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Tomorrow (1/21/03) the Chapel Hill Town Council will hold public hearings on some major (and some minor) zoning changes. On the table are the creation of the town's first-ever Neighborhood Conservation District (NCD). This NCD would apply to Northside (where I live), and I was on the commitee that developed the proposal. The biggest change is the banning of duplexes (which I opposed). That is probably what most peope will speak about at the hearing, although there are also concerns about the proposed cap of 2,000 square feet per dwelling (which I supported). I think the NCD is sorely needed, and this is a good step. But it doesn't really confront the problems that face our downtown, working-class, near-campus neighborhood. Some people don't think it can address those things. I think it could have... but anyway.
I say "part II", because readers should be aware that Mark Marcoplos was for many years a columnist for the Chapel Hill Herald and was dropped (fired?) for being too politically active (as I understand it).
On December 27, the Herald editorialized: consider the example of Mark marcoplos, longtime spokesman for the Orange County Greens and the chairman of the Orange Water and Sewer Authority. In recent weeks, marcoplos has used a variety of forums to argue that compulsory schooling at the K-12 level is little more than a day care system, part of a capitalist ploy to depress wages. That's right. "If children weren't forced to go to school, then both parents couldn't take jobs outside the home and there would be great pressure to pay people more," he wrote in one newspaper column. I recommend reading the whole editorial to get the context.
Mark has responded to this editorial on orangepolitics and with his own op-ed
Apart from the issues of education raised and covered here on another thread, this spat raises serious questions of the mis-use and abuse of public figures by the press.
At last Monday's Chapel Hill Town Council meeting, a group of neighborhood activists proposed to shed some light on relations between Council members and high-ranking UNC administrators.
Point:
The coalition's petition called on the council to immediately cease all individual meetings with UNC officials, even though they're legally allowed, and to "recognize that those UNC officials participating in this effort are acting as paid lobbyists and that the town should adopt a regulation requiring registration of lobbyists and the disclosure of their activity." Chapel Hill Herald, 1/15/04
Counterpoint:
Nancy Suttenfield, UNC vice chancellor of finance and administration, said last week that the university recently adopted a policy of pairing top-level administrators and trustees with individual council members.
Big meetings tonight:
I don't have time to write all that I want to say aboust these right now, but I'll try to post an update later...
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