December 2007

New Council starts today

Tonight, the Chapel Hill Town Council will swear in the four folks elected this fall: Jim, Sally, Bill, and Matt. Hopefully, this will lay to rest the Chapel Hill News' obsession with picking on Cam Hill. Presumably, you can look for Matt Czajkowski - who promised to ride his bike to all Council meetings - pedaling up Franklin Street tonight.

Welcome Lydia, and thank you Alex

And now tonight at 7:30 Carrboro will swear in new and re-elected members of the Board of Aldermen: Joal, Dan, and Lydia. I'm sure Dan Coleman will be breathing a sigh of relief now that he has been put before the people of Carrboro and duly elected. Expect another round of nice speeches followed by good snacks. If there have been as many bitter recriminations in Carrboro as there have been in Chapel Hill, I sure haven't noticed. What are people saying? Are we ready to work together yet?

OP vacation

OP closes up shop every year to encourage everyone to get away from the keyboard and spend time with your loved ones and yourself. See you in 2008!

Date:

Tuesday, January 1, 2008 - 4:00am to Thursday, January 3, 2008 - 4:00am

Other

OP
holiday

Community guidelines

The following guidelines are intended to ensure that OrangePolitics remains a safe place for self expression, civil disagreement, and community building. They are inspired by and borrow heavily from policies at other successful websites (see links at the bottom of this page). They may change periodically as a result of reader suggestions or lessons learned from managing this community.

Beginning on January 3rd, 2008 all active users must agree to abide by these guidelines. Failure to respect these policies may result in a "troll" rating, which includes moderation of comments.

Getting to a downtown library branch

I wanted to take advantage of this forum to submit an idea someone shared with me this past week. My friend noted the fact that people have recently been speaking out in favor of locating new libraries in both downtown Chapel Hill and Carrboro. We came up with the suggestion that Chapel Hill, Carrboro, and Orange County should come together to build one library on or near the border shared by the two towns in the area of Rosemary Street.

This way, Chapel Hill would get the library close to downtown that has been desired and Carrboro would get the same. In theory this library could be funded from four entities if the fed chipped in. Compared to the current plan of two towns and two libraries, which proposes that Carrboro's library would be funded by Orange County and Chapel Hill's library would be funded by Chapel Hill, this would be a more efficient use of all of our tax dollars.

Community 3.0

This an excerpt from an essay Ruby wrote in November about how we might approach community management in this new version of OrangePolitics. Your thoughts are welcome.

As we are approaching the second major platform change to OP (from WordPress to Drupal), I’m starting to think about how to help the readers feed back into the system and have some collective say about what words and what behavior is or is not valued. It’s already going to be a great improvement that trusted users can have their own blogs on the site. I’m especially interested in Drupal modules that might help with rating content (both posts and comments), although I also accept that some manual moderation will probably be needed, especially in determining what goes on the front page.

Local GOP chair to run for Congress

I read in the Chapel Hill News this morning that Augustus Cho, the chairman of the Orange County Republican Party, is going to run against David Price. Supposedly other Republicans are considering the same. What do ya'll know about him? All I know about Cho is from the 'My View' Column he writes every month.

Side note: Why is the Chapel Hill News story 'Thieves hit washing machines' above the story 'GOP chair Cho to challenge Price'?

OPTV: What's to come

Here's my latest video blog entry. Mostly I go over what's been on OP in the last 2 weeks, but if you make it to the end I talk about starting work on the new site! Sorry the audio is so bad, I recorded it sitting on my deck after work today.

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Your feedback, please

Please post any non-technical feedback, questions and suggestions as comments on this page

Bill of Rights Day

More info on this post.

Reading of the Bill of Rights, Noon, December 15, BILL OF RIGHTS DAY, Peace and Justice Plaza (corner of Henderson and East Franklin Streets), Chapel Hill. Proclamations read from Orange County Commissioners, Chapel Hill Town Council, and Carrboro Town Aldermen. Organized by NC Senator Ellie Kinnaird to honor Joe Herzenberg. 929-1607.

Date:

Saturday, December 15, 2007 - 7:00am to 8:00am

Martin Luther King's birthday

Date:

Monday, January 14, 2008 - 7:01pm

More Information:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Luther_King,_Jr.

Racial & Economic Justice

MLK
activism

Real homelessness requires real solutions

What do y'all think about the Chapel Hill Downtown Partnership's new "Real Change from Spare Change" program? Folks have been talking for years about something like this to discourage "panhandling." The idea is to encourage folks to give money at approved kiosks instead of directly to individuals, and to use the money to help homeless people to get connected with the services they need.

Ever since living in Miami in the 80's when I got asked for money on every block, I personally decided to never give money to individuals in the street. It seems unfair to only help some (who randomly asked me) and not all who equally need help. I wish no-one ever had to ask for money, it's an unpleasant experience for all involved. I've also heard anecdotal stories about people being harassed for money downtown, which is clearly a problem, although I don't know how widespread it really is.

Who is behind this?

Administrators:

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User list

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Administrators

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Election info

Each year OrangePolitics collects non-partisan election information for local races. You can find it all here in a hierarchical outline or "book."

Local blogs & media

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immigration

Saturday's Progressive Democrats Conference in Chapel Hill featured Marisol Jimendez-McGee of El Pueblo. She summarized the macroeconomic causes of immigration to NC and some of the local reactions to it. She ended with a plea for help. So what do we do?
Loren

Chapel Hill

Mayor (choose 1):

· Kevin Foy
· Kevin Wolff

Town Council (choose up to 4):

· Bill Thorpe
· Ed Harrison
· Jason Baker
· Laurin Easthom
· Mark Kleinschmidt
· Robin Cutson
· Will Raymond

Carrboro

Mayor (choose 1):

· Alex Zaffron
· Mark Chilton

Board of Aldermen (choose up to 3):

· Catherine Devine
· David Marshall
· Jacquelyn Gist
· John Herrera
· Katrina Ryan
· Randee Haven-O'Donnell

Chapel Hill-Carrboro Board of Education

Chapel Hill-Carrboro Board of Education (choose up to 3):

· Jean Hamilton
· Jeff Danner
· Lisa Stuckey
· Pam Hemminger

We lost another great one: Dan Okun

I don't think I ever met him but Daniel Okun's name often came up whenever you heard about activism around the environment, peace, or civil rights. Okun passed away on Monday. He was 90.

He also has left us a wonderful legacy through the next generation of his family, many of whom are great activists in their own right. My thoughts go out to the whole Okun clan. The entire community truly benefited from Okun's long tenure in Chapel Hill and we fortunate to have him with as long as we did.

Winter happy hour

When we had OP's 4th birthday party back in September, there was a lot of interest in getting together more often, so I agreed to organize quarterly gatherings. As promised...

OP Happy Hour
Wednesday, Dec. 19
6:30 pm - 8:30 pm
At Fuse
Special guest: Beta version of the new OrangePolitics! (code name: "OP 3.0")

I will demo the new site and take your suggestions for improvement. There will also be socializing for everyone (ie: non-geeks)! Bring your favorite elected official. Media are welcome as well.

We'll be done in time for you to watch the game at 9:00. Please come!

Winter Happy Hour

When we had OP’s 4th birthday party back in September, there was a lot of interest in getting together more often, so I agreed to organize quarterly gatherings. As promised…

OP Happy Hour
Wednesday, Dec. 19
6:30 pm - 8:30 pm
At Fuse
Special guest: Beta version of the new OrangePolitics! (code name: “OP 3.0″)

I will demo the new site and take your suggestions for improvement. There will also be socializing for everyone (ie: non-geeks)! Bring your favorite elected official. Media are welcome as well.

We’ll be done in time for you to watch the game at 9:00. Please come!

Date:

Wednesday, December 19, 2007 - 1:30pm to 3:30pm

More Information:

http://orangepolitics.org/2007/12/winter-happy-hour

Rogers Road Waste Transfer Station - the blog

For those of you interested in following the development of the Rogers Road landfill and waste transfer station story, we have established a blog at http://rogersroad.wordpress.com.

We welcome your comments on the blog and encourage you to share this resource with your friends. We also welcome your support and attendance at the many public meetings held to discuss the search for a new location for the Waste Transfer Station. Send us your contact information and we'll keep you advised.

From all of us at the Rogers-Eubanks Coalition to End Environmental Racism (CEER), our best wishes for a warm and wonderful holiday and a New Year free from environmental racism!

------------------------------------------------------
Stan Cheren
Rogers-Eubanks Coalition
Communications Committee
http://rogersroad.wordpress.com/
(919) 942-9493 voice Ã‚Â· (919) 942-9396 fax
------------------------------------------------------

Big box on our doorstep

Those sirens

No the Rooskies aren't invading. UNC is testing it's emergency something-or-other system. From here (over 1 mile away) it does have the sound of a major disaster - as if a variety of fire engines, ambulances, and an air raid alert all were triggered at once.

The University's Department of Public Safety will test a newly installed UNC Emergency Alert System Siren on Wednesday, December 19 between noon and 1 p.m.

The siren will be used to sound an alarm and broadcast instructions about what to do during a life-threatening situation such as an armed and dangerous person in the area, a major chemical spill or hazard, or a tornado.

During Wednesday's test, the siren will sound for a brief period. Siren locations are at the Hinton James Residence Hall off Manning Drive; the Gary R. Tomkins Chilled Water Operations Center behind the Dogwood Parking Deck; Winston Residence Hall at the corner of Raleigh Street and South Road; and at University buildings off Airport Drive across Martin Luther King Boulevard from the Chapel Hill-Carrboro YMCA.

Bring back 24/7 service at the shelter

Feeling charitable this solstice? The Inter-Faith Council, which provides critical support to some of our most vulnerable neighbors, had to roll back their hours due to lack of funding earlier this year. Thanks to a challenge grant, they are now poised to bring back 24-hour service, but only if they raise another $6,000 by December 31st.

You can donate to IFC online through Network for Good. Put "24/7 campaign" in the Designation field. If you care to mention in the Dedication field that you came from OrangePolitics, that would be a great way to let the IFC know how much we appreciate their work!

Your 24/7/365 gift will enable IFC to:

OP takes a vacation

It's that time of year when I go to the beach and many of you hang out with your families and decorate Hanukkah bushes or something. (Oh wait, Hanukkah is already over.) As has become our end-of-year custom, commenting and new posting will be disabled for a while so we can all unwind and spend time aways from our blasted keyboards. OP will be on vacation from about 9pm Dec. 23rd to about 9am January 3rd.

What you can do in your spare time? Play with the new beta version of our site! I will post the address here on this page before we go off the air on Sunday. If testing goes well, you could be coming back to a whole new OP in January! Wish us luck...

Update: Screenshot posted.

The people

There are various levels of users on OrangePolitics.

OrangePolitics' 5th birthday

Details TBA.

Issues

A running list of known problems with the current (beta) version of OrangePolitics 3.0:

Previous users are not having to opt-in to the terms of service.

Problems specifically with entries imported from the old site:

Some comments have the wrong timestamp. (Which ones?)
All content was "created" on the day it was imported.

Frequently Asked Questions

How this works

So what's the big deal with the new platform?

We have finally arrived at OrangePolitics, version 3! You may be wondering how the site is changing, and I hope to explain that here. The biggest change is to the entire framework of publishing - on the new site every registered user has her own blog! This comes with a few other changes, for example every new piece of content does not necessarily appear on the front page. There are several ways to dig in and find the stuff you want, including: the Latest content page, which shows everything that has been published; Keywords (at right), which allow users to label and organize posts any way you like; and the Watchlist, where you can keep up with the bloggers you are most interested in.The front page of the site also shows the 10 most recent comments (as before), as well as 5 recently popular posts (based on your ratings), and 3 random entries from the archives. All of these are available in the left sidebar. Right now, the people designated as "editors" have the ability to decide what goes on the front page.

Main menu

December 2007

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