Yesterday morning I woke up before dawn and got in my car and started driving. I’ve done that once a year for the past three years when I pick my daughter up from her school in New England. But the other 364 dawns in the year, I expect to be in bed asleep. So I […]

Why has Firehouse Subs closed its restaurant on East Franklin Street and is planning to reopen in Meadowmont, right next door to Carolina Café? Not because of high rent in the heart of downtown, but mainly because of the lack of parking. Without ample and free parking, Firehouse must limit its customer base to those […]

We’ve been flying at half mast since we learned of the untimely death of civil rights lawyer Ashley Osment over the weekend. Osment battled ovarian cancer for three years, determined that it not dominate her life. In that she triumphed. Cancer may have robbed her of her life, but not of her spirit. A memorial […]

Council member Gene Pease said he wanted a better understanding of the Northern Area Task Force’s reasoning on why it deemed certain areas appropriate for higher density. So after the public hearing on the Bridgepoint development last month, he asked town attorney Ralph “Don’t ask me, I only work here” Karpinos for more information. Karpinos […]

Lucky would be the restaurant that was so popular its customers would cause traffic congestion severe enough to persuade the council not to approve it being built. Rezoning the land at the corner of Weaver Dairy Road Extension and Homestead Road to make way for the mixed-use development of Bridgepoint came up for vote at […]

If it were up to me, the only 8-story structure I’d build in Obey Creek would be a water slide. I’d accessorize it with a batting cage and a miniature golf course. I’d put a grocery store nearby, but a Walmart would be a tough sell, if we’ve learned anything from the Chatham County residents’ […]

The Town Council’s leanings at Monday night’s meeting took us by surprise, giving a thumbs down on The Cottages student apartments along Homestead Road and insisting on commercial space in Obey Creek across from Southern Village. It prompted a discussion between Don and me about what sort of business would draw us to shop in […]

As UNC alumni from 40 or 50 years ago can and will tell you, much has changed on campus and in town over the decades. Chapel Hill is no longer the quaint little village whose merchants accepted IOU’s for tickets to the picture show when the banks closed in the 1930s; or where students wore […]