Local: Randy Oliver a finalist in Durham, N.C.

April 28, 2008
By Billy Dennis

According to this blogger, citing area media, former Peoria City Manager Randy Oliver is one of three finalists for city manager of Durham, N.C.

I commented on Randy’s situation here in Peoria, but he would like to hear from Peorians. I’d imagine some details about the other two finalists would be appreciated.

My comment on Randy was that he was friendly and helpful to citizen journalists, and that he had his pluses and minuses in other areas. I also mentioned that Peoria is rough on it’s city managers, who sometimes end up taking the heat for the failures of the elected folks.

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4 Responses to “ Local: Randy Oliver a finalist in Durham, N.C. ”

  1. Eyebrows McGee on April 28, 2008 at 3:55 pm

    Youch. Frying pan, fire, etc. Durham is just as hard on its city managers, the crack problem is much, much worse, the busses are dead dangerous, but at least there are NO SIDEWALKS TO SPEAK OF so I guess he won’t have to worry about maintaining them.

    On the plus side, school board meetings are quite a bit more entertaining in Durham. Saw one that involved shoe-throwing among adults and another that came to actual blows. Good cable television!

    (And Randy, if you’re reading this, you’ll spend virtually all your time mediating racial debates — black/white and non-Latinos/fastest-growing-Latino-population-in-US and town/gown issues.)

    On the plus side, I bet you can sometimes get tickets to Cameron if you’re city manager.

  2. Mr. Dependable on April 28, 2008 at 9:18 pm

    Eyebrows – it’s been two years since we threw the rascals off the school board. Meetings are much more boring, but on the other hand, a lot more gets done. After the upcoming school board election, things will be even mellower.

    The buses are slow, and the service is inadequate, but in general, they’re not dangerous. There was some trouble a couple of years back, but i haven’t heard of any crime on the buses in quite some time. The racial stuff probably looks a lot different from the outside than the inside. We’re a city that’s about 50% white, 40% black, 10% latino (changing rapidly, as you note). Not going to claim that all is harmonious bliss here, but it’s not a tinderbox, either.

    And there is no way that the city manager gets tickets to Cameron as a perk. Maybe to women’s games. But he’s going to have to go to StubHub and drop the big bucks if he wants to see his alma mater play.

  3. rev on April 29, 2008 at 7:05 pm

    My wife and I moved to the Triangle about 15 yrs. ago from Peoria. Believe me, it never crossed our mind to live in Durham. Besides being downright dangerous, Durham is run-down and depressingly slummy. The local government? is a joke- the last city manager left under a cloud of mismanagement and incompetence and the last police chief retired? after a brief reign marked by corruption and more incompetence. Let’s just say the inmates are running the asylum. Word here is that the local newscasts would only need to be about half as long if the crime stories from Durham were left out.
    Randy- run, don’t walk, away from this mess!

  4. Eyebrows McGee on April 30, 2008 at 6:52 am

    “The racial stuff probably looks a lot different from the outside than the inside.”

    I lived there for four years. :) I actually didn’t think the city is as dangerous as people say, although I don’t think that about Peoria either; and Durham was certainly more dangerous than Peoria. But that comes of being on the I-85/I-95 crack corridor that runs from Miami to DC.

    But I was on the parish council at Immaculate Conception (the parish that serves Latinos), worked with the Duke Community Foundation, and was loosely involved with several other poverty initiatives in the area through the law school clinic programs, so I’m pretty familiar with the crappier parts of the city and with the city’s racial problems.

    On the flip side, I did live IN Durham (down near the new mall, but still), ate all over the city including downtown hole-in-the-walls, and went to the downtown parish, and never felt particularly unsafe. (OTOH, I was terrified to go to the main branch of the library. That place was scary.)

    Hey, Randy, eat at Four Square. Magnolia Grill’s a bit pretentious. Four Square is better and doesn’t pretend it’s in New York!