Category: environment

  • Feb. 19th: Busy Thursday

    A couple meetings tonight that folks may want to check out. First, a meeting on Northside and the corrosive effect burgeoning development, taxes and shrinking opportunities is having on that traditional community. From today’s Herald-Sun: Local activists united to address what they view as “historic discrimination, rising property taxes, and development that threaten communities of […]

  • Multi-modal Design I Appreciate

    Today’s Chapel Hill News carries an interesting story from Jesse DeConto on concerns circulating around the misfire (not to sugarcoat it) known as East54. The story, which was as much about how the “dense/tall growth at any cost” Council majority’s vision is running up against reality, as it was the anonymous “I could be in […]

  • Orange County Voice Pushes Plan B

    Orange County Voice, another Orange County organization working on the trash transfer site issue along side Preserve Rural Orange, has picked up on the Plan B options I have posted on as recently as last Fall (Trash Talk:Commissioner Gordon “No Plan B”). Bonnie Hauser, Tony Blake, Susan Walser (recent editorial) and other members have done […]

  • Preserve Rural Orange: Greensboro Transfer Station Review

    Watching the folks who formed PRO – Preserve Rural Orange – in response to UNC’s foray into airport building and Orange County’s crazy siting of the trash transfer station on Hwy. 54 has been encouraging. From a small group of concerned citizens, they have developed an activist organization that puts the “pro” in PRO. These […]

  • Halloween 2008 on a Diet

    Wow! A %50 reduction in this years Halloween crowd. The Town of Chapel Hill successfully reduced the size of the Halloween event on Franklin Street with an estimated showing of 35,000. Town Manager Roger L. Stancil said he believed the “Homegrown Halloween” campaign assisted in reducing the number of revelers, and strategies implemented by Chapel […]

  • Digital Television, Analog Waste

    Following up on tonight’s trash theme, another quick and quite thorough response, this time from Orange County’s Recycling Programs Manager Robert Taylor. Early June, with an eye on the impending approval of a new Orange County solid waste transfer facility, I was doing some research on e-waste (electronic waste) management. I already knew Orange County’s […]

  • Gearing of Garbage Trucks and Fuel Usage

    I’ve pushed for not only greater transparency in our governance but greater inclusiveness. Chapel Hill has an incredibly talented community well worth listening to, that is why I’ll be asking Council, again, to reconstitute the citizen budget advisory board to assist in identifying efficiencies and spending reductions to get us through next year. Listening to […]

  • Private Drive for Public Airport

    One suspicion raised by the local organization Preserve Rural Orange is that the newly proposed UNC airport has more to do with private desire than the public good. UNC’s lead on the formation of an Airport Authority, Kevin Fitzgerald, was already hard-pressed to justify the recent fabulous (as in: “almost impossible to believe; incredible”) claims […]

  • Trash Talk: The Next Waste Management Fight

    Even though local environmentalist have talked about our county’s responsibility to manage its waste stream responsibly – not dumping the problem on another community – I couldn’t find a recent request to the Board of Commissioners by either a organization or an individual to start the process of developing either a new landfill or a […]

  • Hwy 54: Trash Central

    The Orange County Board of Commissioner’s narrowed the possible trash transfer sites to three – 779, 759 and 056 – this evening during their special working session [agenda]. All three are along Hwy 54. While I’m quite happy that the Rogers Road community is off the hook, at least for now, I’m troubled by the […]

  • Carolina North Development Agreement: Dr. Owens Responds

    Dr. David Owens, Gladys Hall Coates Professor of Public Law and Government at UNC and advisor to Council on the development agreement process, has responded to my Oct. 14th. Will, Roger Stancil passed your queries along to me. You asked if the Council is in some way bound to follow this approach should they determine […]

  • Water Grab: Can’t Happen Here?

    John McCain really stepped in it out West. When he suggested sending more of Colorado’s precious water south to Arizona, a broad spectrum of citizens rose up to condemn him. Water, it appears, is precious, no matter what a Coloradan’s political stripe. Our own multi-governmental OWASA (Orange Water and Sewer Authority) has suggested we borrow […]

  • Carolina North Development Agreement Public Hearing Oct. 15th

    Tomorrow the Town Council will hold a public hearing describing the basic framework for managing Carolina North’s development over the next couple decades. This is the second meeting discussing the framework. The first was Sept. 25th. Unfortunately, I was the only citizen not directly involved – as either a representative of the Town, UNC or […]

  • Passing Gas

    One problem I’ve had in trying to change the way our Town does business is that the issues I’m trying to address – higher energy costs, revenues drying up, development policy that drives diversity from our community, financial instability – haven’t reached a level of concern for the greater community. I’m a proactive guy, work […]

  • Trash Talk: Will We Stand United?

    A Lion used to prowl about a field in which Four Oxen used to dwell. Many a time he tried to attack them; but whenever he came near they turned their tails to one another, so that whichever way he approached them he was met by the horns of one of them. At last, however, […]