For our rehearsal dinner, my husband-to-be and I wanted to serve a carrot cake from a restaurant that was special to us. The restaurant owner gave our contact information to the woman who baked the cakes. The next day her husband called and explained that his wife was an opera singer and baked the cakes […]
All posts tagged development
Words matter
Posted by Nancy Oates on March 4, 2019
http://chapelhillwatch.com/2019/03/04/words-matter/
Operating at a loss
The old joke goes that a naïve business owner admitted he lost money on each product sale, but said, “I make up for it in volume.” Chapel Hill town staff are familiar with that business model, and after the Town Council retreat this past weekend, we are, too. We learned that for the past couple […]
Posted by Nancy Oates on January 28, 2019
http://chapelhillwatch.com/2019/01/28/operating-at-a-loss/
Flooding and the FLUM
At our Jan. 9 work session, Town Council took up the topic of the Future Land Use Map. Council must approve the FLUM before the Land Use Management Ordinance can be rewritten. Toward the end of the evening, Alisa Duffey Rogers, hired by the town to lead the LUMO rewrite, cajoled us into a game. […]
Posted by Nancy Oates on January 14, 2019
http://chapelhillwatch.com/2019/01/14/flooding-and-the-flum/
Goodbye, 2018
Everyone wants progress; no one wants change. – Soren Kierkegaard We should unfurl that wisdom on a banner over the dais in Town Council chambers, because that sums up the theme of nearly every council meeting. Development proposals dominate our weekly agendas. Every new development brings with it troublesome side effects. In order to be […]
Posted by Nancy Oates on December 31, 2018
http://chapelhillwatch.com/2018/12/31/goodbye-2018/
People + Places = Community
I spent last Saturday morning in a workshop sponsored by the Historic District Commission that emphasized the importance of community to our quality of life. I spent the afternoon talking with low-income seniors and people with disabilities about how the town could be more livable for them. The issues they brought up had at their […]
Posted by Nancy Oates on December 3, 2018
http://chapelhillwatch.com/2018/12/03/people-places-community/
Resiliency
Do weather events seem more severe in recent years? The Triangle Regional Resilience Partnership checked our perceptions against the data and found that, yes, flooding of greater intensity happens more frequently, and droughts last longer. The trajectory is unlikely to reverse itself anytime soon, despite our efforts to take the bus more frequently or adjust […]
Posted by Nancy Oates on November 12, 2018
http://chapelhillwatch.com/2018/11/12/resiliency/
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/
Quintessential Chapel Hill Fan
When friends and I would go to baseball games at Yankee Stadium, we always scanned the crowd for nominees to our Quintessential Yankee Fan Hall of Fame. Yankee fans were quite different from Mets fans, I noticed on my very rare trips to Shea Stadium. Perusing crowds became a habit, and when I’m out and […]
Posted by Nancy Oates on July 23, 2018
http://chapelhillwatch.com/2018/07/23/quintessential-chapel-hill-fan/
Do We Want Diversity?
In an effort to improve our chances of recouping through tax revenue the $10 million taxpayers invested in infrastructure in the area now known as Blue Hill, Town Council members considered options for increasing the amount of commercial space in the district. At our June 27 council meeting, we talked about changing the form-based code […]
Posted by Nancy Oates on July 9, 2018
http://chapelhillwatch.com/2018/07/09/do-we-want-diversity/
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/