By Harold
Like the yolk inside an egg, the town of Carrboro is surrounded entirely by Chapel Hill, but still maintains its own character.
I heard Carrboro mayor Mark Chilton speak on Friday, and one example of the difference between the towns that he gave was that he has very similar (liberal) views as new Chapel Hill mayor Mark Kleinschmidt, but Chilton received 72 percent of the vote in 2009 while Kleinschmidt received 49.5 percent.
In another sign of Carrboro’s character, the attractions part of its Wikipedia page leads with the farmers market and the two live-music venues. I can add that practically every street in Carrboro has a bike lane, the dog park is so big you can lose your dog (especially if it’s 10 pounds) and the center of town is the Weaver Street Market, a co-op supermarket.
So Carrboro residents are fiercely proud of its independent streak. Which will make the next few years very interesting, as Carrboro is planning to build a 500,000-square-foot project at 300 Main Street, with a 150-room Hilton Garden Inn hotel, a five-story parking deck and a central pedestrian plaza.
It seems there’s lots of opposition from longtime residents. Chilton, a former UNC student, read a letter from an 1808 graduate bemoaning the loss of a tree on UNC’s campus, and then Chilton pointed out that everyone thinks Chapel Hill was at its best … at exactly the time when they first moved there. Everyone accepts (and enjoys) the changes that happened beforehand, but then disagrees with anything that will happen in the future.
I’ve heard complaints about a similarly giant project going up in Chapel Hill called East 54, and even one that was somewhat recently finished called Meadowmont. You would think that the original Penn Station, Ebbets Field and an Indian burial ground were all destroyed in order for construction to start.
The current 300 East Main Street location houses Cat’s Cradle, so I’ve been there a bunch of times. Granted, I don’t live in Carrboro so I don’t have the same emotional attachment — but maybe that’s a good thing, because I can say with an unclouded view that the building is ugly, it’s set off from the street by a parking lot (and ironically, the parking situation is still terrible and could use a garage), there are no bargain hotels nearby (just boutiques with $200/night rooms), etc. In other words, I think this new mixed-use project would be fantastic, especially given that Cat’s Cradle would expand, giving them the space to attract bands that have a bigger following.
Laura
Harold
Absolutely!