Environment

Guest Post by Tom Jensen

The Carrboro Sierra Club Candidates Forum is tonight at 7 PM in the Board Room at Carrboro Town Hall. The forum will start with 75 minutes of questions for Aldermen candidates, and conclude with 45 minutes of the Mayoral candidates.

We will be taking questions from the audience, so if you have anything you want asked but can't be there feel free to post here and I will add it to the pool of possible questions.

This is the first opportunity to see the Carrboro candidates face off, so you should all either come or watch it live on the People's Channel!

Tom Jensen is a Senior at UNC on the Sierra Club Political Commitee. He is also the chair of Students for a Progressive Chapel Hill.

Chapel Hill, Carrboro and Orange County have engaged in a program to study greenhouse gas emissions in and around their respective facilities. The first step has been to hire Toronto-based contractor ICLEI Energy Services, the technical services branch of the International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives. According to their website, after conducting an inventory of greenhouse gas emissions, the consultants typically provide clients with software and access to an extensive set of best practices from local governments around the world. "From technical software support to advice regarding the selection of an emissions reduction target, quantification questions, emissions inventory and Local Action Planning assistance, and protocol issues, IES has gained a great deal of insight into the issues faced by local governments in reducing their greenhouse gas emissions."

Guest Post by James Carnahan

A Concept Plan for Carolina North, the June 29 presentation by the Village project, will be re-broadcast Monday, August 1, 7 to 9pm on local cable channel 18 in Carrboro & Chapel Hill. This concept plan represents a year-long, unfunded effort by the local non-profit walkable community advocacy group to offer an alternative view of how UNC's Horace Williams property might be developed.

Not meant to be definitive, the presentation is primarily intended to answer the question, "what would Carolina North look like if citizen input were incorporated?" and to encourage the University to utilize a facilitated collaborative process to further develop its plans for the new campus. Key differences are a multi-modal transportation approach making possible greatly reduced parking and dependence on the automobile, 4 times the housing proposed in the Ayers/Saint/Gross plan, and a half-mile long reservoir for holding rainfall harvested from rooftops, that doubles as a outdoor recreation space.

James Carnahan is the Chair of The Village Project.