Blogs

When it rains, it pours, I guess. The second-biggest municipality in Orange County has recently been blessed with several new journalistic efforts talking nothing but Carrboro.

The Carrboro Commons is a project of a class at UNC's School of Journalism. It's not clear to me whether it will be sticking around now that the semester is over. They kicked out a few interesting pieces like a profile of Mike Nelson, a Carrboro High preview, and coverage of growth in Carrboro. I haven't seen the print edition but apparently there is one, published semesterly.

I've been very impressed with the work done by the Orange County Board of Elections since its new director, Barry Garner, took over.

While I was managing Adam's campaign, they were always extremely fast in responding to information requests. Now they've taken what I believe to be the unprecedented step of tabulating and posting the write in totals for the Soil and Water Conservation District Supervisor race, the full list of which you can see here.

Since no one really knows what the supervisors do and the races are nonpartisan, there are a lot of write in votes.

Some of the highlights:

Daffy Duck got a vote, but was far outpassed by Donald Duck who received four.

Jerry Garcia may have died over ten years ago, but at least a couple Deadheads think he would do a good job stewarding our natural resources.

Chapel Hill's police chief recently announced that he's retiring after working for the CHPD for over three decades. Chief Jarvies has constantly impressed me with his intelligence and sensitivity, which are not things you expect in a cop.

"I think we've done a great job in bringing in folks that understand how to work with the community," Jarvies said. "It takes a lot of effort to keep them here and keep them motivated."
- heraldsun.com: Jarvies to retire after seven years

I first met him when I was living next door to a very sensitive man that called the police whenever more than 5 people congregated on my porch. He was always very understanding and did his best to try to make everyone happy (although that was noever going to be possible.) In recent years, I have harangued him constantly about the lack of officers on foot patrol in Northside, and he has always listened and done his best to respond to my concerns.