October 2015
Here are few things we've been reading this week.
The Carrboro Board of Alderpersons and the Board of County Commissioners will meet this week. Chapel Hill, Hillsborough, and the Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools Board of Education, however, do not meet. The Orange County Board of Education will be holding it's board retreat on Tuesday. A number of forums or candidate meet & greets are scheduled this week as well, including our Chapel Hill-Carrboro School Board forum on Sunday. Join us.
CARRBORO BOARD OF ALDERPERSONS
CHAPEL HILL TOWN COUNCIL
Welcome to the open thread for the Chapel Hill Mayor candidate forum happening on October 4, 2015. Comments on this post will open at that time.
There are three candidates running for one seat:
- Pam Hemminger
- Gary Kahn
- Mark Kleinschmidt
You can observe the forum at http://orangepolitics.org/elections-2015/forums/chmayor.
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.
I attended the meet and greet forum for school board candidates at the library tonight. Two arrived late. Also Al Baldwin spoke. He is a retired school teacher (we both worked at Chapel Hill High School and he also worked at East CHHS). He announced he is running as a write in candidate because he is very disturbed about what is happening to teachers in the district. He noted that many are afraid to speak up about concerns that they have about education at their schools and in the district. I look forward to hearing more from him.
All elected bodies have meetings this week. The Board of County Commissioners will discuss mechanisms to pay to extend sewer to residents of the Historic Rogers Road neighborhood. The Chapel Hill Town Council will discuss the latest request for a neighborhood conservation district.
Our last online forum will take place on Sunday at 7:00 pm for the candidates for the Chapel Hill Town Council. A number of other candidate events are happening as well. Check our calendar.
CARRBORO BOARD OF ALDERPERSONS
CHAPEL HILL TOWN COUNCIL
Welcome to the open thread for the Chapel Hill-Carrboro Board of Education candidate forum happening on October 11, 2015. Comments on this post will open at that time.
There are eight candidates running for four seats:
- Joal Hall Broun
- Rani Dasi
- Gregg Gerdau
- Pat Heinrich
- Margaret Samuels
- David Saussy
- Annetta Streater
- Theresa Watson
You can observe the forum at http://orangepolitics.org/elections-2015/forums/chccs.
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.
The North Carolina chapter of the Sierra Club issued its endorsements this morning in the Chapel Hill Town Council election.
I try now to write sparingly in OP about matters pertaining to our local grocery co-op, Weaver Street Market, where I attempt to be an active worker-owner.
But the WSM management are currently proposing changes to the WSM Board Policy ‘Treatment of Staff’ which dramatically diminish the few remaining co-operative and economic rights WSM employees still retain, and we workers need the support of the some 18,000 WSM consumer-owners in rejecting these changes.
We workers learned of the proposed changes only this past Friday (October 16), and we have until October 26 to register objection.
WSM Employee Policy (as of two years ago) now prevents me reproducing the text of the proposed changes publicly. In what one local newspaper editor has described as an anti-whistleblower whistleblower policy.
Welcome to the open thread for the Chapel Hill Town Council candidate forum.
Carrboro, Chapel Hill, and Orange County boards are meeting this week. Both school boards and the Hillsborough Town Board are not. Early voting starts this Thursday.
The recent talk by John Quinterno has been distorted again by CHALT, somehow taking the fact that Chapel Hill and Orange County have grown the least by far of any area of the Triangle and using that as proof of the Town Council's out of control growth policy.
From press release:
(Chapel Hill, N.C.— Oct. 19, 2015) – Campus and community leaders will gather at Chapel of the Cross on Thursday, Oct. 22, at 5 p.m., to celebrate the first day of early voting in this year’s November municipal and Chapel Hill/Carrboro School Board election. University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Vice Chancellor of Student Affairs Winston Crisp, Mayor Mark Kleinschmidt and Carolina Student Body President Houston Summers will make brief remarks before casting their ballots. The public is invited to attend.
Chapel of the Cross was selected as a new early voting site by the Orange County Board of Elections this year following concerns about the accessibility and availability of previously used early voting sites on and near the UNC-Chapel Hill campus.
Civic engagement is one of the fundamental values of the Carolina community. As members of this community, students have the power to shape town policy and development. It’s crucial that Carolina students make their voices heard.
“It is especially important that students vote in the municipal elections because they are an integral part of the Chapel Hill community,” said Summers.
Chapel of the Cross is located at 304 E. Franklin St. Early voting begins on Oct. 22 and concludes on Oct. 31.
In addition to Chapel of the Cross, three other sites across Orange County will be open for early voting. For more information about early voting locations and hours, please visit the Orange County Board of Elections website:http://www.orangecountync.gov/2015_November_3_One_stop_Voting_Sites.pdf
Date:
Thursday, October 22, 2015 - 5:00pm
Location:
Chapel of the Cross (304 E. Franklin St.)
The underlying narrative of the election this year has been about growth in Chapel Hill. Runway growth. Incredible growth. Unprecidented growth. Residents are nostalgic for that time 10, 20 or 30 years when the town's growth was so much slower.
The only problem with that narrative is it isn't true. According to the UNC Carolina Population Center, if you compare the growth rates of the state's high tech counties, Orange (Chapel Hill), Durham, Wake, and Mecklenberg (Charlotte), growth rates are now historically low. In fact, if you look at the growth rates during supposed golden age of Chapel Hill, in the 60's and 70's, the growth rate was twice what it is now.
Even if you compare recent growth rates among the state's high tech counties, Orange has the lowest growth rate. Sure, Orange County has grown faster than counties in the middle of nowhere, but Orange is the home to a major economic driver for state, and is right next door to the other fastest growing counties as well.
Indy Week has released its endorsements for Chapel Hill Town Council and Chapel Hill-Carrboro School Board.
The Daily Tar Heel issued its endorsements this morning n the Chapel Hill Town Council election. Early voting begins today at noon and will continue through October 31. Election Day is November 3.
It looks like a growing number of people are using today's confederate flag rally in Chapel Hill as a way to fight hate.
For every confederate flag seen at Silent Sam today they will donate to the Southern Poverty Law Center or a similar non-profit.. That is, they will use the rally as a way to drive donations to organizations established to fight hate and foster togetherness. The idea is to let the rallyers know that wherever they gather to support a symbol of oppression, they will be directly helping to fund organizations that fight oppression.
How does one participate? Simple: Ii you are at the rally, use the hashtag #ChapelHillAgainstHate to post your count of flags. If you want to help with a donation, make a donation to SPLC or a similar organization then post about it on social media using the hashtag #ChapelHillAgainstHate. Watch the hashtag this afternoon to get an idea of flag counts and see who is playing.
The more people who post with the hashtag, the better chance there is of getting the word out, of getting the attention of the press, of the rallyers, of people wanting to fight hate.
The Chapel Hill Town Council will take up changes to the Land Use Management Ordinance for the Ephesus-Fordham district. The Hillsborough Town Board will discuss affordable housing policy. The Orange County School Board meets this week, but the Chapel Hill-Carrboro School Board does not. Early voting continues through Halloween. Go vote!
CARRBORO BOARD OF ALDERPERSONS
- There is no meeting this week due to early voting. The board's next meeting is November 10th.
CHAPEL HILL TOWN COUNCIL
The Hank Anderson-Bill Thorpe-Yonni Chapman Breakfast Club has issued its endorsements for the Chapel Hill Town Council and the Chapel Hill-Carrboro School Board.
It looks like all of the organizational endorsements are in, and early voting is now underway. The spreadsheet below provides a summary of this year's endorsements. Now it's time for the most important endorsements: yours!
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