Last week I walked along MLK Jr. Boulevard to go from my house off Piney Mountain Road to Harrington Bank. Schools had a delayed opening that day, and I passed several groups of high school students waiting along MLK for the school bus. Presumably they lived in the modest rentals and mobile homes in the [...]
All posts in category Ethics
The bleaching of Chapel Hill
Posted by Nancy Oates on May 6, 2013
http://chapelhillwatch.com/2013/05/06/the-bleaching-of-chapel-hill/
Save Del Snow
If you had told me six months ago that someday I would lead the cheering section for Planning Board chair Del Snow, I would have called you crazy. And now look. After Town Council’s Feb. 27 vote approving Bicycle Apartments, Snow wrote a letter to council questioning why council members didn’t postpone the vote until [...]
Posted by Nancy Oates on March 6, 2013
http://chapelhillwatch.com/2013/03/06/save-del-snow/
ACLU v. Chapel Hill
The next lawsuit shaping up could pit Chapel Hill against the ACLU. On Friday, town attorney Ralph Karpinos received a letter from the legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union of North Carolina warning that constitutionally the town can’t bar the ad placed on town buses by Church of Reconciliation that advocates for the [...]
Posted by Nancy Oates on October 1, 2012
http://chapelhillwatch.com/2012/10/01/aclu-v-chapel-hill/
Save all of us from ourselves
The town has confidence in us to use our handguns responsibly in public parks, and perhaps to use our cell phones responsibly on public roads (unless we are single or in a marriage not recognized by the state or are childless or orphaned), but not to make decisions in the best interest of health regarding [...]
Posted by Nancy Oates on March 26, 2012
http://chapelhillwatch.com/2012/03/26/save-all-of-us-from-ourselves/
New year resolutions?
Council meetings resume one week from tonight. Here’s a glimpse of what may grace the agenda in 2012: Homeless shelter’s Good Neighbor Plan: A Better Site representatives are participating in the meetings, but IFC won’t allow the proceedings to be recorded. A Better Site wants teeth to the plan, consequences if the tenets are violated; [...]
Posted by Nancy Oates on January 2, 2012
http://chapelhillwatch.com/2012/01/02/new-year-resolutions/
2011 highlights
A sign in the window of the tax office at Town Hall, where about a dozen of us were waiting to pay our taxes yesterday around lunchtime, lists various products the town sells to market itself: flags, tote bags, books and ball caps. As I totaled up my various tax bills – vehicle, business, real [...]
Posted by Nancy Oates on December 29, 2011
http://chapelhillwatch.com/2011/12/29/2011-highlights/
Rubygate
What does it take to get kicked off a volunteer committee? Ruby Sinreich found out recently when she was called on the carpet for some inappropriate tweets she sent during a CH2020 meeting. Sinreich was the co-chair of the outreach committee, and feeling frustrated during a CH2020 meeting, she tweeted publicly a derogatory comment that [...]
Posted by Nancy Oates on December 13, 2011
http://chapelhillwatch.com/2011/12/13/rubygate/
Shame of the NCAA
I agree with Tom Sorensen’s piece in the Oct. 27 News & Observer that college athletes should be paid. Paying student-athletes seems like the right thing to do. After all, how is a student-athlete’s work at his or her sport any different from that of a work-study student, except the work-study student gets paid? But [...]
Posted by Don Evans on October 28, 2011
http://chapelhillwatch.com/2011/10/28/shame-of-the-ncaa/
Trick or tweet
At Monday night’s Town Council meeting, when once again I heard the tremor in a grown man’s voice as he spoke at the podium in front of a ring of council members, a phalanx of staff, a smattering of people in the audience and a couple of TV cameras, it brought home to me how [...]
Posted by Nancy Oates on October 20, 2011
http://chapelhillwatch.com/2011/10/20/trick-or-tweet/
Redemption
On Wednesday, I learned from school system spokeswoman Stephanie Knott that the donation to Rashkis Elementary School that resulted from the retirement party Penny Rich catered amounted to $25, a check the school received from Rich on Aug. 26. That cast a worse pall over what started out as a well-intentioned party to honor a [...]
Posted by Nancy Oates on September 1, 2011
http://chapelhillwatch.com/2011/09/01/redemption/