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The Town Council's initial reaction to the proposed redevelopment of Colony Apartments (see "Council balks" in the CH News, 7/3/12) is classic Chapel Hill: act high-minded when, in fact, our head is buried deep in the sand. I am an affordable housing advocate and a Chapel Hill resident, but I take a different view of this development proposal.
Am I concerned by the potential loss of one of the community's few apartment complexes that serves a working class population? Of course. Yet the reason such apartment complexes are scarce is that as a community we persistently fail to understand the ongoing impact of our many protectionist, restrictive policies that curb the supply of housing. (With all the PhDs in this town, you'd think we could understand basic supply and demand by now.)
Unsurprisingly, names have started to surface as possible
applicants for Penny Rich's open Town Council seat once she leaves her post to
join the County Commission in January. Today I heard via Twitter that George
Gianciolo and Jon DeHart likely plan to apply for the position.
While I'm sure either of these men would provide a
thoughtful voice for Council, the unpleasant reality is that if either were
appointed, the gender breakdown of CHTC would be just two women and seven men
(including Mayor Kleinschmidt). Council would be comprised of just 22%
women, exactly the same representation as the NC legislature.
It's
embarrassing that a municipal government we proudly consider to be a model for
progressivism in our state could possibly have the same gender breakdown as our
backward-thinking General Assembly.
Chapel Hill Magazine's The Weekly had a nice scoop this afternoon. "The WEEKLY has learned that George Cianciolo will make himself a candidate to fill 's council seat after she moves to BOCC."They also noted that Jon Dehart will seek the appointment as well. Should be interseting to see their article next week, particularly if they have other names of folks planning to run. Also worth noting that if Penny was replaced by George or Jon, who'd both make good councilmen, that would leave only 2 women (22% of council/mayor) representing 53% of Chapel Hill...
I support environmental protection and the mitigation of global climate change. I do not believe that every business should be allowed to do what they what. But there are times when government is in the wrong and shouldn’t kowtow to existing businesses and their supporting organizations at the cost of new business. So to kick this post off I’m going to reclaim a bit of conservative rhetoric. Because it applies in this situation.
It should not be the job of the Town of Chapel Hill to pick which business succeeds and which fails. But this is what they are doing by aggressively regulating food trucks away from the streets of Chapel Hill. It’s called protectionism. The result of the Town of Chapel Hill food truck ordinance is protecting existing brick and motar businesses from competition with food trucks. This is accomplished by charging a fee that is unaffordable to food trucks. The fact that almost no food truck owners will pay the Town fee to provide services in our Town is evidence of that.
Recently, members of the North Carolina Air National Guard left their homes in the Charlotte area to serve the people of South Dakota in reaction to the out-of-control forest fires. Two days ago, when a C-130 cargo plane was carrying fire retardant to the fires, the plane crashed. Four members lost their lives and two were injured. While the names of the injured have yet to be announced, the four who lost their lives in service to others were: Lt. Col. Paul K. Mikeal (pronounced like "Michael"), 42, of Mooresville, N.C.; Maj. Joseph M. McCormick, 36, of Belmont, N.C.; Maj. Ryan S. David (pronounced da-veed), 35, of Boone, N.C.; Senior Master Sgt. Robert S. Cannon, 50, of Charlotte.
As a ceremonial sign of respect, there was a gubanatorial declaration to lower the American flag to half-staff for today.
But not in Carrboro. Both the American flags in front of Town Hall and in front of the Carrboro Century Center remained at full-staff all day.
What does this say about Carrboro values, and on the eve of the most patriotic day of the year?
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