December 2013
Thanks to all the folks who came out to the organizational meeting of the Chapel Hill Town Council. It was incredibly exciting to take the oath of office, especially with my family and friends there and Rep. Larry Hall doing the honors. I forgot to thank Mr. Fred Battle for all his help and support and wish I had. There were so many people there that I wanted to thank. GRACIAS! I am really excited about my committee assignments: Parks and Recreation
Commission, Personnel Appeals
Committee, Transportation Board, Firefighters’ Relief
Fund, Greenways Commission. It will be a busy year for sure. Looking forward to serving the community,
maria
Join Chapel Hill - Carrboro City School Board Member Mia Burroughs and Chapel Hill Town Council Member Lee Storrow for open office hours to discuss your concerns in Orange County. We'll provide refreshments, just bring yourself. Whether you have a specific concern, or just want to hear more about what local government and the school system are doing, we want to hear from you! |
Date:
Monday, January 13, 2014 - 5:30pm to 6:30pm
Location:
Joe Van Gogh Coffee 1129 AD Weaver Dairy Road Chapel Hill, NC 27514
There will be much talk over the coming days about the true legacy of Mandela. What it is, and what it isn't. And possibly whether or not it has any relevance to democracy and politics in Orange County.
First, Mandela himself, and his immediate legacy. For me, a middle-aged white Brit, of American parents, a former Thatcher groupie, but now more center-left, the lasting legacy of Mandela will be his achievement in creating the space which allowed South Africa to transition to black majority rule without massive bloodshed.
With the election of Mayor Lavelle and the re-election of Mayor Kleinschmidt, every news report I hear or read about them includes the terms "openly gay" or "openly lesbian." Having not gone through the experience of keeping key elements of myself private and then navigating the landscape of revealing these to family members, friends, coworkers and the like, I don't have the grounding necessary to comment. Nevertheless, the use of the word "openly" gives me some unease. It seems to suggest that the public still harkens back to some sort of unspoken compact with gay and lesbian polticians that the cost of being elected was silence.
As we in Chapel Hill and Carrboro strive to continue to lead in the progress toward a fairer and more tolerant society, maybe we can move from "openly gay mayor" and "openly lesbian mayor" to just "gay mayor" and "lesbian mayor". Then, who knows, maybe just "mayor."
After reading yet another article about the parking "problem" in downtown Carrboro/Chapel Hill, I thought it'd be worth revisiting solutions to this problem. (Or maybe non-problem, I've never had trouble parking in either town, so I don't really know what people are talking about, unless their definition of parking is parking within a 1/10th mile of the business/restaurant they wish to visit).
The U.S. Census Bureau released updated American Community Survey Data a few days ago, and there's some very noteworthy news out of Carrboro in the latest figures: Carrboro's transit commute mode share is now at 16.7%, the highest in all of North Carolina. Chapel Hill's transit mode share is 10.6%, as Carrboro Alderman Damon Seils helpfully pointed out on Twitter yesterday (see the Storify below).
(For any curious readers, you can access this data for all American cities, along with a host of other fascinating data from the American Community Survey, at the American FactFinder website. The data for commute mode share are in table B08301.)
The Obey Creek Compass Committee, a 17-member committee formed by the Chapel Hill Town Council to assist in identifying key issues to be considered in the development of a concept plan for the Obey Creek property, unanimously approved its final report to the Chapel Hill Town Council at its last meeting on Monday.
The report is now available online here (PDF). You can review all of the materials from the committee, as well as videos of all committee meetings, on the town website here.
The report will be received by the Town Council at their January 13th meeting, where the Council will then consider next steps for the development agreement process.
(Full disclosure: I was a member of the Obey Creek Compass Committee.)
For this first of three year-end/year-beginning posts, we are stealing an idea from long-time OP poster Mark Marcoplos.
Over on Facebook, Mark started a thread on who would be Orange County Person of the Year if we were to have such a thing and so, we thought we'd bring that question over here and see what others had to say (thanks for the idea Mark!).
The Chapel Hill Carrboro Chamber of Commerce awarded Chapel Hill Downtown Partnership Executive Director Meg McGurk Person of the Year for our two towns (a wonderful choice).
So, who would you want to see as Orange County Person of the Year and why?
[Look for our posts asking for your '2013 Stories of the Year' and 'What to Watch for in 2014' later this week and next.]
We thought it might be interesting to go back and see what we were talking about over the past year. Below is a smattering of the biggest topics from each month:
A Happy New Year wish to all the readers, posters, and lurkers who frequent OP and to the Editors who make it run. A very big wish to Ruby on her new job. Stay safe, happy and healthy everyone.
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