Please. Enough of the patronizing tone of the powerful towards those of us who remember Chapel Hill/Carrboro before there was big-time Carolina basketball, I-40 and a seemingly endlessly expanding hospital. Youth no doubt shapes one’s memory, but changes over the past 40 years have done such violence to its original spirit that only smug, ignorant boosters could seriously argue that our area’s decline is an illusion stemming from our idyllic youthful past. From the University Square/Granville Towers complex to NCNB’s (now Bank of America) awkward insertion into Chapel Hill’s main business district, it has been one bad decision after another.
Change, a given, does not offend, but careless change benefiting the few at the expense of the rest of us does. As Wendell Berry has said, to love a place is to know sorrow.
Indeed, Franklin Street, compared with its past, is currently more akin to Gatlinburg, Tenn. than the functioning town center it once was, with UNC playing the role of Great Smoky Mountains National Park. The massive developments that surround it are so detached from Chapel Hill that their zip codes arguably constitute their primary association. These neighborhoods are as connected to RTP and Raleigh as they are to Chapel Hill, their inhabitants so wired that they could be anywhere.
If these folks want to live more cheaply and do more environmental good, they should live closer to their work. And consider canceling cable, cell phones and the Internet. Shop locally most of the time. Learn to stop valuing things by price tags and marketing campaigns alone. Damage to the earth, and one’s soul, do not outweigh the money saved driving to Durham for allegedly low-priced, highly processed foods and consumer goods.
What remains of Chapel Hill-Carrboro is valuable because of what has been saved, not what has been torn down. Chapel Hill at one time was more about place and community than winning and convenience. It was never perfect, but its focus was itself. Now our schools, even our university, have succumbed to the poisonous superstition that the digitized distant is more important than the real local, that so-called free markets, in combination with technological advancements and data-based research, will solve all of our problems.
But they are no substitute for wisdom. A sense of appropriate scale can come only from sufficient long-term experience of a place. Only persons with such knowledge can see beyond the numbers, beyond the narrow measure of personal profit, to the actual land and people who will be forever affected.
It is not surprising that people who have lived their whole lives in malls and interstate strip developments are challenged to envision another way. We can begin by thinking about place and appropriate scale.
Slow down. Reflect.
J. Al Baldwin
Chapel Hill
Very well said. There’s got to be better way than allowing Cosco or whatever to pave over yet another 10 acres. Or building yet another CVS/Walgreens. I highly recommend people in power take a drive around Cary and note the insanity of having a CVS/Walgreens/Target/Grocery on every other intersection. Sprawl like this makes people drive cars everywhere. Drives me crazy that what Chapel Hill and Carrboro have is about to transform into yet another sea of strip malls and parking lots.
The other day, while walking Franklin ST, I noted the empty shop under Top of the Hill Restaurant. Seems like a great location – the area is crawling with people. Why is this shop empty? Couldn’t a reasonably priced clothing store do great there? Even a Gap Store or some such…
On topic and very timely is this TED talk, check it out. 20 minutes reviewing the last 50 years and thoughts on the next 100 years. Chapel Hill/Carrboro mayors and BOA members should watch this and think about getting ahead of the curve – skipping the sprawl phase all together.
http://www.ted.com/talks/ellen_dunham_jones_retrofitting_suburbia.html