You can’t make this stuff up. The Urban Land Institute of the Triangle lists Timber Hollow Apartments as a nominee to win an award for affordable housing. Ron Strom of Blue Heron Asset Management self-nominated his project, which Blue Heron sold to Eller Capital (after pocketing nearly $6 million profit from his $12.6 million investment […]
All posts in category Economic development
Who wins?
Posted by Nancy Oates on September 8, 2014
https://chapelhillwatch.com/2014/09/08/who-wins/
Section 8 crisis
The old joke goes that former first lady Nancy Reagan followed up her “Just Say No” drug abuse prevention program by tackling homelessness, with “Just Get a House.” Making decent housing available to people even in the lowest socio-economic categories has no simple solutions. Earlier this month the mayors of Chapel Hill and Carrboro staged […]
Posted by Nancy Oates on August 18, 2014
https://chapelhillwatch.com/2014/08/18/section-8-crisis/
Granite countertop city
Last week, the mayors of Chapel Hill and Carrboro held a press conference to wring their hands over the affordable housing crisis wrought by owner/investors of workforce apartment complexes no longer accepting Section 8 vouchers because those owner/investors realized they could install granite countertops and double the rent. While the mayors were pleading with those […]
Posted by Nancy Oates on August 11, 2014
https://chapelhillwatch.com/2014/08/11/granite-countertop-city/
Is the thrill gone?
I had a conversation not long ago with a musician, a mixed-race man in his mid-20s working a day job unrelated to music as he got his career started. At one point he asked where I was from, and I told him I lived in Chapel Hill. His eyes lit up. “I call it Chapel […]
Posted by Nancy Oates on June 23, 2014
https://chapelhillwatch.com/2014/06/23/is-the-thrill-gone/
Breaking inauspicious
You know how you approached the start of every episode of “Breaking Bad” with the feeling that something was going to happen that you didn’t want to know about, but you watched it anyway? I get that feeling lately when I turn on the TV to watch a Town Council meeting. “Breaking Bad,” said to […]
Posted by Nancy Oates on June 16, 2014
https://chapelhillwatch.com/2014/06/16/breaking-inauspicious/
Downtown, no waiting
Chapel Hill didn’t make GQ’s list of Best College Towns (When Students Are Gone) as Durham did, but we’ve got plenty going on all summer long – including at least one spot that wasn’t here before students took off for their summer adventures. Opening a new business just as a third of your customer base […]
Posted by Nancy Oates on June 9, 2014
https://chapelhillwatch.com/2014/06/09/downtown-no-waiting/
Keeping pace with community
Ed Harrison understands that you can’t be a leader without followers. And if you get too far ahead of your followers, your nothing more than a guy on a road by himself shouting, “This way, really, I know what I’m doing.” At Town Council’s May 12 meeting, Harrison was one of three council members to […]
Posted by Nancy Oates on May 19, 2014
https://chapelhillwatch.com/2014/05/19/keeping-pace-with-followers/
Get it right first
UNC researcher and Chapel Hill native David Schwartz turns his analytical eye toward some of the factors that may be fueling our mayor’s apparent urgency to approve Form-Based Code initially in the Ephesus-Fordham area. Schwartz realizes there is more going on with the Ephesus-Fordham issue than simply the mayor wanting to impress his colleagues in […]
Posted by Nancy Oates on May 12, 2014
https://chapelhillwatch.com/2014/05/12/get-it-right-first/
Office-retail only
Ellie Kinnaird’s voice was drowned out during her final years in the N.C. Senate by affluent colleagues who, having reached a high level of creature comfort, put in place policies that closed off that path to others. After several years of advocating for laws that made life better for residents in all socio-economic classes, Kinnaird […]
Posted by Nancy Oates on April 14, 2014
https://chapelhillwatch.com/2014/04/14/office-retail-only/
Hometown brand
Driving home from Raleigh one spring night with my car windows rolled down, I stopped at a traffic light. A car pulled up beside me, and the driver hollered out, “You must be going to Chapel Hill. I can tell by your bumper stickers.” Chapel Hill used to be known as an enclave for liberals: […]
Posted by Nancy Oates on April 7, 2014
https://chapelhillwatch.com/2014/04/07/hometown-brand/