The Board of Aldermen met to discuss a multitude of ways to keep the community a safe and friendly environment for all visitors and current residents.
The Transportation Advisory Board came together to discuss various ideas pertaining to street safety and the improvements that are necessary to prevent accidents with Carrboro residents.
The Transportation Advisory Board described their course of action during the Carrboro Open Streets event in April, in which they had a table to allow the residents of Carrboro to comment on the places they feel are unsafe in the area.
Through this, they received over 100 comments from residents, which brought great concern to the board as Board of Aldermen member Jacquelyn Gist expressed her fear for those that live in apartments near the highlighted areas.
"People that live in apartment complexes have to cross really scary streets to get to a bus stop or walk home because walking is their only means of transportation,” Gist said.
The board then recognized the need for a reevaluation of current plans regarding public safety and its entirety as Board of Alderman member Michelle Johnson proposed the idea.
"We have a construction management plan and I'm wondering if we need to look at that again to stress folks to come up with some alternate plan so people don't have to go far away to cross the street,” Johnson said.
The board then moved on to the importance of keeping the community a positive environment even though the use of graffiti is becoming a pressing problem.
Carrboro Police Chief Walter Horton described the central cause of the increased use of graffiti to be centered around controversial events recently portrayed by the media.
"I think at one point in time we had a lot of protestors and stuff going on around town," Horton said. "Also with stuff going on in the country, people were very upset and voiced their concerns about stuff on the property."
Board of Aldermen member Bethany Chaney acknowledged that no solution has been found due to the community becoming used to the tainted buildings.
"After a while, living in an urban area you stop looking at it, you stop seeing it," Chaney said.
This lead into Johnson and her call to educational reform.
"We need to ask the question if we have access to who they are and I think that is in the spirit of not criminalizing the behavior, and i think it's also in the spirit of educating," Johnson said.
The board then continued with a discussion of how they plan to protect their historical sites in order to avoid demolition by neglect.
After many ideas arose, Gist explained that based on past experiences within the area, option four — to update current buildings to keep them in use — was ultimately their best plan.
"When we were running into issues dealing with height and scale on Old Pittsboro, this is what we lacked and it could have really helped," Gist said. "As the state legislature is tightening with what we are and are not allowed to do, this is one thing that we can do."
Notable:
The board was in favor of further research pertaining to graffiti and how it should be prevented in ways such as allowing the graffiti artists to participate in murals for the community.
Quotable:
"I'm basically a pedestrian so I personally appreciate it," Gist said in response to proposals of safer crosswalks.
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