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It's been too bloody hot to walk in Old West Durham this summer, so here are some pictures Mike took from a neighborhood walk in May. Old West Durham has seven or eight Little Free Libraries dotting the neighborhood. Including one dedicated to jigsaw puzzles and one for kids' books. Free range wildlife Messages to the world from Old West Durham Related pages You Belong

Bull City Commons Cohousing is the subject of a new feature article, "Cohousing Belongs in Durham," published on the CITYBUILDER NC Substack. The article is by Lucas Nagel, a CITYBUILDER student fellow and architecture student at Georgia Tech. Nagel recounts a tour of BCC led by founding member Jim McCrae, exploring how the community's Sociocratic governance shaped its physical design, from the gardens and shared common spaces to its equity-minded approach to unit pricing. CI

Common meals feature as an anchor of community life. Eating together regularly is an activity you can count on being there alongside all the big, little, and mundane activities that make up life in cohousing. Folks new to cohousing may picture this as a highly structured activity: meals every night, or every week, or several times a week, with assigned cooking and cleanup roles rotating through the community like clockwork. A 2001 article on the National Cohousing Alliance w

Hard on the heels of Bull City Commons' first appearance on the Durham Garden Tour came BCC's second appearance as a stop on Old West Durham's Porchfest, where wandering crowds of music-lovers enjoy performers singing and playing from the porches of OWD neighborhood homes. As they did last year, the Swampbillies performed Cajun and Zydeco numbers in BCC's garden while folks danced, sat, and enjoyed a gloriously warm afternoon in Old West Durham.

The 2026 edition of Old West Durham's Porchfest is set for Saturday, May 9! The Porchfest site has all the details, including a map and schedule, but here are the basics: An afternoon of music Bring a lawn chair OWD Porches = Performance Stages Musicians from around town sharing their talents And AND AND!! Bull City Commons kicks off the shows at 1pm in our garden with a performance by Cajun/Zydeco band The Swampbillies, which includes BCC residents Christine and Jim as band