Aycock resident Kasandra Hart discusses the Downtown Greenway with greenway technical committee member Brian Higgins.
The city of Greensboro and Action Greensboro rolled out maps of the next phase of the Downtown Greenway during an open house at noon today at the downtown library. Residents who work during the day will get an opportunity to look at plans and ask questions tonight from 5 to 7 p.m.
Phase II begins near the intersection of Lee and South Eugene streets where the completed section through Warnersville leaves off. The greenway follows Bragg Street through Ole Asheboro and then turns northward and runs along Murrow Boulevard between Southside and the Bennett College neighborhoods, past the post office and Cumberland Courts on the eastern flank of downtown before turning west and passing through Aycock and Fisher Park.
The section that runs along an existing spur line of a railroad between Westerwood and the Cedar Street area will be the last to be completed. Chandler Concrete, which is located on the future Battleground Rail Trail, has not relinquished its property and still sporadically uses the rail line, several people told me.
Residents and business people with whom I spoke were almost uniformly positive about the project.
Brian Heagney, a friend who lives in Aycock, said he walked to the open house.
"I'd like to have a great walking route to the other side of downtown," he said. "I'd like to be able to ride my bike up that spoke along Battleground Avenue. I think that people would find that things are really a lot closer than they might seem."
He is also interested in the possibilities for Murrow Boulevard, which the city is considering reducing from four to two lanes, with the balance given over to green space.
"What I'm really stoked about is the Murrow Boulevard bridge, especially that section that goes over Church Street where you can see the railroad tracks," he said. "We were talking as a neighborhood that that could be so beautiful, whether you have public art there or what. You don't really notice it when you're driving over it, but when you slow down you notice that it has this nice arc; it's a great piece of engineering. You could have a performance space there, maybe for First Friday."
Fellow Aycock resident Kasandra Hart said she walks about two miles a day, both for exercise and as a means of transportation.
"I think it's good having the bike lanes, the walking trail and the green space," she said. "I walk all over town."
Phil Barnhill, director of operations for the East Market Street Development Corporation, said he hopes the greenway will improve business on the corridor.
"Ideally, you would bring people who haven't had the opportunity to come down here," he said. "It should present some opportunities for business, particularly those near the Murrow Boulevard portion."
Dabney Sanders, an employee of Action Greensboro who serves as project manager for the greenway, said she considers the recent controversy over the public art benches to be an unfortunate byproduct of election season posturing. She said Action Greensboro made extensive efforts to get community input from Warnersville residents, and is doing the same in this new phase.
"Our responsibility is to educate folks if they're not familiar with greenways," she said, "whether it's about alternative modes of transportation, or you're interested in your physical health. It's a great way to connect socially with people. It is, of course, a real boost to economic development."
The controversy in Warnersville erupted over the summer when some residents contended that the public art benches facilitated acts of prostitution and other derelict behavior. Sanders said she considers concerns about public safety related to greenways to be more perception than reality, but the city and Action Greensboro has appointed a public safety committee to consider whether and where to use lighting, security cameras and call boxes, and to educate the public on matters such as carrying a cell phone and listening to iPods at a reasonable volume to be aware of one's surroundings.
"We have studied trails from across the country," she said. "They have proven to be very safe places. They're safer than our homes. An area that may look a little seedy where there may have been criminal activity, if you get a little lighting suddenly it's not a place where that person wants to commit crimes anymore."
Session 2 of the public workshop to receive community input for the design of Phase 2 of the Downtown Greenway takes place at 5 p.m. today at the Greensboro Central Library, located at 219 N. Church St.
Next phase of Downtown Greenway rolled out
Web-only bidness: Fargo Steakhouse and Earthworks
New steakhouse reflects confidence in High Point Road
No one would dispute that this is a tough economic environment, but Greensboro’s High Point Road is on a modest upswing, so co-owner James Reynolds decided to take a chance with the new Fargo Steakhouse, which opened on Nov. 1 in the location formerly occupied by O’Brien’s.
This is the second Fargo Steakhouse in the franchise, the first being in Zebulon.
Reynolds said his restaurant enjoyed a nice draw on its opening weekend from a women’s religious conference taking place at the Greensboro Coliseum Complex, and the restaurateur credits Director Matt Brown with creating a spillover economic effect for High Point Road businesses.
“High Point Road is due for a turnaround,” Reynolds said. “[The city] tore down the Coliseum Inn. The Coliseum Inn harbored some undesirable people. I don’t know if they’ll every get that new natatorium built or not, but that will be great for us.”
Reynolds added, “Matt Brown is a lightning rod for controversy, but he does keep our coliseum moving.”
Earthworks opening and sale
Potters Molly Lithgo and Jim Rientjes of Earthworks will hold their annual kiln opening and studio sale at 636 S. Cedar St. in Greensboro’s College Hill neighborhood on Saturday.
Tony Wilkins and the Greensboro Aquatic Center
Guilford County Republican Party Executive Director Tony Wilkins (left) says that new Mayor Pro Tem Nancy Vaughan mediated an exchange with at-large Councilman Robbie Perkins, who Wilkins calls a "RINO" (Republican In Name Only) during the break between the final special meeting of the last council and the organizing meeting of the current one on Dec. 1.
Wilkins goes on to say, "I see many 5-4 decisions in the future with Vaughan being the deciding vote."
Wilkins, who was appointed to the War Memorial Commission by District 5 Councilwoman — and fellow Republican — Trudy Wade has been closely tracking the questionable process the city has undertaken to finance the planned Aquatic Center from his vantage point on the commission and through his blog, Busy Being Born. Updates here, here and here.
Sam "The Dot Man"
An expanded photo set of the shoot with Sam "The Dot Man" McMillian, the subject of the feature story for this week.
Sam was quite gracious about showing Keith and I his workshop and home, as well as letting me document the time spent there. I was amazed at the breadth of his work, on various substrates and topics.
Amazing for a man at 83 who started painting at 60. Check out the paper for the full story.
Battle of Bills: Burckley vs. Knight
Greensboro political consultant Bill Burckley says he has proof that he was not terminated by then-mayoral candidate Bill Knight in early September, as Knight alleges in a letter to the News & Record.
I caught up with him on the phone this afternoon while researching a completely unrelated story.
"I've got a copy of a check and a deposit slip from his campaign," Burckley said. "The check is dated 11/7/09 for the amount of $2,500. 'Final payment on account,' it says."
Burckley said he has to review his papers to retrieve the specific documentation, but is certain that the Nov. 7 payment was made for services performed after early September.
UPDATE: While this doesn't answer the critical question of when Burckley rendered the services for which he billed Knight, it's worth noting that Knight's pre-election report reflects writing checks to Burckley's company for $1,250 on Oct. 8 and Oct. 13.
Web-only bidness: LabCorp
LabCorp, a Burlington-based medical test company, could receive as much as $621,791 from the city of Greensboro and Guilford County if it opts to locate its billing operation in Greensboro. The Greensboro City Council voted to approve the full requested amount of $373,000, or $1,000 per job, but the Guilford County Commission voted approve $667 per position because the jobs pay two-thirds of the county’s average salary. Brad Morton, a senior vice president, said the company is still deciding among Greensboro, another location in Virginia and doing nothing. If LabCorp settles on Greensboro, it would sign a 15-year-lease for space on Pinecroft Road, which is located in the city’s high-poverty Urban Progress Zone. The Greensboro facility could be employing people by the first half of next year. “Billing operations to LabCorp is a cost center,” Morton told the city council. “As a cost center, we’re not going to generate revenues with this project. And in fact, Year 1 of this project is going to cost LabCorp money and it breaks even by Year 2, and starts saving us money as an organization by Year 3. So the biggest hurdle for us as a company is the Year 1 investment.”
Cunningham, Etheridge bow out of US Senate race
Cal Cunningham, a Lexington attorney, announced he will not run against US Senator Richard Burr in the 2010 general election.
Cunningham, a former state senator, said he decided, “this is the wrong race at the wrong time for me and my family,” in a Nov. 9 press release.
Elected to the state Senate in 2000 at the age of 27, Cunningham received the Bronze Star while serving overseas as part of Operation Iraqi Freedom. A captain and paratrooper in the US Army Reserves, the 35-year-old Cunningham received the medal for “exceptionally meritorious service to the United States” as the senior trial counsel in the Office of the Staff Judge Advocate, Multi-National Corps-Iraq.
He presided over the largest court-martial jurisdiction in the Army and helped in supervising, training and overseeing 27 attorneys and 70 paralegals, executing criminal law missions within the Multi-National Corps-Iraq Theater of Operations.
“I’m sure there will be another day and there are many other ways to serve,” Cunningham said. US Rep. Bob Etheridge, who represents North Carolina’s 2nd Congressional District, said he also has decided not to challenge Burr next year. Despite being heavily courted by the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, Etheridge said he still has much work to do as a member of the House Ways and Means Committee.
Cunningham and Etheridge are among the latest Democratic hopefuls to decline invitations from national party leaders. NC Secretary of State Elaine Marshall and Chapel Hill attorney Ken Lewis are two announced Democratic candidates who will vie the party’s nomination in 2010.
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