It seems strange to me that none of the local papers seems to have covered Harry BELAFONTE's talk last night at Memorial Hall. It was a unique opportunity to hear from a man who has so much to share with all of us. Apart from his message, what really struck me was how much better the color of the audience looked to me than most events I attend around Chapel Hill, Memorial Hall included. Why can't we work harder to achieve that level of diversity all of the time? We are all the richer for it when we do.
Related to this is the question of whether the Frey visiting lecturers, like BELAFONTE, are programmed to do all that they might while in Chapel Hill. BELAFONTE shared much last night and was said to have met with some students over dinner prior to the 7 PM event (drawing the largest group ever for a Frey Foundation visitor). What more did he do? What more might he have done? Oddly, there does not appear to be any easily-findable mention of the grant to UNC for this program on the Frey Foundation website.
25 September 2007
21 September 2007
Lacock's is oldest continuous operately business in Chapel Hill
I learned today - in the shop - that Lacock's Shoe Repair, more or less next to Whole Foods, is the oldest business in Chapel Hill. Mr. LACOCK started in 1916 and the family has been running it ever since, or so it appears from what they have hanging in the always-friendly shop.
15 September 2007
Historic tobacco?
I sure am glad that Chapel Hill and environs do not have to suffer with a center called historic tobacco, as does Durham. Why do they want to retain that word and why does WUNC feel obliged to repeat it every time they promote something at their studio there? We don't want to forget the history of tobacco in Durham and all the pain and deaths it has caused, but surely we don't have to celebrate it by naming buildings or districts after the death-causing weed, do we?
13 September 2007
Average spending per resident
I wonder what the average allocatable government /tax spending is per person in this area, and how does it vary within the area? In other words, we all benefit from a certain number of government expenditures and so those - like road maintenance - should simply get divided among jurisdiction populations. Other expenditures, such as support for the senior center or for schools, can be allocated more finely. In the end, we should be able to know what amount of money and for what purposes gets spent for each of us depending on who we are. Again, for example, this might be a 70 year old resident, a 12 year old, a single mother or father with x kids, etc. Even students might be a category. Good exercise? Already done?
More generally, we might have an idea on average spending for residents 18 or younger v. 60 or older...or whatever age breakdowns make sense and also divided according to jurisdiction.
More generally, we might have an idea on average spending for residents 18 or younger v. 60 or older...or whatever age breakdowns make sense and also divided according to jurisdiction.
Smart cars....
I have not bought a new car in many years. That said, I have driven many new cars as rentals - primarily in France and a few here in the US. One of my favorite cars in France is the Smart car, made by Mercedes.
Today, I was able to drive one for the first time in NC. Smart had several cars at Streets of Southpoint today (and will have them there tomorrow, too).
The model that will be sold here is very impressive. They are predicting an average of 40 MPG, less than what I think has been the case in France, but I need to check on that. How does that compare to other cars now on the US market starting at 12,000?
I have reserved one for purchase in the spring ... refundable deposit of $99.
None of the insurance companies have yet said how they will look upon this little fellow, and I plan to talk with my insurance company before making a final commitment.
The car here has an dual automatic and manual system, with the latter clutchless.
The convertible model is very tempting....metallic blue with silver or black (still reflecting on this) "wings" if you are familiar with the design of the car.
Today, I was able to drive one for the first time in NC. Smart had several cars at Streets of Southpoint today (and will have them there tomorrow, too).
The model that will be sold here is very impressive. They are predicting an average of 40 MPG, less than what I think has been the case in France, but I need to check on that. How does that compare to other cars now on the US market starting at 12,000?
I have reserved one for purchase in the spring ... refundable deposit of $99.
None of the insurance companies have yet said how they will look upon this little fellow, and I plan to talk with my insurance company before making a final commitment.
The car here has an dual automatic and manual system, with the latter clutchless.
The convertible model is very tempting....metallic blue with silver or black (still reflecting on this) "wings" if you are familiar with the design of the car.
15-501 traffic light timing
It strikes me that a large part of the problem on 15-501 is the timing of the traffic lights. There have been huge advancements in this technology and I wonder if we are seeing the full deployment of those improved systems here?
Cool Cities - North Carolina
Chapel Hill, Carrboro and Hillsborough or on this list. What happened to Pittsboro?
A chance to learn from a very smart person.....
I attended a Kenan-Flagler event last night, free to anyone who chose to attend.
It is a wonderful example of the kind of local resources we have in this are, most of which go overlooked or at least missed by most people.
Peter BREWS, a professor at Kenan-Flagler, talked about megatrends in business. Even for someone who has followed these issues fairly closely, this was an eye-opener.
Some notes that I took.....
Only 25% of the global population today - 6 billion or so - is really "in" the global marketplace as we know it. That leaves 75% en route.
1970 is the dividing point in terms of global production -- the amount of "stuff" that we have produced since 1970 is equal to the total amount produced in all time prior to 1970. That really got my attention!
To bring those "in" and "out" into perspective, the world's two largest countries - India and China - have 800-900 million each trying to get "in". Only about 25% of each country has so far joined the rest of the world in this marketplace. The oppportunities, and of course the risks, are immense.
BREWS highly recommended we all read the Stern Review on global warming. You can access it here.
The mantra for succeeding today is very much to do it better, faster, cheaper, different and - he emphasized many times - cleaner.
For example, he thinks that companies around the world will be tracking the footprints of their employees as they grossly add to global warming every time they get on an airplane.
BREWS talked about the evolution in most countries from being supply seeking to becoming market seeking.
There is an ongoing re-pricing of the value of work underway everywhere whether we realize it or not.
It is far better - essential - to innovate faster than simply to replicate.
His pie chart of the world includes the globalizers, the anti-globalists, and the hopeful majority. It's a fascinating analysis that makes huge sense.
Inevitably over the next 10 years, we will see our share of consumption of global resources reduce dramatically to what may be our 400 million population's proportional share of a globe with 8 billion people.
Two highly important trends in the US are its browning and its graying.
Today, he believes, some 35% of the US work force is in the "creative class".
Future trends are toward companies that are less hierarchical, more focused and more networked.
In his review of the Stern Review, he noted - with special connections to NC - that 24% of greenhouse gases are coming from power companies, with 18% from land uses with 14% each for industry and agrriculture.
Before concluding, he turned to a Grant Thornton survey done with Business Week, released 5 July 2007 [I could not find a link to this....]
510 CEOS were surveryed. They came back saying that the environment - in several different ways - was going to be far more important to them in their companies than most would have thought. This has grown dramatically in the past year, BREWS says. There is a dramatic change in mindset underway.
We risk, he fears, that we are seeing a global market failure in global warming. It will take a strong measure of government action in order to deal with this. We will see this increase on a more global level in coming months and years.
The good news in all of this is that the market opportunity ahead is almost as big as the cost.
We - in the US especially - must innovate more in a less destructive way. The Europeans and Japanese are ahead of us already.
Some of the trends he sees as he expressed optimisim about the US ability to become a world in leader in less polluting technology that we and the whole world increasingly need. This is where people who have been in the furniture business in the US ought to re-orient themselves.
Some of those trends....
+ global warming will drive up costs
+ there will be a boom in clean energy
+ consumption models will change
+ US consumption will reduce
+ there will be less global inequality
+ by 2050, the US will still be outdoing most of the rest of the world in productivity, but the gap will have narrowed
There is a need for us in the US to downsize and we will. 25% smaller cars. 25% smaller houses. Etc.
What a fascinating tour du monde this was. It makes me feel very lucky to be here in Chapel Hill and able to hear this presentation. Thousands more ought to have been there......
It is a wonderful example of the kind of local resources we have in this are, most of which go overlooked or at least missed by most people.
Peter BREWS, a professor at Kenan-Flagler, talked about megatrends in business. Even for someone who has followed these issues fairly closely, this was an eye-opener.
Some notes that I took.....
Only 25% of the global population today - 6 billion or so - is really "in" the global marketplace as we know it. That leaves 75% en route.
1970 is the dividing point in terms of global production -- the amount of "stuff" that we have produced since 1970 is equal to the total amount produced in all time prior to 1970. That really got my attention!
To bring those "in" and "out" into perspective, the world's two largest countries - India and China - have 800-900 million each trying to get "in". Only about 25% of each country has so far joined the rest of the world in this marketplace. The oppportunities, and of course the risks, are immense.
BREWS highly recommended we all read the Stern Review on global warming. You can access it here.
The mantra for succeeding today is very much to do it better, faster, cheaper, different and - he emphasized many times - cleaner.
For example, he thinks that companies around the world will be tracking the footprints of their employees as they grossly add to global warming every time they get on an airplane.
BREWS talked about the evolution in most countries from being supply seeking to becoming market seeking.
There is an ongoing re-pricing of the value of work underway everywhere whether we realize it or not.
It is far better - essential - to innovate faster than simply to replicate.
His pie chart of the world includes the globalizers, the anti-globalists, and the hopeful majority. It's a fascinating analysis that makes huge sense.
Inevitably over the next 10 years, we will see our share of consumption of global resources reduce dramatically to what may be our 400 million population's proportional share of a globe with 8 billion people.
Two highly important trends in the US are its browning and its graying.
Today, he believes, some 35% of the US work force is in the "creative class".
Future trends are toward companies that are less hierarchical, more focused and more networked.
In his review of the Stern Review, he noted - with special connections to NC - that 24% of greenhouse gases are coming from power companies, with 18% from land uses with 14% each for industry and agrriculture.
Before concluding, he turned to a Grant Thornton survey done with Business Week, released 5 July 2007 [I could not find a link to this....]
510 CEOS were surveryed. They came back saying that the environment - in several different ways - was going to be far more important to them in their companies than most would have thought. This has grown dramatically in the past year, BREWS says. There is a dramatic change in mindset underway.
We risk, he fears, that we are seeing a global market failure in global warming. It will take a strong measure of government action in order to deal with this. We will see this increase on a more global level in coming months and years.
The good news in all of this is that the market opportunity ahead is almost as big as the cost.
We - in the US especially - must innovate more in a less destructive way. The Europeans and Japanese are ahead of us already.
Some of the trends he sees as he expressed optimisim about the US ability to become a world in leader in less polluting technology that we and the whole world increasingly need. This is where people who have been in the furniture business in the US ought to re-orient themselves.
Some of those trends....
+ global warming will drive up costs
+ there will be a boom in clean energy
+ consumption models will change
+ US consumption will reduce
+ there will be less global inequality
+ by 2050, the US will still be outdoing most of the rest of the world in productivity, but the gap will have narrowed
There is a need for us in the US to downsize and we will. 25% smaller cars. 25% smaller houses. Etc.
What a fascinating tour du monde this was. It makes me feel very lucky to be here in Chapel Hill and able to hear this presentation. Thousands more ought to have been there......
12 September 2007
Chapel Hill military deaths in Iraq
Three military men from Chapel Hill have died in Iraq since the war began.
Town of Chapel Hill Official Website - Morgan Creek Preserve Dedication
It would be great to see a map that shows, even provisionally how a pedestrian will be able to walk through the Morgan Creek Preserver, Merritt Pasture, Southern Village and the new Southern Community Park (now under construction). In addition, the route from there to UNC and downtown Chapel Hill - difficult at best - ought also to be highlighted including notations as to when it, too, will be improved. In addition, it would be nice to see the plans for how one walks east, west, and south from this network as well - today, with great danger and difficulty, tomorrow?
Development Briefing for Orange County
I attended the "development briefing" for Orange County last Monday.
Here are just a few notes that I jotted down, very much from the perspective of someone living in Southern Village.
The upcoming "parade" of homes reflects where the real estate action is. I think over 50 each in Durham and Chatham counties and only 19 in Orange.
I had not realized there were so many businesses in Chapel Hill and Carrboro. The Chamber of Commerce boasts 930 members.
There is Carrboro website that gives the status of all pending projects.
Chapel Hill's focus will be on transit-oriented development and increasingly on redevelopment. They want to reduce the number of cars driving about with only one person in them (I am reminded of this when I see all the SUVs lined up to leave the Catholic Church school on 15-501 after mother or father drops off student(s). Promote the buses, but I asked myself what it would have taken for me to take the bus to the Friday Center for the event. There is even a direct line from Southern Village but as bad as traffic was, it still would have taken longer and been overall less convenient. Somehow, we have to make that more appealing, I thought.
Carolina North was not presented by anyone which probably says a lot about how it "fits" into the region. It will be one million sqaure feet in the first 50 years and covers 1,000 acres. Area concern is very much on how many and what kind of "trips" per day it will generate for the people who work there.
Chapel Hill builds NO roads itself and relies on developers and then on the state DOT for the major roads.
Unhappily, sidewalks were barely mentioned.
It was encouraging to hear talk of how the rail lines in Orange County might get some use for transportation, possibly in conjunction with Carolina North.
There wer good maps shown, but largely balkanized. It sure would be great for us all to be able to generate maps that start where we want to start in looking around us. That might be home. Might be work. Might be shopping. Then "map" out what we want in connecting those dots or just being in any one of them.
It also occurred to me as I thought about that .... that each of us looking at where we spend our money in the course of a year between local businesses and those located a drive or a website away might be a worthwhile exercise. What assumptions do we all make about who shops where?
I wonder, too, if there are many ongoing studies of where people go when they park around the area. What are those patterns and how does it relate to the extent that local businesses and services get patronized. That could be downtown or UNC parkers or park and ride lots or parking for any commercial enterprise.
What is the status of the once-rumored development down 15-501 toward Cole Park Plaza where Smith Level Road intersects. That's the one where there was some talk of a Walmart. What's the plan now? I had heard it might be a new Lowes Home Improvement among other ideas.
There was a good question from Kathy IRWIN of Chapel Hill Magazine asking about the tax base and where development was headed to produce alternatives to homeowners to pay the cost of government in Orange County. The response included some of the rough figures on residential/commercial breakdowns - 86/14 for Carrboro, I think, and 60/40 for Durham. There is a plan to do another development briefing just on commercial development, Aaron NELSON said. The future of commercial office space in the area is certainly worth further analysis.
Chatham was barely mentioned except to note that there were 20,000 new units approved there either last year or are pending construction. That dwarfs Orange considerably.
My final note were some numbers from Aaron NELSON again. 40% of the people who work in Orange County drive here from outside the county and 40% of the people who live in Orange County drive to another county to work.
Here are just a few notes that I jotted down, very much from the perspective of someone living in Southern Village.
The upcoming "parade" of homes reflects where the real estate action is. I think over 50 each in Durham and Chatham counties and only 19 in Orange.
I had not realized there were so many businesses in Chapel Hill and Carrboro. The Chamber of Commerce boasts 930 members.
There is Carrboro website that gives the status of all pending projects.
Chapel Hill's focus will be on transit-oriented development and increasingly on redevelopment. They want to reduce the number of cars driving about with only one person in them (I am reminded of this when I see all the SUVs lined up to leave the Catholic Church school on 15-501 after mother or father drops off student(s). Promote the buses, but I asked myself what it would have taken for me to take the bus to the Friday Center for the event. There is even a direct line from Southern Village but as bad as traffic was, it still would have taken longer and been overall less convenient. Somehow, we have to make that more appealing, I thought.
Carolina North was not presented by anyone which probably says a lot about how it "fits" into the region. It will be one million sqaure feet in the first 50 years and covers 1,000 acres. Area concern is very much on how many and what kind of "trips" per day it will generate for the people who work there.
Chapel Hill builds NO roads itself and relies on developers and then on the state DOT for the major roads.
Unhappily, sidewalks were barely mentioned.
It was encouraging to hear talk of how the rail lines in Orange County might get some use for transportation, possibly in conjunction with Carolina North.
There wer good maps shown, but largely balkanized. It sure would be great for us all to be able to generate maps that start where we want to start in looking around us. That might be home. Might be work. Might be shopping. Then "map" out what we want in connecting those dots or just being in any one of them.
It also occurred to me as I thought about that .... that each of us looking at where we spend our money in the course of a year between local businesses and those located a drive or a website away might be a worthwhile exercise. What assumptions do we all make about who shops where?
I wonder, too, if there are many ongoing studies of where people go when they park around the area. What are those patterns and how does it relate to the extent that local businesses and services get patronized. That could be downtown or UNC parkers or park and ride lots or parking for any commercial enterprise.
What is the status of the once-rumored development down 15-501 toward Cole Park Plaza where Smith Level Road intersects. That's the one where there was some talk of a Walmart. What's the plan now? I had heard it might be a new Lowes Home Improvement among other ideas.
There was a good question from Kathy IRWIN of Chapel Hill Magazine asking about the tax base and where development was headed to produce alternatives to homeowners to pay the cost of government in Orange County. The response included some of the rough figures on residential/commercial breakdowns - 86/14 for Carrboro, I think, and 60/40 for Durham. There is a plan to do another development briefing just on commercial development, Aaron NELSON said. The future of commercial office space in the area is certainly worth further analysis.
Chatham was barely mentioned except to note that there were 20,000 new units approved there either last year or are pending construction. That dwarfs Orange considerably.
My final note were some numbers from Aaron NELSON again. 40% of the people who work in Orange County drive here from outside the county and 40% of the people who live in Orange County drive to another county to work.
11 September 2007
Car alternatives when going to UNC events
For those of us who only visit UNC on occasion, what is the full range of options for minimizing the use of a car to get there? Has anyone put this together? Other than walking and a bus, are there other options? Is there a guide anywher on how we can all "use" UNC in a more environmentally friendly way? Ditto for downtown Chapel Hill? And for Carrboro, Hillsborough and Pittsboro as well.....
08 September 2007
03 September 2007
"Don't hit Wi-Fi delete key" - San Francisco Chronicle
What does Chapel Hill have to learn from this?
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