The Bull City Connector

The Bull City Connector LAR 582 Environmental Social Equity 2015 FALL Emma Blondin Peng Tian Yushan Ji

INTRODUCTION ISSUES The Bull City Connector is a fare-free route from Duke to Golden Belt, including Ninth Street & Downtown Durham.

The Bull City Connector changed its route last month in an effort to increase the shuttle service’s appeal among Duke students and faculty.

Changes to the route include the addition of service to Duke Hospital North, the Durham VA Medical Center, Research Drive, Erwin Square and Ninth Street. Service to Trent Drive, Duke Hospital South and the Durham bus station has been stopped, among other changes. The new route is also faster, in part due to the elimination of service to the Durham station. It now services stops every 17 minutes rather than every 20 minutes. The fare-free shuttle service—now in its fifth year of operation—is funded by Duke in partnership with the city of Durham and the GoDurham transit system.

PARTNERSHIP: The Spirit House Since 1999, SpiritHouse Inc, a Durham, North Carolina based cultural arts and organizing organization, has worked with low-wealth families and community members to uncover and uproot the systemic barriers that prevent us from gaining the resources, leverage and capacity for longterm self-sufficiency.

Old Route

New Route

ANALYSIS

Percentage of People not working

Percentage of people getting food stamps

The neighborhoods around the Bull City Connector has a high percentage of people that are not working. Also, more people are getting food stamps in this area. This means people living around need to take this free bus.

ANALYSIS The analysis is conducted on census tracts in Durham County in 2010.

African American Percentage

Percentage of Bachelor or higher

It is easy to find out that the neighborhoods around the freeway are mostly African American, with low education level, and have really low income.

Income: More than 60,000

Income: Less than 10,000

RESEARCH Interview Questions ● ●

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Why do you get on the bus?

How do you think of the route changes of the Bull CIty Connector?

Is it more convenient?

What is the problem? …...

Answers by a driver ● ●

Lose some regular passengers Should connect more tourism parts. ● The bus stop is not visible enough.

The driver cannot see the passengers. ● Put a light pool near the bus stop ● Add a path across the road

Answers by passengers ● ● ●

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Most passengers are the old, disabled person and people without cars. The route change brings difficulty to them. ● …...

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The route change is not for the best.

Not very happy with the change Passengers didn’t know that the route would be changed before it changed.

Passengers need to participate in the route decision process.

They take bus for work and shopping.

Some of them think the change is not convenient for them.

The bus stop should be more visible, attractive and safer.

People often smoke at the bus stop, which makes other passengers not comfortable.

The bus stop is farther from somebody’s home or workplace.

RESEARCH Urban Alchemy Book Study Group ●

"Is this a Welcome?"

The Bull City Connector is no longer connecting to the Transportation Hub.

REASON

HOWEVER

REASON

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Provide a more direct and faster service along Main St

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The route will be able to run more frequently.

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70% of the ridership is African-American

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58% of the current ridership is impacted by this change.

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Passengers are invisible in this decision making process

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The stops on Erwin Rd at Duke Central Campus are lightly used.

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Increase ridership by re-routing the Bull City Connector

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Serve the new apartments, offices, and retail locations at Erwin Square and Ninth St.

HOWEVER

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Has the change made the most of a Meaningful Place?

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Does this change further the sorting of our city?

RESEARCH GoDurham Survey

CITYWIDE CONVENING

INFORMATION PROVIDED 70% of users use the bull city connector to get to and from work 50% of riders have a household income of less than $15,000 62% of riders are transit dependent 58% of bull city connector riders say they must transfer on their trip 73% of BCC riders use it more than 4 days a week

Responses RESPONSES “I try to be informed & engaged, but I didn’t know about this until very recently, after so many decisions were already made. I’m challenged to examine how my privilege (lack of dependence on public transportation) has kept me uninformed and unengaged in an issue that has a huge impact on my city & my neighbors. In what other ways am I unaware? Where can I engage to make this different? This is a challenge I intend to take on for myself”

“If the city is not going to make it affordable to live near downtown, they shouldn’t also make it harder to get to their downtown jobs.”

“Can we lobby the city council to change the route back a​nd,​additionally, make other changes that will actually benefit the riders who use the bus most?”

“If you’ve ever ridden the bull city connector you will know this change has and will horrifically and negatively impact poor working class and predominantly people of color communities”

“Decision was not data based”

CONCLUSIONS ●

A tool to help educate people about the Bull City Connector

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Tool used by SpiritHouse with a group of highschoolers

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City Council members are aware and listening

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Topic will be brought up to the Human Relations Committee

Environmental Social Equity in Design LAR 582.002 3 Credit hours Instructor: Kofi Boone, Associate Professor Thursday 5-7:45pm Leazar Hall Rm. 310 Pre-requisites: None (please contact the instructor for details)

DURHAM PROJECT BRIEFS Name:

Chickenbone Park

Contact:  Tom Dawson, Urban designer Planning Department, City of Durham 101 City Hall Plaza, Ground Floor Durham, NC 27701 P 919-560-4137, ext. 28224 F 919-560-4641 thomas.dawson@DurhamNC.gov Interests in this project: Rapid downtown development in downtown Durham is displacing vital downtown open space and their users. Chickenbone Park, a former building site, has been appropriated as a downtown open space. It is currently one of the few places where black residents and others gather and recreate and is the location of an urban ministry’s free lunch program. However, the desire for an outdoor eating area from an adjacent restaurant may produce a conflict between existing users and new users. How could this conflict be addressed? And how can it inform an approach to sustaining democratic space?

What do we need in order to better understand the issue?:

What can we contribute to the project?:

General availability of the contact to work on the project: (Note specific days and two (2) hour blocks of time)

Environmental Social Equity in Design LAR 582.002 3 Credit hours Instructor: Kofi Boone, Associate Professor Thursday 5-7:45pm Leazar Hall Rm. 310 Pre-requisites: None (please contact the instructor for details)

DURHAM PROJECT BRIEFS Name:

Street Economies (working with “Joe”)

Contact: Randy Hester, Center for Ecological Democracy rthester@frontier.com Interests in this project: Rapid downtown development in downtown Durham is displacing vital downtown open space and their users. A number of people are engaged in “street economies”; work outside of the mainstream economy but of service to downtown residents and users. “Joe”, an ex-con who now earns a living washing cars downtown, is an example of an urban entrepreneur engaged in the street economy. How does he view downtown? How does he use downtown? Solicit clients? What affordances might help him grow his business? And what lessons can be learned that could apply to others working in downtown public spaces?

What do we need in order to better understand the issue?:

What can we contribute to the project?:

General availability of the contact to work on the project: (Note specific days and two (2) hour blocks of time)

Environmental Social Equity in Design LAR 582.002 3 Credit hours Instructor: Kofi Boone, Associate Professor Thursday 5-7:45pm Leazar Hall Rm. 310 Pre-requisites: None (please contact the instructor for details)

DURHAM PROJECT BRIEFS Name:

The Bull City Connector

Contact:  Tia Hall, Cultural Alchemist SpiritHouse Inc 318 Blackwell St. Suite 105 Durham, NC 27701 P.O. Box 61865 Durham NC 27715 Phone (919) 408-7584 Email- Tia@spirithouse-nc.org Interests in this project: Rapid downtown development in downtown Durham is displacing vital downtown open space and their users. This includes the routes and stops of public transportation. Recently, Durham’s free circulator, The Bull City Connector, was rerouted removing a stop at the Durham transit station and the direct transfer to other city routes. Although the city justified the change based on efficiency and ridership, the route change seems to have impacted access to the connector. Namely, transit-dependent low-income people of color that depended on transfers from the station may be disenfranchised. How has the rerouting affected people? Are there other issues in addition to improved efficiency and ridership impacting the route?

What do we need in order to better understand the issue?:

What can we contribute to the project?:

General availability of the contact to work on the project: (Note specific days and two (2) hour blocks of time)

Environmental Social Equity in Design LAR 582.002 3 Credit hours Instructor: Kofi Boone, Associate Professor Thursday 5-7:45pm Leazar Hall Rm. 310 Pre-requisites: None (please contact the instructor for details)

DURHAM PROJECT BRIEFS Name:

Urban Alchemy workshop

Contact: Tia Hall, Cultural Alchemist SpiritHouse Inc 318 Blackwell St. Suite 105 Durham, NC 27701 P.O. Box 61865 Durham NC 27715 Phone (919) 408-7584 Email- Tia@spirithouse-nc.org Interests in this project: Rapid downtown development in downtown Durham is displacing vital downtown open space and their users. Development is perceived to be uneven and is focusing on downtown and neighborhoods serving well educated and higher income residents. In some cases, the pattern of development mirrors areas defined previously through exercises like “redlining” (a process where mortgage companies selected areas they would provide loans, and areas they would not; these areas reflect race and income prejudice). How can people be encouraged to explore the city, develop their awareness of uneven development, and communicate alternative strategies? This project works with an upcoming community workshop.

What do we need in order to better understand the issue?:

What can we contribute to the project?:

General availability of the contact to work on the project: (Note specific days and two (2) hour blocks of time)

Environmental Social Equity in Design LAR 582.002 3 Credit hours Instructor: Kofi Boone, Associate Professor Thursday 5-7:45pm Leazar Hall Rm. 310 Pre-requisites: None (please contact the instructor for details)

DURHAM PROJECT BRIEFS Name:

The West End

Contact: Â Barbara Lau

balau@duke.edu Director, Pauli Murray Project www.paulimurrayproject.org 919/613-6167 Mayme Webb-Bledsoe mayme.webb@duke.edu Interests in this project: Numerous strategies have been used to balance the pressures of development and the need for preservation of historic neighborhoods and institutions. The work of Duke faculty, students, and community residents in the West End provide a comprehensive example of strategies used to achieve this balance. How have their approaches worked? How do you assess their effectiveness? And can assessment help to identify the need for new strategies for bringing together existing and new residents?

What do we need in order to better understand the issue?:

What can we contribute to the project?:

General availability of the contact to work on the project: (Note specific days and two (2) hour blocks of time)

Environmental Social Equity in Design LAR 582.002 3 Credit hours Instructor: Kofi Boone, Associate Professor Thursday 5-7:45pm Leazar Hall Rm. 310 Pre-requisites: None (please contact the instructor for details)

Durham Field Study 1 Itinerary Saturday September 12, 2015 10am-3pm Park in American Tobacco Campus Parking Deck (free) Meet at American Tobacco Campus at “The Mushroom Man”/ Mellow Mushroom Restaurant

10:00am Tia Hall, Cultural Alchemist, Spirithouse Inc. American Tobacco Campus 318 Blackwell St., Durham, NC 27701 Issues: Transportation equity: Impacts of city bus route changes Landscape/Land use equity: Impacts of American Tobacco Trail planning 11:30am Thomas Dawson, Urban Designer, City of Durham Randy Hester, Center for Ecological Democracy 201 North Mangum St. Durham, NC 27701 Issues: Landscape/Land use equity: Downtown growth and Chickenbone Park Economic equity: Downtown street economies Lunch

(Location TBD)

Optional $12-$15

2pm

Barbara Lau, Director, The Pauli Murray Project Mayme Webb-Bledsoe Lyons Park Community Center 1309 Halley St; Durham, NC 27707 Issues: Landscape/Land use equity: Interpreting local history