Economy & Downtown
Chapel Hill's downtown has long benefited from its proximity to a captive audience of University students without cars. While downtowns around the country have been failing, ours has survived fairly well. However, we have seen an increase in the number of chain stores locating downtown, and instability in the Downtown Economic Development Corporation. In the near future, we will see new Town-directed development on two major parking lots have a big impact.
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Carrboro's downtown has also done better than many towns of comparable size, thanks largely to the presence of Weaver Street Market and progressive shoppers from the rest of the county. The Board of Aldermen has been addressing the evolution of the downtown, and have established a number of community resources in the downtown area including free wireless Internet access, and a low-power radio station.
What: Community Town Hall
Meeting with Greenpeace Energy Expert Mike Johnson
Where: Eno River Unitarian Church,
4907 Garrett Road Durham, NC 27707
When: Monday, November 12th, 7pm
https://www.facebook.com/events/173436066130761/Mike Johnson is on a state wide tour, talking about the possibilities for a
cheaper, cleaner, renewable energy future for North Carolina. Mike brings 10 years of
experience including stints at the Illinois Solar Energy Association and City
of Chicago’s
Department of Environment.
Mike will discuss the recent Greenpeace report, Charting the Correction Course, produced in association with
leading energy software company Ventyx. The report details how North Carolinians could save more than $108 billion
dollars over the next twenty years if Duke Energy switched to cleaner, cheaper
renewable energy.
Date:
Monday, November 12, 2012 - 7:00pm
Location:
Eno River Unitarian Church, 4907 Garrett Road Durham, NC 27707
For better or for worse, our local media works hard to give equal air time to both sides of the story. Some may fault them as giving too much voice to an opinion which represents a small minority of residents, others may thank them for giving life to a discussion. Regardless of what you think, it's sometimes difficult to cut through the noise. So where does the community stand on the whole?
I have no idea what the story is behind this, but I bet it's interesting. Seven months after resigning as the head of Economic Development for the Town of Chapel Hill and taking effectively the same position for the City of Raleigh, Dwight Basset has come back to his old job. I wonder how all those people who blamed his departure on Chapel Hill's supposed E.D. failings will interpret this?
Personally I hope Bassett returns with some fresh ideas about local economies and especially about citizen particpation, which is one area where Chapel Hill has a lot to learn from Raleigh.
Some highlights from the Town's announcement:
Dwight Bassett will return to the Town of Chapel Hill as Economic Development Officer (EDO) and part of the Town team devoted to policy and strategic initiatives supporting the goals of Chapel Hill 2020, Town Manager Roger Stancil announced today (Monday, Oct. 15).
Tonight, the Chapel Hill Downtown Partnership held its 2nd of four moving conversations inspired by urbanist and community activist Jane Jacobs. This moving conservation, called Inspiring Innovative spaces, focused on existing and planned spaces downtown that promote interactions to spark ideas. Jacobs noted that the most successful public spaces are those with intense use nearby.
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