Some town leaders have had it with this hick town and want to take Chapel Hill to the next level of cityhood. Town Council approved the redevelopment of Central West. Obey Creek is on track to sail through intact as the developer wants it. And council is poised to allow developers carte blanche in the […]
6,200 and counting
Posted by Nancy Oates on February 10, 2014
https://chapelhillwatch.com/2014/02/10/6200-and-counting/
Know the numbers
Orange County’s annual budget for 2014 is around $220 million. Chapel Hill’s is about $95 million. Owasa’s is another $43.5 million. Add those up – $358.5 million, even without Carrboro and Hillsborough – and divide by 365 (the number of days in a year), and you come up with the startling fact that our local […]
Posted by Nancy Oates on February 3, 2014
https://chapelhillwatch.com/2014/02/03/know-the-numbers/
Money, money, money
I read over the agenda for tonight’s Town Council meeting and felt the way I often feel when I pick up the mail this time of year – everyone wants my money. Over the past few months, council has heard about some wonderful plans to make our town a better place. And now it comes […]
Posted by Nancy Oates on January 27, 2014
https://chapelhillwatch.com/2014/01/27/money-money-money/
Be our guest
Business investors have figured it out before some of the rest of us: Chapel Hill is a nice place to visit, but you wouldn’t want to live here. When Town Council meets next on Wednesday (the regular Monday night meeting has been shifted due to the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday), members will consider a […]
Posted by Nancy Oates on January 20, 2014
https://chapelhillwatch.com/2014/01/20/1722/
Who’s the boss?
A while back, someone I know made a disparaging comment to a Town Council member about town manager Roger Stancil. The council member responded sharply, “Don’t talk about my boss that way.” Pause while you think about what’s wrong with that statement. Not long ago, I gossiped to another council member about the other council […]
Posted by Nancy Oates on January 13, 2014
https://chapelhillwatch.com/2014/01/13/whos-the-boss/
Tenant cap could tap down rents
UNC student Kylee Wooten has the proper mindset to succeed as a first-year associate in a big-city law firm: a willing slave mentality that all but welcomes abuse. I gleaned this from an essay she wrote pleading for the town to raise the occupancy cap on the number of unrelated people who can live together […]
Posted by Nancy Oates on January 6, 2014
https://chapelhillwatch.com/2014/01/06/tenant-cap-could-tap-down-rents/
We did what this year?
What a ride 2013 turned out to be. Yet despite the ups and downs, we moved forward. We began the year with Town Council members choosing Sally Greene over 10 other well-qualified and diverse candidates to fill the seat Penny Rich vacated a couple months before. In the November election this year, Greene was elected […]
Posted by Nancy Oates on December 30, 2013
https://chapelhillwatch.com/2013/12/30/we-did-what-this-year/
Annual lights tour
I never got around to putting up our Christmas lights this year, save for a lighted tree that opens like an umbrella. You know the kind – the Who’s in Whoville have them. This year I had time to either decorate the house or shop for presents, and I believe my family will appreciate that […]
Posted by Nancy Oates on December 23, 2013
https://chapelhillwatch.com/2013/12/23/annual-lights-tour/
Random consequences
More than a thousand students waited outside the Dean Dome in a cold, steady rain for hours Saturday afternoon for a chance to watch the UNC-Kentucky men’s basketball game. But their sacrifice was for naught due to a new practice called “randomization” that the Dean Dome ticket office put into play recently. The intent is […]
Posted by Nancy Oates on December 16, 2013
https://chapelhillwatch.com/2013/12/16/random-consequences/
Parade of new businesses
The Holiday Parade marches down Franklin Street this Saturday, starting at 10 a.m. in front of the post office. Here’s a list of businesses along the parade route that are new in the past year, and some that have closed: Top This! opened in the former Jack Sprat Café spot. Insomnia Cookies opened where Clothes […]
Posted by Nancy Oates on December 9, 2013
https://chapelhillwatch.com/2013/12/09/parade-of-new-businesses/