On a warm July morning, federal Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, Gov. Roy Cooper, Durham Mayor Leonardo Williams and U.S. Representative Valerie Foushee walked a loose gravel path and visited small businesses along a short stretch of Holloway Street in East Durham.
The star-studded group was celebrating a $12 million grant from the Biden-Harris administration to overhaul sidewalks, crosswalks and bus shelters along a 3.2 mile corridor, the city’s most heavily used bus route.
No one spoke the words “Vote Democratic,” and Biden was still the presumptive nominee at the time. But it seemed no coincidence that the Democratic politicians were standing in a blue precinct in a blue city in a blue county — and that the Secretary of Transportation had nothing better to do than show up for the announcement of a few miles of bus shelters and crosswalks. The project itself will not break ground until 2026.
The grant is part of the Biden-Harris administration’s “Rebuilding American Infrastructure with Sustainability and Equity (RAISE)” program. In fact, the federal government awarded more RAISE grant money to Durham than to Detroit, Michigan, Santa Ana, California, and Toledo, Ohio. None of those places earned a visit from their state’s governor and the federal secretary of transportation.
Williams took some credit for the event, noting that he had “built relationships with these people, with Biden’s staff, Secretary (Buttigieg’s) staff.” There’s a kinship, he said, because several of them, including Buttigieg, are former mayors.
As Democratic strategists look to North Carolina as a new and important battleground in the presidential election, Durham could be critical, said Sophia Chitlik, the party’s nominee for a safe Democratic seat for the state senate. The city is “the most critical spot in the most critical state,” said Chitlik, noting that former President Trump’s path to the White House almost necessitates him winning North Carolina.
According to Chitlik, an increase in voter turnout in Durham County from 74% in 2020 to 79% this year could win the state for Harris. She cited Durham as the “most progressive, most civically engaged city” in North Carolina — a place where achieving this increase is possible.
Holloway Street runs through roughly six voting precincts, and all have voted overwhelmingly for Democrats in the last four presidential elections. Out of these precincts, the closest race in the last two elections was in 2020 in precinct 30-1, where Republicans received 39% of the vote. Durham has since split precinct 30-1 into precincts 30-3 and 30-4 starting with the 2024 election.
A large share of residents of the Holloway Street corridor depend on the bus. About 28% of East Durham residents are below the poverty line. In the area that will benefit from the grant, the median income for households is about 65% of the figure for Durham as a whole.
Asher Hildebrand, a professor of public policy at Duke University and former chief of staff to U.S. Rep. David Price, emphasized that demographics and need — not politics — determine where federal infrastructure grants go. But a factor such as historic inequity in federal funding can be important in allocating grants, which likely helped Durham, he said.
Mac McCorkle, a public policy professor at Duke and former Democratic strategist, said Black communities sometimes complain they haven’t seen the support and progress that Biden promised. That helps to explain why the event on Holloway Street had such star power, despite being two years away from the project’s start date.
Chitlik was pleased about the grant because it benefits an area that has sometimes lagged behind other parts of the city. “Durham growth has not benefited all Durhamites,” she said. Williams called the Holloway Street area “underinvested in for so long.”
The political impact of the July announcement is uncertain. Despite the appearance of political leaders and coverage in the INDY Week and The News & Observer, riders of the buses that traverse Holloway Street seem mostly unaware of the $12 million grant.
On a late September day, Mike Brodie, a lifetime Durham resident and daily bus rider, was visibly shocked by the number. Other riders of buses 3, 3B, and 3C wondered how they had not heard about the grant despite taking the bus daily.
Some riders interviewed by The 9th Street Journal liked the idea of better bus benches and shelters and other improvements. Most riders, though, had other ideas about how the money could be better spent: on policing, investments to promote local businesses and reducing the number of residents with drug dependencies. One rider even said the current period of free fares on the entire Go Durham network, which lasts through June 2025, needs to end.
Brodie said the first thing he would do with $12 million is to increase police presence and clear the area of drug users and dealers. He also said the downtown Durham bus terminal should open at 5 a.m. rather than 6.
After these priorities, Brodie did agree that Holloway Street needs lighting, sidewalk, and road improvements. “I’ve seen this area come down,” he said. Brodie doesn’t know yet who he’s voting for in the election, but is leaning toward Trump — “He would run this country like a business.”
McCorkle said that Durham is already a guaranteed Democratic win. But, for the margin Chitlik, Harris, and the rest of the party are looking for, East Durham turnout matters. “It’s not the college voters, but the voters around Holloway” that will give Democrats the added numbers, McCorkle said.
McCorkle agrees with Chitlik that North Carolina is a “must-have state” for Trump. That means Democrats have to work harder here, and it’s why he is not surprised a name as big as Buttigieg came to Durham for the grant announcement.
Williams, meanwhile, said he will continue to be relentless in ensuring federal officials see Durham’s needs, election or no election.
“I’m right there in their ear.”
Pictured above: A federal grant will improve sidewalks and bus shelters along Holloway Street, which is served by the No. 3 bus. Photo by Ethan Davidovitch — The 9th Street Journal
