Erin Mendell

News

Town Will Still Have Issues\For `Next Guy'

By Erin Mendell | April 27

When I started this gig in August, Chapel Hill and Carrboro were facing rapid expansion and were uncertain as to how to handle it.

News

Orange County Kids Need to Habla Espanol

By Erin Mendell | April 20

According to the 2000 U.S. Census, Hispanics now make up the largest minority in North Carolina.

News

UNC Shouldn't Be Sole College In Our County

By Erin Mendell | April 6

Am I missing something, or isn't the point of a community college to have one in your community?Durham Technical Community College President Phail Wynn asked the Orange County Capital Needs Advisory Task Force on Wednesday to consider working a proposal into November's bond package that would help finance a satellite campus in Orange County.His request was met with reluctance, with county officials saying the $4 million pitch would have to take a backseat to more pressing needs such as education and elderly care.Understandable, but they can't keep putting it off.

News

Fare-Free Buses Ignore Real Transit Issues

By Erin Mendell | March 30

A free ride on Chapel Hill Transit wouldn't be all what proponents of fare-free busing crack it up to be.Chapel Hill and Carrboro town officials began working with University officials Tuesday to formulate a proposal on fare-free busing to present to both towns' governing boards.Students already gave the go-ahead in February's student elections for a $16.98 yearly student fees increase to subsidize the fare-free busing.

News

OK Already, Move On With The Expansion

By Erin Mendell | March 23

For a minute it looked like the Shearon Harris Nuclear Power Plant vs. Orange County grudge match was over.A March 1 Nuclear Regulatory Commission ruling had allowed the Carolina Power & Light Co. -- the company that owns Shearon Harris -- to use dormant waste storage pools at the plant.The increased use of waste storage would give the nuclear power plant the potential to store the most nuclear waste in the nation.All the people who, like me, were concerned about having a big, fatty nuclear waste site in Wake County (within 50 miles of Chapel Hill), were getting ready to suck it up.

News

School Board Shouldn't Have `No-Go' Power

By Erin Mendell | March 2

Giving the Chapel Hill-Carrboro Board of Education the power to approve development might seem like a good idea, especially in light of the fact that Chapel Hill is moving toward smart growth. But it would be problematic at best.The Schools Adequate Public Facilities Ordinance would require developers to submit a Certificate of Adequacy of Public Schools with their development applications.The argument for the ordinance goes something like this: You can't blindly develop without taking schools into consideration.And there's nothing wrong with that.

News

Meadowmont: The Good, the Bad, the Ugly

By Erin Mendell | February 23

No town can fight the smart growth it says it wants like Chapel Hill can.Meadowmont, a mixed-use community a few miles from campus off N.C. 54, is scheduled to be completed and opened in three years, but it already looks as though residents (at least the ones who live in Chapel Hill now) won't know what to do with it.As a mixed-use area, Meadowmont's planning is not consistent with Chapel Hill's 1986 Comprehensive Plan, which called for the preservation of the rural N.C. 54 entranceway.

News

Napster Not as Evil as Labels, Courts Insist

By Erin Mendell | February 16

While the major players in the record industry are celebrating a U.S. Court of Appeals ruling in California that would shut down Napster, locally, music stores don't see it as a file-sharing devil. And they shouldn't because it's debatable that the industry even has a problem, and, if it does, it's not Napster's fault.

News

Town's Double Standard Slows Smart Growth

By Erin Mendell | February 9

Chapel Hill residents can't have it both ways.They show up at Town Council meetings to protest University expansion that actually falls under the category of the "smart growth" they say they want.

News

Local Scouts Need to Take High Ground

By Erin Mendell | February 2

The Boy Scouts present me with a paradox.On the one hand, I find their official stance against having gay troop leaders repulsive. But on the other I support their right, as a private organization, to discriminate in any way they want.Any attempt then to discriminate against the Boy Scouts (for example, not allowing them to use public facilities) could be construed as just as bad as the Boy Scouts discriminating against gay men. It could be made out to be censorship of politically incorrect ideas.