DURHAM - well, actually, "Raleigh-Durham" -- has received another one of those hot places to live/work/do whatever recognitions, this as one of 10 U.S. and five overseas places (others, for example: Salt Lake City and Helsinki) perceived as budding magnets for the "Creative Class." It's in the November issue of a magazine called "Fast Company."

"Fast" can mean various things in various contexts to various people, so we'll assume this latest salute doesn't have anything to do with a new strip joint in town.

Actually, Fast Company, subtitled "How Smart People Work," is a business magazine that, one may suppose, styles itself as hipper than your grandfather's business magazines such as Forbes and Fortune. And being acknowledged therein, by none other than "Creative Class" magnate Richard Florida, is -- well -- nice, if no more than we've come to expect. Yet, hot, hip and happening as Durham may be, in some ways it does remain your grandfather's Bull City.

For we see, via the same local listservs circulating Fast Company, that somebody wants to build an "adult" establishment right off U.S. 70's split into business and bypass routes on the east side of town. That is, at one of Durham's most visible points of entry.

Welcome to Du'm. It just goes to show, no matter how fast the company you keep, you can't get above your raising.

Now, one of Durham's veteran activists, the Rev. Melvin Whitley, is circulating a petition to ban "adult establishments" (a misleading euphemism if ever there was one) from high-crime neighborhoods.

Actually, the property in question is separated from the closest neighborhoods by a power station and train track. Yet, Durham should wish Whitney and his associates well.

Not necessarily from moralistic standpoints, nor from the role this kind of an enterprise might play in attracting lowlife.

(Once we heard the owner of just such a Durham business, now defunct, complain that his joint was perceived as less than wholesome. Hey! he said: His waiters wore tuxedos. Of course, the same thing could be said of a Mafia wedding. Some people's idea of "class" tells the tale on their own.)

But U.S. 70 coming into Durham from the east (Raleigh, RTP) is an oft-bemoaned eyesore, known for its used-car and doublewide lots, psychic and body shops, some of the sort that advertise "all-girl staff."

A sign at the entrance to town saying "Gentleman's Club: Truckers Welcome" or somesuch, like that Dockside Dolls place outside of Graham, doesn't exactly say "Creative Class."

However, such a sign would tell a truth. Durham does have diversity. And it has a venerable tradition of catering to vice, on the highways as well as in City Hall.

Still, "XXX!" in neon lights isn't the sort of historic preservation that does a town much good, even if it does invite fast company. Of a sort.