The need for pavement?
It’s hard to remember something is valuable when you have never seen it.
Read MoreOpinion
Op-Ed: Dangerous animals ordinance goes one step too far
Whose voices will be heard in Chapel Hill?
The Tyranny of the Minority
Three Hard Truths
Coal Ash Housing Betrays Our Core Values
Everything is Wilder in Texas
A Statement of Principles
A Message from Mayor Hemminger Concerning Redevelopment of 828 Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd
Endorsements Inc.
Like many others, I was perturbed and disappointed to read that five out of seven members of the Chapel Hill Town Council have endorsed Pam Hemminger for another term as mayor.
Open Letter to: Mayor and Town Council
First, I wish to thank mayor and council for the time and energy they have spent on Trinsic’s application for a Conditional Zoning Permit. It has become a deeply controversial process, aggravated and obscured by SARS-CoV2 restrictions on public meetings and information.
Shopping for Life Advice
Every parent wants to pass down words of sage advice to their graduating high schoolers. And while I’m currently on my last graduating high schooler, I’m still on the first draft…
Mammals on the Move
As spring progresses, we’re seeing more mammals on the move. Those whom we unfortunately see dead alongside — or on — roads often include members of the rodent group: groundhogs…
University Place in Chapel Hill is Open for Business
There’s a shopping center in Chapel Hill that’s fun to visit because many longtime Chapel Hill retailers are at the helm and their experience adds to the…
Historic Preservation
Historic preservation has been around forever. In one form or another, people have always wanted to maintain the past – the old homeplace – while at the same time inviting in the new.
The New Old Normal
It’s not over. The pandemic. But it’s close enough to almost being close enough to almost being close enough to being over. Or maybe it’s inching toward as-over-as-it’s-going-to-get land.
Masking Down in the New Not-Normal
For all y’all who’ve gotten your shots, and in light of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s new masking guidelines, this week I’m offering…
This Column is a Yawn
How can you get more zzzzs and feel more rested? And do you really want to wait till you get all the way to the end of the alphabet? As we have previously explained, good sleep is essential…
Let’s Go to the Beach
One of the benefits of living in North Carolina is our long, hospitable coast. From Corolla to Sunset Beach, miles of beaches with inviting names: Waves, Southern Shores, Emerald Isle.
Welcome to the Midway
The Chapel Hill-Carrboro border, one block east of where Franklin Street melds into Main Street, is home to a concentration of creative energy and retro-innovation where the businesses are chic…
The Pocket Shrine: Mom in a Matchbox
In my hand I hold a matchbox. The old school kind — wooden matches with cherry red tips inside. But that’s not all that’s in this matchbox, nor is setting a fire its function.
Thanks to Service and Hospitality Workers for Delivering Hope
This long and arduous year imposed on us and the world a darkness we have never known, but we…
Sleeping On It
We wake up in the morning and talk about how we couldn’t sleep during the night. My wife notes that she woke at 1:45, 3:19 and for good at 6:53. Competitive as always, I counter…
Post COVID Event Planning in Orange County, NC
North Carolina is continuing to see fast and fair vaccine distribution. Now as the weather heats up, inquiries to the Visitors Bureau have increased with a similar theme…
An Elusive Bird Draws Crowds
The Brumley Nature Reserves (North and South) are popular recreation sites for walkers, hikers, nature observers and birders. Springtime is especially nice when the birds fill the air…
Taking a Busman’s Holiday
With shots in arms and no ill effects and, thus, feeling giddy with liberation, good wife Lynne and I have done what so many other pent-up septuagenarians have done…
Bringing Tourism Back
Like spring itself, the world feels like it’s rising again, about to bloom in the coming summer sun. In this new and brighter light we have an opportunity to see what’s changed and how we can do what we did before in new and better ways…
Our Southern Spring Unfolds
I love the long unfolding of our Southern springs. My daughter, Lilli Brown, and I recite all the multisyllable Greek goddess-like names of the flowers as they emerge — camellia, hellebore…
Little Big Man 1967
The young boy sits astride his tricycle like a judge holding court. Barefoot, he affixes the photographer with an intelligent, penetrating gaze. Maybe he is thinking…
The Real College Deadline
By now, most kids in Chapel Hill and in other quaint little towns and big cities across America have already chosen their college. Or, if they’ve decided not to attend college, they’ve joined the military or, at the very least, have planned their next big bank heist.
Shaped by Black Lives Matter, UNC Student Greear Webb Watches Chauvin Trial and Asks: ‘What’s Next?’
The generation that grew up with Black Lives Matter — increasingly activist, attuned to inequity, see George Floyd’s case as an orienting point for…
Falling Into Place
As we get older, there are many challenges we have to deal with, including fading eyesight, failing memory and an inability to break dance. Then there is the risk of falling.
Roy’s Random Acts of Kindness
It’s there. You just have to look closely. Faded after all these years, the unmistakable signature. Roy Williams.
How Free Transit Works in Chapel Hill and Carrboro
Before the pandemic, an average of 7 million people a year used the Chapel Hill bus system.
Easter 1950
All dressed up for Easter Sunday church and holding a Bible, Nick Lauterer, posing heroically in a hand-me-down suit, grins at the camera with confidence and happiness.
Mobile Home Zoning Succeeds Elsewhere
Opinion: On March 10, Chapel Hill Town Council Member Hongbin Gu petitioned the council to consider a zoning change that would restrict the use of certain land, including the mobile home park on 1200 MLK Jr. Blvd…
The Boom in Zoom
Can you hear me? We’re Zooming for a friend’s virtual birthday party. We’re Zooming after months and months of Zooms — family Zooms, business Zooms, book club Zooms, doctor Zooms.
Orange County Condemns Asian Discrimination
Members of our community gathered last week on the Chapel Hill Post Office Plaza to remember…
Choose Wisely on AURA Proposal or Consign Us All to Gridlock
Opinion: When Chapel Hill’s mayor and Town Council members decide this spring whether to approve AURA, a large, dense new development at the northeast corner of MLK Jr. Boulevard and Estes Drive…
You’ve Got To Be Carefully Taught
As I was raised in the shadow of World War II and the Korean War, my first childhood impressions of Asians were negative: They were the enemy and to be feared.