December 2003

Bit of a no-brainer, really. The Orange County Commissioners voted last week to extend benefits to domestic parters of County employees. According to the Chapel Hill Herald, Commissioner Alice Gordon says they had wanted to do it before but couldn't afford it. The extra charge from the insurance company is gone, so they did it. It's nice to see the trickle-down effect of progressive social policies at big corporations.

Durham, Chapel Hill, and Carrboro already do it, although Durham only offers the benefit to same-sex couples. What about straight cohabitators? Apparently less than 1% of the employees in these municipalities use the domestic partner benefit. The social impact on the community of doing this is an added value. This is an inexpensive way to do something good.

Hey folks, I have made a few changes to commenting, and I will probably make some more. The biggest difference is that the e-mail address field must be filled in to submit your comment. (This doesn't actually limit anonymity since you can put anything there you like. Shhh, don't tell.) Also, there are new and improved guidlines on the comment form. Please read them.

Also, I am going to experiment with just editing or deleting the text from problem posts instead of the whole thing. I will continue to e-mail the author whenever possible (hint, hint). You'll see an editor's message, like "[DELETED:OFF-TOPIC]," instead of the post. I hope not to have to do this often.

I invite anyone who feels this restricts what they have to say to get your own blog. Blogging is fun! But this site is taking up much more of my time than it should this week.

Today's Chapel Hill Herald has a story about Cam paying his taxes. Actually, the Chapel Hill News covered it too in a cursory headline story. But halfway through the Herald article, we read this paragraph:

Some political activists, unaware that Hill had settled up his tax bill, said that talk has been brewing about a possible recall of Hill, once he takes office. And at least one resident has called the Orange County Board of Elections in recent days and asked, in general, about the local recall procedure.

What "polticial activists?" Someone we should listen to? Why no names? The entire rest of the article is dedicated to this so-called issue about a recall. I'll say again: Cam made a mistake. But unnamed "activists" complaining about people they don't like... that's not news.

Having lived in other parts of the country and visited other parts of the world that have livable, walkable, dense communities, it's sometimes hard to come home and be too positive about the state of affairs in this area. Just as grand old Durham always seems to be on the cusp of something big and grand and wonderful before plunging off the precipice into bad planning and disastrously bad governing decisions, the region as a whole seems to have good ideas and good people and decent governance but just can't seem to quite get it on track (pardon the pun) with planning and public transport.

It's no secret that UNC plans for Carolina North (CN) to be a research park, along the lines of NCSU's Centennial Campus (CC). In fact, the guys in charge of creating Carolina North specialize in it, which I think is sort of unfairly stacking the deck for research, when earlier plans for CN indicated there would a be significant academic (ie: teaching) activity there.

Associate Vice Chancellor Mark Crowell was recruited by UNC directly after working with CC at State. (He's quoted as saying "We don't give away football tickets, why should we give away technology?" Doesn't that just warm your cockles?) And the leader of development of Carolina North is Vice Chancellor (and UNC alumn) Tony Waldrop, who came to UNC after building a similar institution at the University of Illinois.

OK people, you asked for coverage of the entire County. I warned you... we're not qualified. But we'll give it a shot. (It hasn't stopped me yet.)

So you tell us: what's going on north of I-85? Is Hillsborough still quaint? How many Wal*Marts are there now?

A fond farewell to Wallace Kuralt, propietor of the Intimate Bookshop, who went down fighting. His literary empire grew to eight stores, but eventually he had to close every location due to being unable to compete with the huge chains and online retailers who get sweetheart deals with book wholesalers. He took up the fight on behalf of all independent booksellers.

I didn't know him personally, but he had a profound impact on me. When I was in elementary school, my mother had a store downtown (where Pepper's is now). Along with the Varsity Theatre, the Intimate was my main afterschool program. I went there daily, took one of the many small chairs scatterred throughout the children's section, and read everything I could get my hands on. My favorite nook (a 2-foot wide space between two shelves) was dubbed "Ruby's corner" by the staff.

I just want to thank Mr. Kuralt for providing this opportunity for me and countless other Chapel Hillians to read to our hearts delight.

I'm going out of town for the next week so I offer this topic for discussion, which was submitted by Paul Jones:

In today's Chapel Hill Herald, Dan Coleman hands out "Awards" to various people and organizations. This is a time honored journalistic tradition of which one of the high point is the Texas Monthly's "Bumsteer Awards" and Esquire's "Dubious Awards."

What awards would the readers/posters of orangepolitics.org give and to whom? No reason that Dan, Texas Monthly or Esquire should be the only ones giving out awards. How about a thread on year end awards that we wish we could give?

Meanwhile, I am working on introductions for each of the archive topics (see them over to the right, from "About..." to "UNC"). If you'd like to write all or part of one, submit it via the "Contact Us" link. Please keep it brief. Your submissions might not be acknowledged, but if we use it you'll get credit.