BIG CITY
Kirk Ross
The Invaders are here, now, among us, and literally crawling out of the woodwork. That hypnotic whirr is unmistakable. Cicadas – the original flash mob – have arrived by the hundreds of thousands.
Brood XIX, the Great Southern Brood and the one covering the largest territory, has returned after 13 years in hiding, covering a swath of the Midwest and South stretching from the Triangle through Georgia and Tennessee into Illinois and on to western Missouri. The last time they were here, there was no Facebook or Twitter and the locations of sightings were logged via telephones.
Judging from the enthusiasm of the social media-charged entomologists among us, this year’s emergence promises to be the most documented ever. Chatham County sightings seemed to happen first, but now you can pretty much hear them in any wooded spot in the area whether you want to or not.
A lot has happened since Brood XIX’s last visit: Bill Guthridge had just taken over the basketball team, Michael Hooker was chancellor, U.S. 15-501 was pretty much just two lanes to Pittsboro and those of us who wandered around Franklin Street were still devastated by the closing of the Happy Store.
That last batch of cicadas wouldn’t recognize the place. I barely do.
On the subject of growth, you might want to know that despite the economic downturn Carolina North has not gone away. The financial reality did alter the strategy, however, with the proposed public-private incubator that was to be built near the old public works area going away in favor of a good old-fashioned university office building near an area now in the flight path of the airport.
UNC officials determined last year that the building could be self-funded – a much easier category of project to get through the General Assembly, especially these days. The building would house various university centers and institutes now residing in rental space throughout town with money that would have gone to rent used to pay for the building.
The project is on the list of UNC nonappropriated capital projects that emerged in legislation introduced this week. The bill allows for funding of up to $6 million for a Carolina North research building.
Also on the list is $9 million for the second phase of the Carolina Inn renovation, $4 million for the Mary Ellen Jones building renovation and $2.65 million for the second phase of renovations at Woollen Gymnasium.
Recently attended an art opening at Greenbridge. Delightful stuff. (Don’t ask, you can’t afford it.) Couldn’t help noticing that in just about every conversation, the participants had to take a moment to look around and wonder aloud what’s going to happen to the place.
While nothing is certain, one fact that seems to be consistent is that if there is a giant building causing a fuss in downtown Chapel Hill, then Bank of America, née NationsBank, probably has something to do with it.
A special event for all you residents of the south side of the Chapel Hill-Carrboro metroplex is coming up on June 4 – National Trail Day – with official dedication of the latest phase of the Morgan Creek Trail. The new phase, which is scheduled to be completed in time for an 11 a.m. ceremony on that day, runs 4,200 feet along the north side of Morgan Creek from just east of Kingswood Apartments to Merritt Pasture.
The next phase of the trail, which is expected to start this winter, links up the Morgan Creek Trail with the Fan Branch Trail, which runs from Southern Community Park to Culbreth Road. Once linked up, the two trails combined will total 2.4 miles, making the route the longest paved trail in Orange County.