An out-of-state developer recently purchased two houses next door to one another in one of Chapel Hill’s historic districts. The Historic District Commission is bracing for the prospect of demolition applications for the two gracious historic homes. State law, which trumps local laws, does not protect historic properties. If a Historic District Commission denies a […]
Improving with age
Posted by Nancy Oates on November 25, 2018
https://chapelhillwatch.com/2018/11/25/improving-with-age/
Views across the board
When my computer failed last month, I spent a few hours at the Apple Genius Bar, a sort of emergency room for digital devices in distress. As I waited for new software to install itself very slowly, I got to hear snippets of people’s lives as told through their troubled phones and iPads and MacBooks. […]
Posted by Nancy Oates on November 19, 2018
https://chapelhillwatch.com/2018/11/19/views-across-the-board/
Resiliency
Do weather events seem more severe in recent years? The Triangle Regional Resilience Partnership checked our perceptions against the data and found that, yes, flooding of greater intensity happens more frequently, and droughts last longer. The trajectory is unlikely to reverse itself anytime soon, despite our efforts to take the bus more frequently or adjust […]
Posted by Nancy Oates on November 12, 2018
https://chapelhillwatch.com/2018/11/12/resiliency/
What Dylan Teaches About Aging
I went to a Bob Dylan concert at DPAC this past weekend, the first rock concert I’d been to in decades. What a change between then and now. One similarity, though: Audience members were still my peers age-wise. Back in the day, I went to concerts with other teenagers and 20-somethings. Last weekend’s Dylan concert […]
Posted by Nancy Oates on November 5, 2018
https://chapelhillwatch.com/2018/11/05/what-dylan-teaches-about-aging/
Where are the Republicans?
When I turned 18, I registered to vote as a Democrat, and I haven’t wavered since. So why did I feel uneasy when I went to vote last week and saw a string of Democrats on the ballot running unopposed? Orange County, with the vast majority of its population residing in the southern part of […]
Posted by Nancy Oates on October 29, 2018
https://chapelhillwatch.com/2018/10/29/where-are-the-republicans/
Vote like it’s finals
After my first child was born, I considered making a career change that would involve going back to college for several classes. I lived in New York City at the time, and my babysitter was a student at a different college than the one I attended. All of us relied on public transit to get […]
Posted by Nancy Oates on October 22, 2018
https://chapelhillwatch.com/2018/10/22/vote-like-its-finals/
How old is too old?
Age discrimination reared its ugly head at last week’s Town Council meeting. And this time, because we were talking about edifices, the youngster took the hit. Staff made two proposals — the first to donate town-owned land to be used to relocate nearly century-old tiny houses to be used for affordable housing; and the second, […]
Posted by Nancy Oates on October 15, 2018
https://chapelhillwatch.com/2018/10/15/how-old-is-too-old/
Where’s that hatchet?
During the inter-city visit to Lawrence, Kan., last month, some of us went to a hatchet bar. (No taxpayer dollars were spent there.) It’s like darts, only with a hatchet thrown into a thick, wooden wall, instead of a pin in a corkboard. It’s harder than it looks, and very few in our group were […]
Posted by Nancy Oates on October 8, 2018
https://chapelhillwatch.com/2018/10/08/wheres-that-hatchet/
What happens in Lawrence …
At the very last session on our intercity visit to Lawrence, Kan., participants stood up, Quaker meeting style, to say thank you to someone or to commit to something. It had been a jam-packed, eye-opening, exhausting three days, and we were trying to synthesize all we had learned before climbing back aboard the bus and […]
Posted by Nancy Oates on October 1, 2018
https://chapelhillwatch.com/2018/10/01/what-happens-in-lawrence/
The cost of crime
In the U.S. 1 in 4 of us has a criminal record; 4 in 4 of us have a criminal history. Ever driven over the speed limit? Had a drink while underage? Inhaled? Three out of 4 of us are the lucky ones, to have had the luxury of not getting caught. Last Thursday, the […]
Posted by Nancy Oates on September 24, 2018
https://chapelhillwatch.com/2018/09/24/the-cost-of-crime/