Ruby Sinreich's blog
Is anyone at all surprised to see that the IFC soup kitchen/shelter will not be moving back into the space that they had to leave "temporarily" so the Town could remodel it? You shouldn't be if you read OrangePolitics. I can understand them needing more and better space for their residential programs, but I can't see the free meals they provide being nearly as helpful if they are served a mile away from the center of town. Poor people don't just hang out downtown because there are students to ask for money, it's also near where they work for poverty-level wages (ie: the University).
It also comes as no surprise that downtown merchants will be glad to have the shelter permanently out of their hair. I wonder if the move will have much impact on the panhandling that some people seem to think is the biggest problem we have downtown. (Besides maybe parking, of course!) Only time will tell.
Many criminals have fed the negative stereotypes of homeless people by hanging around the shelter and by giving its address when they're arrested. However:
This is our first attempt at something I have seen on other blogs: an open thread with no topic at all. Of course this being OrangePolitics, I hope you will keep it local. What issues are on your mind?
...What's your favorite way to ease the pain of the students' return each fall? Are they like a plague of locusts descending on our summer buzz, or are they re-invigorating us from our heat-induced stupor?
...Have the forces of evil been on hiatus, or are they still quietly plotting Chapel Hill's demise? ;-)
...Since the Chapel Hill News saw fit to cover what some of our elected officials did on their vacations, feel free to share your own stories, book reports, etc.
... Have fun!
OK, I'll admit I haven't been paying much attention on this issue - so what's the big deal with the West House? Now I read in the Chapel Hill News that State Senator Ellie Kinnaird is wading into this battle. She may not be the heaviest hitter in Raleigh, but she's the best Senator in the State, if you ask me. So this made my ears perk up.
Kinnaird and other supporters of the preservation effort hope to persuade the university to leave the house where it is and turn it into a sort of welcome center for visitors to the university -- or, failing that, to move it intact to another site on campus...
West House is a small structure built in 1935 by a textile magnate as a residence for his sons while they attended UNC. When it was built, it marked the far western edge of campus -- hence its name -- and now it stands just south of Hanes Art Center, where a new music building, a key component in the university's planned Arts Common, is due to be built.
- Chapel Hill News, 8/8/04
My favorite co-op is approaching the annual re/election of of members of its Board of Directors. The structure is unusual (to me, at least).
Weaver Street Market is governed by a seven-member board of directors, four of whom are directly elected by the two owner classes, workers and consumers (2 positions each). Two positions are appointed by the board itself to fill the need for particular skills or knowledge. The General Manager holds the seventh position.
A few years ago, I stumbled upon the WSM Annual Meeting, at which the members have the opportunity to select our two representatives to the Board. But I was then frustrated to find that the ballot was preprinted (with the names of the incuments) and it was too late in the game to propose new candidates. Some years I miss the notice in the newsletter, and so miss the Annual meeting and the opportunity to vote altogether.
The Chapel Hill Herald reports that the Chapel Hill Museum has hired a new director, and the new Chapel Hill Downtown Economic Development Corporation is still looking to hire it's first director.
[CHDEDC Board Member Bob] Epting said Tuesday that the three applicants under consideration had made their interest known because of the notice that went around campus. But he said that didn't necessarily mean all three were UNC faculty members.
"We haven't had a discussion about those qualities, so I wouldn't speak for the board on that point," Epting said, when asked about what the board was looking for in an interim director. "Clearly, we are trying to pick somebody with an interest and excitement for both the development and the preservation of our downtown."
The board does expect that whomever takes the director's job would be paid for the work, he said.
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