Month: June 2010

  • Internet Gambling: Laura Takes A Stroll

    Quick follow-up to my recent post on NC’s Internet gambling ban (Cognitive Dissonance? NC Legislature Bans Internet Sweepstakes). WUNC’s reporting treasure Laura Leslie (can you tell I am a fan?), made an informal personal survey of her community’s (Garner) “Parlor Games”. Ripping a page from the big boys (It’s Not A Spill), one “parlor” (sounds […]

  • Burr vs. Marshall: Let’s Start With A Little Credit

    I generally don’t say much on CitizenWill about Federal officeholders but since there’s been a lot of blather about Elaine Marshall’s chances of overcoming Richard Burr I thought I would submit one way she can challenge Burr’s reputation of supporting our troops. Elaine, as part of her Senate campaign, started a petition calling on Burr […]

  • Great SCoTS

    Chapel Hill’s Locally Grown Summer series kicks off this Thursday with a concert by Southern Culture on the Skids. I remember when SCoTS first formed (they were friends of friends) in 1983 (wow, that feels like a zillion years ago!). The Parks & Rec Locally Grown series features music and movies throughout the Summer and […]

  • Lucky #13: Vimala’s Curryblossom Café

    Local chef and stalwart activist Vimala Rajendran (Indy profile) opened her new Curryblossom Cafe today. Though Ellie, Elijah and I were her 13th customers, our luck was far from bad. Not a big surprise for anyone who has tasted Vimala’s take-home menu. By 5:30pm the small restaurant was bustling with activity. The kitchen was full, […]

  • June 22, 2010: I Voted, Again…

    [UPDATE:] Ellie, at 3:00pm, was #143. Analysis of turnout is coming in but it’s clear Elaine has won with apparently 2/3rds of the vote. Just back from the Library. I was #112 in one of the voting-est precincts in Town. Given the early voting trend this year, that doesn’t bode well for overall turnout. In […]

  • Cognitive Dissonance? NC Legislature Bans Internet Sweepstakes

    WUNC’s Laura Leslie (a reporting treasure) has a great post (Mon.: Stop me if you’ve heard this one before) on tonight’s 47 to 1 NC Senate vote “to ban video gambling – again – in North Carolina”. Republican Tom Apodaca didn’t mince words in urging his fellow senators to ban video gambling. “This is something […]

  • 2010 Final Spring Meeting Chapel Hill Council

    Over the year’s I’ve seen some rather jam packed final spring term Council meetings. This one was about average in length, light on content but big in setting the stage for two broad initiatives – siting an emergency shelter and legally mandating affordable housing – to move forward. I left prior to Council’s revisiting Laurin […]

  • Chapel Hill Emergency Homeless Shelter Zoning

    The Council has asked the Planning Board to develop a range of regulatory options controlling the development and operation of shelters within Town. The range of policy proposals the Planning Board could create include shelter zoning, shelter standards or shelter guidelines – each with their own regulatory weight and requirements. Guidelines, for instance, are broad […]

  • Library Information: Harder Than Pulling Teeth

    [UPDATE:] According to Chapel Hill News reporter Jesse D. the Council finally agreed to Laurin’s request. Staff will research and report back on the options this Fall, approximately 18 months after her first request. Quick note from this evening’s Council meeting. Council member Laurin Easthom renewed her reasonable request (reviewed here [THE LIBRARY AND THE […]

  • Internet Privacy:Ye Shall Know Them By What They Ask…

    Search engine providers like Google are making cash by building detailed profiles of your web surfing habits. There is a slew of technologies they use to track usage, following folks as the hop-skip-and-jump across the world wide web. In this “social networking” world it seems like many people wait until an inevitable crisis before taking […]

  • Downtown Development Framework: Compact, Connected, Anchored and Green

    Chapel Hill 2030? A quick update on yesterday’s report (“Radical Shift In Vision For Downtown”) about the Downtown Development Framework and Action Plan charrette. First, the Downtown Partnership has posted the DRAFT Downtown Development Framework Presentation here [PDF:14M]. The Town’s webserver had a little trouble downloading it so I’ve also put a copy here. The […]

  • Happy Birthday Ron!

    Happy Birthday to WCHL’s Ron Stutts! Ron, besides being the bedrock upon which WCHL’s success rests, is an all-around “nice guy” (hope that doesn’t mess with his street cred ;-)). I met Ron a longtime ago but didn’t really get to know him until I became more active in the local community. Ron seems to […]

  • Radical Shift in Vision For Downtown

    Just got back from another presentation/planning charrette covering the Town’s new Downtown Development Action Plan and Framework. The plan, created with input from UNC, the Downtown Partnership, Downtown businesses and local citizens, is supposed to look at economic, cultural and social development opportunities over the next 5 to 8 years and layout a fairly structured […]

  • Bringing The BP Gulf Oil Disaster Home

    My folks used to take us to a pristine stretch of the Florida Panhandle west of Panama City. Back then you traveled through pine barrens on two lane blacktop and strips of red clay to get to some of the most beautiful beaches I’ve ever seen. Squeaky white quartz sand, partially comprised of the remnants […]

  • Chapel Hill Library Funding: Orange County Commissioners Respond, Kind Of…

    Final bit of business from this evening’s Orange County Board of Commissioner’s meeting. A couple weeks ago, members of the Council, Commissioners, our Town and County managers, met to discuss increasing the County’s financial contribution to Chapel Hill’s Library. As of today, the County’s current yearly $250K contribution is out-of-line with out-of-town usage. In effect, […]