Since we rescued it, this is OUR meadow!
Our neighborhood’s superb performance in the November 1989 Carrboro election forced the Town to retract their offer to sell half of the Fidelity open green space the the U.S. Postal Service.
This land
The Town has owned the 8.7 acres at the end of Fidelity since 1948. The open green space there comprises a 2.9 acre meadow and 2.6 acres of woods. The Town’s graveyard along Davie will soon fill its 3.2 acres. See the map below.
Neighborhood
Our economically, ethnically, and generationally diverse population has lived along these two streets for 37 to 57 years … our 300 condo and apartment homes were built on vacant land here between 1965 and 1985. Our (and our landlord’s) investment decisions took into account this gorgeous open green tract. Thousands of us have been informally using this natural space over the decades.
Carrboro’s Town Council hasn’t yet given weight to our humanity
The Town Council has known since 2020 that this graveyard would soon fill up, but they’ve never actively solicited our thoughts on expanding the graveyard into our meadow … not even after we accidentally learned in 2020 about that threat and expressed concerns to them many times at their meetings. So far in 2020-2023, Carrboro’s Town Council’s behavior has mirrored their behavior from 1988 thru October 1989 and from March through June of 2016: From our perspective many of them have seemed to regard this land as their private land piggy bank that belongs only to the seven of them, and they have not in a timely fashion fully informed our neighborhood or the community at large of the options at hand and the decisions that have already been made or are continuing to be made regarding its future. Although some of the council members have occasionally mentioned the possibility of eventually engaging the community in this decision, two of the swing voters on this issue have already informed the author of this website that “the fix is in”, namely that expanding the graveyard into our meadow is a foregone conclusion. So it is essential that as many Carrboro residents who prefer parks over graveyards speak up as soon as possible this spring! Otherwise, in their next “work session” they could continue to preoccupied only with the concerns of the pro-graveyard expansion folks, thereby continuing to pre-judge the situation. After that die has been cast, it may be the case that in June we will be invited to merely suggest how to arrange the picnic tables on the remnant of the meadow that they toss to us, after they have already decided upon the overall disposition of this land largely on their own.
Need happy family in-front-of-condo photo.
BH2 Victory 1989 continues Background & History
Town-owned 8.73 acres at Fidelity & Davie: The rectangle containing the graveyard and the woods to the south of it is 3.2 acres. The rest of the woods are 2.6 acres, after one deducts a southeastern nook (not shown) that the Town does not own. The meadow is 2.9 acres, including the trees along Fidelity on its northern edge.
Make Carrboro Parks 