April 2007

Today the Orange Chat blog published some thoughts about the "Lot 5" downtown redevelopment effort from a reporter's conversation with Chapel Hill Town Council Member Mark Kleinschmidt. In a perfect example of the utility of blogs for having unmediated communication with the public, Kleinschmidt responded by adding and clarifying his thoughts on his own blog.

Cross posted from Light In Water.

New signs are up on the Weaver Street Lawn. (Read the back story.)

I am on the mailing lists for most of the local governments, and most of the info I get from them is dull press releases, public notices etc. I perked up when I saw this subject from the city schools "Press Release--Planner to visit class" but was even more surprised to see the following content:

Local developer to visit class

Local developer Roger Perry will speak to fifth grade students at Frank Porter Graham about residential planning on Wednesday, April 11, from 10 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.

The students have recently completed a unit on using Global Positioning Systems to study and create maps. The equipment was provided through a Student Enrichment Grant awarded to teacher Kristen Bedell by the Chapel Hill-Carrboro Public School Foundation. The equipment used by the students in this unit is the same used by professional planners and developers to view plots and design projects.

Congratulations to Hillsborough on naming its first Poet Laureate, and to He's Not Here owner Mike Troy for serving in that post.

I Wish
By Mike Troy

There is a place where poets walk

And talk the talk that poets talk.

It isn't far or hard to find --

It lives in every heart and mind.

It's near a little hardware store

That always has an open door;

And from the door it's just one hop

To a magic coffee shop.

And while we're wishing, let's just say,

Next door we'll have a French cafe.

Out back, a bookshop on an alley

Completes our local Place Pigalle.

At sidewalk tables, people natter

Of anything that doesn't matter

In a dusky limelit time

Where dogs don't bark and poems rhyme.

Feel the pleasing rhyme and rhythm

Of human living that's filled with them.

Through all seasons, in all weather,

Living is what we do together.

So grab a table, take a cup,

Pull up a chair and fill a dish;

For someone without kids in the school system (although I hope to someday), I try to follow local school issues. But there's just so much detail! I understand that there are four proposals for elementary redistricting accompanying the opening of elementary school #10 in the CH-C system, and that the superintendent has endorsed one.

In making the decisions, the board's agenda calls for members to consider contiguity, travel and stability, among other criteria.

In Pedersen's selected proposal, elementary school enrollment across the district would range from 406 to 596. Elementary school No. 10 would enroll 481 students.

[School board member Jean] Hamilton acknowledged that the redistricting will not come without negative effects.

"Many students will have to change schools," she said. "Not some - many."
- Board to decide redistricting - Daily Tar Heel, 4/12/07

As printed in the Chapel Hill Herald on Saturday, April 14th:

My very first column last spring dealt with my concern about the lack of young black leadership in our community.

I'm still concerned but the good news is that help is on the way. Local NAACP leader Jesse Gibson has brought forward a great plan for a Youth Council that will help to engage teenagers of all races in serving their community. He and the rest of the organization's leadership have successfully seen the creation of such an organization through Chapel Hill's lengthy approval process, and it's now official.

Chapel Hill/Carrboro NAACP President Fred Battle, who has been a fierce advocate for young people as a long time activist and former school board member, says that frequently the reason they are reluctant to get involved in the community is that they don't feel adequate to the task. He sees a primary function of the Youth Council as helping these folks to build leadership and become confident in their abilities to help guide the community.

What will northern Carrboro look like in 5 years? 10 years? 20 years?

Carrboro has launched a review and update of the small area plan for northern Carrboro. Two public meetings are planned so that the town can get input from you and your neighbors on how you would like to see our town grow in the years ahead.

Registration for the event on Saturday morning, April 21, begins at 7:45 while the program itself starts at 8:30 and ends at noon. It will take place in the McDougle School cafeteria.

After a presentation on the current plan (PDF) by staff, there will be facilitated small group discussions of issues of concern to attendees. Subsequently a committee will work on the outcomes of this meeting to prepare presentations for discussion at a public meeting on Saturday, June 16.

Potentially to be addressed are a range of land-use, environmental, and economic development issues.

The Town of Chapel Hill has seen and suffered through numerous disasters in the past 10 years. Starting after Hurricane Fran, preparedness plans were set up and a command center was designated and staffed and given a dedicated generator. Meals were brought in for the crews working to clear storm damage from the 2000 snow (22 inches of snow in 24 hours), the ice storms of 2001 and 2002, back-to-back hurricanes in September 2003, and many others, most of which passed below the public's radar, such as the flooding at Camelot Apartments around the same time as the flooding at Eastgate shopping center.

Yesterday, 16 April, the plans did not materialize. Crews were sent out at 7 am to do their normal routine, despite weather predictions of very high winds and heavy rains. Within an hour and a half, phones were ringing off the hook at the Public Works with reports of trees and power lines down. Still, a plan failed to materialize until after 1 pm.

News Talk 1360 WCHL presents its 2007 Chapel Hill-Carrboro-Orange County Forum, Wednesday, April 18th, from 8 am til 6pm.

It's 10 hours we set aside for community discussion on important issues. In past years, we've tackled 10 topics during the day, with an hour devoted to each, but this year, there are 5 topics of discussion, with 2 hours each. Our topics are Town-Gown Relations, the Price of an Unsustainable Economy, Crime and Safety, Education, and the Arts.

The Carrboro Environmental Advisory Board is looking for applications for Carrboro residents interested in serving the town. A link to apply is here http://www.ci.carrboro.nc.us/AdvBoards/advbrdapp.htm. Generally, the Environmental Advisory Board will:

This looks interesting:

Hillsborough's people and stories will be showcased in a photo documentary to be presented Friday during the year's first Last Friday.

A sampling of photographs will be exhibited on the sidewalk outside Orange County Courthouse, beginning at 6 p.m. at the downtown arts event. At 7:30 p.m., a narrated slideshow presentation will be given inside the county building at 110 E. King St., where the Economic Development Commission and Board of Elections offices are housed.

The documentary is 14 individual stories documented by undergraduate students in a class called Small Town USA at Duke's Center for Documentary Studies. The students toured the town in January with Mayor Tom Stevens and with Cathleen Turner, executive director of the Alliance for Historic Hillsborough.

- Hillsborough press release

Also in Hillsborough on Friday:

• Stop by the Coldwell Banker office at 114 W. King Street between 6-8pm to learn more about CPR, heart attacks, strokes and have a free blood pressure reading.

Just what the Rogers Road neighborhood needs: money? sewer lines? sidewalks? environmental justice? No, it's another committee! I just received an announcement of a new "Historic Rogers Road Community Taskforce" being formed by Orange County. Given that the Commissioners are long overdue in compensating this community for hosting the County's garbage for the last 30 years, and for repeatedly being lied to by elected officials, it's not crazy to have a committee to address this. But...

There is already a Rogers Road Small Area Plan Task Force appointed by the Town of Chapel Hill which is also addressing "the enhancement of the living environment in the historic Rogers Road Community" (and may be tapping the limited volunteer capacity of the neighborhood).

Orange County Seeks Volunteers for the Historic Rogers Road Community Taskforce

Contact: Monica C. Evans,
Orange County Board of Commissioners Office (919) 245-2125

This fall, half of the Chapel Hill, Carrboro, and Hillsborough governing bodies will be up for election, as well as all of their Mayors, and half of the Chapel-Hill Carrboro School Board. If you have ever thought about running for elected office or had people tell you you should think about it or want to help other good folks run, now is your chance. Check out the Community Action Network's 'Campaign and Elections Workshop' this Saturday.

When: Saturday, April 28, 2007 10:00 AM - 12 NOON

Where: Chapel Hill Town Hall, 405 Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard

Offices Covered: Carrboro Mayor and Board of Aldermen, Chapel Hill Mayor and Town Council, Orange County Commissioners, School Boards, Hillsborough Mayor and Town Board

Format: Panel of former elected officials and campaign volunteers (questions from the moderator and audience), followed by breakout sessions

Topics: Deciding to run, campaign staffing, scheduling, financing, publicity, election laws, use of technology, etc.

Cost: FREE

Fred Black gave a good description in a recent column:

Local activist (and former renter of dorm fridges--anyone else remember that?) Erik Ose has a piece today in Salon.com titled, "I saw John Edwards in the shampoo aisle." Maybe some other OP-area readers have had similar encounters, though I have not.

I'm pointing this out because, first of all, it's weird when you see the name of someone you know in the national news when you weren't expecting it (Ose, not Edwards!).

Further, does this have repercussions for our local economy? What if Orange County resident Edwards spent $400 on eight hair cuts at Moshi Moshi? Or on sixteen haircuts at Sid's? Or even more haircuts at the barbershop in Northside?

And now, onto the actual issue here: I have been wondering what local folks think about this issue, of our wealthy neighbor who is also advocating for the poor. Is this a problem? Contradiction? Or none of our friggin business?

(Elizabeth Edwards, if you are reading this... please forgive me!)