After our week of worry, it feels like we dodged a bullet when Hurricane Florence shifted south. In Chapel Hill, the power outages were short-lived, the flooding no worse than expected, and no one has died. Those of us who lived here through Hurricane Fran feel a guilty relief — and empathy after seeing the […]
All posts in category Town staff
The Florence side of trees
Posted by Nancy Oates on September 24, 2018
http://chapelhillwatch.com/2018/09/24/the-florence-side-of-trees/
Where we go from here
Silent Sam made sure that town manager Roger Stancil did not go gentle into that good night. Stancil wrapped up his more than 12 years in Chapel Hill town staff’s top post on Saturday and was working nigh until midnight on his to-do list. The many hours of meetings to coordinate with UNC Police and […]
Posted by Nancy Oates on September 3, 2018
http://chapelhillwatch.com/2018/09/03/where-we-go-from-here/
What Does Democracy Look Like?
Talk about a baptism by fire: His first day on the job, town manager Maurice Jones had to deal with a “spontaneous” rally by activists that ended with the toppling of Silent Sam, making national news. The statue’s demise happened close to the one-year anniversary of the deadly protest in Charlottesville, where Jones had been […]
Posted by Nancy Oates on August 27, 2018
http://chapelhillwatch.com/2018/08/27/what-does-democracy-look-like/
2018 Season Finale
As the bad news piled up — cruelty and crassness at the national level and callousness from state legislators — a friend commented: “I no longer feel proud to be an American.” I know the feeling. At last Wednesday’s Town Council meeting — our last of the season — we treated the public to 5 […]
Posted by Nancy Oates on July 2, 2018
http://chapelhillwatch.com/2018/07/02/2018-season-finale/
Won’t you be my neighbor?
Is all affordable housing good? Is it morally defensible to put affordable housing somewhere that you wouldn’t put other housing? These questions came to mind last Wednesday during a Chapel Hill Town Council meeting at which representatives of the town’s Office for Housing and Community proposed putting affordable housing on three parcels of town-owned land […]
Posted by Don Evans on June 25, 2018
http://chapelhillwatch.com/2018/06/25/wont-you-be-my-neighbor/
Onward and upward together
Instead of going to the library for our next Town Council retreat, perhaps we could go to Africa and climb Mt. Kilimanjaro together. Business leaders talk about the benefits mountain climbing can have for team building; mountain climbers talk about the necessity of having a strong-functioning team before you set off up the trail. One […]
Posted by Nancy Oates on June 18, 2018
http://chapelhillwatch.com/2018/06/18/onward-and-upward-together/
How Generous Can We Afford to Be?
Richard Jenrette snagged his dream job right out of college — sportswriter for the N&O. A few years into it, though, he looked around and noticed that newspaper people didn’t make much money. He enrolled in Harvard Business School to learn a more lucrative trade. Jenrette, the “J” in the enormously successful brokerage firm DLJ […]
Posted by Nancy Oates on June 11, 2018
http://chapelhillwatch.com/2018/06/11/how-generous-can-we-afford-to-be/
Autopsy of a vote
After my colleagues on Town Council blew off applying for a quarter million dollars of free money toward the purchase of the American Legion property at the April 18 meeting, I was so disheartened I went out and got #NeverAgain tattooed on my chest. (Just kidding, Mom.) So when I walked into the April 25 […]
Posted by Nancy Oates on April 30, 2018
http://chapelhillwatch.com/2018/04/30/autopsy-of-a-vote/
Fear trumps finances
Last week Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents swept through the Triangle and snatched up more than two dozen Latinx residents suspected of being in the U.S. without proper documentation. An ICE spokesman claimed that the majority of those taken into custody had criminal convictions. But anecdotally, those in Chapel Hill were law-abiding, gainfully employed […]
Posted by Nancy Oates on April 16, 2018
http://chapelhillwatch.com/2018/04/16/fear-trumps-finances/
Noisy Neighbors
Chapel Hill’s noise ordinance aims to ensure reasonable peace and quiet for residents in their homes. Typically, people use the law to rein in loud parties or construction projects that go on into the wee hours of the morning. Does that mean people who work from home or cover night shifts and sleep during the […]
Posted by Nancy Oates on March 12, 2018
http://chapelhillwatch.com/2018/03/12/noisy-neighbors/