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Not to worry. I will definitely still be around. Even if we move, I informed my husband that I want to be within 15 minutes of A Southern Season - one of my very favorite places in Chapel Hill.
Honestly, I think the worst thing about Franklin Street is that sometimes I have trouble finding a parking place on Friday night! The street has a lot to offer. I have a friend who lives in Carrboro & whenever we get together, we always meet at a restaurant along Franklin Street or Rosemary (the street one block north of Franklin). We always have a great time & I've always felt safe. In fact, I've only seen one panhandler on Franklin during my numerous visits.
I'm afraid that some people may read this thread and get the wrong impression of the area, but it really is nice & relaxed. There's even a small kids museum & the planetarium, so there are activities for the whole family. Just keep in mind that the big Halloween street party is geared more towards the big kids than the little ones.
We moved to Chapel Hill a year ago, and I don't know that I can convince anyone whose impression is not good that it is good, but I will say that we love it. We could have chosen anywhere on the Eastern Seaboard to live, and we specifically chose Chapel Hill.
It's not 100% upscale and I'm glad it's not...that attracts a very different crowd than does the type of atmosphere Chapel Hill has. I grew up in a town which was VERY high-end. It was not the atmosphere I wnated for raising my own children. Chapel Hill is expensive, and there are homeless, and a couple of the restaurants have been voted to be in the Top 10 in the country, and there are empty stores, and the schools are top-notch, and there is a huge int'l community, and the downtown is not totally clean, and the list goes on. It's got a flavor of its own. People either love it or don't, so if you don't...there are plenty of other places in the area to look into.
In fact, Southern Village and Meadowmont, both of which are planned communities within Chapel Hill, offer very clean "towns", no visible homeless, upscale shopping, and are almost 100% white. That appeals to a lot of people. It's very different from downtown Chapel Hill.
To each his own...obviously a lot of people love the atmosphere or the real estate prices would not be so high. But there are many other nearby areas with other atmospheres....such is the beauty of the Triangle!
I agree with both of your descriptions of Chapel Hill. The first evening we were there I was a little unsure about whether this was the town I had read so much about as it was a Friday evening and there was a lot of traffic and it seemed so much more like a city than what I am used to. By the time our week in NC was up I felt quite at home in Chapel Hill and can definitely see myself living there. I will go to Sandwhich and 3 Cups or Panera Bread before going to the Weaver St. Market for some groceries. My husband and I will have the choice of so many unique and unusual restaurants for our date night instead of the usual chain restaurants we have here.
I hope we can all meet so that you can show me the sights when I move down there.
Mrs Steel, what are your favorite things to buy at A Southern Season. We looked around the store when we were down there as I had heard a lot about it. It seemed like they had a large selection of delicious prepared foods but I would imagine it would be rather expensive for every day. Do you buy from there regularly or just as a treat once in a while? What are the must haves from that store?
I've heard wonderful things about Sandwhich, but I've yet to go there. Gotta fix that! I really love Weaver Street Market (Even though it is technically in Carrboro). Their bakery is great. I especially like their Wonderful Bread (which is saying something because I'm usually not a big fan of white bread).
I definitely don't go to A Southern Season everyday. It's far too expensive for that. But there are a few things I can buy there that I can't get anywhere else. My husband is from the UK so I get a few of his favorite pantry staples there (lemon curd, HP sauce, Elizabethan spicy tomato chutney, etc). I've also found a really amazing brand of salad dressing there. The manufacturer is Manning Farms. Their Vidalia Onion Burgandy Poppyseed dressing is sooooo good. Not healthy, but very tasty! And it's the only place in the area where I've found PG Tips & other fine teas. Sometimes I will buy bars of Green & Blacks chocolate there, but most of the time those are cheaper at Weaver Street.
Sometimes, though, I go there and don't buy anything at all. Just walking through the aisles of A Southern Season makes me happy.
Would an ordinance against people in private commercial areas such as restaurants and stores panhandling seem reasonable? It seems unfair to businesses and their customers that people go inside their stores and restaurants and beg for money there.
Would an ordinance against people in private commercial areas such as restaurants and stores panhandling seem reasonable? It seems unfair to businesses and their customers that people go inside their stores and restaurants and beg for money there.
I've never seen panhandlers inside stores in CH (okay, maybe McDonald's) but I'm sure that it happens. If business owners don't like it then they can call the police and have the panhandlers issued a citation for trespassing. I'm not sure how much good that would do. IMO the only solution is an aggressive police crack down on panhandling but there is no way that will happen in CH. They wouldn't want to chance violating some meth addict's free speech rights.
FTR I was part of the problem when I was in school at UNC. I never gave panhandlers $ but I would buy them food. It seems like they were less aggressive back in the day.
Last edited by HookEmHorns; 04-08-2007 at 08:19 PM..
This article, http://www.chapelhillnews.com/100/story/6907.html (broken link), in today's Chapel Hill Advocate is about the police substation just north of downtown.
CH does have a lot of homeless folks asking for money and it's annoying! that was one great thing about state college, pa/penn st..not one bum asking for money, granted there was one homeless man on college ave when I was there b/w 1999/2002 but he was quiet and kept to himself...
Me too, I was disappointed when I found out that CH was just a "college town" with t-shirt shops, mini-bakery/cafe etc. I was hoping it was sort of like a mini Beverly Hills, Rodeo Drive with college students, but it wasn't. I tried North Hills on Raleigh and that was the one that looked like Rodeo Drive. Cameron Valley on midtown also was very nice with small botique shops mixed with trendy retail. On the scale of 10, I'll give these 2 shopping destinations a 9. They're only about 4-6 city blocks of retail/cafe/restaurant etc and they need to expand it to attract more tourists and shoppers. CH on the other hand, I'll give it a 4.
Brier Creek on the other hand is more like a strip mall with a touch of a small-downtown-main-street-look.
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The street has a lot to offer. I have a friend who lives in Carrboro & whenever we get together, we always meet at a restaurant along Franklin Street or Rosemary (the street one block north of Franklin). We always have a great time & I've always felt safe. In fact, I've only seen one panhandler on Franklin during my numerous visits.
