Citizen Will

Category: CitizenWill

  • By George….Entenman

    In response to NY Times OP Ed piece promoting the use of a 13-year-old biological technology that stimulates milk production in dairy cows — a protein called recombinant bovine somatotropin (rBST), or bovine growth hormone. The protein, produced naturally by a cow’s pituitary, is one of the substances that control its milk production. It can […]

  • Carolina North Forum: Another Perspective

    Local activists Neighborhoods for Responsible Growth are holding a forum this evening to discuss their and other local folks views of UNC’s Carolina North project: In cooperation with a series of sponsors and collaborators, NRG will host a community forum on Carolina North, the proposed UNC research campus planned for the Horace Williams tract in […]

  • Democrats No Longer

    I’m a registered Independent. OK, OK. I know there is no such thing as an Independent designation, just unaffiliated. Unaffiliated. Indecisive. Indifferent. Uncommitted. Uninvolved. Fence-sitter. Don’t care. A truly perverse bit of political framing. I hope my occasional contributions to the local debate (CitizenWill , OrangePolitics, SqueezeThePulp, the Daily Tar Heel, the Chapel Hill News) […]

  • The Power of Sorry: A Local Apology to Get the Ball Rolling

    Over the last six years, I’ve learned more than a tad about how our local political sausage is ground. The manufacturing of poor public policy for political gain adds a distinctively bitter taste to that meaty melange. Yes, at times, pettiness, spite, gamesmanship and ego overwhelm good sense and reasonable public policy. For a few […]

  • One Cat’s Slaughterhouse

    Kurt Vonnegut, the satirical novelist who captured the absurdity of war and questioned the advances of science in darkly humorous works such as “Slaughterhouse-Five” and “Cat’s Cradle,” died Wednesday. CNN Apr. 12th, 2007 A little off track for Citizen Will but I consumed more than my generation’s share of Vonnegut at quite an early age. […]

  • Hazardous Consequences: Mystery of the Vault Contest

    [CLARIFICATION] Everyone gets two (2) guesses – their “real” guess and an outlandish assessment (please, keep it clean. Yes, skeletons are welcomed). [UPDATE:] Over on SqueezeThePulp former (and soon to be?) Carrboro Board of Alderman candidate, Orange County Democrat Women President, local businessperson and activist Katrina Ryan has offered a delicious La Rez meal for […]

  • CarrboroCitizen: T-Minus 6 Minutes And Counting

    I walked over to the offices of the Carrboro Citizen this afternoon to see if Kirk and company would make their Mar. 21st D-Day. Fingers were flying as the staff wrestled multiple streams of content onto the Triangle’s newest newspaper. Bubba told me that they had to have all the magic bottled by 10PM, just […]

  • Municipal Networking: St. Cloud Soars Above Chapel Hill

    As longtime readers and local voters know, I’m a strong advocate for bringing community-owned information infrastructure to Chapel Hill. Simply, to create a truly free new Town Commons benefiting our citizenry. I’ve been working the issue now for over three years – banging the drum of strategic economic stimulus, social improvement – bridging the “digital […]

  • Trash Talk: SqueezeThePulp Led Online

    Though I’ve quoted many relevant comments from OrangePolitics, a watering-hole for local pols, the “other” local forum, SqueezeThePulp has been popping with online commentary for months. Here’s one of the more active threads Proposed Orange County Landfill Transfer Station Survey which led off with this David Richter open letter to the Orange County Board of […]

  • The page cannot be displayed…Chapel Hill’s Website Woes

    I use the our Town’s two websites, Townhall.TownOfChapelHill.org and TownOfChapelHill.org, quite extensively to keep up with our local governance. More and more I’ve run into: The page cannot be displayed Explanation: There is a problem with the page you are trying to reach and it cannot be displayed. Try the following: Refresh page: Search for […]

  • Giving Kiosk Out, Panhandling Meters In?

    Last year, the Downtown Partnership (DPC) commissioned a “giving kiosk” for Downtown. Callie Warner, my neighbor and metalsmith, designed what Liz Parham, Direcor of the DPC, described in this May 16th, 2006 Chapel Hill News column [PDF] as an “economic development tool”: This past week the Chapel Hill Downtown Partnership carried a concept proposal for […]

  • News Wars

    No, I’m not talking about a face-off between the N&O and the Herald Sun. If you get PBS HD 4.2, Frontline is airing the episode, “What’s Happening to the News”, of their series News War Bergman traces the recent history of American journalism, from the Nixon administration’s attacks on the media and the post-Watergate popularity […]

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

    I served on Chapel Hill’s Downtown Parking Taskforce, which wrapped up its business two weeks ago and which will be presenting its findings formally on Feb. 26th [AGENDA]. I meant to comment more frequently on our work but circumstances and some cautionary notes from staff intervened. It’s an interesting issue – how much of the […]

  • University Station: “Absurd” and “Absolutely Ridiculous”

    The University Station project – a development hugging the South-side of I-40 on Chapel Hill’s North perimeter – is up for review tonight (Feb. 19th). Local resident John Doyle called Townhall to comment that the proposal was “absurd”, “absolutely ridiculous” and emphasizes that he’ll “make sure” any Council members approving the plan will not serve […]

  • Downtown Development: Feb. 12th Council Debate

    [UPDATE:] The video below streams from my site – here’s the Google Video that streams faster. Here’s the complete “debate” Council held on the Lot #5. Note how quickly the expedited SUP application was approved.