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.
Hi all, this will be my final blog during the rest of the election season. I have enjoyed attending CHTC meetings during the last 2.5 years. Since moving here I have been vocal on a number of town issues that have not received the attention it deserved . I have voiced an opinion from the cell phone ban which I was in favored of, I wanted a private investigator for the Yates Building incident , which the CHTC shot down, I felt that the signs for the bus ads which were STOP AID TO ISREAL were politically incorrect, and happy that CHTC change it to their current policy on the issue . I sat through the Rogers Road and other community issues as well, Such as Obey Creek, Central West, the Ram Plaza area, and Glen Lennox. I sat through town ordinances evaluation such as the food truck issue. So therefore im not exactly the new kid in town. In conclusion I hope you consider all the above when choosing to vote for me in this years election. Thank you. Gary Kahn The above is from election of 2013
Hi all the above is available at news and observer/chapel hill news dot com. thank you gary kahn
After several months of creative visioning, this input session will have the Rosemary Imagined planners presenting the top-ranked ideas, as determined by the community. Those with a strong vision or desire can pitch to the crowd a non-ranked idea. Then we'll use text-to-voting to determine the ideas that will then begin to shape the district's future plan. Light refreshments will be provided for all to enjoy.
Rosemary Imagined is an innovative community-led planning initiative that will refine our thinking of how Rosemary Street fits into the development and growth of downtown Chapel Hill. Come for information, conversation, and imagination about Rosemary Street and share your thoughts!
This event is part of a 10 month process of engagement with the Town of Chapel Hill and community members to bring together several recent initiatives into a complete vision for the future of the Rosemary Street corridor.
For more information contact: Dwight Bassett at 919-969-5015 or Meg McGurk at 919-967-9440 or email them at info@rosemaryimagined.com.
Date:
Tuesday, October 29, 2013 - 6:00pm to 7:30pm
Location:
Hargraves Community Center, 216 N. Roberson Street, Chapel Hill
At noon today I attended a seminar on the economics of town development. The speakers were sponsored by the town, county and chamber of commerce. The argument they presented was that most suburban development both residential and commercial require a very long time to pay back the costs of maintaining the initial infrastructure much less the general government cost of services. They analyzed the tax value/acre of land of various properties in town. Multiple store buildings create the greatest value although the Spotted Dog also was high in their calculations. Box stores like Walmart rated relatively low on their scale. Implied by their presentation is that the cost benefit formulas used for residential, commercial and industrial are misleading. By the way the title of their talk: Dollars and Sense is a name of a magazine I've subscribed to for years. It is edited by a "collective of economists, journalists and activists who are committed to social justice and economic democracy." www.dollarsandsense.org
Loren
Rosemary Imagined, the town's initiative to transform Rosemary Street into a more vibrant part of downtown, held its second event last night at TRU Deli + Wine. Unlike most town events I've been to, this event was held as a social, where attendees could mingle and talk about their thoughts on Rosemary Street freely among each other.
I was able to attend most of the event, and I have to give Meg McGurk, the Executive Director for the Downtown Partnership, and Dwight Bassett, the town's Economic Development Officer, major credit for succeeding in opening the engagement process up to people you don't often see show up for public meetings. Specifically, there were far more young people at this event than any town event I've been to in the past - and given how Rosemary Street and downtown appear to be developing with our town's sizable young population in mind, it's great to see that we're being included in the process of determining what Rosemary Street will become in the future.
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