People in town who are generally opposed to any changes in Chapel Hill, such as the leadership of Chapel Hill Alliance for a Livable Town (CHALT) and like-minded town residents, have recently shared two comments about the nature of our changing and fast-growing region that are difficult to square. First, we saw comments about the […]
Chapel Hill
Posted inChapel Hill, Chapel Hill Town Council, Election 2023, Journalism
Seven things we learned from the News & Observer’s follow up on our scoop on the $120K PAC
Earlier today the News & Observer published a piece on the plans by twelve wealthy couples to inject $120,000 into the Chapel Hill elections in a bid to overturn the Chapel Hill Town Council’s June vote to legalize duplexes townwide. Here are seven things we learned: The News & Observer confirms that Adam Searing met […]
Posted inCHALT, Chapel Hill, Journalism
The Local Reporter’s strange pond coverage
Last month, we reported that The Local Reporter was looking for an editor after their 6th editor abruptly left the paper days after our deep dive into the paper’s problematic political coverage. They’ve since hired Julia Runk Jones, previously the paper’s dog columnist, to temporarily lead the organization. But issues with the paper’s coverage persist. […]
Posted inChapel Hill, Chapel Hill Town Council, Election 2023, Housing
$120,000 PAC: We asked Chapel Hill candidates what they thought
Last week we broke the news that a group of wealthy local homeowners were organizing to dump $120,000 into a single-issue Political Action Committee (PAC) to support Adam Searing’s mayoral campaign by piggybacking onto his and his like-minded council candidates’ vehement opposition to Chapel Hill’s mild housing reforms adopted in June. We wondered what the […]
Posted inAdvisory Boards, Chapel Hill, Downtown, Planning Board: Chapel Hill
This week in Chapel Hill Planning Commission — Sept. 5, 2023
Welcome to a new, hopefully regular segment on the blogblog summarizing the agenda of the next Chapel Hill Planning Commission meeting. As a newly appointed member of the Planning Commission, I will be attending my first regularly scheduled meeting this week. My goal with this series is to help demystify the Town’s development review process […]
Posted inChapel Hill, UNC
Daily Tar Heel front page on Monday’s shooting and lockdown
The Daily Tar Heel’s front page from today’s edition has gone viral on social media, and for good reason. Using contemporaneous text messages, it captures the fear and anxiety students faced following the murder of UNC professor Zijie Yan and the ensuing three-hour lockdown of campus. It’s such an effective cover because the powerful messages […]