Early voting starts tomorrow for the March 5, 2024 elections. In Orange County, we’ll be voting in the primary for federal, state, and county offices. Voters in Orange County outside of Chapel Hill and Carrboro will also vote for School Board candidates for Orange County Schools and for County Commissioner. Only contested races appear on […]
Posted inChapel Hill, Chapel Hill Town Council, Downtown, Economic development, Small business
Chapel Hill recently awarded grants to help 3 businesses stay downtown
In January, the Town of Chapel Hill announced that it made grants to three business as part of its Downtown Small Business Relocation Grant Program. The grant program is targeted at for-profit and rent-paying downtown businesses facing imminent displacement due to redevelopment. The town, which was criticized by Adam Searing and others during the 2023 […]
Posted inChapel Hill, From the archives, Housing
We’re mapping Chapel Hill’s Black population and land ownership loss – and we need your help.
Two facts have been swirling in my head since I first heard them: that Chapel Hill’s Black population share plummeted between 1960 and 1980, and there’s been a 32 percent decrease in Black homeownership in Chapel Hill since 2010. Mike Ogle’s Stonewalls blog traces Chapel Hill’s Black population decline, using John K. (Yonni) Chapman’s dissertation […]
Posted inChapel Hill, From the archives, Housing
Northside: How did this historically Black neighborhood in Chapel Hill develop?
The areas of African-American landownership that date furthest back are around Caldwell Street, on the east side of Church Street. That land was bought in 1879 by a man who grew up enslaved, Wilson Caldwell (a well known historical figure whom you can google for more information). His descendants developed the lots in yellow above […]
Posted inOrange County
Tracing the Trading Path
This essay originally appeared on OrangePolitics on February 24, 2014. Long before European settlers came here, Native Americans lived in the area that is now Orange County. Native Americans created a prominent village on the banks of the Eno River—centuries before the place came to be called Hillsborough. Through the village of the Occaneechis ran a […]
Posted inCarrboro, Carrboro Town Council
Thoughts on renaming Carr Street in Carrboro
Julian Carr was a white supremacist and member of the initial Ku Klux Klan. He spoke many times – publicly! – advocating for white supremacy, including at the dedication of Silent Sam, the monument to racism and white supremacy that stood at the center of UNC for decades. But Carr was wealthy and well-connected and […]