C. Fray
@cfrayforcarrboro.bsky.social
520 followers 380 following 230 posts
Town of Carrboro councilmember, land use nerd, plant dork, fandom lurker, non-binary (they/them)
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cfrayforcarrboro.bsky.social
This conflict - we love our artists and musicians but don't build enough places for them to live - or teachers, firefighters, restaurant workers, grad students, or anyone else who doesn't have money! - is why I ran for council.

Want to help fix it? Let's talk!
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itsafronomics.bsky.social
lol gentle reminder that DEI is not illegal. Supporting marginalized groups is not illegal. Anyone reneging on support is making a CHOICE to do so.
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gwensnyder.bsky.social
As a protest optics nerd love about the inflatables is how much they visually disrupt and pull focus from the fascist shock imagery Noem & Miller are trying to create.

So many of these photos now look like the world's silliest dance party, backgrounded by a bunch of guys in uniform looking awkward
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gwensnyder.bsky.social
Anyway, thank you Portland and thank you Chicago for the creative and brave ways you are meeting this moment and giving us hope.
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b-zimm.bsky.social
We want to know the root cause of homelessness so we can “solve” it. It’s the confluence of wealth inequality, housing commodification, inflated healthcare costs, no child or elder care, the list goes on.

But the root cause is us. It is the level to which we will tolerate our neighbors’ suffering.
brian-goldstone.bsky.social
Today is World Homeless Day, and after years reporting on this crisis, I'll just say: homelessness is neither inevitable nor intractable. It's the result of choices—political, economic, moral—that can be unmade.

And this: how we treat the unhoused is a bellwether for the violence we will tolerate.
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scottwiener.bsky.social
MIT courageously & powerfully rejected Trump’s extortion “compact”: More funding in exchange for universities adopting MAGA ideology.

Every university must reject it. Just like every state, city, law firm, media company, etc., must reject Trump’s fascism.

Hang together or hang separately.
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triangleblogblog.bsky.social
We considered some options for Bill Belichick if he loses his job. (this consideration involved photoshops)

triangleblogblog.com/2025/10/09/w...
satirical image of Belichick holding a promotional sign at the corner of Franklin and Columbia Streets hawking coleslaw and hot wings
cfrayforcarrboro.bsky.social
I mean, if I had money to spend on mysterious window-shifting campaigns, my yard signs would just say LAND VALUE TAX in a nice readable font.
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brenttoderian.bsky.social
“When streets became calmer & safer, more people felt comfortable trying a bike commute for the first time. Families began pedaling to the park…Local businesses saw new life…And cycling stopped feeling like a niche activity—it became part of everyday Parisian life.”

Via @momentummag.bsky.social
New Study Shows How Paris Pedaled Its Way to a Cycling Revolution
Cycling through central Paris meant weaving between buses and scooters—a bold choice reserved for the fearless few.
momentummag.com
cfrayforcarrboro.bsky.social
Whoever it is isn't familiar with NC state law on property taxes. Doesn't really narrow it down tho.
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petrathepostdoc.bsky.social
can someone just make a "does the dog die" but for "did this movie/series/videogame/book use gen AI" so i can avoid them
cfrayforcarrboro.bsky.social
@triangleblogblog.bsky.social alas, you've been scooped
ollieconnolly.bsky.social
Per sources: Bill Belichick has discussed buyout options with North Carolina’s hierarchy. Belichick has signaled a willingness to trigger his own $1 million buyout if he can find a soft landing with another team or in media
cfrayforcarrboro.bsky.social
Hey Charlie, I don't know any more about that than you do. Carrboro's current ordinance doesn't take the same approach as Chapel Hill's so I'm not up to the latest on state IZ case law.
cfrayforcarrboro.bsky.social
...to the towns or county. That can be a mess when something like TS Chantal stresses the system because there's no one place for folks to turn.

All the jurisdictions need to do better at their piece and collaborate better to improve this situation.
cfrayforcarrboro.bsky.social
...(long story) there. But Chapel Hill isn't recently in the business of building new public housing. Instead both towns use carrots to entice private developers to build new affordable homes. And there's a big patchwork of non-profits that provide things like emergency shelter & social services...
cfrayforcarrboro.bsky.social
One thing that stands out to me is how fragmented responsibility for low-income affordable housing is under state law.

County handles social services, including housing, but relies on towns for supply. Towns control zoning. Town of Chapel Hill is the public housing authority for the county...
cfrayforcarrboro.bsky.social
This explainer is very helpful for other NC municipalities too, including Carrboro.

All of this applies to us except we don't have wards (all council members are at-large), do much less annexation in recent years, and aren't as closely aligned to Orange County gov.
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basavsen.bsky.social
Sticking with car dependence is a failure of imagination, particularly when the wide range of benefits of ending car dependence is so clear.
brenttoderian.bsky.social
“In a city once choked with cars and infamous for its traffic snarls, Paris has pulled off a remarkable turnaround…the French capital has officially become Europe’s best city for children to walk, cycle, and move around independently.” Via @momentummag.bsky.social

A victory for FAST leadership.
Paris Pedals to the Top: How the City of Light Became Europe’s Best for Young Cyclists
The French capital has officially become Europe’s best city for children to walk, cycle, and move around independently
momentummag.com
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evanurquhart.bsky.social
My most optimistic opinion is that the combination of cheap AI-generated fake news and major legacy news orgs taking a torch to their reputations is going to create huge opportunities for independent journalists who maintain a reputation for honest, ethical reporting.
nora.zone
it's hard to talk about this without sounding braggy but you can get pretty far as a business with sincerity and trust, mostly because so many goddamn businesses burn up that kind of intangible resource as soon as they get it, and everything is so dire right now that people are hungry for trust
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jasonthorne.bsky.social
The Venn diagram of urban density and average household GHG emissions is pretty much a circle. Interesting study on “Mapping household GHG emissions in the Greater Golden Horseshoe” from the University of Toronto School of Cities schoolofcities.utoronto.ca/mapping-hous...
cfrayforcarrboro.bsky.social
No meaningful free recycling that I know of, but several places that will take ragged Ts for a small flat fee and turn them into things like insulation. Marine Layer is one example.
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altate.bsky.social
This! Paris is a model for the rest of us to follow. I’ll be writing an article soon about how Anne Hidalgo’s efforts there have been some of the best urban planning policies of the decade.
brenttoderian.bsky.social
According to the City of Paris, in the last 10 years 150K trees have been planted & 45ha of parks created in the already hot city, all intended to not only improve quality-of-life today, but also help the city adapt to & manage summer heatwaves of 50℃ (122F) by 2050.

Just the start.

Common sense.
Paris before and after street transformation New urban forest planted in front of Paris City Hall A Paris “School Street” where cars are removed and people space/tree planting are added
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assignedmedia.org
6 Oct 2025 -- 16-person Aussie team publish a killer take-down of The Cass Review in the prestigious Australian Medical Journal titled, Cass Review Does Not Guide Care for Trans Young People ("lacking expertise & compromised by implicit stigma & misinformation..." @rikiwilchins.bsky.social
Cass Review does not guide care for trans young people
Good medicine is guided by the values of the patient, not those of a clinician, politician or commentator. The Cass Review, lacking expertise and compromised by implicit stigma and misinformation, doe...
www.mja.com.au
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peiferlabunc.bsky.social
After a "suspension" of just a few days, UNC Professor Dwayne Dixon is re-instated, revealing the weakness of the fabricated issues used for the suspension. Here is his response. Stand up to the fascists--when we work together we can triumph.
Text of a statement from Dr. Dixon