Bonnie Hauser, speaking for “Smart Transit for Orange County” (http://smarttransitfororange.wordpress.com/) provides a transit update. Just as the county is getting ready to start collecting its new half-cent transit tax, new questions are swirling about the plan and state and federal funding. It was predictable, and the politics are especially entertaining. First state lawmakers signaled their […]
All posts for the month March, 2013
Transit takes a curve
Posted by Nancy Oates on March 29, 2013
http://chapelhillwatch.com/2013/03/29/transit-takes-a-curve/
Parking pickle
Town Council members spoke as one voice at Monday night’s meeting to make sure Chapel Hill taxpayers who want to park won’t be taken for a ride. UNC will start charging employees for its park-and-ride lots come August, forcing Chapel Hill to keep pace. After all, if commuters have a choice between a $2-a-day lot […]
Posted by Nancy Oates on March 27, 2013
http://chapelhillwatch.com/2013/03/27/parking-pickle/
Unintended consequences
We’ll give Jim Ward the benefit of the doubt that his heart was in the right place when he directed Loryn Clark to focus affordable housing funds on the people who make 30 percent of the Area Median Income. At the March 18 Town Council meeting, Clark, the Planning Department’s neighborhood and community services manager, […]
Posted by Nancy Oates on March 25, 2013
http://chapelhillwatch.com/2013/03/25/unintended-consequences/
A representative view
Former Town Council member Julie McClintock, who also worked for the EPA, has participated in many planning efforts. She offers her reaction to the town’s priority-budgeting survey: In a recent email from the Town, I was invited to take a budget survey to show “what [I] value.” Since I’m an engaged citizen, I took the […]
Posted by Nancy Oates on March 18, 2013
http://chapelhillwatch.com/2013/03/18/a-representative-view/
Heated exchange over fire district
I got a hint of the complexity of the relationship between town and county governing bodies after watching Mayor Mark Kleinschmidt address the Orange County Board of Commissioners not long ago about the matter of Chapel Hill becoming the official first-responder to fires in the extra-territorial jurisdiction. At its Feb. 11 meeting, Town Council discussed […]
Posted by Nancy Oates on March 11, 2013
http://chapelhillwatch.com/2013/03/11/heated-exchange-over-fire-district/
Save Del Snow
If you had told me six months ago that someday I would lead the cheering section for Planning Board chair Del Snow, I would have called you crazy. And now look. After Town Council’s Feb. 27 vote approving Bicycle Apartments, Snow wrote a letter to council questioning why council members didn’t postpone the vote until […]
Posted by Nancy Oates on March 6, 2013
http://chapelhillwatch.com/2013/03/06/save-del-snow/
Our anti-social Town Council
There’s nothing in the town’s bylaws that says Town Council members have to be socially responsible. Or that they must exercise foresight in their decision making. Or that they should do their best to make certain the social fabric of our community is kept intact. But it sure would be nice. The council extravagantly funds […]
Posted by Nancy Oates on March 4, 2013
http://chapelhillwatch.com/2013/03/04/our-anti-social-town-council/