The band that will play at the April 30th Annual Tribute Luncheon (celebrating the 20th anniversary of the movie Bull Durham and its filmmakers) is called Bull City Syndicate. They have graciously provided Image Watchers with a download of a cut called "Bull City Groove" from their new CD. The group is a fusion of blues, rock, jazz etc., much like Durham itself.

http://www.dcvb-nc.com/comm/Bull_City_Groove.mp3

To purchase the CD, go to http://www.durhamstuff.com/You-Make-Me-Feel-Bull-City/M/B0013LU2SU.htm or the group's MySpace page at:

http://myspace.com/bullcitysyndicate

Enjoy.

I'm sharing this post on the blog "Bull City Rising" for two reasons. One, it's a great blog, and Kevin has a good fix on what makes Durham special. But two, in this particular post Kevin provides some links to comments being posted on the Chronicle. As was shared recently with posts on the WRAL site, they are disturbing. Image Watchers can click through and share their own observations.

http://www.bullcityrising.com/2008/01/the-zen-of-durh.html

Before it goes into full distribution, I wanted Image Watch Keepers to see the 2007 update of the Public School Achievement Comparison.

http://www.durham-nc.com/pdf/2007school_scores.pdf

For several years now, DCVB has produced this tool on behalf of the Durham Public Information & Communications Council, to help HR offices, home builders, and real-estate professionals answer school-related questions.

Because every community has a different socioeconomic make-up, the scores are disaggregated to provide a valid comparison. Disaggregation is now a common standard across the nation to bring focus to closing the achievement gaps between groups.

The comparisons show where Durham excels, where there is room to grow, and how rapidly various communities are closing the gaps.

Image Watchers may have noticed one of the resource documents has been re-organized. It was tested with Durham residents, prospective newcomers and some residents of nearby counties. It tested well and only slightly less so than the original document, which was a little edgier.

http://www.dcvb-nc.com/cr/25Water-Cooler_Fables.pdf

There aren't any illusions this will please the few folks who didn't like the other one. One of the challenges in marketing a community is it often doesn't come down to what's effective but what's effective and pleases the majority of both internal and external audiences. And there is always room to tweak and improve tactics.

What people call the "myths" document has always been popular but controversial. Surveys show it is welcomed by newcomers and often used by residents to inform water-cooler misinformation.

The name of the document is now "25 Mischaracterizations." But I'm passing along this link from a story brought to my attention last week by an Image Watcher, just in case others missed it. Try to read clear through. It validates the need for interdiction at the end but provides some evidence to support a fear by some that the "myths" document may reinforce the negative.

http://www.newsobserver.com/print/wednesday/front/story/692622.html

The counter-argument, and since validated, is that newcomers are so quickly overwhelmed by the negative via the water cooler or blogs, comments appended to news articles on the Web and other sources that the more quickly and clearly we all can connect the dots to more accurate information and context, the better.

DCVB is going to take another look at this document to see if we can retain the benefit but use the article linked above to reorganize the information to avoid reinforcing the negative. We'll attempt a reordering of the document to state each topic and the reality first, followed by the mischaracterization. Regardless, it is also important for each of us to step up the effort to interdict mischaracterizations.

If Image Watchers have solutions, please feel free to propose them. The goal is to empower people with information to refute water-cooler misinformation or to otherwise inoculate unsuspecting people before they hear it.

Thank you.

Below are two exhibits demonstrating how the news media can impact a community's image. It usually has nothing to do with the content of the news but it has everything to do with attribution. These two national stories filed by the Associated Press office in Raleigh make Durham invisible for a good news story attribution but accurately attributed for a troubling story. Scores of times over the years, this issue has been brought to that their attention with no improvement noticeable.

Imbalance like this is far more damaging to image than the content of the news.

Exhibit A - Below is the essence of a very positive Durham story distributed nationwide by the Raleigh AP. It is careful to dateline it Raleigh vs. Durham because the reporter typed the story while sitting in Raleigh. But it makes no disclosure that the either the event or Duke University are located in Durham, NC. This denies Durham its due for a good news story but worse gives the uninformed the impression Duke University is in Raleigh.

RALEIGH, North Carolina - Duke University on Monday named a Harvard researcher as the first woman to lead its medical school, which also makes her the only female at the helm of one of the Top 10 U.S. medical schools.
The fact that in 2007 there are still firsts for what women can do in medicine says something about how difficult it can be. "I hope this does not seem so unusual a few years from now," said Dr. Nancy C. Andrews, who will officially take over at Duke on Oct. 1.

Exhibit B - Below is the essence of a Durham story distributed nationwide by the Raleigh AP a few days later. As you can see, this troubling event is not only clearly datelined Durham but it is careful to clearly note that it is a Durham official.

DURHAM, N.C. - Mike Nifong, the disgraced former Durham County district attorney, was held in criminal contempt of court Friday for lying to a judge when pursuing rape charges against three falsely accused Duke University lacrosse players.

For months now, following an article in the Raleigh paper, there has been a lot of word-of-mouth commentary that people are fleeing Durham to Wake County. Don't remember the article reporting it that way, but it could be read between the lines. It was picked up by one of the broadcast channels. It set off so much word of mouth that reporters from another station picked up on it weeks later and re-ran the story, not realizing it already had been reported. The misperception has been repeated in speeches as well as around water coolers.

It is true that Durham is the largest source of relocations to Wake County. What the coverage failed to report is that Raleigh/Wake County is also the largest source of relocations to Durham. Durham is less than a third the land area of Wake County, so it's no surprise it draws roughly a third fewer Wake residents than it exports.

But a review of relocation patterns reveals there is no pattern associated with "fleeing." It has to do more with job changes, family circumstances, communities etc. If it was all about popularity, then Durham is more popular than Chapel Hill/Orange, and Smithfield/Johnston is more popular than Raleigh/Wake.

Below is a spreadsheet of relocation patterns for six counties in this area of North Carolina for the first five years of this decade. It is hard to tell if the media fueled the bias or if bias in the general population infected the media. One thing is for sure: Interdiction must be fast and comprehensive to quell the forces of negative word of mouth. This urban legend will re-circulate for years.

http://www.dcvb-nc.com/comm/Where_County_Residents_Moved_From.pdf

Reyn

Before it goes up on the website, I wanted Image Watchers to see this chart depicting Durham's image. The national results were re-surveyed by Opinion Research last week. Note at the bottom the measures for Durham as a place with many cultural, educational and entertainment features and as a place with new business and growth potential.

http://www.dcvb-nc.com/comm/image07_durhaminsideout.pdf

There haven't been many Image Watch alerts lately, but we wanted to give you a progress report on some items that Image Watchers have brought to our attention.

Here are the latest resolved issues:

• Esuites, Inc. - Morrisville hotel misusing term "Raleigh-Durham, RTP"
• The Business Clinic of Raleigh-Durham - misused airport name as locator
• WRAL.com - borderline racist comments logged on story
• U.S. Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration Services - misused "Raleigh" as location of new Durham office
• The Bancroft Strategy - misused "Raleigh" as dateline for chapters set in Durham
• Food & Wine - shorthanded regional name to airport name, "Raleigh-Durham"
• ASAE Southeast Destinations Profile - lumped "Durham-Chapel Hill" while listing other destinations individually

Each of you play a vital role in the resolution of these issues, helping to defend and protect the Durham brand.
Please continue to bring corrections and issues to our attention for resolution.

Linked below is the '06 update comparing Durham to 10 similar communities in the Southeast and then expanded to 29 nationwide. These are preliminary to an FBI report that comes out later in the year. One community is missing, and it isn't likely it will report this year.

This tool not only provides a benchmark for many of us for whom reduction of crime is imperative, but also many Durham organizations and residents are asked questions about crime, because a combination of the Internet and the fact that Durham is the only major community in the state covered by two major daily papers can give newcomers, visitors, residents and non-residents who work here a distorted impression of crime here. This report has been pulled together for many years by DCVB and DPD on behalf of the 16-organization Durham Public Information & Communications Council.

Unfortunately, too many reports compare Durham only to Raleigh, and Raleigh is an anomaly when it comes to crime for a number of reasons. Durham is average, but we want to be below average.

I hope the information linked below helps answer questions and helps you answer any questions from non-residents.

http://www.dcvb-nc.com/cr/06_crime_comparison.pdf

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The linked file can be viewed with Adobe Reader, available as a free download at: http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep2.html