Northside stories

I feel that when contributing to any dialogue and making statements about individuals or organizations it's generally important to know who and what you're talking about. As a member of the Carolina Covenant (a scholarship created by Chancellor Moeser a few years ago to give students from low-income families the opportunity to attend college at UNC) Kane Smego is a close friend of mine and also a Covenant scholar. He was raised in Durham in a single parent household and his mother worked cleaning houses for almost two decades to pay the bills. After high school, Kane was worked full time for two years to save money to go to college, until he was fortunate enough to receive financial aid (through the Covenant). I'm not sure what your definition of "privileged" is, but I feel it my duty to provide you with the facts. For future reference, making judgments on someone's character or background purely substantiated by your own ignorance is a terrible idea. If you had come to the event and listened to his entire piece you might have caught the part about his apartment complex in Durham being destroyed to build a strip mall, his own experience with gentrification.

I'd also like to add a note on diversity and community:

I know that Northside is changing. Longtime tenants are moving out, and more houses are being rented or bought by those new to town. But I spent several years living in Northside, and do not know of anywhere else in Chapel Hill with a more vibrant and diverse community. I saw white students helping elderly African Americans bring their groceries in, anarchists playing badminton with Hispanic children and new families of all races feeling safe enough to walk through the neighborhood and meet the neighbors. Sure, sometimes the students throw loud parties. But sometimes they also give their neighbors a ride to the doctor's office. I know that what's happening isn't perfect for everyone involved (it never is), but many of these activists frame any sort of change in these neighborhoods so negatively as to gloss over the benefits of learning to live with an evolving town, state and society as a whole.

Greenbridge and Lot #5 created opportunities for a wider community discussion on density, the impact of creating expensive condo enclaves Downtown, etc. Instead of seizing this opportunity, our Council instead buried discussion and evaded prudent disclosure in the passage of TC-3 (the new high density, tall building zone).

One problem with creating a dense residential Downtown is we don't have the "living" infrastructure - like grocery stores, etc. - there to support a vibrant, walking community. Some would say "if you build it, they will come" but I don't believe this is the current case as the Town hasn't really done anything to bootstrap that infrastructure.

One thing the Council could have done (still, maybe) is to work with RAM at Lot $5 to get an integrative tenant - like a grocery store - which would reduce the need to get in the car and trundle somewhere else to shop.

Lot $5 offers an interesting example of where intent strays from implementation. Roughly 1/3 of the folks reserving units are purchasing second homes - to be used, as reported, to visit their kids on the weekend. Another 1/3 are speculative - which I believe will end up as high-priced student havens, the other 1/3 appear to meet the original intent - to put more full-time residents Downtown. The point? Lot $5 was sold on grounds of specific public utility. The corrosive effects of Lot $5 on Northside were weighed against this utility. We already see that the original intent is not being fulfilled yet Council is "staying the course".

I didn't see the performance, don't know anything beyond what I read here, but I do know we need more folks discussing these issues.

There are other shoes to drop here: the commercialization of Rosemary to the North, the cumulative impact of the Town's Lot $5 project/Short Brothers project/University Square redevelopment on the nearby neighborhoods, the gentrification of nearby local businesses (how long will unsubsidized local business last as their rents rise or landlords redevelop to
attract boutique shops?) and other corrosive effects of the high-priced/high-density vision our Council maintains.

Dolores, as well as did other local leaders from organizations like the Hank Anderson Breakfast club, supported the project wholeheartedly. It was quite difficult to contest the social justice issue in the face of their support.

There's a lot to like about Greenbridge, even as it sheds some of its "green" cred. I argued it was in the wrong place and that it would exacerbate the community displacements seen in Northside, Cameron and Pine Knoll.

Again, while Greenbridge is a "done deal", there is still an incredible need to explore these other issues. I'm glad some other folks are taking up the challenge.