CARRBORO COMMUNITY RESOURCE & VISITORS’ Guide: 2011 - 2012 1 mastercard visa discover • open 7 days • www.weaverstreetmarket.coop Eat good food. Take care of the earth. Keep it local. PHOTO BY: DEBBIE ROOS PHOTO BY: Hand-crafted, locally-produced, organic and all-natural products. Your money stays LOCAL, supporting local farms and small businesses. Carrboro: 101 East Weaver St., Southern Village: 716 Market St., Chapel Hill Hillsborough: 228 S. Churton St., 919-929-0010 HOURS: 7 am-10 pm 919-929-2009 HOURS: 7 am-10 pm 919-245-5050 HOURS: 7 am-9 pm be good to yourself and to your community; join the co-op! • patio dining available • community-owned, Italian-influenced restaurant. local goodness seasonal ingredients When you visit Panzanella, you’ll taste fresh local food, our artisanal breads, local NC microbreweries, locally roasted coffees. 200 N. Greensboro St. Carrboro, NC • 919.929.6626 • www.panzanella.coop 2 CARRBORO COMMUNITY RESOURCE & VISITORS’ Guide: 2011 - 2012 FROM THE MAYOR AB OUT THE COVER From Mayor Mark Chilton It is my pleasure to welcome you to Carrboro, where small town charm and a friendly, relaxing atmosphere, forward thinking and cultural diversity come together to create the one and only “Paris of the Piedmont”. We’re more than just a town – we’re a community! This year we celebrated a once-in-a-lifetime event: our 100th birthday! Carrboro has come a long way from its roots as a small mill town to the welcoming, progressive haven it is today. Carrboro was recently named one of Amer- ica’s top 100 art towns. Arts and cultural ac- tivities are the core of our wireless downtown, anchored by several Carrboro institutions: The ArtsCenter, a fixture of downtown Carrboro of- fering classes, concerts, theatrical productions, and art exhibits, and The Cat’s Cradle – a mu- COVER PHOTO BY ALEX MANESS sical gem that branded Carrboro “The Seattle MAYOR MARK of the South”, and DSI Comedy Theatre, which CHILTON hosts the largest annual comedy festival in the This edition of The Carrboro Community Resource & Visitors’ South, and also offers performances and class- Guide is dedicated to the proposition that Carrboro is Cool. es. Mingle with artists and art lovers at local galleries and ven- We’ve been called the Paris of the Piedmont (well, mainly by ues at the 2nd Friday Artwalk, or hang out on the lawn at Weaver us), and rightfully so. Art, music, food, a vibrant downtown and Street Market, a community coop/gathering place in the heart of an engaged populace – you’ll find all this and more in Carrboro, downtown. North Carolina. Carrboro is home to annual Music and Film festivals, a Poetry Weekend, Christmas and Fourth of July festivities, our very own Carrboro Day, and WCOM - our volunteer-run radio station, and The Carrboro Citizen, a locally-owned community newspaper. The Carrboro Farmers Market was voted the best in North Carolina! There are lots of cool places to shop, and an abundant variety of restaurants ranging from cafes to fine dining – all of which hold a reputation for keeping their customers happy and coming back for more. Whether you walk, ride a bike or take advantage of our free bus service, I hope you will enjoy all that our community has to offer! Best wishes, Mark Chilton Mayor ABOUT THE VISITORS’ GuidE The Carrboro Community Resource & Visitors’ Guide SPONSORED BY THE CARRBORO ECONOMIC & COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT DEPARTMENT PRODUCED FOR THE TOWN OF CARRBORO BY THE CARRBORO CITIZEN FOLLOW US ON TWITTER @TOWNOFCARRBORO ROBERT DICKSON TAYLOR SISK DUNCAN HOGE PUBLISHER CONTRIBUTING EDITOR ART DIRECTOR SUSAN DICKSON MARTY CASSADY ALEX MANESS ALL PHOTOS BY ALEX MANESS EDITOR ADVERTISING DIRECTOR PHOTOGRAPHER EXCEPT AS NOTED. 3 CARRBORO COMMUNITY RESOURCE & VISITORS’ Guide: 2011 - 2012 Visit A Southern Season and experience one of the 25 Best Stores in America. University Mall, Chapel Hill southernseason.com 919-929-7133 Open: 10-7, Fri ‘til 9 Locally-owned Since 1975 4 CARRBORO COMMUNITY RESOURCE & VISITORS’ Guide: 2011 - 2012 TABLE OF CONTENTS Carrboro Guide at a Glance Mill town – and darned proud of it 5 Town Government Directory 9 Get Involved in Your Town 11 Why is Carrboro Cool? 12 Annual Festivals and Special Events 20 Technology: Carrboro’s Hidden Economy 22 Buying Local Matters 25 Carrboro Plaza 26 Get Out and Play 29 Carrboro Parks Directory 31 Century Center and Town Commons 33 Getting From Here to There 34 Downtown Parking Map 35 Frequently Requested Informaiton 37 Community Health & Human Services Agencies 40 K-12 Schools and Education Organizations 42 Education-Related Organizations 43 Library Services 43 Animal & Wildlife Services 44 Carrboro Business Directory 45 Walking across the tracks in downtown Carrboro Dr. Matthew Vizithum Dr. Jason Chow se habla español See the difference in our family eye care. Carrboro Family Vision understands that vision care changes with every stage of life. We are dedicated to meeting the specific needs of each member of your family with on-going quality care and emergency services. • eye exams • lasik consultation • contact lenses • sunglasses • prescriptions filled • eye infection • ocular allergy • glaucoma • eye injuries (919) 968-6300 24-HOUR EMERGENCY EYE CARE AVAILABLE CARRBORO FAMILY VISION www.CarrboroFamilyVision.net Our office is conveniently located at 200 W. Weaver St., Carrboro, NC 27510, one block from Weaver Street Market 5 CARRBORO COMMUNITY RESOURCE & VISITORS’ Guide: 2011 - 2012 Discover Think Create Connect There is something for everyone at your local community college campus • UNIVERSITY TRANSFER PROGRAM • CENTER FOR THE GLOBAL LEARNER Complete your first two years of course work at Offerings include English as a Second Language, Durham Tech’s Orange County Campus and transfer TOEFL, Non-Native English Speakers: Beyond Basic to a four-year institution ESL • HEALTH CARE TRAINING • ADULT EDUCATION AND BASIC SKILLS Programs include Emergency Medical Technician, Enroll in GED and Adult High School instruction, Nursing Assistant, and more computer skills training, career development counseling, employability training, and skills and • CONTINUING EDUCATION PROGRAMMING assessment services Take advantage of the workforce preparation programs and personal enrichment courses for • SMALL BUSINESS CENTER lifelong learners Begin or build your business through a variety of services and courses offered to start-up and existing entrepreneurs www.durhamtech.edu/orange • (919) 536-7238 525 College Park Road, Hillsborough, NC 27278 Centrally located just off Old NC 86 between I-40 Exit 261 and Enroll in our new Sustainability Technologies Program! I-85 Exit 164: less than 15 minutes from Carrboro and Chapel Hill 6 CARRBORO COMMUNITY RESOURCE & VISITORS’ Guide: 2011 - 2012 Mill town – and darned proud of it Looking west down Main Street in 1953. Weaver Street branches off on the right. Photo by Mack Watts, courtesy of Richard Ellington nce upon a time, Carrboro was a community known as venting ourselves, mindful of legacy. West End – as in, the west end of Chapel Hill. But that The Carrboro Farmers’ Market is another fine example of Carr- just wouldn’t do. From the get-go, this community was boro’s intrepid spirit. As market vendor Laurie Heise told us, also for distinctly its own, true to a blue-collar ethic and imbued the Commemorative, “I have grown and sold produce at farmers’ markets with aspiration. in Nashville and the Washington, D.C., area, as well as at the Carrboro In 1909, tobacco magnate and Civil War veteran Ju- Market. And I like selling here the best, because there are so many di- lian Carr purchased two mills in West End and consolidated them in verse vendors and because the Carrboro customers are so enthusiastic, Owhat is now Carr Mill Mall. appreciative, loyal and ready to take a chance on new varieties and ‘ex- Two years later, the West End community was incorporated as Ven- otic’ vegetables.” able – thus named for UNC President Francis Preston Venable – and two Ya heard? Yes ma’am, forever ready here to venture a go on the ex- years after that, renamed “Carrboro,” in exchange for Mr. Carr’s offer of otic – enthusiastically so; loyal to the alternative. And as Mary Ann Pa- electrical power from the mills, or so the story goes. (Hey, a solid deal’s gano, another market merchant, added, “Every vendor has a different a solid deal – ain’t too proud in CBO.) way with what they sell and how they sell it. It’s called ‘the spice of life.’ The mill died, and was by and by reborn with an entirely new raisons That’s why people come … [to] be connected to and pleased with their d’être – a commercial hub, an anchor, a lawn on which to loll. As former community.” alderman and current Poet Laureate Jay Bryan told The Citizen when Yes, we’re plenty pleased (though discreetly so). Today, denizens of interviewed for the Carrboro Centennial Commemorative a few months our sister to the east – the East End community, as some of us some- back, “It took a lot of vision to say, ‘This mill, which was abandoned, times refer to it – are often to be found among us, exploring our trea- could come to life again.’ It shows that we can reutilize buildings and the sures. Welcome to our mill town. Enjoy. We’ve much to offer, and sure way they appear to create a visual landscape that matters.” love sharing it. Vision aplenty. And forever reusing, revitalizing, redefining – rein- 7 CARRBORO COMMUNITY RESOURCE & VISITORS’ Guide: 2011 - 2012 We’ve been in downtown Carrboro for almost 30 years LOCALLY OWNED SINCE DAY ONE Weaver Street Realty 116 E Main Street, Carrboro (919) 929-5658 8 CARRBORO COMMUNITY RESOURCE & VISITORS’ Guide: 2011 - 2012 DIRECTORY Town Government Directory The Carrboro Century Center is home to a number of town departments, and includes a Christopher May mans one of the town’s dump trucks after a January snow storm.