September 2015
Last night the Orange County Democratic Party’s Executive Committee voted unanimously to endorse Evelyn Lloyd, Brian Lowen, and Mark Bell for the Hillsborough Town Board at the Party’s monthly executive committee meeting.
An ad hoc committee was appointed following a motion at the September session of the County Executive Committee. County Commissioner Renee Price chaired the committee, which unanimously recommended endorsing the three Democrats running for Hillsborough’s Town Board. Tonight’s action officially endorsed these three Democrats vying for the three seats up on the Hillsborough Town Board in this year’s elections.
Endorsing in nonpartisan elections is a rare event. Between these three candidates they have decades of service to the Town of Hillsborough and our greater Orange County community. Whether it has been as part of the current membership of the Town Board, service on town advisory boards, or in the community, these candidates exemplify the character and values that make Hillsborough and Orange County great.
For the first time, Equality NC Action Fund has issued endorsements in key municipal races throughout North Carolina, including Chapel Hill.
Here are a few things we're reading this week.
Yesterday I was in Raleigh and joined the Selma to DC Journey for Justice March sponsored by the NAACP. Lots of supporters were there from religious groups, unions and environmental groups. (Sierra Club turned out a number of members.) Candidates and elected officials from Chapel Hill and Carrboro were there too. I talked with the reporter from Univision. She has moved to Raleigh from Florida as did the new Sierra Club organizer. The N and O has some nice photos. The rally ended with everyone holding "Support Voting Rights Advancement Act" signs. ( An attempt to fix the changes the Supreme Court made to the Voting Rights Act.)
This commentary, written my fellow OP editor Travis Crayton and myself, originally appeared in the Chapel Hill News on September 6, 2015.
Work on phase three of the Bolin Creek greenway began earlier this summer – and that’s great news for Chapel Hill residents. Phase three of the greenway is the first step in connecting where the current greenway ends at Martin Luther King, Jr. Blvd below the police station to Tanyard Branch trail, the Northside neighborhood, and downtown Chapel Hill via Umstead Drive. The greenway extension will also serve as a vital link to the future trail systems planned by Carrboro and Orange County.
Nearing the end of the summer break and after the long Labor Day holiday weekend, only a couple of local governing boards will meet this week. Both the county commissioners and the Carrboro Board of Alderpersons will hold work sessions.
Two years ago I was endorsed by the AFL-CIO and one thing they they keep hoping is that we will all push for the right of public employees to collectively bargain. It is important to keep talking about this. This is illegal in North Carolina but someday we may be able to change the law. Also ALEC is able to get more states to pass so called Right to Work legislation. (The south has had this for a long time.) Basically what it does is it lets non union members sponge off the work of the union members who worked hard to negotiate benefits for all the employees. In Right to Work states the employees don't have to pay union dues but get the negotiated benefits. Hope everyone saw the big article in the N and O today about coal miners. The last union mine closed in KY. Union miners pointed out all the benefits the union brought to the mining industry. Slowly ( and in some cases quickly) those benefits are being lost.
Learn more about the Draft Environmental Impact Statement/Draft Section 4(f) Evaluation (DEIS) for the proposed Durham-Orange Light Rail Transit (D-O LRT) Project. A formal public meeting where you can give feedback will be held on September 29.
Date:
Tuesday, September 15, 2015 - 4:00pm to 7:00pm
Location:
Friday Center, 100 Friday Center Drive, Chapel Hill
The Orange County affiliate of the North Carolina AFL-CIO has issued endorsements in the Chapel Hill Town Council and Chapel Hill-Carrboro School Board races.
A combination of state law and municipal code regulate how political signs may be displayed in Chapel Hill.
In an unusual move, the county commissioners have invited comment on 2016 bond referendum—even though it’s not on the agenda.
Date:
Tuesday, November 3, 2015 - 6:45am
OrangePolitics will be holding our fifth-annual live online candidate forums for the upcoming elections for Chapel Hill Town Council, Chapel Hill Mayor, Hillsborough Town Board, and the Chapel Hill-Carrboro Board of Education.
It'll be a busy week across Orange County this week. The Carrboro Alderfolks will discuss bicycle-friendliness and the Lloyd Farm propery mediation process, while the Chapel Hill Town Council will get an update on UNC-related development. Both school boards will review the student performance data recently released by the state, while the Hillsborough Town Board will get an update on the Colonial Inn. The county commmissioners will meet with the Mebane City Council on public transportation and the Buckhorn EDD, and will get an update on Southern Branch Library in a serperate meeting.
CHALT and the Sierra Club/Chapel Hill-Carrboro Chamber of Commerce/WCHL will hold candidate forums for Chapel Hill candidates.
CHALT, the special-interest political action committee formed earlier this year, hosted the first Chapel Hill candidate forum last night at the Seymour Center.
Questions asked at the forum centered on development issues. Questions were often long and leading, including questions with factual errors and missing context. It seemed that questions were designed to promote a specific viewpoint rather than to give candidates a chance to share their views and vision for our town. Candidate pushback about the biased questions even led to the moderator, Theresa Raphael Grimm, to comment that she was only the messenger and had not written the questions – a CHALT committee had, she told the audience.
A Storify of the tweets from the forum is below, in case you missed it.
After reading this in the Nicaragua News I has to share this. I do think the sidewalks are better here than in Managua but a number of intersections lack safe, easy ways to cross.
7. New street improvements forget pedestrians, including President Ortega
I was just contacted by PPP and asked about candidates and development issues. Was anyone else called?
Here are few things we've been reading this week.
this video can now be viewed at Town of Chapel Hill candidate forum web site, Gary Kahn
WCHL/Chapelboro, the Chapel Hill Realtors Association, and the Homebuilders of Durham-Orange-Chatham joined with the Chapel Hill-Carrboro Chamber and Sierra Club this year to hold their joint forum last Thursday.
The forum, moderated by WCHL's Aaron Keck, was two hours of fast-paced questions and answers on jobs, affordable housing, transit, growth, and more. Our Storify from the forum is below.
The event is co-sponsored by the Chapel Hill-Carrboro NAACP, CHCCS Multicultural Student Achievement Network, Organizing Against Racism, and the CHCCS PTA Council. It's a timely opportunity for students, parents, teachers and other community members to learn about equity issues in education, to speak out about and discuss solutions to disparities.
Date:
Saturday, September 26, 2015 - 1:00pm to 4:00pm
Location:
Northside Elementary School
Though most of the Orange County's public bodies will be taking a break this week, the Chapel Hill Town Council will meet tonight to review a concept plan for new development on Rosemary Street and discuss several LUMO changes and special use permits.
Election season is also in the full swing. Be sure to join us Sunday night for our forum with Hillsborough Town Board candidates and check out our calendar for the list of other forums this week.
A friend shared this. It is really tough to protect our local environment with bad state bills.
The time to stop HB 765, the Polluter Protection Act, is now.
NC League of Conservation Voters From http://nclcv.org/news/cib/20150921/
Conservation Action: Stop the Polluter Protection Act!
The big environmental fight surely looming over the remainder of this legislative year deals with HB 765, now better known as the Polluter Protection Act.
This afternoon CHALT announced the following endorsements Pam Hemminger For Mayor, David Schwartz , Jessica Anderson and Nancy Oates for town Council. Gary Kahn
This fall there are four early voting sites with a total of 236 site hours, see http://www.orangecountync.gov/2015_November_3_One_stop_Voting_Sites.pdf. County board of elections have pretty complete discretion on municipal early voting subject to the $$$ the towns appropriate to pay for it.
The 2013 legislation that cut early voting from 17 to 10 days requires preservation of the same number of site hours that were in the 2010 and 2012 primaries and elections as a floor. The statutory floors for 2016 are:
March presidential primary 426 hours
May primary if it is not moved to March 226 hours (roughly same schedule as 2015 municipal)
November General election 528 hours
This means that for the March presidential primary there may need to be 7 sites instead of the 4 this fall and even at 7 there may need to be more hours per day, more hours on Saturdays, and perhaps even a Sunday
For the 2016 general election it will likely be 9 sites to handle the 528 hours over 10 days
The PPP survey asked folks what the ideal population would be in 25 years. According to the town and US census data it is projected to be about 83,000. Zero percent picked that range (81 to 90,000) and only 5% picked a higer population level. "Chapel Hill’s current population is about 60,000. 30,000 to 40,000 5% ............................................. 41,000 to 50,000 12% ............................................. 51,000 to 60,000 22% ............................................. 61,000 to 70,000 28% ............................................. 71,000 to 80,000 13% ............................................. 81,000 to 90,000 0% ............................................. 91,000 to 100,000 5% ........................................... More than 100,000 0% .......................................... Not sure 15% " I guess we (if I last 35 more years) will be living in less than ideal conditions.
Welcome to the open thread for the Hillsborough Town Board candidate forum happening on September 27, 2015. Comments on this post will open at that time.
There are five candidates running for three seats:
- Mark Bell
- Ashley DeSena
- Evelyn Lloyd
- Brian Lowen
- Cindy Talisman
You can observe the forum at http://orangepolitics.org/elections-2015/forums/hsbotb.
We hope you'll use this open thread to post your thoughts and reactions. Also, if you want to propose additional discussion topics, you can reach the editors during the forum via Twitter, Facebook, or the contact page. The forum moderator will have final say in question selection.
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