After the U.S. Department of the Interior retweeted a pair of aerial photos comparing the size of the crowd at President Obama’s inauguration in 2009 with the much sparser attendance at Donald Trump’s ceremony, Trump ordered the department’s Twitter accounts to be shut down. Soon after, all pages on Whitehouse.gov that made reference to civil […]
All posts in category Lifestyle
We the people
Posted by Nancy Oates on January 23, 2017
http://chapelhillwatch.com/2017/01/23/we-the-people/
I have a dream; do you?
Chapel Hill’s town manager Roger Stancil nailed it in his remarks at the close of the town employees’ celebration of Martin Luther King Jr. Day. The event took place at Hargraves Center just before lunch last Friday. The program included a dramatic re-enactment of Rosa Park’s story, starring Myra Evans of Parking Services; a musical […]
Posted by Nancy Oates on January 16, 2017
http://chapelhillwatch.com/2017/01/16/i-have-a-dream-do-you/
Lights in the Darkness
The gifts have been unwrapped; the holiday feast reduced to leftovers. But I hope the warmth and joy and generosity of the season have stayed with you. If you need a booster shot of Christmas spirit — especially if the past several months of the presidential campaign and the past several days of the N.C. […]
Posted by Nancy Oates on December 26, 2016
http://chapelhillwatch.com/2016/12/26/lights-in-the-darkness/
Giving back
When it comes to charitable giving, I wish “deep pockets” meant “bottomless resources.” But in reality, people and organizations have a finite amount of money they make available to donate to nonprofits. Competition for those dollars is fierce, as you may have guessed by the number of solicitations you have received in the past several […]
Posted by Nancy Oates on December 19, 2016
http://chapelhillwatch.com/2016/12/19/giving-back/
Parking — It’s not just for cars anymore
Chapel Hill’s parking problem extends beyond where to put your car when you go downtown. A truly vibrant downtown needs spots for pedestrians to park their bodies when they are fatigued or simply want to people watch or absorb the ambience. Last Tuesday, University of Kentucky Professor Ned Crankshaw came to town and shared some […]
Posted by Nancy Oates on December 5, 2016
http://chapelhillwatch.com/2016/12/05/parking-its-not-just-for-cars-anymore/
Living Stronger Together
The racial equity workshop I signed up for couldn’t have come at a better time — two days after the American people elected a president who campaigned to deport a large chunk of the workforce because of their ethnicity and to close our borders to Muslims and non-white refugees. For the most part, the workshop […]
Posted by Nancy Oates on November 28, 2016
http://chapelhillwatch.com/2016/11/28/living-stronger-together/
Who does LRT railroad?
We saw on Nov. 8 the depth of the frustration of white working-class voters. Many feel left out of the nation’s economic recovery and are fed up with subsidizing the lifestyle of the upwardly mobile. What lessons did Orange County commissioners learn from the recent national election? We’ll see perhaps as early as Dec. 5, […]
Posted by Nancy Oates on November 21, 2016
http://chapelhillwatch.com/2016/11/21/who-does-lrt-railroad/
How we can win
Heaven help us, we have elected a hatemonger as our next president. The day before the election, I accompanied some foreign journalists, many of them from the Asia Pacific, to a Donald Trump rally in Raleigh. It felt like we were on a movie set for a gladiator film. With lies and innuendo, Trump kept […]
Posted by Nancy Oates on November 14, 2016
http://chapelhillwatch.com/2016/11/14/how-we-can-win/
The modestly paid are people, too
Swiss novelist Max Frisch’s quip, “We asked for workers; we got people instead,” applies as much to affordable housing as it does to the immigration issue he addressed in his day. At a council work session on Oct. 19, town staff presented the findings of David Paul Rosen & Associates, a consulting firm that we […]
Posted by Nancy Oates on November 7, 2016
http://chapelhillwatch.com/2016/11/07/the-modestly-paid-are-people-too/
Putting out
At last week’s Town Council meeting, a council member likened Chapel Hill giving Wegmans an incentive to locate here as “being the first girl to put out.” Many in the community seem to agree. I see it as a risk-free way to show companies that Chapel Hill is serious about being open for business. One […]
Posted by Nancy Oates on October 24, 2016
http://chapelhillwatch.com/2016/10/24/putting-out/