Let’s say you live in Phoenix Place, near the intersection of Rogers Road and Purefoy, and you wanted to ride Chapel Hill’s prepaid buses into town. Maybe you don’t have a car or you embrace the walkable community ideal we hear Town Council members and developers talk about. Because bus service along Rogers Road is […]
Walk to ride
Posted by NancyDon on August 17, 2015
http://chapelhillwatch.com/2015/08/17/walk-to-ride/
Golf lessons
While on vacation last week, I spent quite a bit of time on mini-golf courses, where I had ample opportunity to observe how parents and grandparents dealt with children who could not putt a ball into a hole if their life depended on it. Time after time, adults would use their own club or their […]
Posted by NancyDon on August 10, 2015
http://chapelhillwatch.com/2015/08/10/golf-lessons/
What defines character?
Red flags went up for me when I got the email about a meeting to introduce an initiative called “Neighborhood Character Standards.” Not so much because of its title that evoked right-wing conservative ideology, and not because of anything in the standards themselves. What caught my attention was that the email, in a chipper tone, […]
Posted by NancyDon on August 3, 2015
http://chapelhillwatch.com/2015/08/03/what-defines-character/
New faces in town races
Last week I put my money where my mouth is — $5, to be exact. I filed to run for a seat on Town Council. For the six years I’ve been writing Chapel Hill Watch, I’ve tuned in every Monday night during Town Council season and sat on my couch cheering on various council and […]
Posted by NancyDon on July 13, 2015
http://chapelhillwatch.com/2015/07/13/new-faces-in-town-races/
Parks ahead? Slow down
So many Orange County commissioners may show up for a tour of potential park sites on Millhouse Road and Twin Creeks on New Year’s Eve that the photo op has been deemed a special commissioners’ meeting. If a majority of commissioners attend an event, state law considers it an official meeting and must give the […]
Posted by NancyDon on December 29, 2014
http://chapelhillwatch.com/2014/12/29/parks-ahead-slow-down/
An end, and a new beginning
Compromise, a concept not usually synonymous with Town Council, ruled the day during the approval of a plan for Central West. Council members did so many things right during last Tuesday’s meeting that it’s hard to know where to begin. Town staff set the stage by reconfiguring the room to allow increased occupancy of 130; […]
Posted by NancyDon on December 2, 2013
http://chapelhillwatch.com/2013/12/02/an-end-and-a-new-beginning/
At first glance
The Friends of Downtown held a sneak preview of the candidates for Town Council last Thursday. I sat in the audience next to Julie McClintock, which didn’t seem like a mistake at the time, until Mark Kleinschmidt, running unopposed for mayor, got up to speak and made mention of the “constant contrarians.” And suddenly, all […]
Posted by NancyDon on September 2, 2013
http://chapelhillwatch.com/2013/09/02/at-first-glance/
Good neighbor in good faith
The IFC has a Good Neighbor Plan and a lease for its Homestead Road facility. And Lee Storrow came into his own at last night’s Town Council meeting, standing up tentatively but tenaciously for certain safeguards to be added into each document. Homestead Road neighbors have held IFC’s toes to the fire throughout the process […]
Posted by NancyDon on June 12, 2012
http://chapelhillwatch.com/2012/06/12/good-neighbor-in-good-faith/
UNC ethics, part II
John Rhodes, a writer from Efland, contributes this report. Portions were previously published in a Chapel Hill News Guest Column on June 15, 2011. In 2007, the board that oversees UNC Health Care decided to purportedly “cut” $555,467 in executive bonuses. The board also purportedly reduced $834,753 in bonuses for 22 other managers. Yet the […]
Posted by NancyDon on August 10, 2011
http://chapelhillwatch.com/2011/08/10/unc-ethics-part-ii/
Another UNC ethics scandal
John Rhodes, a writer who lives in Efland, contributes this report: While citizens of North Carolina and the rest of the nation go down an economic drain initially created by improper oversight in the real estate/finance market, there’s hope … at least for a few. Former White House Chief of Staff Erskine Bowles is one […]
Posted by NancyDon on August 4, 2011
http://chapelhillwatch.com/2011/08/04/another-unc-ethics-scandal/