If it were up to me, the only 8-story structure I’d build in Obey Creek would be a water slide. I’d accessorize it with a batting cage and a miniature golf course. I’d put a grocery store nearby, but a Walmart would be a tough sell, if we’ve learned anything from the Chatham County residents’ […]

What was the difference between The Cottages and Obey Creek? Both projects went before the Town Council Monday night. The Cottages would build 330 dwellings on 33 acres off Homestead Road. Obey Creek would put 1,200 dwellings and 570,000 square feet of retail/office space on 120 acres across the road from Southern Village. Council members […]

The Town Council’s leanings at Monday night’s meeting took us by surprise, giving a thumbs down on The Cottages student apartments along Homestead Road and insisting on commercial space in Obey Creek across from Southern Village. It prompted a discussion between Don and me about what sort of business would draw us to shop in […]

Riders who board Chapel Hill Transit buses this week and are offered passenger surveys should think long and hard about filling out those forms – they may be a ticket to ride less. CHT is conducting an on-board passenger survey designed to cover such topics as convenience of routes, service levels and availability of information. […]

As UNC alumni from 40 or 50 years ago can and will tell you, much has changed on campus and in town over the decades. Chapel Hill is no longer the quaint little village whose merchants accepted IOU’s for tickets to the picture show when the banks closed in the 1930s; or where students wore […]

There’s one way the U.S. Census is saving money – on office space. At least, that’s what’s happening in Chapel Hill. On Thursday, I met up with a crew leader, one of the folks who coordinate the actions of a group of enumerators, who is using the last three rows of tables at a Burger […]

There goes the neighborhood, and it looks like it’s due, if not to the hand of God, at least an arm of the Catholic church. John Stone, a resident of the St. James neighborhood, situated next door to St. Thomas More Church, petitioned Town Council Monday night for help. He said that when council approved […]

We sat in the large civics room of a local newspaper, 12 of us and an instructor. The group included a former newspaper editor, a scientist, a woman who had just received a doctorate, a former milkman, a retiree, a student, an artist and several IT professionals. We were all there to learn how to […]

Marketing is everything, especially when it comes to easing development through the town’s approval process. Witness The Cottages at Homestead. The name evokes images of cozy little clapboard-sided single-story abodes, flowers in the window boxes, snuggled together in a clearing. But look at the specs: The 1,175 parking spaces is your first indication that “cozy” […]

Next week I will begin training to be a U.S. Census enumerator. Yes, I will be one of those folks who go from dwelling to dwelling to gather information to complete the decannual count. The Census expects to hire 870,000 temporary workers such as myself to go around and knock on doors – as many […]