Miscellaneous

            Five years ago I was a guest lecturer at UNC-Chapel Hill.  My anthro-laden topic was “territoriality” in the land use context.  This past month, researchers in Uganda’s Kibale National Park published a paper stating “Tom Terrell was right.”  Well . . . not in those specific terms, but close enough for me to exclaim “See!?!”

            Technology’s increasing control over our lives became absurdly comical last year when, for the first time in 52 years, I became obsessed with the length of my thumb nails, the only “tools” I had for pressing the keys on my new blackberry.

             But a day doesn’t pass when I’m not experiencing another new – and

Cities and counties operate within a confusing matrix of state and federal statutes and regulations.  But when it comes to laws affecting land, another set of “immutable” laws comes into play.

             You can call them the laws of “that’s-just-the-way-it-is” or the laws of nature.  But since I’m the one who has codified them, I call

            From the earliest years of the 1900s to World War II, American cities spent increasing percentages of their annual budgets accommodating automobiles on street systems designed for horses, carriages and pedestrians.

            When the war was over, our infatuation with cars and cheap gas led us to build more and more highways to connect us with

            Earlier this week I wrote about ethics laws affecting local governing boards.  On Friday I was in Raleigh where the News & Observer ran the front page banner headline “51 Charges for Former Easley Aide.”       

             I met Easley aide Ruffin Poole briefly only once.  I have dealt with him on three or four matters over

For six months I’ve posted regular commentary on North Carolina’s economy and its evolving laws and developments related to local government, zoning, general land use and the environment.

             Today I’d like to talk about . . . God.

             Follow me here.  There’s a segue.

             Cecil Bothwell was sworn in last month as a new Asheville

The lead article in yesterday’s Charlotte Observer was interesting news.  The headline read “Charlotte homes sales rebound.”

Today’s High Point Enterprise had a similar lead article: “High Point home sales show large increase for October.”

Home sales were up 20% in Charlotte and 22% in High Point.  But the story behind the story is that

Yesterday and today CNN and Fox News commentators milked two gubernatorial and one congressional race into a pundits’ dream contest for reading the political tea leaves of 2010.  They all looked at the same numbers but saw different versions of the future.

History’s lesson, though, is that this is mere entertainment.  The events that will