There's no doubt about it: The city which councilmember Mike Woodard lives and works looks drastically different from the Durham he first encountered as a Duke freshman in 1977.
"Ten years ago, the very building I'm sitting in was falling in on itself," Woodard says of his office in the American Tobacco complex, where he is now a Duke employee, working on implementing Duke's computer-based financial system.
The surface renovations to Durham are only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the transformation Woodard has witnessed in the Bull City.
Over Woodard's three decades in Durham, the city has grown in size, in its economy as well as in diversity, attracting a sizable Hispanic and immigrant population.
And while the native of Wilson, N.C. has had a few opportunities to jump ship and leave the City of Medicine once and for all, Duke-where he graduated with a degree in economics and political science in 1981-and Durham have always called him back.
"I've always found Durham to be a very livable city," Woodard says. "With each year I've lived here, I became more involved in the community and in my neighborhood. My roots here have gotten stronger."
It was love of the city and its unique challenges that prompted Woodard to run for a council seat in 2005. But being both an emissary of Duke and Durham has not come without its dilemmas.
When confronting the rezoning of Central Campus in early 2007, when negotiating the future of Anderson Street and when handling the current tussle over the area around Smith Warehouse, Woodard has found his two roles at odds. It's a position, tricky as it can be, that the councilmember nevertheless relishes.
And it's not just some empty political talk: He plans to seek re-election in the fall.
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