Blogs
It’s another busy week across Orange County, with all of the county’s public bodies holding at least one meeting.
The Carrboro Alderfolks will talk “green” cemeteries while the Chapel Hill Town Council will have a special meeting on Obey Creek and host an initial public forum on how to use Community Development Block Grants. The county commissioners will discuss mandating that county’s contractors pay a living wage to get government business, while the Hillsborough Town Board will consider an economic development grant application.
The Chapel Hill-Carrboro School Board will hold its annual retreat, while its counterpart for the county will review the district’s 2013-14 report card.
Here’s the full summary:
CARRBORO BOARD OF ALDERPERSONS
Whenever there’s a new development proposal pending before a local governing board, the center of the conversation always seems to gravitate toward traffic. Given this tendency, I think it’s important we understand historic traffic changes in Chapel Hill and Carrboro.
The North Carolina Department of Transportation maintains historic traffic counts for urban areas around the state, including Chapel Hill. These traffic counts date back to 1997, with the most recent data being from 2013. With this in mind, let’s take a look at the average annual daily traffic in some major areas around town:
|
Area
|
1997
|
2004
|
2013
|
Change, 2013 vs. 1997
|
|
W Franklin St (just west of Columbia St)
|
17,400
|
18,000
|
12,000 |
After a pretty busy couple of weeks, this week will be a bit quieter for Orange County’s public bodies. The Carrboro Alderfolks will hold the second half of their public hearing on the proposed Carrboro Arts & Innovation Center, while the county commissioners will get a series of annual updates and discuss a strategic communications plan. The Chapel Hill-Carrboro School Board will talk parental involvement and health education.
The Chapel Hill Town Council, Hillsborough Town Board and county school board are all break this week.
Be sure and stop by our monthly editors meeting at the Tiger Room, Sunday from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.
Here’s the full summary:
CARRBORO BOARD OF ALDERPERSONS
In 2013, a couple of European psychologists reviewed the literature in an attempt to define the term “quality of life.” Their conclusion was that it “turn[s] out to be an ambiguous and elusive concept.”
In an editorial in the Chapel Hill News, Travis Crayton and Molly DeMarco claimed “Many of us might have originally chosen to live in Chapel Hill/Carrboro because of the high quality of life, exemplified by a vibrant student life, arts and music scene, and abundance of unique, local businesses.”
CHALT members have staked out their desire to “Protect the quality of life in Chapel Hill’s residential neighborhoods, where we live and raise our children.”
Social science researchers learn in introductory methodology courses to define their terms up front. So I am asking you to share your thoughts. What does ‘quality of life’ mean to you? We know there isn’t a “right” answer, but that doesn’t mean we can’t come to a local consensus. If we can construct a shared definition, perhaps it will make conversations about solutions more inclusive, or at least less divisive.
Everyone has heard by now that Google Fiber is coming to the Triangle, including Chapel Hill and Carrboro (but not Hillsborough or rural Orange County), for those lucky enough to live in a neighborhood or apartment building that Google deems worthy to provide service to. What do you think this means for us locally? How will this help, or hinder, our efforts to repair the digital divide? With some real competition help bring down prices for other broadband? What will this mean for the NC Next Generation Network?
Let us know what you think about this, or whatever else is on your mind, in this weekend's open thread.
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