Trying to find an apartment in Chapel Hill affordable to your typical Chapel Hill worker takes diligence and a roommate. An apartment complex may advertise rent at one price, but by the time the management adds up all the additional mandatory fees — valet garbage pick-up, package delivery acceptance, weight room access, and Internet and […]
How much is that rent, really?
http://chapelhillwatch.com/2016/09/12/how-much-is-that-rent-really/
The price of doing right
Art Pope tried to buy his way into the university and failed. So Pope, the Dick Cheney of the McCrory administration, took another tack: He pressed the N.C. General Assembly, which has appointed several Republican cronies to the UNC System Board of Governors, to push out the system president, a man revered for his integrity, […]
http://chapelhillwatch.com/2015/01/19/the-price-of-doing-right/
Who wins?
You can’t make this stuff up. The Urban Land Institute of the Triangle lists Timber Hollow Apartments as a nominee to win an award for affordable housing. Ron Strom of Blue Heron Asset Management self-nominated his project, which Blue Heron sold to Eller Capital (after pocketing nearly $6 million profit from his $12.6 million investment […]
http://chapelhillwatch.com/2014/09/08/who-wins/
Section 8 crisis
The old joke goes that former first lady Nancy Reagan followed up her “Just Say No” drug abuse prevention program by tackling homelessness, with “Just Get a House.” Making decent housing available to people even in the lowest socio-economic categories has no simple solutions. Earlier this month the mayors of Chapel Hill and Carrboro staged […]
http://chapelhillwatch.com/2014/08/18/section-8-crisis/
Chapel Hill politics, Chicago style
My sister in Chicago periodically sends me articles about the shenanigans of Chicago politicians: ex-convicts who have served time for bribery, tax fraud and corruption running against one another; and a “visionary leader/advocate” filing to run again now that he’s out of prison for getting $40,000 of home renovations done in exchange for zoning changes […]
http://chapelhillwatch.com/2014/06/02/chapel-hill-politics-chicago-style/
Wreck-reation
Folks who attended the Town Council meeting Monday night in the Southern Human Services building off Homestead Road were treated to new definitions of recreation space. The meeting included a continuation of a hearing on the proposal by Blue Heron to expand the Timber Hollow apartments by adding 109 housing units. Fancy units would be […]
http://chapelhillwatch.com/2014/04/29/wreck-reation/
Hounding town staff
Town planning director J.B. Culpepper and I* went to see “The Great Gatsby” at the library, rather than attend the Planning Board meeting taking place at the same time. Culpepper evidently had confidence, as did I, that town planning department staff would do their job in presenting the revised plan for Timber Hollow to the […]
http://chapelhillwatch.com/2014/03/17/hounding-town-staff/
Limits on listening
I never thought I’d say this, but I miss those all-nighter council meetings. Town Council had a rich agenda for its Oct. 21 public hearing – a discussion of whether to add large swaths of land north of Chapel Hill, which included the Historic Rogers Road neighborhood, to the ETJ; Central West’s controversial proposal; and […]
http://chapelhillwatch.com/2013/10/28/limits-on-listening/
Free market
Developers and property owners who rant about their “right” to make the maximum profit regardless of how it affects the quality of life for the rest of the community should spend a couple hours at the end of a Saturday afternoon at the Orange County Solid Waste Convenience Center on Eubanks Road. There they could […]
http://chapelhillwatch.com/2013/09/23/free-market/
Invite them where?
I listened to a panel discussion on WCHL yesterday afternoon as I drove around doing errands in the rain. Local residents who held various leadership roles in Chapel Hill and Carrboro talked about their vision for the town. One comment in particular stuck with me. Delores Bailey, executive director of Empowerment, said she would like […]
http://chapelhillwatch.com/2013/04/29/invite-them-where/