Chapel Hill vs Carrboro

Chapel Hill and Carrboro are related but they have significant differences. I love them both like family. I feel like their little brother constantly annoyed with one or the other but will remain steadfastly in love with them both 'til the day I die. Many of my fellow Chapel Hillians do not understand these differences. They see Franklin Street and Main Street in Carrboro as one long business thoroughfare. It's not. I don't mean to pick on Chapel Hill residents, both students and townies, but if you don't spend a lot of time in Carrboro you wouldn't know. The Towns have very unique histories that contain deep seated differences forged in race, class, and ideology. All fueled by the money and intellectual power of the University of North Carolina.   Yesterday I had a great conversation with several Chapel Hillians. They were a retired Town of Chapel Hill employee, a downtown business leader, a few University employees, and others who I do not know well. Our gathering was random. At one point someone said, and I paraphrase, "Why do Chapel Hill and Carrboro have separate fire and police departments?" A smart gentleman that knows what he's talking about said, "When we've discussed it the final conclusion has always been 'Hell no!'." I took that as a definitive answer from a real source in the know. It also happens to be how I feel about the situation. For the past three years I've been running a small business in Carrboro. It would NEVER have launched without the Town of Carrboro. An Alderman, an Economic Development Director, and the Mayor and other Aldermen made it possible. Through the Town of Carrboro Revolving Loan Fund I was able to give this business a real go. This is a resource the Town of Carrboro has had since 1986. The Town of Chapel Hill just got a Economic Development Director a few years ago and gave out its first business loan recently. The best way for me to sum this up is: Chapel Hill follows Carrboro's lead. Carrboro sets trends in numerous areas. The arts, environmental protection, economic development, transportation with many bike lanes, and more. As far as I can tell the major start of Carrboro's leadership was in the 1980's when a few liberal folks were elected to the Carrboro Board of Alderman. Previously the board was dominated by local white men who held much more traditional values. Before the Carr Mill closed for the last time, Carrboro was primarily a working class white Town. In the 1970's its affordable housing attracted ex-students and others to migrate there from Chapel Hill and beyond. Soon a very new type of community formed in Carrboro and made it a very different place. I need to do more research on this. To my knowledge there are no documents that explain just how Carrboro came to be the visionary leader it is. I only surmised this by knowing Carrboro didn't always have the liberal reputation it has now. With that rep came a big dream for the future. One that has come true in many ways. Note: For those who have lived here longer than I and know more historical facts, I welcome your tweaks and corrections to my assertions about our local history.

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They led the way in having a living wage policy for town employees as well (2001 vs 2009)

The entire board were conservative white men until the May 1969 election (Carrboro town elections did not move to November until 1973) Braxton Fousheee and UNC English professor Chuck Wright ran for Town Board in 1969 on a very liberal campaign, with Chuck (my english prof that semester) losing by 7 votes and Brax winning. Chuck passed away in the late 70s. It was not til Pete Beswick was elected in 1973 and Bob Drakeford in 1975 that things began to move substantially. Pete was a fellow 2L at Carolina Law in 1973, he constantly complained about Carrboro so I gave him his $5 filing fee and dared him to run, the first student elected to the Carrboro board. The Carrboro Community Coalition ran a slate in 1977 or 1979, with Ernie Patterson (still around the area) Doug Sharer, Steve Rose, Bob Drakeford, Ruth West and others getting elected and sweeping the elections. I may have my years a bit off or missed a few activists who got elected.

Gerry,
I really need to talk to you. All of this history needs to be recorded and written down so regular people can understand and enjoy it.

Brian, you probably should talk to Ernie Patterson and Braxton to get all the details of Carrboro 1969-1981 when all this happened. I was an outside observer though I did attend many of the CCC strategy meetings. It's a bit hazy.

Braxton recently told me about the decisions to keep Carr Mill and to open Anderson Park. Given how important those two facilities are to the town, I'd give him and his colleagues some real credit for progressive thinking. Now that Braxton is running for the Carrboro Board again, I hope he'll have the chance to explain the vision that was evolving then and how he hopes to bring similar ideas to the table now. 

 

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