Neighborhoods

Dan Coleman will be missed in Carrboro. I have a couple of sisters who lived in Australia. I've already written to Dan offering what help I can with his transition. But I know that he will enjoy his new adventure in Australia.

Which means. A vacancy will soon be opening on the Carrboro Board of Aldermen. And my mind turns to matters of political ‘establishment,’ the righteousness of challenge in a community, and what makes me itchy.

Now. Let's get clear. There is a political ‘establishment’ in Carrboro. This is not necessarily a bad thing. So, why the itch?

Well, I get itchy at any appearance of an 'establishment' coronation.

I get itchy at any sense that one has to be a part of an homogenous 'establishment' to make progress. That the primary attribute of a candidacy should be that one has worked one's way up the ladder of 'establishment,' allowing its members to get comfortable with one.

I get itchy at the suggestion that a community is, indeed, homogenous. When patently no community is homogenous.

The Marian Cheek Jackson Center, in collaboration with UNC and Self Help Credit Union, is leading a process to develop strategies to shift the Northside neighborhood's trajectory away from increasing student housing and decreasing long-term single family housing to be more diverse (in 1980 the neighborhood was 59.3% African American and by 2010 is was down to 23.8% - data from Self Help/Jackson Center).

These partners have created a Compass Group of current and former residents of Northside and other interested parties. Through meetings with this Group and conversations with Northside neighbors a list of 5 community aspirations was developed:

1. Preserving a sense of culture and community identify, as well as preserving African-American land ownership in Northside;

2. Helping long-term residents improve their housing conditions and quality of life;

3. Minimizing the negative impacts of student renters/rentals, and perhaps cooling off the student rental market;

4. Maintaining/restoring a close-knit, proud community, and

5. Building a neighborhood that attracts a diverse range of individuals and families going forward.