As I have posted over the years, I love this town with the fervor of a convert. Prior to coming here 11 years ago we moved around, travelled, made new friends as we did and were generally unmoored. Now we are part of a community with whom we are completely and happily intertwined. When you meet people around the country and around the world and tell them you live in Chapel Hill, their faces light up with interest and a hint of envy. The question you get is, "how do you like it there?" My answer is always, "I love it, we'll never leave."
As one can see from the 2020 visioning project, there are diverse opinions about what makes the town special and how to keep it going. But whatever the individual opinions, the simple fact that so many people in our town will commit their time and energy to learning about and advocating for the issues that will shape our future, is part of the soul of this town that I love.
I could easily go on about this for a while, but let me get to the endorsements. At any level of office, local, state, or national, I have no interest in candidates who's primary platform is minimization of taxes. My experience is that these types of candidates tend to think that any level of taxes would be too high but somehow still want their government to provide excellent and extensive services. I classify these politicians as the "have your cake and eat it too crowd", the math just doesn't work.
I like politicians with the more holistic view, that taxes are the investment that we make in our community for services which we need and value, further that the investments we make our community enrich our lives (libraries, police officers, free buses, parks, clean water, sensible development, good schools). The goals of these type of candidates, in my experience, are more sophisticated, data driven, and adaptive to changes in circumstance.
To me, it is vitally important to have a city council who is trying to look forward at trends and issues which will be impacting all of us in the future and attempting to prepare for this future. This approach is likely to involve some misteps, but by being proactive, at least gives Chapel Hill the chance to countinue to a leader in local governance.
Lee and Jason share my vision for the future and bring the sort of analytical approach to issues that I support. I encourage you to vote for them, you'll be glad that you did. What we don't want to do is have a future when you tell someone that you live in Chapel Hill they say "Yes, it's sad, I hear that used to be a wonderful place to live."
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