Racial & Economic Justice
An effort to tally the number of homeless people in Orange County came up with the magic number of 236. While it's certainly a good idea to measure this, the methodology sounds pretty weak to me. Law enforcement literally went around and counted people. How can they possibly have seen and talked to every one? According to the Chapel Hill News:
The Chapel Hill police found six people without any shelter and 20 in doubled-up housing. Carrboro police found 24 with no shelter, Hillsborough police 10, and UNC police 10. The count also found one homeless person sheltered at Club Nova, a psychiatric rehabilitation center, 143 at the IFC's Community House, and 42 at the IFC's HomeStart facility.
Happy Thanksgiving all!
This may go down as one of the least effective protest tactics ever. The Chapel Hill Herald reports that a group of parents in the county school system (ie: northern Orange County) are calling for a boycott of businesses in Chapel Hill (ie: southern Orange County) to protest the disparity in school funding.
Now I sympathize with their cause, but
- local businesses have nothing to do with the special district tax on homeowners that raises more money for the southern schools,
- they pay the same amount to the county - who funds both systems - as any other business in the county, and
- is anyone going to notice that these 20 people and maybe a few of their friends aren't schlepping down 86 to come shopping here? How often do they shop in Chapel Hill and Carrboro anyway?
Am I missing something? Is there a reason why anyone should care about this? Why are they leaving Carrboro out? (Someone must love Weaver Street Market.) Couldn't they think of a better name than "Rural Orange Boycotts Chapel Hill?"
Looks like the IFC is going to be homeless again. All the Chapel Hill News says is that they're having trouble finding a new place. Shock. Fortunately, the Chapel Hill Herald actually bothered to tell us what's going on.
Apparently the Town (who owns the building) is "temporarily" kicking out the IFC to do some renovations on the building. Considering that the Downtown Commission et al have been moaning about those unsightly beggars scaring the shoppers for years now, it seems quite possible to me that somehow the IFC won't get to move back in.
IFC has already had to relocate some of their services since the Town denied their request a few years ago to expand the facility at the corner of Rosemary and Columbia Streets. For example, they moved their women's shelter to Homestead Road - miles away from the walkability, the jobs, and the community downtown.
When they adopted the Land-Use Management Ordinance in 2002, the Chapel Hill Town Council created a new way to protect residential areas, it's called the Neighborhood Conservation District. The first community to develop an NCD is Northside, where I live. If you are unfamiliar with it, Northside is a historically black and working-class neighborhood downtown (north of Rosemary Street, south of Bolin Creek, east of Carrboro, and west of Columbia Street). Low prices and convenient location have made the neighborhood increasingly attractive to student renters and their investor-landlords who can afford to pay more than many families and contribute less to the community in my opinion.
I have lots more I'd like to say about this, but what I want you to know right now is that the Town is holding a public forum to discuss the recommendation of the citizen committee that is working with the Planning Board to develop this Neighborhood Conservation District for Northside. Here's the scoop:
NORTHSIDE NEIGHBORHOOD COMMUNITY FORUM
The Hank Anderson Breakfast Club's endorsements were published in the Chapel Hill Herald on Monday.
The Breakfast Club endorsed Joal Broun, Alex Zaffron, and Mark Chilton in Carrboro; Elizabeth Carter, Gloria Faley, and Ed Sechrest for School Board; Thatcher Freund, Sally Greene, Bill Strom, and Jim Ward in Chapel Hill. They also endorsed both incumbent Mayors.
The Breakfast Club pretty much contains the leadership of the local NAACP, so this tell us where they stand. Sadly, they don't pull many votes in local elections. But they do know how to get things done. I wonder why didn't do a "South Orange Black Caucus" endorsement as they have in the past?
The only surprise for me was that they endorsed Thatcher Freund instead of Cam Hill. Thatcher's pretty progressive, but I think Cam's got a much better understanding of Northside's issues since he lives near it, and has a working-class background. I guess they were more impressed by Thacher's politics than by Cam's residency.
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