Economy & Downtown
Chapel Hill's downtown has long benefited from its proximity to a captive audience of University students without cars. While downtowns around the country have been failing, ours has survived fairly well. However, we have seen an increase in the number of chain stores locating downtown, and instability in the Downtown Economic Development Corporation. In the near future, we will see new Town-directed development on two major parking lots have a big impact.
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Carrboro's downtown has also done better than many towns of comparable size, thanks largely to the presence of Weaver Street Market and progressive shoppers from the rest of the county. The Board of Aldermen has been addressing the evolution of the downtown, and have established a number of community resources in the downtown area including free wireless Internet access, and a low-power radio station.
I love walking around in downtown Hillsborough, but as long as these things keep starting at 9 am on Saturday mornings, I guess I'll have to keep reading about them in paper.
[The Walkable Hillsborough Coalition] is planning for this year's Walkable Hillsborough Day, which will be held June 3...
This year's theme may be the Churton Street Corridor Plan that includes pedestrian and bikeable ways from I-40 to N.C. 57. WaHC member Holly Reid said three walks are being considered for this year, including the Margaret Lane Cemetery and Turnip Patch Park loop, Historic Cameron Park and the Nature Trail and the West End Park Trail by Ben Johnson Dam...
All walks begin and end at the courthouse, with a start time of 9 a.m.
- News of Orange: Walkability of town focus of annual event, 5/11/06
Chapel Hill is missing an excellent opportunity to deploy up to a hundred Internet hotspots along our transit corridors. Last week, the town signed a contract with NextBus, Inc. to provide, at a cost of $949,030, digital signs at 14 bus stops to inform riders of expected bus ETAs. NextBus, unlike competitors Motorola and Cityspace, uses last-gen cell technology over next-gen WiFi-MESH.
Instead of purchasing an open standards system utilizing WiFi/WiMAX wireless technology - technology allowing Chapel Hill to provide ubiquitous communication services to police, fire, public works and the general public from as many as 100 bus stops along the 26 bus transit routes - the town's transit department recently endorsed NextBus' proprietary cellphone-based bus-tracking system.
Specifically, NextBus is providing 14 digital signs, tracking of 83 vehicles and web-reporting on 26 routes for $949,030.
I thought Apple Chill and the motorcycle festival and the associated traffic management was handled very well today.
Unfortunately, a few idiots have chosen mess it up for the rest of us. "Two people have been taken to UNC Hospitals Sunday night after four shots were fired on Franklin Street." - WRAL.com News
UPDATE: "Forty-five minutes after the initial shooting Jarvies said police received another report of gunshots fired several blocks east of 110 W. Franklin Street. In a third incident, a gun was brandished, but no shots were fired." - N&O: Three people shot in Chapel Hill
Nancy Suttenfield, a key UNC "mover-n-shaker" since 2000, current member on many Town-n-Gown related boards, is leaving UNC and is headed to Wake Forest.
Nancy's been quite busy both at UNC overseeing the recent tidal wave of capital expenditures. She's also been involved in a number of Town-n-Gown outreach efforts, such as Kevin Foy's Downtown Partnership. Not only did she help form UNC's new Carolina North committee, she's one of UNC's key representatives on that committee.
I wonder if her leaving will change the current shaky dynamic of that committee?
More from today's Herald-Sun.
As Triangle gasoline prices again top $2.50/gallon, NC Powerdown and the Duke Greening Initiative will sponsor the Triangle Conference on Peak Oil and Community Solutions on Saturday, March 25th, from 1 to 6 PM at Duke University's Love Auditorium.
Peak Oil is the time period in which the maximum production of oil (in millions of barrels per day) ever extracted from the earth occurs. Peak Oil may last for weeks, months, or even a few years. We are unlikely to know we have experienced Peak Oil until we are passed the peak. After the earth passes peak production, the gap between demand and supply will inexorably drive the price of petroleum-based products higher and higher. With 95% of America's transportation energy coming from oil products and much of our food being grown with petroleum-based fertilizers, the peaking of world oil supply has dramatic implications for the nation and the sprawling, mostly auto-dependent Triangle region.
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