As I waited for the traffic light to change at the corner of Columbia and Franklin streets on Friday afternoon, a school bus pulled up beside me. A little kid stuck his head out the window and yelled, “Yay! We made it to summer!” Council members undoubtedly are looking ahead a couple weeks to the […]
All posts in category Politics
We haven’t made it yet
Posted by Nancy Oates on June 15, 2015
http://chapelhillwatch.com/2015/06/15/we-havent-made-it-yet/
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With the UNC men’s basketball playing the Sweet 16 game of the NCAA tournament at the same time as the Assembly of Governments meeting on March 26, ours may not have been the only household fighting over who would get the TV. If you were disappointed in the outcome of the game, boost your spirits […]
Posted by Nancy Oates on April 6, 2015
http://chapelhillwatch.com/2015/04/06/skip-this-ad/
“Them” and who else?
Apparently, I’ve become one of “them.” At the reception the town hosted thanking Matt Czajkowski for more than seven years of public service before his final council meeting, Michael Parker caught up to George Cianciolo, who was heading into council chambers, and asked, “Who picked up the tab for all of this? The town? Or […]
Posted by Nancy Oates on March 30, 2015
http://chapelhillwatch.com/2015/03/30/them-and-who-else/
You’re invited!
Matt Czajkowski’s last council meeting will be Monday night, March 23. The Town Council will host a goodbye party for him at Town Hall a half-hour before the meeting begins, and you are invited. The party starts at 6:30 in the ante-chamber outside the auditorium where council meets. At 7 p.m., Mayor Mark Kleinschmidt will […]
Posted by Nancy Oates on March 23, 2015
http://chapelhillwatch.com/2015/03/23/youre-invited/
Own up to tax hike
Get ready for a tax hike, a one-two punch of county and town both wanting more from taxpayers. Talk of money hung heavy in the air last week, with the county commissioners continuing discussion (kudos to board chair Earl McKee for dissuading his colleagues from rubberstamping approval) of a $125 million bond in 2016, and […]
Posted by Nancy Oates on March 9, 2015
http://chapelhillwatch.com/2015/03/09/not-in-my-checkbook/
Talk, hear, act
Growth has proved a hot topic in the discussions in the local blogsphere recently. Participants have divided into two camps. One side believes that all growth is good and that new development of any kind will make money for the town and thus lower residential property taxes. The other side believes only nonresidential property is […]
Posted by Nancy Oates on March 2, 2015
http://chapelhillwatch.com/2015/03/02/talk-hear-act/
The price of doing right
Art Pope tried to buy his way into the university and failed. So Pope, the Dick Cheney of the McCrory administration, took another tack: He pressed the N.C. General Assembly, which has appointed several Republican cronies to the UNC System Board of Governors, to push out the system president, a man revered for his integrity, […]
Posted by Nancy Oates on January 19, 2015
http://chapelhillwatch.com/2015/01/19/the-price-of-doing-right/
Who wins?
You can’t make this stuff up. The Urban Land Institute of the Triangle lists Timber Hollow Apartments as a nominee to win an award for affordable housing. Ron Strom of Blue Heron Asset Management self-nominated his project, which Blue Heron sold to Eller Capital (after pocketing nearly $6 million profit from his $12.6 million investment […]
Posted by Nancy Oates on September 8, 2014
http://chapelhillwatch.com/2014/09/08/who-wins/
Money talks
Council sank to a new low Wednesday night in its decision to sell 523 E. Franklin St. to the UNC College of Arts & Sciences Foundation, not because of who council sold it to but why. The foundation’s bid was the lowest and the only one of the three bids that would keep the property […]
Posted by Nancy Oates on July 7, 2014
http://chapelhillwatch.com/2014/07/07/money-talks/
Breaking inauspicious
You know how you approached the start of every episode of “Breaking Bad” with the feeling that something was going to happen that you didn’t want to know about, but you watched it anyway? I get that feeling lately when I turn on the TV to watch a Town Council meeting. “Breaking Bad,” said to […]
Posted by Nancy Oates on June 16, 2014
http://chapelhillwatch.com/2014/06/16/breaking-inauspicious/