As Chapel Hill wrestles with whether and how to expand housing choice, it’s worth documenting how many homes here are available to middle income buyers. Our method is simple: we determine the maximum amount of home a middle income buyer can afford, then check to see how many homes are for sale in Chapel Hill. […]
Stephen Whitlow
Saving Purple Bowl (and other local businesses)
It’s no secret that the Town of Chapel Hill wants more commercial development here, and there are good reasons for that: It could take some of the tax burden off residents who now contribute a higher share of the town’s property taxes than neighboring communities. It diversifies our economy. Economically healthy places have multiple industries […]
Chapel Hill is going to spend $66k to do what the Blog Blog already did for free
On tonight’s Chapel Hill Town Council agenda is an exciting opportunity for the town to spend $66,000 in taxpayer money to figure out how different types of land use impact the town’s finances. I wish I had known this before the Blog Blog completed such analyses for the low cost of free. We found that […]
Please Let This Be the Last Time I Saw Richard
The November 16th Town Council meeting was five hours long, but for my money the most compelling part of the evening was a 15-minute span in which several speakers spoke about the American Legion property. The town bought the property in 2016 with the intention of building a park and housing on it. Up first […]
Why You Should Care About the Booker Creek Working Group
This is a two-part blog post. Part one explores what the working group is and why all Chapel Hill residents – not just those living near Booker Creek – should be paying attention to it. Part two explores the working groups’ recommendations and whether or not they will actually solve flooding in Chapel Hill. (Spoiler: […]
Factchecking CHALT: How many vacant apartments are in Chapel Hill?
There was a time not long ago when stressed-out parents, to take the edge off, abused benzodiazepines. Then, someone launched NextDoor. Early evidence suggests that mother’s little helpers were less harmful to society than NextDoor, a platform that says to the worst people in your neighborhood – the busy body, the power-hungry HOA president, the […]