VOLUME 114, ISSUE 37
VIOLENCE CHILLS EVENT
‘After Chill 9 shooting follows annualfestival , returns pall to family focused event
■H[kSk I bBS
W # __ ri /
DTH/GALEN CLARKE
Chapel Hill Fire Department officials hose blood from the sidewalk at the crime scene in front of TJ's Beverage and Tobacco with bleach-laced water late
Sunday after two people were injured in a shooting at the "After Chill" portion of Sunday's Apple Chill festival. Three had been shot as of press time.
Pedestrian safety
A total of 284 responded to a
pedestrian survey conducted by UNC
journalism students. Half of student
respondents living off campus said
they feel unsafe crossing"the street.
Mode of transportation
How do you get to class on most days?
Walk .
55%
Car
15%
Bus If
26%
Motorcycle Ngffi
or moped \
i %
Bike '
3%
Adequate sidewalks
Has there been a time in the past'3o days
when you had to walk in the street or on
somebody's lawn because no sidewalk
was provided?
No 49%
Pedestrian accidents
Has anyone you know ever been struck
by a motor vehicle while walking in
Chapel Hill?
No 65%
Potential pedestrian accidents
Have you ever had to run. jump, duck, or
dodge to avoid being struck by a motor
vehicle while walking in Chapel Hill?
Ham
No 36%
Driver courteousness
Compared to the place you lived before
Chapel Hill, would you say that motorists
here treat pedestrians with ...
More courtesy —— *
43%
About the j£fj
same ' ?*;■. 'A aSSSgalat
28% 99
Less courtesy -S||
19%
SOURCE: SCHOOL OF JOURNALISM AND
MASS COMMUNICATION
DTH/KURT GENTRY
Online I dailvlarheel.com
FOR THE CHILDREN Students walk to
educate about deprived Ugandan district
DESIGN BLOG How much is too much?
A discussion of graphics in the newspaper
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BY JESSE JAMES DECONTO
SPECIAL TO THE DAILY TAR HEEL
Lindsey Jones drops off her car
for service at Johnson’s Garage,
at the corner of Longview Drive
and Martin Luther King Jr.
Boulevard.
She walks downhill on MLK
MONDAY ?o U w e I a r r d
SPOTLIGHT
The Durham Academy senior
wants a snack at Foster’s Market
while she waits for her ride.
The only crosswalk is at
Umstead, a hundred yards down
the road. Four lanes of fast-mov
ing traffic lie between Jones and
a thick slice of chocolate cake. A
center turn lane defined by dotted
yellow lines is her only respite.
There’s a break in the south
bound traffic. She sprints for the
center lane and stops there, star
ing at the vehicles bearing down
on her. Automobiles speed past
her, behind and in front.
There’s a gap in the north
bound traffic and she runs for
the Foster’s parking lot.
Safely inside, she goes in
search of her snack.
Roads pit man against machine
BY JESSE JAMES DECONTO
AND TONY SMITH
SPECIAL TO THE DAILY TAR HEEL
Chapel Hill has its pedestrian
friendly perks andtake-your-life
in-your-hands excursions. On the
whole, though, Chapel Hill was
designed for the automobile.
The town’s principal long-range
planner, Gordon Sutherland, says
the conditions are the result of
planning during past decades.
“Historically, we didn’t build
sidewalks,” he says. “It’s now up
to the town to retrofit the results
of the ’4os, ’sos and ’6os.”
Even when housing and ameni
ties are close to each other, driv
ing is often the most practical
option.
www.dailytafheel.com
“I always try to cross at the
crosswalk,” she says, “but when
it’s three blocks out of the way,
I’m not going to.”
Such is life along Martin
Luther King Jr. Boulevard and,
indeed, on roadways through
out Chapel Hill. Recent fatalities
have shone a spotlight on pedes
trian safety, but the dangers are
not new. Since 1995, at least 270
pedestrians have been struck on
the streets of Chapel Hill.
Twelve have been killed.
University officials have looked
to monitor safety by threatening
jaywalkers with fines, but resi
dents want more than that.
They want more sidewalks and
more walking paths separated
from traffic. They want better
street lighting and more pedes
trian signals at intersections.
They want more crosswalks and
raised islands where they can
safely pause in the middle of
wide thoroughfares such as MLK
Boulevard, where 11 pedestrians
have been struck since 1995.
“No, I don’t feel safe,” says
Jones, recalling her mad dash.
“Not when there’s cars going past
University Mall to Eastgate
Take the shopping district
between Estes Drive and Eastgate
Plaza, which includes University
Mall. Shops are densely concen
trated, but going from one center
to another requires getting in the
car and driving along U.S 15-501
or East Franklin Street.
The mall is close to the retail
shopping centers along South Elliott
Road, but the route is blocked by
private apartment complexes with
fences and barbed wire.
Some determined pedestri
ans have worn a path through
the woods and cut a hole in the
fence between the Sun Stone
Apartments, off Connor Drive,
arts I page 9
RUSHED PRODUCTION
Company Carolina's "24 Hour
Plays" features a team of
artists who wrote, rehearsed
and performed a set of
original works in one day.
me at 90 miles an hour.”
Don't cross me
In a survey conducted this
semester by students in the
School of Journalism and Mass
Communication, about half of
the off-campus students who
responded say they had felt unsafe
crossing a Chapel Hill street with
in the previous 30 days.
An analysis of pedestrian acci
dent reports from Chapel Hill
police suggests they have good
reason. More than half of pedes
trian crashes occurred while the
victim was trying to cross the
street, as opposed to jogging or
working alongside it.
Since 2000, when police start
ed noting whether crosswalks
were present at each accident
scene, almost two-thirds of struck
crossers were not in a crosswalk.
Jones and her family relo
cated from Brisbane, Australia,
three years ago. They live in the
Chesley subdivision off Weaver
Dairy Road. She likes to walk
her dog there, but it’s almost
impossible for her to leave her
and the office building at 200
S. Elliott Road what it takes
to avoid walking out to East
Franklin Street before turning
north toward Elliott Road.
Once you reach the The Village
Plaza Shopping Center, the shops
at the comer of Elliott Road and
East Franklin Street form a walk
able shopping district all the way
to Staples. A greenway beginning
at Booker Creek also ends at the
center.
Sutherland says the greenway
will be extended to Elliott Road
and U.S. 15-501 once an easement
is granted by the landowner. An
easement makes it legal for people,
to cross on property not owned by
the municipality.
sports | page 12
CLEAN SWEEP
UNC takes all three from rival
N.C. State in a much-touted
baseball showdown this
weekend that pitted some of
the nation's top arms.
■HHBf SHr W
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DTH/GALEN CLARKE
Four-year-old Freja Murphy indulges her sweet tooth with some of
the homemade ice cream for sale at Apple Chill on Sunday afternoon.
BY TED STRONG
AND LAURA OLENIACZ
SENIOR WRITERS
Three people were confirmed
shot in Chapel Hill on Sunday
night during After Chill, the unof
ficial gathering that follows the
annual Apple Chill.
Two people were shot in front of
TJ’s Campus Tobacco and Beverage
and Caribou Coffee Shop on West
Franklin Street, and another was
found wounded atEDiott Road and
East Franklin Street. There were a
number of other incidents reported
dining the celebration.
In front of Caribou, a bullet
grazed the head of one victim, who
also received a bullet to the chest.
neighborhood on foot because
there are no croiswalks connect
ing Chesley to other subdivisions
across Weaver Dairy.
She says it was much easier
to get around in Brisbane, with
buses running all through the
suburbs and crosswalks to com
plement them.
“If you have the buses, then
you kind of have to have the
crosswalks,” she says.
Ironically, Jones crossed MLK
smack in the middle of two bus
stops, one on each side of the road.
In the journalism school’s survey,
about three-quarters of respon
dents said pedestrian bridges or
tunnels would be “very important”
or “somewhat important’ in get
ting them to walk to campus.
The survey also gave respon
dents the chance to write in
infrastructure improvements
that would encourage them to
walk more. Crosswalks, elevated
footbridges and pedestrian sig
nals topped their wish list.
One student specifically sug
gested more crosswalks near bus
SEE SAFETY, PAGE 4
“We will construct it as soon as
we are granted the easement, and,
last I heard, we were pretty close,”
he says. “We have the money in
place, but we’re waiting for per
mission to build.”
Behind Staples is a stairway that
seems to lead down to a concrete
wall. But behind the right side of
the concrete wall, there is a metal
gate, unlocked, leading to the
sidewalk and tables outside Sal’s
Ristorante at Eastgate Plaza.
Sal’s owner Daniel Rizzo would
love pedestrians to be able to see his
restaurant from both sides. He says
that the blind wall needs to go.
“People walk on this side,” he
t
SEE PLANNING, PAGE 4
today in history
APRIL 24,2000...
A late-night fire sweeps
through Foxcroft Apartments,
located on U.S. 15-501, leaving
eight units gutted. No one was
seriously injured.
MONDAY, APRIL 24, 2006
The other was shot in the back.
The shooting, which took place
about 8:30 p.m., involved an esti
mated five shots from an unknown
number of shooters, Chapel Hill
police Chief Gregg Jarvies said.
Jarvies said that the two vic
tims were transported to UNC
Hospitals and that there had been
no arrests, was no clear suspect
information or motive yet.
“We hope to develop some
(information about a suspect)
once we get done interviewing
witnesses,” he said.
After the Caribou shooting,
about 12 individuals stayed at the
SEE APPLE CHILL, PAGE 6
breakdown
B Page 5: A plan to instaifvßß
| mor e sidewalk space yXffl
n around town * fta I
Pedestrian accidents
► The intersection of Franklin
and Columbia streets had more
’pedestrian:crashes/'reported
than any other intersection in
North Carolina.
*■ In Chapel Hill, there-were 129
total pedestrian accidents from . ..
1995 to 1999, and 57 of them -
occurred on the University campus.
>• There had been 57 reported
:■ crash locations in that per od *
between 1995 and 1999.
Campus problem sites:
>- The intersection of
Street and Columbia Street
► The intersection ot Cameron
. Avenue and Columbia. Street
► A section of South Road
. between the Student U nion .ami
Student Recreation Center . .
SOURCE: Chapel Hill police NCDOT
COMPILED- BY JENNIFER BALVA '
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index
police log 2
calendar 2
crossword ;...§
edit 7
sports 12