Just the facts, please

At tonight’s Town Council meeting, members of ABetterSite.org will present petitions to council about the site selection process for the IFC’s new shelter. ABetterSite.org members also will address the Planning Board meeting to be held Election Day at 7 p.m. when the shelter subcommittee will present a brief report on shelter standards. Mark Peters, a […]

Now what?

About a dozen years ago, while playing in our front yard, my kids and I watched some contractors pour wet cement around a manhole in the middle of the intersection at our corner. After they’d smoothed the cement, the workers barricaded the spot with sawhorses and left. Though they probably worked for the DOT, they […]

Wanted: Guest bloggers

Got something to say? We need to hear from you. We’d like to open Chapel Hill Watch up to guest bloggers. Between Chaucer and Uncle Sam, Don’s time is spoken for for the rest of the summer. Although Nancy is always ready to spout off about something, she would like to lace her posts with […]

Counting together

For the last two weeks, my life has been all about the census. Every day, seven days a week, I have been planning driving routes, knocking on doors and filling out the forms that are used to document the count. Today the crew of enumerators with which I have been working will shift its focus […]

Council stand-outs

The list of items on the Town Council agenda for tonight’s meeting is long. There are many topics to discuss, but a few do stand out. Town staff is recommending that the council take no action on a petition regarding the operation of the town’s skate park. Ryan Ogilvy, manager of the Chapel Hill Skate […]

Another UNC squeeze

If you had to decide between parking on a side street for free or paying $450 for a spot nearer the office, which would you choose? I know what my decision would be. And I believe it’s the same as a bunch of UNC workers who seem to have chosen to park on the streets […]

Don’t touch that dial

Chapel Hill police were out in force yesterday along MLK Jr. Boulevard, raking in revenue by ticketing speeders. Though on most days cars roar by me going 50 mph at least, yesterday was a different story. As soon as drivers saw a police car, they braked immediately, making it that much more difficult for police […]

Can’t see the canopy for the trees

The town might have the oddest definition of “tree canopy” I’ve ever heard, if I understand the discussion that came out of the Town Council meeting Monday night about modifications to the tree protection ordinance. To my mind, tree canopy would be tall trees with lots of leaves forming, well, a canopy – an umbrella-like […]

Distractive driving

The biggest roadblock to a townwide ban on motorists using cell phones while driving seems to be the issue of enforcement. The Town Council learned Monday night that any cell phone law it passed would be very difficult to enforce. It’s not just that an officer would have to see someone using a cell phone […]

Our new home

We moved here because it’s where all the cool kids are.