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<br /> Page 2 of 5 Benjamin (BJ)
<br /> visited 49 out of 50 states, and most major cities)as well as Canada, Europe, and Japan. These
<br /> travels exposed me to a wide variety of scenes and people, constantly pushing me out of my
<br /> comfort zones and past my cultural biases.
<br /> While living in Brooklyn from the late 90s through the late aughts, I bore witness to massive
<br /> development changes. I lived in a quasi-legal, converted warehouse along the East River. At that
<br /> time, it sat nestled between a recycling plant, a concrete plant, and a carpet factory. Now it is
<br /> surrounded by luxury condominiums and skyscrapers. That wave of development, while bringing
<br /> a ton of profit and prosperity to blighted and abandoned industrial neighborhoods, also had a
<br /> well-documented gentrifying effect. Seeing this process unfold firsthand (indeed being part of it
<br /> as a rider upon an early wave of artists moving to the neighborhood in search of affordable living
<br /> space)taught me an incredible amount about the complexities of urban development. Nothing in
<br /> this world comes without trade offs.
<br /> Before moving to North Carolina, my wife and I worked with a few others on a project to convert
<br /> the Strathmore Mill, an abandoned paper mill in Turners Falls, Massachusetts, into artist studio
<br /> spaces. While the project was ultimately unsuccessful, it was a crash course in complications
<br /> around redevelopment, zoning, town ordinances, environmental regulation, and financial
<br /> challenges. I have applied this knowledge consistently ever since, from our search for a property
<br /> to call home, through our many continued improvements restoring our circa 1957 house, as well
<br /> as in sculpting our property back towards agrarian pursuits.
<br /> Professionally, I work as a software engineering manager for Adobe. I've been doing web and
<br /> tech work to pay the bills since the first dot com boom in the late 90s. This kind of work requires
<br /> an incredible amount of focus, planning, collaboration, and foresight. I have learned to assume
<br /> nothing, and to plan for worst case scenarios. My technical skills (reasoning, data analysis,
<br /> software architecture, and distributed systems)are applicable to all manner of situations
<br /> requiring a "systems thinking"[approach, such as town planning. I am no stranger to intricacy,
<br /> process, and asynchronicity, having previously worked on projects spanning the globe from LA
<br /> to Bombay, with multiple parties in multiple time zones in between.
<br /> Overall, I believe I can bring a nuanced and passionate voice to the Chapel Hill Planning Board. I
<br /> will lead with facts and data-driven analysis while listening well to the hopes and fears of my
<br /> neighbors and communities. I will pull from my lived experience and wide array of skills to best
<br /> adjudicate upon and improve our collective planning goals.
<br /> Please explain your reasons for wanting to serve on this board
<br /> Since moving to Chapel Hill, I have been paying close attention to the changes around Town.
<br /> I've seen small independent businesses, like The Bookshop on Franklin Street, close due to
<br /> market forces and increasing expenses. My neighbors and friends include several former city
<br /> officials, and I've been soaking up their stories and learning from their decades of experience.
<br /> As a founding member of the Southern Entryway Alliance, I've been especially paying close
<br /> attention to issues involving the southern Chapel Hill ETJ, an area that lacks representation as
<br /> we cannot vote for Mayor or Town Council. I want to represent my neighbors and the interests of
<br /> our ETJs, especially as the seemingly inevitable pressure to build continues to grow.
<br /> My hope for Chapel Hill is that we can achieve our development goals (especially increased
<br /> housing)without unintentionally destroying the aspects of this community that make it such an
<br /> incredible place to live. Chapel Hill has a storied art and music scene, known internationally for
<br /> its vibrance. But I am seeing friends opt for other neighboring communities (or leaving the area
<br /> altogether) due to lack of affordability.
<br /> Similarly, I've been watching our green spaces (old forests, undeveloped lands, and farms)
<br /> wither against the onslaught of seemingly insatiable growth. These forces threaten to
<br /> permanently eliminate cultural and natural resources that we will never get back. I have been
<br /> learning about our stormwater management policies, state-level as well as local regulations, our
<br /> watersheds and the need to protect them, the continuing climate crisis and the inevitability of
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