Citizen Will

Month: November 2006

  • …water fountains, bathrooms and benches….

    WCHL1360 covered yesterday’s Downtown Partnership update. Listen [MP3] to what Director Liz Parham and local “top flight” business guy Scott Maitland had to say. And Dan S., if you’re reading this, thanks for the sly hat tip.

  • Friday is Right: Two million is too much…

    [UPDATE:] WCHL1360 with the audio [MP3]. President Friday expands on his concerns about salary inequities in the UNC system with WCHL’s Jon Hill. Last week a survey was published showing disproportionate wage inflation at the highest levels. Thanks Bill. [UPDATE 2] The HeraldSun weighs in with this soon to evaporate editorial titled “An expensive coach” […]

  • Election 2007, Already? Who’s the West-End Business Candidate?

    Robert Poitras, representing the West-End business community announce this evening at the Downtown Partnership forum that the West End business community plans to field a “business candidate” for Council in 2007. Interesting. Has election 2007 already begun?

  • Chapel Hill Downtown Development Initiative: The Debate

    Posted these individual citizen comments from the Nov. 20th Public Hearing on the Downtown Development Scott Kovens Robert Dowling Gene Pease Roger Perry Lex Alexander David Godschalk David Hartzell Joyce Brown Janet Kagan Alan Rimer Barnes Burke Laurie Paolicelli Scott Radway Anita Badrock Tom Jensen Josh Gurlitz Liz Parham Philip Duchastel Bill Camp Raymond Bernadette […]

  • Chapel Hill Downtown Partnership: Nov. 28th State of the Union

    First, kudos to the Downtown Partnership (CHDP) for finally pulling together a decent website (though disabling ‘right clicks’ is cheesy). There’s a nice calendar widget, some news of the day, list of eats and drinks, services, shops, fun, etc. that are both fairly extensive and accurate. Way to go Liz and company. Today the CHDP […]

  • CHFD: First Class Firefighters

    From the Chapel Hill Fire Department website: The primary mission of the Chapel Hill Fire Department is to protect life, property and the community environment from the destructive effects of fire, disasters or other life hazards by providing public education, incident prevention and emergency response services. Thank you folks for all the long hours and […]

  • Downtown Development Initiative: Stanford on a Sea of Asphalt

    Early in the evening, downtown resident Don Stanford spoke of “magic bullets”, the promises of NCNB Plaza (“remains one of the eyesores of Franklin Street…”) and the progression from it to Rosemary Square to Granville Towers (“…high rises in a sea of asphalt…”) to Wallace Deck. During his presentation I noticed some eye-rolling but it’s […]

  • Downtown Development Initiative: Culbreth and the Domino Effect

    Chris Culbreth, a second term member of the Town’s Community Design Commission (CDC), stayed late Monday, Nov. 20th, to comment to Council on the proposed revisions for the Process for Revision of the Comprehensive Plan Interestingly enough, he spent more of his limited time counseling Council on the Downtown Development Initiative (DDI) juggernaut than the […]

  • Municipal Networking: Nary a Citizen Advocate to be Found

    An update on the muni-networking task force prepared by UNC’s Shannon Howle Schelin, PhD, one of our stronger advocates for 21st century infrastructure. On November 13, 2006, an exploratory meeting was held at the Town of Chapel Hill to discuss the Town’s interest in pursuing a wireless strategy. The goal of the meeting was to […]

  • Downtown Initiative: $500,000 here, $7.3 Million there, pretty soon we’re talking real money…

    A quick reminder of this evening’s public forum [Mon., Nov. 20th] on the failing Downtown Initiative. Tonight’s agenda starts with this gem The 2000 Comprehensive Plan’s goal for downtown is to “enhance the downtown’s role as the center of the community, with a pedestrian orientation and a human scale.” I consider the 104′ multi-building development […]

  • Carolina North: The Invisible Discussion Forum

    [UPDATE] As of November 20 2006 4:45 pm, we’ve had two questions and two comments by “site admin”. Questions: Hi, I haven’t seen anything lately that lays out the architectural vision of Carolina North. Could you point me towards any current plans? Thank you. November 20 2006 9:46 am by Robert Peterson Is UNC still […]

  • Corbomite II: RobertP’s Lieberman Maneuver

    CountryCrats RobertP has an excellent recommendation for keeping Joe Lieberman in line There really is only one thing the Senate Democrats, with their old-fashioned Senate rulebook, can do [about Lieberman siding with the Republicans]. Promise him, in private, that if he switches they will pocket every bill he ever proposes, interrupt every speech he ever […]

  • Bus 734’s Act of Kindness

    Say what you will of “Chapel Hill values”, but it can be quite nice when you’re on the receiving end. This morning I watched the driver of Bus 734 pull over for a moment to let a young man, already wheezing from running up MLK to the Kron Building stop, jog the next 20 yards […]

  • NC Lottery: Gambling IN Our Children’s Future…

    Usually politicians will attempt to sell a policy by claiming “if not adopted we’re gambling with our children’s future.” The corrosive affects of NC’s lottery continue to spread, as demonstrated by this report in today’s N&O: In August and September, teens under age 18 were paired with state agents and made visits to 348 lottery […]

  • Yum, Yum, it’s RSVVP Day. Eat out and kick %10 into local hunger relief efforts…

    It’s RSVVP day and I didn’t realize it! I managed to eat out at one of the few local restaurants, the Lime & Basil, that isn’t participating. Drat! Guess I’ll have to eat out again for dinner ;-)! This time I’ll choose from this list of participants. Hat tip to Paul. On Tuesday, November 14, […]