Category: Ruminations

  • Charterwood Proposal: A Forest without Trees

    This Monday (Apr. 11th,2011), the Council will have the first of two hearings on the Charterwood development. This proposed development supposedly aligns with the goals set forth in both the Town’s aged Comprehensive Plan and the problematic Northern Area Plan. I’ve read well over a hundred of planning proposals the last decade and have seen […]

  • 140West: RAM Development’s Money Tree, Chapel Hill Taxpayers Moneypit

    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 […]

  • 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 […]

  • Clarence Birkhead, A Sheriff for the Future

    I have been asked by a few folks who I’ll be voting for this primary season. In the most contested race, at-large County commissioner, the three candidates have unique strengths, each of which appeals to some facet of my concern for where the County is going, each of which makes the decision a bit tough. […]

  • Yonni Chapman

    Yonni Chapman, local historian, stalwart civil rights activist, documenter of Chapel Hill’s struggles for peace, justice and equality, after a long struggle with cancer, has passed on. I last saw Yonni Aug. 28th at the commemoration of Chapel Hill’s new Peace and Justice Plaza. We talked awhile about the possible Board of Commissioner’s decision to […]

  • Congratulations Cyclones!

    UPDATE: Chapel Hill News finally weighs in here! The Exchange Pool swim team, the Cyclones, came in first once again in the Chapel Hill Summer Swim League championship. The team also won the League Swim for Smiles Award with the girls taking the dual meet honors. Ellie and I have been “official” members of the […]

  • Will Raymond for Town Council 2009

    A big thank you to all the folks who contacted and encouraged me to run. Below is my formal announcement, more posts to follow: Will Raymond Announces Run for Chapel Hill Town Council 2009 Chapel Hill, NC – July 17th, 2009 I am taking the next step in my eight year continuum of public service […]

  • Trash Talk: Millhouse Off the Agenda, Not Off the Table

    Ironic that the unfulfilled assertions of two Chapel Hill mayors decades apart have caused so much concern for the Rogers Road community. The Town released this notification earlier this afternoon: Proposed Transfer Station Site on Millhouse Road Mayor Kevin C. Foy has officially informed the Chair of the BOCC that the proposed transfer station site […]

  • Carolina North: All UNC Students to Pay Parking Fees?

    Councilmember Jim Ward and Mayor Kevin Foy just floated the idea in tonight’s Carolina North work session of charging all UNC students, in conjunction with the University, a fee for bringing their cars to Chapel Hill. This Council already floated the idea of charging more for Downtown parking, an idea not only at odds with […]

  • Temporarily Google Gagged

    If you use Firefox you might have noticed that Citizen Will has been flagged by Google as a possible “bad site” around 11:26am this morning. This is an error on Google’s part and they have been notified. It appears an old version of a WordPress (the blogging software I use) plugin triggered the alert. Strangely […]

  • Moving forward…

    While it has been some time since I posted new content it doesn’t mean that I’ve stopped working those issues – the future of Orange County’s waste management, the Carolina North development agreement, 2009’s Town budget, living within our community’s means, etc. – I believe will have significant forward impacts – good or bad – […]

  • Who needs an argument?

    As I was reminded recently, some folks can’t tell the difference between thoughtful disputation and just plain, ornery, contradiction. When I take a position contradictory to the established order, I always try to work from a reasoned basis. I also try to find the humor in what is sometimes a tense process. Man: An argument […]

  • Comment Policy

    Hey folks, thank you for reading my ‘blog. I was getting a ton of comment spam over the last six months,so I had to restrict comments to those folks who registered. The latest WordPress has additional controls that should help throttle that nonsense. I’m now relaxing CitizenWill’s commenting policy to encourage more reader involvement. To […]

  • Making North Carolina Legislative Sausage

    Two posts in two days highlighting Gerry Cohen’s Drafting Musings? Hey, quality posts deserve link love! Following on the heels of his historical survey of buffalo noses and other NC legislative curiosities is this post on how bills actually wend their way through the legislative process. Most civics classes focus on how a bill becomes […]

  • Nov. 18th: It’s Snowing!

    We just got a strange burst of flurries falling from a partly cloudy, mostly blue, sky. Starting with a few big flakes, we got about 5 minutes of solid flurries that subsequently tailed off.