August 2006

A Challenge to Orange County Progressives

As printed in the July 29th Chapel Hill Herald

Folks are taught from an early age that if they have a problem with something that a governmental body is doing, they should contact their representative. It's safe to say a lot of progressives in Orange and northern Chatham counties have had a lot of problems with the actions, or lack thereof, taken by the North Carolina General Assembly during this year's session.
The most glaring disappointment is the lack of meaningful ethics/lobbying reform.

It's clear many legislators want to get as much out of their status as they possibly can and are not committed to making the real changes that could help North Carolina residents better trust their elected officials.

But this is by far not the only failed opportunity to make the state better during this session.

A full slate of good environmental bills have been killed by the moneyed interests around the General Assembly, ranging from strong standards to create cleaner cars to the common-sense issue of electronics recycling, for which the Orange County Commissioners have provided a great model.

Ethics Moratorium Passes NC House

With each week the details of NC House Speaker Jim Black's political machine become more embarrassing to Democrats in particular and North Carolinians in general. Or at least it ought to be embarassing to Democrats. The latest revelations turn out to be sadly not-so-shocking:

Jim Black & Co. took control of the North Carolina House of Representatives in 2002 by bribing fellow house member Michael Decker with an offer of $50,000 and a job for Decker's son. Decker accepted the offer and took the $50,000 (primarily in donations to his campaign account). His son got the job at the legislature as well. In turn, Decker switched from Republican to Democrat and turned a 61-59 Republican majority into a 60-60 deadlock in the legislature. Yesterday Decker admitted to the bribery scheme in federal court: http://www.newsobserver.com/1179/story/466790.html

City schools address gangs

While I appreciate the effort to address this growing problem, this policy seems destined to not have much impact besides affirming for teenagers that gangs are really cool. Why else would The Man be trying to shut 'em down?

The Board of Education is slated to discuss -- but not vote on -- the policy during a 7 p.m. meeting Thursday at Lincoln Center in Chapel Hill. ...

Chapel Hill-Carrboro's proposed policy, however, lays out some possible consequences in instances where students are "suspected of displaying gang affiliation."

The steps include a verbal or written warning, photographs, the removal or covering of gang-related clothing or markings, and the removal of any identifying signs of belonging to a gang.
- heraldsun.com: Schools consider new policy on gangs

I'd like to see some policies that try to better understand and validate student voices and do more to let students air the frustrations that make them consider violence and violent culture.

Catch me up (open thread)

So what did I miss? :-)

UNC on the offensive

A few weeks ago, the Chancellor appointed yet another administrative honcho to lead UNC's efforts to build Carolina North. Gone is the language of listening and visioning that we heard about the Ken Broun committee. In the Chapel Hill News, the Chancellor is clearly taking sides calling Jack Evans a "quarterback" for Carolina North: "Moeser said Evans should be adept at reading the defense, i.e. the community leaders and residents who are wary of the massive project."

It's interesting to watch UNC cycle through it's various PR phases. First we're supposed to be buddies, acting as partners, sharing the same goals for the community, etc. But next thing you know we're on opposing teams, lobbing bombs, and trying to advance our goals at any cost.

Leadership on Weaver Street

With all the discussion of the strange management decisions at Carr Mill Mall and Weaver Street Market, and the recent announcement that WSM will move its offices and most of its kitchen to Hillsborough to make way for expansion in downtown Carrboro, it seems like a good time to mention that the annual election of WSM board members is coming up, and there is a board meeting tonight.

I couldn't find anything about it on their website, but there's a bunch of information in the latest "Owner News" which I don't care to transcribe. Short version:
Candidate info is now available at the service desk in WSM
Board applications due - 9/19/06, 9pm
Annual meeting with election of board members - 11/5/06, noon
Open board meetings - 8/16/06 (TODAY!) & 9/21/06, no time given :-(

Judges spending more money

Guest Post by Adam Compton

This past week, while I was at home in Cedar Grove, I received a very interesting phone call.

The woman on the line, who never identified herself, asked, "Sir, are you a registered voter in the Orange County area?"

When I said I was, she continued to tell me I had been selected for a survey. I had a little time on my hands, so I agreed to answer her questions. She began by running through a list of people and asking if I had heard of them.

"Mike Easley?"

"Charles Anderson?"

"Adam Stein?"

"Carl Fox?"

"Allen Baddour?"

After I replied that I knew them all, she asked who I planed to vote for in the election for Superior Court Judge. I told her that I was an Anderson supporter.

That's when things got interesting.

The woman ran through a series of questions, asking me if I would be more or less likely to vote for this candidate under a given set of conditions.

Snapshots in Time

Guest post by Judith Reitman

The Women's Prison Repertory Company presents SNAPSHOTS IN TIME, at the ArtsCenter, Carrboro, August 26, 8 pm. Inmates from the Raleigh Correctional Center for Women present a dramatic reading of a powerful work in progress. Donations Requested. No reservations.
300-G East Main Street Carrboro. 929-2787

http://www.artscenterlive.org/index.php?a=Theatre&b=Current%20Production...

Secret Cafe

Oh that bookstore's at it again, what with their guerrilla fundraising and the secrets, oh the secrets...

Do you like to eat food? Good. You're invited to eat some secret food, in a secret place, for a not so secret good cause. Internationalist Books & Community Center is hosting a secret cafe.

When:
Saturday Aug 26, 2006
at 7:00 PM

Where::
Secret! call 919-942-1740 for info!
Carrboro, NC 27510, USA

or email them for the shibboleth at:

ibooks@internationalistbooks.org

Shhhhh...it might be the best meal you never ate.

The private press conference

Thanks to a reader tip (and the N&O) I found out about this "press conference" about the ban on Bruce Thomas dancing at Weaver Street Market.

Lame duck Chatham Commissioners ain't done yet

Just in case any of our neighbors in Chatham County had any shreds of a doubt about whether Bunkey Morgan is the head of a power-hungry cabal with no concern for ethics or democracy, not to mention smart growth...

Late Monday night following a public hearing, the Chatham Commissioners voted 3-2 to redraw election districts. The change means Patrick Barnes shares a district with newly elected commissioner George Lucier and will not be allowed to run for re-election when his term expires in 2008. He instead will have to wait until 2010 to file to run office again.
...
The county now is divided into five districts. Commissioners must live in the district they represent, but all voters elect all commissioners.

At a meeting last month, commission Chairman Bunkey Morgan proposed redistricting and district representation, saying he was prompted by county Republicans to suggest the change.

During Monday night's public hearing, supporters and opponents argued their cases before the commissioners.

Live on the Lawn

Sorry to start yet another thread on the Dancing Man Controversy, but this one's important and time-sensitive. Someone has answered the call for a dance-in. Be there tomorrow (Wednesday) at 5:30 and get your groove on! I understand that Bruce himself helped to organize this:

It's a Carrboro scandal...and Carrboro residents are dancing back...Wednesday, August 23, 5:30 pm... Weaver Street lawn…

In late July Carr Mill Mall manager Nathan Milian told Bruce Thomas, dancer extraordinaire, that he could no longer dance on the "private property" of Weaver Street Market's lawn. Read http://www.newsobserver.com/102/story/476463.html for a more complete story.

Partnership's priorities

After the Chapel Hill Downtown Partnership spent considerable time and money last spring developing their retro logo and slogan, their board has decided it will not pony up for a local artist to assess the condition of downtown's murals.

If someone's going to put money into assessing the condition of the murals painted on various walls around town, it likely won't be the Chapel Hill Downtown Partnership.

The partnership's board declined Wednesday to earmark $800 for artist Michael Brown to spend about three days studying the state of the murals and writing up a report on their condition. The board had expressed some doubts this spring about paying for an assessment and deferred action, and partnership director Liz Parham brought the matter back to the board's agenda Wednesday.
- heraldsun.com: Downtown group declines to pay for assessing murals, 8/24/06

Footloose Bruce petition & screening

1. There will be a discussion of the dancing ban and a screening of the movie Footloose on Sunday at 7 pm at 116 Old Pittsboro Rd in Carrboro. (Thanks, Michal.)

2. Please sign the petition below to support free expression on the lawn of Carr Mill Mall.

This is a special-rules OP post. For discussion, please join us at http://orangepolitics.org/2006/08/live-on-the-lawn . Any non-petition-signing comments will be removed. E-mail validation is still required. Commenting below will indicate agreement with the following statement:

Welcome home, students

It's another bittersweet end of summer. The students are back, and the first-years are wandering around as lost as ever. I love the heat, but I'm ready for it to start feeling like fall any day now.

Looks like this year's Daily Tarheel Tar Heel editor is a local!

In his new job as editor of the Daily Tar Heel, Joe Schwartz says he wants to keep the paper focused on not just UNC, but all of Orange County.

Schwartz graduated from Chapel Hill High School.

- WCHL 1360: New DTH editor familar [sic] with Chapel Hill, 8/28/06

Looks like Joe knows at least one thing blogs are good for: speaking in your own words instead of just being filtered by the media. ;-)

Dan Siler: Being from Chapel Hill gives you a unique perspective to share with your staff, how do you use it?

I talked about how I know the area. Great. I didn't ever leave Chapel Hill. If I weren't able to use that for the newspaper, or say having connections to South Building as an SBP, it might make me seem kind of scared of the outside world.

N. Chatham Big Box (Wal-Mart?) A Step Closer

From the Chatham chatlist:

Lee-Moore Oil Co. requests rezoning of a 63.3 acre tract at the Chatham/Orange County line into a 29.4 acre conditional use B-1 business district and a 33.9 acre RA-40 residential district.

A separate request for the 29.4 acres is for a "home improvement center" and additional retail and shops. Of course once they get the permit for the "home improvement center" it doesn't matter what big box goes in.

Public Hearing September 18.

Dancing ban update

¡La danza continúa! Demostrations against the Carr Mill dancing ban and Weaver Street Market's "Live on the Lawn"program will continue with a dance-in today at 5:30. See how much fun we had last week, and read on to learn more about what's going on...

From Tamara Tal:

For more of that community magic…

We're Alive on the Lawn!

Same time, same place, same dance… let Carr Mill know that we're still here. Bring your friends, musical instruments— and your dancing shoes!

WSM lawn, Wednesday, August 30th 5:30 PM, the Carrboro community dances back!

Please forward widely.

From Sammy Slade:

Puppets!

For the past few years, our community has been treated to some wonderfully unique, thoughtful, and entertaining puppet shows by the Paper Hand Puppet Intervention. You have one weekend left to catch this year's edition "As The Crow Flies" at the Forest Theater and one weekend to see them at the N.C. Museum of Art after that. I saw the show last weekend and I highly recommend it. I laughed, I cried, I took pictures, I did a little jig, I clapped - a lot.

Along with Paper Hand's summer finale at the Forest Theater, Carrboro and Chapel Hill are bracing for a blast of creative energy this weekend with the RadiCackaLacky Puppetry Convergence coming to town. If you don't enjoy some puppets somewhere, you are missing out on some the more flavorful treats of living in Orange County.

 

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