Tom Jensen's blog
As printed in the Chapel Hill Herald on Saturday, April 14th:
My very first column last spring dealt with my concern about the lack of young black leadership in our community.
I'm still concerned but the good news is that help is on the way. Local NAACP leader Jesse Gibson has brought forward a great plan for a Youth Council that will help to engage teenagers of all races in serving their community. He and the rest of the organization's leadership have successfully seen the creation of such an organization through Chapel Hill's lengthy approval process, and it's now official.
Chapel Hill/Carrboro NAACP President Fred Battle, who has been a fierce advocate for young people as a long time activist and former school board member, says that frequently the reason they are reluctant to get involved in the community is that they don't feel adequate to the task. He sees a primary function of the Youth Council as helping these folks to build leadership and become confident in their abilities to help guide the community.
The Indy has a great investigative story this week about how a member of Orange County's committee studying whether the county should limit the practice of tethering dogs on chains or ropes has extensive ties to the dog fighting industry.
An excerpt from reporter Ashley Roberts' story:
When Alane Koki applied to become a member of an Orange County citizens' committee studying whether the county should limit the practice of tethering dogs on chains or ropes, she submitted a 13-page résumé citing numerous accomplishments as a scientist and medical researcher: a doctorate in zoology, a dozen patents, and publication in more than 50 journals.
What Koki didn't list in her application, however, was her long history of breeding pit bulls in other states and her association with local kennel owner Tom Garner, a nationally known breeder of pit bulls and a convicted dog fighter whom commissioners declined to appoint to the committee the same night they approved Koki.
As printed in the Chapel Hill Herald on Saturday, April 7th:
We're coming up on the first anniversary of last year's Apple Chill debacle and rightful cancellation, and it seems to be on people's minds. Last week the Town Council approved a plan for a new summer concert series and craft festival conceived at least in part to substitute for the absence of the old event. I think the plans they passed sound nice and will be good for the community. But I still think the lack of a townwide celebration in the spring that brings folks in from around the region before the students go home will leave a void.
I believe there's a solution to that problem, though -- a solution that would bring people together, be unlikely to create the sort of crime problems associated with Apple Chill, and provide a wonderful model of town/gown relations.
Nothing brings the disparate elements of the Chapel Hill community together more than UNC basketball.
Likewise, nothing brings more folks from around the state into our community and spending money than UNC basketball.
As printed in the Chapel Hill Herald on Saturday, March 24th:
One of the great things about our community is that everyone has an opinion. The number of folks coming out to speak at public meetings and writing letters to the editor is far greater than most other places of a similar size.
The volume of people participating in these sort of one-shot ways of expressing an opinion on a town issue are thankfully as plentiful as ever. Unfortunately, though, it seems the number of folks willing to participate in the public service activities that require a sustained time commitment has declined in recent years.
During the last Chapel Hill Town Council election there were only seven candidates running by the time the dust settled. This was the smallest number of people putting themselves forward for service in at least two decades, even as the population of our town increases.
It's not just the number of folks standing for election that has declined, though. There's also been a clear decline in people interested in serving on the town's important volunteer advisory boards.
As printed in the Chapel Hill Herald on Saturday, March 3rd:
Do you use public transportation very often? If not, what would you encourage you to use it more? Wireless Internet? More comfortable buses?
The Triangle Transit Authority is asking those questions in a creative web survey currently available on its site at ridetta.org. Folks are given twenty “pennies†to spend on a variety of possible upgrades to buses as the agency makes replacements in its fleet.
Some of the items are pretty cheap. One-penny upgrades include things like expanding the front-of-bus rack to accommodate three bikes rather than the current two or to install 10 bike lockers per year at various stops around the Triangle.
Others are so expensive they will use up almost your entire “budget.â€Â
For instance, putting a rear window on the back of the bus would cost 16 pennies and implementing Sunday service would require all of your money.
I take the bus every day to work in Raleigh at the Sierra Club so I devoted my greatest expenditure of six pennies to fuel the buses using B20 biodiesel.
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