An email circulated recently asking elected officials to sign a letter in support of abolishing ICE, the federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency. I read it and sighed. Once again, pressure is on us to perform some gesture that maybe looks like we are doing something for a righteous cause but in reality would do […]
ICE on Ice?
Posted by Nancy Oates on July 16, 2018
https://chapelhillwatch.com/2018/07/16/ice-on-ice/
Do We Want Diversity?
In an effort to improve our chances of recouping through tax revenue the $10 million taxpayers invested in infrastructure in the area now known as Blue Hill, Town Council members considered options for increasing the amount of commercial space in the district. At our June 27 council meeting, we talked about changing the form-based code […]
Posted by Nancy Oates on July 9, 2018
https://chapelhillwatch.com/2018/07/09/do-we-want-diversity/
2018 Season Finale
As the bad news piled up — cruelty and crassness at the national level and callousness from state legislators — a friend commented: “I no longer feel proud to be an American.” I know the feeling. At last Wednesday’s Town Council meeting — our last of the season — we treated the public to 5 […]
Posted by Nancy Oates on July 2, 2018
https://chapelhillwatch.com/2018/07/02/2018-season-finale/
Onward and upward together
Instead of going to the library for our next Town Council retreat, perhaps we could go to Africa and climb Mt. Kilimanjaro together. Business leaders talk about the benefits mountain climbing can have for team building; mountain climbers talk about the necessity of having a strong-functioning team before you set off up the trail. One […]
Posted by Nancy Oates on June 18, 2018
https://chapelhillwatch.com/2018/06/18/onward-and-upward-together/
How Generous Can We Afford to Be?
Richard Jenrette snagged his dream job right out of college — sportswriter for the N&O. A few years into it, though, he looked around and noticed that newspaper people didn’t make much money. He enrolled in Harvard Business School to learn a more lucrative trade. Jenrette, the “J” in the enormously successful brokerage firm DLJ […]
Posted by Nancy Oates on June 11, 2018
https://chapelhillwatch.com/2018/06/11/how-generous-can-we-afford-to-be/
DOLRT bills: woulda, coulda, shoulda
Think of the transformative impact $14.5 million could have had on Orange County if we had spent it on extending bus lines so the modestly paid could commute to work and fewer people would have to rely on cars. Instead, Orange County commissioners gambled it away on studies, design and engineering for a light rail […]
Posted by Nancy Oates on June 4, 2018
https://chapelhillwatch.com/2018/06/04/dolrt-bills-woulda-coulda-shoulda/
Mama Dip’s Legacy
Chapel Hill laid to rest one of its better-known and much-revered residents yesterday. Mildred Council died May 20 at age 89. Unexpectedly, perhaps because she was an icon, and we all thought that Mama Dip would always be there. She always was there, for anyone in the community who could use a meal or two […]
Posted by Nancy Oates on May 28, 2018
https://chapelhillwatch.com/2018/05/28/mama-dips-legacy/
Honor Council
Not long ago, a few members of Duke University’s Honor Council spoke with students at McDougle Middle School about the roles of morals and ethics in making good decisions. Honor Council members set up a scenario for the moral dilemma all of us have faced more than once in our lives — You see someone […]
Posted by Nancy Oates on May 21, 2018
https://chapelhillwatch.com/2018/05/21/honor-council/
The value of green
To hear business leaders and major investors speak in favor of the need for greenspace as density increases gave me hope. At the Eggs With Elected Officials gathering on April 18, sponsored by the Chapel Hill-Carrboro Chamber of Commerce, the topic of what to do with the 36 acres the town had purchased from American […]
Posted by Nancy Oates on May 7, 2018
https://chapelhillwatch.com/2018/05/07/the-value-of-green/
Autopsy of a vote
After my colleagues on Town Council blew off applying for a quarter million dollars of free money toward the purchase of the American Legion property at the April 18 meeting, I was so disheartened I went out and got #NeverAgain tattooed on my chest. (Just kidding, Mom.) So when I walked into the April 25 […]
Posted by Nancy Oates on April 30, 2018
https://chapelhillwatch.com/2018/04/30/autopsy-of-a-vote/