July 2005

The closest you can get to Chapel Hill and Carrboro while still being in Chatham County is Starpoint. The intersection of Smith Level Road and 15-501 is at the county line. Starpoint is also the proposed location of a new Wal-Mart.

Elected officials in Chapel Hill and Carrboro have already asked Chatham County to allow them to conduct a courtesy review. This would allow them to formally have input, although it is not binding. According to the News & Observer "This is the first I've heard about that," Morgan said when asked about Chapel Hill's plans to request a review. "I didn't know they did that type of stuff."

Which is exactly why we should be very worried.

No discussion of UNC's role in our community is complete without addressing the topic of fiscal equity. There are many way in which the University affects us financially, both positive and negative, and the town's provision of fire services to the campus is just one of the most obvious examples.

So it's pretty disappointing to hear that the NC House budget fails to fund the municipalities that provide fire fighting to state institutions!

While funding for fire protection for state-owned properties - a request that was included in Chapel Hill's legislative agenda - made it into the governor's budget and N.C. Senate's proposed budget for 2005-06, it was left out of the House budget...

"In Chapel Hill, our fire chief said that we need 18 new firefighters in order to be able to provide the level of service that is necessary," [Mayor Kevin Foy] said.

Foy noted that though the University is putting millions of dollars into construction projects, no extra funds are being allotted to support fire protection.
- Daily Tarheel, 7/7/05

According to Chapel Hill News Editor, Mark Schultz, Chamber of Commerce Director Aaron Nelson told him that our community is “a place where many people still think if you're a successful business person you're exploiting someone or destroying the environment.” (quote is Schultz paraphrasing Nelson)

Now, according to the Herald editors, I'm the farthest left person they know (a debatable point I suppose) and I don't think that. Nor am I aware of any who hold this belief.

So my question to Aaron is: do you really believe what you said to Schultz? if so, who are some of these "many people" you refer to? Or, did you, like Ed Harrison, inadvertently mislead Schultz and it's not your fault?

My question to Chamber members is: does it really serve your interests and your organization when your director makes such hyperbolic and divisive statements?

Chapel Hill Herald, Saturday July 09, 2005

To hear Carrboro mayoral candid ates and incumbent Aldermen Mark Chilton and Alex Zaffron tell it, the election of one or the other will greatly influence the path Carrboro takes with certain key issues in the coming years.

For example, last week Chilton announced his campaign with the assertion that Carrboro's Northwest Small Area Plan needs to be rewritten. He said the plan does "not adequately protect Bolin Creek and it has attracted the most expensive sort of development." Chilton refers to a planning document that is closely identified with Zaffron, one of his signature achievements on the Board of Aldermen.

Zaffron, not showing any strong attachment to his work, agreed that it should be "updated, simplified, and strengthened."

Or, to take another case, Chilton wants "to rewrite a number of rules related to affordable housing," some of which are his opponent's handiwork.

Zaffron identifies no such rewriting but does want to "add new strategies to our toolbox" for affordable housing.

Neither of these are exactly headline grabbing disagreements.

Both the Chapel Hill News and the Chapel Hill Herald (happy, Ray?) report that a challenger has filed to run for the Carrboro Board of Aldermen.

The new guy's name is David Marshall. He is 41, latino, a veteran, a single (?) parent, a self-described "technocrat," and is pursuing joint law/masters degrees from UNC and Duke (impressively bi-partisan, but depressingly driving a lot, I guess). I've never heard his name before. He doesn't appear to have served on any town boards or commitees. Does anyone here know him or have any additional information to share?

With only two incumbents running for three open seats, it looks good for Marshall so far. But filing doesn't close for about 3 more weeks, so who knows...

Carrboro now has a competitive alderman election. Four candidates (at least) for three seats. The following accompanied Randee Haven-O'Donnell's announcement:

Today I filed for a seat on the Carrboro Board of Aldermen. As you know,
the November election will bring change to the longstanding leadership in
Carrboro. My experiences as a long time Carrboro resident, a teacher, and
community advocate have prepared me to be an effective voice for the
community.

I was thinking of writing my own column on the question of the UNC system president's pay and the implications thereof. Perry Deane Young has done such a good job in today's News that I may not have to:

the university system's governors have suggested they may raise the university president's salary to $500,000 in order to attract the best candidate for the job. Never mind that the current president's salary of $300,000 carries with it an extraordinary expense account, a free car and one of the grandest historic houses in Chapel Hill.

Well, boy howdy, I hope you'll agree, it doesn't take a doctorate to figure out how wrong-headed this kind of thinking is. If candidates come here for $500,000, they would just as easily keep on going to the next place for even bigger bucks. Furthermore, if they're in it for the money, we shouldn't want them; we don't need them.

Chapel Hill Herald, Saturday July 16, 2005

The Raleigh-based Common Sense Foundation has launched a research and advocacy project to increase awareness of the many struggles faced by North Carolina's LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgendered) community. This fall they will release a comprehensive study on the laws and policies affecting LGBT North Carolinians.

Issues to be addressed include adoption, child custody, marriage, visitation rights, gender identity, crimes against nature laws, employment/ housing/health care discrimination, harassment, hate-crime legislation and HIV/AIDS. For heterosexuals, many of these issues, the first few in particular, are matters that we take for granted.

Many of us are privileged in that we do not have to think about our sexual orientation, just as many do not have to think about their race, religion or gender. But in matters of fundamental rights, there should be no privileged class. Unfortunately, the LBGT community in North Carolina is being discriminated against in nearly all aspects of public and private life.

To talk about whatever is bothering you....

From Mark Barroso:

I would like to remind everyone of the citizen-organized meeting about a possible Wal-Mart in north Chatham on Thursday, 7/28 at 7 pm at the Dockside Restaurant in Cole Park Plaza. Former Chatham Commission Chair Gary Phillips will moderate the discussion. The Chatham County Planning Director and at least one commissioner will attend and answer questions.

Several presenters will explain the process and issues, we will organize our opposition and begin the fight to keep the godzilla of retail from stomping on our community.

Please come early and buy dinner at Dockside, in support of the owner who has opened his doors to us without charge.

For those who don't know, Lee-Moore Oil Co is planning a retail center with a Walmart, two restaurants and yet another gas station on the land between ALR and the new UNC park and ride. Here's a map of the area (cool new Google map feature learned at yesterday's Blogging Teach-In)

Chapel Hill Herald, Saturday July 23, 2005

Last week, Internationalist Books give this year's Bob Sheldon Award for social justice to Orange County school board member Liz Brown.

I was surprised that Brown was even in the field of vision of the Ibooks volunteers.

After all, these are people known for their engagement with U.S. and international issues, whose concern is with globalization and war, not school budgets and the three Rs. I suspect Brown was not well-known around Ibooks before last week.

Consider the other nominees. Ibooks board member Michal Osterweil said of nominee Vinci Daro "one of the most amazing things about Vinci is that she participates in many of the most important protests internationally and serves as a tremendous resource and thinker for developing effective alternatives here, and yet she is so modest and effective, that often you don't even know how much a project has depended on her work and her inspirational energy."

Last Friday more than 250 UNC workers rallied to protest proposed cuts in this years pay raises. According to the Herald,

The rally, one of three coordinated by the State Employees Association of North Carolina, was held in response to recent legislative deliberations that would lower a proposed raise for state employees from $1,086 to $625...

"Everybody's upset," Tommy Griffin, chairman of UNC's Employee Forum, said Friday afternoon. "Everyone had pretty much come to terms with the $1,086."

Yesterday, the N&O reported that House Speaker Jim Black, Rep. Richard Morgan, and Senate Leader Marc Basnight "weeks after the 2004 session, and without disclosing their action" secretly restarted a program to provide an additional 2-3 percent in raises to legislative employees. This action was only discovered when the N&O reporter went over detailed individual pay records, a painstaking task.