November 2003
In a move that could have surprised only those residents who live under rocks, The Chapel Hill-Carrboro School Board voted last night against discussing a merger with the county schools. According to the Chapel Hill Herald:
The Chapel Hill-Carrboro city school board approved a resolution Thursday night that supports collaboration with the Orange County Schools instead of merger.
The resolution -- which passed unanimously -- also calls for a special district tax in the county schools, similar to the one currently paid by city school district residents. It also asks that the county school board meet with the city school board to discuss ways in which they can collaborate, and how the process should be supported financially.
Board members barely discussed the resolution, which city schools Superintendent Neil Pedersen presented at a meeting earlier this month. Instead, they talked about three proposals that the Orange County Commissioners brought forth last week.
This is just plain wrong. It's impossible to say whether the minor arson attack at Orange County Commissioner Margaret Brown's house was political or random. The fact that she believes it was intentionally directed at her makes me seriously concerned about the state of political discourse in our community.
"I've been getting a lot of e-mails," she said. "They're very aggressive with a lot of emotion behind them."
The e-mails have been mostly about school merger, Brown said. They have said things like, "You'd better not do this or you'd better think before you do this," Brown said.
Who would think this was an appropriate (or effective) form of expression?
This leads me to two major thoughts about OrangePoltics.org:
For those of you who may have missed it, orangepolitics made page B1 in today's News & Observer
Intrepid reporter Anne Blythe draws generalizations from comments made here without any specific attribution and characterizes her anonymous source as "the town's political insiders."
Does Blythe know that A Voter, Winston Smith, or Coyote, to name a few, are political insiders? If so, how?
Surely there is a long tradition of anonymous attribution in the news business but I think it used to go like this: a reporter tries to find someone to go on the record on a story. She can't but she finds a potent statement from someone who wishes to remain anonymous and is called something like "an informed source" in the article. The readers then place as much confidence in that quote as they have in the writer's and editor's ability to find and vet a credible source.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE November 22, 2003
Cam Hill to Explain UNC’s Pursuit of his Cameron Ave Property
Cam Hill, newly elected member of the Chapel Hill Town Council, is in negotiations with UNC regarding the possible sale of his property at 606 Cameron Avenue to the university.
The sale of Hill’s house to the university has caused much discussion, confusion and misinformation. With this in mind, Hill is announcing a press conference to explain all details of the deal and to answer questions about his negotiations with the university. The press conference is scheduled for 3:00 pm on Monday, November 24 at Hill’s 606 Cameron Avenue property.
Briefly, in Hill’s own words, this is the story: “Negotiations started about 5 years ago when the university approached me about buying my Cameron Ave. property, which is located between two parcels owned by UNC. Negotiations ended when I rejected the university’s offer. At that time, UNC officials told me they wanted the property for a future inter-modal transport station, a place where people would get off trains and onto buses.
Looks like the IFC is going to be homeless again. All the Chapel Hill News says is that they're having trouble finding a new place. Shock. Fortunately, the Chapel Hill Herald actually bothered to tell us what's going on.
Apparently the Town (who owns the building) is "temporarily" kicking out the IFC to do some renovations on the building. Considering that the Downtown Commission et al have been moaning about those unsightly beggars scaring the shoppers for years now, it seems quite possible to me that somehow the IFC won't get to move back in.
IFC has already had to relocate some of their services since the Town denied their request a few years ago to expand the facility at the corner of Rosemary and Columbia Streets. For example, they moved their women's shelter to Homestead Road - miles away from the walkability, the jobs, and the community downtown.
As if folks haven't already heard enough about elections and politics... a new and interesting development has taken place in terms of redistricting for the state house and senate in Orange County. Though it's too early to really bet on these districts due to the amazing amount of litigation that's likely to take place by Republican detractors of the maps, it might be worth talking about the implications of the new map if it is implemented.
Happy Thanksgiving all!
This may go down as one of the least effective protest tactics ever. The Chapel Hill Herald reports that a group of parents in the county school system (ie: northern Orange County) are calling for a boycott of businesses in Chapel Hill (ie: southern Orange County) to protest the disparity in school funding.
Now I sympathize with their cause, but
- local businesses have nothing to do with the special district tax on homeowners that raises more money for the southern schools,
- they pay the same amount to the county - who funds both systems - as any other business in the county, and
- is anyone going to notice that these 20 people and maybe a few of their friends aren't schlepping down 86 to come shopping here? How often do they shop in Chapel Hill and Carrboro anyway?
Am I missing something? Is there a reason why anyone should care about this? Why are they leaving Carrboro out? (Someone must love Weaver Street Market.) Couldn't they think of a better name than "Rural Orange Boycotts Chapel Hill?"
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