Affordable housing, gun violence remain challenges for Durham, outgoing mayor says

After more than a decade in public service, Durham Mayor Steve Schewel will become a regular citizen come Monday night.

Schewel, who served 10 years on the Durham City Council, including the last four as mayor, opted not to seek another two-year term. Retired judge Elaine O'Neal was elected last month as Durham's next mayor, and she will be sworn in to office on Monday.

In a recent interview with WRAL News, Schewel said he leaves office with mixed feelings.

"On the one hand, I’m very excited because I’m only 70. I have a lot of things I want to do in my life, and I’m going to get to do some of them," he said, listing more time with his family, including his new granddaughter, reading, traveling and cycling.

"On the other hand, I’ve really loved being in public service. It’s been an incredible privilege. I mean, what a city Durham is, what an amazing city," he said.

Similarly, Schewel said, his tenure as mayor has been a mix of highs and lows.

"We’ve had some real disappointments, and we’ve had some real accomplishments. That’s just the nature of the beast," he said.

Durham's response to the ongoing pandemic ranks among the accomplishments, he said.

"I had to rise to the occasion, and I did my best every day to try to keep our community healthy and safe. And Durham has done very, very well," he said, citing statistics that 94 percent of the city's residents ages 12 or older have had at least one vaccine shot.

Schewel said he's also proud that Durham is working to expand the availability of affordable housing, adding that it remains an "existential threat" to the city.

"We’re not going to be a 'city for all' unless we have affordable housing," he said, echoing the slogan he used in his mayoral campaigns. "We can't be embracing of all people if people can’t afford to live here."

In addition to affordable housing, Schewel said a rising tide of gun violence and a lack of a regional transit plan will remain challenges for O'Neal and the Durham City Council. He counted the latter two issues among his disappointments as he leaves office.

"The failure of the light rail is something that has just left us as a region – not just Durham, our region – really behind," he said. "We’ve got to have a good system of regional public transit, and we don’t."

Regional transit agency GoTriangle pulled the plug on the Durham-Orange Light Rail project in early 2019 after it couldn't secure land donations, private funding and cooperative agreements from key partners, including Duke University, ahead of a deadline imposed by state lawmakers.

Gun violence in Durham has been "really, really terrible" for many residents in recent years, Schewel said. Durham has already set a record for homicides this year, with at least 38 of them gun-related. Also, police have responded to more than 700 shootings in 2021.

"We’ve had a lot of people who have been murdered, [and] we have even more people who have been shot. We can’t tolerate that. We can’t have that," he said. "That’s something that we’ve really got to do better on."

Schewel said he has no ambitions for any other elected office, but he does want to continue serving Durham in some capacity.

"I’ve got some thoughts about some projects I’m not ready to talk about yet that are just forming in my head," he said. "Not in elected office but in other ways, and to continue to work with the young people who energize me."

In addition to O’Neal, City Councilwoman DeDreana Freeman and Councilman Mark-Anthony Middleton will be sworn in for new terms on Monday, and Leonardo Williams will take the oath of office to become the newest council member.