One point that I thought needed answering, why wait for NC legislative approval, was dealt with. Sally Greene and Mark Kleinschmidt both seemed to endorse moving forward creating a board that had all the powers of review except that of perusing personnel records (which will require statutory approval – something already done elsewhere).

Barry Freeman, one of the protesters arrested 2 years ago at Chapel Hill’s Army recruitment office, laid out the case for not waiting:

“A review board can be set up that receives complaints doesn’t necessarily have to go call some policeman and look up his record,” Freeman said. “That might be nice, but without that you can still have 90 percent of the value of a review board. Waiting for the General Assembly to act is just putting off for longer than the two years we’ve been waiting to get this going.”

I’m still thinking through how to best deal with the issues which sparked the call for such a board.

The current Council/Mayor special review committee is too insular to qualify as an instrument of transparency and greater public overview.

Creating a new overview group, though, also runs the risk of building walls between the community and our police force. In many ways, our current force, and its management, have worked to bridge the gaps exposed by a number of recent incidents.

I participated in the recent community/police forums which was supposed to create a list of issues that the force needed to focus on. There were several problems, unfortunately, with those forums: the process was stilted and forced – crafted to avoid “hot spots”, the output of the forums was watered down substantially at the summary level (distinct critiques were lost in massaging them into more general categories) and instead of an iterative approach – taking input from the first set of forums, creating responses and then bringing the public back in to refine their critiques – the point-in-time sample was seen as complete.

Without regular community engagement, these forums cannot be seen as a substitute for a more formal review board.

There needs to be quite a bit more community discussion on how the board will function, how the membership is recruited and appointed, how the process won’t build walls but bridges between the force and the community, etc.

Oct. 11th the Council as a whole will weigh in with their opinions.

[UPDATE:] Joe had Indy comments opened.

Cousins Properties Inc., which is leading the redevelopment of University Square for Chapel Hill Foundation Real Estate Holdings Inc., will host a public meeting Wednesday, Aug. 18, to discuss the long-term vision for the site and the proposed initial phase of the project. Representatives of Elkus Manfredi Architects of Boston will provide an in-depth presentation of the development plans, shaped in part by a previous public meeting on Oct. 15, 2009. The presentation will be followed by a question-and-answer session.

The meeting will begin at 5:30 p.m. in Suite 133-G of University Square, next to Ken’s Quickie Mart.

More information here.

Unfortunately I won’t be able to attend this or most of the other events I’ve highlighted and will be relying heavily on our local media and hyper-local media (‘blogs) for updates.

The list as it now stands:

• Monday, Aug. 16th, 5:15pm at Town Hall Council Chambers. Public Information Meeting: IFC Community House Men’s Shelter.
• Tuesday, Aug. 17th, 5:30pm. 1st floor conference room. Civilian Review Board Council Committee. Controversial citizen review board to monitor Chapel Hill Police Department.
• Tuesday, Aug. 17th.
  

  ORANGE COUNTY, NC – The Orange County Board of Commissioners will hold a Public Hearing on Tuesday, August 17, 2010 during its regularly scheduled meeting. The meeting starts at 7:00 p.m. at the Department of Social Services Office, 113 Mayo Street in Hillsborough.

  The Public Hearing during the meeting will provide an opportunity for the public to comment on the potential uses for funds from a possible one-quarter cent (1/4¢) additional sales tax in Orange County, NC.

• Wednesday, Aug. 18th, 5:30pm. University Square. Cosuins presentation on University Square
• Thursday, Aug. 19th, 5:30pm. HR conference room Town Hall.Planning Board Shelter Committee.
• Monday, Aug. 23rd, 5:15pm. Chapel Hill Town Hall Council Chambers.Ayden Court Development review.

Summer, though, is not always a time for sluggish vigilance. For instance, I learned many years ago UNC’s favored tactic of launching potentially controversial development initiatives or making, quietly, substantial changes to existing development plans, during the summer doldrums. While UNC’s transparency has improved since the Moeser era, the record is sometimes spotty. For instance, as summer began the sharp contrast between UNC’s commitment to transparency during the Carolina North development agreement process and the quiet introduction of site proposals made June 21st to the Corps of Engineers.

While the cat is away….

UNC, of course, isn’t the only local institution to strategically start or stop potentially unpleasant, at least to the public, initiatives while most residents are off-line. The County, Town and other local groups have counted on a somewhat soporific citizenry ignoring substantial shifts in direction in the heat of the summer. While counter to the many pledges of greater transparency, the trick often works.

Mid-summer policy shifts, though, also happen as staff, freed from pesky community and elected folks intervention, make strides on the pile of work before them.

One good example, the local Municipal Planning Organization’s Hwy. 54-I40 corridor study, has moved forward at an accelerating pace. The MPO, a joint effort by Chapel Hill, Carrboro and Durham to manage regional growth, is formulating a set of development policies which will have wide ranging impacts on Chapel Hill’s eastern entrance (somewhat marred already by ugly East54, et. al.).

Public comment was to be cultivated during three outreach sessions but that input, at least based on my reading of the current draft, owes more to fitting public commentary to an established agenda than changing course based on valid public concerns. The clock is ticking on this initiative, which simmered during Spring and is reaching full boil now. Council will be asked to review the plan mid-September, and, as of now, hasn’t really set a schedule for Chapel Hill residents to weigh in (in other words, what is before us now might substantially be what is adopted).

While, at first glance, the Hwy 54/I-40 corridor study might seem a bit abstract, of little consequence now, its tenets will come into play quite soon when developer Carol-Ann Zinn pushes Ayden Court v2.0 this Fall. Ayden Court was a proposed development which ran afoul of fowl. Concerns about maintaining a local waterfowl conservation area played a role in v1.0′s demise.

There are many other pots simmering, some of which are beginning to emit steam.

Two meetings, the Glenn Lennox Neighborhood Conservation District which shifted from information gathering to its next phase and the presentation of the latest Campus-to-Campus Connector draft proposal, have already occurred (don’t worry, I made copious notes which I plan to turn into posts …. soon … ).

Here’s is a short list of coming events and meetings which you might want to consider attending as August speeds to an end:

• Saturday, Aug. 14th, 11:30am-6:30pm. Rogers Road Back to School Bash. More here.
• Saturday, Aug. 14th, 5:30pm-7:30pm. The People’s Channel Live from Carrboro’s Orange County Social Club. More here and WCHL1360 report here.
• Monday, Aug. 16th, 5:15pm at Town Hall Council Chambers. Public Information Meeting: IFC Community House Men’s Shelter.
• Tuesday, Aug. 17th, 5:30pm. 1st floor conference room. Civilian Review Board Council Committee. Controversial citizen review board to monitor Chapel Hill Police Department.
• Tuesday, Aug. 17th.
  

  ORANGE COUNTY, NC – The Orange County Board of Commissioners will hold a Public Hearing on Tuesday, August 17, 2010 during its regularly scheduled meeting. The meeting starts at 7:00 p.m. at the Department of Social Services Office, 113 Mayo Street in Hillsborough.

  The Public Hearing during the meeting will provide an opportunity for the public to comment on the potential uses for funds from a possible one-quarter cent (1/4¢) additional sales tax in Orange County, NC.

  During the 2007 legislative session, the North Carolina General Assembly granted county boards of commissioners the authority to levy, subject to voter approval, an additional one-quarter cent county sales and use tax.

  On June 15, 2010, the Board of Commissioners approved a resolution calling for a special advisory referendum on November 2, 2010 on a potential one-quarter cent (1/4¢) additional sales tax in Orange County. The November 2, 2010 ballot question will ask Orange County voters to vote either for or against a local sales and use tax at the rate of one-quarter cent in addition to all other state and local sales and use tax.

  It is projected the one-quarter cent county sales and use tax would generate approximately $2,300,000 for Orange County on an annual basis. If the voters approve the referendum on November 2, 2010, implementation would not start until April 1, 2011 and generate approximately $575,000 during the remainder of current fiscal year (FY 2010-11) that ends on June 30, 2011.

• Thursday, Aug. 19th, 5:30pm. HR conference room Town Hall.Planning Board Shelter Committee.
• Monday, Aug. 23rd, 5:15pm. Chapel Hill Town Hall Council Chambers.Ayden Court Development review.

Let me know if I’ve missed anything!

Is that the case?

The IFC and UNC’s School of Social Work put together this map highlighting many of the social services throughout Chapel Hill/Carrboro.

This contrasts with a more local snapshot of services prepared by the folks at A Better Site – an advocacy group asking for a more transparent siting process.

The Community House facility, as currently proposed, will serve two purposes.

The primary goal is to house men as they transition from a state of dependency to independence within a highly structured program. Entrance into this program is selective, adherence to its strictures mandatory, monitoring compliance integral.

The secondary function of the facility is to serve as an emergency men’s shelter. It is this secondary function which has caused, at least from what I can tell, concern within the wider community.

While Orange County is responsible for housing folks in emergencies, that responsibility has been IFC’s to shoulder the last few decades. The IFC currently operates a shelter along with a soup kitchen (and other similar immediate services) in the old Chapel Hill Town Hall on the corner of Rosemary and Columbia streets. The long term plan was to move the soup kitchen down to Carrboro and move the emergency shelter out of the old Town Hall.

As I’ve commented before, while I support the mission of the IFC, find the goals of Community House more than laudable, it is the emergency shelter component of the IFC proposal I find most difficult to accept. The logistical issues surrounding moving folks back and forth from the shelter, managing the access to the shelter, etc. seem to make this site unsustainable. I’d like to see IFC rethink this part of the plan and possibly consider combining, as it is now, the new food service facility in Carrboro with an emergency shelter component. If not that, at least split the emergency shelter out of the current plan.

Of course, meeting the needs of those struggling the most is not and never was the obligation of the IFC. It’s incredible that Chapel Hill has such a caring, committed organization that stepped into the vacuum created by a dearth of governmental attention.

In fact, both Carrboro’s and the County’s elected folks continue to sit on the sidelines, quietly keeping out of these discussions, showing little or no political leadership in meeting this joint community obligation.

We are poised to hear more of folks concerns as the Community House initiative starts to move forward.

Monday, Aug. 16th, 5:15pm at Town Hall, the Town will host a Public Information Meeting: IFC Community House Men’s Shelter followed by a meeting by the Planning Board Shelter Committee Aug. 19th, 5:30pm, HR conference room Town Hall.

The first meeting will provide a current overview of where the Community House proposal is within the Town’s development review process.

The second meeting, which on the face of it, appears tangential to the approval of various stipulations influencing the construction of Community House, might actually be the more important of the two.

The Council, loathe to adopt specific siting criteria prior to the IFC’s request for a special use permit (SUP) asked the Planning Board to create general criteria for siting shelters within Chapel Hill. This bit of maneuvering created a bit of smokescreen which lent nothing to greater transparency (given the rocky start of this project, it’s troubling, even to supporters, that Council missed an opportunity to provide clarity). The Planning Board initially kicked the request back to Council citing the “vagueness” of what they were being asked to do. Tossing the shelter hot potato back, Council suggested a few exploratory paths of consideration.

The sub-text of the discussions between this Planning Board sub-committee and the public, and quite possibly their work product, will influence further the direction the Community House project takes, which makes Aug. 19th the more interesting of the two public meetings to me.

Our neighbors, the Rogers Road community, is having their annual back-to-school bash this Saturday (Aug. 14th) at the Faith Tabernacle Oasis Church from 11:30am to 6:30pm. Oasis is located at 8005 Rogers Road (MAP).

The annual bash helps get folks back into school days along with providing free school materials to local kids. While the event is free, I’m sure that any spare school materials you bring for redistribution would be appreciated.

During the recent WCHL1360 “Who’s Talking” interview (140West: RAM Development’s Money Tree, Chapel Hill Taxpayers Moneypit), I had commented to Fred Black that I was a bit older and a bit grayer but still flogging the same old issues of sustainability, diversity, fiscal responsibility, community input, etc. I started with nearly a decade ago.

Turns out, though, while I might be a bit older (and heavier), I don’t look as gray without the huge beard.

Here’s a sample from Feb. 12th, 2007, the night that version of our Town Council decided to plunge ahead with the broken Lot $5 deal.

Please consider participating in their call to action and help fund recreational programming for special needs individuals in our community.

Hi Neighbors,

Lee and I have spearheaded an effort to develop social and recreational programming for special needs individuals in our community through our local Jewish Federation and Jewish Community Center. We have applied for a grant for $25,000 from the Pepsi Refresh Challenge. We have one month to get as many votes as possible in order to be one of 10 winners in our category. Like American Idol, we need to spread the word and have people vote daily. Below is information about the project and how to vote. You can vote once a day between now and August 31. We are currently in 87th place, having climbed from 348th in 3 days, so we know that mass voting makes a difference.

Thanks for you help,

Lee and Elaine Marcus

BRIDGES is a local, non-profit, recreational program that helps people with special needs have fun and learn new skills.

If you and all your friends vote for our proposal, BRIDGES can win a $25 thousand grant from the Pepsi Refresh Project.

How to Vote

1. www.refresheverything.com/bridgesdch (click) on the web.
2. Click on Vote for This Idea.
3. Follow the sign-in steps. (You will be asked to create a password the first time you log in.)
4. Scroll to the Vote button (bottom) and click. (The vote counter will change from 10 to 9))
5. Remind your friends to vote daily.

You can vote once a day every day from August 1 to August 31 2010.

Thanks for your support.

Learn about BRIDGES: www.shalomdch.org, click on the BRIDGES logo.

If you don’t want to use a “real” email address, take a look at Mailinator. It’s an online service that provides “disposable” email addresses to avoid spam.

Local commentator and involved citizen Fred Black invited me to do a WCHL1360 Who’s Talking segment last week.

It airs this evening (Tues. Aug. 3rd, 2010) at 6PM.

While the subject was supposed to be the Lot #5/140 West project, which is slated to finally get started later this month, Fred used this opportunity to talk about development Downtown, public engagement, and Council.

As I said then and before, I believe Lot #5 presented an excellent opportunity for redevelopment.

I and others argued for a fiscally prudent, environmentally sustainable, community-oriented development that had workforce housing, affordable commercial opportunities, an integrative tenant – like a grocery store – and real public space.

Instead of getting a signature development that met those goals from the RAM Development/Chapel Hill collaboration we got a $10M+ taxpayer funded luxury condo development with little public utility. Architecturally, the project’s look fits the Atlanta beltway more than Chapel Hill – it says little, if anything, significant about our community.

Not only was the business model flawed but so was the underlying commitment to adhere to measurable energy and environmental targets (the Council, unlike what they’ve pushed UNC to do, did not adopt and has no plan to evaluate energy usage, for instance, using ASHRAE or other quantifiable standards).

Of course, I thought that the scale of this development (which you can get a sense of from the site models I created 4 years ago) didn’t fit the human-scale dimensions of our current Downtown. That human-scale is part of Chapel Hill’s ‘brand’ – evidenced by the Town’s own logo – and shouldn’t have been casually tossed without at least a proper attempt to educate our residents and some informed buy-in from the community.

What now?

The Council had many chances to walk away from the project over the last few years as RAM Development missed contractual obligation after obligation. The majority didn’t.

The Council had 2 years to work with local businesses to minimize the impact of the next 2 years of construction. That collaboration just started and already there is some significant friction between the Town and the Franklin St. commercial district.

The public financial burden begins immediately as the environmental remediation begins though the Town’s finances are stretched to the maximum by the majority of this Council’s decision to issue $20+ M in bonds for the Library expansion among others capital improvements. There’s no plan in place to publish those costs as they mount.

Is it too late to do anything? No.

This is OUR project. WE are investing $30-40M in cash and property and have every right to expect that nearby businesses can still function, that questions of public access be finally laid to rest, that every dollar invested by our residents is accounted for and that we have a solid commitment to measuring the success or failure – in terms of tax and parking revenues, energy efficiency, growth of commercial activity – of the project

I did a quick review of my posts on the Lot $5/140 West project and have collected those from 2006 to 2010 below for further background:

June 2010

21: 2010 Final Spring Meeting Chapel Hill Council

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

10: Radical Shift in Vision For Downtown

March 2010

09: Sustainability Task Force: The Whole or The Sum of the Parts?

February 2010

03: Chapel Hill’s First Budget Meeting of 2010

01: WCHL Commentary: Library Expansion Next Year or Lot #5 Project, Not Both

January 2010

25: Library or Lot #5?

October 2009

28: Unfunded Liabilities

03: 2009 Sierra Club Chapel Hill Candidate Forum

03: 2009 NRG Chapel Hill Candidate Forum

November 2008

19: Community Oversight of the Planning Board

17: Southern Village: So Long Six Stories

13: East 54′s Virtual Chapel Hill

12: A middle finger to Northside

04: Dec. 10th: The Density Discussion

October 2008

27: Affordable Housing: I Can’t Live In Lieu

September 2008

18: Twisting the Zoning Pretzel

June 2008

25: Council “Off the Rails”

November 2007

14: Chapel Hill’s Resegregation?

10: Closing the Door on Diversity

08: Election 2007: Incumbents Strategy Disservice to Our Community

October 2007

23: Election 2007: Money on the Street

15: Election 2007: Friends of Affordable Housing Questionnaire

13: Election 2007: Chapel Hill News Candidate Questionnaire

13: Election 2007: Neighborhoods for Responsible Growth

12: Election 2007: Chapel Hill’s Diminished Environmental Credibility

11: Election 2007: Chapel Hill Sierra Club Forum

06: Election 2007: Carrboro’s League of Women Voters Forum

02: Election 2007: League of Women Voters Forum Unplugged

01: Election 2007: League Of Women Voters Forum

August 2007

01: Election 2007: Keeping it Simple

July 2007

19: Not Just Real-Estate: Chapel Hill’s Economic Strategy “Chained” Down?

19: Not Just Real-Estate: Chapel Hill’s Draft Economic Development Report

June 2007

04: June 6th’s Closed Council Session

May 2007

04: Another $460,000 for Lot $5: Will Rising Costs Mean Raising Taxes?

03: Carrot or Stick: House Approves Chapel Hill’s Energy Reduction Incentives

April 2007

27: Two years later, Town hires Economic Development Officer

05: Hazardous Consequences: Mystery of the Vault Contest

04: Hazardous Consequences: A Report, a Rushed Decision, a Regrettable Day for Chapel Hill

March 2007

29: Hazardous Consequences: No Official Word, Yet, On Lot #5′s Hazardous Waste Issue

28: Dad

25: Lot #5′s Silver Lining

23: A Matter of Process: Greenbridge and Council’s Devolving Standard of Public Review

21: Raleigh’s Carlton Place: A Downtown Affordable Housing Commitment Worth Emulating

20: Lot #5 Development: “…up through the ground come a bubbling crude…”

19: Lot #5 Development: Two Pictures 1,000 Words Apart

19: The HeraldSun Turns A Corner: Trouble on the horizon at lot 5

16: Lot #5 Downtown Development: Do you smell gas?

14: Municipal Networking: St. Cloud Soars Above Chapel Hill

07: Chapel Hill 2035

07: Giving Kiosk Out, Panhandling Meters In?

February 2007

23: Parking Downtown: Water, Water Everywhere, Nary a Drop to Drink

19: Chapel Hill News: Crushed by Council’s Jagganath

14: Downtown Development: Feb. 12th Council Debate

14: Downtown Development: The LEEDs Trade-Off, AIA 2030 Up Next

14: Downtown Development: Feb. 12th Citizen Comment

12: Godzilla vs. Bambi:RAM Development and Chapel Hill

12: RAM’s VP Casey Cummings – The Sixth Beatle?

12: Downtown Development Intiative: Thank you Sir, May I Have Another?

12: Downtown Development Intiative: Easthom, Ward on Hazardous Waste Liability

12: Downtown Development Intiative: Feb. 12th’s Comments

12: The Sad Story of Council’s Downtown Development Initiative

12: Confidential Lot 5 Memorandum and Notes: Update I

12: Downtown Development Initiative: Listen and Learn How Negotiations Went Awry

08: Confidential Lot 5 Memorandum and Notes

December 2006

06: Downtown Development: RAM’s VP Cummings’ Smackdown

05: The Chickens Have Roosted: Council’s Environmental Credibility Gap

04: Downtown Development: Steamrolled by Jagannath

04: Out-Foxed Chapel Hill Style

04: Downtown Development: Easthom’s questions, questions, questions…

02: Downtown Development Initiative: A Few New Perspectives

01: Downtown Development Initiative: Our Fair City Before Lot #5

01: Downtown Development Initiative: Search for Wholesome Goodness Continues…

01: GoogleEarth Experiment: RAM Development Flybys

01: Downtown Development Initiative: Where’s the beef?

November 2006

29: …water fountains, bathrooms and benches….

28: Chapel Hill Downtown Development Initiative: The Debate

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

27: Downtown Development Initiative: Stanford on a Sea of Asphalt

27: Downtown Development Initiative: Culbreth and the Domino Effect

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

September 2006

22: Hillsborough425: Yes, it is interactive!

22: Hillsborough425: Google Earth Fly-By, Alpha Quality

20: Hillsborough425: Daily Tar Heel Says “Scrap the Plan”

17: Hillsborough425 aka “The Residences at Grove Park”

07: Greenwashing?

August 2006

09: This grass is not greener…

06: What Price Downtown? Possibly more than you might think…

06: What Price Downtown? The Mayor Responds.

06: What Price Downtown

July 2006

31: You can’t squeeze orange juice from a turnip….

June 2006

20: Haven’t we heard that before?

19: Session closed under North Carolina General Statute 143-318.11(a)(6)

19: 7:30am Wake Up Call for Downtown Partnership Members

17: Council’s Conflict of Interest? Maybe just a slight edge….

16: Council’s Conflict of Interest?

April 2006

27: Tapping into our community’s aggregate wisdom

March 2006

01: Castles in the Clouds

Ellie works in various mediums – this show features paintings and one assemblage. Her work draws heavily on both her vibrant inner nature and a deep appreciation of nature. Over the 27 years I’ve known her I’ve seen her challenge herself to dig all the deeper, stretching her craft to capture her vision in new and creative ways. This new show, which she has worked quite hard on – is reflective of that evolutionary drive.

The reception begins at 6pm (directions) and runs to 9pm.

The Hillsborough Arts Council hosts Last Friday throughout the warmer parts of the year. It is one of the best gallery walks in the Triangle.

A quick kudos to the N/S Express bus #1409 driver.

At 8:32 this evening you waited for a passenger to hustle from roughly Town Hall south down MLK, Jr. 150 yards to catch the bus.

The young man waved to the bus after it had already passed him by at least 40 yards. In the falling twilight it was amazing you saw him.

Over the years I’ve also read my share of complaints about Chapel Hill Transit’s staff and service. That the number of public complaints seems to have far outweighed the number of accolades I see more of a function of our culture than a systemic issue with the folks driving our buses (yes, I know there are exceptions!).

Like many of the services our Town provides, I tend to watch the buses move around town with more than casual curiosity.

I know some of the routes are on tight schedules and a few minutes delay in one spot can compound into a larger and larger delays elsewhere. I also well understand the pressure drivers might feel to move it along at any cost.

You didn’t have to wait. Folks would understand that the “trains must roll” and that you have to meet a schedule. If you hadn’t waited maybe only you, the passenger and I would have ever known – just like we might be the only three that witnessed your simple human courtesy.

It’s said that “Our character is what we do when we think no one is looking” [J. Brown].

I saw and appreciate what you did. Thank you.

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 funereal) she visited was

“decorated with pictures of craps tables and roulette wheels, right next to the signs assuring you in capital letters that “YOU ARE NOT GAMBLING.”

It appears that in-spite of evidence to the contrary, as long as you post a sign ALL IN CAPS you’re good to go.

Elaine, as part of her Senate campaign, started a petition calling on Burr to support a Consumer Finance Protection Agency.

Burr, so far, and his Republican colleagues have been less than supportive (to put it mildly) of the initiative.

In fact, Sen. Richard Shelby (R-Ala.),

ranking Republican on the Senate banking committee on Monday [June 21st, 2010] told a group of N.C. bankers that a proposed consumer financial protection agency is the “worst” part of an industry overhaul making its way through Congress.

“They will decide what products you can put out, to whom and probably at what price,” Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Ala., said in remarks at the N.C. Bankers Association’s annual meeting, held at a University-area hotel. “Can you imagine all this?”

Charlotte Observer, June 22nd, 2010

Senator Shelby, after Wall St. gamblers pissed billions of investor dollars down the drain, threw the economy into a historic tailspin and bamboozled American citizens into picking up the tab, I can well imagine having more oversight. For instance, “visualizing” restoration of the kind of protections we once enjoyed under the Glass-Steagall Act.

Shelby was visiting the Old North State “at a breakfast fundraiser for Burr attended by about 70 bankers”.

What does the Consumer Finance Protection Agency have to do with our military families?

The Department of Defense’s Office of Personal Finance specifically endorsed the creation of the CFPA [PDF] because, as Director Julian said, “DOD firmly believes that the financial readiness of their troops and families equates to mission readiness and anything that we can do to help our families be financially ready, we will support the family and the mission.”

That letter of endorsement starts by highlighting the effects predatory and unscrupulous lending practices by some automobile dealers have on our military families.

The excellent academic consumer credit ‘blog Credit Slips has posted a good overview of those reprehensible tactics:

So what are the problems in the auto lending world?  Here are some.  I’m guessing I’ll learn of some new ones in the comments.  I’m also guessing that auto leasing has its own bag of tricks.  

Bait and Switch.   There are lots of variations on bait-and-switch with auto dealers.  Here’s one: the dealer gives the consumer a quote on a particular model and says that it is in stock.  The consumer comes in and guess what–that model is still in stock, but only with a bunch of dealer-added features (hubcap locks, pinstripe, fog lights, etc.) that raise the cost of the car by more than the value given.  Want to guess why I’m driving a Honda Odyssey with a “racing pinstripe” on it?   

Hidden Fees.  This is sort of self-explanatory, and is another bait-and-switch variation.  The consumer bargains with the dealer over the price of the car and the financing and thinks that a deal has been reached.  Then the consumer gets the final bill for the car and it has a bunch of previously unmentioned fees.  The dealer says don’t worry, we’ll just increase the amount financed.  

Dealer reserve kickbacks.  These are the yield spread premiums of the auto world. The dealer often acts as a broker for a financing company that will finance the car purchase.  The dealer is compensated for this service by getting a slice of the interest on the loan.  The higher the loan rate, the larger the kickback.  So the consumer qualifies for a loan at 10%, but the dealer steers the consumer into a 14% loan in order to get a larger dealer reserve payment.  (One way to avoid being steered due to dealer reserve is to go in with a direct financing offer lined-up from an independent finance company; I wonder how many consumers do this, though.)  

Loan packing.  Overpriced and underused or frankly unnecessary products like credit life insurance and GAP insurance and rust-proofing get bundled in to the deal.  

Overselling.  Dealer’s cuts on loans can give them an incentive to steer consumers into larger loans.  One way to do that is to sell the consumer a more expensive car, which requires more financing.  Of course the consumer still has to be qualified for the loan, and there have been problems in auto lending, just as with mortgages, of dealers (and borrowers) fudging the numbers on the paperwork to make borrowers look more creditworthy.  

Spot delivery yo-yos.  This is one of the sleaziest moves.  The consumer buys a car with financing arranged through the dealer.  The financing includes a nonrefundable deposit.  The consumer takes the car home thinking that everything is in order.  The dealer then calls the consumer the next day to say that the financing was denied in the end and the consumer has to return the car.  And the dealer keeps the deposit. 

Binding mandatory arbitration.  This is a generic consumer finance problem.  

Such practices are familiar to folks who live in North Carolina’s host communities.

Unfortunately, the protections DoD asked for have been gutted by both Republican and Democratic (BOO!) House members.

Elaine can differentiate her candidacy not only from Burr’s but of her own Party by coming out strongly for specific remedies to this loophole.

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 is part of a wider initiative to draw more local folks Downtown especially during a traditionally slow business season.

Ready for a free concert? LOCALLY GROWN on Thursday, June 24, will feature Southern Culture on the Skids with The Moaners. Gates open at 6 p.m.; the show starts at 7 p.m.

Southern Culture on the Skids, also sometimes known as SCOTS, is an American rock band that was formed in 1983 in Chapel Hill. Stylistically, SCOTS gravitate towards the rockabilly, surf rock, country music, and R&B genres, with a punk edge and outrageous humor thrown in. The Moaners are a Chapel Hill-based Indie rock band. The band is often compared to the The White Stripes, as they are also a two-piece and employ a similar garage rock, bluesy style. The dark, southern Gothic elements of Trailer Bride are also evident; however a major difference is that The Moaners have more an electric, punk rock style.

Southern Culture on the Skids w/ The Moaners

Thursday, June 24
Gates Open – 6PM; Show – 7PM; FREE
Wallace Plaza, on top of Wallace Parking Deck
150 E. Rosemary Street in Downtown Chapel Hill

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, the dining room was full – folks were spilling out into the courtyard.

I had the BBQ with plantains and both Ellie and Elijah had the Chicken Thali. All around an excellent meal.

Vimala’s is located at the Courtyard [MAP] in the old SandWhich location.

Congratulations Vimala!

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 a funny coincidence, I was talking with one of the long term poll workers about how crazy mad my Mount Bolus neighbors are to vote when Judy B., who lives down the lane, dropped by to be #113. I’m proud to live in a neighborhood that so consistently turns out to vote.

I’ve voted, with the exception of one 2nd primary, every election from 1980 on. I heard it suggested by some folks that those who wanted to keep their voting streak alive but didn’t like Cal or Elaine drop a blank ballot in the box (I’m talking about you G-man!).

I believe that you can always make an affirmative choice, that not to do so doesn’t help move our democracy forward, and so I cast my vote today.