The management at Abbey Court condominiums has ceased directing its towing contractor to place immobilizing boots on the wheels of unauthorized vehicles after a tenant ran over his own foot last week because he didn’t realize his car had been booted.

“He opened the door to see why the car was not moving and didn’t realize the car was in reverse,” according to a police incident report. “The car lurched backwards and ran up on the curb, pulling [the driver] underneath.”

Emergency medical responders treated the victim at the scene for minor injuries.

The apartment management had been booting and towing vehicles that did not have valid parking permits. They wanted to make sure all vehicles parked in the Abbey Court lot belonged to residents there and met appearance standards.

Just got this release, and since Durham is just 20 minutes away ...

Bill Cosby is coming to the Durham Performing Arts Center Sunday, March 29, 2009 with two shows; 5 p.m. and 8:30 p.m. 

Ticket
prices range from $32 to $75 and tickets go on sale Friday, Nov. 21 at
10 a.m. through the venue box office 919-680-ARTS (2787) or online at
www.DPACnc.com or www.ticketmaster.com. Tickets are also available at
all Ticketmaster outlets, including Macy’s and Lowes Foods. DPAC
Broadway Carolina season ticket holders get the first chance to buy
tickets during a special pre-sale.

Cosby’s successes span five decades and virtually all media, according
to a release from the DPAC, remarkable accomplishments for a kid who
emerged from humble beginnings in a Philly project. In the 1960s, his
stand-up act was a coast-to-coast sensation, spawning a string of
hilarious, best-selling comedy albums, which went on to win eight Gold
Records, five Platinum records and five Grammy Awards. His role on TV’s
“I Spy” made him the first African-American to co-star in a dramatic
series, breaking television’s racial barrier and winning three Emmy
Awards. In the 1980s, he again impacted the television world with the
“The Cosby Show,” a gentle and hugely successful series that
single-handedly revived the family sitcom (and rescued NBC).  With hit
movies like “Uptown Saturday Night” and best-selling books like
“Fatherhood,” Bill Cosby is quite simply a national treasure with the
unique ability to touch people’s hearts.

The Durham Performing Arts Center is currently under construction
downtown in American Tobacco, adjacent to the Durham Bulls Athletic
Park. On track to open this November, the 2,800 seat theatre is home to
big shows, concerts, and Broadway Carolina, an authentic Broadway
experience direct-from-New York. Performances are booked through an
operating partnership between Professional Facilities Management and
the Nederlander Organization. This spectacular cultural landmark will
draw audiences to more than 100 shows each year with convenient access
off I-40, I-540 and I-85, and more than 3,500 parking spaces within
walking distance.

Here's a look at some stories coming in Sunday's paper.

HOME BREAK-INS: We've got a story in Saturday's N&O on Chapel Hill's year-end crime stats (not much change but home break-ins spiked.) Read more about crime and safety concerns in Chapel Hill and in Hillsborough. And tell Associate Editor Dave Hart whether you "Agree or Disagree" with our editorial on public safety priorities.

FIGHTING FIRE WITH FELT: After Sunday, you may never look at Chapel Hill Fire Chief Dan Jones the same way. Find out what the Fire Department, the Chapel Hill Museum and a bunch of puppets in a garbage can are doing to teach kids fire safety. 

GETTING ORGANIZED: Have you heard of the Orange County Organizing Committee? 400 people showed up for a  meeting on Rogers Road a few months ago. On Tuesday night, an 80-member leaders committee started getting down to work. Learn why Church of Recconciliation pastor Mark Davidson says it's the most exciting model for community organizing in his 27 years of ministry.

Letter writers sound off on butts, that Meadowmont office building and the feeding frenzy swirling around John Edwards. And a reader offers his proposal for how to pay for a freestanding Carrboro library. All that and more, and it's free.

Chapel Hill diners now have another option for reading material while they wait for their chicken shawarma or cappucino.

Yes, "Coffee News" has cropped up on Franklin Street.

I've only ever seen it before in Charlottesville, Va., but colleagues tell me you can find it in Durham too. It's distributed free at restaurants, where usually the only competition is reading the menu twice.

The light-brown single-sheet weekly publication is a franchise operation started by a Canadian woman, according to information on the parent company Web site:

"Coffee News originated in 1988 in Winnipeg, Manitoba (CAN) and is the brainchild of Jean Daum, an expert in, not only advertising itself, but super-learning and subliminal techniques as well -- many of which she designed and researched herself to make Coffee News one of the most potent, yet affordable advertising publications ever produced."

The site says the Orange County franchise started in April of this year.

The local Aug. 4 issue contains trivia, offbeat news items, quotations, horoscopes and lots and lots of advertisements.

But this isn't fresh Java: One item about an English hospital banning flowers (infection risk) appeared on the BBC last September, and another one about a 59-year-old college football player (Mike Flynt, Sul Ross State) was on the Associated Press wires last August.

More problems with parking at the Abbey Court condominiums brought police to the Carrboro complex twice on Monday.

Around 3 a.m. an officer helped emergency workers with a man who'd run over his own foot because he hadn't seen a parking boot.

Officer L. Alvarez wrote in a police report: "A boot was placed on Basurto`s car ...  Basurto didn't realize the boot was on the vehicle and attempted to drive the car.  He opened the door to see why the car was not moving and didn't realize the car was in reverse.  The car lurched backwards and ran up on the curb, pulling Basurto underneath. Basurto suffered minor injuries to his foot.  He was cleared by EMS. "

The second incident happened around 11 p.m. when a woman called police about her car being towed.

Officer M. Metz wrote: "The victim advised that she had attempted to go the office on the 4th of August 2008 at approximately 1700hrs and attempted get a parking pass for her vehicle but the property manager, Deedee Gill, wasn't in the office. Mrs. Ramos advised that the assistant told her that she couldn't help and that she needed to speak with Ms. Gill. Ms. Ramos explained to me that she had already obtained a parking pass for her other vehicle but the vehicle that Chandler`s Towing was towing was refused a parking pass because of a cracked windshield. ... Ms. Gill explained to us that she needed to take a picture of the vehicle and send it to the home office to get approval to give Ms. Ramos a parking pass. When I asked Ms. Gill why her assistant didn't take the picture, Ms. Gill could not give me an explanation."

Ramos paid $50 to have her car unhooked from the wrecker, Metz wrote.

The background:
Chandler's Towing has removed a number of vehicles from the condominiums off Jones Ferry Road since management began enforcing a new policy July 17.

Tar Heel Cos. now requires parking stickers on vehicles and had been giving them only to residents whose cars met strict appearance standards. Vehicles that did not pass a visual inspection or whose owners could not produce required paperwork were denied parking stickers, leading many residents and community members to claim discrimination. The Orange County Office of Human Rights and Relations is investigating.

Last week the Carrboro Board of Aldermen voted to limit towing fees in the town.

Tar Heel Cos. management have said the appearance standards would be relaxed, and that the company hasn't been discriminating against anyone.

In the spirit of public records, we bring you this citizen's petition e-mailed Friday to the Chapel Hill Town Council:

"Chapel Hill has led the nation in such matters as the first black mayor of a Southern city, and the recent renaming of Airport Road [editor's note: for Martin Luthern King Jr.]

"It is only fitting that again we show national leadership so characteristic of this Southern Part of Heaven by giving proper recognition to the accomplishments of our president.

"I hereby petition the Council to rename our sewage disposal unit the George W. Bush Center."

J.A. Davis, Ph.D. 

Here are some numbers from the Chapel Hill Public Library.

The number of visits to the library, 394,147, was down just slightly in 2007-08, from about 1,087 per day to about 1,080 per day.

But the number of books and other items being checked out per visit was up.

Circulation was up 3.6 percent in 2007-8.

That's about twice the
growth rate of recent years, says director Kathleeen Thompson.

Children's circulation was up 5.8 percent.

Total circulation was 911,084. "That's huge," says Thompson.

Reserves -- the library recently eliminated its reservation fee -- were also up, 12.9 percent.

You may remember Chapel Hill Mayor Kevin Foy asked for -- but did not get -- any more money from the county in this year's budget process.

About 40 percent of library users live outside Chapel Hill, and the county's funding has remained frozen at $250,000 for several years.

As for the coming expansion, look for it sometime in the spring of 2009. The library is going to more than double in size, from 27,000 to 68,000 square feet.

The caller wanted to know whom she could talk to vent. I told her she could start with me.

"It's just disgusting you would put that in your paper," she said.

She was talking about a photo in Sunday's Chapel Hill News of a man building a stone wall on East Franklin Street. The man looks Latino, and the caller believes he's an illegal immigrant taking away jobs from tradesmen like her husband, a mason. I asked how she knew the man in the photo was here illegally. 

"Well, you know as well as I do," she said.

She was upset. She was shouting. I told her to stop yelling but to keep talking. She said stone masonry used to be an art (Chapel Hill is known for its stone walls; that's why I assigned the picture after seeing it on my drive to work.) 

"I like it that we're liberal," the caller said. "It's just disgusting you would put that in your paper."

Her husband's job is not a job that Americans don't want, she continued. "We're at the point where we almost have to move out of the county."

I could hear shouting in the background. "I hate you guys too!" I can't repeat what else the male voice said, but his mother said that was her son. "He's mad  because we can't pay for him to go to college."

I wasn't going to argue with the caller. It wasn't necessary. She was giving us feedback, and all feedback helps. Sometimes we listen for facts, and sometmes we listen for emotions. It's all truth.

A consultant's feasibility report says a one- or two-story structure could be built above the Wallace Parking Deck in downtown Chapel Hill.

The report shows the deck's original 1991 design, which was always meant to support a 10,000 to 12,000 square foot addition, is still valid. The probable cost of construction would run $200 per square foot. (That's $2 million for the math-challenged.) 

Kidzu, the children's museum on Franklin Street, wanted to move into the old post office space around the corner from the parking deck. That's not going to happen, given the needs of the court system that shares the building. But they'd probably go for the deck space, though they say they also have a site in Carrboro they're looking at.

Town Council member Bill Strom leads the committee that received the feasibility study this week, and he and the other two members present Thursday are Kidzu fans. But deciding what goes up there goes beyond the committee's scope.

"The council's gonna have to sort this out," Strom says. "The possibilities are endless." 

Here's a look at some of the stories coming in Sunday's paper:

TOWING LIMITS: The Carrboro Board of Aldermen voted last night to limit how much tow truck operators can charge in the town. The board's unanimous vote comes in response to problems at Abbey Court Condomniums. If you want to read more about that, scroll down a few posts.

TOWERING ACHIEVEMENT: We liked staff photographer Harry Lynch's photo of workers erecting the Greenbridge tower crane (page 5, Thursday's N&O), we're printing it again, bigger and in color. Also, read Associate Editor Dave Hart's editorial on what the big blue ladder in the sky means, and use our new "Agree or Disagree" feature to tell us what you think.

THE CITY TAP: Read about downtown Pittsboro's latest hangout, The City Tap bar, and its avant garde decor (and bartender). 300 people showed up opening night, and you know, it' s not as far from Chapel Hill-Carrboro as you might think.

There's lots more. Tuesday's NEIGHBORHOOD NIGHT OUT. Carrboro High School has a NEW PRINCIPAL, and correspondent Debbie Meyer brings you her TAILS OF TWO CITIES pets column. And of course, there's sports and your letters.

Have a great weekend, and thanks for reading.

Mark Schultz

Editor