DCRP alumna honored with 2005 Community Service Award
University Gazette

The Chapel Hill-Carrboro Chamber of Commerce and its Foundation
for a Sustainable Community has honored Linda Convissor (MRP ’81),
director of local relations, with the Town and Gown Award.

The Town and Gown Award is presented to an individual for fostering
a mutually beneficial relationship between the community and the
University.  Candidates should have a commitment to civic affairs,
be involved in community organizations and should demonstrate
leadership qualities in bridging the gaps among faculty, students,
administration, government, citizenry and business, the chamber notes.

In presenting the award, Mark Zimmerman, chamber board chair, said,
“Linda plays an integral role in communicating information between the
University and the community.  Linda served as the project manager
for the campus master planning process from 1998 to 2001.


Since 2001, Linda has worked at UNC’s University Relations office where she shares information and points
of view among the University, towns, chamber, neighborhoods and community groups.”

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DCRP alumna recognized at NC-APA Awards Program

Leigh Ann McDonald (MRP ‘05) was awarded the 2005 North Carolina
Marvin Collins Planning Award. The award is given to one outstanding
student each branch of the state university system, which offers a planning
degree (ASU, ECU, UNC-CH), for exceptional academic studies and
initiative in planning.  Leigh Ann received her award at the North Carolina
Chapter of the American Planning Association's 27th Annual Awards
Program in Fayetteville, NC on October 7th.



This award recognizes individuals and agencies who have completed outstanding plans, programs, and projects,
or have made notable contributions to the planning profession.  Leigh Ann currently works with Roger Waldon
(MRP ‘76) at Clarion Associates LLC of Chapel Hill.

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Carolina Transportation Program hires new research director

Dr. Sonia Yeh has been named as the new research director of DCRP’s
Carolina Transportation Program.  As the program’s research director,
Dr. Yeh will help identify and promote interdisciplinary collaborations
within UNC, other area universities and continue the program’s
partnerships with various local/state government and non-profit
organizations.

Dr. Sonia Yeh's research interests focus on energy and environmental
aspect of the transportation research, especially the role of technological
change, economic, and social changes on future energy demand, air
emissions, and environmental outcomes.  Much of her work has involved
with applying tools such as risk analysis, decision analysis, and uncertainty
analysis to policy issues that intersect with energy, transportation,
environment, and public health.

As an interdisciplinary education and research program, the Carolina Transportation Program supports students in
planning, public administration, civil engineering and economics.  The goal of the program is to expose students to
the latest transportation methodology, support current faculty transportation research, and to have students interact
with Carolina Transportation Program alumni.  Dr. Asad Khattak is the Carolina Transportation Program director.

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Project creates several red flags
Opinions: Dave Godschalk (guest columnist)
Daily Tarheel
October 26, 2005


The biggest development on the agenda for the Chapel Hill
Town Council in the coming year is not Carolina North, but
the public-private downtown project being submitted by
Ram Development Co. of Palm Beach Gardens, Fla.


…On paper, this project sounds almost too good to be true.  The sagging Chapel Hill downtown gets revitalized with
233 new housing units and 30,000 square feet of new retail space in green buildings, along with a new public plaza
and some 227 new parking spaces on lot 5 in addition to the 173 spaces there now. …But as a planner who wants
to see the downtown turn around, I have some major questions about this proposal.    (Read the entire column)

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Williamsburg residents consider new way of living
A group looking to start a cohousing development
dailypress.com
Carol Scott

WILLIAMSBURG -- Dennis O'Brien wants to know who his neighbors are.  
"I don't know anybody else in my condominium," he said.   "They're not here
to get to know each other. They're just kind of all living in a building."  He's one
of the leaders of a group interested in starting a cohousing development in the
Williamsburg area - a development where people own their own homes but can
share common buildings or neighborhood duties.  

Unlike a commune, where there is little or no personal property, "cohousing is much less unconventional," O'Brien said.
 ...Local developments that mix housing, shops and offices - Port Warwick in Newport News, New Town in James City
County and the planned High Street in Williamsburg - are marketed as "walking villages" where residents can find community
because they live and work nearby.   But taking that to the next level with cohousing is likely to remain a niche market, said
Roberto Quercia, associate professor at the Department of City and Regional Planning at the University of North Carolina.  
"I think in general, people prefer the traditional form of ownership," without shared facilities or community chores, he said.
"My feeling about cohousing is that it's a situation or an option for people who want something different."

http://www.dailypress.com/news/local/williamsburg/dp-05417sy0oct19,0,2354887.story?track=mostemailedlink

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Furniture industry future hard to gauge in face of foreign imports
Citizen-Times.com
By Mark Barrett

ASHEVILLE - A few years ago, says UNC Chapel Hill professor Meenu Tewari,
many people thought the North American Free Trade Agreement and cheap
Mexican imports would hit the North Carolina furniture industry hard.

Right concept, wrong country.


...Mexico seemed a logical place for furniture production to migrate to after NAFTA dropped barriers to the country's
imports when it took effect in 1994, said Tewari, an assistant professor in UNC's Department of City and Regional
Planning who has studied the furniture industry.  However, Tewari says, "it was difficult ... to get good quality at a
good price from Mexico."   China went through "a period of training that happened in the early '90s," Tewari said,
and dramatically increased production late in the '90s and in this decade, aided in part by investment from Taiwan.
Changes in the shipping industry also made it easier to get furniture from Asia to the United States, Tewari said.

http://www.citizen-times.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050919/BUSINESS/509190310/1003

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Katrina's harsh land-use lesson
Neal Peirce / Syndicated columnist
The Seattle Times  (Editorial column)

Comprehensive plans at the county or municipal level.
Yawn. Why bother? Isn't this a "free" country, anyway?


Well, we've been yawning too long.  A significant chunk
of the $200-billion-plus bill from the Katrina-Rita hurricanes
might have been avoided if there'd been tough, realistic
plans to deter development in exposed coastal areas
through buffer zones, wetlands protection, tough building
codes and relocating settlements to higher land. 



...At a minimum, suggests Raymond Burby, a University of North Carolina-based analyst of natural-disaster
planning efforts, state governments should enact meaningful building codes and oblige local governments to
draw up comprehensive plans.

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/opinion/2002579477_peirce24.html

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Despite storms, coasts grow
USA Today

Coastal counties from Texas to New England are growing
by about 1,300 people every day despite a decade-long
surge of hurricanes that has peaked this year with the most
in one season since 1969.

...The cost extends beyond the buyers, says Philip Berke,
DCRP professor .  "Even if they have insurance, the rest of
the country will have to pay higher insurance rates."


http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2005-10-20-coastal-populations_x.htm?csp=14

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Many big visions for new big easy
The Christian Science Monitor

Even as the US Army Corps of Engineers claimed victory Tuesday
in pumping out the last of more than 224 billion gallons of floodwater,
some in New Orleans were looking forward to the chance to rebuild
and, perhaps, reshape one of America's major cities. ...Successful
rebuilding "is going to take tackling the socioeconomic problems
that bedeviled the city long before Katrina," says Thomas Campanella,
an urban planning professor at the University of North Carolina and
co-editor of "The Resilient City."  "There's going to be billions and billions
of dollars thrown at this, and it should be spent to fix the preexisting
conditions that led to this massive underclass being in such a
bad condition."


http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/1012/p01s01-ussc.html

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In Pensacola, Nature, Cash Form a Cycle
The Washington Post

The last thing Buck Lee expected after Hurricane Ivan
gutted this narrow sliver of paradise in 2004 was a land
rush. ..."There are very large incentives to develop in
hazardous areas," said Ray J. Burby, DCRP professor
of land use and environmental planning.   "We have federally
subsidized flood control and hurricane protection works.  
We subsidize flood insurance.  We have tax write-offs for
disaster losses.  All of this massive federal relief makes
people whole.  The federal message is 'Go ahead and
develop these areas.' "


http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/10/10/AR2005101001412.html

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Named to Planetizen's 2005 Top 10 Booklist

Recovering New Orleans Thomas J. Campanella Planetizen Op-Ed In the September 21st. Planetizen Op-Ed column, Thomas Campanella, co-author of The Resilient City: How Modern Cities Recover From Disaster, contemplates the case of New Orleans.  Very few cities actually die, but could New Orleans be one of them?  What will it take to ensure its survival?   And even if it survives, will the city ever be able to regain its original character? Please visit www.planetizen.com to read the full article

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Americans moving into harm's way
The Chicago Tribune

A scientific debate remains about whether the Gulf and Atlantic
Coasts are being pummeled by hurricanes of greater intensity than in
the past, but there is no question that more Americans are moving
directly into the path of the storms.   

..."There's a saying that there are no such things as natural disasters,"
said David Godschalk, DCRP Stephen Baxter Professor Emeritus who
studies disaster mitigation.   "They only become disasters when you
put people in the wrong places."

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-0510080168oct08,1,6312109.story
(Article available only to registered members. Registration is FREE.)

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Three projects before Hillsborough boards
The News & Observer (Raleigh)

Three Hillsborough projects underwent scrutiny in a joint town
board and planning board public hearing Thursday night. ...
DCRP assistant professor, Tom Campanella, criticized the
automobile-centered planning.  "There are the sidewalks, but
they are really just loose spaghetti floating around the site,"
Campanella said.  "Overall, I would say that this is a good
example of ... the kind of creeping urban sprawl that we
really need to fight against in this town."



http://www.newsobserver.com/politics/story/2811702p-9255819c.html

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UNC to host discussion on recovery,
rebuilding after Hurricane Katrina
Thursday, September 22

CHAPEL HILL — As the nation recovers from the devastating effects
of Hurricane, a public forum at the University of North Carolina at Chapel
Hill on Thursday (Sept. 22) will address readiness and challenges
arising from natural disasters.

"Katrina: Preparing for and Responding to Natural Disasters" will bring
together prominent experts in public health, city and regional planning,
philosophy and ethics, social work, history and community service to
discuss their views and those of the audience on the implications of
Katrina and other natural disasters. The forum is sponsored by the
UNC General Alumni Association.

The forum is part of the "Think Fast" series, which the General Alumni Association conducts to provide timely
forums on breaking news stories that dominate the public conscience.  Free to the public, the forum will be on
campus in the George Watts Hill Alumni Center from 7 p.m. to 8:45 p.m.

"It’s important that Carolina alumni and the community have access to campus experts who can share their
insights about this important event in our lives," said Doug Dibbert, General Alumni Association president.  
"We hope alumni and friends attending will take part in framing the discussion."

Each panelist will give opening remarks, after which the forum will open to audience questions.  The panel will
include the following UNC faculty and staff with topic area of expertise noted:

• Dr. Philip R. Berke, professor of city and regional planning and faculty fellow at UNC’s Center for Urban and
  Regional Studies (CURS), who will focus on "After the Disaster: Do Cities Thrive and Recover?"
• Dr. Edward I. Baker, director of the N.C. Institute for Public Health, who will address the "UNC School of Public
  Health Response to Hurricane Katrina."
• Dr. Douglas MacLean, professor of philosophy and director of UNC’s Parr Center for Ethics, who will focus on
  "Race, Class and Rescue: What Does Katrina Tell Us about American Values?"
• Joe Glatthaar, Alan Stephenson Professor of Civil War History, who will address "The Role of the Military."
• Joanne Caye, assistant clinical professor in the School of Social Work, whose topic is titled "Helping Families
  and Children Manage."
• Dr. Lynn Blanchard, director of the Carolina Center for Public Service, who will focus on "Coordinating the
  University’s Relief Efforts in Response to Natural Disasters."

UNC Hurricane Relief site: http://www.unc.edu/cps/katrina.html