In Durham, North Carolina, local resident Ray Eurquhart is hoping to revitalize the Southside portion of the city. Eurquhart, along with a coalition of other local residents, is working with the city to bring new life to the 125-acre area near downtown. “We want a wonderful product here,” Eurquhart said. “We want more shops, more social entertainment…cultural things,” he said.

Larry Jarvis, Durham’s assistant director of Community Development, said the Southside area is the city of Durham’s highest priority for neighborhood redevelopment projects. “I don’t think that you would find any place in Durham where you have the concentration of disinvestment that you have here,” Jarvis said.

However, asbestos and other issues are complicating factors in the plans to revitalize this section of Durham. Exposure to asbestos can lead to mesothelioma later in life. This rare cancer manifests initially in the lining of the lungs of abdomen, and occasionally the lining of the heart. Developers hope to turn the former J.A. Whitted Junior High School into a useful piece of property. Turning it into a community center could cost several million dollars because the building has had a problem with asbestos.

Jarvis said many properties on about 20 acres of Southside in an area known as Rolling Hills need the most renovations. The city is spending nearly $6 million to buy homes there. “There’s…a very significant opportunity to have a successfully project here,” Jarvis said. Jarvis has estimated that it will take about eight to ten years for the revitalization initiative to wrap up.

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