Growth & Development
I'm happy for Chancellor James Moeser that he looks back at his time at Carolina and sees an improvement in Town-Gown relations, as WCHL reported recently. I'll admit that the Chancellor seems to have stopped lobbing bombs at the town, which seemed to be his M.O. when he first arrived almost 8 years ago. He also seems to have developed a trusting friendship with the Mayor of Chapel Hill.
I just got a robocall from a group calling itself "Citizens for a better Orange County" that opposes the Transfer Tax. It calls the tax the "Home Tax," which is clearly wrong on two levels. Firstly, the proposed tax is on all land sales, and secondly it is an attempt to falsely personalize this tax for local homeowners. Oh, and it fails to mention an important detail: the tax rate would be 0.4%. That's right: four tenths of a percent. That's one thousand dollars on a $250k hypothetical home. Sounds like too much money? Well, what are the alternatives? If this is defeated, the only two alternatives that have been seriously discussed are a sales tax (the most regressive tax possible) and a property tax increase. A property tax increase would be a home tax. Everything about the robocall was misleading and dishonest.
The call directs people to a website that I won't link to here. The website refers to "Tom Holt" as their treasurer and "Mark Zimmerman" as their spokesperson. A bit of googling gives:
Upon recommendation of the Orange-Chatham Group's Political and Executive Committees, the
North Carolina Chapter of the Sierra Club has endorsed the following
candidates for elected office here in Orange County. The Sierra Club supports candidates
with demonstrated knowledge of local environmental issues who will
provide strong leadership on matters including growth and conservation.
Orange County Commissioner:
- At-Large: Bernadette Pelissier
- District 1: Valerie Foushee & Pam Hemminger
General Assembly:
- NC Senate 23: Ellie Kinnaird
- NC House 54: Joe Hackney
- NC House 56: Verla Insko
From the Internationalist announcement list:
LET'S DISCUSS (yell/laugh/cry/protest about) GREENBRIDGE.
A Greenbridge video screening
Sunday, April 13 @3pm
Greenbridge recently produced a documentary on their future vision of
the of Rosemary and Graham street corner.
At first glance, the Greenbridge development embodies progress for
Chapel Hill. The building will utilize some of the newest green
technologies available ie. solar, wind, and geothermal to provide
energy for the building and thereby lessen its carbon footprint. But
in our haste to combat the forces of Global Warming, we may have
overlooked some details, such as marginalizing the surrounding
Northside community.
Come out and join us as we watch the video and enter in open
discussion about what community means to us (taking into account race,
class and ideological differences.)
Date:
Sunday, April 13, 2008 - 11:00am
Location:
Internationalist Books, 405 W Franklin Street, Chapel Hill, NC 27516
The elephant in the room that nobody is talking about... factoring rising fuel costs into the equation.
It's mindnumbing that an area that prides itself on sustainability would even be considering a program to export it's own waste. The very definition of sustainability is something that can be maintained into the indefinite future. Is paying to haul waste out of county sustainable in any sense of the word? Is increasing transportation miles at the end of a product's long transportation chain to get to the consumer even sane?
What percentage of trash in the current landfill comes from UNC? What percentage comes from Chapel Hill and Carrboro? What percentage comes from elsewhere in the county? Maybe each district should be required to sustainably deal with it's own waste.
Chapel Hill and Carrboro have sustainable community as their vision. Carolina North has as it's stated vision: "This and other progressive measures will help make Carolina North a model of sustainability — a campus that is socially, environmentally, and economically sound."
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