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
Posted inChapel Hill
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 […]
Posted inChapel Hill
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 […]
Posted inAmerican Legion
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 […]
Posted inCHALT
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: […]
Posted inCHALT
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 […]