September 18, 2001

Page 1

Tuesday, September 18, 2001

Sunny High 81, Low 58 www.chronicle.duke.edu Vol. 97, No. 18

The Chronicle

To tame a Wildcat Duke will try to break the nation’s longest losing streak when it takes on Northwestern this weekend. See page 13

THE INDEPENDENT DAILY AT DUKE UNIVERSITY

Stock markets endure sell-off University By GRETCHEN MORGENSON

confirms 4 N.Y. deaths

NEW YORK Investors survived the first day of stock trading in six days with significant losses but a sense of triumph. Stock prices plummeted in seconds after the opening bell Monday but never succumbed to the

Two other Duke alumni are missing and presumed dead. Alumni Affairs has accounted for all other alumni.

On the first day of trading since last Tuesday’s terrorist attacks, New York’s stock markets absorbed big drops with the help of the Federal Reserve Board. New York Times News Service

frenzied selling that government and business leaders had worked hard to avoid. Trading resumed at a brisk pace, even as the financial community returned to work with heavy hearts after the World Trade Center disaster. Just a few blocks away from the New York Stock Exchange, workers continued to dig remains out of a mountain ofrubble. Given their first chance to buy and sell stocks, investors pushed broad stock market gauges down 7 percent out of concern that world economies, fragile even before the terrorist attack, would weaken further in days ahead. The Federal Reserve Board and other central banks, with an eye on staggering economies in Europe and Asia, attempted to rejuvenate spending and shore up investor confidence. The Fed cut its benchmark federal funds rate by one-half of a percentage point to 3 percent. The European Central Bank followed, cutting its benchmark rate by one-half a percentage point to 3.75 percent. In another show of support, corporations pledged to buy significant amounts of their shares in the open market, and the big brokerage firms refrained from issuing negative investment opinions on individual companies. President George W. Bush, who had spent recent days trying to calm the nation, delivSee ECONOMY on page 9 �

By KEVIN LEES The Chronicle

ARMY NATIONAL GUARDSMAN Tim Grant stands guard in the financial district near the reopened New York Stock Exchange and the site of the collapsed World Trade Center.

A week after last Tuesday’s terrorist attacks, University officials have increased the number of alumni confirmed or presumed dead to six. Todd Rancke, Trinity ’Bl, was working at Sandler O’Neill & Partners, an investment bank, on the 104th floor of the World Trade Center last Tuesday. The Summit, N.J., native remains missing. His sister, Cindy Rancke Bienemann, Trinity ’7B, and other members of his family were on the CBS news magazine 60 Minutes Sunday night, talking about the search for Rancke. “Our first day was spent going from hospital to hospital,” she said Monday. “We had a list.... St. Vincent’s was the main point of information at that time.” Bienemann and Rancke’s father worked at the World Financial Center near the two towers, and their niece worked in the same tower as Rancke. Bienemann said her brother talked to his wife on the phone and two others Tuesday morning. “He talked to Debbie around 9 a.m.” she said. “He was on the phone with his See

ALUMNI

on page 10 �

Durham stru ggles to provide affordable housing By RUTH CARLITZ The Chronicle

Staying in homeless shelters, living in motels, dwelling in substandard housing—these are just some of the ways Durham residents deal with the current affordable housing crisis. A combination ofrising housing prices and stagnant incomes for low wage workers has led to an increasing shortage of affordable housing, defined as housing that costs at most 30 percent of a renter’s income. Lanier Blum, director of the Regional Affordable Living Program in Durham County, said the county has always had affordability problems. “But in the past 10 years, in all the rapidly growing metro areas, you’re seeing these dramatic increases in the housing gap,” he said. And housing is only becoming more unaffordable. Among metropolitan areas nationwide, the Triangle had the fifth largest increase in the housing wage from 1999 to 2000, at 14.6 percent. The state suffered only a 1.8 percent increase. But to afford the fair market rent on a privately owned, safe, sanitary two-bedroom unit in Durham County, a renter would need an ;

Inside

hourly wage of $14.52, compared with a state housing wage of $10.16, according to a 2000 study by the National Low Income Housing Coalition. A resident making the minimum wage of $5.15 would need to work 113 hours per week to afford the same two-bedroom unit. In addition to affecting renters, the affordable housing crisis extends to would-be homeowners. Durham County’s home-ownership rate is 54.3 percent, according to Census 2000 data. This lags behind the national average of 66.8 percent ownership.

Reasons for the shortage

The cause ofthe affordable housing shortage is twofold, said Blum. Though the median income in North Carolina has risen in the past 10 years, the average inflation-adjusted income of the lowest 40 percent ofhouseholds has not. At the same time, housing prices have increased dramatically, leading to the current crisis faced by poor families. The rise in housing prices pushes manufacturers to build at the high end, where their efforts are more likely to be profitable. The nonprofit sector provides some assistance in terms

student Health Services which has offices scattered *!"“ | camDUS de a d its move to Duke Clinic until

JSeepages

May 2002

HOUSES ON BEAKLEY STREET, built by Habitat for Humanity, provide some Durham residents with affordable housing. There is an increasing shortage of such housing in the county. See HOUSING on page 8 Duke has a rich tradition of a capella. Members of the The Durham City Council will look into alleviating consinging groups say they enjoy reaching a broad audience residents at cerns raised by Northgate Park neighborhood See 3 on the University's campus. See page 4 night. page a council meeting Monday *

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September 18, 2001 by Duke Chronicle Print Archives - Issuu