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The N.C. Department of Transportation announced two months ago that it had scrapped plans to operate a passenger ferry between Hatteras and Ocracoke islands this summer because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The department reasoned that a passenger ferry designed to carry more than 100 people between the two islands could be ripe for spreading the coronavirus.

But now the General Assembly has moved to reverse that decision.  Included in a 23-page bill on NCDOT spending and policy is a provision that directs the department to operate the ferry this summer.  The bill, which also cut half a billion dollars in transportation spending because of lower tax revenue, provides more than $1.1 million to lease and operate the boat.

The catamaran-style passenger ferry is still available, though it’s currently in New Jersey where its owner, Seastreak Marine, is based, said NCDOT spokesman Jamie Kritzer.  NCDOT rented the M/V Martha’s Vineyard Express from the company last summer and operated it as the Ocracoke Express, which carried more than 28,600 people in its inaugural season.

NCDOT will wait for Gov. Roy Cooper to sign the transportation bill before it moves to bring the ferry down from New Jersey, Kritzer said.  It would likely take two weeks to get the boat in North Carolina, inspected and ready to make its first run, he said.

The state also needs to determine how many passengers it can safely allow on the boat at a time.  To prevent the spread of coronavirus, NCDOT would likely cap the number of passengers below the boat’s capacity and encourage people to wear masks and remain six feet from people they aren’t traveling with.

“We would put in place all the social distancing measures we have in place on car ferries,” Kritzer said, with one exception: People can’t remain in their cars on the Ocracoke Express.

The Ocracoke Express was conceived as an alternative to the car ferries that run between the two islands, after shoaling in Hatteras Inlet forced the state to take a longer route into Pamlico Sound, adding 20 minutes to a one-way trip and reducing the number of runs each day.  The state spent several million dollars to build additional parking on Hatteras and a new floating dock and passenger shelter at Silver Lake in Ocracoke Village.

If Cooper signs the bill, the Ocracoke Express would operate through Labor Day.

This week, the N.C. Department of Transportation unveiled a new form for changing a gender designation on a driver's license or ID.

Previously, people who wanted to change their gender marker had to provide a surgeon's letter saying they had undergone gender reassignment surgery.  The new form can be certified by more health providers, as well as therapists and social workers.

“We still have a long way to go before LGBTQ North Carolinians are seen as equal citizens in the eyes of the law, but this is one step in that direction,” Equality NC executive director Kendra R. Johnson said in a statement.  “People of all genders shouldn’t have to face invasive questioning and surgical requirements just to have their government identification reflect their true identity.  Trans men are men and trans women are women — period.”

The form asks applicants to circle either male or female as their sex designation and affirm they are requesting the change to reflect their gender identity, “not for any fraudulent or other unlawful purpose.”  A health care or social service provider then has to affirm the applicant’s gender identity.  The applicant has to bring in the form along with their old ID, pay for a new ID, and take a new picture.  (U.S. passports, birth certificates, and court orders reflecting a person’s gender identity are also accepted.  Name changes are a separate process.)

The new process is modeled after one recommended by the American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators and in use in twenty-one states.

According to the 2015 U.S. Transgender Survey, only 10 percent of respondents in North Carolina reported that all of their IDs had the name and gender they preferred.  About three-quarters said none of their IDs had the name and gender they preferred.

“We applaud this step the DMV has taken to modernize the process to update gender markers on driver’s licenses,” Sarah Gillooly, director of political strategy and advocacy for the ACLU of North Carolina said in a statement.  “Driver’s licenses are basic forms of identification that many people use to participate in public life, and this policy update will help transgender North Carolinians do just that.”

Policies facilitating gender-marker changes were among many LGBTQ advocates had said the state — which infamously passed (and later repealed, mostly) HB 2 requiring people to use the bathroom that matches their birth certificate — is lacking.  North Carolina, however, still doesn't provide transgender-inclusive health benefits to state employees, doesn't prohibit housing or employment discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity, and doesn’t have a law addressing hate crimes based on sexual orientation or gender identity.

The North Carolina Department of Transportation has received a $25 million federal grant to build wildlife crossings to protect endangered red wolves.

There are only 16 known red wolves in the wild, after four were killed by vehicles since September 2023. The last wild red wolves live in rural northeastern North Carolina near the Outer Banks.

For five months, residents of a homeless camp next to N.C. 147 and Chapel Hill Street near downtown Durham have wondered if and when they would be forced to leave their home.  In January, the North Carolina Department of Transportation, which owns the pavement-surrounded island, put the writing on the wall, posting signs around the camp that read, "State-Owned Property No Trespassing."

Yet despite murmurs that police would remove them or that the trees sheltering their tents would be cut down to encourage their departure, the camp didn't clear out, and the residents remained defiant.  This is their home, they've told those who inquired about their situation, and they have nowhere else to go.

But their sense of security, however tenuous, changed with the delivery of a written notice earlier this month from the Durham Police Department, telling them to leave the property or face trespassing charges.

Jonathan Robinson wasn't there when police delivered the papers, but hearing about it was enough to prompt him to finally pack up and leave after four months at the encampment.  Like others, he was surprised by the news, because Tent City, as it's sometimes called, has been there so long that footpaths between the tents and the road are worn into the grass.  (The camp has had a dozen or more residents, though that number fluctuates.  It's not clear how long the camp has been in existence.)

Robinson, forty-six, says he moved in after he was "put out" of a local shelter.  He searched for another place to live, but he couldn't afford rent on what he makes asking for money on downtown streets.

"I've looked, but all I make is what I make in a day, and that's hardly enough to eat," he says.  Besides, he takes comfort in being surrounded by others at the encampment.

He left Friday, the last day police told residents they could remain on the property, and spent the night in a parking deck.

Other camp residents have similarly scattered, at least temporarily, either because of the notice to vacate or the attention from news crews.   By Monday morning, six tents were still in place, but few people milled about.

Neither the DOT nor the city seems eager to remove those who remain.  Instead, the city has been working with nonprofits and the county Department of Social Services to try to find housing for residents of the camp.  At least four former residents have been housed or connected to other services, but others have declined assistance.

The situation prompted members of the Coalition for Affordable Housing and Transit, which last week called on the Durham City Council to create affordable housing just across the street from the camp at the current DPD headquarters, to ask city, county, and DOT officials to delay the eviction until July 15, while nonprofits continue to try to find the residents housing.  The coalition also asked that additional funding be allotted to Open Table Ministry, Housing for New Hope, or other organizations to help the residents.

City manager Tom Bonfield told the INDY on Monday that he had emailed the DOT asking if the agency plans to rescind a trespassing notice it filed in May, which would allow residents to stay until July 15 or some other date.

"Until I hear back from them, we will continue to work with the service providers to try and assist those who are camping there," Bonfield says.

In an email, DOT spokesman Steve Abbott says the trespassing notice the agency filed with Durham police expires after ninety days, and it's up to law enforcement to enforce it: "If the city chooses to hold off, there are more than two months of time for local groups to continue to try to assist the residents.  And if no action is taken by that August deadline and the authorization deadline passes, the city can let us know if we need to file a new request."

In a January letter, the DOT asked the city and county for assistance enforcing the trespassing law after local officials passed on complaints about the camp.

At "some point this spring," Abbott says, the city asked the DOT to fill out the DPD's official trespass form.  The agency did so May 18, stating that "no person is authorized to enter or remain on the ... premises, including all property and buildings located thereon, without being in possession of written permission from the owner."  On June 1, residents were served a written notice saying they had seven days to leave or face second-degree trespassing charges.

"We made the initial request for action about five months ago, and I am unaware that anyone at NCDOT since then gave the city a specific date or deadline that we wanted action to be taken," Abbott told city council member Jillian Johnson in an email Friday.  "My understanding is our only step since then was filling out the form the city told us to [fill out] in May.  The decision on when and how to enforce that is up to the city and police."

That decision comes as the city begins an overhaul of its homeless services, trying to streamline intake and resources, and keep people out of the system to begin with through rapid rehousing and eviction diversion.

At the annual point-in-time count in 2017, 354 individuals in Durham were homeless on a single evening.  Of them, sixty were completely unsheltered — double the number from the 2016 count and the highest total since 2012.

Tent City residents have made four demands of the city: that they not be evicted until they find free, permanent housing; that the trees at the camp not be cut down ("The trees keep us shaded from the elements, especially the hot sun during the summer"); that the city provide trash bins and pick-up; and that the current police headquarters be transitioned into affordable housing, including free accommodations for the camp's residents.

After weighing whether the city could make more of a dent in Durham's affordable housing crisis by creating it on the DPD's prime four-acre site or selling the land and using the proceeds for housing elsewhere, the city council decided last Thursday to ask developers for ideas.  The council laid out a list of priorities — the top two: creating affordable housing and maximizing the sale price — but construction could be far off as the city awaits proposals.

On Friday, groups including Defend Durham (which formed after the toppling of a Confederate monument downtown last year) and the Workers World Party helped residents clear the site of trash and recyclables and held a sparsely attended roadside protest and press conference.

"I guess the phrase I want to use right now is, I may be homeless, but I'm not hopeless," said Edward Prettyman, the self-described "senior man in the camp."  "We don't really have any other place to go that's comfortable and safe.  With that being said, I'm not trying to leave my spot.  Everybody in this general area knows us.  They talk to us.  They help us, and I'm not trying to go anywhere else.  There's really no reason for them to be pushing us out here.  The few of us that are still here, we like it, you know?"