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An Accessible Bolin Creek Greenway Will Transform Carrboro — For All
A perspective from Nick Lytle
The freelance writer Margaret Kingsbury wrote an essay last year in which she talked about existing barriers to accessing greenways in her community. Those barriers — unpaved walkways, paths without wheelchair accessibility — make it difficult for people with disabilities to walk or roll along urban greenways.
Currently, people who use wheelchairs and strollers and walkers can easily access greenways in Chapel Hill, Hillsborough, Durham, Raleigh, Charlotte and Cary — but they can’t do so along Bolin Creek in Carrboro.
But Carrboro is now discussing whether to add a paved 10-foot-wide trail alongside the 30-foot-wide sewer easement along Bolin Creek — which would extend to the paved Bolin Creek Trail in Chapel Hill. There are many reasons to do this — creating a path for people to go on, instead of having them walk all over the place, can help repair the riparian zone along the creek, and the path will also provide a safe way for kids and adults to get to school and work — but for me, one of the most important reasons is this: It will provide five miles of safe, protected, and accessible trails for walkers and rollers of all ages and of all mobility levels.
I’m thrilled that Carrboro may make this move, but not everyone is. For years, a small group of people have protested the greenway, citing reasons like the environment and preserving the forest. Previous pieces have addressed those myths — but today, I want to focus on something else.
Recently, on NextDoor and on Facebook and on Chapelboro, I’ve seen comments that dismiss the need for an accessible trail in Carrboro. The author of a recent Chapelboro piece wrote,
“This debate about paving in Bolin Forest isn’t about equity, the handicapped getting trail access, social justice, a bike transportation corridor, or reducing carbon emissions. Those are all red herrings…..” (Emphasis mine.)
Again, previous pieces have addressed those other issues — for instance, the trail in Chapel Hill is mainly used by walkers, not bikers — but I want to focus on the phrase ‘the handicapped getting trail access.’
Putting the antiquated language aside, let’s be clear: claiming that paving for accessibility purposes is nothing more than a ‘red herring’ is discriminatory. Approximately 1 in 9 American Adults have a mobility disability. As our community ages, many people will find themselves relying on a scooter, cane, or walker to get around. Already, we’re hearing from people who cannot enjoy the beauty of Bolin Creek in Carrboro because the ground is rutted and filled with roots and holes. And everyone in Carrboro of all ability levels should have safe, protected access to trails that help them get into nature, see birds, and recreate.
Equitable trails are inclusive trails
Every person has multiple identities and disability intersects with other facets of a person’s life, including age, race/ethnicity, socioeconomic status, and access to transportation. The National Council on Disability notes that “People with disabilities live in poverty at more than twice the rate of people without disabilities.” According to the National Household Survey, 25.5 million Americans have travel-limiting disabilities. Ensuring that Carrboro’s estimated 1022 residents with disabilities (2020 Census) and 2557 residents living in poverty (2020 Census) have safe and accessible access to nature is key to ensuring that our community is an equitable one.
And for nature and trails to be accessible, we must design them with accessibility in mind. As the National Center on Accessibility states in its National Trail Surface Study, “Attitudes, inaccessible environments and a limited understanding of possibilities prevent individuals from leisure and recreation.”
In many communities across North Carolina, we have built our infrastructure around “one person, one car” and for many, it works fine enough. The problem is a system that works for ‘many of us’ isn’t a system that works for ALL of us. And as we think more deeply about climate and positioning our town for a less car-centered future, intentionally planning for those with disabilities ensures all Carrboro residents will be able to partake.
Convenience and accessibility are a spectrum
I have seen others intent on describing paving a 10-foot greenway along Carrboro’s Bolin Creek as only about ‘convenience’. While this language diminishes the hardships faced by those with mobility issues, it raises an important point. The line between convenience and accessibility is a spectrum.
An automatic door is a necessity for some, but it can be a convenience for others such as those carrying heavy loads in and out of buildings. There are people who will spend their entire lives with mobility issues and others who will have temporary needs due to accidents or health problems.
Fighting for accessibility should be a top priority, but the convenience this fight can bring to all should be recognized and celebrated. This added convenience will make our community more equitable, but directly addressing the needs of the marginalized will make our community more just.
This fight is not just for those impacted. If we want to be the inclusive community we claim to be, we must act. This includes advocating for the marginalized, calling out harmful statements, and investing in accessible transportation infrastructure like the greenway.
I recognize as a mostly able-bodied person that it’s important to center the voices of the most affected in this conversation. I’m happy Carrboro has accessible options for participation such as live streaming town hall meetings, but there is always room for improvement. I hope Carrboro officials will keep inclusivity and accessibility in mind when thinking about civic engagement around Bolin Creek’s greenway project and during their eventual decision. I pray they do not feel, like some, that addressing the concerns of these groups is just a ‘want’ not a ‘need’. Everyone in our community deserves to be heard when thinking about the type of community we aspire to be.
A metaphor to help us think about this
I want to introduce language that might help bridge gaps between those not in the disability community and those that are. Christine Miserandino introduced the idea of ‘spoon theory’ as a metaphor to describe living with lupus. She described each task like brushing her teeth as taking a certain amount of mental and physical energy which she represented as giving up some of her finite amount of ‘spoons’. Her energy, the total spoons she starts off with each day, gets depleted by what you and I would consider trivial tasks.
We have neighbors whose commute or ability to enjoy recreation safely and accessibly currently takes up unnecessary energy. This includes using spoons to plan which set of routes are available to them and using spoons to actually traverse these routes safely on our car-dominated roads. I want everyone in our community, not just the able-bodied car traveler, to get around town easily and expanding the Bolin Creek Greenway is a practical path towards reducing these barriers.
I’m sad some don’t consider lightening the cognitive and physical load of their neighbors as a real equity issue, but it’s costing me a spoon a day just to argue with this blatant shaming and misinformation. Instead, I’m going to put my spoons toward trying to fight FOR my neighbors who need help rather than fighting WITH the neighbors standing in their way. I hope you will too.
Bio: Nick Lytle is an education researcher and data scientist living in Carrboro. He cares about trying to make his community a more accessible place for all.
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“Viewpoints” on Chapelboro is a recurring series of community-submitted opinion columns. All thoughts, ideas, opinions and expressions in this series are those of the author, and do not reflect the work or reporting of 97.9 The Hill and Chapelboro.com.
Nick, this is a great piece — Carrboro is a place where everyone is welcome. I remember when my kids were babies during the pandemic and I desperately wanted to walk them down in the stroller to the creek, and couldn’t. How lovely that would have been for us at the time. I didn’t want to schlep in my car to Umstead Park.
Many of my questions about this project were answered on the Carrboro Linear Parks Project FAQ: https://www.carrborolinearparksproject.org/learn/faq
I’m really looking forward to connecting the missing parts of Carrboro’s greenway system.
thanks for info
As the “discriminatory” person you seem to be describing in this article I feel obligated to respond. Since I wrote the article that you are quoting. First, Identity Politics is a powerful thing. Using your article to describe to characterize me as someone who doesn’t want greenways for people in wheelchairs or with any other kind of mobility issue is really sort of perfect. It’s pretty easy to cast me in that light, since you don’t know me. And you know that readers will see this article, also will not know my story and but anyone with a heart will think “I want to support paving and be against whoever this guy is talking about!” You so easily can turn a “protect the last remaining forest” issue into the low hanging fruit of identity politics. Your insinuation about me is perfect because I was the live in caregiver for my mother, for 1.5 years. I left my job, my home, my career, everything, to take care of her as she died from dementia, spine cancer and brain cancer. This was in 2019. I was her nurse 24/7. Mom loved being outside, in motion, daily. My biggest task, everyday, was to load mom into a car and take her for walks. First with her cane…then it was the wheeled walker…then it was me pushing her wheelchair. That was the longest lasting phase. Mom knew about my work to protect Bolin Forest. As I was huffing and puffing pushing her on greenways I would ask her “mom, do you ever wish we could be down in Bolin Forest if it had been paved?” Even in her declining mental condition her answer was always the same…”I don’t need to be everywhere. Let the forest be the forest I am just glad that it can remain as natural as it can.” If you are going to cast me in a light where I don’t care about people with mobility issues…at least have the decency to find out if it’s true about me first. Also the trail would be only 2.2 miles long. Also, your article states “but they can’t do so along Bolin Creek in Carrboro.” Have you actually lived in Carrboro? I ask that because anyone who lives in Carrboro knows that there is a greenway on Bolin Creek already. A very nice one. I used it all the time when I lived there. It runs from Umstead Park to the Chapel Hill Community Center. It’s about 2 miles one way, following Bolin Creek the entire way. It’s also where anyone can enjoy Bolin Creek, no matter what mobility challenges they may face. It makes me wonder why you would print an article with such easily provable falsehoods…about me…or about the path. But that is apparently how so many these days sway the opinions of others.
The greenway on Bolin Creek that goes from Umstead Park to community center park is a great greenway. The problem is that this greenway is only in Chapel Hill and is not in Carrboro.
I live in a neighborhood that is on Bolin Creek in Carrboro. I do walk the existing sewer easement next to the creek in Carrboro. While I am a runner, I do not run on the sewer easement because it is too rocky and I am very nervous about getting injured on it. I personally wish that we can complete the greenway in Carrboro and connect to the existing greenway in Chapel Hill. This will lead to more people enjoying the creek and will provide a great method for safely (and enjoyable) traveling from Carrboro to Chapel Hill and vice versa.
I appreciate your continued attempts to defend the forest and wildlife from the paving crowd, Charlie. When the discussion about paving started, I was unable to walk without assistance and I still have to be very careful about where I walk due to how easily I fall. So I absolutely understand the accessibility argument and was an advocate of that argument in the beginning. But as you point out, stormwater is an issue that continues to be ignored and it is crushing. In my neighborhood, property owners are losing land due to erosion, the streets are flooding, and 2 homes have been bought out (less than market value) by FEMA. Other homes have flood damage even though we don’t live in a flood zone.
I no longer support the paved greenway. There are other options that require less pavement, even if they don’t provide the convenience that some want but won’t admit to. There are some who are claiming that since the creek side is already degraded due to the sewer easement, we should just pave it. But actions have consequences and I fear those advocates will not be the ones who have to bear the consequences. Sometime around 2006, Bolin Creek up at Elizabeth Street on the CH greenway flooded. A large number of those condo owners had flooded first floors which caused them to have to move out while the mess was cleaned up and rebuilt. When will we learn to pay attention to history? To respect nature? This drive to pave Bolin Creek feels like Eastgate development all over again. Upon whom will the consequences fall?
Both a memo created by town staff (in conjunction with environmental experts, UNC, and OWASA) and a 2009 letter from a greenway expert who has designed over 250 greenways across the United States concluded that a 10-foot-paved path in an existing impervious easement would not increase flooding. It will also not increase the volume of stormwater than what is already being experienced, because the trail is essentially impervious and getting wider due to OWASA trucks, bikers, and runners. Keeping all three on a path will improve the corridor.
The assessment noted “the narrow 10-foot-width of the trail will not, in and of itself, add anymore additional impact in either velocity or volume of stormwater than what is already being experienced by the impervious social trail that laces throughout the corridor along Bolin Creek. In fact, building a defined trail corridor…and completing environmental restoration will serve to improve the overall environmental health of the corridor and reduce the impact to the stream corridor.”
https://triangleblogblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/GWIletter2009.pdf
https://triangleblogblog.com/2023/02/10/this-2009-staff-memo-dismantles-the-concerns-around-the-bolin-creek-greenway/
https://www.carrborolinearparksproject.org/learn/faq#h.tqfro7o5pp2x
Charlie Morris — a big portion of your viewpoints based on your previous writings seems steeped in this idea that we should leave the forest untamed, natural and pristine. But, you cite repeatedly the regular use of this area for mountain biking, trail running, hiking and dog walking. Including your own frequent personal enjoyment. That’s great, but denial of your own “exploitation” (your word) of the forest as and “amenity” because you’re doing so on a trampled sewer easement and the surrounding singletrack is selfish. We’re encroaching on habitat, degrading the area already. There are already literal playgrounds manufactured along several parts of the 2.2 mile stretch. It really feels like the crux of your argument is a veiled “what I do to personally enjoy the forest isn’t too much, but what you hope to do is”.
I look at a paved path as having equal if not more potential to result in purposeful restorative green development along the creek, and introduction of the area to new eyes that may contribute ultimately to further conservation efforts.
My main issue with the proposed pavement that I wish you would have adressed is the increased flooding it would cause around the creek, which is already a problem on other sections of the greenway.
Hello! The greenway would be located atop a 30-foot wide OWASA sewer easement. It is kept clear so OWASA’s trucks can routinely roll over and perform maintenance, and to stop tree roots from infiltrating poop-filled pipes.
The resulting land is (currently) hard-packed, causing significant erosion and sedimentation and contributing to the degradation of the creek. A major argument for co-locating the greenway with the sewer easement is that doing so would actually shrink the total amount of impervious surface along the creek because in dedicating ten feet to pavement for trail users we can reclaim the other twenty to forty feet with seeded shoulders and other vegetation.
Both a memo created by town staff (in conjunction with environmental experts, UNC, and OWASA) and a 2009 letter from a greenway expert who has designed over 250 greenways across the United States concluded that a 10-foot-paved path in an existing impervious easement would not increase flooding.
The assessment noted “the narrow 10-foot-width of the trail will not, in and of itself, add anymore additional impact in either velocity or volume of stormwater than what is already being experienced by the impervious social trail that laces throughout the corridor along Bolin Creek. In fact, building a defined trail corridor…and completing environmental restoration will serve to improve the overall environmental health of the corridor and reduce the impact to the stream corridor.”
https://triangleblogblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/GWIletter2009.pdf
https://triangleblogblog.com/2023/02/10/this-2009-staff-memo-dismantles-the-concerns-around-the-bolin-creek-greenway/
https://www.carrborolinearparksproject.org/learn/faq#h.tqfro7o5pp2x