October 2005
In an amazing feat of citizenship, the Neighborhoods for Responsible Growth (NRG), an all volunteer organization, has posted a summary of responses to eight interview questions with Chapel Hill candidates on its web site. Audio of the interviews is also available.
Chapel Hill has four Town Council seats and the Mayor's seat up for election in 2005. NRG asked all ten Chapel Hill Town Council candidates to participate in an interview on topics of interest to local citizens. Nine of the candidates accepted, and one candidate withdrew from the race on October 6. The responses from the remaining eight candidates are presented here. NRG as an organization is not endorsing candidates for this election. We are posting the candidates' responses here in the hope that this information will help citizens make an informed decision this November. No comment or statement on these pages should be seen as an endorsement of a particular candidate.
The Sierra Club announced its endorsed candidates in Chapel Hill, Carrboro, and Hillsborough today.
In Chapel Hill the Sierra Club endorses Kevin Foy for Mayor, and Mark Kleinschmidt, Laurin Easthom, and Will Raymond for Town Council.
In Carrboro, the Sierra Club endorses Mark Chilton for Mayor, and Jacquie Gist and Randee Haven-O'Donnell for Board of Aldermen.
In Hillsborough, the Sierra Club endorses Tom Stevens for Mayor, and Mike Gering and Frances Dancy for Town Board.
Having been a part of this process I am thrilled with all of these selections. I think the club definitely made the right choices. Just as a disclaimer, I recused myself from voting on Chapel Hill endorsements because of my positions in several of the candidates' campaigns.
At Chapel Hill Town Hall.
I have read some coverage of the School Board race including last night's forum. The Herald had candidates arguing over who is accountable for the acheivement gap, while the DTH had them debating srategies for addressing it. Either way it's pretty much the same story.
We all want to close the gap, but School Board debates seem to be conducted in some code I don't understand to avoid touching the lightning rod of racism - which is really at the heart of the problem. So you tell me, readers: Who are the progressives in this race and why?
The sun finally came out! Is anyone else having trouble concentrating with this lovely weather outside? ;-)
Here's an open-minded thread for discussion of whatever you like. Have a good weekend.
I have long felt that the placement of candidates' yard signs can tell you a lot. Each of us tends to put signs in places we think people are likely to see them, usually based on places we ourselves feel likely to see them. For example, if there are gaps in signage, we don't notice them unless we see the gaps ourselves.
Since most yard signs are put up by friends of the candidate, if not the candidate herself, they tell us a lot about the milieu of each candidate. Do they spend a lot of time near local schools, downtown, the mall, the grocery store, parks?
Today I went on a walk to see what yard signs are up in my neighborhood. I walked about a mile west into downtown Carrboro and a mile east into downtown Chapel Hill. Here is what I saw...
Here are SOME of the many signs I saw in downtown Carrboro:
Chapel Hill Herald, Saturday October 15, 2005
One of the most compelling comments of election season so far came from Carrboro Alderman Jacquelyn Gist at the Sierra Club candidates forum. "Grass makes you stupid" Gist said in reference to Carrboro's many acres of lawn. "Grass is one of the biggest problems facing our community."
Knowing Gist, I did not take her words to be a New Urbanist rebuke of suburban living. They seemed more an indictment of the manner in which modern society relates to nature, and how an alien landscape -- in this case, the lawn -- interferes with our ability to understand the ecosystem that is our home.
I'd been thinking along similar lines this summer, each time I stepped out my front door and walked over to the nearby forest by Bolin Creek. Along the sidewalks and street it was awfully hot, the pavement throwing the sun's heat back at me. But as soon as I stepped under the canopy of trees, it felt 10 degrees cooler. Clearly, the way we live, the way we build, the way we develop -- none is well attuned to our natural environs.
A local group called Citizen Action for Responsible Roads (CARR) has conducted an "e-forum" for the Chapel Hill Town Council and Mayoral races. They e-mailed the candidates and published their responses online.
Here are the questions, check out their website to see the candidates' responses.
1. Explain why you support or oppose keeping Carolina North's automobile traffic off of Weaver Dairy Road, Martin Luther King, Jr. Blvd, and/or I-40.
2. Where should automobile entrances to Carolina North be located?
3. Describe why you support or oppose an automobile connector road between Larkspur and Eubanks Road.
4. What is your opinion of council's decision not to expand Weaver Dairy Road?
5. What's your philosophy in deciding where future regional transportation corridors should be located?
6. What's your position on UNC's plan to put 17,000 parking spaces at Carolina North?
7. What action should council take should NCDOT continue to drag out the improvements that have been approved for S. Columbia Street?
The OCDW (Orange County Democratic Women) Carrboro / School Board Candidates Forum will be on Wednesday, October 19 at 7:30p.m. at the Southern Human Services Building on Homestead Road.
What's with the fighter jets strafing southern Orange County this morning? The last group of them was so loud/close that it set off a car alarm in my neighborhood!
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