Nate Baker, candidate for Durham City Council, takes your questions

A pivotal election is underway in Durham, with voters set to choose a new mayor and fill three City Council seats this fall.

There are 12 people competing for the City Council seats, including two incumbents.

A primary is being held to narrow the field. Early voting in the primary runs through Oct. 7 and Primary Day is Oct. 10.

The top six candidates will proceed to the general election in November.

Terms last four years. The seats are at-large, which means candidates can live anywhere in the city.

We collected questions from residents across Durham to help readers get to know the candidates.

Nate Baker

Name: Nate Baker

Age: 34

Occupation: Urban planner

Website: natefordurham.com

Are we paying people competitively and keeping our promises to our workers?

- East Durham resident Aidil Ortiz

North Carolina is a challenging place for workers, with our state ranking 49th in the country for union-membership, right-to-work laws that oppress workers, and prohibition on local ordinances for minimum wages and prevention of rent price gouging. At the local level, we have not kept up with the needs of our own city workers, and haven’t ensured that new developments incorporate public needs like workforce housing that city workers, and other workers, can afford. Many city workers live outside of Durham and commute in because pay has not kept up with our city’s rising cost of living. We need to ensure our workers can afford to live in Durham.

Do you have any experience that helps you understand development in Durham? How do you plan to get more affordable units in the city?

- Planning commissioner Zuri Williams

I have over a decade of experience as an urban planner. I have worked for two city governments and work as a consultant providing planning, policy, and regulatory guidance to city councils and governments on development issues across the state. I am the senior-most member of the Durham Planning Commission where I have served for over five years.

We need to prioritize our limited public dollars on affordable housing for those with extremely low incomes. We need to use the power of zoning, combined with regulatory sticks and carrots and financial resources, to protect current tenants and homeowners from displacement, protect existing affordable housing stock, and provide moderately priced, income-restricted workforce housing in all new private developments.

As Durham grows more dense, how do we get away from the classic American model of car-oriented development? Are there any policies that you support that can keep us from becoming another Atlanta or Dallas?

- Downtown resident Nirav Patel

The City Council voting majority has facilitated the largest amount of acreage of unsustainable, auto-dependent growth in Durham’s history, approving nearly 10 square miles of sprawl over only the last five years. We need new leadership that will ensure new growth is sustainable, walkable, and transit-oriented. We need to overhaul our zoning regulations, and we need to ensure that overhaul results in the ingredients that create a city for people and places, not continued cars, traffic, and corporate profit.

Learn more details about how we can use local public policy to achieve a walkable city that puts people over big real estate developers here: walkabledurham.substack.com

What policies do you support for implementing safer streets and reducing car dependency locally and regionally?

- Stadium Heights resident Nick Roberts

Durham streets are dangerous because our land uses encourage car-dependency and our streets and practices for constructing them are poorly designed. We need to end car-centric sprawl development supported by the status quo and replace it with a model of growth that is transit-oriented, starts requiring big developers to provide public parks and greenways, and protects valuable open space. Durham currently lacks street design standards and defaults to auto-oriented street designs; on council, I will ensure we adopt bold new street design standards that create a safe, comfortable, and inspiring travel experience for pedestrians, transit-riders, bicyclists, and other transportation modes.

What will you do to support the mental health needs of everyday Durham residents, especially thousands of young people in our public school systems?

- Hillside High School senior Isaiah Palmer

I will continue to support emergency mental health services provided by the city, and which complement the work of many of our other emergency service workers. I will seek to bolster mental health services for our city workers. Part of the job of City Council is to work collaboratively across jurisdictions, and I will use the position to coordinate with the county government and public school system to ensure we are using a comprehensive approach to providing mental health services for residents and students.

In your vision for the city, what role does public education play and how does that connect to economic development, public safety and community health?

- Fayetteville Street corridor resident Erika Wilkins

I support public education and believe we must work to fight against the privatization of the public school system without individualizing systemic problems. Education is a human right, and it is essential that we pay and support our teachers and provide them with the tools they need to succeed, including a great city to live in, affordable housing, city-funded youth recreation and community programs, and safe neighborhoods. Public schools — and education more broadly — is fundamental to quality of life.

On the subject of alleged Clean Water Act violations in Falls Lake and its tributaries: How did we get here and who should be held responsible? Who is going to pay for the creek restoration and environmental damage?

- Southeast Durham resident Pam Andrews

Status quo leadership in Durham has allowed large corporate homebuilders to pillage thousands of acres of land south of Falls Lake and elsewhere, resulting in a short- and long-term climate and environmental crisis. The Southern Environmental Law Center has made it clear that the city of Durham’s environmental record is troubling, while taking the lead where our government has not: holding developers in violation of environmental laws accountable. While much damage has already been done, we need to urgently change our policies and practices moving forward while holding the status quo politicians responsible for this crisis accountable at the polls.

How have you seen Durham evolve in your time here and what’s one thing you’ll have the power to change if elected?

- The News & Observer

I was born in Durham in 1988 and, like many of our residents, have seen our city change dramatically in ways that are both exciting and challenging. We’re a vibrant city, but have also lost thousands of residents from gentrification and displacement. The City Council holds significant power over the physical shape of our city’s growth, and that is an area where I’ll seek to fight for a city that works better for our residents.

Durham’s greatest asset has always been, and continues to be, its people. I’m running for council because I have observed a disconnect between the community vision, and policies that are implemented by our local government. I believe we can do better and work together to build a beautiful city where everyone belongs.

To find polling places and full details on voting, visit the Board of Elections at dcovotes.com or 919-560-0700.