Chapel Hill Mayor Pam Hemminger spoke with 97.9 The Hill’s Andrew Stuckey on Thursday, August 11. She discussed the return of students for the first day of classes, Monkeypox, and bike lanes on Franklin St. This is a transcript of their conversation, edited for clarity. Listen to the full interview here.
Andrew Stuckey: I understand you met with a downtown partnership today.
Pam Hemminger: Yes, we did. We have our monthly meeting getting started and it’s exciting to find that things are actually moving along really well. We’ve been working really hard to put some energy back into our downtown and it’s paying off. We purchased some software that enabled us to use cell phone data to find out that we’ve had more foot traffic this last year than any of the other five past years so far. I know we had COVID a couple of years, but this is exciting news. It means we’re trending up. It means more people are coming downtown, which is wonderful. We’re really excited about that because as we learn more information about what people are coming downtown for, all this new technology lets you explore things and see what’s going on. There are over 200 businesses downtown that are retail or people oriented. We have 12 new businesses coming in. That has been a little slow. They had hoped to open by now, but the supply chain issues have kept things at bay. They are going to move along. They have signed their leases or purchased their buildings, so things are starting, and the West End has gotten repaved as we know. The lines aren’t quite finished yet, there’s a little more work to be done. Some work will finish up tomorrow and then we’re going to do a little bit more work during the first week of September because the town has a different contractor. So parking and things will be a little clearer. I have been up and down downtown every day this week looking at the improvements, and it looks like it’s refreshed. We got a lot more work to do. I’m not saying we’re finished yet, but it’s exciting to get some things pulled together that we have been working on for a very long time.
Stuckey: What is the timeline on the bike lanes for Franklin Street?
Hemminger: The West Franklin Street ones are there. They just don’t have all the signaling and things they need in them. We’re going to be doing that the first week of September and then working with Carrboro. The bike lane actually goes all the way through Main Street to Carrboro and they are doing the same thing. They’re waiting for the DOT to get finished up so they can go in and make the bike lanes more visible and to have locators at the lights that run through. I did some walking around down there too, and there are some better crosswalk situations going on as well. So, we’re excited about these better and safer modes of getting around downtown.
Stuckey: I wanted to shift gears now and talk a little bit about the return of students. As you know, I’m relatively new to the community and most of my visiting to this area has been over the summer. This is my first time experiencing the return of students, and I have to say, I just went to the grocery store earlier and it was shocking.
Hemminger: Yes, I was over at a couple of different stores, and they were wiped out of things. You see that, and you’re like, “oh, the students are here stocking up.”
Stuckey: I somehow did not know until earlier this afternoon that FDOC stands for first day of classes. I’m learning my local acronyms.
Hemminger: Yes. FDOC and then the tradition of drinking out of the old well water fountain on the first day of classes to help get straight A’s is what I understand. There’ll be a long line of folks there lined up all day.
Stuckey: Is that what it does for you, straight A’s?
Hemminger: Yes. It gives you better grades. It’s wonderful. There are a lot of fun traditions and then there’s a lot more exuberance when the students come back. There are also a lot more people just wandering around trying to find things. We encourage the locals to be patient and to help provide directional assistance when needed. This weekend is when the students are moving into dorms and that kind of thing as well. It gets a little packed up with some traffic in some areas and the stores get a little wiped out as they stock up with their families bringing them here. But we’re excited. We love having our students come back and we love the energy that it brings. They also volunteer a lot in our community and so that’s very positive as well.
Stuckey: That’s an interesting take. We can get caught up in what’s going to be different when everybody comes back and the fact that many of these students do end up having some engagement with the community is an important point that I think sometimes gets lost during this week.
Hemminger: There’s a lot of research that goes on using our community through UNC and different departments, which is fascinating as well. We get that opportunity to learn more about our own community and ways to communicate. We do sensory data and weather data and all these kinds of stuff because we are partnered with the university and the students have the manpower to contribute. It works out really well. It’s a good partnership.
Stuckey: Along those lines, we were talking around the newsroom earlier today. Somebody had read an article suggesting that the return to college campuses could perhaps be a spot where monkeypox could find a foothold in a community. There is some concern about that. I’m wondering if that’s on your radar at all.
Hemminger: It is. We will be talking about it. When we meet, I know our health directors are on top of the information. I read Dr. Weber’s report about how it truly spreads and we’re gonna have to do some education so that folks understand that if you have open sores, you can spread it to someone else. It can start on your hand. We need to get away from the hand-shaking thing anyway because of COVID and the flu and now monkeypox. We are encouraging people to just be a little more vigilant as there are going to be more vaccines available. There are not enough right now to go around. As we learn more, we will be pushing out information on what people need to know and how they can get vaccinated, if they wish to do so. We are not there yet. It’s still a learning process at this point in time. We are looking for guidance, but we are aware that the hospitals are starting to get revved up to be able to handle situations if needed.
Stuckey: Excellent. I don’t think that we have spoken about the Poet Laureate search yet.
Hemminger: We have had a wonderful Poet Laureate in residence. CJ Suitt has been just fabulous. He was gracious enough to extend his term because of COVID. It is supposed to be a one-year term. We are looking for folks who would like to be our Poet Laureate who will attend events and come up with poems to help us at our events and activities. I just think it’s a wonderful way to bring together folks in the community, through the spoken word. If you’re interested, please apply and we’re excited to find out what kind of cache of poets we have out there. We want to know, and we want to welcome folks in to help us spread the word.
Stuckey: It seems, anecdotally, like there is a disproportionate amount of poetry talent in this area. Hopefully, you get some good applicants.
Hemminger: We hope so too. We’re excited to see what happens. I did want to share that there is a public information meeting on Monday, August 15th at 5:15 p.m. It is virtual on South Creek. A lot of people will recognize South Creek as being the former Obey Creek across from Southern Village, but it’s a different concept completely. They brought a concept before us in 2021 and they have filed an application. They start going through the process right now. The idea is to build on the front 30 acres and preserve the back 80 acres that will become town wetlands property area. You can find out information on our website if you are interested in that topic. It will be going through the system, so there will be other opportunities if you miss that particular topic.
Stuckey: That website is townofchapelhill.org. Is there’s anything else that you wanted to mention before we wrap up.
Hemminger: I know people have been asking what the complete community process is. The council will be meeting next week on the 18th to talk more about where we are with complete communities. This is a strategy of how we want to develop our community and get better outcomes, get better public spaces, better green ways. Where should we have dense housing? Where should we be less dense? We know we need middle housing. We’re putting in all those variables and we’re interviewing stakeholders. Then there’s going to be a series of open houses and popups for anyone who wants to contribute and a place online where you can contribute your thoughts about the whole future of our community. And we’ve been working on capacity analysis and traffic modeling and talking about all these different types of things, but the meeting next week is scheduled from 4-5:30 p.m. It will be in person at the library, and we are encouraging people to wear a mask. Spacing is important as well, as we know COVID numbers are still on the rise. Now that the state of emergency will be lifted on Monday, we will be coming back in person if you’re interested. We are hopeful we can record the meeting. I am not sure. We are still working out the details right now. We’ve been waiting on a piece of technology, so we can do a recording, but it wouldn’t be at the level we normally have. There’s going to be more opportunities for input for this process, and then that comes back to councils to make some decisions. Then, we start by asking how we make it work once we decide on what the plan’s going to be.
Stuckey: You mentioned the statewide COVID state of emergency coming to an end on Monday. What other things might that affect around town?
Hemminger: We don’t have the right to do certain things unless the health director declares a health emergency in our community. I don’t see us going back to any particular mandates at this point in time. I think we’re stressing that people take caution and be vigilant and continue with the “three Ws” as we’ve always said. Then there are just some other minor protocols in there about what we can regulate and what we can’t and how we have to do it. Under a state of emergency, your mayors, your county commissioner chair, and your health director, along with different state officials have the right to move quickly to make decisions without bringing it back for full votes for council. It enables us in emergencies. It is normally for hurricanes and things like that to act quickly, especially if you have something going on. It was never really thought about doing it for a long period of time like we’ve had for the past two and a half years.
Stuckey: We probably won’t see any actual changes to day-to-day life?
Hemminger: I don’t think so. Realistically, we haven’t implemented some of these things at all in the last few months. We still have our meetings, but that’s about all that’s going on just to keep us all apprised of what’s going on. We are having a rise in numbers. I will say our hospital is seeing an increase in COVID, but not from Orange County residents. You have to remember that UNC serves the state, so there are different folks in there. Not everybody’s doing reporting on the numbers. We think the numbers are even higher than what has been reported as far as individuals having COVID, but not needing to go to the hospital.
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