On October 6, 2011, approximately 200 members of the community gathered at East Chapel Hill High School to participate in a “stakeholder meeting,” the second scheduled event in a series of events associated with the drafting of the Chapel Hill 2020 comprehensive plan. Equipped with high-tech voting devices and packets outlining the various proposed mission statements and themes for the plan, citizens expressed both support and concerns alike through the press of a button.
Some, myself included, left feeling a sense of disappointment that citizens in attendance had been given little opportunity to verbally articulate their frustrations in any sort of forum-like fashion. Even more, I asked myself what each of the plan’s proposed provisions really encompassed. As a student of sociology and activist for marginalized people, the ambiguity and overtly positive spin on the plan is worrisome.
