Fifteen candidates for Durham City Council and mayor took the stage at a Thursday candidate forum to lay out their vision for a “better Durham.”
For most of them, this meant demanding that Duke “is doing its fair share.” The University’s role in city affairs — or lack thereof — was at the center of the forum.
The candidates were flanked by signs that read “Durham built Duke,” “Better Duke = Better Durham” and “Durham Rising” — the name of the coalition that organized the event. Much of the discourse centered around Duke making payments in lieu of taxes (PILOTs), voluntary payments made from tax-exempt organizations to local governments to compensate for lost property taxes…