I read over the agenda for tonight’s Town Council meeting and felt the way I often feel when I pick up the mail this time of year – everyone wants my money. Over the past few months, council has heard about some wonderful plans to make our town a better place. And now it comes […]
All posts in category Ethics
Money, money, money
Posted by Nancy Oates on January 27, 2014
https://chapelhillwatch.com/2014/01/27/money-money-money/
Random consequences
More than a thousand students waited outside the Dean Dome in a cold, steady rain for hours Saturday afternoon for a chance to watch the UNC-Kentucky men’s basketball game. But their sacrifice was for naught due to a new practice called “randomization” that the Dean Dome ticket office put into play recently. The intent is […]
Posted by Nancy Oates on December 16, 2013
https://chapelhillwatch.com/2013/12/16/random-consequences/
Back of the line — again
What are you thankful for this Thanksgiving? For being able turn on your faucet and drink a glass of clean water that doesn’t taste funky and leave you worried about what sorts of toxins or carcinogens it contains? For never having to budget for pumping out the septic tank and remediation efforts when it fails? […]
Posted by Nancy Oates on November 25, 2013
https://chapelhillwatch.com/2013/11/25/back-of-the-line-again/
Buybacks
Tell me I’m not the only person to have donated something to the PTA Thrift Shop, then a month later bought it back. Town Council members know the feeling. They are asked to give away affordable housing as they vote to approve redevelopment projects, then scrounge for town resources to buy affordable housing somewhere else […]
Posted by Nancy Oates on October 21, 2013
https://chapelhillwatch.com/2013/10/21/buybacks/
Free market
Developers and property owners who rant about their “right” to make the maximum profit regardless of how it affects the quality of life for the rest of the community should spend a couple hours at the end of a Saturday afternoon at the Orange County Solid Waste Convenience Center on Eubanks Road. There they could […]
Posted by Nancy Oates on September 23, 2013
https://chapelhillwatch.com/2013/09/23/free-market/
Who reads this?
Blame it on the way I was raised – clamming up when accused of a wrong didn’t absolve me of the punishment. My parents’ strategy to raise responsible, contributing members of society didn’t include Miranda’s right to remain silent. They heard out my side, if I was willing to talk, then judged, ruled and implemented. […]
Posted by Nancy Oates on August 19, 2013
https://chapelhillwatch.com/2013/08/19/who-reads-this/
Sue me
Let’s say your boss is doing something that impedes your ability to do your job well. How receptive do you think he or she would be to learning about it from you? Let’s say your boss is town manager Roger Stancil, and if he didn’t like your critique, or if you were a union member […]
Posted by Nancy Oates on June 24, 2013
https://chapelhillwatch.com/2013/06/24/sue-me/
The bleaching of Chapel Hill
Last week I walked along MLK Jr. Boulevard to go from my house off Piney Mountain Road to Harrington Bank. Schools had a delayed opening that day, and I passed several groups of high school students waiting along MLK for the school bus. Presumably they lived in the modest rentals and mobile homes in the […]
Posted by Nancy Oates on May 6, 2013
https://chapelhillwatch.com/2013/05/06/the-bleaching-of-chapel-hill/
Save Del Snow
If you had told me six months ago that someday I would lead the cheering section for Planning Board chair Del Snow, I would have called you crazy. And now look. After Town Council’s Feb. 27 vote approving Bicycle Apartments, Snow wrote a letter to council questioning why council members didn’t postpone the vote until […]
Posted by Nancy Oates on March 6, 2013
https://chapelhillwatch.com/2013/03/06/save-del-snow/
ACLU v. Chapel Hill
The next lawsuit shaping up could pit Chapel Hill against the ACLU. On Friday, town attorney Ralph Karpinos received a letter from the legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union of North Carolina warning that constitutionally the town can’t bar the ad placed on town buses by Church of Reconciliation that advocates for the […]
Posted by Nancy Oates on October 1, 2012
https://chapelhillwatch.com/2012/10/01/aclu-v-chapel-hill/