Joseph Bushfan says he was pretty fed up with talk about how to revive northeast central Durham. So he took action.

"I got tired of going to meetings," he said. "I've had a lot of big guns that I dealt with here. Basically, I just jumped in the trenches."

In about two months, Bushfan will turn what was an old rundown building on the corner of Angier and Driver into a new sandwich shop. Friday, it served as a focal point for this community.

"As the businesses come in and increase and beautify the community - it makes the people feel more comfortable to be in the community," said barber shop owner Samuel Jenkins. "What's actually going to turn this area around? It's got to be the people."

A group of four University of North Carolina students helped pack the place to speak with the community about what needs to change before they could deem the revitalization of northeast central Durham a success.

"We're graduate students at the University of North Carolina in the Department of City and Regional Planning," Ryan Winterberg-Lipp explained. "We're working with the community development department at the City of Durham to develop a neighborhood revitalization plan for east Durham."

Among other strategies, community members in the crowd said they would like to see 50 percent ownership of homes within the next decade, more green space and more economic development.

The groundwork the students do will help the city in its larger northeast central Durham master plan.

"The students and the city have been in here so many years and nothing has been done so a lot of residents are kind of fatigued and don't want to be involved." Megan Cogburn said.

But they hope meetings like this work.

"Our work is only for a semester, but this process takes years," Cogburn said.

Bushfan believes more involvement and more education will ultimately help northeast central Durham make a big turn.

"You know: how they hold job fairs. something like that with banks and help people understand credit," he said. "We're two minutes away from downtown and you've got unpaved streets, no running water, people with no electricity."