
Community Convention Culminates in Three Big Bold Ideas
On November 7, 2019, the Big Bold Ideas Steering Committee convened 175 diverse delegates from across the Greater Chapel Hill-Carrboro Community for the Big Bold Ideas Community Convention, a milestone event in the collective goal-setting venture called Big Bold Ideas. Through the four-hour convention, the community gathered, selected, and united around the following three big bold priorities for collective action in the years ahead:
The Chamber’s Annual Meeting on January 31, 2020.
Read the release
On November 7, 2019, the Big Bold Ideas Steering Committee convened 175 diverse delegates from across the Greater Chapel Hill-Carrboro Community for the Big Bold Ideas Community Convention, a milestone event in the collective goal-setting venture called Big Bold Ideas. Through the four-hour convention, the community gathered, selected, and united around the following three big bold priorities for collective action in the years ahead:
- Create Dramatically More Affordable Housing
- Increase all Students' Performance and Close the Achievement Gap
- Accelerate Innovation and Workforce Development
The Chamber’s Annual Meeting on January 31, 2020.
Read the release
Scroll down to review all 500+ original ideas
- Resources for investigative journalism have been drying up. Support investigative reporting in local or state media
- Uncover history of enslaved African Americans + Native Americans in the area; erect monuments/publish history that honors them & educates us
- Work w/developers+ elected officials to incentivize making arts spaces in future developments:density, in-fill, transportation adjacent, etc
- Substantially increase the public art in very public places. Huge, memorable, public art.
- Single venue for music and performing arts to house instruction, performance, and restaurant space with broadcast capabilities.
- Have an annual cultural fair on Franklin Street, in order to gain an appreciation for the rich cultures that make our community so special.
- Artist space like Golden Leaf in Durham
- Create an online community newspaper that will intensely cover Chapel Hill government, economy and culture.
- More public art spaces
- Consumer based art center
- Prioritize the weird
- Cultural center with regional influence
- Convert the current police station building into live/work space for artists
- A vibrant downtown anchored by a world class art and performance center (on parking lot 2?)
- Create a center for arts and culture for the city consumers and creators
- SUPPORT OUR CREATIVES!
- Determine feasibility of recreating a Chapel Hill museum that can reflect, [internally?] the history of our town, be a major draw for visitors
- Find more studio space for artists
- Music in the air
- Create a museum that would highlight the accomplishments of African Americans in CH/Orange before we forget how we got here.
- Create more arttainment in CH
- CH museum that exhibits community history more broadly than it is now
- Put clash space in Amity Station building
- More community-shared experiences/celebrations
- Continued engagement and fun events
- Reclaim Chapel Hill/Carrboro as a live music destination to increase tourism and rebrand the area as a artistic hub
- Transform the Franklin St. post office into a community performing arts venue and gallery.
- Like other cities, have an artist-in-residence position within town government to work creatively with all town departments
- A County funded and supported arts center
- Partner w NCSU School of Design(or other) to pilot low cost creative spaces using blueprints from Rural Studio http://www.ruralstudio.org/
- Public/private partnerships to create a real arts infrastructure, models are Creative Suitland
- Local artists collaborate w/ community to create striking perm. sculpture installations in roundabouts to inspire visitors/residents alike.
- More live music downtown
- Make Chapel Hill weird again--more like NoDa in Charlotte and Little Five Points in Atlanta
- Create an arts district for Chapel Hill where music and art thrive.
- equitable, free access to arts (music, studio art, dance, theater)
- Develop an arts district that supports economic development, racial healing and community development, AND public school arts programs
- Incorporate the arts into upcoming affordable housing projects to provide community pride, a sense of place, & neighborhood connectivity.
- Affordable housing that includes creative maker space for inter-generational and community collaboration, like https://www.nonstopart.co/
- Create a Center for Nonprofits that would complement LAUNCH, 1789 and the CUBE as a joint venture of the local govts, UNC and Durham Tech
- Make Chapel Hill north (Holdle Williams Tract) a more collaborative venture pathway by public and private collaboration
- Have local foundations dedicate 1% of their corpus to a social enterprise capitalization and investment fund
- A single unified development ordinance across Chapel Hill, Carrboro and Orange County
- Merge Carrboro & Chapel Hill into a single municipal entity that can be more efficient and coordinated on the challenges our community faces
- A Tool Lending Library in every community.
- Supporting the nonprofits within our community
- Strong county leadership development pipelines including youth, UNC folks, volunteers, board service, etc.
- Bring churches into partnership
- Look to the Columbus Partnership as an example of corporate organizing to benefit the WHOLE community
- Create an Executive Service Corps that consults with local nonprofits to create impactful solutions to community challenges
- What unifies us? Build up our community.
- Expanding partnerships
- Nonprofit hub
- A [good?] consensus on where CH is going, what it should be, and what it looks like, so we can act instead of arguing
- Learn to balance the needs and interests of 60,000 people
- Core function analysis w/ towns and county…alleviate duplicity wherever possible
- More connected triangle
- Increase synergies and collaborate between CH-Durham-Raleigh
- Think of things more regionally (Chapel Hill, Carrboro, Durham, Raleigh) and play off the synergies of each
- Explore the full breadth of options for public/private funding partnerships around housing, education, and economic development
- Relationships/partnerships. If we intentionally met in smaller groups to think about problem-solving, it could lead to so much.
- Create regional ecosystem (break down the geographic silos)
- Cross jurisdictional collaboration
- Cross jurisdictional planning
- Enhance partnership between UNC and Town of CH Govt
- Partner more
- Community forums that bring in all to raise issues, share ideas, discuss & be part of the solution. No one agency is the “problem solver.”
- Take out egos, Chambers, Cities, Universities
- Trust and transparency – zoning understanding
- Trust and transparency
- merge libraries
- Simplify our processes. We are cumbersome & lengthy. Opinions are valued/welcomed but can shut down or change good ideas.
- Stop talking in such a divided society.
- Convene diverse communities to get all the voices in the room to get something done.
- Create a movement when communities come together.
- Sit on the edge of discomfort. More optimism, less patience. I am ready to solve.
- Lobby Carrboro Aldermen and other key town officials to attend annual meeting and engage with Chamber at a higher level
- Chamber should join the Orange County housing collaborative
- More tools from the legislature to address community challenges.
- Improve the relationship between the towns and the university
- Term limits for elected officials.
- Reduce division in our community
- Improve regional synergy, especially with Chatham
- Keep doing a fantastic job
- World class launch
- Make Sherburne President of the Universe and Delores Bailey Mayor of Northside
- Create
- Use data driven processes
- Examine recombining the Raleigh/Cary +Durham/Chapel Hill MSA to drive economic development in the region
- Private investment in public realm. Create dignified affordable housing, narrow the achievement gap. Change the narrative of Chapel Hill.
- Engage proven social change leaders for underserved populations to shape collaborative philanthropy for Co-Impact (Leland, 2017)
- Provide tax breaks to businesses that repurpose older buildings instead of taking land for new ones, and maintain the small town appearance.
- Get 5-10 medium sized companies to move to Orange County in 7 years.
- Change the perception that we are not a business-friendly environment.
- Develop Carolina North – business incubator – work/life play
- Brand Chapel Hill as an Innovation District
- We need a young professionals summit. A conference across Chapel Hill, Carrboro, Orange & Chatham County
- A new economic driver that is unique
- Economic development collaborative org structure – one strategic plan
- Economic Development has to be inclusive and not just big game hunting.
- Making sure commercial real estate companies do a good job of recruiting and taking care of our small business owners after they open up.
- A focus on economic development in which people (not chains) can actually afford to open businesses in Chapel Hill
- A large business incubator with childcare. It might help CH/orange attract/retain business if there were more resources and space to thrive
- Hotel in Hillsborough
- Bookstore
- Downtown bookstore
- Thriving downtown, New businesses
- Create pathways for economic diversity
- Bioscience and technology business center – great concept for training and recruiting university students
- Diverse, thriving downtown economy year-round
- expanding local business, not national chains
- 1st class job of facilitating ideas and businesses of CH
- Economic development issues in the greater Orange County
- The the growth and development of Chapel Hill and Carrboro emulate the development of the University in density and scale
- Improve tourism/connect the dots between OC as a whole
- Time to own that we are an affluent bedroom community and that is our best way to brand, niche and recruit business.
- A tourism destination
- Dedicate portion of budget (1%) from large scale construction projects (over $3M(?) pub and private) to town beautification (art, planters)
- Increase community tax base
- Review CH North taxes
- Make sure we have the childcare we need so that everyone can go to work.
- Thriving downtown by 2025. Could involving UNC be the answer?
- Let the Downtown Partnership go to work for a thriving Downtown Chapel Hill-Carrboro with a unified downtown master plan
- Campaign to get residents to buy local!
- Refine downtown.
- Lowering the risk to open up in Chapel Hill
- Giving our businesses resources and support
- Double down on innovative space! Identify a 5-10-year plan
- Back to School promotion to drive new students and families to Chamber businesses
- Entrepreneurship/incubator programs and spaces
- Stores, mom and pop stores, pop ups
- Effectively support minority businesses
- Better environment/space for start-up businesses
- Creatives/businesses
- Prioritize the weird – help creative small business be successful
- Fix the construction approval processes in our town.
- Set clear goals for downtown success. # new units of housing, # new square feet of retail, # new square feet of office, # new parking spaces
- Smart growth: Increasing business density for redevelopment. Don't be afraid of buildings taller than 4 stories.
- We use the LUMO rewrite process to make the town we want it to be.
- Do a big outdoor networking event
- Increase people's financial wellbeing.
- Double the amount of people living downtown
- Quality child care accessible for ALL children
- All children under 5, either homeless or in affordable housing, are in high-quality child care.
- Let's close the achievement gap for minorities and help get more kids to college by creating a program like the Emily K Center in Durham.
- Provide no or low cost after school/summer camp for all
- Increase education about new media and risks for teachers.
- Don't focus only on STEM in schools. Art, Music, PE and Social Studies are equally important parts of the education of every human.
- Integrate housing stipends for teachers who live in district to encourage community and teacher retention
- Integrate the County and the CHCCS school system to share resources!!!
- Create affordable after school classes starting in Kindergarten. Provide more assistance to teachers.
- Universal Pre-K for all kids in Orange County
- Connect "out of school" with "in school" and get all kids reading on grade level by grade 3!
- All children read on grade level by Grade 3
- Have town officials be regular guest speakers so students can understand who shapes our town and the importance of local government.
- Every child reading on grade level by grade three
- Prioritize early childhood education with every child ready for kindergarten on day 1
- Incorporate virtual class times in student homes for school makeup days. There are many benefit to this.
- Universal Pre K for all children in Orange County
- Ultimate Frisbee should be recognized as a legitimate high school sport
- Our children deserve school buildings that are safe, healthy, and environmentally friendly.
- Schools in CHCCS district should adopt a sister school from less fortunate/funded district to share with to promote kindness and community.
- First grade academy that targets children already behind and is blended with regular classes.
- Host a movie series on the importance of early childhood education - like the Fred Rodgers Movie -
- Collaborate on the campaign for grade level reading
- Bring a force of volunteers to engage schools through mentorship to address achievement gap
- Universal Pre K
- All kids reading on grade level by grade 3
- Robust family engagement and business leader engagement in schools
- Civic engagement in our youth.
- Follow the District C approach https://www.districtc.co/our-approach
- Summer literacy programs for Prek-3rd grade throughout the community
- Make local economics part of the curriculum in our K-12 education programs
- School District number for for every child
- Lifelong learning center: PreK-retirement
- Make summer a time of continued learning, fun, and food for all children over the summer
- Free Pre-K starting at 3 years old
- Unify the education system – charter and private and school systems
- Improve literacy throughout the town
- Education from the parents up (blow up the current system)
- Improve literacy through collaboration with corporate sector, faith-based groups, and families.
- Experiential education that gets kids out of classroom at an early age.
- Family Success Alliance expanding to more zones
- Families! Books! Service! Local! A nationally recognized annual children’s literacy festival celebrating our values of inclusion & education
- Universal (free) pre-school.
- Provide quality literature to elementary aged school children that is easily accessible to them on school buses for the ride to/from school.
- Free bike, music, and swimming lessons in Elementary Schools.
- computer classes
- Eliminate suspension (in & out of school) in CHCCS. It's not an effective behavior modifier, it reduces learning, & increases dropping out.
- Made all 6th graders and up code (computer programming) literate.
- All children reading on grade level
- Improved access to afterschool programs and school facilities
- Increase number of local volunteers in schools
- Focus on school success
- Merge school districts into 1 - Orange Co + CHCCS
- Merge school systems
- Create something like the Emily K center in Chapel Hill to make sure all children are successful
- Partnership to increase the number of teachers of color in CHCCS
- Truly integrate schools and accept nothing less than equivalent performance from students regardless of race
- A pre-k to College program for descendants of the enslaved people who built the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
- Prioritize education and equal access and opportunities
- Develop teacher housing supplements for local apartments as a strategy for recruiting then retaining the best teachers
- More businesses help in schools, serve on advisory councils, & use Navigator (NC Business Committee on Ed) to invite students to business
- Make Chapel Hill a carbon SINK by 2025. A Texas city transitioned to 100% renewable energy; if they can, we can https://tinyurl.com/y34o3vem
- A big, bold, GREEN idea to educate, encourage, and incentivize clothesline use to save energy
- Save the bees! Establish thriving bee colonies at our government buildings to teach the importance of pollinators in our food system.
- Tree promotion programs (tree planting, education, etc)
- Integrate natural assets: creeks/rivers/greenways
- Public utility – reduce carbon foot print
- A county-wide “Marshall plan” to create alternative energy generating capacity and reduce fossil fuel use for transportation energy use.
- 25% increase in solar energy production/use in 5 years
- One unified climate action plan between Carrboro, Chapel Hill and Orange County
- City-wide composting for all homes & businesses, with compost cycling back for local farms and community gardens.
- 50% solar powered Chapel Hill/Carrboro by 2030.
- Free compost collection supported with pay to throw garbage collection reducing our trash by 80%.
- Invest in local carbon sequestration
- Plant 1 new tree for each resident in Chapel Hill in the next 5 years.
- Reduce our emissions 80% below 2010 levels by 2030. This Climate Justice goal is what is necessary if we are to have a livable future.
- Plant deciduous trees in parking lots so there can be shade when parking cars in summer and light (no leaves) in winter
- More electric charging stations. Build passive solar (facing roofs south) with 2 to 3 foot overhangs to block summer sun.
- Prohibit clear-cutting
- Create a public electric utility (or push toward 100% re private utility)
- Use bio-diesel for all school buses, CHT buses, fire trucks, and other vehicles. Improves air quality and children's health; reduces CO2.
- For Hillsborough to make our 2030 no fossil fuel goal
- Form joint partnership with town, university ,and healthcare system like Blue Cross Blue Shield
- Locate a transfer station for solid waste and recycling in Orange County & plan to have our own small, creatively designed landfill in OC.
- Create a waste to fuel plant, like Entsorga in West Virginia
- Solar panels on all new government construction
- Create a community composting system that's easy for families to partake in.
- Get Orange County to recycle ALL plastics, especially No 1
- All government/school vehicles are electric.
- Better leverage Lake Jordan and/or University Lake as an asset for our community
- Have a storm water master plan to mitigate the flooding issue in the area of Eastgate/University Place
- CH should try a Universal Basic Income Experiment. CH is expensive, and a UBI experiment could help low income residents.
- Truly invest in supporting families breaking the cycle of poverty
- Make in-depth racial equity education an on-boarding requirement for all positions of systemic influence in the community.
- Racial equity
- Opportunities for all – breaking down barriers
- Spread resources across non-English speaking communities
- Ensure that every eligible voter has proper ID and register every eligible voter in the region
- Leadership (elected, jurisdictions staff, advisory boards, nonprofit boards, etc.) in OC should reflect the demographics of the community
- Every government agency must have bilingual, bicultural staff according to % LEP population by language
- Stop hating on each other, peace, love, and understanding
- leading community on racial reconciliation
- Dismantle the systems that have created the problems we have--specifically the white supremacy culture
- Make Chapel Hill the best community for social mobility in the state/country
- Improve everyone's access to food and transportation.
- Have a computer in the library where people can search the catalog sitting down
- Create an Annual Heat and Plumb the County in Orange County, NC
- I would like to see a program focused on seniors, meals, funding, housing resources and care.
- Large-scale food bank system that ensures no low income families/children are left hungry or not eating nutritious foods
- No family, kid, person is homeless or hungry in Orange County
- No one goes to bed hungry
- All children under 5 eat healthy food and are physically active while in child care.
- Grass to Gardens - Create community gardens to educate children on fresh fruits and vegetables.
- Become the plant-based foodie capital of the world
- use mobile food service to engage a collaborative network of social support services to serve nutritionally at risk
- use FoodTrucks to engage a collaborative network of social support services to serve nutritionally at risk
- Eliminate childhood obesity.
- All have access to affordable, nutritious food. Food is grown w/ regenerative agriculture practices & we teach how to use produce seasonally
- Feed the kids!
- Make sure all children have something to eat at home.
- Opportunities for food systems in Orange County
- Orange County Food Council will have community buy in and engagement in all jurisdictions.
- Build permanent fenced vegetable gardens open to the community to rent. The vegetables produced are for family consumption and can't be sold
- Save our kids: 0 suicides by 2025. Reduce suicides through prevention, education, bias reduction, and early intervention.
- Free psychotherapy for everyone who wants it in our community
- 1:3 children are currently at risk for hunger in Orange County. We can eliminate childhood hunger through a community food system approach.
- An initiative to tackle the issue of access to healthcare for all in the community.
- Increased mental healthcare services
- Make the 6 points of wellness a way of life for our seniors in Orange County
- Healthcare should be a nominal fee so all can afford it
- Health systems with nominal copays
- To expand mental health care services in our community that take on a more holistic approach to serving clients.
- The residents of our community should have better access to affordable healthcare
- Provide a free moderate exercise program to encourage wellbeing and build supportive social networks among expectant and new moms.
- Reimagine student food backpack program to include efficiencies, food preference, home delivery and meeting individual nutritional needs.
- Kids eat enough healthy food all day, every day, which will improve local health, narrow the achievement gap, and improve our food system.
- Do something about the social determinants of health (transportation, healthy food, etc)
- No child goes to bed hungry--we need to feed our children
- Create policies that acknowledge and support the aging population
- Address the needs of the aging population: home health opportunities, walkability, housing, transportation and social needs
- Healthier food for every child at school cafeterias. No sweets as snacks. Offer cooking classes at school.
- Inform people about pesticides and the harm they cause
- That all of our cost burdened households in Orange County are able to more easily afford their housing.
- Develop infrastructure to meet the needs of an expanding older adult population (housing, food access, green-spaces, transportation).
- Create affordable housing/age-in-place options for older adults in OC to decrease by 15% # of older adults moving to other counties by 2030
- 500 more affordable housing units by 2025
- Rent control for units occupied by families that work in town.
- Best practice fully funded rapid rehousing program
- Kick out GSC (predatory apartment complex owners)
- Create more affordable housing!
- The predatory housing companies that run all of the "affordable" housing complexes are eliminated from Chapel Hill (by buying them out)
- Build affordable housing on public/school parking lots
- We create 10,000 units of affordable housing in the next 10 years
- Orange County, Carrboro, and Chapel Hill have the ability to partner with Habitat and build housing on land we own.
- For mobile home park residents of Chapel Hill & Carrboro to have permanent land available in Chapel Hill & Carrboro if they get displaced.
- Increase affordable housing for people making less than 30% of area median income.
- 80% of market-rate housing providers accept housing subsidies and review tenant backgrounds on a case-by-case basis by 2024.
- Create enough affordable RENTAL housing for folks with the lowest incomes, so that everyone who wants to live here can, regardless of income
- Increase affordable housing for people making less than 30% of area median income.
- We create 1000 units of affordable housing in the next 10 years
- True public and private collaboration to create affordable housing units. A carrot rather than a stick.
- Make room for more family neighborhoods for modestly paid workers
- Build a horse racing track in rural Orange and generate funds for affordable housing from betting on the horses.
- Workforce housing – providing realistic home ownership options for town, UNC, UNC-H employees
- Diversify the variety of housing in Chapel Hill to include more single family homes & land as opposed to multi family housing.
- Increased housing and living affordability; is this an economy of scale? We must advocate for more local business and industry.
- Affordable, quality housing for 10-90% AMI
- Comprehensive affordable housing that involves commitment from all stakeholders and participants (i.e. developers, town, banks)
- Functional, successful, non-political CH Historic District Commission that rewards/encourages restoration, renovation, & smart development.
- Chamber/business public private partnership for workforce housing
- Maximize revenue for affordable housing, education, and other pressing needs rooted in our shared values
- Citizens should be able to live within walking distance
- Housing within 10-15 minutes of work or school.
- Town of Chapel Hill buys all manufactured home developments at risk of displacement & partners with nonprofits to build affordable housing
- Make affordable housing a priority for all publicly owned land including Greene Tract and Legion Road
- Close the Orange County Affordable housing gap of 12,500 units in the next ten years.
- Provide housing accessible to all low income workers within the County, especially reaching all UNC and UNC healthcare workers.
- Build or convert 1,500 units into extremely low income housing in five years.
- Fill the gap in need vs. reality re: affordable housing. 12,000 units or more
- University or UNC Healthcare partnership to build and manage affordable housing for seniors
- Have UNC Hospitals donate land or funds to make more affordable housing possible.
- In the next 10 years create 500 units of micro homes in 10+ mixed income developments for people w/extremely low, low, and moderate incomes.
- Any UNC development includes affordable housing so their employees can live affordably in OC by 2025
- Any development by UNC Healthcare includes affordable housing such that their employees can live affordably in OC by 2025.
- Close the gap and create 5,500 affordable apartments for persons/families that earn less that $20,000 by 2030.
- All town owned land be used to develop affordable housing to reduce the gap of the 15,766 households in OC that are cost burdened by rent.
- Create an $100M affordable housing fund with private, local government, and philanthropic sources.
- Fully fund the Partnership to End Homelessness' priority proposal for rapid re-housing. Help generate political will for it.
- affordable housing (I can't afford to stay here)
- Institute policies to enable at least 51% of town employees (including schools, transit, etc.) to live in town.
- Become a leader in affordable housing by building beautiful, adaptive apartment buildings that enhance community and ecosystem
- More affordable housing options for locals.
- Focus on creating not just affordable housing, but "deeply" affordable housing over the next 5-10 years
- We need to make sure all of our children are housed.
- More affordable housing addressed on a bigger and more regional scale
- Improve access to workforce housing
- Create a community where everyone has a decent place to live.
- More affordable housing for the people who work and serve our town.
- All UNC and UNC healthcare workers can afford to live in Chapel Hill within 5 years.
- Create innovative & inspiring affordable housing like Memphis ARTSPACE that incl. art, gardening, work space, non profits under one roof.
- By 2030, at least 51% of all municipal and school district employees will live within the jurisdictions they serve
- Create a teacher housing supplement so more local teachers live here.
- Build a home for transitioning veterans
- Eliminate controversy, Create task forces on student housing and “statues”
- Build affordable housing for marginalized populations and offer workforce development programs
- Build affordable housing on/above school parking lots
- Affordable housing is integrated on all school sites so that all teachers can live affordable in OC by 2025.
- transportation focused Live/Work housing (rentals and ownership) for workers in the creative economy
- Double the number of our certified living wage employers in two years
- All employed adults (18+) in Chapel Hill/Carrboro making a minimum of $14.20 (or current living wage) by 2025.
- Create a talent pipeline for local employers through workbased learning
- All employers in Orange County shall pay a living wage
- By 2030, CH/Carrboro will have nation's highest per capita work from home rate.
- By 2039, using churches, schools, new spaces, everyone will be within 1 mile of a coworking space.
- Every business in Orange County paying a living wage.
- Find a living wage job for anyone who wants one
- 100 businesses agree to hire a felon. We then create a certificate program that gives felons a chance at a new start.
- Non-technology-based jobs. Opportunities for living wage jobs for non-traditional learners/communities recognizing the lack of safety net
- Introducing/empowering women and people of color to pursue technology jobs
- More robust career/tech opportunities
- Engage UNC students with the Chamber. Educate them on value of a chamber and keep them for local jobs post-graduation
- Family friendly policies like flex scheduling/telework, publicly funded childcare, health work life balance, & expanded paternal leave
- 3-5 different trades
- Survey businesses for positions with high turnover, identify unemployed cohorts and match people to specialized skill training, then jobs.
- Everyone in our community making a living wage
- Provide education and avenues for students to fulfill potential who are not ‘university’ students
- Use Peaslee Tech/Lawrence College and Career Center model to develop a similar facility that fits the needs of Chapel Hill and Orange County
- Promote an education mindset from birth to preschool through K-12 to college and trades (plumber, electrician, mechanic, furniture restoration and bricklaying)
- Invest more resources in workforce development; change the conversation about what a successful career is for the children of our community
- More programming for kids like job readiness & technical training, more recreational spaces, & more resources (therapy/healthcare)
- More jobs and visible opportunities for people with disabilities. Think: Stadium seaters, guides, visitor services workers
- Opportunities for all. Attracting and retaining career ladder jobs while breaking down barriers to self sufficiency
- more jobs paying a living wage
- Community wide embracing of a living wage to fight poverty together
- Establish family friendly policies that support working families.
- Less screen time in school. Go outdoors.
- Create a county athletics facility. Creating more space for people could open up more room for camps and if attendance is free or reduced.
- Rec facility that partners OC, Town of Carrboro, Town of Chapel Hill, UNC-University, UNC Healthcare and incorporates the arts.
- Build a multi-purpose cultural center to host meetings, classes, social gatherings, an outdoor amphitheater, and a farmer's market.
- More walking and bike trails throughout town that get you to the library and other special places
- more access to play and playing fields
- Community-based fitness center for low income adults and underserved communities.
- Create a tournament-quality recreation space to draw in out-of-town visitors, maybe on Eastowne land
- A world class park of size and substance, preferably with a significant water feature
- Improve public pools in Chapel Hill. Add a 2nd pool and splash ground at Hargrave (outdoor) and Homestead Aquatic Center (indoor).
- All children can afford to play sports.
- More summer camp spots for needy kids to eat and learn and feel part of our community
- Every child has the opportunity to play organized sports year round, regardless of the family's ability to pay.
- Create more sports and rec centers like Rock Chalk Park
- Build hiking and biking trails that connect the communities together. Create recreational areas that can be used for natural recreation.
- Let's build a land use strategy for rural areas, keeping the rural landscape but also opening it up for use and recreation.
- close Weaver St in front of Weaver Street Market to vehicle traffic. Make the area into a pedestrian plaza!
- Double the mileage of greenways and public trails in the region in the next 8 years.
- Connect all existing greenways and trails with full bike lanes within Chapel Hill and Carrboro.
- Thoughtfully dedicate certain existing roads for bicycles only. Many roads have no bike lanes. Existing bike lanes are in poor condition.
- Water fountains in every public park & greenway trailhead.
- Substantial investment in parks including the creation of water features for kid and adult play
- Invest in the Hargraves Community Center facilities and programs to create a downtown destination for kids and families.
- Create a bike/greenway from Carrboro to Hillsborough - use existing rail corridor
- Add a splash pad downtown as a kid/family destination - next to Hargraves Center!
- Water Splash Pad Park
- A greenway system that connects our towns and that connects Orange County with Durham and Jordan Lake by 2030
- Preserve the character, flavor, life of the region (don’t get lost in the growth)
- green space – music, parks, dog park
- trails that connect the towns
- Create a cleaner NC starting with the roads and streets of Durham and Chapel Hill
- Stronger network of bicycle facilities (community and recreational)
- Riverwalk to Waterstone
- Integrate natural assets (rivers, greenways, creeks) w/ new development
- Turn the rural buffer into an asset for the whole county. Let's not treat it as a barrier, but determine how the community can use the land.
- Create bike and pedestrian only streets.
- Make the Chapel Hill Library more accessible on the bus instead of building a library in Carrboro
- Improve the walkability and bikeability to Henry Anderson III Community Park.
- Recreation – UNC health and UNC athletics partnerships
- Affordable after school sports program for grades 4-8.
- A series of artist-designed fountains, solar-powered and interactive, so our families have public outdoor spaces to play in summer.
- Entertainment/sports complex
- Up rural transition areas to the west & south to look at continuing values of the rural buffer so Chapel Hill can attract the best/brightest
- Allow families to use school playgrounds after school.
- Create more affordable swimming classes for children. Include swimming as part of school PE classes.
- Outdoor eating/dining (sidewalk dining)
- Turn the 100 block of Franklin St into Chapel Hill Square: a common area for arts, music and discourse, available to town and gown alike.
- Revolutionize downtown by converting 100 block of Franklin to Chapel Hill Square: a place 4 all to gather/speak & collectively share ideas
- Thursday night out on side street between Franklin and Rosemary during the summer
- The redevelopment of University place should include a large outdoor gathering space that can be a town center
- Guided tours on bike or walk
- Livability. Environmental growth but maintaining – and recapturing – small town community feel
- Open meeting space – Centro – piazza – European model, Closed to traffic streets – ped friendly gathering places for all – free and open
- Shared community space
- Fund the downtown revitalization: events/programming, placemaking, and improved appearance. Bridge the gap b/w “nostalgia” and the future.
- Make Orange County feel smaller
- Sense of community. Local food, local entertainment, family togetherness and passeggiata.
- Shared community space
- Focus on creating great experiences in wide variety. The environment helps supply this and so do people.
- Multi-gen amenities
- Multi-generational amenities for children as well as seniors
- Use more shared space similar to Kansas City.
- Keep the identity of Carrboro. Role of Carrboro, soul of one, artists...more of what it used to be.
- A Grand Ferris wheel somewhere near the border of Chapel Hill and Carrboro to bring residents from the two towns together.
- Build public spaces for people to gather indoors for free with structured ways to engage with others and make new friends.
- We need a bucket list for Franklin Street
- Make Orange County feel smaller
- Free snack food for our teens a the library and teen centers
- Best college town on earth!
- Policemen will not wear guns displayed in public places
- Chapel Hill and Carrboro become a "High Quality of Life" world class city emulating some of the greatest cities around the world.
- Ban telemarketers from our daily lives
- Transform Chapel HIll/Carrboro into an Urban Village.
- Unify Chapel Hill so it feels smaller.
- Transform top of parking deck (preferably Wallace) into downtown park with greenspace, playground, amphitheater, summer splash pad, & court
- Flowerpots
- Create a shared visual image that binds us like DC cherry trees or Wilmington Azaleas & around which festivals and identity can be built
- new Carrboro library
- Pedestrian zones/ped only streets, beer garden, vibrancy
- Make walking/biking viable by building sidewalks and bike lanes to connect residential communities with schools, hospitals and downtown.
- Every street in Carrboro/CH will have a sidewalk and safe bike path.
- Create better Greenway connectivity within Chapel Hill and also beyond to our neighbors.
- Better bike lanes! Protected bike lanes!
- A regional transportation system with aesthetically pleasing dense walkable communities at light rail & BRT stations.
- Take Franklin Street downtown to 2 lanes, creating green and other creative space while allowing restaurants to offer more outdoor seating.
- Complete the greenway system to connect major commercial areas with residential – “paint the lanes” bike friendly
- In 5 years, every road in town will accommodate bike or pedestrian use.
- Allow bikes on Franklin Street and build a safe bike path
- closing all roads for several hours.
- Pedestrian only street(s)
- Create pedestrian district
- A pedestrian Sky-Bridges linking Carrboro and Chapel Hill commerce and social hubs.
- Ensure Chapel Hill and Carrboro are linked to all modes of regional transportation
- Improve infrastructure-- the roads before we do anything else. There are so many apartments going up at present probably with 2 cars each.
- Change the yellow flashing lights @ our HAWK intersections to red. Stick to zebra crossings that every pedestrian & driver understands.
- Build a parking deck downtown Carrboro to allow visitors and employees to park and walk
- Light up crosswalks in Carrboro and Chapel Hill to prevent injuries.
- Build bypass from Chatham to Durham to decongest the Chapel Hill thru-traffic and better connect our region for jobs of the future.
- Build and improve high speed transit connections between Chatham, Chapel Hill, and Durham (like Bus Rapid Transit)
- Build a parking deck in Carrboro to deliver a comprehensive long-term walkable community solution
- Build a tunnel from I-40 to underneath campus and direct link to north Chatham County. Eliminate traffic build up in between.
- Implement a downtown transit loop that runs from the Planetarium to Carrboro Town Commons for better visitor and resident access.
- Comprehensive transit plan including the LRT.
- Structured parking for all of downtown
- Mass transit system (more than CHT local) that has widespread community support
- Make parking after 5pm free in downtown
- Parking! More of it…and free, please!
- Trail + transit-oriented development
- Enhance bus stops and add BRT lines. Some bus stops now are only a sign. What about a place to sit to get out of the rain?
- "Copenhagenize" main transportation network (54, MLK, Franklin, & Estes)
- End paid parking in Downtown Chapel Hill and develop commuter corridors on NCDOT roads
- By 2030, X modal trail connecting ATT to MST via CH/CBO.
- provide evening transportation for the public
- Increase bus ridership to 100% of town residents using the bus at least 4 times per year by 2025.
- Create a public transit shuttle to and from RDU and park & ride lot. Can buy day passes.
- New developments should include sidewalks and bike trails to be better connected
- Every street in Chapel Hill and Carrboro should have a sidewalk
- Build more sidewalks and safe bike paths around schools. Relocate parking away from schools while remaining in walking distance.
- Make ways to schools safer for pedestrians and bikes. Children shouldn't have to walk on streets. The focus is on cars at the moment.
- Build a pedestrian and bike only bridge.
- Paint street lines with glow in the dark paint.
- Bring back the trolleys! Create a downtown loop and paint the trolleys Carolina blue and fit them with eco-friendly hybrid engines
- Close Franklin Street off a few times a year to cars
- By 2025, town and school bus systems will be combined.
- Ensure all local government services and officials are easily accessible online. (Fees, permits, registrations, civic engagement, etc.)
- Invest in smart growth that creates walkable, attractive spaces, with good public transportation. More density = less sprawl and CO2.
- Require town level decisions to consider environmental impacts, and impact on CO2 emissions
- End homelessness in Orange County - no one waiting for housing and people experiencing homelessness are re-housed in 30-90 days
- Fill all gaps in Orange County homeless service system
- Require solar grid fed roof tops on every new house, apartment complex and business in Orange county in 2021 and going forward
- For every 30 houses in new developments or apartment developments, 1 affordable duplex house is built in the complex.
- Make a bike lane from Carrboro to Maple View Farm on Dairyland Road and Greensboro Road.
- Require solar roof tops for every house or apartment newly built or restored in Orange County to feed to the electric grid. GREEN!
- Tackle re-segregation of our schools
- Identify a permanent space for a Food Truck plaza, or mixed-used green space
- Multimodal greenway connecting the greenway systems in CH, Carrboro, & Hillsborough, and that connects OC w/ greenways in Durham & Chatham