When I sat in the audience, mining Town Council meetings for material for my Chapel Hill Watch blog, solutions to the problems council members wrestled with seemed so obvious. Once I was elected and shifted my seat to the dais, the answers weren’t so black-and-white. The job requires more nuance, discernment, balance and patience than […]
All posts in category Council Members
Endorsements
Posted by Nancy Oates on October 14, 2019
https://chapelhillwatch.com/2019/10/14/endorsements/
Exclusive boards
Consider the irony: At the same time town staff are making considerable efforts to encourage more people to get involved in the town decision-making process by applying to advisory boards and commissions, the Council Committee on Boards and Commissions has proposed limiting the number of people who will actually be considered for appointment. And, after […]
Posted by Nancy Oates on September 30, 2019
https://chapelhillwatch.com/2019/09/30/exclusive-boards/
Feel-good decisions
As I interact with people when I do errands, I often ask them whether they live in Chapel Hill and why. I ask those who live in town what they would like Town Council to know. Usually, I hear the Big Three Issues: affordability, flooding and traffic. Not long ago, I heard a new one: […]
Posted by Nancy Oates on September 16, 2019
https://chapelhillwatch.com/2019/09/16/feel-good-decisions/
Too simple to understand?
Solutions to town problems seemed so much simpler when I sat in the audience at Town Hall covering Town Council meetings for my Chapel Hill Watch blog. After I was elected and moved to the dais, I learned there are no easy answers. Running for re-election this year, I was disheartened to receive questionnaires from […]
Posted by Nancy Oates on August 26, 2019
https://chapelhillwatch.com/2019/08/26/too-simple-to-understand/
Civil discourse
A bit of unpleasantness broke out at a nonprofit board meeting recently. An elected official (no Chapel Hill Town Council member or candidate), clearly frustrated by the discussion, behaved unprofessionally, using what in our family we call a “swear word.” I blame Trump. Politics at the national level has become a free-for-all, and the incivility […]
Posted by Nancy Oates on August 19, 2019
https://chapelhillwatch.com/2019/08/19/civil-discourse/
Managing growth
I had forgotten how many, many stars abide in the sky until this past week when I went to a place dark enough to see them. Light pollution wipes them from visibility. When I lived in Manhattan, I never saw a star outside of the planetarium. Over time, light pollution has crept into Chapel Hill, […]
Posted by Nancy Oates on August 12, 2019
https://chapelhillwatch.com/2019/08/12/managing-growth/
Late night
I blame the lateness of the hour for someone on the council dais suggesting that a retaining wall designed to mitigate flooding include “breaks” to “engage the street.” The comment came during a concept plan we were asked to review that didn’t being on our overstuffed agenda until after 11:30 p.m. We were all tuckered […]
Posted by Nancy Oates on June 24, 2019
https://chapelhillwatch.com/2019/06/24/late-night/
If we build it …
Which came first — residents with a plethora of discretionary income? Or craft breweries, tapas bars and the availability of Starbucks’ White Chocolate Mocha Frappuccino on every street corner? If we build it, they will come, goes the adage. Last Friday morning at the town’s Economic Sustainability Committee meeting, Alisa Duffey Rogers, project manager of […]
Posted by Nancy Oates on June 10, 2019
https://chapelhillwatch.com/2019/06/10/if-we-build-it/
Wealth gap
I say this every year at budget time. Call it my annual screed: A flat percentage salary increase across the whole pay scale widens the wealth gap. The rich get richer, and the poor end up with comparatively less buying power. This year, the town’s 3% across-the-board pay raise will put an extra $900 (before […]
Posted by Nancy Oates on June 3, 2019
https://chapelhillwatch.com/2019/06/03/wealth-gap/
Rogers Road victory
The historically black Rogers Road neighborhood crossed the finish line this past week on quality-of-life improvements years in the making. Town Council approved rezoning that would protect the neighborhood from the over-development expected once the sewer line extends into the area. The neighborhood, north of Homestead Road and east of Rogers Road, sits just south […]
Posted by Nancy Oates on May 27, 2019
https://chapelhillwatch.com/2019/05/27/rogers-road-victory/