Weekend omnibus

I haven't read any of the articles about gangs, just the Orange Chat blog piece. but I'm a little skeptical. How do the police know? And what do they know exactly? Is a lot of this activity just kids fooling around?

I think about the school system requiring transparent book bags, the ban on bandanas, and the cops putting out the alert to local schools when the Grateful Dead was here in the early 90's that they shouold watch out for tie-dye clad drug dealers around the playgrounds.

There's ample proof of reality-handicapped police & community understanding of human behavior, especially from people that are different from them. Plus the mix of fear & romance that gangs evoke - it makes a good story and gives the cops a definitive adversary.

I'm sure there's some fuck-ups out there that are dangerous and dabbling in gang behavior. But I bet there's also a lot of behavior that is being interpreted as portending the worst when it is just some kids messing around. Then there's the fact that the more you talk about it, the more you help manifest it.

Rudy, the County did not have a flawed search process for the the Transfer Station. They had no search process period. I am not able to understand if this was by omission or commission (by incompetence or by design).

Go Lady Tarheels!!!

The police did a great job last Sunday of laying out the local gang-activity evidence for us. They gave us the history of gang development in the US and illustrated how the two macro gangs (Folk Nation and People's Nation) have morphed into smaller, local gangs that use the same symbology. My notes from the presentation are online.

How do they know this is gang activity vs imitation? Because they've been tracking the signs--from graffiti to behavior in the schools to a couple of local incidents, like the shooting outside the bar last year in Chapel Hill. Based on the triangulation of data they provided, and the signs that I've seen in Carrboro, I am confident that they aren't stirring up trouble where none exists. What purpose would it serve them to falsify or exaggerate this anyway?

Would you prefer they ignore the problem, like we did with the landfill, and then deal with the bigger problem in a couple of years?

Daniel Boone Village is almost in my backyard -- apparently close enough for the town to send me a map of what's up because I'm within 500 ft. I would really like to see more shops in the area, but I'd hate to lose the shops already there. I don't like the idea of a DIck's or Michael's; I wish we could get a movie theater (please?) or an outpost of Southern Season, or other local businesses.

One girl they quoted in the news piece said she liked living here because "it's historic, and if you build new things, it won't be historic anymore." Maybe not, but why do so many people fear change? Planned growth is good. Sprawl is bad. Stagnation, however, is worst.

"Police exaggerate gang activity in order to secure more funding for anti-gang programs. Gangs, police and the media all have incentives to inflate the numbers."

Why do they want to start anti-gang programs? What are the police incentives to inflate gang activity? New programming costs additional funds and takes more staff time. There is no financial incentive to start a new program unless it's 100% funded--which they rarely are.

This is similar to public health issues for me. We can deny the existence of an emerging problem for a variety of reasons. But if we don't take early action, the emerging problem has potentially devastating outcomes for individuals who are caught in the cross fires.

You are right on target, Terri. Folks need to talk to engaged and involved people in the Northern Virginia suburbs about their experiences. They will tell you the mistakes that they made in ignoring the growing influence of youth gangs and their recruiting success. One of their big mistakes was to assume that the social-economic status of their communities was not consistent with gang recruitment. Another mistake was to assume that the "wantabe" kids would not evolve into hard-core gang members. They will tell you that the high costs they paid to catch up could have been greatly reduced if they had spent more resources early on.

This all brings us back to an old issue in this community: who is offering teens and pre-teens what activities and where? Are we doing enough or will something like what gangs offer be more fulfilling?

We ignore this issue and actually believe that our police are exaggerating gang activity at our own peril.

PS: I will forgo any foreign policy and national politics references since the editor told us to keep it local.

One thing that would certainly help on this issue (as on so many where parental involvement is key), is for the Chamber of Commerce to launch a campaign to get its members (and others) to pay at least a living wage. This would obviously help parents which would obviously help children.

This would be the most constructive thing that the Chamber could do for the "achievement gap", affordable housing, gang-activity, and sustainability. Have they even seriously discussed such a fundamental move?

Mark, calling for a "living wage" is one thing, making it happen in this market economy without hurting those you are trying to help, as well as employers is another. If you have ideas on how to successfully do this, why not share them.

If only everything was as simple as we want it to be!

Fred,

My approach with my employees is to simply pay them a fair wage. I'm not getting rich, but at least I can sleep at night.

And I do te same. But our definition of "fair" and what the maket says it is creates a real problem.

So how do you want the Chamber to solve this market problem and get their members to define fair based on your definition of the term?

Dan, Surprise.. I find myself agreeing with everything you said in your last post. It would be great to lure Costco into Carrboro or Chapel Hill. We all know that Carrboro could use the generated commercial tax revenue. And Costco has a social conscience.

How about your town government, Dan. Is every employee paid what they would call a "fair" wage? Does everyone make at least $15 an hour? If so, do they agree that $15 is fair?

A Costco in Chapel Hill or Carborro? If prior behavior is a good predictor of future behavior, then I don't think so! This is so easy to oversimplify.

This is one of those discussions that drive me crazy! Of course everyone should receive a living wage. And I imagine most small businesses that don't have a big enough margin to afford to pay a living wage to adult workers feel awful. But if the cost of living here wasn't so high (and getting higher even for basic services), that small business owner might actually be able to pay a living wage. So which comes first--higher wages to cover the lack of affordability or attempts to achieve affordability that would reduce the burden on small business owners? To me this is a cause and effect problem. The cause is high cost of living and the effect is salaries that can't cover the cost of living.

Why is it only the Chamber of Commerce's responsibility to champion a living wage?

In addition Terri, governments who want to do right by their employees and pay a "fair" wage fund the increases the way they usually do, not by reducing other expenditures but by raising taxes on businesses and property owners. So when a small business has to let someone go in order to make ends meet, it's really the result of a fiction advanced by the US Chamber and their Republican allies.

It will be interesting to see what each of our local budgets look like this cycle and how much more we will all pay. Maybe some of our local officials will not accept the generous health benefits they receive so that those at the bottom of the pay scale can take home a fair wage.

Robert Jensen, an associate professor in the School of Journalism at the University of Texas at Austin, will will speak tonight on "The Reality of Race, Gender, and Class Privilege: Beyond the Politics of Diversity" from 6:30 to 9 p.m. at the Southern Human Services Center on Homestead Road.

Terri,

Well of course it's not "only" the CoC's responsibility, but as the biggest organization of local business interests, they should be expected to take the lead on such a bedrock issue.

Can someone explain something to me? If there is a 6-month moratorium on development in north Carrboro for the intent of determining how future growth should occur, why is the BOA annexing new land for high density development?

http://www.heraldsun.com/orange/10-892452.cfm?
"David Hale, vice president of Priority Development LP, had asked the aldermen through a petition submitted Aug. 15 to annex the property, which is contiguous to Carrboro's boundary.

In August 2006, the aldermen granted a conditional use permit for the property, which is just north of Hogan Hills Road, for 64 housing units. Forty-eight are allowed by density, and an additional 16 units will be allowed under the density provision bonus for affordable housing.

Eight of the 16 will be affordable units, giving the developer an additional eight units that he can sell at the market rate."

Does the CUP override the moratorium?