The cost of appearances
There we go again. Dipping into our savings to pay for nonessentials. Living beyond our means. Our new town manager presented his recommended budget, a 3.7% increase over what we spent the prior year,...
View ArticleRogers Road victory
The historically black Rogers Road neighborhood crossed the finish line this past week on quality-of-life improvements years in the making. Town Council approved rezoning that would protect the...
View ArticleIf we build it …
Which came first — residents with a plethora of discretionary income? Or craft breweries, tapas bars and the availability of Starbucks’ White Chocolate Mocha Frappuccino on every street corner? If we...
View ArticleKneecapping our best intentions
Chapel Hill residents take housing affordability seriously. Are we on Town Council poised to undermine progress we’ve made? The budget we passed last week included a property tax increase that would...
View ArticleThe flummox of FLUM
The gavel came down on our final meeting of the 2019 fiscal year at 11:34 p.m. last Wednesday night. Community members packed the auditorium at Town Hall at the beginning of the meeting for various...
View ArticleWhy I’m running
Last week we held one of the oddest council meetings I have seen in the decade I have been keeping tabs on council business. Odd that we called a special meeting in the summer to revote on something we...
View ArticleCommunity Home Trust’s next chapter
When Robert Dowling accepted the offer Joe Cook and two colleagues extended in 1997 to head what would become Community Home Trust, Cook had one and only one directive. He shook hands with Dowling and...
View ArticleTwo views of affordable housing
I attended two events over the weekend that showed the complicated issue of boosting the amount of affordable housing, from the perspective of the investor and the end-user. Each left me somewhat...
View ArticleHospitality
Staff at the Durham Performing Arts Center have that hospitality thing down pat. Even if your ticket is for a seat in the very last row of the upper balcony, DPAC staff welcome you as if they are...
View ArticleRising above
I landed in London as the British were waking up to Boris Johnson’s landslide victory. Over the course of the ensuing few days, I chatted with people I met about what they thought of the election...
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