“Viewpoints” is a place on Chapelboro where local people are encouraged to share their unique perspectives on issues affecting our community. If you’d like to contribute a column on an issue you’re concerned about, interesting happenings around town, reflections on local life — or anything else — send a submission to viewpoints@wchl.com.
No One Will Clap For You
A perspective from Audrey Mann
Since 1940, UNC has operated a coal-fired plant on West Cameron Avenue for the benefit of a single institution and at the expense of thousands of people. It remains the only NC university operating a coal plant today. The plant, situated next to historically Black neighborhoods, pollutes Chapel Hill and Carrboro with environmentally detrimental gasses. The Center for Biological Diversity determined that UNC’s state-issued permit enables them to “emit 4-6 times the limits of nitrogen and sulfur dioxide pollution permitted under the Clean Air Act.” Operation of a coal plant when alternative sources of energy are accessible, no matter legality, is unethical. The danger of respiratory diseases, environmental degradation, and endangerment of wildlife habitats due to coal extraction should not be second to financial incentive. UNC must move promptly to renewables and perhaps execute a renewable power agreement under Duke Energy’s Green Source Advantage program. UNC, no coal by 2040 might be your feasible solution, but when the world is dying, no one will clap for you – the last North Carolina University to cut off coal. I urge local residents to protest this plant, whether by submitting complaints to the Carolina Sustainability Council or attending Friday protests at the plant.
203 Project and Greene Tract Concerns
A perspective from Katy Lyons
My name is Katy Lyons. I am a 10th grade student who would like to express my concerns about recent projects that have been approved for development in Chapel Hill and Carrboro. Firstly, the 203 project in Carrboro, which will require millions of dollars in funding from the city of Carrboro that it does not have, putting the city millions of dollars into debt. The 203 project is designed to be a building full of various amenities including a library for the public in the interest of social community development. If Carrboro’s main interest is to build and strengthen its community, spending millions of dollars to create a building for a new library does not seem like an optimal or even second-best choice. As an alternative, it would make more sense for Carrboro to focus on preserving the systems it already has: a public county library, a public school system, and public transportation. Secondly, the Greene Tract development in Chapel Hill also raises my concern. If Chapel Hill chooses to move forward with its plan of developing half of the property of Greene Tact, they are at risk of losing tremendous amounts of greenspace per capita, and they are not prioritizing the affordability of housing in their development. The community of Chapel Hill should not be marginalized for overpriced housing targets, and Orange County must learn to prioritize its existing population and resources.
“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.
