Defending Democratic Process and Old North Durham Park, or What’s at Stake in the Struggle over OND Park?

Defending Democratic Process and Old North Durham Park, or What’s at Stake in the Struggle over OND Park?

The effort by Central Park School for Children and its associates to change Old North Durham Park according to private plans and with private funds is a danger to the democratic process and the neighborhood’s low-income, primarily Latino and Black neighborhood residents. CPSC’s use of private resources to impose the modification of a public space to suit particular interests effectively privatizes public land, and orients the time and energy of our public officials toward private gain. At stake is not simply our neighborhood’s park, but rather the dangerous precedent that only those who can mobilize vast sums of money have voice in the future of our city’s public spaces. This effectively disenfranchises lower income residents (most of our neighbors) and makes government the conduit of private wealth rather than fair administrator. This distortion is what has allowed the displacement of low-income Black and Latino residents from the city center and its public resources (replaced with middle class businesses, leisure spaces, and owner-occupied homes) to stand in for the common good. Gentrification in the guise of “revitalization” is not new in our neighborhood. OND Park is one of the few remaining downtown public spaces primarily used by Black and Latino residents, and its conversion into a space designed by and for others will no doubt further marginalize this community. El Kilombo community center urges the city to reaffirm its prior commitment to maintain and upgrade the park, including its full-size athletic field, as a public park under direct city management.