Burton Peebles's blog

Chapel Hill 2020: Ambiguity Moving Forward

          On October 6, 2011, approximately 200 members of the community gathered at East Chapel Hill High School to participate in a “stakeholder meeting,” the second scheduled event in a series of events associated with the drafting of the Chapel Hill 2020 comprehensive plan. Equipped with high-tech voting devices and packets outlining the various proposed mission statements and themes for the plan, citizens expressed both support and concerns alike through the press of a button.

Some, myself included, left feeling a sense of disappointment that citizens in attendance had been given little opportunity to verbally articulate their frustrations in any sort of forum-like fashion. Even more, I asked myself what each of the plan’s proposed provisions really encompassed. As a student of sociology and activist for marginalized people, the ambiguity and overtly positive spin on the plan is worrisome.

Homestead Park Citizens Organize

Homelessness in Chapel Hill is an issue that, unlike what happens in many communities, reaches headlines in our local media and often the agendas of our Town Council. However, as residents of Chapel Hill seek to safeguard business interests downtown, and as the worsening economic climate continues to find more and more in need, the topic has become increasingly contentious. In too many cases, our most needy citizens are seen as eyesores, barriers to business development and told to get out of town.

With local food pantries stretched to their limits and the current downtown shelter falling into decay, the Chapel Hill Town Council, after lengthy hearings and deliberations, approved the Inter-Faith Council (IFC) Men’s Community House Transitional Shelter Special Use Permit (SUP) in 2011 subject to the IFC satisfying several conditions, including the creation of a Good Neighbor Plan (GNP).

OCDW's Municipal Candidate Forum Brings Affordable Housing to Forefront

Thursday, September 22, 2011, members of the Orange County Democratic Women (OCDW) gathered together, along with the UNC Young Democrats, concern citizens, members of the press and Democratic candidates for both the Carrboro Board of Aldermen and the Chapel Hill Town Council to have a conversation about their communities. The OCDW forum at the OWASA Meeting Room in Carrboro, co-sponsored by the UNC Young Democrats, gave both the Chapel Hill and Carrboro communities the opportunity to press their respective candidates on the issues they feel matter most during this election cycle including affordable housing and the recnet budget cut-backs.

However, candidates differed in discussing their tangible platform points relating to the topics. Moreover, over the course of the evening, candidates highlighted their various personal strengths and unique perspectives on a wide range social justice issues, ranging from environmental degregation to living-wages for all UNC employees.

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