As residents of Carrboro for 28 years on Oak Avenue, a downtown neighborhood that will be directly impacted by the proposed CVS development on Greensboro, Weaver and Center streets, we feel compelled to speak out so that the neighborhood perspective about this proposed development isn’t lost.

We are opposed to the proposed CVS development because it is a 24/7 business with dense traffic and parking that will be shining lights and creating relentless noise pollution into our homes day in and day out. We are opposed because this project will create significant traffic problems and threaten pedestrian and bike-rider safety. We are opposed because the developer has ignored the surrounding property that is currently zoned residential, not urban commercial development. It is across the street from an old mill house and the first Carrboro schoolhouse that deserves better.

For more than two years, downtown residents been working with the CVS developers to find a middle way in which the quality and character of Carrboro can be preserved, where neighborhoods are protected, AND where compatible, community friendly development can occur. We urge all who are concerned about downtown Carrboro to join us on Feb. 26 at the public hearing in saying “No” to the CVS request to rezone this property to allow only commercial development. Instead, let’s forge a new partnership and unified vision that brings out the best in all of us for this vitally important block in the heart of downtown Carrboro.

Michele Rivest and John Alderson

Carrboro

Y’s sad tale

Dueling columns about the Chapel Hill YMCA in your Sunday paper tell a sad and familiar tale. Like so many respected institutions that have fallen before, our beloved Y is suffering from delusions of grandeur and self-inflicted damage.

The chair of the Y's board says "we have to focus on what we can do and what can impact the greatest number of people in the greatest way." If that's the case, the Y should demolish its swimming pool, quadruple the size of its fitness center, and cut its membership fees in half. That would bring in the crowds for sure. Besides, don't we already have two excellent indoor pools here in Chapel Hill?

As a longtime member of the Y, it has never been my impression that our mission has anything to do with "the greatest number of people." On the contrary, the Y is a small but unique part of a much larger community ecosystem.

According to the Y director, there are more people wanting to use the Y than the facility can currently accommodate. Rather than view that situation as a problem, I'd say it's a strong endorsement for the current mix of services.

It ain't broke. Don't fix it.

James Protzman

Chapel Hill

Effective, humane

The N.C. Bowhunters Association and I have been involved with many of 35-plus towns and numerous private communities that have adopted urban archery seasons and bowhunting as a very effective, efficient, economically feasible and humane tool to help manage the deer population in urban and rural areas.

The NCBA does have a working agreement with Duke Forest to help control the deer herd there. But, we were not “hired” to provide this service as Ms. Karin Yates says in her commentary (“Our illogical war on deer,” CHN, Feb. 9, bit.ly/YdamIg). NCBA has a free program we offer to anyone to help manage and control overpopulations of deer in any urban or rural environment. It is called the Bowhunter Certification and Referral Service, or BCRS for short, and was founded in 2005.

Our certified bowhunters are insured for up to $2 million in hunter liability insurance. They must complete the basic hunter safety class and the International Bowhunter Education Program. They must also pass an annual shooting proficiency test and criminal background check. Our recovery record for deer exceeds 90 percent at the places we have working agreements with. There is NO record of a shooting injury involving a bow and arrow in North Carolina since these records were first kept over 40 years ago.

Anyone interested in utilizing services of our BCRS hunters, or joining as a certified bowhunter can contact NCBA-BCRS Chairman Dennis McClure, at 336-377-9114 or bcrs@ncbowhunter.com. The NCBA webpage is ncbowhunter.com. Click on the BCRS link for more information. Regular NCBA membership also carries $100,000 in hunter liability insurance for both bow and gun hunting. The insurance alone is well worth the $30 a year NCBA membership.

Urban bowhunting is here, and here to stay. It is NOT designed only for smaller rural towns. The problems that occur in smaller towns also occur in and around larger metropolitan areas. A continuous deer bowhunting management program is the safest, most economical, most efficient, humane and effective tool available. There is no other way to effectively deal with this problem than a well-organized bowhunting program.

Ramon Bell

Past president

N.C. Bowhunters Association

Won’t attend Y without courts

I belong to a Medicare Advantage Plan that has a “Silver Sneakers” program that pays for my exercise. There are four gyms in Chapel Hill-Carrboro that take Silver Sneakers people and receive money for each of us.

I have been going to the YMCA since 1997. But I’m now visiting the other three gyms that take Silver Sneakers because the Y wants to close the racquetball courts that are played on by many of my friends. I will not be able to go to the Y if they can’t either.

Sara Smith

Carrboro

No mystery to inclusiveness

The Orange County Disability Awareness Council (DAC) is the manifestation of the Americans With Disabilities Act in action. The organization is composed of highly competent, compassionate individuals, committed to the precepts of equality and inclusiveness.

Often, the misconceptions surrounding disability thwart the professional and intellectual advancement of the disabled community, forcing multi-talented individuals to the margins of society.

It is difficult to imagine that, half a decade after the civil rights movement, there are segments of our society that still strive for personhood. The concept of “the marketplace of ideas,” articulated so eloquently by John Stuart Mills and, later, by Justices William J. Brennan and Oliver Wendell Holmes, has fostered only incremental strides in inviting integrated participation by diverse cultures and peoples of varying abilities. Everyone deserves a presence and a voice, and everyone has a message. When speech is slow, sight is impaired, limbs move haltingly, or minds process information differently, people must not assume that the presence should be negated, the voice silenced, or the message stifled.

The gaping stares, the designation of “otherness,” and the concomitant feelings of so-called “superiority” on the one hand, and subjugation on the other, have yet to be replaced by genuine enlightenment and humanitarianism.

There is no mystery to inclusiveness. It doesn’t require intellectual or ideological leaps. Rather, it can – and should be – as simple as a decision to see “the other” as the self. The two are inseparable. Distinctions based on topical appearances and false impressions are, therefore, illusory and capricious.

When will merit be the standard criterion for hiring? When will personhood be a given? When will judgment transform into acceptance? That day will come when people dare to look in the mirror and realize that I am you. For more information on disability or to contribute to the DAC visit us at tridac.org.

Gabriella Gafni

Raleigh