April 2007

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.