Carolina North still facing difficulties
Despite more than 12 years of planning, officials still aren’t sure when construction will start on a campus expected to be a “world-class magnet.”
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Despite more than 12 years of planning, officials still aren’t sure when construction will start on a campus expected to be a “world-class magnet.”
When members of the Interfraternity Council drastically altered the rules of the rush recruitment process, they knew the way people party might change too.
The Rat is back.
More than six months into litigation, the parents of a deceased local high school student dropped their lawsuit against the county and are continuing mediation with a former paramedic.
Years of planning: seven. Units of upscale condominiums: 140. Square feet of retail space: 28,540. Estimated value: $75 million.
After little more than a year on Franklin Street, a sweet staple is exchanging its downtown doors for a more campus-friendly location.
Sophomore Maya Jumper sat in a beautician’s chair Tuesday as two African braiders worked a weave into her hair.“It’s my first time,” Jumper said. “I was tired of doing my hair.”She said though the braids will be easier to take care of, she’ll probably continue to pay the high price for relaxers, a process that chemically straightens naturally curly or kinky hair. The treatment can cost between $50 and $150 and lasts about six weeks.Jumper, like others, said she’d rather go home to Washington, D.C., to get the treatment, but the distance prevents her.But she and other students have said the lack of local services for black hair has restricted their hair care options.To deal with the perceived lack of services, some UNC students are turning to natural hair, support groups and self-maintenance.Supply meets demandBecause students say they don’t expect shops to be able to handle their hair, stores stop carrying the necessary products or don’t have staff on hand who have the training for black hair.“There’s really no place for black people to get their hair done except for, like, the Hair Cuttery and Delaine’s,” Jumper said. “I guess there’s really no market for black hair.”Kaaren Greene, a stylist at Famous Hair, formerly the Hair Cuttery, said the Franklin Street salon gives out 10 to 15 relaxers a week, but many black people don’t know they offer any services.“A lot of people pass us along because they assume that we don’t do African-American hair in here,” she said.Greene, who has relaxed hair, said the salon’s four stylists who have the experience to work with black hair are all black themselves.She said because the salon is part of a franchise, stylists have to distribute corporate advertisements that rarely promote black hair care services.“They never have anything for relaxers,” Greene said.Alan Corpus, owner of Salon 135 on Franklin Street, said his shop does offer services like hair cuts for black customers but doesn’t advertise relaxers — or even keep the products necessary for them — due to lack of demand.“We don’t ever get any African-American people who want relaxers done here,” he said.“We don’t ever get calls for it. That’s why we don’t keep the chemicals for it.”The salon only gives out about two or three relaxers per year, and all are given to white customers, he said.“We don’t work much with African-American hair,” Corpus said. “None of the stylists here have the experience.”Rather than try to find a salon, Student Body President Jasmin Jones has opted for a cheaper solution since freshman year: giving herself her relaxers.“It’s, like, $65 versus $6,” she said. A controversial treatmentSome students question why they should use damaging chemicals to straighten their hair and have joined a cultural movement urging blacks to go natural.UNC junior Jamila Reddy started getting her hair chemically straightened when she was in sixth grade.“I was picked on a lot when I was in elementary school because a lot of girls got relaxers before I did,” she said. “I had two little ponytails, and they called them Afro-puffs.”In October of her freshman year, Reddy made the transition back to natural hair, but it wasn’t easy.“I cut all of my relaxed hair off,” she said. “I had a teeny-weeny Afro. I felt like a boy. I felt unfeminine. But that’s what my hair’s supposed to look like.”Relaxers have drawn criticism because of chemicals like lye and ammonium thioglycolate that are integral to the treatment’s straightening ability, something Greene said she saw first-hand at beauty school.“We set an empty can of Coke in a relaxer overnight, and it disintegrated it,” she said.Finding supportTo cope with the difficulty and high cost of finding hair care in Chapel Hill, some students have turned to the advice of others.Precious Ogbuefi and four other UNC students started the campus group S.T.R.A.N.D.S. — Students Transitioning, Relaxed and Naturals Developing Self-Awareness.The group, set to become official in fall 2010, held an interest meeting March 21.“We all kind of went around the room and talked about hair stories,” said Ogbuefi, who transitioned to natural hair during spring break when her hair started thinning from the relaxers’ chemicals.Reddy created a blog called College Curlies to help college women transitioning to or working with their natural hair.“There is a connotation with natural hair, sometimes negative, sometimes positive,” Reddy said. “But mostly I think it’s just misunderstood.”Contact the City Editor at citydesk@unc.edu.
After 18 months of unanswered questions about their son’s death, a high school student’s family is taking legal action.Malinda and David Fraley are suing former Orange County paramedic James Griffin, county emergency medical services and Orange County itself for wrongful death by negligence.Their son, Atlas Fraley, 17, died in his home after a football scrimmage on Aug. 12, 2008.Fraley had complained of muscle cramps and a headache at the scrimmage. Home alone, he called 911 at about 1:45 p.m. to request intravenous fluids to treat what he said was dehydration.When Fraley’s parents arrived home less than five hours later, they found their son dead on the floor, surrounded by bottles of water and Gatorade.The Fraleys filed a wrongful death action against Griffin, the former Orange County Emergency Services paramedic who responded to Fraley’s call and advised Fraley to hydrate and work out his muscle cramps. Griffin allowed Fraley to sign his own medical release form despite his legal status as a minor.He resigned 15 days later.“If James Griffin had done his job and transported Atlas to UNC Hospital, which was only 2.2 miles from his house and less than a 5 minute ride in an EMS vehicle, more likely than not, Atlas would be with his parents,” the family’s attorney, Donald Strickland, said in an e-mail.Griffin is being sued for negligence both as an individual and his position as a former paramedic.This means the Fraley family could collect damages from both Griffin personally and from Orange County.The lawsuit, which was signed Jan. 27, states that Griffin said he called both of Fraley’s parents during the ordeal using his EMS cell phone, contending that “he reached voice mail messages for both parents but did not leave a message with either.”The North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services requested the phone records, but Orange County failed to provide them by the time the department closed its investigation in March 2009, the complaint states.The complaint quotes Jane Brice, the medical director for Orange County Emergency Services, who reportedly said she had never had a paramedic violate so many practice privileges since she assumed the position.It also cites 13 EMS protocols Griffin was determined through a disciplinary review board to have violated. Although the review board did not strip Griffin of his credentials as a paramedic, he cannot work in Orange County again until he repeats training.The family is suing for a lump sum to cover incident and funeral expenses, Atlas Fraley’s pain and suffering and the “present monetary value” of Fraley to his parents.The court document states that the Fraleys are eligible for more than $10,000 in damages.Contact the City Editor at citydesk@unc.edu.
A Chapel Hill businesswoman and mother of three took a call on her Bluetooth from her brother in New York.“Have you heard any news?” asked Paulette Bekolo, her eyes searching the sky for answers. “Nothing?”Bekolo’s brother and his children live in a town about three and a half hours away from Port-au-Prince, but three days after Haiti’s largest earthquake in 200 years, she still has not been able to get in touch with them.She said she’s worried about what the quake’s aftershocks in the town and a 45,000 or more estimated death toll might mean for her family.“I’ve been hearing a lot of bad news all day long from other Haitians in the Triangle,” she said. “Their families have been buried.”Bekolo, who grew up 30 minutes from Port-au-Prince, returned from a week-long stay in Haiti in December. It was her first trip back in 10 years.“I’ve seen so much hope,” she said. “It breaks my heart.”Bekolo moved from Haiti when she was 19 to study psychology and statistics at Sorbonne University in Paris. She and her husband moved to Canada in 1992 and later to New York in 1995, where two of her brothers and her sister live.She said she moved her family to Chapel Hill in 2001 so her children could have a better place to grow up. She became a citizen seven years later.Bekolo said her 6-year-old daughter Hannah is sad but tries to keep the family in good spirits.“She kept telling me, ‘Don’t cry. I will help them. I will send them my food and my clothes.’”Serious infrastructure damage has all but severed the lines of communication between Haiti’s capital city and the United States. A weak stream of information and blocked transportation has area natives concerned for the welfare of their loved ones.Nadine Faustin-Parker is the daughter of Haitian natives and a UNC assistant track coach.Although her mother’s family is safe, she hasn’t been able to reach others.Faustin-Parker, who last visited the country in 2001, represents Haiti’s Olympic track and field team. She said she’s had no word from her athletes or the Olympic committee either.“We still have some family and some friends we haven’t heard from, but, you know, we’re just hoping for the best,” Faustin-Parker said.Bekolo said she is working with local organizations and other natives to collect items for basic needs for transportation to Haiti through her shipping business, Haiti Express.She said her goal is to help people find shelter and medical assistance until they can get back on their feet.But no one knows how long that might take, an uncertainty that keeps Bekolo up at night.“It’s a nightmare,” she said. “We cannot sleep.”Senior writer Powell Latimer contributed reporting.Contact the City Editor at citydesk@unc.edu.
Mike Johnson’s ringing telephone woke him up late Wednesday night.
This article was published in the 2009 Year in Review issue of The Daily Tar Heel.Nearly a year and half after a high school student’s death, community members still don’t have all the details of what happened.Atlas Fraley, 17, died at his home after a high school football scrimmage on Aug. 12, 2008.His autopsy, released March 18, stated Fraley died of “undetermined natural causes.” The report took more than seven months to complete.N.C. Chief Medical Examiner Dr. John Butts, who performed the autopsy, cited cardiac arrest or an asthma attack as possible causes of death.Now, Fraley’s family is preparing to take legal action against the paramedic who responded to the teen’s house hours before his death and Orange County Emergency Services.Fraley had complained of muscle cramps and a headache at the scrimmage. Home alone, he called 911 at 1:45 p.m. to request intravenous fluids to treat what he said was dehydration.Former Orange County Emergency Services paramedic James Griffin responded to his call and advised Fraley to hydrate and work out his muscle cramps. He then allowed Fraley to sign his own medical release form, despite his legal status as a minor.When Fraley’s parents arrived home later that night, they found their son dead on the floor, surrounded by bottles of water and Gatorade.Griffin resigned 15 days later.A report released June 1 by the state office of EMS stated that while he violated Orange County protocol during his response to Fraley’s call, Griffin did not act incompetently under state regulations.Although Griffin did not lose his credentials as a paramedic, he cannot work in Orange County again until he repeats training.Jane Brice, Orange County EMS director, said in June she thought Griffin was capable of practicing anywhere in the state except Orange County because of the higher standard of service the county demands.Fraley family attorney Donald Strickland said the family expects to file suit before the end of the year.Contact the City Editor at citydesk@unc.edu.
A 65-year-old Chapel Hill man is in fair condition after he was hit by a car at about 11:40 p.m. Wednesday.
A 65-year-old Chapel Hill man was hit by a car at about 11:40 p.m. Wednesday.
The UNC chapter of Youth for Western Civilization has a new president after complaints to the national organization’s leadership that the group was becoming too liberal.
A fire that could have resulted in major damage was contained to a kitchen because of the preventative measures of a local apartment complex and quick action.An apartment fire broke out just before 5:53 p.m. Thursday on the first floor of the 900 building at The Pointe at Chapel Hill apartment homes, according to Orange County Emergency Services.Fire crews arrived at the scene three minutes later.The fire follows a blaze last week that displaced about 34 residents at SunStone Apartments, which did not have sprinklers.At The Pointe, a pot of oil was left on the stove unattended and broke into a fire, Battalion Chief Barry McLamb said.“One of the residents took the two small children and left,” said Assistant Fire Marshal Mary Blevins.“The fire was contained to the kitchen, primarily to the stove.”By the time the fire crews arrived, the other resident had used a fire extinguisher to put out the blaze, and apartment sprinklers had gone off. There were no injuries, Blevins said.An extinguisher is provided in each unit, she said.Blevins said the sprinkler head that was activated in the apartment resulted in minimal water damage only in the affected apartment.She said she did not know whether the residents had renters’ insurance.Because the sprinkler system is connected to the domestic water system, residents temporarily lost water.Benny Baker, who also lives in the 900 building, said his wife called him about the fire while he was driving home from work.He said that other than the water cutoff, his apartment was not affected by the fire.Blevins said situations like Thursday’s fire are a reminder of the importance of sprinklers and other safety measures.Deputy Chief Fire Marshal Matt Lawrence said only 34 of 124 apartment complexes, condos and town homes in Chapel Hill have sprinklers.Contact the City Editor at citydesk@unc.edu.
Homeless shelter leaders trying to relocate are hearing again the argument they’ve heard for the last 24 years: Not in my neighborhood.The Inter-Faith Council for Social Service would like to move its downtown Community House men’s shelter to a site at 1315 Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. The move to Rosemary Street in 1985 was never a permanent one, and the council had the proposed site, at the intersection of Homestead Road, in mind before the University offered the land last year.Town leaders want the shelter to leave downtown permanently, too, but residents of a dozen Homestead-area neighborhoods have banded together with concerns about what the move will mean for them.The fate of the shelter now rests in a balancing act between the interests of the three groups.The neighborhoodsTina CoyneSmith, a resident of the Parkside neighborhood who is organizing opposition to the move, said the Homestead site poses public safety problems.She said residents worry about the site’s proximity to Homestead Park, day cares and residential areas, including Chapel View and Chapel Ridge student housing.“There is a direct connection between homelessness and crime, substance abuse and severe mental illness,” she said. “We’re not motivated by a fear of a ‘boogeyman.’ “Our claims are based on substantiated facts.”CoyneSmith said residents are concerned that men may loiter near the shelter.“There’s parts of that population that can’t hold down a job. They are chronically homeless,” she said. “Where are those people going to be? Those are the ones that are going be in the park.”She also said the shelter’s move will add to an already heavy concentration of social services in northwestern Chapel Hill.The women and children’s homeless center, HomeStart, the Department of Social Services and Freedom House Recovery Center are all nearby.“Within 1 quarter square mile, you’ve got all of those things, and public housing additionally, which is 1 percent of the land in Chapel Hill,” she said. “It’s literally in my neighborhood.”The Inter-Faith CouncilChris Moran, the executive director of the council, said the Homestead Road site is as close to perfect as it gets.“The location is one that we studied and reviewed before it became a gift,” he said. “It’s terrific for a lot of reasons.”He said the site has major advantages like being located on a major transportation corridor. Moran also said the nearby human services and churches would only benefit the shelter’s population.“When you are vehicle-less, having services around you is a greater incentive,” Moran said.He said Community House would provide free clinic services the women’s shelter could use.“All of the services may be close by, but it’s going be to their benefit.”He also said some safety hazards the neighborhoods claim, like sex offenders near vulnerable child populations, are unfounded.“We won’t be able to accept (sex offenders) because we’re within 1,000 feet of the United Church nursery and the park,” he said. “That’s a state law.”Moran said the problems the neighborhoods identified in the homeless are qualities found everywhere and should not be pawned off as those of the shelter’s residents.“These problems exist in every neighborhood, in every household, in every school,” he said. “Problems that we’ve described are not unique to the homeless population.”The townTo add to the fray, the Town Council has said it needs the shelter’s town-owned building back.The council has not yet placed a deadline on the shelter to vacate.“I and others appreciate the complexity of this issue,” council member Jim Ward said. “It doesn’t need a demand placed on it.”At an Oct. 19 hearing, some council members, like Ed Harrison, said opposing parties must communicate to reach a solution.“I propose that at some point there could be a mayor’s committee,” Harrison said. “At some point I think it could be useful.”Both Moran and CoyneSmith said they would welcome conversation, but they are unsure if a compromise is possible.Contact the City Editor at citydesk@unc.edu.
A key economic indicator could be signaling a recovery for local retailers and consumers.A recently released U.S. Consumer Price Index summary from the Bureau of Labor Statistics shows overall prices have been fairly stable. The rate of inflation also slowed from August to September, according to the index.This likely indicates that the cost of living is falling for people who are residents in Chapel Hill, said Ralph Byrns, a UNC economics professor, which means people can buy more groceries and other goods with the money they earn.“A stable CPI is generally going to mean that prices are not going up, so people can probably make their spending plans with more certainty,” he said.This could point to an increase in consumer spending, a trend that Chapel Hill-Carrboro Chamber of Commerce business members said they are seeing.“They’re saying that ever since about July 2009, business has been starting to slowly pick up,” said Adam Klein, vice president of the chamber.“I think they’re seeing consumers and clients spending a little bit more and also new customers coming to their stores,” he said.Katie Underhill, the Chapel Hill Uniquities manager, said merchandise has been moving.“We are selling a lot of our new stuff,” Underhill said. “I think people are interested in shopping again.”Heather Frazier, the Johnny T-Shirt retail division manager, said vendors have not been raising prices, and consequently, the store has not had to either.“Over time as inflation goes up, as our vendors raise their prices, we naturally have to raise ours,” Frazier said. “I do know most of our items have not gone up in price, especially through the recession.”She said the increase in customer traffic is mostly due to school being in session and football season.“Carolina fans are going to spend their money on Carolina merchandise,” she said. “They’ll cut from other places before they cut from buying their Carolina stuff.”But Byrns said a stable index may not translate to consumers spending more. He cited rising gas prices, which are unusual at a time when demand for oil is typically low.“As you start approaching winter, people tend to stay home,” Byrns said. “So the increase in the price of oil might actually mean that people may start worrying about inflation.”Consumer spending
John Kenyon “Yonni” Chapman, a local social activist most known for his work on race relations at the University, died after a 29-year battle with cancer Thursday evening. He was 62.Chapman died at 6:06 p.m., according to an e-mail sent out by his daughters, Sandi Chapman Osterkatz and Joyce Chapman.“His struggle is over, but our struggle continues, and what he would want from all of us is to use his passing to renew our commitment to justice, equality and to each other as sisters and brothers,” the e-mail said.Chapman served as second vice president of the local branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People among other community roles.Chapman received his Ph.D. in history from UNC in 2006.“Yonni was a people’s historian, and he believed that you study history in order to rectify and remedy mistakes and sins,” said Alan McSurely, a lawyer for the Chapel Hill-Carrboro NAACP.Chapman was placed in the local spotlight after spearheading a two-year campaign to retire the Cornelia Phillips Spencer Bell Award in the early 2000s.The award, given to women who significantly contributed to the University, was named after the woman who in 1875 rang the campus bell signaling the University was reopened after closing in 1871.As a graduate student, Chapman worked to reveal Spencer’s white supremacist tendencies.“Yonni worked very hard to bring this to light,” said Carrboro Alderman Dan Coleman. “He dug into the history of the campus.”Chapman was also involved in representing UNC housekeepers in the mid-1990s, who were then mainly black, when they fought for salary increases, said McSurely, who handled the case.He said Chapman was to testify using his dissertation research on the role of the University and its 200-year history of racism toward the black community until the University settled.“They did not want John Kenyon Chapman on the stand for two days giving some publicity to his historical research,” McSurely said.Chapman was also on the committee to change Airport Road to Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard and helped bring to Columbia Street a historical marker commemorating a 1947 freedom ride.“He’s one of those people who help to continue putting Chapel Hill on the map as a political activist,” said Carrboro Mayor Mark Chilton. “A lot of us who knew Yonni are kind of seeing this as opportunity to renew our commitment to peace and justice.”A celebration of Chapman’s life is scheduled for Nov. 8 at the Hargraves Center.
A homeless shelter faced organized opposition at a Monday public hearing from residents who would be affected by its potential relocation to a site near Homestead Road.The Chapel Hill Town Council challenged representatives from the Inter-Faith Council for Social Service and several neighborhoods in the area to increase direct communication between the two parties to facilitate negotiations.Community House, a men’s homeless shelter run by the Inter-Faith Council, has been actively looking for a new location since it first moved in to the municipal building at 100 W. Rosemary St. Twenty-four years later, the shelter still hasn’t found a permanent home.Chris Moran, the executive director of the Inter-Faith Council, presented a proposal for a new location at 1315 Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd., at the intersection of Homestead Road.The land was a University gift announced by former Chancellor James Moeser and Mayor Kevin Foy in May 2008.But nearby residents said they fear the unintended consequences the shelter could have on their neighborhoods.“I want to state that I do not oppose the relocation of the men’s shelter,” said Mark Joseph, a resident of the Parkside neighborhood.“What I do oppose is the proposed location.”Through an organized effort of about 12 different neighborhoods led by Tina CoyneSmith, residents said the site’s proximity to schools, day cares and Homestead Park poses community safety hazards.CoyneSmith also said residents don’t want an inequitable distribution of social services in their area of Chapel Hill.“We already have lots of public services in our backyard,” she said. “We do not want to institutionalize northwestern Chapel Hill.”But advocates for the new locations said they are tired of years of “not in my neighborhood” sentiment.“We did not choose the present location,” said Robert Seymour, the only living member of the original board of the Inter-Faith Council and its first president. “We literally backed in to it because we had no other place to go.“And that is a scenario that has occurred for the last 25 years.”Advantages of the new site include easy transit access and the nearby support of two local churches that are actively involved in the Community House, Moran said.But council members said a decision is far from being made, and both parties would benefit from increased communication prior to the submission of a special use permit for the site.“I would encourage the residents to understand we are a community of compassion,” said council member Ed Harrison. “It may work out that this is not the place to go.“We have to have this place somewhere.”Contact the City Editor at citydesk@unc.edu.
Stacy Morgan said she loves living in Chapel Hill, but student life sometimes clashes with her life as a single parent.“The biggest thing was the bong,” Morgan said while pushing her daughter Angelina, 1, in a stroller. “They just left stuff out there and the kids are like, ‘Mommy, what’s that?’”Morgan, who lives in SunStone Apartments on Conner Drive by University Mall, said that although there are occasional noise problems, most students are good neighbors.She was one of about 20 volunteers who gathered at the Hargraves Community Center on Thursday to distribute information packets to UNC students and permanent residents as part of the Good Neighbor Initiative.Volunteers traveled door to door distributing 1,000 packets of information — more than twice as many as last year — throughout the Northside, Pine Knolls, and Cameron-McCauley neighborhoods, said Robin Clark, community services officer with the Chapel Hill Police Department.Now in its sixth year, the initiative uses the combined forces of Chapel Hill police, UNC organizations and town groups to improve relations between college students and nearby permanent residents.“It’s a recognition that we’re all in this community together,” said Winston Crisp, the assistant vice chancellor for student affairs. “We have fully half of our undergraduate student population that lives outside of the confines of campus alongside Chapel Hill natives.”The packets contained information about town services like recycling, coupons for businesses downtown and transit information.“I feel like oftentimes students move into neighborhoods and don’t really reach out to other citizens of the town,” said senior Kimberly Fisher, a member of United with the Northside Community NOW, who was handing out packets.Clark said this year the initiative aimed to expand its outreach.The initiative formerly distributed Good Neighbor information only to students. But this year, more permanent residents were given information after concerns that they were being left out.“Last year we only delivered somewhere in the neighborhood of 450 packets,” she said. “We definitely have a little bigger goal this year.”Joe Alston, a Northside resident of five years, said he’s received the packet before and thinks it’s a good idea, although he’s never had a disturbance from noisy students.“It’s a quiet area,” he said. “I haven’t had any problems like that.”Students who were home to receive the information said they found the packet’s contents helpful.“I don’t know if a lot of neighborhoods get his kind of attention unless you live in an apartment complex or whatnot,” said Mark Grant, a senior nursing student. Volunteers said they hope the program will help bridge the communication gap between locals and University students.“I think it helps students realize that the town of Chapel Hill isn’t just about the University,” Fisher said. “That there’s more to Chapel Hill and Carrboro than the classes and the parties that they attend.”Contact the City Editor at citydesk@unc.edu.