Next phase of Downtown Greenway rolled out

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.