Planning & Transportation
On Friday, September 22, residents of Carrboro and Chapel Hill will for the third straight year join millions of others around the world in celebrating World Car Free Day, leaving their cars at home and using other means of transportation instead.
Residents of Orange County who formally pledge to go Car Free or at least Car Lite (reduced car use) for September 22 will be entered into a drawing for prizes that include Amtrak tickets to Washington, DC & New York, a new bicycle, gift certificates for Squid's, Spanky's or 411 West, and more. Anyone can pledge on-line at www.gocarfree.com; pledge forms that can be mailed will also be available in the Chapel Hill News and Chapel Hill Herald over the next three weeks.
Here is one definition:
"A public space or a public place is a place where anyone has a right to come without being excluded because of economic or social conditions." [Wikipedia]
That last part is important, "without being excluded because of economic or social conditions". The economic part means that a public place ideally should not charge anything, money or services, in return for the use of the space. No entrance fees, no minimum purchase, no reservation fee, etc. The social conditions part encompasses a lot. Mainly it stipulates that no one can be barred from entering or using a public space because of their race, appearance, movements, gender, political affiliation, loudness, hair color, clothing choices, etc.
People keep e-mailing me about it, so I might as well blog it: on Friday the Chancellor of UNC wrote a letter to local elected officials pledging to not pursue the 17,000 parking spaces that were previously proposed for Carolina North, and to cooperate with the regional transit study in which UNC was already supposed to be a partner.
Coverage from WCHL (with audio clips, cool!), Chapel Hill Herald, and a mention in the News & Observer (scroll down).
I appreciate the Chancellor's affirmation that the community has some part to play in making Carolina North successful.
More threats of bix box development looming on our borders:
When M. Travis Blake first pitched the idea of Williams Corners -- a 500,000-square-foot, mixed-use development off U.S. 15-501 and Lystra Road -- residents in adjoining neighborhoods helped him persuade the Chatham County Commissioners to give their approval.
Now Blake is saying a Target or a Kohl's might be among the tenants when the development opens in late 2007. In an e-mail sent this week to residents of Wilders Ridge, an adjacent subdivision, Blake described changes that could be submitted soon for county approval...
Jamie Nunnelly, who received the e-mail, said Thursday she thinks Blake might have engaged in a bait-and-switch maneuver to gain local support.
"One of the things he said to us was, 'Would you rather work with me or would you like to see a big box development?' " Nunnelly said. "He said that to us more than once."
- heraldsun.com: Chatham big box store plan surfaces, 6/9/06
Sounds like a threat as well - as a false choice - to me. The article continues:
Yesterday the Herald reported on WCOM's complaint that the Town of Carrboro was bogging them down by suggesting a public hearing on the proposal to run a flea market in their parking lot.
All WCOM station manager Chris Frank wanted to do was raise a little money for the community radio station.
But he says he dreams of a small community flea market are being derailed by a well-meaning -- but overly complicated -- town bureaucracy...
"It looks like the concerned staff wants to have a public hearing on our 'minor modification,' " Frank wrote in an e-mail Friday. "We can probably say 'so long' to a flea market this season. Heaven help the developer with a substantial project."
- heraldsun.com: Radio station's flea market faces snag, 6/5/06
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