What a difference a day makes. (Actually, two days, but the point still stands). On January 18, Adam Searing cautioned us that Jennifer Keesmaat, one of the consultants hired to help implement the Complete Communities project, was pushing the town’s decision-making process to be more like that of the Politburo of the Chinese Communist Party. […]
CHALT
Posted inChapel Hill
It’s Groundhog Day in Chapel Hill, and we might finally be able to leave Punxsutawney
For people of a certain generation (ours), Harold Ramis’s 1993 comedy Groundhog Day is a classic, the rare film we watched as kids that somehow got better with age. For those who haven’t seen the film, Bill Murray plays an unhappy television reporter who finds himself repeating the same day—February 2—for hundreds, possibly thousands, of […]
Posted inCHALT
For hire: The Local Reporter is looking for another editor (Remote work ok)
Earlier this week, Andy Bechtel, who teaches journalism at UNC, tweeted that The Local Reporter was looking for a new part-time editor, noting that “someone who lives in the area would be ideal.” The non-profit local paper’s current editor — their fifth in just over four years — is based in Florida, more than 500 […]
Posted inCHALT
Please check your sources before sharing housing-related material.
CHALT’s leaders on NextDoor and Facebook have repeatedly shared material from a particular website called Housing is a Human Right. They’ve shared pictures, articles, and phrasing from the website — which touts itself as fighting for housing justice. A small amount of digging — literally one Google search — paints a slightly different picture. The […]
Posted inChapel Hill
Oy! Fiscal impact analysis, Obey Creek, and :jazz-hands: Chapel Hill
In the Facebook thread that just won’t quit, we’ve moved on from discussing whether newly-built apartments in Chapel Hill generate enough tax revenue to pay for services they receive (Spoiler: Yes.) and onto a series of other discussion points, including: Whether we can and should apply the fiscal analysis for the not-built 2014 Obey Creek […]
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 […]