This Saturday morning at peak market time (9-11 am, Oct. 15th), Prudential York Simpson Underwood agents will be digging in the dirt at Durham Central Park & Farmer's Market garden. They will be pruning, putting in many new plantings, and sprucing up the "Prudential Garden" section.

The garden that Prudential YSU gave birth to in 2003* and has fostered with over $15,000 dollars worth of sculpture, rock walls, and plantings has grown and matured along with the Farmer's Market’s utilization and popularity.

"I've been so inspired by the energy and involvement of our agents in these work days. They really care about this garden”, says Tracey Goetz, PRUYSU's manager, who has been up to her elbows in dirt as often as the agents. "In the first work day we had over 30 people who cut out a section of hillside and built a stone wall in just a couple of hours, working as a group, passing & stacking rocks from our personal gardens"

Prudential has always done community service projects, but the development of Durham Central Park and the Farmer's Market Pavilion, gave Prudential agents the vision and the 'juice' to really dig in their heels and develop the garden so they could contribute in their own way to Durham’s downtown revitalization. The garden features a beautiful array of azaleas, camellias, roses, jasmine, and many other perennials.

A distinctive bronze butterfly bench was commissioned by Vega Metals and rests in the stone wall circle for outward viewing. The "Family” Sculpture, a well-known sentinel overseeing the garden and the Park, was also a Vega Metals commission by PRUYSU, placed in the center of the garden.

A distinctive trellis welcomes visitors walking into the garden pathways, another Prudential contribution to enter & stroll among the hundreds of plantings. In the drought year they lost almost half the plants, partly due to water restrictions & partly to the long walk up the steep hill to bring a hose for watering. The next year, PRUYSU's contribution to the garden was a watering system installed at the site.

This Saturday, Oct. 15th will mark the 16th time that Prudential's agents & family have worked to beautify the blooming gardens that overlook a growing a number of institutions that fortify & beautify our revitalized city.

*Also contributed to by Old North State Landscaping

** For more information contact, Tracey Goetz. 919-740-2502, or 919-383-4663

The NY Times seems to have a growing fondness for our area and our "gastronomical" delights. Its great to see our corner of NC getting its due.

Btightleaf, Downtown, great bars and dining spots, nightlife locales, ballpark, performing arts center - what more can you ask from a town?

Durham Dining: Pies, Panini and Barbecue

By INGRID K. WILLIAMS

A DECADE ago, a suggestion to head downtown for dinner in Durham, N.C., would have been derided for falling somewhere between foolish and absurd. The area, full of vacant tobacco warehouses and boarded-up storefronts, was anything but a dining destination.

“It was pretty much a ghost town after 5 p.m. or so,” said Kelli Cotter, who, with her husband, Billy, opened the panini shop Toast in downtown Durham three years ago.

But in the last few years, downtown has been transformed — a ghost town no longer — and an exciting, unexpected food hub has emerged.

“It’s been on this very slow, not too steep path to revitalization,” said Phoebe Lawless, who opened the bakery Scratch last year.

Durham’s downtown comprises a hodgepodge of disparate micro-neighborhoods (called districts) that radiate from the City Center, a compact urban triangle. When I lived in Durham in the mid-2000s, downtown’s progress was nascent. It began in the American Tobacco district, an area adjacent to the City Center that was once dominated by a blighted former tobacco factory. Now that district has grown into a full-fledged entertainment complex, bookended by the still-handsome Durham Bulls minor league baseball stadium and, since 2008, the $44 million Durham Performing Arts Center.

Article at the NY TIMES

From the Washington Post – May 2011

There are about 30,000 high schools in the U.S.

More than 20 Triangle area schools have made The Washington Post’s 2011 Challenge Index rankings of the nation’s top high schools.

Raleigh Charter High School was the lone area school in the top 100 on the annual list, which previously was published in Newsweek magazine. The recently released rankings are developed by taking the number of Advanced Placement, International Baccalaureate and other college-level tests taken and dividing by the number of graduating seniors.

Here is the list of Triangle schools:

* Raleigh Charter, 54

* Carrboro, 154

* Enloe in Raleigh, 155

* East Chapel Hill, 158

* Woods Charter in Chapel Hill, 190

* Chapel Hill, 278

* Jordan in Durham, 454

* Green Hope in Cary, 466

* Durham School of the Arts, 661

* Broughton in Raleigh, 702

* Panther Creek in Cary, 846

* Franklin Academy in Wake Forest, 1146

* Athens Drive in Raleigh, 1342

* Holly Springs, 1466

* Millbrook in Raleigh, 1567

* Apex, 1613

* Wakefield in Raleigh, 1642

* Riverside in Durham, 1622

* Northern in Durham, 1662

* Middle Creek in Apex, 1630

* Cary, 1709

Article Here: