November 2005

New shelter re-location option

Here's a really good idea from the letters to the editor of the Chapel Hill News:

Former sorority house would be ideal shelter

As Chapel Hill struggles with the issue of homelessness, shouldn't citizens of the town seize upon an opportunity that has been laid at its feet? Hasn't anyone noticed that the Delta Zeta sorority house is up for sale? It would be the perfect answer to the question of where to put the next homeless shelter.

This structure is specifically for the housing of a large group of people. It has countless bedrooms and bathrooms for the needs of unrelated residents. It also has a commercial kitchen, dining hall, a large meeting area and office space. The building is in excellent condition, needing no substantial modifications to serve its new purpose, and it is ready for immediate occupancy. It is ideally located near jobs and transportation.

Zoning of the area is obviously not a problem since it had a similar use in the recent past, and the neighbors might actually consider the transformation from sorority house to homeless shelter a move in the right direction.

Investing in cooperative retail

Chapel Hill Herald, Saturday November 19, 2005

Last summer, as the threat loomed of a Wal-Mart just south of the Chatham County line, there was much talk of how to stop the retail giant from moving in and sucking the life-blood out of local business. Less attention was paid to strengthening our home grown retail sector to create an economic base that might withstand such an onslaught.

As the Wal-Mart style big box has spread, the business districts of small town America have been hard hit, losing their historic retail anchors and leaving residents to drive out to a freeway interchange for the nearest strip mall.

In 2001, Powell, Wyoming was in trouble when the Stage store, the latest owner of the downtown department store that had operated for generations, decided to pull out.

Citizens of Powell formed a corporation and began selling stock to open their own store. Some 800 investors bought shares, and in the summer of 2002 the Mercantile opened in a 7,500-square-foot space downtown that once housed a portion of the Stage store.

Take a hike - downtown

OK, all of you who have been complaining about the downtown environment, time to take a hike. The Downtown Partnership is organizing "clean and safe" walking audits to survey the area for problem spots.

People interested in participating in the audits -- 90-minute guided tours -- should contact the partnership at 967-9440 or chdowntown@bellsouth.net.

There will be daytime and nighttime audits for each section of downtown:

* East End auditors will conduct audits at 8 p.m. Dec. 8 and 8 a.m. Dec. 9.

* Middle auditors will conduct audits at 5:30 p.m. Dec. 7 and 8 a.m. Dec. 8.

* West End auditors will conduct audits at 1 p.m. Dec. 7 and 7 p.m. Dec. 9.

- News & Observer, 11/29/05

What's our secret?

So I've been wondering why our neighbors to the east and south have been generally freaking out over water, while Orange County has none of our familiar mandatory conservation rules in place. (I got so used to it in 2002 that I started to enjoy showering with a bucket that I then used to water my garden.)

I feel like I should know this, but is our lack of drought due solely to OWASA's now-permanent conservation measures or are there other factors keeping our western end of the Triangle moister this year?

Either way, kudos to OWASA for continuing Orange County's position of environmental superiority in the Triangle.

Roses to Orange Water and Sewer Authority, for the long-range planning and year-round conservation measures that have kept our taps flowing while Raleigh and many other nearby areas face a water-supply crisis.

Local leaders aspire to be frosty beverages

Thank goodness the Daily Tarheel is even covering the Community Leadership Council. This is a group of mostly self-appointed community "leaders" who are getting more information about critical issues like UNC's development plans than the Town of Chapel Hill gets. I didn't see this meeting reported on in other outlets, but I don't get paid for this so maybe it slipped under my radar.

Unfortunately, either this recent CLC meeting was incoherent, or the DTH is just filtering their reportage in terms they think students will understand: beer. I read the article a few times and I couldn't figure out what hapenned at the meeting, but I didn't fail to note at least five beer analogies in the story.

Forget being like Mike. Chapel Hill leaders want to be like beer.

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