Such generosity we Orange County taxpayers show. Why, just look at the salary and benefits package we are paying County School Superintendent Del Burns — an annual rate of nearly $300,000. Add up his base pay, health coverage, a monthly car allowance of $250 and another $50 a month toward his cell phone, and we […]
Burned by Burns?
Posted by Nancy Oates on December 22, 2014
https://chapelhillwatch.com/2014/12/22/burned-by-burns/
Urban renewal
Don heard that a store in Burlington sold Cheerwine with real sugar, not high-fructose corn syrup, and always one to encourage a healthy lifestyle, I went with him to search. I’d never been to Burlington beyond the outlet stores that used to flourish off the interstate until Tanger Mall lured them away. As we drove […]
Posted by Nancy Oates on December 15, 2014
https://chapelhillwatch.com/2014/12/15/urban-renewal/
Council must govern
Form-based code — it’s everywhere in Chapel Hill these days. First, Town Council approved it for 190 acres in the Ephesus-Fordham area. Currently, Northwood Ravin is trying to get the same liberties offered by form-based code, though it hasn’t used the highly charged term, in its proposed mixed-use development The Edge, at the corner of […]
Posted by Nancy Oates on December 8, 2014
https://chapelhillwatch.com/2014/12/08/council-must-govern/
Assembled governments
County elected officials spent a million dollars of taxpayers’ money on refurbishing a meeting space. You’d think they could have picked out comfortable chairs. Town and county staff and elected officials gathered around the meeting table, as well as those of us in the audience, squirmed and shifted uncomfortably in our seats, not because of […]
Posted by Nancy Oates on December 1, 2014
https://chapelhillwatch.com/2014/12/01/assembled-governments/
Ask a planner
This being the time of year to give thanks, I must acknowledge how grateful I am to my children, both of whom inherited their father’s lawyer gene, for the training they put me through during their teenage years. If I had not had those years of intensive practice asking laser-like questions to get to the […]
Posted by Nancy Oates on November 24, 2014
https://chapelhillwatch.com/2014/11/24/ask-a-planner/
Which workforce?
In an email to Town Council last month, Lee Perry, a principal of East West Partners, referred to Village Plaza Apartments as “workforce housing.” Perry, whose company is building the 266-unit apartment building in the vacant lot that used to be the site of a movie theater, explained that his rents, starting at $1,150 a […]
Posted by Nancy Oates on November 17, 2014
https://chapelhillwatch.com/2014/11/17/which-workforce/
Insurers hold cards
Don and I received an extortion letter last month. It came from our insurance company. If we did not sign a letter authorizing the company to increase our homeowners’ insurance premium by as much as 250 percent, the company would not renew our coverage. And if our insurance lapsed, our lender could call in our […]
Posted by Nancy Oates on November 10, 2014
https://chapelhillwatch.com/2014/11/10/insurers-hold-cards/
Ghost bikes
The electronic sign in the median of N.C. 54 urging cars to share the road with bikes might cause some drivers to keep alert to cyclists. The white Ghost Bike propped against the bridge railing next to Run-In Jim’s on MLK Jr. Boulevard will help them understand why. In early October, Pamela Lane was killed […]
Posted by Nancy Oates on November 3, 2014
https://chapelhillwatch.com/2014/11/03/ghost-bikes/
Two worlds
I make a lot of people angry, sometimes with what I write or what I do, or as my daughter told me once, “It’s just who you are.” But I don’t live in a world where the people who get angry at me would shoot me. But some who live in our community aren’t so […]
Posted by Nancy Oates on October 20, 2014
https://chapelhillwatch.com/2014/10/20/two-worlds-2/
Bike wreck
My husband almost became a statistic last week in a bike accident eerily similar to the one that killed cyclist Pamela Lane the week before. He and I had come out of the Community Center end of the greenway and were riding on the sidewalk along Estes during the after-work rush-hour. We chose to ride […]
Posted by Nancy Oates on October 13, 2014
https://chapelhillwatch.com/2014/10/13/bike-wreck/