April 2004
For years, young black folks (mostly from Durham, we're told) have been congregating on the streets after Apple Chill. This wouldn't be a problem except that they clog the streets with their cruising, and they tend to get into fights with each other. Guns have been pulled more than once.
Making 'After Chill' a Town-sanctioned event should be a very effective way to make it uncool and therefore totally unappealing to young folks. Will the kids just find someplace cooler to hang out, or will this dissipate their energy? Either way, it will increase the safety of our strets in Chapel Hill. Kudos to Apple Chill for this effective response.
Internationalist Books and Community Center is soliciting nominations for the Third Annual Bob Sheldon Award. The deadline has been extended to April 25.
Each year, the Internationalist collective recognizes a member of the Triangle community who carries on Bob Sheldon's work and breathes life into his legacy by being gentle and persistent, being radical and free-thinking, being playful and patient, and leading by example...
Bob Sheldon founded Internationalist Books in 1981. He described the store's mission as follows: "We are dedicated to the position that we have no country: we do not support mindless patriotic pleas for 'national unity,' nor are we interested in keeping America number one. We support the unity and liberation of oppressed people worldwide and are working toward the day when all oppression and inequality will be removed from the earth."
This is a probably unnecessary last-minute appeal to anyone liberal to left who plans to vote in the Democratic Party “caucus†tomorrow (8am-noon, Chapel Hill Town Hall). The plea is to vote for anyone but John Kerry. The New York Times today described Kerry’s efforts to paint himself as a “centrist†which is newspeak for conservative. Sure, we’ll all hold our noses and vote for him in November since Bush is so repugnant. But how many of us did the same thing twelve years ago? I nearly threw up (literally!) voting for Clinton but I was even sicker of Reagan/Bush-I. Clinton ran to his left. Kerry doesn’t need to. He’ll run on his center-right record and cower away from media charges of “liberalism.â€
How to get the foxes out of the hen house is probably beyond the scope of this blog but we do have a very local opportunity Saturday morning to deliver a small counterpoint to the voices of inevitability.
Apparently a bunch of people came out to the Town Council meeting this week to oppose re-naming Airport Road to Martin Luther King Boulevard. I'm pretty surprised - I thought this was a no-brainer.
Local NAACP President Fred Battle bristled Monday at criticism of the idea to rename Airport Road for Martin Luther King Jr., which the Town Council will consider May 24.
Any time there's a call to rename something to honor a black person, the first objection that comes up is how much the renaming would cost, Battle said during a council forum.
"It hardens my heart to see that this type of attitude still exists in this community," he said.
Battle followed seven speakers to the podium, each of whom objected to renaming the road or offered other suggestions. Marie Weiden said she thought it would be better to rename Airport Road for Howard Lee, Chapel Hill's first black mayor and a longtime state senator.
- Chapel Hill Herald, 4/20/04
Ever wonder where your state taxes go? How does the North Carolina budget impact your life? What programs are your state legislators voting for and against?
Women's Worth in the North Carolina Budget
a Women's Forum on the Budget
presented by Elaine Mejia
of the NC Budget and Tax Center
Following the presentation and Q&A,
State Senators
Ellie Kinnaird (23rd District)
and Verla Insko (56th District)
will be on hand to answer your questions.
This program is sponsored by
THE ORANGE COUNTY COMMISSION FOR WOMEN,
NORTH CAROLINA WOMEN UNITED
and
THE FRIENDS OF THE COMMISSION FOR WOMEN
Guest Post by Sally Greene
Congratulations to Ruby! Orangepolitics.org was named by the Independent Weekly today as "Best Blog" in their "Best of the Triangle."
Our own pick for Best Blog is a site that demonstrates how effective the
medium can be as a civic forum: Orangepolitics.org, created by activist
and techie Ruby Sinreich, is a buzzing site full of news about every
conceivable issue: school merger, town'gown relations, traffic, you name
it. Local politicians, activists and commentators often contribute guest
posts, and the message boards host some very lively debate. The site is
elegantly designed and constantly updated, despite being ad-free and
non-commercial. We wish every community in the Triangle had an online
venue like this one.
Sally Greene is a member of the Chapel Hill Town Council. She can be reached at sally AT ibiblio DOT org.
UNC has been promising for years now to build more student dormitories. Until recently, there had been no new dorms built since the 70's even though enrollment grows every year. The result of this has been more and more students living off-campus, which has lead increasing housing prices as groups of students push working families out of affordable in-town neighborhoods.
With the new Campus Master Plan, UNC has finally begun to construct more housing for students. But lest we breathe a sigh of relief, some members of the UNC Board of Trustees are now proposing to demolish the biggest dorms on campus!
UNC-Chapel Hill's four high-rise dormitories have long been derided as the ugly ducklings of the picturesque campus.
Many of it's neighbors have wanted state-owned Horace Williams Airport closed for a long time. It appeared that they had a powerful ally in the plan for Carolina North which took advantage of the airport's flat, already-cleared land to begin it's own march westward from Airport Road.
The N.C. General Assembly has had other ideas and continues to resist closing the airport. One of the best arguments on their side is UNC Hospital's AHEC program which uses the airport to fly doctors to more remote (and less affulent) parts of the state.
The Chapel Hill Town Council is getting pressure from UNC to move more quickly toward their presumably inevitable approval of Carolina North. But the Council has some pretty important concerns that will need to be addressed before the Town can invest more in this huge development effort.
Earlier this month, the Council unanimously passed this resolution drafted by Councilmember Cam Hill:
How many more multi-million dollar floods will we have to clean up from before we decide to do something pro-active?
This week the Town Council approved a Stormwater Management Utility for Chapel Hill. I know a lot of people will be complaining about the cost to taxpayers - even before it's been determined - but I really think this is an idea that's overdue.
The council's decision to create the new utility was unanimous, but the panel stopped short of approving the recommended $2.03 million budget for the first year of the outfit.
The proposal calls for an annual budget of between $2 million and $2.5 million over the first five years of the program.
The utility would implement controls on and mitigate the effects of stormwater runoff.
As outlined, people with 2,000 square feet or less of impervious surface on their property would pay $45 a year.
- Chapel Hill News, 4/28/04
I find it very disheartening to hear that the progress made against racism in the Town of Chapel Hill's Public Works department could be undone by the departure of two leaders. This indicates that not much progress was made at all, which is exactly what the Black Public Works Association (BPWA) would have probably told us in the first place.
The Black Public Works Association also suggested a number of remedies to the problems. Until the recent change in leadership, workers said, the department had made progress on stemming some of the problems pointed out in previous years.
"We know it is impossible to change attitudes, stereotypes and behavior overnight," Steve England, president of the association, said in a letter signed by eight other employees.
"But because there are no black people in the highest levels, we know that leadership will backslide in its commitments to being even nonracist -- much less the anti-racist commitment that should be the goal of all management."- News & Observer, 4/29/04
Pages
About Us
OrangePolitics is a not-for-profit website for discussing progressive perspectives on politics, planning, and public policy in Orange County, NC. Opinions are those of their authors. Learn more.
Community Guidelines
By using this site, you agree to our community guidelines. Inappropriate or disruptive behavior will result in moderation or eviction.
Zircon - This is a contributing Drupal Theme
Design by
WeebPal.
