Affordable housing policy is misguided

The Sept. 3 story "Town accepts cash over condos" illustrates the perils of coercive affordable housing policies.

Government mandates for affordable housing do not work. Affordable housing provisions function as increased construction cost. Therefore fewer homes are built, and all homes are sold at higher prices. To increase housing supply and thus lower prices, Carrboro could ease requirements for "aesthetically pleasing" buildings or increase building density in its 37,000-acre rural buffer. But instead, it prefers to impose more regulation.

Even worse, Carrboro's affordable housing mandate means that the town coerces homebuilders to transfer their property to the government and/or to private organizations like the Orange Community Housing and Land Trust (OCHLT). The OCHLT subsists on government funds, but as a private group, it is unaccountable to taxpayers. Stunningly, if OCHLT executive director Robert Dowling is believed, the $400,000 that Carrboro will force builder Urban Ventures LLC to pay will go directly to the OCHLT office.

The government should not rob Peter to pay Paul. Nor should it demand that homebuilders foot the bill of a private group in pursuit of bad housing policy. -- Abby Alger, Research intern, John Locke Foundation, Raleigh

Excel-at-all-costs culture harms kids

My oldest son, Christopher, who graduated from Chapel Hill High School in 2002, played on the soccer team. Each year during the blisteringly hot August try-outs he would push himself so hard he'd vomit on the field. He said other kids did too and it was no big deal.

I think it was in his junior year that we had to take him to the UNC emergency room at 3 a.m. He had been drinking lots of water all along, during and after the try-out, but kept feeling worse. Chris woke us up at 2 a.m., saying he needed our help. He had apparently passed out on the floor of the kitchen and came for us after regaining consciousness. We stayed up with him for an hour before deciding he was in real danger. My husband didn't get truly frightened until Chris was hooked up to an IV, with his eyes rolled back in his head. Chris recovered in a few hours.

I don't remember who the soccer coach was; in any event, Chris didn't want us to make a fuss about it. I imagine there are other unreported instances like this. Perhaps the UNC ER has a searchable record of those who at least sought medical help?

My final thought here is that the CHCCS culture needs to change, starting at the top. The majority of human communication is nonverbal. No doubt Superintendent Neil Pedersen "cares" about the kids, but the excel-at-all-costs culture harms vulnerable kids -- our blindly competitive athletes, special needs kids and minorities -- and punishes "rogue" teachers who don't teach to the test. -- Carol Conway, Chapel Hill

Hurricane heightens sewage sludge danger

Hurricane Hanna was slated to hit North Carolina Saturday. Gov. Mike Easley declared a state of emergency. In the meantime, municipalities across the state were spreading sewage sludge from households, hospitals, and industries containing viruses and bacteria, parasites, cancer-causing chemicals and compounds that have been found to alter the reproductive systems of fish and other aquatic animals.

The winds and rain from this potential hurricane will likely produce runoff. The "buffer zones" required for protection of our surface waters from sludge spreading will likely be overflowing with runoff from sludge into our creeks, rivers, streams, and lakes, many of which are already impaired. Does the Division of Water Quality have any laws that prohibit the spreading of sewage sludge in such emergencies? Like the rest of the lax laws governing sludge spreading, the answer is, no.

It's business as usual. The state continues to engage in a massive, million dollar cover-up in the disposal of a substance so toxic it was banned from being dumped in oceans in 1988 after it was found to destroy marine habitats. Now it's being dumped on our precious farmlands. Sludge is given to farmers free of charge, including the costs of spreading it on crops. Is sludge really the best thing since sliced bread, or will it come with a cost that hasn't been fully disclosed yet, thanks to the lack of disclosure by the state about the risks of using sludge as a fertilizer.

We look to our local governments for protection from a multi-billion dollar industrial boondoggle that will continue to rob our farmlands as well as the health of our rural communities unless something is done to stop it. -- Sue Dayton, Blue Ridge Environmental Defense League and North Carolina Healthy Communities Program, Saxapahaw