The Carrboro Town Council has a work session this Tuesday. Work sessions allow council to discuss a single topic in-depth. (There’s no public comment at work sessions, but the public is welcome to come and watch.)

I read through the packet and immediately got excited: the agenda item for Tuesday’s discussion is to “discuss possible modifications to East Weaver Street to reduce or eliminate vehicle traffic, thereby creating a pedestrian-priority space or pedestrian plaza.”

If you’re a reader of the blogblog, you’ll know this is something we’ve championed for quite some time. Every April, the town closes off Weaver Street to cars between Main Street and Roberson Street for a day to make way for residents to walk, ride bikes, and talk to community groups that have setup in the street.

What I like so much about Carrboro Open Streets is that we get a chance to briefly reimagine what the street could be. With the new library slated to open in February, we can also look at how other towns have experimented with public seating, and the parking lots behind the current police station could be turned into a small linear pathway to the new library, making it easy for people to walk back and forth between the library and our downtown business district. I also love that the concepts include stormwater management, and thinks carefully about possible changes in traffic patterns.

Here are the concepts that council will be responding to for the first time this Tuesday. We’ll stay on top of this discussion, and let you know what happens at the meeting.

 

Mel is a journalist and librarian. Outside of work, she volunteers as a reading tutor at Carrboro Elementary School, writes about journalism for a variety of publications, and serves as chair of the OWASA...