North Carolina has 77 pages of gun laws on its books. But can they be enforced? A panel of 16 high school and college students discussed gun violence at a reverse town hall organized by the UNC Institute for Politics. The IOP invited four legislators from the N.C. General Assembly to pose questions to the […]
Reverse Town Hall
Posted by Nancy Oates on April 23, 2018
https://chapelhillwatch.com/2018/04/23/reverse-town-hall/
Fear trumps finances
Last week Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents swept through the Triangle and snatched up more than two dozen Latinx residents suspected of being in the U.S. without proper documentation. An ICE spokesman claimed that the majority of those taken into custody had criminal convictions. But anecdotally, those in Chapel Hill were law-abiding, gainfully employed […]
Posted by Nancy Oates on April 16, 2018
https://chapelhillwatch.com/2018/04/16/fear-trumps-finances/
Real Diversity
People celebrate with music and dance all over the world. And that takes many forms. We got a taste of that variety this past Sunday afternoon at the Near & Far festival on the plaza at 140 West. Dancers from Colombia sashayed and stomped to a drum-heavy arrangement. Women from Korea swirled in colorful silks […]
Posted by Nancy Oates on April 9, 2018
https://chapelhillwatch.com/2018/04/09/real-diversity/
Master Fleecing
When I read the editorial by Chapel Hill-Carrboro Chamber of Commerce head Aaron Nelson proposing what he called “master leasing” as a solution for high housing prices, I had to double-check the byline. Was this the same Aaron Nelson who stood before Town Council in 2014 swearing that Berkshire Apartments (then called Alexan) would be […]
Posted by Nancy Oates on April 2, 2018
https://chapelhillwatch.com/2018/04/02/master-fleecing/
Noisy Neighbors
Chapel Hill’s noise ordinance aims to ensure reasonable peace and quiet for residents in their homes. Typically, people use the law to rein in loud parties or construction projects that go on into the wee hours of the morning. Does that mean people who work from home or cover night shifts and sleep during the […]
Posted by Nancy Oates on March 12, 2018
https://chapelhillwatch.com/2018/03/12/noisy-neighbors/
Consensus? Maybe Not
Every time I hear someone on Town Council urging us to come to a consensus, I can’t help but think of the late British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher’s definition: “The process of abandoning all beliefs, principles, values and policies in search of something in which no one believes but to which no one objects.” We […]
Posted by Nancy Oates on March 4, 2018
https://chapelhillwatch.com/2018/03/04/consensus-maybe-not/
Move in
At last Wednesday’s Town Council meeting, the town’s Housing & Community staff presented an innovative plan to encourage municipal employees to live in Chapel Hill. Stronger communities result when people live in the town where they work, and work in the town where they live. Not to mention the improved functioning of the town in […]
Posted by Nancy Oates on February 26, 2018
https://chapelhillwatch.com/2018/02/26/move-in/
Our chance at the gold — gone
Chapel Hill should bid on hosting a Winter Olympics. Sure, we’d need to build a couple of ski slopes, one with fancy rails and jumps. We would have to retrofit the Dean Dome into an ice-skating rink. And we’d need to build a housing complex for the athletes, though we could repurpose it into affordable […]
Posted by Nancy Oates on February 19, 2018
https://chapelhillwatch.com/2018/02/19/our-chance-at-the-gold-gone/
Frederick Douglass’ life and us
When a Daily Tar Heel reporter asked me what I considered the most important contribution of Frederick Douglass, I hesitated. I didn’t know enough about the life of the abolitionist and former slave, born in Hillsborough, to rank-order his accomplishments. Fortunately, Orange County, the towns of Chapel Hill and Carrboro and the NAACP have joined […]
Posted by Nancy Oates on February 12, 2018
https://chapelhillwatch.com/2018/02/12/frederick-douglass-life-and-us/
Second chances
“Saving lives” likely did not appear in the job description when Beatrice Thompson signed on to work at the Red Roof Inn just off the I-40/U.S.-15-501 interchange. Yet for the man she found unresponsive in a hotel room last month, her prior knowledge of CPR made the difference between life and death. She performed chest […]
Posted by Nancy Oates on February 5, 2018
https://chapelhillwatch.com/2018/02/05/second-chances/