Ruby Sinreich's blog
As reported in the N & O one hour ago:
The university may halt its plans to build an airport in Orange County.
Chancellor
Holden Thorp plans a press conference at 11 a.m. this morning to
announce a "change" in the plans for an airport authority in Orange
County. Thorp had announced in September that UNC would convene the
authority early this year.
Orange County Commissioner Mike Nelson said the university would not be pursuing an airport in the county.
"They are not going to establish an airport authority at this time,"
Nelson said. "They're going to back off and focus on other priorities."
- N&O: UNC airport may not get off the ground, 1/9/09
If this is true, I will be very pleased and will also be very very impressed with Chancellor Thorp. It's easy to SAY the things we like to hear, but harder to really do the right thing, especially with the UNC/BOT/legislative/AOPA machine pushing against you.
We'll know more soon...
As was noted in the OP calendar, the site will be taking vacation for about a week, starting Saturday December 27th until Sunday January 4th. Users will be unable to post new content or comments, but everything will remain here for your historical browsing pleasure.
Have a nice week and we'll see you on January 5th!
Among other things on the County Commissioners agenda tonight the siting of the proposed waste transfer station. John Rees, an avid cyclist who lives in Dogwood Acres, is there and posting updates via Twitter. Here are his updated posts in reverse chronological order (newest to oldest):
In speaking to the Friends of Pat Evans, err, I mean Friends of Downtown, Meadowmont developer and Board of Trustees Chair Roger Perry identified the same problems that I have been talking about in regards to Chapel Hill's downtown.
"You have to treat downtown with deference," Perry
said. "You've got to put more money into downtown than into outlying
areas." That means more and better lighting and, in the case of one
particular area, sidewalks.
"That we don't have sidewalks along Rosemary all the way is nuts," he said. "We're tying an arm behind our backs." [...]
Perry saved his most critical words for the
"irresponsible ownership" of some downtown buildings. Without
mentioning specific names, he riffed on "absentee owners" who don't act
as good stewards of the town or their properties, allowing buildings to
slip below fire code standards and otherwise exhibiting no sense of
urgency in filling vacancies in prime retail locations.
With the newly-elected (and newly-districted) members of the Board of County Commissioners (BOCC) sworn in, they have followed their annual tradition of selecting a new chair and vice-chair of the group. This is a leadership structure that is quite different from other elected bodies in the county in that the chair has similar responsibilities as a Mayor would have in a municipality, but the seat rotates among the members in a very egalitarian fashion so that every commissioner in recent memory has served at least one year at the helm.
What I found especially interesting is that this year's chair will be Valerie Foushee (an African-American woman) and the vice-chair will be Mike Nelson (a gay man).
Pages
About Us
OrangePolitics is a not-for-profit website for discussing progressive perspectives on politics, planning, and public policy in Orange County, NC. Opinions are those of their authors. Learn more.
Community Guidelines
By using this site, you agree to our community guidelines. Inappropriate or disruptive behavior will result in moderation or eviction.
Zircon - This is a contributing Drupal Theme
Design by
WeebPal.
