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VOLUME 112, ISSUE 55 Downtown plaza might face makeover CAT’S CRADLE, OTHER BUSINESSES WOULD STAY AT LOCATION ■Y SHANNAN BOWEN ASSISTANT CITY EDITOR The plan has not yet been released to the public, but people involved with the project say the proposed new look for Carrboro’s main retail center could be a prom ising upgrade. An early concept plan involves the redevelopment of the property at 300 E. Main St by tearing down the existing one-story structure that contains Cat’s Cradle and the Arts Center and rebuilding units as high as five stories. ■ |: —■— m m —^ DTH/IAURA MORTON Tremayne Manson, president of the Alpha lota Omega board of directors and founder of the fraternity, speaks at a press conference in the Pit on Wednesday afternoon. The Alliance Defense Fund filed suit against the University on behalf of the Christian fraternity, which was denied recognition by the University. GROUP FILES SUIT AGAINST UNIVERSITY BY EMILY STEEL UNIVERSITY EDITOR All eyes were on members of the Alpha lota Omega fraternity Wednesday afternoon as they stood in the middle of the Pit amidst a mass of reporters and swarms of students —and formally declared the federal lawsuit they have filed against the University. The all-male Christian fraternity is fighting to reinstate its official University recognition, which was revoked last year after members refused to sign a nondiscrimination policy required of all campus organizations. Trevor Hamm, Carlon Myrick and Jonathan Park the three members of die all-male Christian fraternity came out of the shadows in which they have been hiding since their situation began to ANALYSIS Co-speakership reveals deep divisions BY KAVITA PILLAI ASSISTANT STATE & NATIONAL EDITOR After the 2002 elections, North Carolina faced a unique situation in the N.C. House. The races divided the chamber's 120 seats evenly among Democrats and Republicans, leaving the speaker position up for grabs. Following a week of fighting, the landmark decision to form a co speakership with Rep. Jim Black, D-Mecklenburg, and Rep. Richard Morgan, R-Moore, was made. Now, two years later, the fate of bipartisan leadership is indefinite as politicians and pundits examine u msim STRIKE The unrenovated Student Union's Underground reopened in July, but its future is uncertain PAGE 2 Serving the students and the University community since 1893 ohe Sailu oar Mrrl Though it hasn’t been approved or formally presented to town boards, the plan features a pedes trian-accessible multiuse center that includes areas for retail, resi dential property and outdoor per formances. Laura Van Sant, a partner in Main Street Properties of Chapel Hill, LLC, which owns the center, said the partners will unveil the conceptual design to the public at a Sept. 13 public forum at the Carrboro Century Center. Van Sant said she received posi make headlines nationwide. “Stated frankly, it is in no shape or form the intention of Alpha lota Omega to be arbitrarily ‘shaking the waters’ as some might perceive it to be,” Hamm read from a prepared statement. “Attempts to reach an understanding with the University have failed; therefore, today, we are ask ing a federal judge to allow us to continue our orga nization’s mission and share our faith with our fel low students as an official student organization.” Hamm stood in front of a support network of the fraternity’s board of directors and lawyers from Alliance Defense Fund, an Arizona-based religious liberties group that has taken on the AlO’s fight for recognition. “We are a fraternity, a Christian fraternity,” said Tremayne Manson, president of AlO’s board of the arrangement’s effectiveness. Some say the co-speakership improved the legislative process, while others assert that it was more divisive than unifying, especially within the Republican Party. Supporters of the arrangement point to less bickering between parties as evidence of success. “I hope people wi11... try to work together, rather than get bogged down in partisan politics," said Black, who has served as speaker since 1999- The move toward a co-speaker ship was spearheaded by a hand ful of Republicans who broke with tive responses from the tenants of the center and surrounding busi nesses after they caught an early glimpse of the project. Jon Wilner, executive director of the Arts Center, said his business is planning to be part of the new structure when it is complete. “I’m extremely impressed so far,” Wilner said. The project would not force ten ants to leave the location because the rebuilding would be done in phases, allowing businesses to move into new locations before CAMPUS CONFLICT their party to vote for the alliance. More conservative Republicans considered the move a betrayal, and Morgan has been feeling the heat ever since. “We had a 60-60 split, but we could have conceivably had a single Republican speaker,” said Rep. John Rhodes, R-Mecklenburg. “Morgan supported the Democrats in basi cally cutting any deal he could to share the tide of co-speaker.” Ferrel Guillory, director of UNC’s Program on Southern Politics, Media and Public Life, said the co-speakership had both strengths and weaknesses and revealed prob m their old ones are tom down, Van Sant said. “If people close up they will move away or go out of business,” she said. The retail center, which is now 55,000 square feet, would expand to 400,000 square feet with the additional stories. If approved, this project could be the first to be built under anew Carrboro ordinance enacted last summer that allows buildings in certain zones to reach four or five stories. directors, after the press conference. “Every, every, every fraternity has always had standards on which they stipulate membership.” The lawsuit, which was filed in the U.S. District Court in Greensboro on Wednesday, argues that the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution guarantees the fraternity the right to discriminate while retaining official UNC recognition. University officials have held that they must balance the rights of equal protection, guaranteed by the Fourteenth Amendment, and those of free speech guaranteed by the First Amendment. The University now has 20 days to respond to the lawsuit. All student organizations seeking official UNC SEE LAWSUIT, PAGE 4 lems within the GOP. “Having a co-speakership was an unusual and inherently fragile thing,” he said. “It exposed a frac ture in the Republican Party.” Rep. Wilma Sherrill, R- Buncombe, said while she thinks the co-speakership was successful, some Republicans refused to work within the new system. “They just threw out the whole two years of the session and refused to work with Speaker Morgan and Speaker Black,” she said. “And they did everything SEE MORGAN, PAGE 4 DOWN AND DIRTY The women's field hockey team seeks to catapult past prior successes PAGE 9 Trish McGuire, town planning administrator, said the retail loca tion is zoned so that structures can be four stories tall or five stories if buildings are set back 50 feet from the street Each unit on the site must have a conditional-use permit if the building is higher than two stories, McGuire said. Van Sant said Main Street Properties will apply for condition al-use permits next year and, if all is approved, will begin construction within three to five years. The centerpiece of the proj ect is a large pedestrian plaza cut diagonally through the site, where Congress kicks off analysis of Code Committee meeting is first of many on issue BY JOE SAUNDERS STAFF WRITER While this year's student elections still are a semester away, members of Student Congress are taking action now to avoid controversy and to make the Student Code less open to inter pretation. Congress began the long and complicated process of significantly revising the Code dur ing the first meeting of the Rules and Judiciary Committee on Tuesday evening. While committee members did not vote on any drastic changes to the Code, the review represents the beginning of a series of major revisions. Dining die year, student government will revise the document, which has not been altered for the past ten years. The recommendations made Ihesday will go before the entire body of Student Congress during its meeting next week. SEE STUDENT CODE, PAGE 4 DJ to focus on ‘hetero pride’ during parade BY RYAN C. TUCK CITY EDITOR The parade on Franklin Street Saturday morning will have all the elements of a typi cal parade: signs, T-shirts, police escorts and a large gathering of people. But what the people are celebrating might be less than orthodox. Bob Dumas, a notoriously controversial disc jockey from radio station WDCG, or 105.1 FM, will be leading a march down Franklin Street on Saturday that he is calling his “Celebrating Heterosexuality” pride parade. At 10:45 a.m., Dumas and his fellow “flam ing heterosexuals” will march down the east bound lanes of Franklin Street. It is slated to begin at the Jiffy Lube at 607 SEE PARADE, PAGE 4 - s ' ' • \ DTH FILE PHOTO N.C. House Co-Speaker Richard Morgan, R-Moore, spent the last legislative session in an alliance with Jim Black, a Mecklenburg County Democrat. TODAY Partly cloudy, H 84, L 65 FRIDAY Mostly cloudy, H 85, L 67 SATURDAY Partly cloudy, H 85, L 68 THURSDAY, AUGUST 26, 2004 a parking lot now sits. The parking lot would be cov ered by the plaza, and a parking deck would be built behind the building where Cat’s Cradle now sits. “We hope to have distinctive sizes,” Van Sant said. “So, it will look like an urban development, not one big streetscape plopped down there.” Alderman Diana McDufiee said the project’s proposed plans seem appropriate for die town. “It’s really exciting, creative and innovating,” she said. SEE PLAZA, PAGE 4 j n
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