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Yesterday morning I drove a bit around town. (I used our old '92 civic that was "totalled" a few years ago just in case it was icier than I thought.) Most of the university and school lots and sidewalks were plowed. Few residentail sidewalks were shoveled. Have you noticed that it is usually the older residents in town who first shovel their sidewalks? I noticed the Town staff was digging out the snow at the bus stops. I wish the folks using the snow plows would take an extra moment and not leave a big pile of snow at the curb cut cross walks. Later I walked around our neighborhood and to campus. Manning Drive was ice free but the sidewalk south of campus was unplowed and all the curb cuts were piled high from the snow plows.I wish the folks using the snow plows would take an extra moment and not leave a big pile of snow at the curb cut cross walks. Later afternoon was a great time to clear ice from driveways and sidewalks. We were able to shovel pretty quickly in front of our house. I wish our town would spend more effort in clearing the main sidewalks in town. That would really be pedestrian friendly.
Last week, Chapel Hill’s economic development officer, Dwight Bassett, presented some data on Chapel Hill’s housing market to a reasonably-sized crowd at Town Hall. Bassett’s presentation followed a brief talk from Robert Hickey of the National Housing Conference about what’s happening in housing trends around the country.
Like many of the other audience members, it was Bassett’s data that struck me the most. (During the Q&A following the presentations, all but one question was directed at Bassett rather than Hickey). The one number that really stood out: 3117%. That is, since 1990, the number of houses in Chapel Hill valued at over $500,000 has increased by 3117%.
Compare this to more affordable price ranges: For houses valued between $100,000-$149,000, the number of houses has increased by only 32%. For houses valued between $150,000-$199,999, there has only been a 107% increase in the number of houses.
Though the wintry weather has delayed or cancelled many of the public meetings on tap for this week, we still wanted to give you an update as to what’s going on. Right now we know that the Carrboro Alderfolks discussion on the Carrboro Arts and Innovation Center will happen on Thursday and that the Chapel Hill Town Council will meet on Obey Creek that night as well.
Both school boards and the Hillsborough Town Board were scheduled to be off this week. As we get information on new meeting times we’ll update the posts below.
Here’s the full summary:
CARRBORO BOARD OF ALDERPERSONS
CHAPEL HILL TOWN COUNCIL
I'm sorry, but it is never too early to be discussing lessons. Especially not in the current world of ADD, where folks move on as soon as the headlines disappear. For me, the two primary lessons to learn are: own responsibility and get involved.
What. No rant about Muslim-haters, police cover-up, irresponsible media reporting? No. Well, some about the latter a bit later. But, no. Why? Because you can't change what you can't change. What you have to do is own responsibility for what you can change, and get involved to change it.
No-one has, or will ever have, the slightest notion of what goes on or was going on in the head of Craig Stephen Hicks. Almost nothing is served by trying to find out now. Of course it was a hate crime. The man hated. Does it really change one dot, tittle or iota of anything to have a long. unseemly, pointless debate about whether it was parking he hated, or Muslims?
You can not legislate the way people feel, including hatred. What you can do is legislate the way they demonstrate their feelings. And this man had been demonstrating feelings for yonks.
Parking, like traffic, is a recurring theme in local conversation about growth and development. We often hear from some community members that there is nowhere to park in downtown Chapel Hill/Carrboro, that a lack of parking is hurting local businesses, and that the parking minimums required for the Ephesus-Fordham renewal district are insufficient.
But the facts simply don’t support these claims. The reality is that providing more parking – especially surface parking – is fundamentally incompatible with urban land uses.*
Numerous urban planning scholars have researched parking, and their research has consistently confirmed that more parking is not desirable on any metric – unless, that is, you want more people to drive and create more traffic.
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