Southpoint Access

What Southpoint Access Is Becoming

The newsletters are staying. Now I’m also building practical guides that can help with everyday life in South Durham.

Wes Platt

Wes Platt

— 4 min read
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What Southpoint Access Is Becoming
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Hey, neighbors.

I spent a good part of this past week building things for Southpoint Access.

The newsletters and original reporting will continue. I’ll still be covering Durham Public Schools, City Council, development, transportation, local businesses, and the other issues that affect our part of Durham.

Alongside that reporting, I’m building a collection of guides that you can use whenever you need them.

That might be when you’re trying to decide where to eat, looking for an activity for your child, checking the time of a school volleyball game, wondering which farmers markets are open, or searching for a job closer to home.

Those aren’t necessarily headline-making questions. They’re still part of living here.

Over the past week, Southpoint Access has added or expanded quite a few resources:

That’s a lot of guides in a short period of time.

The idea behind them is pretty simple: Local information is often scattered all over the place. School sports schedules live on separate athletics websites. Restaurant inspection reports are published in government records. Youth programs have their own registration pages and social accounts. Job openings are spread across employer websites. Farmers market hours can change with the season.

You can find most of this information on your own, but it may take a while. I’d like Southpoint Access to make that search easier.

The guides bring information together, organize it, and point you toward the original sources when you need more details.

They also give Southpoint Access a different kind of usefulness.

You might open a newsletter because you want to know what happened at a government meeting. You might visit the dining guide because it’s Friday night and nobody in the family can agree on dinner. You might check the school sports guide because you’re trying to figure out where Tuesday’s soccer game is being played.

All of those visits count.

I don’t expect every reader to use every guide. If one of them saves you 20 minutes, helps you discover a local business, or introduces your family to something new, it has done its job.

The SoDu Town Square takes the idea in another direction. It’s a moderated community message board where readers can share comments, questions, announcements, and replies using their first name and last initial.

I’m curious to see what neighbors do with it. Maybe someone wants to recognize a helpful teacher. Maybe they have a question about construction near their neighborhood. Maybe they want to respond to something another reader said. The Town Square gives those comments a home without expecting everyone to join another social media group.

These resources may also lead to more reporting.

Home sales can tell us something about the direction of the local housing market. Restaurant inspection reports may reveal patterns. Job listings offer a glimpse of which employers are growing. Questions submitted to the Town Square could point toward problems that deserve a closer look.

So, yes, Southpoint Access is changing.

It’s still a newsletter. It’s still a place for original reporting about South Durham. Now it’s also becoming a place you can visit when you need a practical answer about living here.

These guides won’t ever be completely finished. Restaurants close. Businesses open. Games get rescheduled. Programs change their prices. Employers fill jobs. Market hours shift.

I’ll keep updating them, but I’ll need help from readers, too. If you find something that’s wrong, missing, or out of date, please let me know. Corrections and additions are always welcome.

Take a look around. Bookmark the guides you’re most likely to use. Share one with a neighbor who might find it helpful.

And let me know what Southpoint Access should build next.

Thanks for reading.

Wes Platt
Neighborhood News Guy

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