This past Saturday the Carrboro Linear Parks Project (CLPP), a project of NEXT, hosted their monthly greenway walk in collaboration with El Centro Hispano. El Centro (for short) is a longtime Latino-led and Latino-serving organization, which has offices in Durham, Raleigh, and on Weaver St. in Carrboro. El Centro focuses on four core areas: education, economic development, civic & community participation, and health & well being.
As part of that latter effort, El Centro has a new campaign called Muévete Por Tu Salud, or Move For Your Health, which encourages the community to exercise for health and well being. You might have seen their Rumba classes at Town Commons. CLPP has been making connections with community groups like El Centro to communicate the multiple benefits of greenways for safe transportation, exercise, and accessible urban greenspaces like the Bolin Creek Greenway.
At this month’s walk, participants learned about the proposed Bolin Creek Greenway alignment in Carrboro, as well as plans to extend the Bolin Creek Greenway in Chapel Hill to Carrboro. Spanish translation was provided for native Spanish speakers by Ximena Perez-Velasco, a PhD student at the UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health. Huge thanks to Ximena!
The event took place at Estes Park Apartments, which sits along the proposed alignments for the two towns’ greenways. If the current plans come to fruition, residents at Estes Park Apartments would be able to walk or roll all the way to University Mall, passing parks and shopping areas along the way, all without crossing paths with cars. Children at Estes Park Apartments would be able to safely travel by bike to Seawell Elementary, Smith Middle, or Chapel Hill High School without riding with cars on Estes Drive or Seawell School Road. Investing in infrastructure that allows residents to travel and recreate without being car-burdened aligns with the mission of many community-based groups, including El Centro and NEXT.
The walk proceeded along the shoulder of Estes Drive, where the original Bolin Creek Greenway conceptual master plan envisioned a greenway path connecting Wilson Park to the creekside alignment.
Once we crossed the railroad tracks, we ventured down to the creek to discuss the already-cleared utility easements that would provide the footprint for a future greenway trail. We headed back just in time to miss a huge downpour!
If you haven’t already taken Carrboro’s Bolin Creek Greenway survey, please have a look at it and make sure to vote for the “creekside” alignment, which would connect the most residents to schools, nature, and the future Bolin Creek Greenway expansion in Chapel Hill. Also be sure to add your name to the pro-greenway petition that will be presented to the Carrboro Town Council. With any luck we will see the current council vote to finalize the conceptual alignment later this year, at which point more detailed studies can be undertaken to work out the details of actually building it. Very exciting!
