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 Liberal Place: Carrboro, NC
These are comments on Carrboro, submitted by other Turn Left visitors. They do not necessarily represent the opinion of the webmaster. You may add a comment on Carrboro if you want.
 Carrboro, the
mill-town-turned- bedroom-community just next door to Chapel Hill, is smaller and
hipper; the mayor, Mike Nelson, is openly gay, and the vibe is more
pleasant (read: less student-y). There's a lot of talk about keeping affordable housing in CH
and Carrboro, but not a whole lot being done about it. In ten years,
most of the older mill houses (many of which are in long-standing black
neighborhoods) will be in the hands of upper middle class academic types
or folks working the techie jobs in Research Triangle Park. Ben &
Jerry's, Starbuck's, The Body Shop and the Gap have all recently come to
Franklin Street; it's hard not to see that as the wave of the future.
Still, there is a relatively strong community of musicians, artists and
other hipsters hanging around, and there's a slightly sheltered,
relatively safe feeling to the place, especially if you're a freak.
...and another comment...
We are honored to be recognized as a progressive community.
A couple of corrections and an update: Carrbororians do not care to have
our thriving little town referred to as a "bedroom community" we have a
unique and distinct character entirely apart from what some wags have referred
to as our 'imperialist neighbor to the east' with our own distinct, thriving
downtown which is host to Weaver Street Market, Carr Mill, the nationally
renowned Cat's Cradle night club, and many other locally owned and grown
small businesses. All of the creeping franchise stores mentioned in the
aboce comment are in fact, in Chapel Hill. As the writer mentioned, Talk
about the need for more affordable housing has been long, and action, short.
That is about to change. The Carrboro Board of Aldermen will soon consider
the first 'inclusionary housing ordinance' in North Carolina, which will
REQUIRE developers to build some smaller, more affordable homes in their
developments. I will be introducing the first draft of this ordinance next
week. So, welcome to Carrboro fellow progressives: Our town is working
hard to keep Carrboro a diverse and and inclusive place to live, work and
play. Stop on by, or visit us on the web at Jackie Helvey-Hayes' volunteer
web site, www.carrboro.com.
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