Council members must count how many of their colleagues attend an event lest enough of them gather in one place that they violate open meeting laws. Must they also count how many door prizes they win? The Friends of Downtown, at its holiday meeting on Dec. 6, gave out door prizes donated by downtown merchants. […]
Too lucky?
Posted by Nancy Oates on December 24, 2012
https://chapelhillwatch.com/2012/12/24/too-lucky/
Give them the business
From the way businesses have sprung up downtown, you’d never know that we’ve been through four years of a down economy started by a financial meltdown and we’re teetering on the edge of a fiscal cliff. Here’s a by no means exhaustive list of businesses that have opened downtown in the past year: Sweet Frog […]
Posted by Nancy Oates on December 17, 2012
https://chapelhillwatch.com/2012/12/17/give-them-the-business/
Who chooses?
The Central West Focus Area steering committee starts work next week, on Dec. 19. Only 16 members will gather in the first-floor conference room at Town Hall that night at 6 p.m. Seventeen people were recommended for appointment, but a little political gerrymandering went awry, and council members, in a vote by secret ballot, approved […]
Posted by Nancy Oates on December 10, 2012
https://chapelhillwatch.com/2012/12/10/who-chooses/
Peace on the dais
Talk about your lions lying down with your lambs. Council members at Monday night’s meeting demonstrated a collegiality I haven’t seen, even going back to those councils that rubber-stamped every vote, 9-0. Jim Ward and Ed Harrison backed Matt Czajkowski more than once. Lee Storrow softened his position to avoid a deadlock on the controversial […]
Posted by Nancy Oates on December 5, 2012
https://chapelhillwatch.com/2012/12/05/peace-on-the-dais/
On the road
As many of us sweat a dive off the impending fiscal cliff and recession that likely will follow, the Town of Chapel Hill has stirred a little economic stimulus in the Public Works Department. Tucked unobtrusively in the consent agenda for tonight’s Town Council meeting is a resolution to haul our trash to a Durham […]
Posted by Nancy Oates on December 3, 2012
https://chapelhillwatch.com/2012/12/03/on-the-road-2/
It’s wonderful — and tax deductible
Every time I see a long line of Chapel Hill residents queued up at Town Council meetings to give an impassioned speech about some project or issue dear to their hearts, I’m reminded of what an overall pretty good place Chapel Hill is to live. All of those people wouldn’t be spending their discretionary time […]
Posted by Nancy Oates on November 28, 2012
https://chapelhillwatch.com/2012/11/28/its-wonderful-and-tax-deductible/
Preferred by whom?
After running roughshod over the preference of voters out in the county by voting for the transit tax, Chapel Hill residents got a taste at the Nov. 19 Town Council meeting of what it felt like to be dismissed. Rural and urban voters differed sharply on whether to approve a tax that the bulk of […]
Posted by Nancy Oates on November 26, 2012
https://chapelhillwatch.com/2012/11/26/preferred-by-whom/
Council rejuvenated
Council members showed their better selves at last Monday’s meeting. They asked questions that indicated they had read and understood the reams of material in their binders. They stood firm on what they thought was best for the town. They called out 123 West developer Cousins Properties about discrepancies in the number of parking spaces […]
Posted by Nancy Oates on November 19, 2012
https://chapelhillwatch.com/2012/11/19/council-rejuvenated/
Banking on buffers
Call me a cynic – as if that never occurred to you before – but I can’t help wondering whether there is a connection between Roger Perry telling Town Council last week that he might spread his buildings in Obey Creek over all of the buildable acres (even though the land is laced with a […]
Posted by Nancy Oates on November 14, 2012
https://chapelhillwatch.com/2012/11/14/banking-on-buffers/
Keep talking
A certain peevishness has settled over Jim Ward this term. He snaps at his colleagues and makes motions and calls for votes before discussion has barely begun. It may be a manifestation of what many of us felt upon turning 50 and realizing that after working for 30 years, we’re tired, and we still have […]
Posted by Nancy Oates on November 12, 2012
https://chapelhillwatch.com/2012/11/12/keep-talking/