Chapel Hill
Extensive mold and other serious maintenance issues, unannounced inspections, living with no water, play equipment removed, violence, disrepect by management, inability to use shared resources, children not allowed to play outside.....
Would you be surprised to know that these are just some of the complaints coming from our neighbors who live in affordable housing complexes throughout Orange County (Chapel Hill, Carrboro, and Hillsborough)?
Orange County Justice United is partnering with residents in all of these complexes to organize the community, conduct neighborhood audits to acertain the extend of the issues, present these findings to management, and have the issues addressed.
The Gateway Village Apartments in Hillsborough is one such housing complex. A story about our work together can be found here.
We know that there is a shortage of affordable housing in our communities. We must work to ensure that the affordable housing that is available, is welcoming unless we want to be a community of the wealthy.
In light of national struggles with policing methods, enforcement and militarization, both Chapel Hill and Carrboro police departments hosted sessions for community members to voice their potential concerns directly to Chapel Hill Police Chief Blue Oct. 4 and Carrboro Chief Horton Oct. 5. The two forums revealed underlying issues in each community, with Carrboro’s discussion especially distinct in the way it gravitated toward racial profiling issues.
This announcement about bike and ped safety was posted by the town of Chapel Hill this weekend. Unfortunately recently there was another cyclist fatality near MLK and Hillsborough. This occurred where I was hit by a car while biking to work a decade ago. One suggestion I had back then was to have the reminder sign about" sharing the road with cyclist" be moved from uphill going towards downtown to place it going downhill closer to the corner gas station. I was told several times this was going to happen but it was never done. The chronic problem of warning signs being hidden by vegetation needs to be addressed. I know that the sign in that area was hidden by vegetation. It sounds from this memo that more attention will be given to this. When I ran for town council this is one of the things I meant by the town being more proactive rather than complaint driven. (Don't wait for someone to complain that a sign is hidden, have bus drivers or other employees notice and report it.) Having visible to drivers signs showing where a bike or greenway trail feeds into a street is a great idea and I hope the sign for the Bolin Creek Greenway and MLK is placed there quickly.
This coming Saturday (October 4) and next Monday (October 6), Chapel Hill Police and Carrboro Police respectively, along with representatives from their funding agencies, will be holding Public Forums, at which citizens will be invited to offer thoughts on the way they wish to be policed. I will be unable to attend the Carrboro Forum as I will be working. But I have written a letter to the organizers, a letter which is (amazingly) quite self-explanatory:
"Dear Carrboro Alderpeople, Chief Horton and David Andrews [Carrboro Town Manager],
I understand there is to be a Public Forum on Policing in Carrboro, held on October 6, at 7.00pm. I will not be able to attend, as much as I have expressed interest in this subject.
I am a shift worker, and like most shift workers, I need at least three weeks notice to be able to accommodate events to my work schedule.
The Chapel Hill Town Council was to continue its discussion this evening about how to fund the extension of sewer service to the Historic Rogers Road Neighborhood, in its first meeting of the 2014-2015 session. However, town staff is again recommending a continuation of the public hearing.
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