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OrangeChat
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Chapel Hill growth task force suspends work
MJ sang "don't stop 'til you get enough." Chapel Hill's growth task force's new motto may be "don't start 'til you get enough."
Enough diversity, that is.
The town's Sustainable Community Visioning Task Force put itself on hiatus Wednesday night until it gets more racial and/or ethnic minorities. The 18-member, all-white committee, decided it wasn't ready to start advising the town on how to grow until its membership looked more like the town.
The vote was 11-5. The Town Council wants an interim report by November, chairman George Cianciolo reminded the group. But not everyone wanted to wait to begin discussing where growth should occur and what it should look like.
"There are a lot of other ways we can get diversity in," member Madeline Jefferson said, attending the meeting in a wheelchair after a bad accident. For example, the committee can invite people in include their points of view, she said.
Members pointed out that the committee has been widely publicized. We reported weeks ago that no members of any minority groups even applied.
"It's an ongoing problem," said Glen Greenstreet. "It's a real problem. If we're an imperfect group doing an imperfect job, I think that's still better than stopping the process."
But a majority decided to spend the next few weeks making one last push to add diversity to the group. Read more about the meeting and what else the group said in Sunday's Chapel Hill News.
Mark Schultz
Mark Schultz is the editor of The Chapel Hill News and The Durham News, and one of the Western Triangle editors for The News & Observer.
Comments
Committees are bureaucratic baggage.
Sat, 07/11/2009 - 23:18 — ActLocalChapel Hill is the most committee-laden community that I have ever witnessed in my life. If there is a disagreement about anything, they appoint a committee. The process wears down whatever volunteer opposition there may be to the vested interests with money to be made. The watered-down resolution that emerges gets further dilluted by the money interests when it gets presented to the town council. A British wit said it best, "A committee is a cul-de-sac down which ideas are lured and then quietly strangled. " Is it any wonder that nobody wants to serve on these ridiculous execrises in futility? Next to meeting all year on a School Advisory Committee, only to have your input ignored, this has got to be the most thankless civic position imaginable. Would somebody please pass the cat-o'-nine-tails? I have better ways to spend my time!
Once again I think the
Fri, 07/10/2009 - 15:24 — anitabadrockOnce again I think the committee has been structured so that the "price of entry" is incredibly high. Meeting 2 times a month for several months for several hours at a time is a daunting commitment for a lot of people. Until we structure opportunities for citizens to participate that don't require the commitment to what is essentially a second job, it's going to be difficult for many of our residents to participate. People without the flexibility of a "professional" job, single parents, hospitality workers and owners, people with small kids, people who care for elderly parents after a long day of work, 2 job workers, shift workers---those are the voices you don't get in this kind of structure. I think Madeline's idea makes a lot of sense as a way to include people who need to be included, but who don't have the ability to put in literally hundreds of hours into this process.
Quite right, what to do?
Fri, 07/10/2009 - 17:35 — CitizenWillAnita, as I've tried to recruit new members the time commitment been a difficult sale. Part of the reason, at least for some of the folks I've been talking to, is because Council has a poor track record of late in using task forces to "bless" or "rubber stamp" their agenda instead of incorporating real citizen input. Given the effort required, busy citizens aren't interested in crafting a set of recommendations that are more akin to window dressing than substantive guideposts for future development.
I believe the work of this task force could be instrumental in moving our town forward on a more substainable, fiscally and socially responsible path. The current task force has quite a pool of talent to draw upon. Many are committed to making sure the work done is not tantamount to a rubber stamp of the way things have been done recently.
That said, we do need to broaden representation not just traditional axes.
Along those lines, I commend UNC-NOW's offer at the last meeting to help with child care. Here's a group of committed youth willing to put their sweat equity into making the process work. Quite laudable.
The next 5 weeks the Town, Council, task force will be working to fill those new six seats. I'm hoping we have as much success in filling the slate as has candidates for Mayor ;-) [4 now?]
Supreme Court
Thu, 07/09/2009 - 12:16 — landsharkThe supreme Court just said this action is not legal! Think about it when nominee Sonia Sotomayor come up for a vote!!!!!
Not clear
Fri, 07/10/2009 - 09:13 — fhblackon what you think the SCOTUS said was not legal and how it is relevant to this situation.
Is This Task Force Really Necessary?
Thu, 07/09/2009 - 11:13 — ClaudiusWhy don't we simply follow the development guidelines set forth in the Chapel Hill/Carrboro Long Range Transit Plan and be done with it?
The report seems to be well thought-out and very thorough -- and God knows we paid enough for it.
typical always ready to
Thu, 07/09/2009 - 10:23 — tboard47typical
always ready to complain about something but not willing to step up to the plate
where are you all?????
yes I mean where are the black volunteers?
put up... or shut up
This wins the prize
Fri, 07/10/2009 - 06:08 — tbucknerfor one of the most obnoxious and ignorant posts ever made on this forum. And that says a lot.