Posted by novotna at 4:01 p.m. Wednesday

Unfortunately, Mr. Cohen is absolutely correct. I work at UNC, and it is disheartening to see how stagnant downtown Chapel Hill is compared to a resurgent Durham and a thriving Raleigh.I first visited Chapel Hill in 1970, and downtown looks much the same now as it did 40 years ago - and that is not a good thing.

Posted by edfarthing at 5:13 p.m. Wednesday

I remember Chapel Hill from the late '50s and early '60s when I would come over to the State-Carolina football game. When I was privileged to enroll in Carolina in the fall of 1965, Franklin Street became shopping central and the town and the University meshed as one. Protests along the sidewalk, quick trips for food and drink, doing laundry, going to the movies, buying an engagement ring - all were done downtown.

Coming back each fall for football games, it became obvious downtown was declining, but there were still enough things to see and do to drop by, eat occasionally, buy something even. Parking was always a problem and limited the number of folks who could be there at any one time.

I realize kids now have access to cars and can go elsewhere, but that does not mean the rules change - folks still have to have a reason to go somewhere. And right now there is less and less reason to go downtown - that's a shame.

Posted by ignc73 5:17 p.m. last Wednesday

The few blocks of East Franklin St. have been in decline for more than a decade. It's both cultural, as fewer and fewer students leave their rooms on a regular basis, and financial, as most of the buildings are owned by wealthy landlords who don't care if their properties are generating revenue or not. But those few city blocks are hardly representative of Chapel Hill.Chapel Hill is doing fine, and is still one of the brightest spots in the state. People are still clamoring to move to Chapel Hill, as is evidenced by real estate prices.

Posted by CitizenWill at 10:27 a.m. Thursday

Kling-Stubbins' evaluation of downtown's "vibrancy" actually shows that Chapel Hill is on par with other benchmarked communities like Athens and State College. Their report and some comments about the recent community outreach here: tinyurl.com/2et6384

Unfortunately I have to agree with the mayor that the community doesn't get adequate input or evaluation of the scale and type of development downtown.Cumulative effects of that development, honestly presenting scale within context (look at the pictures and diagrams of both Lot 5/140 West Franklin and Greenbridge, both which downplay the contrast in size and bulk with the rest of their respective neighborhoods) and other issues have been downplayed by the "growth at any cost" wing of council.

Posted by tbuckner at 7:36 p.m. Thursday

A few years ago, I would have agreed with the out-of-town mayor. But I think he's got some undergrad nostalgia going on. When I compare the 100 block of Franklin Street of today with the 100 block of the 1970s, I don't see much difference in terms of vibrancy. Today as I looked around, I saw no empty store fronts. I saw no derelict buildings. I saw lots of camp kids and crowds at the bus stop. I saw shoppers in the stores I visited (my two favorites: Light Years and Sugarland). I saw a clean, healthy bustling downtown that has not resorted to the cutsey same color/same awnings of so many renovated main streets. ... If you travel on down to the west end, it's amazingly more vibrant than it has ever been in my 30-plus years here.