I'm in Love

This post is not directly related to 308westmain but certainly has a connection......

Today I felt even more a part of the community. Scott and the folks at center studio architecture invited me to be their guest at the Downtown Durham Inc. Annual Meeting. The meeting was hosted at the new Durham Performing Arts Center, making this the third day in a row that I visited (dinner with Wayne before B. B. King on Sunday - Ashley, Chris and I went to the grand opening on Monday - then this afternoon).

I'm back from that brief commercial break.

Anyhow, the meeting was very informative and renewed my interest in Downtown Durham. I learned:

• residents of downtown have grown from 180 in 1996 to 1470 in 2008. Nearly a tenfold increase in 12 years
• # downtown employees has grown from 5,851 in '96 to 13,500 today
• office occupancy rates remain in the high 80 percentile (88% this year)
• resulting from downtown's renaissance, properties increased in value an average of 135%, compared to the county average of 30% (results of 2007 reevaluation)
• folks are committed to keeping the downtown SAFE, DIVERSE and full of the arts
  

Downtown Durham: Find Your Cool (new slogan)

Most importantly, my connection to the community was deepened because of the people I met and hung out with. Thanks to:

• David Downie for his continued friendship and dedication to construction
• The folks at DDI for their vision of Downtown Durham
• Joni Madison, the outgoing DDI chair and COO of McKinney, for a moving salutation
• Congratulations to Kelli and Billy of Toast for winning this year's "Outstanding Retail Entrepreneur" award
  
• Cheers to my new friends and neighbors; Lindsay, Rachel and Nicole
  
• And finally, a BIG THANKS to Scott, David, Will, Tom, Chris and Dawn for inviting me and putting up with the noises that come from above their studio

A Good Week for Travel

I was gone all week for my real job. It was a great week on that front; many positive decisions and a renewed interest for me to focus on "entitlement".

Not much happened at 308westmain though I did receive this positive note from David on Friday:

The dumpster and the out house will be set on site this coming Monday. We will start the demolition full force on Tuesday.

Spot stopped by today. We lucked out and got to tour the Penny Furniture space with Cynthia, the owner. Her place is awesome. Seeing the metal staircase with cable rails helped me to envision how excellent my space will look if I can afford the rooftop opening. The open treads allow light (and dust) to fall through. I hadn't thought of the bonus of metal treads not requiring dusting. I hate to dust.

Spot and I finished up with lunch at Toast-Five Points. Yum!