyWorx, Raleigh.

STAGE

Primetime at ComedyWorx Saturdays at 8 p.m. ComedyWorx, Raleigh.

The Harry Show Fridays at 10 p.m. ComedyWorx, Raleigh.

STAGE

Gabe Dixon perform at the Pinhook on Tuesday, Dec. 19. PHOTO COURTESY OF THE PINHOOK

INDYweek.com December 13, 2023

C U LT U R E CA L E NDA R New Year’s Eve PARTIES

LIKE TO PLAN AHEAD?

SAT 12/30

FRI 12/29

MON 1/1

December 31 Carrboro Cosmic Charlie New Year’s Eve 8:30 p.m. Cat’s Cradle, Carrboro. New Year’s Wonderland 9 p.m. Speakeasy, Carrboro.

Durham

MUSIC

STAGE

MUSIC

A Tribute to Caifanes by Negro Cosmico 8 p.m. Motorco Music Hall, Durham.

Blankface 8 p.m. Cat’s Cradle Back Room, Carrboro.

The ComedyWorx Show Matinee Saturdays at 4 p.m. ComedyWorx, Raleigh.

African American Dance Ensemble Kwanzaa Fest 2 p.m. Durham Armory, Durham.

Big Something 9 p.m. Dec. 29-31. Lincoln Theatre, Raleigh.

Gimmie Gimmie NYE Disco Ball 9 p.m. Motorco Music Hall, Durham.

Birds and Arrows 7 p.m. Cat’s Cradle Back Room, Carrboro.

New Year’s Eve: Together Again 9 p.m. The Fruit, Durham.

STAGE

Nine Year’s Eve Party 5 p.m. The Glass Jug Beer Lab, Durham.

Cosmic Charlie / Dark Side of the Dead 8:30 p.m. Cat’s Cradle, Carrboro. Dan Davis Group 4 p.m. Durty Bull Brewing Company, Durham.

Primetime at ComedyWorx Saturdays at 8 p.m. ComedyWorx, Raleigh.

The Harry Show $15. Fridays at 10 p.m. ComedyWorx, Raleigh.

The Silver Ball 9 p.m. Rubies on Five Points, Durham.

Raleigh The Avett Brothers and Marcus King Live in Concert 8 p.m. PNC Arena, Raleigh.

Photo caption. PHOTO CREDIT

New Year’s Eve at the Willard 8 p.m. The Willard Rooftop Lounge, Raleigh. New Year’s Eve on the Rooftop 9 p.m. 10th & Terrace, Raleigh. New Year’s Eve Party at Whiskey Kitchen 9 p.m. Whiskey Kitchen, Raleigh.

The Avett Brothers and Marcus King Live in Concert perform at PNC Arena on Sunday, Dec. 31 PHOTO COURTESY OF PNC ARENA

December 13, 2023

INDYweek.com

C U LT U R E CA L E NDA R

FIND OUR COMPLETE COMMUNITY CALENDAR AT INDYWEEK.COM/CALENDAR

TUES 1/2

THURS 1/4

FRI 1/5

SAT 1/6

MON 1/7

MUSIC

STAGE

MUSIC

STAGE

Girl from the North Country Jan. 2-7, various times. DPAC, Durham.

Colin Mochrie and Brad Sherwood Live 7:30 p.m. Martin Marietta Center for the Performing Arts, Raleigh.

Benct and the Walkers 8 p.m. Local 506, Chapel Hill.

Twelfth Night Jan. 5-21, various times. The Ridge, Raleigh.

Abbey Road LIVE! Various times. Cat’s Cradle, Carrboro.

No Shame Theatre 4 p.m. Carrboro Century Center, Carrboro.

Night! Night! Record Release Show 9 p.m. Cat’s Cradle Back Room, Carrboro. Rumours Atl – A Fleetwood Mac Tribute Band 7:30 p.m. The Ritz, Raleigh.

SONAM Winter Concert for Durham Tech’s Mobile Health Lab 4 p.m. First Presbyterian Church, Durham. Viv & Riley 8 p.m. Cat’s Cradle Back Room, Carrboro.

Zoso – The Ultimate Led Zeppelin Experience Jan. 5-6, 8 p.m. Lincoln Theatre, Raleigh.

Photo caption. PHOTO CREDIT

Viv & Riley perform at Cat’s Cradle Back Room on Saturday, Jan. 6. PHOTO COURTESY OF CAT’S CRADLE

INDYweek.com December 13, 2023

P U Z Z L ES INDY CROSSWORD If you just can’t wait, check out the current week’s answer key at www.indyweek.com, and click “puzzle pages” at the bottom of our webpage.

www.regulatorbookshop.com 720 Ninth Street, Durham, NC 27705 Open Every Day 10-6

su | do | ku

this week’s puzzle level:

There is really only one rule to Sudoku: Fill in the game board so that the numbers 1 through 9 occur exactly once in each row, column, and 3x3 box. The numbers can appear in any order and diagonals are not considered. Your initial game board will consist of several numbers that are already placed. Those numbers cannot be changed. Your goal is to fill in the empty squares following the simple rule above.

If you just can’t wait, check out the current week’s answer key and previous puzzles at indyweek.com/puzzles-page. Best of luck, and have fun! 12.13.23

December 13, 2023

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C L AS S I F I E D S HEALTH & WELL BEING

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INDYweek.com December 13, 2023