Ruby Sinreich's blog

In July, I wondered what people were thinking about the Inter-City Visit and Leadership Conference to be held in Madison, WI by the local "Community Leadership Council" on September 24-26. I considered participating in it, and in fact my husband and I both applied for scholarships to attend.

However, in addition to the fact that we did not receive the amount of scholarship requested ($1,300 for two of us, for a conference costing $2,190), the timing of the trip is singularly bad for us, and we simply cannot attend without throwing our lives into disarray. But! Just because the bloggers aren't going is no reason to for all of us who are staying home to miss out on what I'm sure will be interesting experiences for the folks in Madison.

I have suggested to the director of the Chamber of Commerce that they either set-up their own blog for the travellers or use OrangePolitics to help document the trip as it happens. The offer still stands...

Speaking of business managers that don't understand the culture from which they profit (or hope to profit)...

A reader points us to an article in today's N & O in which the manager of the not-yet-open Franklin Hotel wants Festifall moved off Franklin Street because it might endanger his building. This guy can't have been in Chapel Hill long as the only street fair he's ever experienced here was last year's Apple Chill, which itself was fine, but ended very very badly.

Although the Franklin will not have any guests during the street fair, [hotel manager Michael] Donaldson said Thursday that fire crews might have trouble responding to the hotel should a problem arise that day.

¡La danza continúa! Demostrations against the Carr Mill dancing ban and Weaver Street Market's "Live on the Lawn"program will continue with a dance-in today at 5:30. See how much fun we had last week, and read on to learn more about what's going on...

From Tamara Tal:

For more of that community magic…

We're Alive on the Lawn!

Same time, same place, same dance… let Carr Mill know that we're still here. Bring your friends, musical instruments— and your dancing shoes!

WSM lawn, Wednesday, August 30th 5:30 PM, the Carrboro community dances back!

Please forward widely.

From Sammy Slade: