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Durham Durham Mayor Steve Schewel PHOTO BY BRETT VILLENA
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The View Ahead With his retirement following two terms in office on the horizon, Steve Schewel reflects on his biggest achievements, some regrets, and what comes next BY REBECCA SCHNEID backtalk@indyweek.com
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s Mayor Steve Schewel leads me up the stairs from the lobby of Durham’s City Hall to his office, it’s easy to notice how little there is to notice. The halls and chairs outside his office are empty. New plexiglass has been installed to separate employees from visitors, but right now, it’s protecting nobody. Ours is the first in-person meeting Schewel has taken in his office in almost 14 months, but it’s not obvious. He moves about checking mail and lounging in the leather seats in front of his desk, an air of ease emanating. It’s natural for him to be here; it’s been his workspace for the better part of four years, but in about six months, he will be on his way out. “After hours and hours and hours on Zoom every day, helping our businesses and our people get through the pandemic, it’s been hard,” Schewel says. “But I’m proud of us, and this feels like a natural breaking point.” Last month, Schewel announced on the steps of this same building that he won’t run for a third term as mayor. He has a long history in Durham, as newspaper founder and publisher, to working on the county school board and city council, to his time in office helming the city. He’s experienced successes, such as passing the affordable housing bond; disappointments, including the death of the light rail project; and unexpected struggles, most notably, the COVID-19 pandemic. After almost 40 years doing public service work, and with his first grandchild on the way, Schewel says he is ready for new adventures. 6
June 30, 2021
INDYweek.com
ince arriving in Durham from Virginia in 1969 to study English at Duke University, Schewel has enmeshed himself in Durham’s political sphere. Back in 1983, he founded this newspaper, originally called the North Carolina Independent, later renamed INDY Week. Schewel looks at this part of his past with pride; his work as a newspaper publisher is one of the first things he reminds me of as we walk up to his office. The work, he says, gave him the tools he used later as an elected official: communication skills, and community building, too. “We were doing journalism that no one else was, and when you do that, you get to know the community really well,” Schewel says. “It was an opportunity to love Durham even more.” Schewel also taught public policy at Duke and at North Carolina Central University while raising his family in Durham. A commitment to his children’s education pushed him to run for a position on Durham Public School’s (DPS) Board of Education for the first time at the age of 54. He would eventually lead the board as vice chair. “I started late, which is, I think, a good thing,” he says. “I was very deeply embedded in my community. I had been involved in so many things already.” Schewel worked on a DPS task force to merge the city and county public schools systems, and that investment drove him further into public service and the desire to commit his life to Durham In the midst of Bill Bell’s 16-year tenure, Schewel says he didn’t think about the possibility of being mayor. Once his kids were out of DPS, he left his position on the school board and took a break from public office. Then, an opening on Durham’s City Council became available. He ran, and before he knew it, had served six terms. In 2017, Schewel ran for, and was elected, mayor. He built a campaign on a vision of Durham as a progressive beacon of the South—a place to celebrate inclusivity and diversity. Schewel points to progressive environmental policies, police reform, and affordable housing as sectors where he saw a need for leadership, progress, and most important, unity. “I’ve said many times: whatever your language, whatever your race, whatever your documentation status, we embrace you, we will have you, we love you,” Schewel says. “So that was both a political slogan, and a very deeply held belief that I have, and that’s the root of why I ran.”
Leading Durham Schewel has a knack for budgeting and for communicating, political observers say. For instance, he lobbied hard to pass the $95 million affordable housing bond, the largest