Last week a man carried a loaded assault rifle into the Atlanta airport while he dropped off his daughter for her flight. Georgia passed a law last year that allows permitted gun owners to carry loaded weapons in an airport, as long as they don’t go through the TSA security checkpoint. The man said he […]
All posts in category Economic development
Just because they can
Posted by Nancy Oates on June 8, 2015
https://chapelhillwatch.com/2015/06/08/just-because-they-can/
Aspiring to be what we’re not?
Krispy Kreme closed its Franklin Street shop earlier this month after less than 5 years. A few doors away, Cold Stone shut down two months earlier. Farther west along Franklin, GiGi’s Cupcakes left town at the end of last year. But locally owned Sugarland still plies its pastries and gelato after nigh on eight years. […]
Posted by Nancy Oates on May 25, 2015
https://chapelhillwatch.com/2015/05/25/aspiring-to-be-what-were-not/
Smart shoppers
As a value shopper, I perked up my ears at economist David Shreve’s message that we should choose new development projects because we want what they will bring to the town, not because we mistakenly think they will bring in additional revenue. Shreve, president of Advocates for a Sustainable Albemarle Population and a former professor […]
Posted by Nancy Oates on May 4, 2015
https://chapelhillwatch.com/2015/05/04/smart-shoppers/
Who we want to be
Everybody lives somewhere, Lisa Sturtevant of the National Housing Conference in Washington, D.C., reminded the audience at Chapel Hill’s Affordable Housing Seminar on April 9. The seminar was the final in a series of four excellent sessions in which nationally recognized experts shared their insights into challenges and solutions to creating and preserving housing for […]
Posted by Nancy Oates on April 13, 2015
https://chapelhillwatch.com/2015/04/13/who-we-want-to-be/
Talk, hear, act
Growth has proved a hot topic in the discussions in the local blogsphere recently. Participants have divided into two camps. One side believes that all growth is good and that new development of any kind will make money for the town and thus lower residential property taxes. The other side believes only nonresidential property is […]
Posted by Nancy Oates on March 2, 2015
https://chapelhillwatch.com/2015/03/02/talk-hear-act/
CHALT makes connections
After my children left home, my husband and I thought of downsizing to Hillsborough, where taxes are a little bit lower. But the historic homes were too big, the small homes in a gentrifying section of town needed too much work, and the new homes in the subdivisions north of town left us uninspired. Knowing […]
Posted by Nancy Oates on January 26, 2015
https://chapelhillwatch.com/2015/01/26/chalt-makes-connections/
The price of doing right
Art Pope tried to buy his way into the university and failed. So Pope, the Dick Cheney of the McCrory administration, took another tack: He pressed the N.C. General Assembly, which has appointed several Republican cronies to the UNC System Board of Governors, to push out the system president, a man revered for his integrity, […]
Posted by Nancy Oates on January 19, 2015
https://chapelhillwatch.com/2015/01/19/the-price-of-doing-right/
Urban renewal
Don heard that a store in Burlington sold Cheerwine with real sugar, not high-fructose corn syrup, and always one to encourage a healthy lifestyle, I went with him to search. I’d never been to Burlington beyond the outlet stores that used to flourish off the interstate until Tanger Mall lured them away. As we drove […]
Posted by Nancy Oates on December 15, 2014
https://chapelhillwatch.com/2014/12/15/urban-renewal/
Council must govern
Form-based code — it’s everywhere in Chapel Hill these days. First, Town Council approved it for 190 acres in the Ephesus-Fordham area. Currently, Northwood Ravin is trying to get the same liberties offered by form-based code, though it hasn’t used the highly charged term, in its proposed mixed-use development The Edge, at the corner of […]
Posted by Nancy Oates on December 8, 2014
https://chapelhillwatch.com/2014/12/08/council-must-govern/
Which workforce?
In an email to Town Council last month, Lee Perry, a principal of East West Partners, referred to Village Plaza Apartments as “workforce housing.” Perry, whose company is building the 266-unit apartment building in the vacant lot that used to be the site of a movie theater, explained that his rents, starting at $1,150 a […]
Posted by Nancy Oates on November 17, 2014
https://chapelhillwatch.com/2014/11/17/which-workforce/