September 2007

It's elementary

What should we call the newest elementary school in the Chapel Hill-Carrboro system?

The Board of Education for the Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools voted Thursday night to use the same process to name the district's newest elementary school as they did when naming Carrboro High School.

The board wants to once again involve the students, staff and community in naming the elementary school, called "Elementary School No. 10" for now.
- newsobserver.com |Orange Chat - Naming new elementary school in Chapel Hill-Carrboro, 9/6/07

Last time around we generated some great suggestions, including James Brown Funk Spirit High School. Let's see if we can top that, and even get our name picked!

What about Alberta

I was out of town for 9 days so I had trouble following this.

Final agreement on the last set of conditions on the proposed Alberta project was delayed Tuesday night after a lengthy discussion by the Carrboro Board of Aldermen.

After closing a public hearing at Town Hall on the four-story 46,340-square-foot project, board members focused on how it and other mixed-use developments would affect downtown.
Two major areas of negotiation have been how many affordable housing units to require at The Alberta and where to draw the line between public and private property.

Located at the corner of Roberson Street and Sweet Bay Place on the site of the old Farmers' Market, The Alberta would include 6,772 square feet of retail space on the ground floor along Roberson Street along with 23 residential units and 69 parking spaces. The condominiums include three one-bedroom units, 17 two-bedroom units and three three-bedroom units.
- The Carrboro Citizen - Board delays final vote on Alberta, 9/6/07

Half page ads in September?

At this time a couple years ago there had already been two forums and an endorsement released in the Chapel Hill Town Council race. It's been comparatively quiet this year, although the forum season is about to heat up.

One candidate who to date was pretty much a mystery fired an opening salvo against the Town Council today. Matt Czajkowski had a half page ad in the Chapel Hill News on Sunday which criticized the Council for:

-Lacking a 'true voice' for fiscal responsibility

-Lot 5

-Its unfriendly reputation toward commerical enterprise that 'keeps businesses from even trying to open here.'

-A Franklin Street that is 'nowhere close to what it 'should and can be'

His ad was long on complaints and short on solutions. There was no statement about what his plans would be to deal with any of these problems or what relevant experience he had for fixing them. I would have liked to go to his website to find out but he doesn't seem to have one.

Carolina North - The First Phase Soon To Begin

Soon we'll be entering a new phase of what some might call the never-ending saga of Carolina North. The last I had heard the University will be presenting its concept plan for the Innovation Center, the first building proposed to be built on Carolina North, at the September 19th meeting of the town of Chapel Hill's Community Design Commission (CDC).

This Carrboro Life

Thanks to former OP contributor (now Pittsboro refugee) Duncan Murrell for sharing this wonderful Carrboro-flavored spoof of Ira Glass and "This American Life." It was recorded by two local musicians, Tom Maxwell and John Ensslin. I have enjoyed many of their various musical outputs over the years, now I can enjoy their comical stylings as well.

You can download it from Duncan's site here: http://www.rattlejar.com/This%20Carrboro%20Life.mp3 (6:36, 6.1 MB MP3)

Could it be this year's It's Carrboro?

The manager tell us what we said

Today Chapel Hill's Town Manager will be presenting his findings from "listening sessions" he held with community groups earlier this year. It's at Town Hall at 5:30 and if anything interesting happens I will blog about it here.

Town Manager Roger L. Stancil will hold a meeting with religious and business leaders, the NAACP, neighborhood activists, Town board and commission chairs, developers, and affordable housing organizations at 5:30 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 11, in the Council Chamber of Town Hall, 405 Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd.

The Town Manager will summarize community input for building a better Chapel Hill that was provided in a series of listening sessions that he held from February to June 2007. The summary will include areas of high performance for Town services, areas identified for improvement, and new ideas for consideration.

Chapel Hill remembers

Here are some great photos from the first anniversary of 9/11 - five years ago:

From The Latest Outrage: Sept. 11, 2002 Remembered: Only Bush Wanted War in Iraq

A question of trust

Almost weekly someone says to me "why do you still allow that idiot so-and-so to post on OP?" Probably almost as frequently, someone else accuses me of "censorship" or worse for putting any limits on what can be read here on OrangePolitics. For whatever reason, this site has become a community of record and is read regularly by the media, elected officials, community leaders, and countless potential local activists. It may mean different things to different people, but it does matter what is said here.

Using social media

Congrats to the Town of Hillsborough for using the social photo sharing site Flickr to post photos and engage the public!

The Chapel Hill Preservation Society also has a Flickr account, and has been using it to good effect.

And a few folks (OK, mostly me) have been using the tag orangepolitics to mark photos related to local issues. Feel free to contribute...

Senate candidates lack ovaries

With John Herrera joining Mike Nelson and Moses Carey, the tally is up to three very qualified Democratic candidates queuing up to run for Ellie Kinnaird's NC Senate seat in 2008. But Senator Kinnaird is still waiting for her Princess Charming who will be able to maintain female leadership in that seat.

I certainly share her concern about the small and shrinking number of women currently elected to the Senate (in fact, I wish she had raised it sooner) but I also have to wonder whether having a Latino, an openly-gay person, or an African American would also make a strong contribution to that body.

The Carrboro Citizen wonders whether Ellie will call her own bluff and run for re-election if she can't find a woman to run for her seat by next spring.

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