INDY Week

07/30/2025

A Raleigh developer has notched a victory in a long-contested quest to build 17 luxury townhomes on a 2.4-acre lot on Williamson Drive in the city’s wealthy Hayes Barton neighborhood.

Last week, Raleigh’s Board of Adjustment (BOA), a quasi-judicial body that makes decisions on “appeals for variances, special exceptions, and interpretations in the zoning regulations” ruled that a revised version of the townhome plan that conforms with the city’s unified development ordinance (UDO) may proceed.

The decision comes after a group of homeowners in 2023 filed a lawsuit against the developer, Johnny Chappell and 908 Williamson LLC, to stop the teardown of a historic home to make way for the townhomes.

✍️: By Jane Porter
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Raleigh’s board of adjustment voted to approve the plan based on an updated version that is in compliance with the city’s development code.

07/29/2025

Go VIP for early entry, free BBQ dinner, & exclusive bourbon bars. Limited spots left—don’t miss out! 🥃🔥 https://cary.beerandbourbon.com/

07/29/2025

At Switchyards, a workspace chain expanding to Durham next month, the coffee machines have touch screens that play a motivational video montage while your drink brews.

The montage is reminiscent of those infotainment clips that loop when you’re pumping gas, but instead of Maria Menounos reminding you to check your wiper fluid, there’s footage of dancers and rocket ships, overlaid with quotes like “You got out of your house for this.”

Got out of your house for what, you ask?

✍️: By Lena Geller
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Switchyards, a national coworking chain, opens a location in Durham next month. It brands itself as a new kind of office-away-from-home.

07/28/2025

OP-ED: For decades, life in America has been getting harder. Gun violence plagues our communities, wages aren’t keeping up with the spiraling cost of living, and big banks and landlords hold families financially hostage. The number of unhoused families with children keeps growing, wealth inequality is worse than ever, and we remain the only wealthy nation without basic guarantees like healthcare or parental leave.

With these challenges, we find ourselves stuck in a corrupt, corporate, capitalist political system beholden to big money. The Republican Party is wholly aligned with corporate interests, while the Democratic leadership often offers only weak solutions, too afraid to upset their donors. By supporting Israel’s genocide in Gaza and crushing dissent, the Biden administration opened the door to fascism. Come election time, the promise of stability was no match for a promise to blow up the rotten system.

✍️: By Nate Baker
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History shows that oppressive systems can be overthrown, even when they seem insurmountable. What can we do locally?

07/28/2025

“All of a sudden,” Libby Buck says, “I had this image of a woman.”

Buck, a Hillsborough writer with a long red bob and impish Windsor glasses, is describing the moment that she envisioned Gwen, the main character in her debut novel, Port Anna, which was released by Simon & Schuster earlier this month.

Port Anna‘s Gwen is a woman unmoored, as she leaves behind the boyfriend who dumped her and the Chapel Hill teaching job she was unjustly let go from, and heads toward her childhood home of Port Anna, Maine. There, the past awaits, embodied by a slew of old high school friends (mostly men), the ramshackle cottage she grew up in, the cottage’s pair of kindly ghosts, and memories of the sister she lost in childhood—a memory brought to the fore by posters of a missing girl, Shania, that pop up around Port Anna.

✍️: By Sarah Edwards
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Talking with Hillsborough writer Libby Buck about "Port Anna," her debut novel released by Simon & Schuster earlier this month.

07/28/2025

All is not well for USPS, which, though popular—it has a 72 percent approval rating according to the Pew Research Center—has been losing money, a total of about $100 billion, every year since 2007 with service roughly halved since that time, mainly at the expense of rural communities.

It’s no secret that the Trump administration would like to privatize USPS, or at least some of its operations. And so, in another big move for the postal service this week, the American Postal Workers Union (APWU) launched a television ad campaign in markets in eight states, including Raleigh, to “alert the public about proposed plans to privatize the public postal service,” according to an APWU press release. The ad will also air nationally on CNN, MSNBC and FOX.

✍️: By Jane Porter
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Privatizing USPS would result in higher prices for mail services, shuttered locations, and devastating impacts to small businesses, voters, and rural communities.

07/26/2025

⭐️ Have you voted yet for Best of the Triangle: Orange/Chatham County?

Make sure to cast your vote before July 30th at vote.indyweek.com!

07/26/2025

Palestinian comic Mo Amer, abortion drama “Keely & Du,” a free outdoor concert at The Gregg, and more events we recommend around the Triangle this week.

✍️: By Sarah Edwards and Daneen Khan
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Palestinian comic Mo Amer, abortion drama "Keely & Du," and more events we recommend around the Triangle this week.

07/25/2025

Duke University says 599 employees accepted a “voluntary separation incentive program” as part of the university’s plan to reduce costs amid federal funding cuts by President Donald Trump.

In a university-wide message on Friday, officials warned that “involuntary staff reductions” (known among commoners as “layoffs”) are coming next month.

“This news weighs heavily on all of us at Duke,” said the message that broke the news to employees. “Between August 5th and 19th, impacted employees will be contacted individually by their managers and will work closely with Human Resources through this transition. We recognize and are sorry for the impact these changes will have on our colleagues.”

✍️: By Chase Pellegrini du Paur
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The university announced upcoming layoffs this week despite nearly 600 employees taking buyouts as part of Duke’s plan to reduce costs.

07/25/2025

Wake County has selected The Bryant Center to operate and help deliver services to residents of its new “low-barrier” shelter for residents in need, Second Street Place.

Second Street Place, which is located at 5010 Second Street in Raleigh, is the first Wake County-operated shelter of its kind. It removes common barriers like proof of sobriety or background. According to a news release, anyone in need can walk through the doors and access shelter, services and support toward permanent housing.

📝: Originally published in NC Newsline
✍️: Written by Greg Childress
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Second Street Place in Raleigh will remove common barriers to entry so anyone can walk in and access shelter and support.

07/25/2025

Durham’s Transportation Department wants to give one of the city’s busiest traffic corridors a major upgrade by developing its first Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) route.

The proposed 7-mile route would run through much of Central Durham and link a number of important destinations including Duke Hospital and the Veterans Affairs (VA) Medical Center, Duke Central Campus, Ninth Street, Brightleaf Square, the downtown Durham Station, the main library downtown, Holton Career and Resource Center, and the Wellons Village shopping center in East Durham.

The project is in the pre-development phase as the city begins to scope out the route and determine its feasibility. Residents can complete a survey to share feedback on their transit needs.

✍️: By Justin Laidlaw
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The City of Durham is designing and seeking funding for a central Durham bus rapid transit system that would run from Duke to Wellons Village.