Community

It’s a new year, there’s a new president and new vaccines are becoming available. What are some community members now hoping for?

More local residents than ever before have been unable to pay their water bill.

The Inter-Faith Council for Social Services’ new facility, IFC Commons, is officially open.

The Rev. Dr. William Barber presented those attending Chapel Hill-Carrboro NAACP’s Annual Service in Commemoration of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. on Monday with a specific charge.

Carl Fox, a retired senior resident superior court judge, said the COVID-19 pandemic has divided the nation into two distinct categories: “One group believing in science and facts,” Fox said, “advocating the use of masks, social distancing and frequent hand washing and other hygiene.

COVID, a racial reckoning, the election, the economy, and more COVID. Our community — like most — has been devastated, the virus cases piling up, our streets deserted, our campus shut, our schools closed, our distances kept. But, somehow, despite what a year it’s been, at the end of it all, we’ve made it through. How have you made it through?

Since the coronavirus pandemic began, Orange County’s Housing Hotline has been consistently receiving up to 1,000 calls for assistance a month. The Emergency Housing Assistance Program has been receiving about 300 applications a month.

Local patients with serious illnesses will be able to receive medical care at home through a new UNC Health initiative. 

The new year, especially considering how the old year transpired, brings new hopes and some daunting challenges for the towns of Carrboro and Chapel Hill.

Residents of four mobile home parks, comprising 162 units on prime real estate in northern Chapel Hill, live under the threat of being “depopulated” to make way for redevelopment. And the Chapel Hill Town Council can do little to intervene.

Orange County Living Wage formed in a living room because of Dillon. Well, at least because of his rule. The U.S. Congress last raised the federal minimum wage, to $7.25 an hour, in July 2009.

Krista Zelt Caraway of the Vineyard Square neighborhood has figured out a way to give local residents a little extra cheer this challenging holiday season.

Current and former students at UNC, called “hardened drug dealers,” have been arrested for trafficking in thousands of pounds of marijuana, hundreds of kilograms of cocaine, LSD, molly, mushrooms, steroids, HGH, Xanax and other narcotics.

The COVID-19 pandemic has decimated tourism in Chapel Hill, leaving the town with not only a different look — empty hotels and bars, deserted streets — but with a major drop in tourism revenue.

What helped you make it through the tumultuous, difficult, chaotic, isolating 12 months that have been 2020? That’s the question we asked you, and here are your answers.

While most students in the community have been attending remote classes and socially distancing from their peers, four local teens have spent some of December together, in-person. They have been creating art for the Town of Carrboro.

he first wave of housekeepers would come at 6 a.m., during the last hour of a shift cleaning UNC classrooms and dorms, and sift through the offerings waiting in 10-gallon Rubbermaid bins.

An Emily Dickinson or Jane Austen-styled book purse. A book nerd quilt. Personal book selections from the library director. These are some of the selections in the inaugural Beautifully Bookish Online Auction sponsored by the Friends of the Chapel Hill Public Library.

If a bike is on your child’s Christmas list this year, you may want to write a letter to Santa. Since the COVID-19 pandemic hit in early 2020, the demand for bikes has surged, locally and nationally, while the manufacture of bikes and bike parts — largely done overseas — has slowed.

They came to remember the man and to recall the appalling circumstances of his death. And they came to ask that justice finally be done. Dozens gathered Saturday in honor of James Cates, a Black resident of the Northside neighborhood, who was murdered exactly 50 years earlier.

Fifty years after his death, local residents, the Town of Chapel Hill and the University of North Carolina are honoring the life of James Cates — and trying to uncover how and why he died.

Olivia Rupkalvis always had dogs growing up. She describes herself as a “huge animal person” who volunteered frequently with animal shelters during high school. Although she wanted a dog while attending UNC, as a college student she did not have enough money.

Melody Kramer was filled with energy as she got out of her car that early October morning. The Chapel Hill resident was nervous, just as she was before giving birth years earlier.

Mrs. Herta could not have or attend an August birthday party in the middle of COVID-19.

The Chapel Hill Housing Advisory Board will now look to promote racial equity when it evaluates and determines funding for affordable housing projects.

The scariest monster of Halloween 2020 is the one no one can see. The risk of spreading the invisible COVID-19 virus with typical door-to-door “trick or treating” (not to mention indoor parties or even hayrides and tractor rides with people you don’t know), could pose a serious threat.

It’s a spooky time. Oh, and it’s also almost Halloween. Franklin Street won’t be closed off to traffic, and crowds of thousands won’t be gathering…

People interested in donating to Orange County Rape Crisis Center last year could attend two in-person events: an auction gala and Punk Cuts to End Rape.

A hospital offers a glimpse into the best and worst parts of the human experience. DooR to DooR is a program at UNC Hospitals that infuses the arts with medicine to provide holistic healthcare to patients, and to brighten the days of staff and family members.