 CARRBORO, NC-- September 14, 2001 The events of earlier this week resulted in a slight change of plans for the opening of the Downtown Visioning Charrette brainstorming session Friday night at Century Hall. From 6:30 until 6:45, the church bell rang out from the tower of the Century Center. Classical pianist and local resident Greg McCallum played a 15 minute tribute to the victims of the terrorist actions in New York and Washington, DC on Tuesday. His beautiful performance was followed by a pledge of allegiance to the flag. Carl Johnson led the singing of the national anthem by the entire room. Then the work began.  It really wasn't work though, it was fun. Dan Burden is an expert in the field of walkable communities and has worked with over 1,000 communities in the past 5 years. He drove from Pittsburgh for the event, as flying was not an option when he departed. While 3 of his group were unable to attend due to airport difficulties, the charrette occured as planned. Burden showed us a map of downtown Carrboro, with buildings marked in red and parking areas marked in white. This must've been quite enlightening for the folks who complain about the lack of parking downtown, as parking spaces far outnumber buildings space. (See below)  Dan asked everyone to write down what they hoped for downtown Carrboro to be like in the future. A few people expressed their views to the crowd, which Burden noted was the largest turnout for a community the size of Carrboro that he has ever worked with. Dan showed us examples of what works and what doesn't, and gave us ideas for what might work here in Carrboro. We were all asked to take a sticky star and mark on the map of Carrboro where we lived.  He asked us to write down 5 words that exemplified what we considered important in our lives. These were compiled and the leading results given to us at the end of the session. He asked for input in a number of areas, such as building heights, open spaces, parking areas, and other aspects of a typical downtown area. We were all given sticky dots to signify what we considered most important in each particular area. All of this information will be compiled and used for the ultimate plan for the future of downtown Carrboro.  While the highest priority in the audience was far and away diversity in our community, it was noted that the nearly all white group of participants clearly showed a lack of diversity. No translator on hand for Spanish speaking participants was seen as detrimental to the process. The lack of African-American participants should also be noted. This is particularly disturbing because in the history of Carrboro African-Americans have a rich heritage, living and working together with their Caucasian counterparts since its inception nearly 100 years ago. African-Americans played an important role in the development of this community. While the event was widely publicized as open to the entire community with every citizen of Carrboro being notified by mail, the very diversity that our community seeks was obviously far from being achieved at this particular gathering. I have lived in a historically black neighborhood for the past 16 years, and saw none of my neighbors at this session. The Charrette continues tomorrow beginning at 8:30 am with a walking tour of downtown Carrboro. From 10:30 until noon we will be working with the Walkable Communities toolbox. Lunch (provided) will be from noon until 1 pm, with Downtown Vision workshops from 1:30 until 5:30. The activities that had been scheduled for Monday evening have been postponed for the time being. Let's hope activities for the rest of the weekend bring out a more culturally diverse group that we so obviously seek in our community. The walking tour and design for downtown Carrboro of the future. The November 10 follow up meeting. Home | Overview | About Us | Ads | Art | Businesses | Carrboro and Area Stuff | Carrboro Map | Computer Stuff | Downtown Carrboro Map | Events | Prices | Restaurants | UniqueOrn Enterprises 
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