By Bonnie Hauser I’m fascinated by the enthusiastic support that many of our elected officials have for Durham Orange Light Rail (DOLRT). County leaders have already committed nearly $2 billion of local sales taxes and fees to the $3.3 billion project and are preparing to commit more. Do they understand the growing risks and concerns […]
Mortgaging Our Transit Future
Posted by Nancy Oates on February 4, 2019
https://chapelhillwatch.com/2019/02/04/mortgaging-our-transit-future/
Operating at a loss
The old joke goes that a naïve business owner admitted he lost money on each product sale, but said, “I make up for it in volume.” Chapel Hill town staff are familiar with that business model, and after the Town Council retreat this past weekend, we are, too. We learned that for the past couple […]
Posted by Nancy Oates on January 28, 2019
https://chapelhillwatch.com/2019/01/28/operating-at-a-loss/
Act Now
If Chancellor Carol Folt needed a swan song, she got it Sunday night at the Martin Luther King Jr. Scholarship Dinner. Folt, who had long spoken up about her desire to relocate Silent Sam but early on had been tentative about acting on it, had recently come into her own, right before our eyes. Last […]
Posted by Nancy Oates on January 21, 2019
https://chapelhillwatch.com/2019/01/21/act-now-2/
Flooding and the FLUM
At our Jan. 9 work session, Town Council took up the topic of the Future Land Use Map. Council must approve the FLUM before the Land Use Management Ordinance can be rewritten. Toward the end of the evening, Alisa Duffey Rogers, hired by the town to lead the LUMO rewrite, cajoled us into a game. […]
Posted by Nancy Oates on January 14, 2019
https://chapelhillwatch.com/2019/01/14/flooding-and-the-flum/
Plunge Into the New Year
For the first time in my life, I live in a neighborhood with a swimming pool. To celebrate the New Year, some of my neighbors and I took a polar bear plunge. That the weather was a mild 66 degrees helped, but not as much as you’d think. The water felt every bit the liquid […]
Posted by Nancy Oates on January 7, 2019
https://chapelhillwatch.com/2019/01/07/plunge-into-the-new-year/
Goodbye, 2018
Everyone wants progress; no one wants change. – Soren Kierkegaard We should unfurl that wisdom on a banner over the dais in Town Council chambers, because that sums up the theme of nearly every council meeting. Development proposals dominate our weekly agendas. Every new development brings with it troublesome side effects. In order to be […]
Posted by Nancy Oates on December 31, 2018
https://chapelhillwatch.com/2018/12/31/goodbye-2018/
Touchstones
The holidays seem to be more hectic this year, perhaps because I had this idea that after we finished our Dec. 5 Town Council meeting and wouldn’t resume meeting until our work session on Jan. 9, I would have a month’s vacation. It didn’t work out that way. Deadlines continued, as did advisory board meetings. […]
Posted by Nancy Oates on December 24, 2018
https://chapelhillwatch.com/2018/12/24/touchstones/
Learn the History
When I heard Chancellor Folt blithely announce the plans to spend $5.3 million to build a home for a Confederate monument that glorifies the South’s willingness to go to war to preserve slavery, I wondered whether anyone had briefed her on the battle to build the Sonja Haynes Stone Center for Black History and Culture. […]
Posted by Nancy Oates on December 18, 2018
https://chapelhillwatch.com/2018/12/18/learn-the-history/
Shelter From the Storm
I had intended to write about the Silent Sam decision, after first going to the holiday reception Sunday afternoon at the home of UNC Chancellor Carol Folt and collecting opinions of some of the top brass at the university who have attended in the past. But then it snowed, and the party was […]
Posted by Nancy Oates on December 10, 2018
https://chapelhillwatch.com/2018/12/10/shelter-from-the-storm-2/
People + Places = Community
I spent last Saturday morning in a workshop sponsored by the Historic District Commission that emphasized the importance of community to our quality of life. I spent the afternoon talking with low-income seniors and people with disabilities about how the town could be more livable for them. The issues they brought up had at their […]
Posted by Nancy Oates on December 3, 2018
https://chapelhillwatch.com/2018/12/03/people-places-community/