February 2013

The Future of Chapel Hill's Parks and Greenways

Next Monday (February 18th), the Chapel Hill Town Council is holding a public hearing on two major planning documents for our town: the Parks and Greenways master plans. As chair of the Parks and Recreation Commission, I can tell you that this day has been long in coming. Work on these plans began over two years ago, but staff was asked to wait until after the completion of the Chapel Hill 2020 visioning document to submit them for approval, so the plans could be as unified in their language as possible. When adopted, they will be considered part of the Town's comprehensive plan.

As Chapel Hill continues to grow (with a projected population of 70K by 2025), there is a need to conserve the open space the town has left, create better connectivity for non-vehicular transportation, and provide venues for citizens to engage in active, healthy lifestyles. Also, in most of the assessments that Town has done in the past few years, citizens have rated  trails and recreation opportunities as one of the Town's biggest needs. With these goals in mind, the two master plans recommend the following:

Parks master plan recommendations:
  • $12

Public Address by Lawrence Lessig – Rooting out Corruption in Politics: Complicity and Complacency by the Media

I've been a huge fan of Lessig's work for some time, and I can tell you from experience that he's a really great public speaker. You'll come away smarter after listening to him.

On March 4, the Center for Media Law and Policy will host a public address by Professor Lawrence Lessig, the Roy L. Furman Professor of Law and Leadership at Harvard Law School, and director of the Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics at Harvard University.  Prior to rejoining the Harvard faculty, Prof. Lessig taught at Stanford Law School, where he founded the school’s Center for Internet and Society, and at the University of Chicago.

The lecture, which is free and open to the public, will tackle one of the most challenging problems we face: corruption in politics. How have good people, with good intentions, allowed our democracy to be co-opted by outside interests, weakening our institutions and especially public trust in those institutions? What role has the media played in this weakening and what should be its role going forward?

Please join us on March 4 at 6:30 p.m. at the UNC Law School when Prof. Lessig will discuss how we can root out corruption in our politics and restore faith in the Fourth Estate’s role as a watchdog of government.

 

Date: 

Monday, March 4, 2013 - 6:30pm to 8:00pm

Location: 

UNC School of Law

Orange County Board of Commissioners regular meeting

Via David Hunt's e-mail notifications:

The full agenda for the Orange County Board of Commissioners' regular meeting on Tuesday, February 19, 2013 has been posted to the link below. 

http://www.co.orange.nc.us/OCCLERKS/130219.pdf 

 

Regular Meeting

February 19, 2013

7:00 p.m.

Southern Human Services Center

2501 Homestead Rd.

Chapel Hill, NC

 

AGENDA HIGHLIGHTS

 

4.  Proclamations/ Resolutions/ Special Presentations

a.         Resolution Acknowledging February 26, 2013 as Spay Neuter Day in Orange County and Community Spay and Neuter Program Presentation

The Board will consider a resolution officially acknowledging February 26, 2013 as "Spay Neuter Day" in Orange County and to receive an update about the County's Community Spay and Neuter.

 

6.  Public Hearings

a.         Senior Care of Orange County, Inc. - Lease Agreement

The Board will conduct a statutorily required public hearing and consider approval of a resolution authorizing a lease agreement with Senior Care of Orange County, Inc. ("SC of OC") and authorize the Chair to sign.

b.         Lease of the County-owned Building at 500 Valley Forge Road to the Piedmont Food and Agricultural Processing Center, Inc.

The Board will conduct a statutorily required public hearing and consider entering into a lease agreement with the Piedmont Food and Agricultural Processing Center, Inc. regarding the occupation and lease of the building at 500 Valley Forge Road, Hillsborough and authorize the Vice-Chair to execute the agreement.

c.          Orange County's Proposed 2013 Legislative Agenda

The Board will conduct a public hearing on Orange County's potential legislative items for the 2013 North Carolina General Assembly Session and consider identifying three to five specific items from the entire package to highlight for priority discussion at the March 11, 2013 meeting with Orange County's legislative delegation.

 

7.  Regular Agenda

a.         North Carolina State Clearinghouse Request for Intergovernmental Review of Proposed Private Crossing Closures with the North Carolina Railroad (NCRR)-Norfolk Southern (NS) Railway

The Board will receive information on the North Carolina Department of Transportation (NCDOT) proposal to close private North Carolina Railroad (NCRR)/Norfolk Southern (NS) Railway crossings at Gordon Thomas Drive, Greenbriar Drive and Byrdsville Road in Orange County, and consider a second letter submitting scoping comments related to the project.

b.         Next Steps Regarding Proposed Establishment of Three (3) New Fire Service Districts

The Board will consider scheduling a public hearing for the April 9, 2013 regular Board meeting to consider the establishment of the three new Fire Service Districts - the South Orange Fire Service District, the North Chatham Fire Service District and the Greater Chapel Hill Fire Service District. 

c.          Jordan Lake Allocation Process and Requirement

The Board will consider adding funds in this year's budget process for utility engineering study/analysis on how to distribute via infrastructure future water allocations from Jordan Lake.

 

8.  Reports

a.          Update on Status/Implementation of Addressing and Road-Naming Ordinance

The Board will receive an update report on the status/implementation of the Road Naming and Addressing Ordinance.

 

 

Date: 

Tuesday, February 19, 2013 - 7:00pm

Location: 

Southern Human Services Center, 2501 Homestead Rd., Chapel Hill, NC

Closed "Y" Board meetings

This is from Bob Epting -  

Dear Friends,

Would you please, please, please take time to go to the link below,as well as my attached letter to the Y Board President, and vote to support our petition asking the Board of Directors either to back up and make the process inclusive, or to call a general membership vote to change the by-laws of the Y, so as to open their Board meetings, and so as to require membership participation in facilities closure determinations.

And would you please send this on to five others, and ask them to send on to five others each.

OP Editors Monthly Open Meeting

Join us for our monthly open editorial meeting. Standing agenda:

  • Debrief the past month on the site
  • Upcoming posts & meetings to tweets
  • Editorial and technical issues
  • Drupal upgrade project
  • Recruiting new editors
  • Upcoming OP events

Date: 

Sunday, March 24, 2013 - 10:00am to 12:00pm

Location: 

Looking Glass Cafe

An experiment with SeeClickFix

I've noticed that Raleigh and other nearby municipalities are using tools like SeeClickFix.com to help residents connect and use local government. Durham's even using it's own website called http://www.liveworkplaydurham.com/ where folks can post their ideas for improving the community.

As an experiment I threw together this SeeClickFix widget.

Affordable Housing: Report of the Carrboro Planning Board and upcoming discussions

The Town of Carrboro Planning Board held a series of three Affordable Housing Dialogues in October 2012 to educate and engage the public in planning for affordable housing. A report of their findings is now available. The chair of the Carrboro Planning Board will be presenting on this report and the Carrboro Board of Alderfolks will be discussing it at their meeting tonight (Tuesday, February 19th).

The recommendations of the report are:

1. Make the Affordable Housing Task Force a standing committee of the Board of Aldermen, and expand it to include other public and private stakeholders, such as advisory boards, affordable housing developers, and advocates.

2. In that comprehensive policy, consider a staggered approach to income targeting and goals, such that people along the income continuum of very low (less than 50% of median income), to low (50% - 80%) to moderate income (80% - 115%) can benefit in some way from Carrboro’s policy efforts and investments.

The DTH: Still standing by their endorsement?

The Daily Tar Heel has another editorial today criticizing Governor Pat McCrory for his remarks about education in last night's state of the state address.

The DTH is right to criticize McCrory -- his remarks were wrong and show that he's learned nothing from his recent debacle concerning his views on liberal arts education.

However, I'm still waiting for the DTH to directly address their endorsement of McCrory in the fall. They've said in a previous editorial criticizing the governor:

If the plans for higher education McCrory advocated during his campaign are ultimately going to come down to a gutting of the University, then this editorial board regrets having given him its endorsement.

But this isn't a full retraction of their endorsement. It's sidestepping the fact that they endorsed a candidate -- and actively encouraged students to vote for a candidate -- who is directly opposed to what most students at UNC-Chapel Hill stand for with regards to higher education. 

'How Mass Incarceration Affects Us All' lecture by Heather Ann Thompson

Information on this lecture:

Dr. Thompson’s talk will be followed by a panel on local and state efforts to address the crisis featuring Lynn Burke, formerly incarcerated and now an attorney; Daryl Atkinson, staff attorney at Southern Coalition for Social Justice and co-founder of the North Carolina Second Chance Alliance and; Dennis Gaddy, Executive Director of the Community Success Initiative and Criminal Justice Committee Chair for the NC NAACP. Bill Rowe of the North Carolina Justice Center will moderate. 

Date: 

Monday, March 25, 2013 - 7:00pm

Location: 

Duke: FHI “Garage” at John Hope Franklin Humanities Institute (Smith Warehouse, Bays 4 & 5)

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