At our Jan. 9 work session, Town Council took up the topic of the Future Land Use Map. Council must approve the FLUM before the Land Use Management Ordinance can be rewritten. Toward the end of the evening, Alisa Duffey Rogers, hired by the town to lead the LUMO rewrite, cajoled us into a game. […]
All posts in category Community life
Flooding and the FLUM
Posted by Nancy Oates on January 14, 2019
http://chapelhillwatch.com/2019/01/14/flooding-and-the-flum/
Plunge Into the New Year
For the first time in my life, I live in a neighborhood with a swimming pool. To celebrate the New Year, some of my neighbors and I took a polar bear plunge. That the weather was a mild 66 degrees helped, but not as much as you’d think. The water felt every bit the liquid […]
Posted by Nancy Oates on January 7, 2019
http://chapelhillwatch.com/2019/01/07/plunge-into-the-new-year/
Goodbye, 2018
Everyone wants progress; no one wants change. – Soren Kierkegaard We should unfurl that wisdom on a banner over the dais in Town Council chambers, because that sums up the theme of nearly every council meeting. Development proposals dominate our weekly agendas. Every new development brings with it troublesome side effects. In order to be […]
Posted by Nancy Oates on December 31, 2018
http://chapelhillwatch.com/2018/12/31/goodbye-2018/
Touchstones
The holidays seem to be more hectic this year, perhaps because I had this idea that after we finished our Dec. 5 Town Council meeting and wouldn’t resume meeting until our work session on Jan. 9, I would have a month’s vacation. It didn’t work out that way. Deadlines continued, as did advisory board meetings. […]
Posted by Nancy Oates on December 24, 2018
http://chapelhillwatch.com/2018/12/24/touchstones/
Learn the History
When I heard Chancellor Folt blithely announce the plans to spend $5.3 million to build a home for a Confederate monument that glorifies the South’s willingness to go to war to preserve slavery, I wondered whether anyone had briefed her on the battle to build the Sonja Haynes Stone Center for Black History and Culture. […]
Posted by Nancy Oates on December 18, 2018
http://chapelhillwatch.com/2018/12/18/learn-the-history/
Shelter From the Storm
I had intended to write about the Silent Sam decision, after first going to the holiday reception Sunday afternoon at the home of UNC Chancellor Carol Folt and collecting opinions of some of the top brass at the university who have attended in the past. But then it snowed, and the party was […]
Posted by Nancy Oates on December 10, 2018
http://chapelhillwatch.com/2018/12/10/shelter-from-the-storm-2/
People + Places = Community
I spent last Saturday morning in a workshop sponsored by the Historic District Commission that emphasized the importance of community to our quality of life. I spent the afternoon talking with low-income seniors and people with disabilities about how the town could be more livable for them. The issues they brought up had at their […]
Posted by Nancy Oates on December 3, 2018
http://chapelhillwatch.com/2018/12/03/people-places-community/
Improving with age
An out-of-state developer recently purchased two houses next door to one another in one of Chapel Hill’s historic districts. The Historic District Commission is bracing for the prospect of demolition applications for the two gracious historic homes. State law, which trumps local laws, does not protect historic properties. If a Historic District Commission denies a […]
Posted by Nancy Oates on November 25, 2018
http://chapelhillwatch.com/2018/11/25/improving-with-age/
Views across the board
When my computer failed last month, I spent a few hours at the Apple Genius Bar, a sort of emergency room for digital devices in distress. As I waited for new software to install itself very slowly, I got to hear snippets of people’s lives as told through their troubled phones and iPads and MacBooks. […]
Posted by Nancy Oates on November 19, 2018
http://chapelhillwatch.com/2018/11/19/views-across-the-board/
Resiliency
Do weather events seem more severe in recent years? The Triangle Regional Resilience Partnership checked our perceptions against the data and found that, yes, flooding of greater intensity happens more frequently, and droughts last longer. The trajectory is unlikely to reverse itself anytime soon, despite our efforts to take the bus more frequently or adjust […]
Posted by Nancy Oates on November 12, 2018
http://chapelhillwatch.com/2018/11/12/resiliency/