By Alexandra Brown The latest library debate is becoming farcical. The Chapel Hill Public Library wants Orange County to contribute more to the town’s budget. The county says no. Chapel Hill says if there is no county increase, they’ll begin to charge library patrons who live outside the Chapel Hill town limits. Both sides refuse…
Category: Opinion
Why don’t cell phone bans reduce collisions?
(And why Chapel Hill’s ban might be different) By Kenneth C. Mills In traffic safety, we‘ve seen study after study demonstrate that phoning while driving increases crash risk. The data come from a variety of studies over years: lab studies, simulator studies, on-the-road studies, driving-record analysis, phone-record analysis and collision data. Many authors conclude that…
Letter: Why we need to change cell phone use
At the Chapel Hill Town Council meeting on Jan. 25, I petitioned the council to open discussions about prohibiting handheld cell phone usage while driving in Chapel Hill. I also proposed that the town hold a public forum on this topic, where concerned citizens could express their opinions. Since the election, I have heard from…
Letter: Win-win on greenway
I have been following the discussion about the proposed Bolin Creek Greenway, and found myself agreeing with both sides: paved greenway to provide more accessibility vs. unpaved to preserve more of the natural setting. Recently, my opinion has tipped over to the paved option. Dave Otto provided more support for this option by pointing out…
Letter from the Editor
This newspaper has not shied away from admonishing those in the motoring public to hang up and drive. In our first year, we suggested that signs saying as much be posted along the roadsides at the entrances to downtown Carrboro. Having now worked three-and a-half years on Weaver Street and conducted most of my travel…
Sail on
There are some people you think of when you think of Carrboro, and Tom Robinson was one of them. I’ve bought fish from him for the past 20 years or so. And working downtown over the past few years, I’ve found myself in the shop quite often and developed an even deeper appreciation of his…
The facade of saving Bolin Creek
Dave Otto For the past decade, as a founding member of the Friends of Bolin Creek, I have fought tirelessly to preserve the Bolin Creek corridor. For much of that time, I served as chairman and leading advocate for the creation of a “park and preserve†along the creek between Estes Drive and Homestead Road….
Why can’t it happen here?
Steve Peha They say the third time’s the charm. For the last two months, I’ve been writing about a simple idea: Let’s send all Chapel Hill Carrboro City School kids to college. So far, this idea hasn’t found much traction (or opposition, for that matter). But I know this paper gets picked up by thousands…
The manipulation of anger
Chris Fitzsimon The anger and frustration in the country is a central part of the national debate, as both political parties vie desperately to manipulate the unrest to their advantage, testing polls and focus groups with messages that have only the faintest ties to reality. Republicans profess to be the party of limited government as…
Not my vision
Dave Cook I am not writing for the people who walk fast along Bolin Creek, missing the black snake coiled in the sun. I am writing for the woods themselves, the character of them. Encroachment has probably eradicated the four-toed salamander, but I write for other living treasures of this creek and forest residing in…
The misplaced stigma
Chris Fitzsimon Here is a sobering statistic about the daily economic struggles faced by thousands of families in North Carolina. More than 1.2 million people in the state now receive food stamps. That is up 24 percent over a year ago. And the real numbers are worse. The last study of food stamp participation found…
The desecration of sacred places
Tim Toben They stood in a cold rain outside the coal plant at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Thirty-five students and community protesters, listening to NASA climate scientist James Hansen acknowledge that our consumption of fossil fuels is a case of “intergenerational injustice.†It was 22 years ago in 1988, before most…
Letter: Don’t pave it all
In her editorial (“Greenway should be for all to use,†2/11/10) Debbie L. Nichols paints those who want to preserve and protect Bolin Creek as — in no special order — heartless elitists whose agility is only matched by our callousness to the disabled, a cartel of landed gentry with a hidden agenda to make…
Letter: Do you know a Town Treasure?
The Chapel Hill Historical Society each year honors 12 individuals or couples as Town Treasures — those who have guided, taught, led and ministered to the communities of Chapel Hill and Carrboro. The Town Treasures are recognized in three ways: a black-and-white documentary photograph taken by Catherine Carter, a lifelong Chapel Hill resident and renowned…
More evidence of North Carolina’s failures in mental health care reform
Chris Fitzsimon State lawmakers received a report on the state of the mental health system Wednesday, and the news is mixed at best: some improvements in the troubled system along with startling reminders of the huge problems that remain. Maybe most disturbing of all, the report was completed before the devastating budget made by the…