Economy & Downtown
Chapel Hill's downtown has long benefited from its proximity to a captive audience of University students without cars. While downtowns around the country have been failing, ours has survived fairly well. However, we have seen an increase in the number of chain stores locating downtown, and instability in the Downtown Economic Development Corporation. In the near future, we will see new Town-directed development on two major parking lots have a big impact.
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Carrboro's downtown has also done better than many towns of comparable size, thanks largely to the presence of Weaver Street Market and progressive shoppers from the rest of the county. The Board of Aldermen has been addressing the evolution of the downtown, and have established a number of community resources in the downtown area including free wireless Internet access, and a low-power radio station.
The Chapel Town Council has a big meeting tonight. I meant to blog about it in advance, but since I didn't I will start this thread and hope to post live comments as it goes along.
Here's the agenda. I'll stick with this at least through the Public Forum on the Downtown Development Initiative.
The town is sponsoring (but not listing on their calendar) a forum on "crime & safety" downtown at 8:30am at Jack Sprat.
Panhandling and other issues will be up for discussion early Tuesday, as the Chapel Hill Downtown Partnership - along with Chapel Hill police and town officials -hosts a forum for downtown stakeholders on crime and safety.
The forum is scheduled to run from 8:30 a.m. to 10 a.m. at Jack Sprat Cafe, located at 161 E. Franklin St. Coffee will be served at 8 a.m. for those interested in coming early for networking.
The goal of the event is for the business community to bring its concerns to officials, as well as to learn about the new downtown police force and other efforts to improve safety.
- Town to address problems of panhandling, gangs - City
Weaver Street Market is having their annual member meeting this Sunday at noon. This is your last chance to meet the candidates and cast your vote for the Board of Directors.
From their newsletter:
The Weaver Street Market Annual Meeting will be held on Sunday, November 5 in the Carrboro Century Center. Free buffet lunch for all owners of the co-op will start at noon, followed by a “meet and greet†with the Board of Directors candidates and the business meeting. Mark your calendars and come learn about your co-op!
Hope to see y'all there!
As published in the Chapel Hill Herald on October 28th, 2006:
Alot of the civic discourse in Carrboro recently has been about green space and public open space. The most prominent example of this is the Weaver Street Market dancing controversy, which was recently resolved happily, in large part due to extensive public input about the situation.
One positive impact of that dialogue was that it got more people thinking about the importance and meaning of putting beautiful spaces in the community to use for the public good. As with the WSM situation, public participation and input will be vital to the success of the ongoing Carrboro Greenspace initiative, and the Greenways Summit the town of Carrboro is holding today at the Century Center.
A quick look back at the resolution of the "Dancing Man" controversy shows the impact citizen activism has on public space. Early on many folks in Carrboro made it very clear that curtailing Bruce Thomas' dancing on the lawn was unacceptable to them and took action on their concerns. Their letters to the editor, organizational meetings and dance-ins showed the support behind their cause.
Sustainable North Carolina will be giving out its annual Sustainability Awards on Monday, October 30. Formerly known as Save Our State, the organization's goal is to promote "sustainability" in business and government sectors. Heavy hitters such as Weyerhauser, Progress Energy, IBM, and Dupont as well as Advanced Energy Corporation, Burt's Bee's , and the Environmental Defense Fund are involved with this organization.
The Chapel Hill-Carrboro Chamber of Commerce sponsors the "Foundation for a Sustainable Community" and it is a finalist for this year's Sustainability Award from Sustainable North Carolina (I'm beginning to feel sustainable myself after repeatedly typing this powerful word...).
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