Footloose Bruce

If you're not familiar with the recent or past history of Carr Mill Mall management's anti-Carrboro policies, catch up with us at http://orangepolitics.org/tags/carr-mill. I am so frustrated by the attitude that Carr Mill owes nothing to the community that has made them so successful.

A few days ago ago, Damon and I were looking for a place to park in downtown Carrboro. We had a question and asked Hector (the security guard), he gave us a short answer and a slip of paper with the following printed on it (verbatim):

I was out of town for 9 days so I had trouble following this.

Final agreement on the last set of conditions on the proposed Alberta project was delayed Tuesday night after a lengthy discussion by the Carrboro Board of Aldermen.

After closing a public hearing at Town Hall on the four-story 46,340-square-foot project, board members focused on how it and other mixed-use developments would affect downtown.
Two major areas of negotiation have been how many affordable housing units to require at The Alberta and where to draw the line between public and private property.

Located at the corner of Roberson Street and Sweet Bay Place on the site of the old Farmers' Market, The Alberta would include 6,772 square feet of retail space on the ground floor along Roberson Street along with 23 residential units and 69 parking spaces. The condominiums include three one-bedroom units, 17 two-bedroom units and three three-bedroom units.
- The Carrboro Citizen - Board delays final vote on Alberta, 9/6/07

I recently learned from the Weaver St. Newsletter that they plan on moving their bread and pastry bakery, kitchen, and offices to Hillsborough. This seems like a big loss for Carrboro. The Chapel Hill News printed the following letter I wrote and I set up the blog OurWeave.blogspot.com to discuss the move.

The scheduled move of Weaver Street Market's "food production facilities" and offices to Hillsborough will result in a loss of around 80 jobs for Carrboro and have a detrimental effect on the town and the environment.

The environment impacts are the most obvious: 80 workers driving 24 miles each workday equals around 2,000 miles a day. That is a lot of carbon emission, and it doesn't include the added distribution miles of having a non-centrally located "production and office facility."