Blogs
Kudos to the News & Observer for using their blog to expand the information in the paper, and vice versa.
While all they had time to write was a "staff report" (excerpted below), they also encouraged readers to Learn more about Lot 5 before the Town Council takes action by including a link to their blog at the end of the story and posting the Town of Chapel Hill's full summary of issues document for download from the blog.
The town has released a draft copy of its contract with Ram Development Co. for a $75 million downtown redevelopment project.
The town is partnering with Ram to build an eight-story condominium and retail complex on the site of a municipal parking lot along Church Street between West Franklin and West Rosemary streets.
The Manuscripts Department at Wilson Library at UNC will host its first panel discussion (in a weekly series of three) on Tuesday January 30, 2007 at 5:30pm. Each Tuesday, a panel discussion will be held to discuss a theme relating to the exhibit, "I Raised My Hand to Volunteer: Students Protest in 1960s Chapel Hill", which is now on view on the 4th Floor of Wilson Library.
This first panel is a very rare chance to hear key leaders and participants reflect on their involvement in the desegregation movement in Chapel Hill in the 1960s. On January 13, 1964 the Chapel Hill Town Council (then the Board of Aldermen) voted down an ordinance by a vote of 4-2 which would have provided public accomodations in all town businesses. The decision meant that theses businesses would remain segregated until the passage of the Civil Rights Act.
January 30: Panel Discussion, 5:30-7 pm, Pleasants Family Assembly Room, Wilson Library
Pressing the Hold-outs: The Desegregation Demonstrations of 1963-64
Moderator: Sally Greene: Chapel Hill Town Council Member and UNC-Chapel Hill adjunct law professor
Last year a mini controversy erupted around the awarding of a consulting contract to then Planning Board Chair Tim Dempsey. Seven months later, are we getting our money's worth?
I believe the answer is yes. Tim did a tremendous job co-chairing the Manager search process with Anita Badrock (BTW, congratulations on your new Chamber chairmanship- there is no one better suited for the job in my book!)
One of the things Tim worked on of late was pulling together last weekend's Council retreat, which by all reports was much improved from previous years.
I thought Sally Greene, now becoming a Council veteran, had an interesting perspective, this being her fourth retreat:
I learned from the N&O's excellent new Orange Chat blog that Roger Perry's University Village project has changed it's name to "East 54" due to Chapel Hill Planning staff concerns that the "University" name could confuse emergency responders. The staff has raised the same issue about other recent projects such as "McCorkle Place" condos, which are located across from the UNC quad called McCorkle Place.
Problem is, while East 54 definitely sounds hipper, it's even more geographically ambiguous than the previous name - it's the name of an entire road!
Meanwhile, former Town Council member Pat Evans is reactivating the group calling itself "Friends of Downtown." (You know, as opposed to those enemies...)
The erstwhile Chapel Hill Downtown Commission set up the Friends of Downtown initially as a 501c3c nonprofit, so it could accept tax-deductible donations for the commission, Evans said.
As published in the Chapel Hill Herald on Saturday, January 20th:
Orange County won the state championship in 2005, finished a close second behind Guilford County last year, and is already well on its way to another state championship this year.
I wish I was talking about football or SAT scores or something of that ilk. Unfortunately I'm talking about the county's relative standing in the number of rabies cases it has compared to the rest of the state.
It seems like every day when I open up the paper there's been another confirmed rabies case. Most of the time I don't bat much of an eye. The vast majority of the cases are way out in the county, and since I live near downtown Chapel Hill, don't affect me.
But I kind of reached my breaking point when one of 2007's first pair of cases was a rabid fox that attacked someone walking near UNC Hospitals. I walk around there all the time, and that could just as well have been me.
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