{"id":2759,"date":"2020-05-13T19:18:52","date_gmt":"2020-05-13T19:18:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/9thstreetjournal.org\/?p=2759"},"modified":"2023-03-27T15:52:50","modified_gmt":"2023-03-27T15:52:50","slug":"the-mayors-inbox-gripes-praise-and-lots-of-angst","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/9thstreetjournal.org\/2020\/05\/13\/the-mayors-inbox-gripes-praise-and-lots-of-angst\/","title":{"rendered":"The mayor\u2019s inbox: gripes, praise and lots of angst"},"content":{"rendered":"
A lawyer grouses about people who aren\u2019t wearing masks at Harris Teeter. A music teacher pleads for help from a small business relief program. A woman who has read \u2014 and reread \u2014 Ron Chernow\u2019s thousand-page biography of Ulysses Grant demands that her local library be reopened.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n These emails, part of a sampling of 21 that Mayor Steve Schewel provided The 9th Street Journal from his inbox, reveal the unsettled mood of the city. They show Durham residents grappling with a pandemic that has shuttered their stores, cloistered them in their homes and left them afraid that they\u2019ll contract the virus the next time they shop for milk or toilet paper.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Residents worry that the virus spells doom for city businesses. There\u2019s angst about mask enforcement, frustration over stay-at-home orders and social distancing. Some people simply long for life as it was a few months ago. Others offer the mayor a few words of thanks.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cI cannot contribute to the economy from the grave\u201d\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n One recent Tuesday afternoon, Linda Goswick, 73, went to the Durham Costco for the first time in months. When she noticed a woman without a mask behind her in the checkout line, Goswick spun around and told the woman she was breaking the law.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Later that day, she wrote an email to the mayor pleading that the city more strictly enforce its mask policy. \u201cI am a lifelong Durham resident,\u201d she wrote. \u201cI want life to get back to \u2018normal.\u2019\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Hank Hankla said his wife had a similar mask experience at a Harris Teeter, where she encountered several young men who weren\u2019t wearing masks. Hankla and his wife, who are both immune-compromised, have since decided to buy their groceries somewhere else.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Hankla, a lawyer, said the decision \u201cis not only a protest, it is self-preservation.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Some of Schewel\u2019s email correspondents also used dark humor to make their points that the pain and inconvenience of the shutdown was necessary for public health.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m begging you to extend (the stay-at-home order) further,\u201d wrote John Davis, a father of a young child. \u201cWhile the economy *will* recover, we haven\u2019t \u2013 to my knowledge \u2013 figured out how to bring people back from the dead.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Jules Odendahl-James, a spouse and parent of \u201cindividuals at high medical risk,\u201d put it even more bluntly.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cI cannot contribute to the economy from the grave,\u201d she wrote.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cImagine a ghost town\u201d\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n Many people who wrote to Schewel are worried that the shutdown will destroy the city\u2019s small businesses.<\/span><\/p>\n Russell Lacy wrote that he is worried about whether his music tutoring company can survive.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cIf businesses like mine can\u2019t get the help they need Durham\u2019s richness will not be the same post covid-19,\u201d he wrote, and urged the mayor to approve a small business grant.<\/span><\/p>\n For Crystal Williams-Brown, downtown Durham had once been a lively place where she could speak with strangers and enjoy the noise and rush of a weekday afternoon. But the pandemic has left silent streets punctuated only by the wailing of sirens.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cImagine a ghost town with store fronts serving as a reminder of what once was a vibrant, bustling, comforting place,\u201d she wrote, while urging the mayor to approve funds for small businesses.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n After reading Chernow\u2019s 1,104-page Grant biography, Morgan Feldman was ready to browse the stacks at Durham\u2019s public library for something new. Feldman\u2019s May 1 email indicated she\u2019d grown frustrated not just with the shutdown of the library but with, well, everything.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cThe current closures are the equivalent of a 5 mph speed limit \u2014 so it\u2019s safe \u2014 and wearing 3 inches of bubble wrap\u2013so it\u2019s safe,\u201d she wrote. \u201cIt\u2019s all non-sense and we deserve immediate restoration of services\u2013and the economy in general.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Scott Gray II described the impact of the restrictions on his personal life: his friends unemployed, his family members stranded at home, his church unable to congregate together.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cWe can\u2019t be Bull City strong if we keep hiding.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Moments of peace\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n \u201cThank you,\u201d said the subject line in an email to Schewel from George Stanziale Jr., the president and chief business development officer at Stewart, a construction company. The message itself was brief. \u201cI just wanted to send you a note of thanks for all you\u2019ve done in protecting the health and safety of our city during the Covit-19 [sic] pandemic.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n In another email, Schewel was invited to address Durham\u2019s children.<\/span><\/p>\n Margaret Anderson, who directs children\u2019s services at the Durham County Library, sent an email to the mayor: would he read a picture book over video for the kids? It would be part of a weekly series of summer videos for the children.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n The reply arrived in her inbox the next evening. Yes, of course. The video would be made, the picture book read. Life would go on.\u00a0 <\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A lawyer grouses about people who aren\u2019t wearing masks at Harris Teeter. A music teacher pleads for help from a small business relief program. A…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2764,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[71,223,265],"yoast_head":"\n