"OP’s a place where candidates for office really must show up... For local progressives, and office-holder wannabees, reading OP is de rigueur."
- The Independent Weekly, 5/10/06
OrangePolitics (OP) was founded by Ruby Sinreich in 2003. OP has twice won “Best Blog†from The Independent Weekly, as well as other awards and recognition. The purpose of OP is to encourage residents of Orange County, NC to get involved in their community by offering progressive perspectives on local and regional issues.
Active participants at OP include local elected officials, community leaders, nascent and veteran activists, and a smattering of journalists brave enough to share their thoughts online. In our 4-year history we have shared breaking news, foisted both expert and novice opinions, live-blogged public meetings, hosted hot debates, and influenced many a news story. Our specialty has been highlighting local problems that might otherwise be forgotten and putting them on public agenda, but our primary goal is to get our residents (many of whom are already progressive activists) to focus on local issues where they can really have an impact.
Blog entries in the About this site category.
More about us:
Awards:
Best Local Blog of 2005 4/6/05
Village Pride Award 9/16/04
Best Blog of 2004 4/16/04
OrangePolitics.org in the news:
Adding the personal to a public debate
by Ruby Sinreich
News & Observer Q Section, 10/22/06
The Revolution Will Be Blogged
The Independent Weekly, 5/10/06
"Best Local Blog of 2005"
The Independent Weekly, 4/6/05
"The Blogosphere"
Boiling Point, March 2005 (PDF)
"3URLs" interview with Ruby Sinreich on AudioActivism.org.
Click here to listen to the first part of the interview where Ruby discusses OrangePolitics.org. (22:42 10.3MB MP3 file)
Shooting the Breeze with Jean Bolduc, WCHL 9/30/04
"Local politics site celebrates 1st year"The Daily Tarheel, 9/27/04
Village Pride Award, WCHL, 9/16/04
"Politics powers online discussions"Chapel Hill News, 9/10/04
"Best Blog of 2004"The Independent Weekly, 4/21/04
The State of Things, WUNC, 12/10/03
"Web offers residents chance to weigh in on local politics"The Daily Tarheel, 10/8/03
Map of Orange County:
More (Our old About page from 2005)
Orange Politics was founded by Ruby Sinreich in 2003. Although the title sounds definitive, this web site is most decidedly not. Everything here is explicitly biased toward the authors' and editors' points of view. The purpose of this website is to encourage progressive residents of Orange County, NC to get involved in their community by offering education and perspectives on local and regional issues. We also hope to enable productive dialog about local issues, to better understand each other and our community.
OP is a multi-author blog. This means it’s written by a few different people, and commented on by even more people. For now, commenting is open to anyone with an e-mail address. The authors come from a variety of perspectives, but as of this writing none of them live in the northern part of the county. So readers can expect an inherent bias toward Chapel Hill and Carrboro.
This site was initially conceived as a way for people who are not engaged in local issues to get the information they need to make informed decisions. There are many people in Orange County with strong progressive values, but they generally don’t get involved in local issues, especially not local government. This is the one arena where people like us can actually make a difference and not have to sacrifice for big-money, partisan politics. We hope that the many dedicated activists who live in our community will seize upon the information and opinions available on OP and put some of their energy toward positive change here at home.
Updated January 2007.
