June 2012
There is a growing connection between open source geeks, programmers, and local government activists. I love it. One of the great things to come from this is a series of events called CityCamp all around the country. These are well-organized unconferences that bring people together to share ideas, learn about local government, and come up with projects to make their communities better. Last year's CityCamp Raleigh led to the city adopting a formal open source policy. So I thought I'd check it out this year and see what Raleigh has going on.
Weaver Street Market Co-operative still has $8 million in loans to repay from its last failed expansion project in 2007/2008. Yet, it is now planning, in its '2022 Vision', to build at least three more stores over the next decade.
I’m sorry. I misspoke. A few of the self-selected upper management in the corporate office in Hillsborough, NC are making these plans. And, to date, have shared them only with other managers.
Owners and workers in this worker-consumer co-op, where all are supposed to be equal, are not deemed equal enough to be consulted on the planning. Notwithstanding the fact that Board Policy and Employee Policy both demand that workers be meaningfully involved in major decisions that affect their workplace.
Which is a good spot for a little history for newcomers to the Family of Weave.
Read OP's live coverage of Tuesday's meeting of the county commissioners.
Last month, Chapel Hill's collective heart broke as another woman was killed in a completely avoidable case of "domestic" violence in front of Scroggs Elementary School. You can read Katelyn Ferral's coverage in the Chapel Hill News for more background about the man who repeatedly threatended to kill his wife, Chahnaz Kebaier, who was a postdoctoral researcher at UNC, should she take their two children away from him. As the story unfolds, it becomes increasingly clear why she would have wanted to do just that.
Monday night (June 11th), the Inter-Faith Council will present it's Good Neighbor Plan and consider a lease between the State of North Carolina and the Town of Chapel Hill for the land and a sublease between the Town of Chapel Hill and IFC to build the new men's shelter on the property.
More information on this story can be found here.
Public comment is expected both for and against the plan. OP will be live tweeting.
A public information meeting to discuss the Chapel Hill 2020 Draft
Comprehensive Plan will be held at 5:30 p.m. Tuesday, June 19, in the
Council Chamber of Town Hall, 405 Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. The
Planning Board will meet directly following the Chapel Hill 2020
meeting.
The purpose of the public information session is to share
information about how the draft plan is being revised to reflect
community comment and the Planning Board's recommended revisions (http://bit.ly/MIuTDc).
The visioning plan will be considered for possible adoption by the
Town Council on June 25. For those unable to attend Tuesday's meeting,
it will be aired on Chapel Hill TV-18
and provided later on streaming video at www.townofchapelhill.org/councilvideo.
The 2020 plan will be an overall policy document, balancing the many
voices and ideas about our community's future. Previous drafts of the
plan are available at www.2020buzz.org.
This document, the vision and framework for the Town's future, will be
followed by implementation - making the vision into reality.
Mayor Mark Kleinschmidt and the Town Council have thanked all
dedicated participants for their ideas, work and involvement in the CH
2020 Plan. View the documentary video of the process - http://vimeo.com/43250910
The Chapel Hill 2020 process began with brainstorming and visioning.
The first community
meeting was held in September 2011 at East Chapel Hill High School and
drew 475 people, people who wanted to have a stake in the future of
Chapel Hill. Eventually, the community identified six theme groups, and
the stakeholders got to work. The theme groups are Good Place and New
Spaces, Town and Gown, Getting Around, Community Prosperity and
Engagement, A Place for Everyone and Nurturing Our Community.
Chapel Hill 2020 has about 20 dedicated theme group co-chairs, who
have attended countless community meetings, provided thoughtful input,
and moderated energetic group discussions. They are Dave Godschalk,
Paige Zinn, Rick Igou, Chris Derby, Brian Russell, Roger Waldon, Anita
Badrock, Brian Curran, Maria Palmer, Jan Bolick, Marlene Rifkin, Gary
Saleeby, Fred Black, Nathan Huening, Eleanor Murray, Delores Bailey,
Kristen Hiemstra and Jonathan Howes. Read more about
them: http://www.townofchapelhill.org/index.aspx?page=1825
Throughout the process, the Chapel Hill 2020 outreach team visited
with all segments of the community and bringing their ideas, comments,
needs and inspirations back to the ongoing process. These community
comments were folded into the process to create the plan.
For more information about Chapel Hill 2020, visit www.chapelhill2020.org or www.2020buzz.org or contact compplan@townofchapelhill.org
Date:
Tuesday, June 19, 2012 - 5:30pm to 7:00pm
The following announcement was released today by Orange County:
Fair Housing Workshop
ORANGE COUNTY, NC – A workshop on fair housing will be held on Thursday, June 28, 2012 from 6:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. at Orange County Department of Social Services, Hillsborough Commons, 113 Mayo Street in Hillsborough.
The free seminar “Fair Housing: Know Your Rights” is presented by Fair Housing Project, Legal Aid of NC, Orange County Human Relations Commission, N. C. Justice Center and the U. S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD).
Advanced registration is preferred. Contact Pam Reynolds by email (preynolds@co.orange.nc.us) or call 919-245-2490 at Orange County Housing, Human Rights and Community Development Department.
Date:
Thursday, June 28, 2012 - 6:00pm to 8:00pm
Location:
Orange County Department of Social Services, Hillsborough Commons, 113 Mayo Street, Hillsborough
All owners of Weaver Street Market Co-operative (both worker and consumer) will shortly be receiving an Owners’ News talking about the future of WSM, and inviting folks to stand for the Board of Directors.I strongly urge folks to stand for the Board. If you are less than happy with what is happening with WSM, it is no good merely standing on the sidelines. If you do nothing, then nothing is what you will get. Take a stand, and stand for the Board.
The
Owner News also has an Address from Ruffin Slater, WSM General Manager, in which he suggests that WSM should increase its impact in our community by becoming bigger. I disagree. I think WSM has, over the past 24 years, become too bloated, unwieldy and unresponsive. I believe that WSM can achieve more (and better quality) impact by becoming smaller. Sort of.
Date:
Sunday, June 17, 2012 - 2:00pm to 4:00pm
Tonight, the Chapel Hill Town Council received a report from the developers of what once was the Colony Apartments and will now be called The Park at Chapel Hill (a mixed use development). Colony Apartments was one of the only locations of affordable rentals in Chapel Hill, but with this redevelopment that is no longer likely to be the case. With the redevelopment of Glen Lennox in Chapel Hill and the recent purchase of the majority of the units at Abbey Court (now to be called Collins Crossing), affordable rentals may become extinct in Southern Orange County.
This is an issue that Orange County Justice United has been focused on and Tish Galu, Strategy Team Chair for Justice United, made the following statement at the council meeting:
The United Church of Chapel Hill, in partnership with Fisher Memorial Church in Durham and the Racial Equity Institute in Greensboro, is holding a 2-day Anti-Racism Workshop on July 6th and 7th at the United Church of Chapel Hill (1321 MLK Jr. Blvd, Chapel Hill, NC) from 8:30 am to 5:15 pm each day.
More information can be found on the new website: Organizing Against Racism under 'Upcoming'.
This website provides more information about the workshops and our People of Color and White Anti-Racism Caucuses.
Date:
Friday, July 6, 2012 - 8:30am to Saturday, July 7, 2012 - 5:15pm
Location:
United Church of Chapel Hill, 1321 MLK Jr. Blvd, Chapel Hill, NC
Date:
Saturday, July 14, 2012 - 2:00pm to 4:00pm
Location:
Bread & Butter, 503 W. Rosemary Street, Chapel Hill, N.C.
From UNC Press Release:
Staff members at the University of
North Carolina at Chapel Hill will update local residents, faculty,
staff and students on activities at Carolina North at a public
information meeting June 27.
The meeting will take place from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m. in the Magnolia
Conference Room of the Giles F. Horney Building at 103 Airport Drive.
Free parking is available, and Chapel Hill Transit serves the building
via the NU route.
Carolina North is being developed as a mixed-use academic campus on
University-owned property along Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard, two
miles north of the main campus. Most of the planned construction for
Carolina North will take place on or near the site of the Horace
Williams Airport.
Topics for the June 27 meeting will include updates on the
construction of a utilities ductbank, installation of a landfill gas
pipeline and generator, and
designs of a greenway, the Collaborative Science Building and related
infrastructure.
UNC staff will also discuss an upcoming remediation study, to be
done with the N.C. Department of Environment and Natural Resources, of
the former municipal landfill on the site. The study, the landfill
remediation and a change in the route for the greenway will require
additional minor tree cutting on the site, which will also be discussed.
Another topic will be the approved modified conservation areas, the
survey and marking of their boundaries and the search for a third-party
monitor to ensure adherence to the conservation areas' restrictive
covenants.
Staff members will also review the recently completed periodic
assessment of the Carolina North Development Agreement, the July 2009
contract between the University and the Town of Chapel
Hill that covers the first 20 years of development of Carolina North.
Town and University staff prepared this first assessment, and it is
available at www.townofchapelhill.org/carolinanorth.
Website: http://carolinanorth.unc.edu/
News Services contact: Susan Hudson, (919) 962-8415, susan_hudson@unc.edu
Date:
Wednesday, June 27, 2012 - 5:30pm to 6:30pm
Location:
Magnolia Conference Room, Giles F. Horney Building,103 Airport Drive
Do you want to seel real change in the word and in the way we live on this planet? Are you tired of hearing about species going extinct everyday, methane plumes in the Antarctic, dead zones in the ocean? Would you like to meet more people like yourself, and create a reinvigorated movement. If so, then you're in luck, because there are two events coming up this week in Chapel Hill for you!
Thursday June 21st, free screening of the documentary film Just Do It! A Tale of Modern Day Outlaws 7 p.m. 405 W. Franklin St.@ Internationalist Books
Saturday June 23rd, a presentation by the Deep Green Resistance Roadshow from Wisconsin 7 p.m. @ Internationalist Books 405 W. Franklin St.
Descriptions below:
Because of the injunction awarded to George King, owner of George's Towing, on the cell phone ban and towing ordinance, tow truck companies are now free to charge whatever they want to tow cars in town. My son was towed from the Panera lot yesterday. He was wrong to park there but George's towing charged him $150 to get his car back!!! The Chapel Hill police said we were lucky to only be charged $150 as some companies are now charging $200!! Is there anything that can be done to bring back the town's regulation of charges?
The Independent Weekly has a new reporter on the Orange County beat, Billy Ball. He has some enormous shoes to fill since Chapel Hill native Joe Schwartz left the paper and the country. Ball is doing pretty well so far and asking good questions. I can't help but notice a few gaps in his knowledge of local issues, but that can be rectified with time.
In this week's article "City or Town?" Ball takes a look at Chapel Hill 2020 in advance of the draft comprehensive plan coming before the Town Council for inevitable approval on Monday. Although he doesn't ask the questions I'm most interested in now, such as how will the Town answer the many outstanding questions and gaps in the plan, I do appreciate him pointing out that "Some of its harshest criticism has come from within the committees that molded Chapel Hill 2020."
I'm excited to announce that OrangePolitics is a partner in the effort by the Raleigh Public Record to create an accessible statewide database of campaign finance information. Please read more about it and comment on the Knight News Challenge site.
As the June 25 deadline for completion and possible adoption of Chapel Hill’s new comprehensive plan draws near, kudos and congratulatory pats on the back abound. Unfortunately, I am not able to join in the current Chapel Hill 2020 lovefest. While there are many positive points that can be made, the final product is certainly not shaping up to be anything we should celebrate.
CH2020 co-chairs George Cianciolo and Rosemary Waldorf have touted this process of creating a new plan as “our people’s vision” with “a wide-open opportunity to break with the old ways of doing business.” Additionally, at the May 21 Chapel Hill Town Council meeting, there were but a few exceptions to the parade of valentines for the 2020 leadership and town staff.
There is no doubt that a great deal of time and effort on the part of a lot of people went into this thing. I certainly applaud the months of arduous work and self-sacrifice by all of those involved. However, let me suggest an alternative, far less rosy perspective of the 2020 process and its resulting document.
Come take in a Locally Grown movie with your OP friends. August 16th, Vertigo will be screened. Brush up on your Hitchcock trivia and you could win prizes.
From the Chapel Hill Downtown Partnership:
Now in its fifth year, LOCALLY GROWN Music & Movie Series
offers the community FREE live concerts and movies every THURSDAY
evening on the Wallace Plaza, atop the Wallace Parking Deck at 150 E.
Rosemary Street in downtown Chapel Hill. This summer's lineup includes
three concerts of locally-grown music acts and five family-friendly and
classic films.
LOCALLY GROWN's
mission is to promote the downtown community by bringing people to shop
and eat at local businesses while enjoying local entertainment and
activities on summer evenings in Downtown Chapel Hill.
Check out the rest of the Locally Grown line-up.
Date:
Thursday, August 16, 2012 - 8:00pm to 10:00pm
Location:
Wallace Plaza (roof of the parking deck) 150 E. Rosemary Street, Chapel Hill
Unsurprisingly, the Chapel Hill Town Council unanimously (I think) adopted the
Chapel Hill 2020 comprehensive plan earlier tonight. Despite the objections of many citizens on a number of fronts and the reluctance of some of the council members themselves, the process will now exit the extensive community input phase and enter a period of “continued engagement.”
Though it’s unclear at this point what form that community involvement will take—from what the planning staff said tonight it appears it will mostly be small area meetings—it’s clear that if nothing else, the process has stirred people to get involved in ways that may have not been before.
Date:
Sunday, October 7, 2012 - 12:00pm to 6:00pm
Location:
West Franklin Street, Chapel Hill
A little over a year ago I attended a public meeting in the basement of the Chapel Hill Library. To be honest, I didn’t know what to expect. I hadn’t been to many public meetings and I hadn’t the slightest idea what the Comprehensive plan was or what in the world these folks were initiating. It ended up being the start of a very interesting year.
After all, I was attending that meeting solely to report back information to then recent UNC graduate Lee Storrow.
During that spring, Lee had been appointed to the initiating committee and also decided to run for Chapel Hill Town Council. While the former was public, the latter was still mostly under wraps – most people in town had no idea who Lee Storrow was. Due to an unfortunate scheduling coincidence, Lee was unable to attend every meeting.
I just received this notice posted to the Solidaridad Abbey Court group on Face book from Carrboro Mayor Mark Chilton:
I will be at the OWASA Community Room at 6pm tonight to talk with residents of Abbey Court (now Collins Crossing) about issues that have arisen with the new management company. All Abbey Court residents and stakeholders are welcome!
Date:
Wednesday, June 27, 2012 - 6:00pm
Location:
OWASA Community Room, 400 Jones Ferry Road, Carrboro
In January of 2012, after more than a year of debate, discussion, and deliberation about food trucks in Chapel Hill, the Town Council finally passed an ordinance to allow them in our community.
But then no food trucks came.
I’ve spent the last two months talking to food truck owners, local businesses, advocates, and town staff about our ordinance. While there is still disagreement, it seems clear that there is one thing we can all agree on: Our food truck ordinance is not working. I think this is because we didn’t understand the regional economy of the food truck industry in the Triangle. In Durham, food trucks thrive because the community has embraced the food truck business model, and empty parking lots in downtown become natural gathering places for this model of food delivery.
Chapel Hill feared that opening the door to food trucks would provide too much competition to brick and mortar restaurants. We were also concerned that the number of food truck applicants would overwhelm our staff’s ability to review and inspect them. No matter how we write our ordinance, I don’t believe either of those things will happen.
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