December 2003

Bit of a no-brainer, really. The Orange County Commissioners voted last week to extend benefits to domestic parters of County employees. According to the Chapel Hill Herald, Commissioner Alice Gordon says they had wanted to do it before but couldn't afford it. The extra charge from the insurance company is gone, so they did it. It's nice to see the trickle-down effect of progressive social policies at big corporations.

Durham, Chapel Hill, and Carrboro already do it, although Durham only offers the benefit to same-sex couples. What about straight cohabitators? Apparently less than 1% of the employees in these municipalities use the domestic partner benefit. The social impact on the community of doing this is an added value. This is an inexpensive way to do something good.

Hey folks, I have made a few changes to commenting, and I will probably make some more. The biggest difference is that the e-mail address field must be filled in to submit your comment. (This doesn't actually limit anonymity since you can put anything there you like. Shhh, don't tell.) Also, there are new and improved guidlines on the comment form. Please read them.

Also, I am going to experiment with just editing or deleting the text from problem posts instead of the whole thing. I will continue to e-mail the author whenever possible (hint, hint). You'll see an editor's message, like "[DELETED:OFF-TOPIC]," instead of the post. I hope not to have to do this often.

I invite anyone who feels this restricts what they have to say to get your own blog. Blogging is fun! But this site is taking up much more of my time than it should this week.

Today's Chapel Hill Herald has a story about Cam paying his taxes. Actually, the Chapel Hill News covered it too in a cursory headline story. But halfway through the Herald article, we read this paragraph:

Some political activists, unaware that Hill had settled up his tax bill, said that talk has been brewing about a possible recall of Hill, once he takes office. And at least one resident has called the Orange County Board of Elections in recent days and asked, in general, about the local recall procedure.

What "polticial activists?" Someone we should listen to? Why no names? The entire rest of the article is dedicated to this so-called issue about a recall. I'll say again: Cam made a mistake. But unnamed "activists" complaining about people they don't like... that's not news.

Having lived in other parts of the country and visited other parts of the world that have livable, walkable, dense communities, it's sometimes hard to come home and be too positive about the state of affairs in this area. Just as grand old Durham always seems to be on the cusp of something big and grand and wonderful before plunging off the precipice into bad planning and disastrously bad governing decisions, the region as a whole seems to have good ideas and good people and decent governance but just can't seem to quite get it on track (pardon the pun) with planning and public transport.