In most of North Carolina, library systems are countywide, paid for by all county residents, open to all county residents.

However, things aren’t usually normal in Orange County. Here we have little political fiefdoms, each intent on spending your money like drunken sailors on shore leave.

Currently there are two separate library systems in Orange County. One is a county system (OCPL) that is available to all county residents. The main OCPL facility is a brand spanking new, 23,500 square feet, two story building at 137 W. Margaret Lane in Hillsborough with a small branch in Carrboro.

The new $8,000,000 facility was built at a time of great economic hardship. Official policy is to excuse the timing of such expenditures as being beneficial to economically stressed taxpayers. In the words of the North Carolina’s state librarian, Ms. Mary Boone, “We're all worried about the economy and our future well-being. During economic downturns, usage of public libraries always increases. That is very much the case this time; we're seeing a dramatic increase, and nationally library usage is at an all-time high.” (See CHN Hillsborough Library Story.)

The other system is the Chapel Hill public library (CHPL), the most per capita used library in the state. However, only 60% of the CHPL service is by Chapel Hill Residents. A large percentage of the CHPL service goes to benefit adjacent Carrboro residents. That burden is forcing Chapel Hill government to consider raising taxes by about $30.00 annually in order to pay for operating costs. Although Orange County provides money to Chapel Hill for the CHPL operations, it’s only about 11% of the CHPL operating budget while the outside Chapel HIll demand is 40% of the services.

Carrboro Mayor Mark Chilton doesn't like being asked to pay for services used by his residents. When asked about meeting with Chapel Hill Mayor Mark Kleinschmidt, Mr. Chilton said, “I suppose we have to, although I do not look forward to it. I am no way – no how – never going to vote to put Carrboro into the same dysfunctional relationsip with either the County or Chapel Hill that the two of them already have with each other.” Mayor Chilton, an expert in dysfunctional relationships, prefers to create his own.

According to Mr. Chilton, Carrboro can't afford to pay for using Chapel Hill's library. Acording to Mr. Chilton, Chapel Hill and Orange County should open a branch on Franklin Street, “putting library services in walking distance of much of the population, including low-income people of color who might have difficulty getting to libraries farther out.” (See CHN Library Story.) Curiously, Mr. Chilton is unaware that low income people of color can take a free bus ride from their neighborhoods to the library which is a distance of about two miles. Apparently, the race card is still a trump card in Chapelboro.

Mr. Chilton conveniently forgets to mention that he has been seeking a $2,700,000 OCPL branch in Carrboro, to be located all of about two miles away from the CHPL facility. (See Chilton Coleman Guest Column.) This branch palace will bear additional operating costs to the county.

Meanwhile, Chapel Hill Councilor Laurin Easthom isn't happy. “I suppose it is dysfunctional that we’ve been paying for Carrboro’s use of the library all these years. Where’s Carrboro in the picture? Why is it always our burden?” (See Herald Sun CHPL Story.)

No word on whether or not Alderman Dan Coleman will offer to screen Carrboro residents using the CHPL facility - ”Are you from Carrboro?”

In most of North Carolina (and the East Cost for that matter), people recognize that the natural ecological balance is way out of whack with regards to deer populations. The removal of predators has been met with increased suburban vegetation as a food source and decreased hunting pressures. Deer populations must be controlled to re-establish forest ecosystems. One method in the “eco-quiver” is controlled bow hunting in urban areas.

However, southern Orange County isn’t like the rest of North Carolina. Here it’s all about what makes you feel good. Killing Bambi's doe mother doesn’t feel good. Just because you’re a self-acclaimed “environmentalist” doesn’t mean you care about things like forest ecosystems more than saving Bambi's mother. In the world of Orange Progressive politics, science is the handmaiden of feel good environmental public policy, not the other way around.

Back in the real world, Dr. Emile DeVito, a conservation ecologist and Manager of Science and Stewardship for the New Jersey Conservation Foundation, states we are facing an ecological disaster from the deer overbrowsing. “Land managers are aware of the catastrophic impact of super-abundant deer on tree regeneration and the loss of biodiversity in the metropolitan New York region’s herbaceous forest wildflowers. Now another phenomenon, the loss of the woody shrub layer, has reached a critical stage across most of the region (outside the New Jersey Pine Barrens).”

The good news is that the damage is repairable. “In the Watchung Reservation, a parkland area in Union County, N.J., fencing that has kept deer out for 13 years has helped promote the regrowth of native woody trees and shrubs and perennial herbaceous plants in spots that had absolutely zero visible native plants in the understory when the fences — called exclosures — were erected in 1995.

These new areas of forest understory are dense and shade the ground, and they are suppressing invasive alien species that were abundant at the time of fencing. There is variation between plots; in some locations alien species are still common. But in every plot native species are now the dominant vegetation. In fact, in some locations — in the deep shade cast by native, regenerating trees — shrubs and wildflowers are outcompeting alien weeds!

It is clear that the only way to give our forests a chance to recover from both overbrowsing by deer and alien plant invasions is a two-step approach: 1. a drastic reduction in the deer herd, to a level so low as to achieve the functional equivalent of an exclosure (winter deer populations must be about 5 per square mile for a drastically damaged forest to begin to recover), and 2. the collection of local native seeds by local master gardeners or other volunteers, with associated gardening programs to re-introduce the native shrub layer where it cannot return on its own.”

How overcrowded are local woods with deer?

According to Duke University professor Norm Christensen, there wasn't a deer in sight 38 years ago when he began a long career studying the ecosystem of Duke Forest. Now, deer are so abundant they've inserted themselves into his research. (North Carolina's deer population has increased from about 670,000 in 1984 to more than 1.25 million in 2007, according to the N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission.)

In the 7000 acre Duke Forest just north of Chapelboro, it was estimated in 2009 that about 900 “Deermowers” munch their way through the understory. Duke held a hunt to remove about 100 deer. However, even at 800 deer, that equates to about 70 deer per square mile, 14 times the optimal goal of 5 for restoring an ecosystem, as advocated by Dr. DeVito.

Local “Bambicologists” decry even these modest attempts. According to Ms. Jane Norton, a sustainability educator, who moved to be near Duke Forest 22 years ago, there aren’t too many deer. ”I care about all of nature and think it's imperative…to live in harmony with the natural world. I think our purpose on this earth is to learn from nature. I don't believe in playing God.”

Chapel Hill is overpopulated with Bambicologists eating the understory from your fiscal house as well. So it should come as no surprise to Pulpsters that the town council stands ready to shoot down a proposal for an urban deer hunt within city limits. Councilor Sally Greene said, “I cannot support an urban archery program, no way, no how.” Councilor Lauren Easthom said, ”I'm sensitive to this issue, but I can't support anything in town that involves archery and residents.” (See Chapel Hill Herald Bambicology Story.)

Of course, it's too much to expect Councilors Easthom and Greene to overcome their ignorance and biases against an urban archery hunt. Apparently, it never occurred to them that the hunt is conducted from an elevated tree stand, and that the arrow shot is made at usually about 20 yards, in a decidedly downward trajectory. It's not like archery practice at the local Girl Scout camp.

Back in the real world, Dr. DeVito suggest the following steps be taken when confronted with deer overpopulation. “Deer reduction can only occur with drastic changes to deer management, such as:
1. tax credits or other monetary incentives for every female deer (doe) harvested by an individual.
2. doe harvest requirements for landowners who receive a preferential, lowered property tax assessment for engaging in forestry programs that protect natural resources. Without aggressive management to reduce doe abundance, forestry programs have little chance of success in regenerating trees and other forest components. Deer fences may be substituted for hunting programs, where surrounding lands are not accessible to hunters.
3. economic incentives for municipalities and counties to initiate doe control programs.
4. legalizing the sale of local venison for food and hides for small manufacturing enterprises.
5. free butchering of deer for venison donations to homeless shelters.
6. other changes and innovations that represent thinking 'out of the box.' ”

As pointed out by Dr, DeVito, not only does restoring the deer population balance increase biodiversity, it also increases the absorption of storm runoff and decreases erosion and siltation of water courses.

Bambi and his kind needn’t worry about destroying Orange County ecosystems as long as they remain cute and don't bite. Public policy will be bent towards feelings over facts.

Oh, they should also keep a Democratic Party affiliation.

To those who don’t have intolerant ideology and blind partisanship coursing through their veins, the moral and ethical way to fill a panel elective seat that's vacated before the election, but vacated after the filing period for that election, is to have the highest vote getter not elected to the panel to receive the vacant seat.

However, Orange County is all about intolerant ideology and blind partisanship.

Back in 2005, Carrboro had an alderman seat vacated by the election of the new mayor. The fourth highest vote getter for the three open alderman seats was Ms. Katrina Ryan. She didn’t receive the open seat. Instead, Mr. Dan Coleman moved from Chapel Hill into Carrboro and didn’t bother to file to run for alderman office. Instead he just had to lobby a handful of elected officials to be awarded the seat. How progressive!

In 2009 history has repeated the Orange Progressive tradition. Mr. Bill Strom went RVing, leaving his Chapel Hill town council seat vacant after the move permanently out of state one month BEFORE the filing period for an election that could have filled his seat. Six votes decided who would get Mr. Strom’s seat. How progressive!

The Chapel Hill Town Council gave the seat to Ms. Donna Bell, the latest political anointee. Ms. Bell, like Mr. Coleman, didn’t bother to run for office in November. Like Mr. Coleman, she and her husband, euro-Causcasian Mr. Jason James, only had to lobby the council to win. She didn’t have to campaign for months. She didn’t have to participate in any political election forum. She didn’t have to raise money. She didn’t have to write up any position statements.

She did have to write her good buddy, new Mayor Mark Kleinschmidt a one page letter asking for the seat. Why was Ms. Bell so much better qualified than Mr. Matt Pohlman, the highest vote getter (about 3400) not winning a council seat?

Race, the answer boils down to race. Ms. Bell is African-American. Mr. Pohlman is not. With the council’s only African American member (Mr. Thorpe) retiring, and with no African-American candidates bothering to run for office, the answer is clear to progressives. Racism is best fought by being racist.

Councilor Laurin Easthom displayed her famous insightful powers. She said her vote as a council member was more important than the about 3400 Chapel Hill voters voting for Mr. Pohlman. It must be a diifficult burden to live with so much self-importance.

Ms. Bell’s support of Mr. Kleinschmidt’s mayoral run had nothing to do with her appointment. Her contributions of time and money to Mayor Kleinschmidt, her name endorsement in ads, her distribution of campaign literature had nothing to do with her appointment. It's about race. You either are of the right race for maintaining cosmetic diversity, or you aren't.

Showing great fairness, every town council member personally called and “interviewed” Ms. Bell, while only four contacted Mr. Pohlman, none in earnest.

Showing his great wisdom, Mr. Kleinschmidt said, ”This is not a decision that is going to make everyone happy in the moment we make it. We just have to hope that once we make a decision that the service the person provides will be able to dissipate that anger.” It's like executing the wrong person for the right reason.

Whereas, a rose by any other name shall smell as sweet, can the same be said of the homeless? Chapelboro is proud to open its arms to illegal immigrants (as long as they live in the Carrboro barrio). Who doesn’t welcome low cost, low skill talents to sweep one’s floors, groom one’s garden and clean one’s bidets?

So, it’s just a little embarrassing when that same warm and fuzzy embrace doesn’t extend to Chapel Hill’s homeless, the more permanent of whom combine low cost and low skill with the extra advantage of low productivity.

Outgoing mayor Kevin Foy and Councilor Laurin Easthom were not happy when Chapel Hill citizens dared to make it “personal” when discussing housing 52 homeless people in a shelter to be built at the corner of Homestead Road and MLK Boulevard.

A video of the too personal festivities can be seen at the town website.

According to long-time Chapel Hill homeless resident Mr. Michael Davis, ”Someone needs to come in and take it from them and redistribute it. You may not want us in downtown Chapel Hill, but we need to be somewhere so that we can access the services we need.”

Dr. Bhupendra Sen was not impressed. He believes that homeless men loitering around Homestead Park would compromise safety for retirees and young families nearby. ”Many of them are criminals, including rapists. There are also drug addicts and alcoholics.”

Mr. Ken Brown seemed to be troubled by having grown men hanging around children. ”That is asking for double the trouble. Loitering by grown men in a public park and near preschool and after-school programs … is not a good idea, whether you're talking about homeless men or not.”

Perhaps if the Chapel Hill town council referred to the “homeless” as “illegal [domestic] immigrants”, then the cumbayah circle can close and the tingling can begin.

No word on when Ms. Easthom will invite some of the homeless to join her in her hirsute pursuits.

Shades of the 605 West Main development debacle in Carrboro have come to Chapel Hill, but, of course, on a much grander scale. Not quite two years ago, the Chapel Hill governance board approved a mixed use village type project called East 54. Now that the “cruise ship” buildings have docked, rising six stories from the ground, in their permanent berths alongside NC 54, those same enthusiastic approvers of East 54 are hedging their bets.

What Is East 54?
East 54 is a new “luxury urban village” built on NC 54 at the old site of the University Inn. Developer dream team pal East West Partners (Mr. Roger Perry, Meadowmont developer and UNC trustee) is the lead group building another Chapel Hill mixed use village having 113,000 square feet of class-A office space and 60,000 square feet of retail space. These spaces support about 400,000 square feet of residences. At an average of 1300 square feet per residence, that’s over 300 residences.

Pulpsters can take a virtual tour of the coming 580,000 square foot luxury urban village that’s about half the area size of the Durham SouthPoint mall.

It’s SO Big!
That anyone who approved the project is now surprised by what’s being built is a condemnation of the town of Chapel Hill’s land development approval process. The sketches glibly tossed around at the East 54 approval are not binding on what the developer builds. What you see at a development approval public hearing has nothing to do with what you will get. (The Carrboro Board of Alderman found that out when 605 West Main was built and roundly condemned for its appearance.)

Developers don’t have to get approval for the style, elevations aesthetics, or facades of what they build.

According to Town Councilor Mark Kleinschmidt, a dense devotee, ”It's challenging for me when I see these buildings going up because they are so large. Just seeing something of that size go up, I think it's emotionally evocative because the change on its face seems so great. … My emotional response is, 'Wow, that's so big.'.”

Mr. Kleinschmidt offers no explanation why he or anyone else didn't know how “big”, big really was.

Fellow Town Councilor and dense devotee Laurin Easthom said people “did not realize how big and how dense and how much that has changed that particular area. I'm hearing that a lot. When I drive down that road, it's just a total change visually to the skyline.”

Ms. Easthom offers no explanation why she or anyone else should be surprised.

Faith In The Catechism of Density
Dense is as dense does. Chapel Hill Mayor Foy wants people to know, the town governance board really knows what it’s doing.

”Is that going to line 54 in and out of Chapel Hill? Are those the kinds of projects that are going to line Martin Luther King from downtown to 40? Is that what our future looks like? No, it doesn't have buildings lining all of those corridors. It's much more focused than that. I think people need the assurance that we've thought this through. The council has not just plopped down density just in a random fashion. [East 54] has been approved because it was within walking distance of a proposed transit stop.”

Mr. Perry, who is being rewarded handsomely by the approval of East 54 by Mr. Foy and company, believes that a dense future is the only option. ”I think the vast majority of the people in this community recognize that this is the kind of development that needs to occur on transit corridors. … This town's drawn an urban growth boundary around itself. The only way it's going to be able to survive as an economically sustainable community is with dense development.”

Mr. Perry doesn’t explain how Chapelboro will ever be able to get beyond being a factory town beholding to UNC. As such, Chapelboro can never be economically sustainable. UNC draws its economic marrow from the bones of 99 other counties in the state. By definition, can't be a sustainable economy except by the legislative fiat of state taxation.

Faith In The Catechism of Light Rail
Although there is no funded light rail transit system for the Chapelboro area and there's no rail at all along NC 54 in Chapelboro, the town of Chapel Hill has faith that it's coming. According to Town Councilor Bill Strom said projects like East 54 can pave the way for a “more robust” mass transit system. ”It's a change in the development pattern, but the guiding principle there is that it is at a regional rail stop. In order to get federal and state support for these projects, you have to have density organized in a way that promotes ridership.”

Mr. Perry's town governance pals are working diligently towards getting a commuter rail station built behind East 54 at taxpayer expense.

Infiltration Of The Heretics
But hereteical winds of change are blowing. For the first time in a very long time, not all members of the Chapel Hill governance board are true believers in dense growth for growth sakes. Town Councilor Matt Czajkowski, who wasn’t a board member at the time of the East 54 approval said “Virtually all the reaction I get to East 54 is negative. Clearly, that tract was going to get redeveloped, but developed with these monoliths right along the highway? That block the view of the hill, of Chapel Hill? That cast a shadow on the road? Is that what we want?”

Newest Town Councilor Jim Merritt, appointed to replace the late Bill Thorpe in October, and thus, not a board member at the time of the East 54 approval, has also heard complaints. He attended a forum last weekend for Glen Lennox residents, another community under dense growth assault. In his words, ”I'm not sure that was the appropriate place to put something that large. It's quite a bit of development there, just coming into the town of Chapel Hill.”

(See Chapel Hill News East 54 Story.)

As reported in April 2008 in the Pulp (see Pulp Exposer Expose), civil rights are important to Orange Progressive politicians. Not in the manner of Dr. King marching in Memphis for the rights of municipal workers, but in the manner of browbeating municipal workers (the local police) not to do their jobs.

Rogue Councilor Matt Czajkowski, continuing his streak of not drinking the Orange Progressive Cool-Aid, raised the specter that Chapel Hill may not have a monopoly on good governance, in general, and may not have workable solutions to unwanted public behavior such as public urination, public shouting of obscenities, or public genital exhibition, in particular. As can be seen on video (see Chapel Hill Meeting Video at the five hour mark), on 25 June 2008 Mr. Czajkowski spoke up about people not wanting to visit Franklin Street. He spoke about finding successful, proven ways to counteract unwanted public behavior downtown.

The bastions of Orange Progressive civil rights, Councilors Easthom, Greene, and Kleinschmidt acted as if Mr. Czajkowski had publicly urinated on the council table.

In a surreal demonstration as to how “reasonableness” is considered “unreasonable” in southern Orange, Councilor Greene led the charge by going off on the assertion that “it's already been done”. She did so without once admitting that there is a real problem with unwanted public behavior in downtown Chapel Hill.

Councilor Easthom bemoaned the problem as not being one of irresponsible behavior for which an individual should be held accountable. For her, the problem is one of the social condition imposed by society on an individual. Apparently, homelessness induces public urination lewdness, and obscenity.

But the piece de resistance of surreal argument belongs to Councilor Mark Kleinschmidt. He used Mr. Czajkowski giving the example of a “street person” shouting public obscenities as “proof” of Mr. Czajkowski being biased against street people in terms of their civil rights. Without Mr. Czajkowski having said anything like that either directly or indirecty, Councilor Kleinschmidt had no compunction in charging Councilor Czajkowski with being only against unwanted public behavior by street people. Apparently, Councilor Kleinschmidt feels that if 95% of the public urination is caused by a small minority of people, then implementing effective ordinances against public urination by those people would be a violation of their civil rights.

Pulpsters remember that Mr. Kleinschmidt previously has marched down to Chapel Hill Police Department headquarters and read the riot act… to the police concerning a gentlemen in a wheelchair who has publicly urinated in front of children at Kidzu. To Mr. Kleinschmidt, the rights of a serial lewd pervert demand more protection than the rights of young children.

No word on when room and board at their home will be offered the Franklin Street flasher by either Councilor Easthom, Greene, or Kleinschmidt.

With all the furor over Chapel Hill Councilors voting to give themselves (since rescinded) health benefits most citizens don’t have and, even more amazingly, benefits even town part-time employees don’t have (see Pulp Healthcare Benefits Recission Story and Pulp Healthcare Benefits Heavy Lifting Story ), Councilor Laurin Easthom has sleuthed around and found the source of discontent. It’s the vaunted and powerful Chapel Hill Republican lobby which has the enviable record of having no registered Republican holding a local office at least since Reconstruction, if then.

In a guest editorial in the local real estate advertiser, Ms. Easthom showed true Orange Progressive leadership. She didn’t explain why she thought she was owed free health care. She didn’t explain why she thought using the consent agenda process to stop public debate was okay. (All she had to do was ask Mayor Kevin Foy to remove the healthcare item off the consent agenda before the vote and there would have been discussion.) She didn’t explain why holding office in Chapel Hill has been shape-shifted from public service into public gain.

Ms. Easthom believes that the healthcare item “has been completely overblown”. She goes further, “Some of those who have been the most outspoken, and continue to criticize and continue to threaten to put out petitions on items other than health care, are Republicans.” For Ms. Easthom, “[t]he fire was indeed started, but I think it is continuing to be fueled by a group of individuals who would love nothing more than to “stick it” to the council and pave the way for their candidates next year to run. It just makes me want to run more.”

Unfortunately, Ms. Easthom failed to note that Chapel Hill elections are non-partisan.

On 14 May 2008, Chapel Hill Town Councilor Matt Czajkowski revealed once again that he’s not taking his political medications. He confused local town financing of elections with a guaranteed means for subsidizing incumbent campaigns.

Councilor Czajkowski got into a tussle with guardian of the civil right to micturate publicly, guardian of the civil right to expose genitalia publicly, and executive director of yet another local tax-exempt organization Councilor Mark Kleinschmidt. According to the stellar logic of Mr. Kleinschmidt, ensuring a candidate’s viability by requiring an unknown challenger to get a large number of contributors before receiving public money will increase the chances for a diversity of opinion on the town board. Mr. Kleinschmidt (an incumbent up for re-election next year and anticipating recipient of a taxpayer campaign subsidy) didn’t address the difference in difficulty between an unknown challenger reaching this goal and a well-known incumbent reaching this goal.

Town Councilor Laurin Easthom (also up for re-election next year and anticipating recipient of a taxpayer campaign subsidy) backed up Mr. Kleinchmidt in his circular thinking. Ms. Easthom, an apparently self-described not-as-privileged licensed realtor, licensed dentist, and amazingly low $460,000 assessed value, 4000 square foot homeowner in the Larkspur subdivision, raised the politics of envy by charging Mr. Czajkowski as being ”luckier” financially than most Chapel Hill citizens.

No word on whether or not the rest of the council will seek judicial authority to administer medications forcibly to Councilor Czajkowski.

No word on when the Councilors will file full financial disclosure statements to show just “how lucky” each has been in life.

See Pulp Czajkowski Transfer Tax Story.