October 2011

Homestead Park Citizens Organize

Homelessness in Chapel Hill is an issue that, unlike what happens in many communities, reaches headlines in our local media and often the agendas of our Town Council. However, as residents of Chapel Hill seek to safeguard business interests downtown, and as the worsening economic climate continues to find more and more in need, the topic has become increasingly contentious. In too many cases, our most needy citizens are seen as eyesores, barriers to business development and told to get out of town.

With local food pantries stretched to their limits and the current downtown shelter falling into decay, the Chapel Hill Town Council, after lengthy hearings and deliberations, approved the Inter-Faith Council (IFC) Men’s Community House Transitional Shelter Special Use Permit (SUP) in 2011 subject to the IFC satisfying several conditions, including the creation of a Good Neighbor Plan (GNP).

Let's have a park-in

If you're not familiar with the recent or past history of Carr Mill Mall management's anti-Carrboro policies, catch up with us at http://orangepolitics.org/tags/carr-mill. I am so frustrated by the attitude that Carr Mill owes nothing to the community that has made them so successful.

A few days ago ago, Damon and I were looking for a place to park in downtown Carrboro. We had a question and asked Hector (the security guard), he gave us a short answer and a slip of paper with the following printed on it (verbatim):

Change Local Bike Laws in Carrboro

An announcement from the Carrboro Bicycle Coalition:

Did you know that Carrboro's town code for bicyclists is actually stricter than North Carolina state law?

Get The Buzz On Chapel Hill 2020

Don't like what I'm writing on Chapel Hill 2020? Well there's good news. The town recently launched a new blog, 2020 Buzz, which will keep you abreast on all the changes in the process if you don't find my reporting sufficient :) Here's the good news on the blog: it provides another avenue to have your voice be heard. You can comment on virtually anything once you navigate away from the main page and you don't have to been a fancy Wordpress whiz to figure out how to do it. I think it can also be harnessed to be a wonderful tool for disseminating information. I would encourage the town to use a lot of multimedia if possible. People respond to images and videos in ways that they don’t respond to text, and I know a lot of people out there learn better through pictures and graphics than they do through words (myself included).

NC State Bar Opinion vs. Legal Justice Corporation Opinion

On Tuesday, August 30, 2011, the North Carolina State Bar Ethics Committee issued the following opinion -

Opinion rules that a lawyer may not allow a person who is not employed by or affiliated with the lawyer’s firm to use firm letterhead.

Solve budget woes through growth, not cuts

An article in the Chapel Hill News on Sunday gave me pause on the candidates for the Chapel Hill town council. When asked to speak on town spending, all resorted immediately to either vague plans for reductions or, astonishingly, proposals to charge for transit, which is by far the most effective service Chapel Hill offers.

Instead of deciding which items to cut, the candidates for the council should commit to a pro-growth agenda. Rezone the entire downtown core as TC-3-C, and consider removing the height cap for downtown. Allow people to build along the planned light rail corridor to Durham. Expedite the review process so every proposal doesn't get dragged down in years of bickering.

BoCC meeting Oct 4th - landfill decision?

I'm at the Orange County Board of County Commissioners meeting tonight to hear the latest on the landfill and Rogers Road mitigation. I'm spending a night outside the school district and talking about issues that won't help me get elected, so it must be important. The attachment (link below) has a county manager proposal that closes the landfill in 2013, and also addresses some of the mitigation items requested by the community. Looking forward to BoCC reaction -- are we going to finally do something for this community or push it further along the road?

IFC Seeks Applications for the Good Neighbor Plan Advisory Committee

On September 26, members of the Chapel Hill Town Council suggested that the Community House Good Neighbor Plan Advisory Committee expand its membership . Hence, the IFC is seeking applications for committee membership. See http://ifc-gnp.blogspot.com/ for more detail. The application form can be found at http://ifcweb.org/GNP-app.htm. Applications should be submitted to the IFC before October 14.

Blue Ribbon Mentor-Advocate is looking for new volunteer mentors. 1 New Mentor = 1 More Student Goes to College.

CH Town Council Member Czajkowski and ex-UNC VP Etta Pisano investigated by conservative South Carolina watchdog group

Campaign finance reports are out! Who's going to analyze them?

2020 Themes Already?

Tonight makes the second stakeholder meeting in the Chapel Hill 2020 comprehensive urban planning process. If you’ve been following the 2020 Buzz blog that I posted about a few days ago (Get the Buzz on Chapel Hill 2020), you’ve probably already seen that some themes and vision statements have been posted. I like what the facilitator and planning staff have come up with and think it’s a great jumping off point, but from the perspective of my group’s discussions at the first meeting I think a lot has been left off.

The main thing I think is missing is coverage of the social aspects of Chapel Hill. My thinking on this was sparked mostly from what my small group talked about the first meeting. We spent a lot of time talking about making Chapel Hill a community that supports youth (ages 0-25) and that has a servant mindset. We also spent a good deal of time talking about Chapel Hill as it fits into the larger regional context. I can see how these topics might fit into the themes listed, but I think they deserve more specific treatment.

Sierra Club 2011 Chapel Hill Mayor and Town Council Endorsements

The North Carolina chapter of the Sierra Club proudly announces its endorsements for the 2011 Chapel Hill town races. The Sierra Club supports candidates with demonstrated knowledge of local environmental issues who will provide strong leadership on matters including growth and conservation.For mayor of Chapel Hill, the Sierra Cub endorses incumbent Mark Kleinschmidt. For Chapel Hill Town Council, the Sierra Club endorses incumbents Donna Bell and Jim Ward and challengers Jason Baker and Lee Storrow. Mayor Kleinschmidt, who has held the mayor’s office since 2009, earns the Sierra Club’s continued support for his leadership on mass transit, solid waste management, and carbon reduction.Jason Baker has a long history of interest in and passion for environmental issues and has served on the town Transportation, Planning, and Comprehensive Plan advisory committees. He is a strong supporter of transit-oriented development and strengthening the local economy in environmentally appropriate ways.

Sierra Club 2011 Carrboro Mayor and Board of Aldermen Endorsements

The North Carolina chapter of the Sierra Club proudly announces its endorsements for the 2011 Carrboro races. The Sierra Club supports candidates with demonstrated knowledge of local environmental issues who will provide strong leadership on matters including growth and conservation.For mayor of Carrboro, the Sierra Cub endorses incumbent Mark Chilton.For Carrboro Board of Aldermen the Sierra Club endorses incumbents Dan Coleman and Lydia Lavelle, and challenger Michelle Johnson. Mayor Chilton, who has held the mayor’s office since 2005, earns the Sierra Club’s continued support for his consistent leadership on environmental issues affecting the town and county.

2020 Stakeholder Meeting, Part Deux

Tonight residents from across Chapel Hill gathered for the second stakeholder meeting as part of Chapel Hill 2020 planning process. I’m going to structure this post, the same as I did for last one, first I’ll report what happened chronologically and then give my feedback/thoughts.

Chapel Hill 2020: Ambiguity Moving Forward

On October 6, 2011, approximately 200 members of the community gathered at East Chapel Hill High School to participate in a “stakeholder meeting,” the second scheduled event in a series of events associated with the drafting of the Chapel Hill 2020 comprehensive plan. Equipped with high-tech voting devices and packets outlining the various proposed mission statements and themes for the plan, citizens expressed both support and concerns alike through the press of a button.

Some, myself included, left feeling a sense of disappointment that citizens in attendance had been given little opportunity to verbally articulate their frustrations in any sort of forum-like fashion. Even more, I asked myself what each of the plan’s proposed provisions really encompassed. As a student of sociology and activist for marginalized people, the ambiguity and overtly positive spin on the plan is worrisome.

OP Candidate Forums

It's been a while since I posted on OP, but I'm a regular reader and am delighted to serve as moderator of the upcoming OP online candidate forums. Details here.

As I spelled out in a column this week in The Citizen, elections aren't just about deciding who gets a term in office. They're an important part of the community dialogue, a time when we can restate our values and tell our elected leaders — whether they are running or not this year — what's on our minds.

Forum Open Thread: Chapel Hill-Carrboro School Board

Welcome, everyone! This page is an open thread for conversation about the live Chapel Hill-Carrboro school board candidate forum.

OP Live Candidate Forum: Chapel Hill-Carrboro School Board

Occupy Chapel Hill/Carrboro

Date:

Saturday, October 15, 2011 - 10:30am

Location:

Peace and Justice Plaza, Franklin St. Post Office, 179 East Franklin Street, Chapel Hill

More Information:

http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=180578398688173

Civil Liberties

Best use of Facebook this campaign

http://fb.me/QYTUquK3 LOL

Doing it the Hard Way

Blogger Nancy Oates recently raised some questions about my fundraising. I wrote her this open letter in response.

Clearing the Air

I wanted to take the opportunity to address some of the questions raised by members of the Orange Politics community about my 35-day finance report, in particular my use of aggregated individual contributions to list my donors under $28.I didn’t expect that this decision would cause such questioning, but after further reflection I’ve decided to let folks know where my donations are from. At the bottom of this post is a link to a Google document that lists the names, occupations, and addresses of the 79 below-$28 contributions. Some of our donors, because of their position or relationship to other candidates, donated with the understanding that their information was not required to be disclosed. I’ll respect the wishes of my donors and will only be releasing zip codes for a select few names. I hope this puts concerns about my finance report to rest.I would add that as a young candidate I haven’t had the same time to build relationships with Chapel Hill donors that other candidates have, and I have fortunately received support from people outside of our town as well.

Filling vacancies: school board, Chapel Hill, and Carrboro

Up til 1955 the CH Town Council filled vacancies on the school board, then it went to elections to fill vacancies, but the local acts were unclear how to deal with this. The general law just said refer to the local act. In 1973 there was a 2 year vacancy and the Board of Elections put it on the ballot as a separate election. The powers that be did not like this, and the school board asked the legislature to change this so the low vote-getting winner got a shorter term. The legislature did this in 1974, then did it again in in 1975.

Chapel Hill is occupied... kinda

I spent about 6 hours downtown yesterday participating in the kick-off of Occupy Chapel Hill/Carrboro (a.k.a. #occupyCHC). It was a great event with well over 100 people participating. I'm sure there would have been way more if not for the football traffic and parking situation.

At at 2:30 we held a very participatory consensus-based meeting called the General Assembly. This is part of the extensive organizational structure including organized working groups and decision-making processes developed at Occupy Wall Street in New York (a month old tomorrow!) and passed along to the massive diaspora of occupations including "over 1,500 cities globally and over 100 US cities." For now General Assemblies are scheduled for 6pm daily at Peace & Justice Plaza, although this could change.

NAACP, EmPOWERment, Inc., NRG and CURB Candidate Forum Reveals True Colors

Justice United Fall Delegates Assembly

According to Facebook:

Gathering starts at 6:00PM,
Meeting 6:30 to 8:00
We start and end on time.

More than 150 delegates of Justice United will meet with candidates for elected office and decision makers. Justice United leaders will discuss the specifics of the Justice United Action Agenda for the Common Good which was developed with the input of more than 1,000 residents of Orange County.

For more information, contact Stephanie Perry at 919-403-7082 or the Justice United office at 919-403-7082.

Date:

Monday, October 24, 2011 - 6:00pm to 8:00pm

Location:

Friends and Family Hall, Saint Thomas More Catholic Church 940 Carmichael Street, Chapel Hill

Racial & Economic Justice

Forum Open Thread: Carrboro Board of Aldermen

Happy Monday evening, everyone. This is the open thread for conversation about the live Carrboro Board of Aldermen candidate forum. Post your thoughts and reactions here. You can also reach the editors during the forum via Twitter, Facebook, or the contact page.

OP Live Candidate Forum: Carrboro Board of Aldermen

School board forum at Chinese School of Chapel Hill

There will be total 4 candidates attending (J. Barrett, M.
Barroughs, K. Castellano and M. Kelly). Each will be allowed to speak
for up to 8 minutes. Q&A will follow. Some social time will be allowed
at end. Forum will end by 6:00 PM. Principal of Chinese School of
Chapel Hill, Ms. Gu, will be the moderator.

Date:

Saturday, October 22, 2011 - 4:00pm to 6:00pm

Location:

room 624 of McDougle Middle School (900 Old Fayetteville Road)

2011

Chapel Hill-Carrboro Board of Education

Why doesn't Chapel Hill get food trucks?

[carne asada is not a crime, saveourtacotrucks.org] Last night while much of OP was intently watching our live online candidate forum for aspiring Aldermen, the Chapel Hill Town Council was discussing proposed new foodtruck regulations. To me they sound very limiting, including provisions that they cannot operate within 100 feet of an open restaurant, that they can only be located on private property, and that the truck and property must both get permits from the Town. Even with these restrictions, WCHL's Elizabeth Friend reported that the Chapel Hill Chamber of Commerce and the Chapel Hill Downtown Partnership opposed the change.

This makes it pretty clear to me that the perceived interests of their members is more important to the Chamber of Commerce than the success and sustainability of our local economy.

Enrique Peñalosa evening

Viewing of speech given by Enrique Penalosa at the International Transport Forum in January, 2011.

Enrique Peñalosa is one of the great urban thinkers of our time. During his three year term (1997–2000) as Mayor of Bogotá, Colombia, Peñalosa implemented numerous radical improvements to the city and its citizens' quality of life. He helped transform Bogotá's attitude from one of negative hopelessness to one of pride and hope, developing a model for urban improvement based on the equal rights of all people to transportation, education, and public spaces.

A discussion will follow. Sponsored by the Carrboro Transportation Advisory Board, the UNC dept. of City and Regional Planning, and the Carrboro Bicycle Coalition. A discussion wil follow the speech.

Light refreshments will be served prior to the video.

Date:

Thursday, October 27, 2011 - 6:30pm to 8:30pm

Location:

Carrboro Century Center, 100 N. Greensboro St., Carrboro

More Information:

http://talk.bikecarrboro.com/events/penalosa-carrboro

Planning & Transportation

Community House Resident Responds to Wolff Flyer

Earlier this week, perennial Chapel Hill mayoral candidate Kevin Wolff disseminated a campaign flyer in the Homestead Park neighborhood telling parents that they should be very concerned about the men's transitional facility locating on Homestead Road, suggesting that when the shelter is located there "a child will be assaulted, molested, kidnapped, and/or killed in that park. It's not a matter of if this will happen... it is a matter of when." The full flyer can be read here.

District Court Judge Page Vernon resigns. Who will take her place?

District Court Judge Page Vernon has resigned her seat. She was elected to the post in 2008, and would have stood for reelection in 2012.

According to the District 15B Bar listserv, there will be special meeting of the Bar on November 9th to select three nominees to fill the vacancy. These nominees will be sent to Governor Perdue, who will make the appointment.

Here is the entire text of the email:

An Open Letter to Kevin Wolff, Candidate for Mayor of Chapel Hill

After reading an email about Kevin Wolff's "Warning to Chapel Hill Residents", I was inspired by the response from the men of the IFC shelter to write an open letter to Mr. Wolff regarding his allegations about the danger of moving the men's shelter near Homestead Park.

Mr. Wolff:

Forum Open Thread: Chapel Hill Town Council

Nine candidates, four seats. Welcome to the open thread for tonight's live Chapel Hill Town Council candidate forum.

We hope you'll use this space to post your thoughts and reactions. You can reach the editors during the forum via Twitter, Facebook, or the contact page.

OP Live Candidate Forum: Chapel Hill Town Council

Candidates and Affordable Housing: How hopefuls plan to keep doors open and affordable

Carrboro Residents To Hold Press Conference Tuesday in Violation of Anti-Loitering Ordinance, Release Letter to Town Board

Carrboro residents will unveil a letter calling upon the Board of Aldermen to rescind the town's anti-loitering ordinance at a Tuesday October 25 11 AM press conference on the corner of Davie and Jones Ferry Roads. The letter, signed by more than 100 Carrboro residents, business owners, and day laborers, calls for the immediate repeal of the ordinance which "violates the civil and human rights of any person who would otherwise lawfully be present at the intersection."

WCHL Mayoral Candidate Forum

I am imgaine the reason this is so short (one hour) is that there isn't much to ask the challengers besides "who the **** do you think you are?" and then thank Mark Kleinschmidt for his service and polite patience with these bozos. Here's my favorite part of WCHL's story about this:

...challenger Kevin Wolff proposed the forum earlier this month, but hasn’t yet confirmed his attendance.

Date:

Tuesday, October 25, 2011 - 8:00pm to 9:00pm

Location:

WCHL Studio, VilCom Center Drive, Chapel Hill

More Information:

http://www.chapelboro.com/pages/11267813.php?

Elections

Chapel Hill Mayor

The most important endorsement...

... yours! The most influential endorsements of all are the opinions of people you know and trust. This is our annual special-rules post to share YOUR favorites on this year's ballots. Here's OP's 2011 candidate list including links to all of their websites.

The rules: only write who you are voting for (and why, if you like). You can also list the people you would vote for if you lived in their districts. Do not refer (by name or specific description) to any candidates that you are not voting for or publicly supporting. If you do not follow the rules, your comments will be removed. In other words: keep it positive please.

[Note: I published this post and then took it down about a week ago. I got the sense that some folks wanted to wait until after more forums, especially OP's, were concluded to make final recommendation. I hope you're ready to go now!]

Early Voting Totals

The Board of Elections has added early voting turnout numbers to its website. Click on our website http://www.co.orange.nc.us/elect/ and then click on Early Voting Totals in the box with 2011election information to access the daily report.

We were at 531 as of end of day Friday.

Jim White, BOE Chair

OP's annual election prediction contest is coming up soon so dust off your thinking caps, y'all!

Somebody's getting their snark on on Twitter

Home Grown Home Made: A Celebration of Localism in Durham

Durham Community Media would like to cordially invite the community to attend its first annual Home-Grown, Home-Made: A Celebration of Localism in Durham. Come out on Thursday, October 27^th to enjoy the remarkable tastes of local food, brew, wine and desserts and an evening of culinary and social celebration! Sponsored by Durham’s newest local brewery, Fullsteam Brewery, the event will bring Bull City residents together to learn about the importance of Keeping it Local.

When: Thursday, October 27th, 5:30-8:30 pm

Where: Fullsteam Brewery, 726 Rigsbee Ave., Durham, NC 27701

Tickets are a suggested donation of $20 before the event, $25 at the door

Buy tickets or for more information call 919-960-0088

Or email events@thepeopleschannel.org

Purchase Tickets online at: http://www.thepeopleschannel.org/homegrown.htm

Date:

Thursday, October 27, 2011 - 5:30pm to 8:30pm

Location:

Fullsteam Brewery, 726 Rigsbee Avenuse, Durham, NC 27701

More Information:

http://www.thepeopleschannel.org/homegrown.htm

Media

CH 2020 Theme Groups: A Summary

So at this point there’s been much discussion as to what a theme is, who will make up a theme working group, what these working group will do and how they will do it. The town has answered these questions in series of blog on the 2020 Buzz site, but there’s a good deal of information to wade through, so I’ve tried to succinctly summarize them below in a Q&A format:

What is a theme? The town calls the themes the building blocks of the plan. They’re not necessarily value-laden; instead they’re areas that the plan will focus on. Currently there are six themes. You can find a list of the current themes here.

The Work Begins: First 2020 Theme Group Meeting

You may have seen my earlier post that described what theme groups are actually are and what they'll be doing. Tonight, theory will become reality with the first of the four theme group working sessions at Ephesus Elementary School. Here's what on the agenda:

Review the process
Clarify the roles and responsibilities of all members and leaders of the group
Identify the components for the theme based on the community data collected at previous meetings
Identify areas in common with other themes
Identify resources for the group, both in terms of staff and data
Have discussion of decisions in the theme group

First Theme Group Meetings Successful, But Need More Input

I would label last night’s meeting generally successful, but reflecting back on what I observed and participated in. Before I get into my reactions, a quick few notes on what actually happened. The meeting took place entirely in small groups. As noted above, I participated in the transportation group. The official title of the theme is:

Getting Around: Transportation: (transportation of all forms, regional assets, partnerships, potential for shared success)

All of the groups basically followed the same format, kicking off with an introduction by the group go-chairs and then moving into the meat of the discussion, which was supposed to touch on four different questions, all with a tilt toward the particular theme’s interest area.

Endorsements for Baker and Storrow

As I have posted over the years, I love this town with the fervor of a convert. Prior to coming here 11 years ago we moved around, travelled, made new friends as we did and were generally unmoored. Now we are part of a community with whom we are completely and happily intertwined. When you meet people around the country and around the world and tell them you live in Chapel Hill, their faces light up with interest and a hint of envy. The question you get is, "how do you like it there?" My answer is always, "I love it, we'll never leave."

As one can see from the 2020 visioning project, there are diverse opinions about what makes the town special and how to keep it going. But whatever the individual opinions, the simple fact that so many people in our town will commit their time and energy to learning about and advocating for the issues that will shape our future, is part of the soul of this town that I love.

OP Editors Monthly Open Meeting

Standing agenda:

Upcoming blog topics and calendar events.
Debrief any policy issues that arose in the past month.
Technical/administrative how-tos.
Upcoming events.

Date:

Saturday, November 19, 2011 - 3:00pm to 5:00pm

Location:

Pepper's Pizza, 107 E Franklin Street, Chapel Hill

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