On a recent Friday, Mayor Mark Kleinschmidt tweeted that UNC was poised to make a Big Announcement about Northside, leaving us on tenterhooks all weekend. On Monday, the mayor and UNC Chancellor Carol Folt, along with some neighborhood and nonprofit dignitaries, took the stage and said UNC would lend $3 million interest-free for 10 years […]
All posts in category UNC
Saving grace
Posted by Nancy Oates on March 16, 2015
http://chapelhillwatch.com/2015/03/16/saving-grace/
We need a hero
It looks like the UNC Board of Governors may be celebrating Black History Month by closing down UNC’s Center for Poverty, Work and Opportunity. The 27% of blacks in North Carolina who live below the poverty line is more than twice the 12% of poverty-stricken whites in our state, which makes the timing of the […]
Posted by Nancy Oates on February 23, 2015
http://chapelhillwatch.com/2015/02/23/we-need-a-hero/
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/
Public-private = win-win
Chapel Hill needs a Stuyvesant Town, a large-scale complex of safe, well-built, no-frills apartments with rents affordable to your average working stiff. For some years during my New York days I lived in Stuy Town, an 11,000-unit complex built on 80 acres of what used to house leaky gas storage tanks and businesses and apartments […]
Posted by Nancy Oates on March 31, 2014
http://chapelhillwatch.com/2014/03/31/public-private-win-win/
Parking pickle
Town Council members spoke as one voice at Monday night’s meeting to make sure Chapel Hill taxpayers who want to park won’t be taken for a ride. UNC will start charging employees for its park-and-ride lots come August, forcing Chapel Hill to keep pace. After all, if commuters have a choice between a $2-a-day lot […]
Posted by Nancy Oates on March 27, 2013
http://chapelhillwatch.com/2013/03/27/parking-pickle/
Park it where?
Never have I been so glad to work from home as after listening to the presentation on the state of the town’s transit system. For an hour and a half last night, Chapel Hill Transit’s interim director, Brian Litchfield, waxed eloquent about where we are and where we’re going, bus-wise. Federal and state funding projections, […]
Posted by Nancy Oates on January 29, 2013
http://chapelhillwatch.com/2013/01/29/park-it-where-2/
Thank you, Gene Pease
Last night’s Town Council meeting ended at 12:25 this morning. And that was after Mayor Mark Kleinschmidt pushed a couple of items and appointments over to another meeting. Ed Harrison was right that, although only one agenda item invited public comment, people signed up to speak on several issues. Only one item – the transportation […]
Posted by Nancy Oates on September 25, 2012
http://chapelhillwatch.com/2012/09/25/thank-you-gene-pease/
Keeping up with campus
Five of nine council members made sure we now have a law banning some people from talking on cell phones while driving (although those five council members are exempt). The law will cost taxpayers an undetermined amount of money in an extraordinarily tight budget year. It will be impossible to enforce, according to police, and […]
Posted by Nancy Oates on April 5, 2012
http://chapelhillwatch.com/2012/04/05/keeping-up-with-campus/
Landmark proposal
Brace yourself. In a couple of weeks, Town Council will once again consider a housing project marketed to students. Landmark Properties is on the March 19 agenda to present another plan for The Retreat, a university student residential neighborhood. Last year, Landmark appeared before council with a concept plan review, and council shot it down. […]
Posted by Nancy Oates on March 7, 2012
http://chapelhillwatch.com/2012/03/07/landmark-proposal/
Hope springs eternal
A developer walked into a Town Council meeting, armed only with a PowerPoint presentation and high hopes. Does this joke sound familiar? You’ve heard it twice in the past couple months, first with Shortbread Lofts and most recently with Charterwood. So you know how it goes. Neighbors will object to the building height and density […]
Posted by Nancy Oates on February 21, 2012
http://chapelhillwatch.com/2012/02/21/hope-springs-eternal/