Economy & Downtown

When it was being built, some neighbors complained about the new 4-story building at 605 West Main Street. So much so that Carrboro is now developing stricter standards for downtown development. A similar building that is now almost finished at the corner of Merritt Mill and West Rosemary Street is a great illustration that a building that size can be very attractive and complimentary to its environment without costing a whole lot. I'd love to hear some discussion of why one looks so much better than then other (besides the obvious: bricks are nicer than vinyl siding).

Also, the Chapel Hill Town Council will have a work session today to continue developing designs for redevelopment of two downtown parking lots. That starts at 5:30 at the Town Hall at 405 Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd.

Orange County lost two different creative venues this week. You probably heard about the Carolina Theater in downtown Chapel Hill. Last night was their final showing of films. This great loss means even fewer options for alternative films, fewer cozy venues downtown, possibly less locally-owned businesses, and certainly more control over what we see and hear by large multi-screen theater chains.

Today is also the last day of business at the Main Street storefront of Temple Ball Gallery/De La Luz performance space. Although less people were impacted by De La Luz, the performances and other events they hosted were quite unique and not like anything else you could find in town. For example, there are precious few places where a handful of Tibetan Buddhist monks could set up shop for over a week to painstakingly create a sand mandala, where a struggling 'zine publisher could host their Weird Movie Night, and where some incredible jazz, funk, and rock bands could really tear down the house.

Here's another chance for the town of Chapel Hill to catch up to Carrboro: free wireless Internet downtown.

It seems to have been a resounding success for Carrboro. Some businesses might worry about dozens of folks setting up their laptops for hours while only buying a pastry and coffee, but WSM has got plenty of space on the lawn, and more importantly having free wifi just adds to their role as the community hub. That attracts customers that aren't even using the wireless.

But Chapel Hill has a new angle on this. They are discussing covering the downtown neighborhoods like Northside where some residents can't afford high-speed Internet access.

Across the town line in Carrboro, officials decided last year to put a few thousand dollars into expanding the wireless network in the downtown area, enabling people to connect -- for free -- to the Internet with their laptop computers equipped with wireless cards.