Northgate Mall in Durham has survived since the 1960’s due to its ability to adapt. Throughout its 40-plus years, it has managed to remain relevant and up-to-date with creative management and innovative ideas. Lately, however, a more potent threat than mall styles has emerged: Durham’s feral children, raised without parents (or at least responsible parents) and enticed by a culture of violence. When people start dying at a mall, surely the crowds of shoppers will dwindle.
Yesterday a man was stabbed at the mall during daylight hours, before 6 p.m. As Northgate struggles to succeed with its latest transformation — a Streets at Southpoint-style storefront addition — murder is not the kind of stimulant needed to fill those empty storefronts.
It’s sad, really, that Northgate is paying the price for years of enabling by Durham’s public and private leadership. Over the last 25 years, whenever some high-profile case of a juvenile doing some violent deed, clergy, the Durham Committee on the Affairs of Black People, some editorial writers and officeholders made excuses.
I recall, at a Herald-Sun editorial board meeting with black clergy following the mid-’90s Seagroves trial, that the ministers said the kids who were pilfering Seagroves’ garage when they were shot were not criminals but “youth in need of services.” Youth in need of parents, more like. They had, we were to learn, juvenile rap sheets as long as your arm.
Well, the whirlwind has been reaped and Northgate Mall, sadly, is paying the price. Will Durham finally step up and admit its problem? Or will it spout the now-familiar “all communities have this problem and Durham is no worse” mantra? Newsflash: Durham is worse. The first step toward fixing the problem is admitting it exists.
