Chapel Hill’s parking problem extends beyond where to put your car when you go downtown. A truly vibrant downtown needs spots for pedestrians to park their bodies when they are fatigued or simply want to people watch or absorb the ambience. Last Tuesday, University of Kentucky Professor Ned Crankshaw came to town and shared some […]
All posts in category CH2020
Parking — It’s not just for cars anymore
Posted by Nancy Oates on December 5, 2016
https://chapelhillwatch.com/2016/12/05/parking-its-not-just-for-cars-anymore/
Chapel Hill’s Arab Spring?
More than five years ago, a few weeks after the Tunisian Revolution that launched the Arab Spring, Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad told The Wall Street Journal: “When there is divergence between your policy and the people’s beliefs and interests, you will have this vacuum that creates disturbance.” I hope we won’t someday look back on […]
Posted by Nancy Oates on September 26, 2016
https://chapelhillwatch.com/2016/09/26/chapel-hills-arab-spring/
6,200 and counting
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 […]
Posted by Nancy Oates on February 10, 2014
https://chapelhillwatch.com/2014/02/10/6200-and-counting/
Seeing red
About 200 taxpayers turned out for the open house last Tuesday night that showed off the four plans for Central West Focus Area that we got for the nearly quarter of a million dollars we paid to Rhodeside & Harwell. Or as Jim Ward framed it in an email on the Central West listserv: a […]
Posted by Nancy Oates on September 16, 2013
https://chapelhillwatch.com/2013/09/16/seeing-red/
Feature presentation
We’ve gotten spoiled. With Town Council’s newfound determination to end council meetings before midnight, and breaking out council discussions in midweek work sessions at the library (which are not on TV nor videoed and accessible by computer), the regular Monday night meetings end two to three hours after they begin. Tonight may be an exception. […]
Posted by Nancy Oates on May 20, 2013
https://chapelhillwatch.com/2013/05/20/feature-presentation/
A new day
This morning, RAM Development announced it planned to convert all 140 condominums at 140 West into workforce housing. RAM chairman Peter Cummings said the idea came to him like an epiphany as he was driving along West Rosemary Street one afternoon. “I saw this bright light,” he said. “Maybe it was a sign from Heaven, […]
Posted by Nancy Oates on April 1, 2013
https://chapelhillwatch.com/2013/04/01/a-new-day/
A representative view
Former Town Council member Julie McClintock, who also worked for the EPA, has participated in many planning efforts. She offers her reaction to the town’s priority-budgeting survey: In a recent email from the Town, I was invited to take a budget survey to show “what [I] value.” Since I’m an engaged citizen, I took the […]
Posted by Nancy Oates on March 18, 2013
https://chapelhillwatch.com/2013/03/18/a-representative-view/
Transportation meeting tonight
I don’t envy Kumar Neppalli, Chapel Hill’s traffic engineer-in-chief. Estes Drive will get a new traffic light where Library Drive T’s into it. NCDOT will cover the costs. Neppalli will work out the logistics. Everyone who has ever tried to turn east on Estes after leaving the library knows the risk of making that left […]
Posted by Nancy Oates on February 4, 2013
https://chapelhillwatch.com/2013/02/04/transportation-meeting-tonight/
And the answer is …
After last Wednesday’s marathon student-bashing that pushed a couple concept reviews off the agenda, tonight’s meeting portends to be something of a sleeper. Nothing nefarious slipped into the Consent Agenda – even the resolution to amend the town manager’s authority to enter into contracts turns out to extend the authority to department heads, not concentrate […]
Posted by Nancy Oates on January 28, 2013
https://chapelhillwatch.com/2013/01/28/greene-piece/
What’s the rush?
Southern Area resident and CH2020 participant Jeanne Brown has this to say about the proposed Obey Creek development near Southern Village: As has become a common theme in the two-and-a-half-year-old Obey Creek discussion, area residents found that Monday night’s Town Council agenda included another Obey Creek twist: The resolution before Town Council combined discussion and […]
Posted by Nancy Oates on November 8, 2012
https://chapelhillwatch.com/2012/11/08/whats-the-rush/