Priscilla Murphy's blog

NC Press Awards - Congrats Mark Schultz and CH News

Congratulations to the C H News winning awards from the NC Press Association:  Editorial page: first place; use of photographs, second place, and in investigative reporting, Mark Schultz won 3rd place -- but Mark is to be congratulated for all three awards.

 

Estes and Franklin and Walgreens, oh my

Anyone who ever tries to get to and from businesses on the east side of Estes Dr. south of Franklin St. knows that it's a treacherous errand, no matter where you're coming from.  I've become better than a FedEx driver when it comes to planning right-turn-only routes. While I'm sorry to see Walker's BP station go and have mixed feelings about the possibility of a Walgreens there (esp. since Kerr has left the mall), this does present an opportunity to think hard about the miserable traffic patterns in the area. 

Do letters-to-the-editor campaigns work?

Part of the "silly season" (thanks to Fred Black for that great term) is the bloom of letters to local papers supporting certain candidates.  In some cases, individual expressions seem quite heartfelt, regardless of any larger party or issue contexts.  In some cases, the letters seem pretty much obligatory, as if someone feels the endorsement musn't fail to appear among the other letters -- for example, regarding the Sierra Club endorsements. 

Often it seems, however, that there might be a somewhat more coordinated effort to flood the letters pages with statements endorsing a given candidate -- suggesting he or she may be an underdog but with a significant groundswell of public support. 

POTUS speaks to CH/C school children

From Saturday's Herald-Sun/CHH:  "President Obama's plan to give a televised speech to the nation's students Tuesday might be causing a ruckus in some locales....
But Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools Superintendent Neil Pedersen has sent a note encouraging principals and teachers to make Obama's speech available to students Tuesday at noon if schedules permit.
Obama plans to urge students to work hard, set goals and to take responsibility for their educations. President George H.W. Bush gave a similar back-to-school address in 1991 and so did President Ronald Reagan before him.
"

No single episode has spotlighted the crazed, anti-Obama monomania of Republicans as well as this one.  There's such a stunning lack of acknowledgment of their own inconsistency that we could stand in awe if it weren't part of a larger, yet more irrational and predatory mindset. 

Whither Kerr Drug, University Mall?

Kerr Drugs will soon move from University Mall to a new location on rte. 54.

That may not seem a particularly earthshaking bit of news. However, for those of us who have a long-standing relationship with that pharmacy, it is a bit of a tremor. For those of us watching the economy change the paths and patterns of Chapel Hill, and for those who've kept an eye on the Mall ever since Belk closed and the K&W moved, through at least two (is it?) changes of ownership, it's at the very least a notable rumble underfoot.

As I learned visiting in Florida, Dillard's recently announced that it was closing both Sarasota stores, shocking the non-Saks shoppers in the area and, even more, the other occupants of the Dillard’s-anchored malls. I instantly thought of the valiant survival of our University Mall Dillard's, despite the opening of Southpoint and shifting ideas about the Mall’s target market. It's hard not to wonder whether it can yet survive the shaky consumer economy, especially if the parent company is sharpening its cost-cutting razors.

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