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 […]
All posts tagged development
Section 8 crisis
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/
Waldon’s world
Chapel Hill has the potential to be someplace really special, if we could only articulate it. The town’s former planning director, Roger Waldon, who now makes his living guiding developers through the town’s rezoning and special use permit approval process, discovered that the articulation part is harder than it looks. In an editorial published last […]
Posted by Nancy Oates on July 28, 2014
https://chapelhillwatch.com/2014/07/28/waldons-world/
A peek behind the curtain
You’d think with all the 5-hour-plus meetings Town Council has racked up lately, and the abstruse decisions that have come out of them, somewhere in there council members would have explained why they voted the way they did. Instead, we’ve watched council members pass over professionals with strong expertise for advisory board positions in favor […]
Posted by Nancy Oates on June 30, 2014
https://chapelhillwatch.com/2014/06/30/a-peek-behind-the-curtain/
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/
Chapel Hill politics, Chicago style
My sister in Chicago periodically sends me articles about the shenanigans of Chicago politicians: ex-convicts who have served time for bribery, tax fraud and corruption running against one another; and a “visionary leader/advocate” filing to run again now that he’s out of prison for getting $40,000 of home renovations done in exchange for zoning changes […]
Posted by Nancy Oates on June 2, 2014
https://chapelhillwatch.com/2014/06/02/chapel-hill-politics-chicago-style/
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/
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/