Wow, today is this web site's seventh birthday - it kind of snuck up on me! When I registered this domain name and installed MovableType (with BrianR's help) on a weekend weekend 7 years ago, I never imagined the vast community that would grow here or the incredible influence we would have over local issues.

In the past 7 years I have gotten married, had a child, and changed jobs a few more times than I would have liked. OrangePolitics has been a great constant for me. It's a platform not only to have my say, but to help others learn about local issues and to have their own personal soap box for whatever moves them. It has always been my hope that OP would eventually be more community-led and not as dependent on me alone. The trick is finding the right point in the community's life cycle to make that leap. Could it be in our near future? I'd love to hear your thoughts about it at OrangePolitics 7th Birthday Party!

We're surrounded by thriving mobile food scenes (taco & crepe trucks in Carrboro, everything from burgers to Korean BBQ trucks in Durham) and yet we very little mobile food to speak of here in Chapel Hill. According to Lex Alexander, this is due to overly strict Town regulations, so he recently petitioned (PDF) the Town Council to make it easier for food trucks to operate (his petition doesn't specify how).

The town requires merchants who sell food to be properly licensed and places restrictions on selling food in a public right-of-way. Setting up a food truck on private property also adds hurdles.

Food truck applications are looked at on a case-by-case basis. The town has allowed some mobile eateries: the hotdog cart outside of Lowe's, and The Barbeque Joint Mobile catering, said Catherine Lazorko, public information officer for Chapel Hill.

- ChapelHillNews.com: Merchant pushes for food trucks, 9/15/10 

Do you think the town should ease restrictions on food trucks?

Joe Green has resigned from the CHCCS School Board (not that you'll notice that in the lack of media around here)

But I doubt we'll get into another "5th place finisher" fight because I heard MaryAnne Gucciardi moved out of the district as well.  But I'm sure there will be interesting questions about whether to appoint another African-American.  Or why not a Hispanic- or Asian-American given the large populations (14 and 11% respectively)? 

Ruby's recent post about the problems with the Town's communication strategy regarding the new Downtown Development Framework got me to think about the ways in which our town's government does not use social media to communicate with constituents. I'll have more to say about this hopefully in a future blog post, but this one item jumped out at me:

When I first learned about the proposed framework for downtown, I was amazed to see such big, new ideas being proposed by the consultant hired by the Town of Chapel Hill and the Downtown Partnership. This proposal presents an opportunity for Chapel Hill to do something visionary and to once again have a thriving urban center that is the envy of other communities. But.

The only way that this Big Idea will evolve into a Good Idea is if Chapel Hill can make this vision our own. Not only that, but I also think this plan might have trouble being approved in Chapel Hill without generating significant community investment in its approach. Or, as I said in June:

On Saturday we'll be having a special OP Brunch (think: OP Happy Hour, but earlier) with Deanna Zandt. She's the author of the new book Share This! How You Will Change the World with Social Networking. We'll have a discussion of how new media can be used for hyperlocal activism, how it IS used here in OC, and probably a variety of other interesting topics that are likely to come up in conversation with Deanna who is smart, funny, and has great politics and fun stories from many years of work for left-wing causes and personalities.

Come to a public meeting to learn about the next step in the Town's radical/visionary new plans for downtown. I highly recommend checking out the presentation made by the consultants back in June. Link below, and blog coverage here.

The future of downtown Chapel Hill will be discussed during the presentation of the draft Downtown Development Framework and Action Plan to Town advisory boards and commissions on beginning at 5 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 16, in the Council Chamber of Town Hall, 405 Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. 

The presentation will be made by Dan Douglas of Kling Stubbins, and questions will follow the presentation. 

The regional transit workshops are continuing to happen and it's more important than ever that folks who care about the future of regional transit attend these workshops.  You can stop by at any point during the event and talk to someone.  No need to stat for the whole event. 

This time, the workshop is being held in Carrboro at the Century Center! Emphasis will be placed on the technical analysis of the different corridor options displayed at the first meeting (back when they met at Chapel Hill town hall last month). How does Carrboro fit in? How will Carrboro benefit?  Now is a really crucial time for folks who want to see West Chapel Hill and Carrboro included in a light rail plant, so stop by between 4 and 7PM on Sept. 16, 2010.

http://www.orangepolitics.org/events/public-workshop-on-regional-transit