Maybe Town Council’s next intercity visit should be to Paris, a city that Raleigh Mayor Nancy McFarlane cited as her favorite because of its low buildings. At council’s Nov. 15 meeting, we reviewed a concept plan for a 5-story building of apartments, offices and retail, with 68 parking spaces on less than 4 acres at […]
All posts tagged Growth
Will we always have Paris?
Posted by Nancy Oates on November 27, 2017
http://chapelhillwatch.com/2017/11/27/will-we-always-have-paris/
Economics of affordability
A council member told of going to dinner at a new restaurant in town and having to wait a half-hour for a table. Initially, he took that as a good sign of how well the new business was faring. But once he was seated, he noticed that several tables had been removed since the last […]
Posted by Nancy Oates on October 9, 2017
http://chapelhillwatch.com/2017/10/09/economics-of-affordability/
To a Healthy New Year
My husband and I gave each other matching colds for Christmas this year, not the gifts we had intended, but a result of getting out and into the community more than I have in years past. When it comes to germs, especially in the holiday season, I’ve tried not to give back. And that means […]
Posted by Nancy Oates on January 2, 2017
http://chapelhillwatch.com/2017/01/02/to-a-healthy-new-year/
The Deciders
Recently I asked the town manager for an organizational flow chart of town staff that would show who was in charge of what. I received 18 pages of charts in response, most of which broke out the hierarchy of positions in each department. The collection led off, however, with a master chart of management levels. […]
Posted by Nancy Oates on August 9, 2016
http://chapelhillwatch.com/2016/08/09/the-deciders/
What we do best
Decades ago, a running coach told me, “The only way to run faster is to run faster.” Pre-empting Nike’s “Just Do It” slogan by nearly a generation, the coach’s advice has proved useful in all sorts of situations in my life. Now it appears I can apply it to Town Council work. The town has […]
Posted by Nancy Oates on January 18, 2016
http://chapelhillwatch.com/2016/01/18/what-we-do-best/
Not just a numbers game
For all the talk about the rigorous approval process in Chapel Hill quashing development, the town sure has grown prodigiously in the past 20 years. Drawing on U.S. Census Bureau figures from 1990 and 2010, public policy strategist John Quinterno pointed out that the town’s population has increased by almost 50% and the number of […]
Posted by Nancy Oates on July 27, 2015
http://chapelhillwatch.com/2015/07/27/not-just-a-numbers-game/
Cloud could brighten our economy
Thank you to Orange Politics for hosting a reception Friday evening for all the candidates in our rectangle of Chapel Hill, Carrboro, Hillsborough and the Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools to meet one another. Perhaps the gratitude comes most strongly from our family and friends who have listened, with eyes glazed, to us go on and […]
Posted by Nancy Oates on July 20, 2015
http://chapelhillwatch.com/2015/07/20/cloud-could-brighten-our-economy/
Just because they can
Last week a man carried a loaded assault rifle into the Atlanta airport while he dropped off his daughter for her flight. Georgia passed a law last year that allows permitted gun owners to carry loaded weapons in an airport, as long as they don’t go through the TSA security checkpoint. The man said he […]
Posted by Nancy Oates on June 8, 2015
http://chapelhillwatch.com/2015/06/08/just-because-they-can/
Aspiring to be what we’re not?
Krispy Kreme closed its Franklin Street shop earlier this month after less than 5 years. A few doors away, Cold Stone shut down two months earlier. Farther west along Franklin, GiGi’s Cupcakes left town at the end of last year. But locally owned Sugarland still plies its pastries and gelato after nigh on eight years. […]
Posted by Nancy Oates on May 25, 2015
http://chapelhillwatch.com/2015/05/25/aspiring-to-be-what-were-not/
Smart shoppers
As a value shopper, I perked up my ears at economist David Shreve’s message that we should choose new development projects because we want what they will bring to the town, not because we mistakenly think they will bring in additional revenue. Shreve, president of Advocates for a Sustainable Albemarle Population and a former professor […]
Posted by Nancy Oates on May 4, 2015
http://chapelhillwatch.com/2015/05/04/smart-shoppers/