Durham

Durham is a city in the U.S. state of North Carolina and the county seat of Durham County. The city is located in the east-central part of the Piedmont region along the Eno River. With a population of 283,506 in the 2020 Census, Durham is the 4th-most populous city in North Carolina, and the 74th most populous in the United States. Durham is home to several recognized institutions of higher education, most notably Duke University and North Carolina Central University. It is also a national leader in health-related activities, which are focused on the Duke University Hospital and many private companies. Duke and its Duke University Health System are the largest employers in the city. Together, the two universities make Durham one of the vertices of the Research Triangle area, which encompasses an area of 11 square miles and is devoted to research facilities. In 1701, Durham's beauty was chronicled by the English explorer John Lawson, who called the area "the flower of the Carolinas." During the mid-1700s, Scots, Irish, and English colonists settled on land granted to George Carteret by King Charles I. Early settlers built gristmills, such as West Point, and worked the land. According to legend, Loyalist militia cut Cornwallis Road through this area in 1771 to quell the rebellion. Later, William Johnston, a local shopkeeper and farmer, made Revolutionaries' munitions, served in the Provincial Capital Congress in 1775.

History

Durham is the primary city name, but also Eno Valley are acceptable city names or spellings, North Durham on the other hand no longer accepted or obsolete and are no longer used as a designation. The Eno and the Occoneechi, related to the Sioux and the Shakori, lived and farmed in the area which became Durham. The Great Indian Trading Path has been traced through Durham, and Native Americans helped to mold the area by establishing settlements and commercial transportation routes. In 1849, a North Carolina Railroad depot was established on a four-acre tract of land donated by Dr. Bartlett S. Durham; the station was named after him. A U.S. post office was established there on April 26, 1853, now recognized as the city's official birthday. By 1860, Stagville Plantation lay at the center of one of the largest plantation holdings in the South. The community of Durham grew slowly before the Civil War, but expanded rapidly following the establishment of a thriving tobacco industry after the war. Numerous orders were mailed to John Green's tobacco company requesting more of the mild flavor of Durham's tobacco. The town was named "Bull Factory" in honor of the tobacco company's founder, W.T. Green, who was born in Durham in 1841. The city's name is derived from the word "bull" which means "bullsucker" or "bull-back" in the local dialect. The word "Durham" is also used to refer to the town of Durham, North Carolina, which was founded in 1805. The name Durham is also the name of a town in South Carolina, where the town was once known as "Durham".

Geography

Durham is located in the east-central part of the Piedmont region at 35°5919N 78°5426W (35.988644, 78.907167) The city has a total area of 108.3 square miles (280.4 km²), of which 107.4 square miles is land and 0.93 square miles, or 0.84%, is water. The soil is predominantly clay, making it poor for agriculture. Durham is classified as a humid subtropical climate (Cfa) according to the Köppen classification. The region sees an average of 6.8 inches (170 mm) of snow per year, which usually melts within a few days. Durham consistently ranks in the top 10 least challenging places to live with seasonal allergies. The city is located 10.41 miles northeast of Chapel Hill, 20.78 miles northwest of Raleigh, 50.21 miles east of Greensboro, 121.40 miles north of Charlotte, and 134.06 miles southwest of Richmond, Virginia. It is located on a ridge that forms the divide between the Neuse River watershed, flowing east to Pamlico Sound, and the Cape Fear River watershed, flowing south to the Atlantic near Wilmington. Durham receives abundant precipitation, with thunderstorms common in the summer and temperatures from 80 to 100 degrees F. in the spring and autumn. It has an average temperature of 80 degrees F (50 degrees C) in the winter and 75 degrees F in the Spring.

Demographics

As of the 2020 United States census, there were 283,506 people, 114,726 households, and 64,982 families residing in the city. The racial composition of the city was: 42.45% White, 40.96% Black or African American, 5.07% Asian American, 0.51% Native American, 8.28% some other race, and 2.66% two or more races; 14.22% were Hispanic or Latino of any race. Non-Hispanic White comprised 37.9% of the population. As of July 1, 2019 and according to the 2019 US census data estimate, had grown to 278,993, making it the 50th fastest growing city in the US. It is the 2nd fastest-growing city in North Carolina, behind Cary, but ahead of Charlotte, Raleigh and Greensboro. The median income for a household in theCity was $47,394, and the medianincome for a family was $60,157. About 13.1% of families and 18.6% of people were below the poverty line, including 24.3% of those under age 18 and 10.1%) of those age 65 or over. The average household size was 2.34 and the average family size was 3.04. The city's population was spread out, with 22.7% under the age of 18, 14.1%. from 18 to 24, 33.6%. from 25 to 44, 21.8% from 45 to 64, and 8.9%. who were 65 years of age or older.

Economy

Duke University and Duke University Health System are Durham's largest employers. Health care and pharmaceuticals continue to grow in importance. Other prominent companies based in Durham include Center for Community Self-Help, Liggett Group, North Carolina Mutual Life Insurance Company, American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, Bronto Software, Counter Culture Coffee, Burt's Bees, McKinney (advertising agency), Sugar Hill Records, Mechanics and Farmers Bank, Southern Express and others. The city is home to the University of North Carolina at Durham and the North Carolina Institute of Technology. Durham is also home to North Carolina State University and North Carolina Agricultural and Life Sciences University. Durham has a population of more than 1.5 million people, making it one of the largest cities in the state. It is the second largest city in North Carolina, after Raleigh, and the third largest in the U.S. behind Greensboro. It also has the highest percentage of women in the workforce, with more than 50% of the city's population aged 25 and older. The average age of a Durham resident is 44.5 years old. The town has the third highest percentage rate of women working, with nearly 40% of its population aged 20 or older. It has the fourth highest rate of men working, followed by Greensboro and Asheville, with 20% and 15% respectively. The economy is the largest employer in the city, with about 1,000 people working in Durham. The unemployment rate is 3.7%.

Arts and culture

Durham is the venue for the annual Bull Durham Blues Festival and the OUTsouth Queer Film Festival. The Nasher Museum of Art opened in October 2005 and has produced nationally recognized traveling exhibitions of global, contemporary art. Artists' styles range from jazz, hip-hop, soul, folk, Americana, blues, bluegrass, punk, metal and rock. Members of The Butchies, Superchunk, Chatham County Line, Alice Donut, and the Avett Brothers live in Durham. Durham was also home to ten recording labels that released soul music, though most of them only released one or two records apiece. In the 1960s and 1970s, more than 40 R&B, soul and funk groupsincluding The Modulations, The Black Experience Band, The Communicators, and Duralcharecorded over 30 singles and three full-length albums. Durham has a rich history of African American rhythm and blues,Soul, and funk music. The city is home to the Downtown Durham Art Walk, a celebration of culture and arts every third Friday of the year round. Durham is the home of the National Museum of African-American History and Culture and the Museum of Durham History, which opened its doors in 2005. The museum hosted several exhibits, including one on journalist and civil rights activist Louis Austin, and in conjunction with the 150th anniversary of Durham, an exhibit titled, "150 Faces of Durham", which highlighted many of the women and men who influenced the history of Durham.

Sports

Duke University's men's basketball team is known as the Cameron Crazies. The team has won the NCAA Division I championship three times since 2001. The Durham Bulls play in the Durham Bulls Athletic Park, which was built in 1994. The women's fast pitch softball team, the Durham Dragons, played in the DAP from 1998 to 2000. The DAP recently went through a $5 million renovation and is now the home of the Duke Women's Softball Team, which plays in the Atlantic Coast Conference. The men's baseball team is called the DurhamBulls, after an earlier team of the same name that was disbanded in 1988. The baseball team has been in the major leagues for more than 30 years and has won several league titles. It is one of the most successful minor league teams in the United States, with an average attendance of around 500,000 per game. It has also been used as a training ground for many of the city's professional sports teams, including the NBA's Toronto Blue Jays and the NFL's San Francisco 49ers. The city has a long history of hosting major sporting events, including a World Series in 1968 and the World Series of the 1980s and 1990s. It also hosted the Winter Olympics in 1988 and the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul, South Korea, in addition to hosting the Winter Games in 1992 and 1998. The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill is home to the North Carolina Tar Heels, a Division I college football team that has won five national championships.

Government

Durham operates under a council-manager government. The mayor, since 2017, was Steve Schewel, who was elected with 59.45% of the vote. In November 2021, Elaine O'Neal was elected as the new mayor of Durham, becoming the first black female mayor in the city. In 2018, Durham appointed its first Latino council member Javiera Caballero. Durham has had majority female county boards since the 1980s. In 2020, Durham elected, for the first time, an all female Durham County Board of Commissioners and the first Muslim-American woman to win elected office in the history of North Carolina. Since 2010, the Durham police have accepted the Mexican Consular Identification Card as a valid form of identification. In 2006, racial and community tensions stirred following false allegations of a sexual assault by three white members of the Duke University lacrosse team. The allegations were made by Crystal Gail Mangum, a young female African-American student and mother of two children. She and another young woman had been hired to dance at a party that the team held in an off-campus house. In 2007, all charges in the case were dropped and the players were declared innocent. More recently, Durham City Council's 2018 statement opposing militarized policing that mentioned Israel has drawn its third lawsuit. Since 2003 the city has had a policy to prohibit police from inquiring into the citizenship status of persons unless they have otherwise been arrested or charged with a crime. A city council resolution mandates that police officers "...may not request specific documents for the sole purpose of determining a person's civil immigration status".

Education

Durham Public Schools is the eighth largest school district in North Carolina. The North Carolina School for Science and Mathematics is a boarding high school operated by the University of North Carolina in central Durham. North Carolina Central University is a public, historically black university located in southeastern Durham. Durham was the only MSA from North Carolina to make the list of the "Top 20 Places to Educate Your Child" in 2007. Durham forms one of the three vertices of the Research Triangle along with North Carolina at Chapel Hill and North Carolina State University. Duke University has approximately 14,000 students, split evenly between graduates and undergraduates. The university was founded by James E. Shepard in 1910 as the National Religious Training School and Chautauqua to address the needs of the region's black population. It was ranked the number 1 Public HBCU in the nation by U.S. News & World Report in 2010 and 2011. Durham Technical Community College is a two-year public institution that grants associate degrees. There are also religious schools, including Carolina Friends School, Trinity School of Durham and Chapel Hill, Cristo Rey Research Triangle High School, Immaculata Catholic School, and Durham Nativity School. For confidential support call the Samaritans on 08457 90 90 90, visit a local Samaritans branch, or see www.samaritans.org for details. In the United States, call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline on 1-800-273-8255 or visit http://www.suicidepreventionlifeline.org/.

Air Quality, Water Quality, Superfund Sites & UV Index

The Air Quality index is in Durham, Durham County, North Carolina = 49.2. These Air Quality index is based on annual reports from the EPA. Higher values are better (100=best). The number of ozone alert days is used as an indicator of air quality, as are the amounts of seven pollutants including particulates, carbon monoxide, sulfur dioxide, lead, and volatile organic chemicals. The Water Quality Index is 79. A measure of the quality of an area’s water supply as rated by the EPA. Higher values are better (100=best). The EPA has a complex method of measuring the watershed quality, using 15 indicators such as pollutants, turbidity, sediments, and toxic discharges. The Superfund Sites Index is 75. Higher is better (100=best). Based upon the number and impact of EPA Superfund pollution sites in the county, including spending on the cleanup efforts. The UV Index in Durham = 4.6 and is a measure of an area's exposure to the sun's ultraviolet rays. This is most often a combination of sunny weather, altitude, and latitude. The UV Index has been defined by the WHO (www.who.int/news-room/questions-and-answers/item/radiation-the-ultraviolet-(uv)-index) and is uniform worldwide.

Employed

The most recent city population of 283,506 individuals with a median age of 33.7 age the population grows by 17.29% in Durham, Durham County, North Carolina population since 2000 and are distributed over a density of 2,457.51 residents per square mile of area (948.85/km²). There are average 2.37 people per household in the 88,145 households with an average household income of $45,919 a year. The unemployment rate in Alabama is 7.30% of the available work force and has dropped -5.28% over the most recent 12-month period and the projected change in job supply over the next decade based on migration patterns, economic growth, and other factors will increase by 22.14%. The number of physicians in Durham per 100,000 population = 522.

Weather

The annual rainfall in Durham = 44.2 inches and the annual snowfall = 5.2 inches. The annual number of days with measurable precipitation (over .01 inch) = 104. The average number of days per year that are predominantly sunny = 220. 89 degrees Fahrenheit is the average daily high temperature for the month of July and 28.8 degrees Fahrenheit is the average daily low temperature for the month of January. The Comfort Index (higher=better) is 35, where higher values mean a more pleasant climate. The Comfort Index measure recognizes that humidity by itself isn't the problem. (Have you noticed nobody ever complains about the weather being 'cold and humid?) It's in the summertime that we notice the humidity the most, when it's hot and muggy. Our Comfort Index uses a combination of afternoon summer temperature and humidity to closely predict the effect that the humidity will have on people.

Median Home Cost

The percentage of housing units in Durham, Durham County, North Carolina which are owned by the occupant = 44.34%. A housing unit is a house, apartment, mobile home, or room occupied as separate living quarters. The average age of homes = 24 years with median home cost = $150,580 and home appreciation of 1.65%. This is the value of the years most recent home sales data. Its important to note that this is not the average (or arithmetic mean). The median home price is the middle value when you arrange all the sales prices of homes from lowest to highest. This is a better indicator than the average, because the median is not changed as much by a few unusually high or low values. The property tax rate of $10.24 shown here is the rate per $1,000 of home value. If for simplification for example the tax rate is $14.00 and the home value is $250,000, the property tax would be $14.00 x ($250,000/1000), or $3500. This is the 'effective' tax rate.

Study

The local school district spends $4,878 per student. There are 15.2 students for each teacher in the school, 655 students for each Librarian and 332 students for each Counselor. 5.55% of the area’s population over the age of 25 with an Associate Degree or other 2-year college degree, 24.29% with a master’s degree, Ph.D. or other advanced college degree and 18.71% with high school diplomas or high school equivalency degrees (GEDs).