What You're Saying on the Street

"to find out your thoughts on Carrboro passing the same-sex marriage resolution and if Chapel Hill should follow suit."

...but I think Ron is probably tired of me coming in there to do marriage equality commentaries all the time already!  =p

Ron would love to have you do a commentary on the same-sex resolutions. Coincidentally enough, Lynda-Marie's first WYSOS asked residents, "do you think Chapel Hill should follow Carrboro in passing a resolution in support of same-sex marriage."

At our Chapel Hill Town Council meeting last night we passed a resolution in support of same-sex marriage.   Laurin www.laurineasthom.wordpress.com

LMT, This forum was not designed to serve as a fodder factory for your latest pursuit.  You might consider digging up you own material, same as other news reporters do.   

There's a difference between coming to OP to get ideas for WYS, and crowdsourcing your work to OP participants. Of course local reporters come here for ideas - it's as good a public record as any. But the questions you want help with are taking normal reporting research an extra step. You, as a reporter, are supposed to do the critical analysis of destilling  the OP forums for information you can use in your segment. Otherwise, you're asking OP members to do that extra step for you. Are you proposing to split your paycheck with those who help you produce your piece, or giving OP a WCHL sponsorship for allowing you to do that here? This is an interesting trend among news outlets. WUNC's Public Insight Network is another version of this idea, but I think you could take a page from their book. I admire WCHL for looking for new ways to keep WYS fresh by utilizing social platforms, but it's dubious that OP is the appropriate place for that to happen. I suggest starting a forum on the WCHL website for that purpose, and/or soliciting questions on air during the actual segment. Your snappy retort to Catherine above illustrates that you haven't thought this through completely, which, frankly, could endanger the good will that some here may have towards WCHL. I know it's hard to walk the line between being a community member yourself and being a reporter for WCHL - I used to do that segment myself. But it does mean you need to be especially sensitive to how you engage with the OP community and potential commercial conflicts of interest with the OP mission...and I do think that what you're proposing could qualify as such. Even if you and your news director don't feel that way, is it worth alienating those here who do feel that way?

I'm not familiar with your work but would encourage you to use something closer to your real name for this, maybe at least on your OP profile. It's a bit weird that you're doing this pseudonymously. And your photo isn't of you, is it?

First, the reason OP can be treated as a reasonable if not authoritative source regarding local debate is that people ARE identified.  If all were anonymous, this could (and on occasion did) degenerate into the run-of-the-mill blog/chat room where extreme opinions begin to vie for worst language and most personal attacks - so long as no one knows who anyone else is.  It sometimes takes courage to sign your name to a comment you know some will attack, but ultimately it makes you (or most people) think carefully about what you say and how you say it. It also enables people to see who the source is and skip reading it - as with people who routinely post rather long-winded comments, like this one. Second, possible topics:  A. Are newspapers and magazines - i.e., print journalism - dying?   If they are, is this okay with you?  B.  Property valuations -if I were on the street and you asked me what I thought about the new property valuations, I'd say I really doubt that I could get anything like that amount if I put the house on the market anytime in the next six months.  Then I'd say, "there ought to be a way to recognize that things are very very different now - I shouldn't be paying taxes on what I might have gotten for the house more than a year ago."  Of course, I now know that the the assessment is "preliminary" and there are things I can do to appeal it, but the steps for that appeal are complicated and time-consuming, just to arrrive at a level based on what common-sense might have suggested. C.Senior care: This may seem of slight immediate interest and not especially local, but trust me - it is both imminent and local.  Babyboomers are currently caught in caretaking of two generations, and the experience of caring for aged parents has caught us up short as we get a glimpse into our own future.  The economic crisis has worsened the outlook enormously at all levels - how do we pay for current care of no-longer-independent parents? If we're getting close to that age ourselves, how do we find care for ourselves?  In Florida, people unable to sell their homes suddenly can't finance longterm care, and the facilities available are split between a very few that accept Medicaid and the large majority that are high-end and beyond the reach of the middle-class.  Bringing it home to OC:  if my mother can no longer stay where she is in Florida, what options would she have if I tried to move her here to OC?  What options would I have for myself down the road if I stay in OC?  We have some extremely nice but fairly pricey possibilities, but the number of LTC facilities in all price ranges and in all levels of care hasn't grown proportionately with the population.  Developers have begun to notice the opportunities here, but they've preferred to target high-end populations.  What's going to be available for everyone else?  Is there anything that should be happening in town and county government to plan for the demand for services and supports?