April 2006
I have become increasingly disillusioned with Neighborhood Conservation Districts, Chapel Hill's attempt to manage change in our delicate, older neighborhoods. I have always seen them as way to protect the character of neighborhoods as they evolve over time. I'm afraid they are being used more as a tool to stop any change or growth in the areas entirely. In my opinion, this is neither healthy nor fair.
So I was intrigued to learn that Carrboro has taken a different approach to this problem:
The Board of Aldermen sat down Tuesday in another bid to hash out its architectural standards. But there was little agreement other than the idea that they must preserve the town's individual character without allowing in mega-developments with McMansions.
- heraldsun.com: Carrboro building standards elusive
Guest Post by Susan Brown
Bring your lunch to the Carrboro Century Center this Thursday, April 13th, at 12:00 noon and hear award-winning poet Jaki Shelton Green read, enjoy coffee from the Open Eye Cafe, and celebrate National Poetry Month!
In 2003, Jaki Shelton Green received the North Carolina Award for Literature. Her poetry has appeared in publications such as The African-American Review, Ms. and Essence. She has performed her poetry and taught workshops in the United States, the Caribbean, Europe, and Brazil. Green also teaches creative writing to marginalized populations of our society such as the homeless, the newly literate, and the incarcerated. She collaborates with human service agencies and non-profit organizations whose focus is using writing as a tool of recovery and change. Her newest collection, Breath of the Song, Selected and New Poems, was released in August 2005.
I have completed what I think is a comprehensive list of candidates for the primary, which is 3 weeks from last Tuesday, but early voting starts TODAY!
This election information required quite a bit of research as the County Board of Elections doesn't list judicial or congressional races, or candidates that file in other counties for state legislative races. All the state BOE offers is one huge document listing all legislative, jusdicial, and congressional candidates for the entire state. Oy. Anyway, I have also included candidate web sites if I could find them. Please visit http://orangepolitics.org/elections-2006 and let me know if I have missed anything.
Here are the early voting locations:
In light of recent events, please join us in sending the message that domestic violence will not be tolerated in our community.
DOMESTIC VIOLENCE COMMUNITY VIGIL
Thursday, April 13, 2006
6:00 p.m. – Rain or Shine
Franklin Street Post Office, Chapel Hill
For additional information, please call (919) 929-3872.
Organized by the Family Violence Prevention Center of Orange County and Family Violence and Rape Crisis of Chatham County
It's time again for the biennial review of confusing judicial races in North Carolina.
Orange/Chatham Superior Court
Locally, we have the first ever competitive local Superior Court Judge race featuring the following candidates: Chuck Anderson, Allen Baddour, Carl Fox, Ken Oettinger, Michael Patrick, and Adam Stein.
This race is a tough decision in that we have six really strong and well-qualified candidates, all of them with strong Democratic party history and some of them with strong progressive political backgrounds. You get to vote for two candidates in the Superior Court race.
The Chapel Hill-Carrboro PTA Council is sponsoring a Board of County Commissioner Forum on Education to help inform voters about the candidates running for the Orange County Board of County Commissioners. The education forum will be held on Monday, April 17, at 7 PM, at Carrboro Town Hall. The forum will be aired live on the public access channel (Time Warner channel 18) and will also be rebroadcast later. It will be moderated by Frances Henderson, Executive Director of the Dispute Settlement Center. This event is free and open to the public.
The May primaries are of great importance to our school community because the County Commissioners decide how much money is allocated to the two school systems existing in the county and determine other educational issues as well. The PTA Council has also compiled a list of questions and answers from the BOCC candidates. This survey can be accessed through the Council's website, www.ptacouncil.com. For more information about the forum and for procedures for submitting online questions for the forum, please go to the Council's website.
I thought for a while about whether to post this, but I think people should know that fear and homophobia are unfortunately alive and well in Orange County. In his e-mail newsletter last week Orange County Commission candidate Mike Nelson wrote:
Apparently, a representative of the Orange County Democratic Party leadership attended a recent precinct meeting and told folks that a vote for me would be a "wasted" vote. His contention, apparently, was that if I win the primary it will make it easier for the Republican candidate to win in November.
[...]
The same arguments this gentleman made---that voting for me would be handing a seat to the Republicans because of the perceived anti-gay vote in Northern Orange--these same arguments used to be made about African-American and women candidates. If people had listened to this kind of doom-and-gloom mess 20-30-40 years ago, we'd never have elected African Americans or women to office around here.
Guest Post by Dennis Markatos-Soriano
You are all invited to the Chapel Hill/Carrboro CRed Summit!
11:30am-2:30pm, Earth Day Saturday, April 22, 2006
Carrboro Century Center
A gathering to develop our commitment to local CRed (Carbon Reduction) climate stewardship from the written page to coordinated action that can achieve results.
We have commitments to participate from both local Mayors, members of the Chapel Hill Town Council, Carrboro Board of Aldermen, Orange County Commissioners, our State Senator Ellie Kinnaird, State Representative Verla Insko, students and faculty at the University, leaders of OWASA, and representatives of the Chapel Hill-Carrboro Chamber of Commerce.
Key stakeholders that we aim to bring together include:
-Elected officials and staff in the Towns, County, state, and federal level
-Staff and officials at the University
-Members of the business community
-Students who can contribute to the process (from the University and local K-12 system)
-Local citizens who want to help our community achieve the CRed goals
The very influential Independent Weekly announced its endorsements today for the primary election, which will be on May 2nd.
In the Orange County BOCC election, it couldn't pick. Thus it encourages you to vote for three out of the quartet of Fred Battle, Mike Nelson, Barry Jacobs, and Alice Gordon.
In the Superior Court race it endorses Carl Fox and Adam Stein.
For Congress it endorses David Price.
In the statewide Judicial races it endorses Robin Hudson for Supreme Court, and Bob Hunter and Linda Stephens for their respective Court of Appeals seats.
Pretty much on the mark in my opinion...
I just got the following announcement by e-mail.
Also the LWV candidate forum is tonight in Hillsborough!
You're Invited.....
Bob Hall of Democracy North Carolina is the guest speaker at a public meeting hosted by the League of Women Voters Orange-Durham-Chatham chapter on
Thursday, April 20 at 10 am
at the Hargraves Center
216 N. Robeson St. (which runs off Rosemary St., next to Dip's Restaurant)
Chapel Hill
He'll be talking on the theme: "Fulfilling the Promise of Democracy in North Carolina." He will discuss the current state of state-level campaign finance reform, lobbying reform, voting-rights issues, and pending legislation at the N.C. General Assembly.
Join us at the Hargraves Center at 10 am for this informative discussion.
Refreshments will be served.
I'm not sure what's up with "public" meetings at 10 am on a week day, though. :-(
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