Hospitality

Staff at the Durham Performing Arts Center have that hospitality thing down pat. Even if your ticket is for a seat in the very last row of the upper balcony, DPAC staff welcome you as if they are delighted that you’ve accepted their invitation to their soiree. Yet, statistically, a certain percentage of them have had a bad day and didn’t want to go to work that night. But no matter what may be going on in their personal lives, they work hard to make sure you have a wonderful evening, feel valued and likely will come back again.

I was chatting with one staff member before I found my seat, and I asked whether she had seen the show. She shook her head no. Don’t you get to slip into an empty seat after the show starts or get an employee discount for tickets on your night off?

No, and no.

That seemed wrong to me, that the people who work so hard to make DPAC a success can’t enjoy the benefit of seeing the shows.

After that night’s performance ended, I drove back home to Chapel Hill, where many of the people who work so hard to make our town a success can’t reap the benefits of living here.

That has to change. That’s why I came to advocate before council as a community member for years before I was elected. That underpinned many of my votes on council. And that’s what will bring me back to council chambers to speak as a community member going forward.

Living in Chapel Hill has so many advantages. Excellent schools; fare-free buses; nice recreational facilities and a superb senior center; cultural arts venues and lots of trees. Why should Chapel Hill be open only to those who can afford to pay the high admission price of housing? Why not have the housing equivalent of an employee discount?

I’m not talking only about municipal workers. People who make our town successful include the waitstaff, dishwashers, bartenders and line cooks of the many independently owned fine restaurants; the groundskeepers who keep the campus lovely; the housekeeping and kitchen staff at the hospital; grocery store stockers and cashiers; the people who teach our children and care for our aging parents.

Council has so many opportunities to move us toward making room for those who work here to live here. Yet too often council votes reflect what is politically expedient, without regard for the impact those decisions have on individual lives.

We need only five council members who get it to start making progress. Let’s begin educating them.

— Nancy Oates