Planning & Transportation
I actually think often of what our lives will be like after the assumption of plentiful and cheap petroleum is gone. For example in Chapel Hill, homes in walking distance of the campus will be even more valuable than they are now. How about homes near Carolina North? If we have managed to get some transit infrastructure into place, that will also drive the value of locations if the only appealing way to get to RTP is by transit. Or will RTP go away, a relic of the dinosaur age of cars? Will we see 10-story buildings in downtown Carrboro?
Anyway, like I said, I think about this, so I am very intrigued abut this film that is "a provocative look at the world of oil scarcity set in Orange County in the near future."
CARRBORO -- A group of concerned citizens, sponsored by local organizations, will hold a public meeting on April 5 at 7 p.m. at the Century Center to address our energy future with a focus on local solutions to global problems.
Here's a reminder that UNC will be holding informational meetings for the community about their plans for Carolina North at 3:30pm and 5:30pm today. This new 900-acre campus for UNC will be located at the northwest intersection of Estes Drive and MLK Blvd - smack dab in the middle of the Chapel Hill-Carrboro community. If done well, it has the potential to be a model of sustainability supporting education, transit, green space, smart growth, and environmental preservation to benefit the entire community (as envisioned by The Village Project). If done poorly, it could drag us down to level of sprawl and traffic that plagues much of the rest of the Triangle.
Let's keep our eyes on UNC, and help make sure they get it right by giving them the feedback they need as early as possible. Apparently these informational meetings are going to be monthly events, so please send them your feedback about how they can make the meetings more accessible to the public in the future (for example, I'd find it easier of it was off campus - but still transit accessible - and later in the evening).
As printed in the Chapel Hill Herald on Saturday, March 24th:
One of the great things about our community is that everyone has an opinion. The number of folks coming out to speak at public meetings and writing letters to the editor is far greater than most other places of a similar size.
The volume of people participating in these sort of one-shot ways of expressing an opinion on a town issue are thankfully as plentiful as ever. Unfortunately, though, it seems the number of folks willing to participate in the public service activities that require a sustained time commitment has declined in recent years.
During the last Chapel Hill Town Council election there were only seven candidates running by the time the dust settled. This was the smallest number of people putting themselves forward for service in at least two decades, even as the population of our town increases.
It's not just the number of folks standing for election that has declined, though. There's also been a clear decline in people interested in serving on the town's important volunteer advisory boards.
As printed in the Chapel Hill Herald on Saturday, March 3rd:
Do you use public transportation very often? If not, what would you encourage you to use it more? Wireless Internet? More comfortable buses?
The Triangle Transit Authority is asking those questions in a creative web survey currently available on its site at ridetta.org. Folks are given twenty “pennies†to spend on a variety of possible upgrades to buses as the agency makes replacements in its fleet.
Some of the items are pretty cheap. One-penny upgrades include things like expanding the front-of-bus rack to accommodate three bikes rather than the current two or to install 10 bike lockers per year at various stops around the Triangle.
Others are so expensive they will use up almost your entire “budget.â€Â
For instance, putting a rear window on the back of the bus would cost 16 pennies and implementing Sunday service would require all of your money.
I take the bus every day to work in Raleigh at the Sierra Club so I devoted my greatest expenditure of six pennies to fuel the buses using B20 biodiesel.
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