December 2014
Coffee and buses, under most circumstances, discussing these two seemingly unrelated things in the same sentence would seem strange, that is unless you're talking about a certain part of Chapel Hill. I of course am talking about Weaver Diary Road, a fairly major thoroughfare in the Northern part of of town whose underwhelming bus service marks a major problem for the Chapel Hill Transit system.
The fundamental problem lies in the fact that the current bus line that services Weaver Diary Road, the T Route, only goes as far as East Chapel Hill High School. If a resident of the lower section of Weaver Dairy wants to go grab coffee at the popular Joe Van Gogh cafe located at the Timberlyne shopping complex via public transit, they will be forced to take a long and complicated route with at the very least 1 transfer. Furthermore, Joe Van Gogh is but one of many prominent businesses located at the intersection of MLK Boulevard and Weaver Dairy Road, all of which are not easily accessible to the residents of lower Weaver Dairy Road due to the current alignment of the T Route.
In our semi-regular Question & Answer series, we have featured Meg McGurk, Executive Director of the Chapel Hill Downtown Partnership and Brian Litchfield, Director of Chapel Hill Transit. The latest installment is with Robert Dowling, Executive Director of the Community Home Trust. As affordable housing discussions have been gaining prominence lately, we thought it was appropriate to learn more about the Community Home Trust.
What is the Community Home Trust?
I'm going to be a little awkward. There is already a thread about the recent Carrboro and Chapel Hill Police Forums. I will be linking this post to that thread. But I want to set out (at boring length) what I have been advocating for since those Forums. And I don't want to clutter up the entirety of that other thread with my meanderings (as fascinating as I know you will find them!).
As the above link to the forums make clear, a number of us in Carrboro want the establishment of a Citizen's Task Force, to be given the responsibility thoroughly to review policing in Carrboro, and, if thought necessary, make recommendations. I have my own thoughts about what I would like such a Task Force to address. But my main purpose is to help to create the space where citizens of Carrboro may have the opportunity to ensure that the policing approach in their community has their consent.
I set out in more detail here why I think we need a Citizen's Task Force.
Though the holiday season is in full swing, there’s plenty this week to keep local elected bodies busy. The Chapel Hill Town Council will hold a special meeting on Obey Creek, while its Hillsborough counterpart will discuss improvements to Churton Street. The county commissioners will talk rural curbside recycling, while the county school board holds a community reception and advances its superintendent search.
Here’s the full summary:
CARRBORO BOARD OF ALDERPERSONS
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The Board is in recess until Tuesday, January 13.
CHAPEL HILL TOWN COUNCIL
CHAPEL HILL-CARRBORO BOARD OF EDUCATION
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The board will not meet this week. Their next meeting will be December 18th.
HILLSBOROUGH TOWN BOARD
Join us as we discuss content on the site from November and look forward to the rest of December and the new year.
Date:
Friday, December 12, 2014 - 12:15pm to 2:15pm
Location:
Steel String Brewery, 106A South Greensboro Street, Carrboro
The six zones selected to compete for resources to address poverty in their communities will be making their presentations to the Orange County Family Success Alliance followed by discussion and voting for the two to be funded first.
More information: http://orangecountync.gov/health/fsa.asp
Date:
Tuesday, December 16, 2014 - 3:30pm to 6:00pm
Location:
Whitted Human Services Complex (300 West Tryon Street in Hillsborough)
Join us we review the content on the site over the last month and plan for the month ahead.
Date:
Sunday, January 11, 2015 - 11:00am to 1:00pm
Location:
The Tiger Room, 201 East Main Street, Carrboro
Though most of Orange County’s public bodies are in recess until after the new year, there are two key meetings happening this week. First, on Tuesday, a committee of elected officials, county board members and staff will hear presentations as to which zones should be selected to the first to benefit from the county’s new Family Success Alliance program. Then on Thursday, the Chapel Hill-Carrboro School Board will discuss its growth plan, consider revising its policy on class rank and make committee assignments.
Here’s the full summary:
CARRBORO BOARD OF ALDERPERSONS
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The Board is in recess until Tuesday, January 13.
CHAPEL HILL TOWN COUNCIL
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The Chapel Hill Town Council is in recess until Monday, January 5.
CHAPEL HILL-CARRBORO BOARD OF EDUCATION
Orange County elected officials and health department staff have recongized the immediate need to address poverty in our county. As a result, the Orange County Family Success Alliance has been launched, modeled on the Harlem Children's Zone. The Orange County Health Department used health and school system data to select six zones with the highest need. More information can be found here. Each zone held community meetings to glean information for their applications. They then made short presentations and fielded questions. The Family Success Alliance Advisory Council developed a rubric for scoring of the applications. Below is a collection of tweets that summarize the presentations and selection process carried out on Tuesday, December 16th.
It is clear from recent police forums and from experiences shared by people of color in our communities that we have a serious problem with racial equity in policing in Orange County. The most recent example is a guest column by Stephanie Perry in Sunday’s Chapel Hill News (12/21/14). Perry serves with me on the board of Orange County Justice United. We heard other stories like this during the Carrboro community forum on policing in October.
Law enforcement behavior that is disproportionately affecting communities of color is unacceptable to me. It is especially troubling to see that these disparities exist in our communities regardless of how enlightened we think we are. I am cautiously optimistic about the steps I see the Carrboro and Chapel Hill Police Departments taking.
Carrboro
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