If we build it …

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by on June 10, 2019  •  Permalink
Posted in Community life, Council Members, Downtown Chapel Hill, Economic development, Housing, Land Use, Lifestyle, Town staff
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Posted by Nancy Oates on June 10, 2019

http://chapelhillwatch.com/2019/06/10/if-we-build-it/

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4 Comments

  1. Terri

     /  June 10, 2019

    I think all of Orange County (and Wake, Mecklenburg, etc.) need to follow the lead of New Zealand.

    “Long revered as a stalwart of a capitalist society the need to grow has come to overshadow everything else. We prioritise it over our personal health, we prioritise it over the health of the planet and we prioritise it over our happiness….New Zealand’s Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has put out a national budget where spending is dictated by what best encourages the “well-being” of citizens, rather than focussing on traditional bottom-line measures like productivity and economic growth.”
    https://www.thelondoneconomic.com/opinion/economic-growth-is-an-unnecessary-evil-jacinda-ardern-is-right-to-deprioritise-it/31/05/?fbclid=IwAR2IEUl7RUCJtpMUmetpxRF-aO7zmtmotWz88zI1-uav-B9j8NCdI1UEAjM

  2. Nancy Oates

     /  June 10, 2019

    Amen. Or, closer to home, Asheville. The more I learn about Asheville, the more impressed I am with how that city council has made decisions that care for its residents.

  3. Plurimus

     /  June 10, 2019

    “Nevertheless, a consultant presented various redevelopment options to create — repeat the refrain — a vibrant, walkable community.”

    Hook, meet line and sinker. I think the terms “vibrant” and “walkable” should be banned from consultant lexicon for at least ten years.

    Face it; density is not the panacea the proponents advertise: https://yaleglobal.yale.edu/content/cities-grow-so-do-numbers-homeless

    The path we are on now, taken to its logical conclusion leads to lifeboat ethics. Once a “well being” is achieved, it’s also about individuals living below their means and sharing. That is a radical proposition.

  4. Buffie Webber

     /  June 16, 2019

    Affordable housing has been a community topic prior to my arrival in 1991. I think it is time to flip the conversation and discuss the quality of life without people making less than $60,000/year. People seem convinced someone like them can move into the town. If a service workers, teachers, wait staff, police, etc. live several towns away what incentives we will offer for them to work here? What modes of transportation is required for workers to come to town? What is the tipping point to investing less in our schools? Over the past 12 months, the median sales price for a single family house (Chapel Hill) sold is $470,000. Same time frame for a single family house built since 2014 median price is $552,670. Very similar to sales numbers in the school district $450,000 & $542,595.