The DTH has just announced the UNC’s picks for the new Carolina North leadership advisory board: Continue reading And then there were fourteen…UNC appoints Carolina North Board
Category Archives: Ruminations
The Town Responds to Broun
Following on the steps of my previous post, Mayor Foy issued a formal response to UNC’s Ken Broun’s presentation about the new leadership advisory board on Carolina North.
Observing that the town has already formed a committee to discuss Carolina North, the Mayor and Council has referred UNC’s response to the 2004 HWCC report to the HWCC for further comment (my 1st meeting as a new member of the HWCC is Feb. 16th). Quick aside: I was the 1st person in Chapel Hill to volunteer for this new UNC committee.
Following up on the Broun presentation itself, Council made several notable comments and requests for information:
- What tasks do you wish the committee to perform?
- What outcomes do you expect?
- How would the work produced be different than that of the HWCC?
- Timeline: When would the committee be appointed? Start work? End work? [Mr. Broun’s a busy guy, where will he get the time?]
- Is the proposed committee composition the final structure? Who’s already been appointed?
- Is UNC committed to supporting a long-range transit plan?
- Will UNC address the fiscal equity problem? When?
- Will UNC consider the Town’s proposals for preserving open space and the environment?
- Is there a definite plan for the Horace-Williams airport’s closure?
One question I would’ve added: How deep is the UNC Board of Trustee’s commitment to this new process?
Two other notable comments from the letter.
One, pointing out that “Mr. Broun had been assured, and strongly believed, that the University recognized the Town’s regulatory power”, did this mean that UNC “recognizes the legitimacy of the Town’s zoning power over Carolina North and does not intend to seek relief” from that authority?
Wow! The Council wants firm confirmation and so do I.
Two, the observation that the “speedy” 1 year negotiations over OI-4 were necessary to accommodate the influx of development on Main Campus spurred by the just passed Education Bond. No such pressure to rapidly move forward, on the Town’s part, exists now. Given that, the Town will still, as a sign of good faith address these requests in a timely fashion.
Last chance?
UNC announced a new committee whose functions the new leader Ken Broun describe in this Jan. 11th column and current UNC Chancellor Moeser described in this subsequent Jan 22nd column.
Two years in the making and as a sign of good faith UNC released their response to the 2004 Horace-Williams Citizen Committee’s Report.
I applaud this first step though I’m a bit disappointed that, given two years and substantial debate over those ensuing years, the response to the HWCC report wasn’t more thorough.
The Daily Tar Heel published my response and suggestions on how to move the process forward in their Feb. 1st edition:
There are many questions surrounding the proposed Carolina North project.
Will it be as vital to North Carolina’s economic development as Chancellor James Moeser has claimed? Are the financial assumptions for its capitalization sound? What are the true environmental and neighborhood impacts of this $1.5 billion, 50-year project?
And, chiefly, how do we move the planning and design process forward?
My interest in Carolina North is not academic.
I’m a 14-year neighbor of the Horace Williams Citizens Airport, and a vocal watchdog of UNC’s development plans.
I’ve joined the town’s Horace Williams citizens committee. As a 2005 council candidate, I called for a drastic rethinking of UNC’s predicate parameters for the project.
And I volunteered to join UNC’s new community leadership advisory committee for Carolina North.
Echoing the rhetoric from my campaign, professor Ken Broun, former Chapel Hill mayor and new leader of UNC’s advisory committee, said, “Let’s start from the beginning and have a full discussion, as if we had a blank map.”
If we’re entering new territory our citizenry will have to put some old hurts and hard-earned lessons, for now, off the table.
The disappointment of UNC’s failed 1997 community outreach on “Outlying Parcels Land Use Plans,” the outrages along Mason Farm Road, the high-handed behavior during the 2003 chiller plant negotiations, the recent muddled planning process and the other bumps and bruises throughout recent years should not be forgotten but, instead, be put aside in good faith as we attempt to craft a new process.
Continue reading Last chance?
Concerned Citizen
The winds of change are blowing….
I’m working on a new version of my ‘blog, retitled Concerned Citizen, to better suit the new year. Within short order I’ll be posting some articles on last year’s election – including an analysis of campaign finances, my ideas on what to do to bootstrap Chapel Hill’s municipal networking initiative, comments on my new appointment to the Town’s Horace-William’s Citizen’s committee and other issues I’m concerned about…
Since the election
- the Town Council, the DPC and the Tech Board has inched forward with muni-networking
- the Town Council is discussing a town-wide economic development office (one of my platform planks)
- UNC has co-opted my campaign rhetoric on Carolina North, set aside current plans and called for a community-oriented rethink
- the Town Council agreed to let the Tech Board “experiment” with Internet-based reporting of our deliberations
Hey, it’s only been two months, more to come….
Timber!
Holiday tree trimming comes a little early at Horace-Williams Airport.
Orangish will be trimmed, bluish are nuked.
Rosa Parks “Standing Up by Sitting Down”
One person can start profound change in the world.
Continue reading Rosa Parks “Standing Up by Sitting Down”
Two Neighborhoods
UPDATE:
I spoke with some of the folk working at Aveda today and got a clearer picture of the situation. The manager was pleased that a police officer came by to ask about the problems and to clarify what the Town could do to protect our Downtown business folk.
ORIGINAL POST:
I work in downtown Chapel Hill above a company called Aveda.
I’ve worked in that location for nearly five years. I’ve wandered those downtown streets for over two decades.
You might be able to tell from my picture that I’m a big, bear-like guy. In all my years around downtown, I’ve experienced a minimum of hassling or attempted intimidation.
My neighbors don’t appear as lucky:
CHAPEL HILL — Some Franklin Street business owners warned a downtown group Monday that if safety doesn’t improve, they may take their businesses elsewhere.
Though reported crime in Chapel Hill’s downtown business district is down this fiscal year over last, those working downtown say their employees and customers don’t feel safe.
Patrick Thompson, owner of the Aveda Institute at 200 W. Franklin St., said that his students and clientele, mostly women, are frequently harassed and that one employee was assaulted downtown.
“If one of those students gets attacked, our business is done,” he told the board of the Chapel Hill Downtown Partnership, formerly known as the Downtown Economic Development Corp.
and the HeraldSun
CHAPEL HILL — Members of a downtown booster group heard repeated charges Monday that the town needs to do a lot more to enhance public safety in the downtown business district.
Both downtown business owners and those who work in the area complained vociferously about crime in the town’s commercial center, and spoke of a “deep-seated fear” of violence against customers and employees.
Patrick Thompson, owner of the Aveda cosmetology school and retail shop on West Franklin and Church streets, said his director had been assaulted and three students harassed in the downtown since the business opened last year.
Speaking to the board of the Chapel Hill Downtown Partnership, Thompson said most of his students and customers were women, and that many had a certain “deep-seated fear” about the possibility of attacks that was real but hard to express.
“If one of these students gets attacked, our business is done,” said Thompson. “It’s that simple.
“I want to speak the truth,” he added. “I hope everyone here gets committed around putting more police on the streets. There is no police presence on the streets, at least in my experience, and I’ve been here fairly regularly.”
Though separated by mere inches in the same building and navigating the same geography, we work in two neighborhoods.
In their neighborhood, the owner tells us of his women student’s, customer’s and employee’s real “deep-seated fear” of possible attacks.
In my neighborhood, I enjoyably amble about from West End to Downtown day in, day out.
In their neighborhood, their local and out-of-town students have been harassed and an employee assaulted.
In my neighborhood, whether day or night, I walk bear-like along their dangerous avenues, recognizing the reclining regulars, rarely hassled even for change.
And though the fear is about the possibility of attacks – the perception of impending danger instead of the danger itself – the results can be equivalent. As candidate Jason Baker pointed out during tonight’s forum, if we lose a business to reality or to a misperception of reality, we’ve still lost a business.
And while the loss of a business is bad, worse is the thought that we can’t build a bridge from their dark Downtown-scape to the safe and vibrant Downtown my family and I enjoy.
I’ll see if I can walk the streets as a visiting Aveda student instead of a longtime Chapel Hillian. I’ll visit their neighborhood. Then, maybe, I’ll understand how to bring our two neighborhoods back to one.