Three former Greensboro mayors, Keith Holliday, Yvonne Johnson and Carolyn Allen, shared a moment today at a rally to keep the White Street Landfill closed. (photo by Quentin L. Richardson)
Showing posts with label Keith Holliday. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Keith Holliday. Show all posts
Photographic moment: Three former Greensboro mayors
Three former Greensboro mayors, Keith Holliday, Yvonne Johnson and Carolyn Allen, shared a moment today at a rally to keep the White Street Landfill closed. (photo by Quentin L. Richardson)
Holliday draws the heat
Former Greensboro Mayor Keith Holliday’s reported remarks last night warning District 2 Councilman Jim Kee against capitulation on the reopening of the White Street Landfill understandably galled its intended target.
In his typical good natured way, Kee said from the rostrum at the city council meeting tonight that he was disappointed about Holliday’s remarks “inferring that I might be supporting reopening the landfill. I have a long record of opposing the reopening of the landfill.”
He held up a copy of the June 20, 2001 edition of the News & Record showing him above the fold addressing then-Mayor Holliday and members of the council.
“The mayor knows where I stand,” Kee said. “I would like to see our current leaders and past leaders sit down and talk about the issues that face Greensboro in a civil way, and not resort to personal attacks.
Holliday reportedly called out District 3 Councilman Zack Matheny, District 4 Councilwoman Mary Rakestraw and District 5 Councilwoman Trudy Wade by encouraging audience members to ask them if they would be willing to put a landfill in their neighborhoods.
Matheny and Wade predictably expressed objections to Holliday’s rhetoric, but the harshest reaction came from Rakestraw.
“Former Mayor Holliday said to ask Mary Rakestraw if she would want the landfill in her neighborhood, Zack Matheny if he would like the landfill in his neighborhood and Trudy Wade if she would like the landfill in her neighborhood. When the folks moved over to White Street in that vicinity, that landfill was already there.”
Then she said she wanted Holliday “to quit doing things that are putting fear in the hearts of citizens.”
She said she’s had her differences with fellow council members, but “I’m not going to have my family talked about by somebody else. I think Mr. Holliday owes Mr. Kee an apology.”
Then back to the issue of whether District 4 council members in central-west Greensboro would accept a landfill in their backyards.
“Is he proposing to open a landfill in District 4?” Rakestraw asked. “District 4 constituents have already called me, telling me to reopen the landfill.”
A little commentary here:
It’s extraordinary in Greensboro for a major white political figure to take a stand with the roughly one-third of the city’s population who are black. Assuming the accuracy of my colleague, Amanda Lehmert’s report that “Holliday warned District 2 Councilman Jim Kee that if he has any role in reopening the landfill, Kee need not plan to run for the council again in the fall,” one wonders if the speaker’s remarks reflect a growing frustration by former District 2 representative Goldie Wells and former Mayor Yvonne Johnson with Kee’s conciliatory style.
From a more practical standpoint, Holliday’s rhetoric takes the fight off of mayoral candidate Robbie Perkins’ shoulders. Holliday is presumably not running for any office this year. Perkins is the other major white figure in Greensboro who has demonstrated solidarity with the black community, but he’ll have the unenviable task of finessing the conflicting demands of the city’s white and black constituencies. If Holliday can draw the heat off of Perkins, then Perkins might be able to effectively present himself as the unifier – someone able to transcend old divisions and take the city forward to renewed prosperity.
In that light, perhaps Rakestraw's comments are all according to plan.
In his typical good natured way, Kee said from the rostrum at the city council meeting tonight that he was disappointed about Holliday’s remarks “inferring that I might be supporting reopening the landfill. I have a long record of opposing the reopening of the landfill.”
He held up a copy of the June 20, 2001 edition of the News & Record showing him above the fold addressing then-Mayor Holliday and members of the council.
“The mayor knows where I stand,” Kee said. “I would like to see our current leaders and past leaders sit down and talk about the issues that face Greensboro in a civil way, and not resort to personal attacks.
Holliday reportedly called out District 3 Councilman Zack Matheny, District 4 Councilwoman Mary Rakestraw and District 5 Councilwoman Trudy Wade by encouraging audience members to ask them if they would be willing to put a landfill in their neighborhoods.
Matheny and Wade predictably expressed objections to Holliday’s rhetoric, but the harshest reaction came from Rakestraw.
“Former Mayor Holliday said to ask Mary Rakestraw if she would want the landfill in her neighborhood, Zack Matheny if he would like the landfill in his neighborhood and Trudy Wade if she would like the landfill in her neighborhood. When the folks moved over to White Street in that vicinity, that landfill was already there.”
Then she said she wanted Holliday “to quit doing things that are putting fear in the hearts of citizens.”
She said she’s had her differences with fellow council members, but “I’m not going to have my family talked about by somebody else. I think Mr. Holliday owes Mr. Kee an apology.”
Then back to the issue of whether District 4 council members in central-west Greensboro would accept a landfill in their backyards.
“Is he proposing to open a landfill in District 4?” Rakestraw asked. “District 4 constituents have already called me, telling me to reopen the landfill.”
A little commentary here:
It’s extraordinary in Greensboro for a major white political figure to take a stand with the roughly one-third of the city’s population who are black. Assuming the accuracy of my colleague, Amanda Lehmert’s report that “Holliday warned District 2 Councilman Jim Kee that if he has any role in reopening the landfill, Kee need not plan to run for the council again in the fall,” one wonders if the speaker’s remarks reflect a growing frustration by former District 2 representative Goldie Wells and former Mayor Yvonne Johnson with Kee’s conciliatory style.
From a more practical standpoint, Holliday’s rhetoric takes the fight off of mayoral candidate Robbie Perkins’ shoulders. Holliday is presumably not running for any office this year. Perkins is the other major white figure in Greensboro who has demonstrated solidarity with the black community, but he’ll have the unenviable task of finessing the conflicting demands of the city’s white and black constituencies. If Holliday can draw the heat off of Perkins, then Perkins might be able to effectively present himself as the unifier – someone able to transcend old divisions and take the city forward to renewed prosperity.
In that light, perhaps Rakestraw's comments are all according to plan.
Keith Holliday to lead Carolina Theatre
Following his retirement from city politics, former Mayor Keith Holliday will announce today that he has accepted the position as president and CEO of the Carolina Theatre, opening a new chapter in his longstanding passion for downtown Greensboro.
Holliday announced last year that he would not run for reelection and last December completed four terms as mayor. His second act as a cultural administrator after serving in elected office echoes predecessor Jim Melvin’s reprise as a civic leader, in his appointment to head the Joseph M. Bryan Foundation after serving five terms as mayor. Holliday will retire as vice president at First Carolina Bank to work at the Carolina Theatre.
“Quite frankly, I was recruited,” Holliday told YES! Weekly. “It was one of those things where the more I heard, the more I wanted to do it. I love downtown Greensboro. It’s an opportunity to take my banking skills, my mayoral skills and my business skills and help lead the Carolina Theatre. It’s too beautiful a building for so many people to have not been in it.”
The former mayor will make the announcement today at 11:30 a.m. at the theater, which is located at 310 S. Greene St.
The Carolina Theatre opened in 1927 as a 2,200-seat vaudeville house. According to its official history, the theater’s crystal chandeliers, gilded railings, marbled columns and classical statues made the theater a regional showpiece at the time it opened. Originally operated as part of the Keith Vaudeville chain, the venue featured live shows, supplemented by newsreels, silent films and, later, movies with sound. The theater underwent a long, gradual decline in the late 1960s as suburbanization eviscerated downtown commerce, and it caught fire in 1981. In March 2006, ownership transferred from the United Arts Council to a new nonprofit, Carolina Theatre Inc., following a strategic planning study by the council.
“We’re going to do a major capital campaign,” Holliday said. “When people talk about downtown Greensboro, they talk about the new things. They always point to the baseball stadium and the downtown park. You’re going to at least add Carolina Theatre to that layer…. I will be the public face. I’ll be focusing on promoting and marketing the theater, on fundraising, and engaging the corporate community.”
Holliday added that he expects the theater to expand its programming, although day-to-day operations and programming will remain the purview of Executive Director Brian Gray.
Holliday officially begins his new job at the Carolina Theatre on April 15, following 20 years of employment at First Citizens Bank. He said he will receive a modest increase in pay. Although he refused to rule out a future run for elected office, he said he has no immediate plans to return to politics. From 1999 to 2007, he juggled leading the city as mayor with his job at the bank — a balancing act he doesn’t wish to revive
“I will never do two [jobs] ever again; I’m not going to do both,” he said. “This is what I’ve chosen to do, very much to serve Greensboro in a way that would be beneficial, that would bring more positive growth that will be wonderful for Greensboro. As long as the Carolina will have me, I’ll be there.”
Bellamy-Small: Human relations dropped ball on truth process
“I said they had not followed up about the truth and reconciliation process, and they said they did meet with the former mayor,” Bellamy-Small said, adding that she had heard nothing about it from former Mayor Keith Holliday. “I would like to have them come before us and not just give us a written report, because we all know how a piece of paper can get lost in the stack.”
Holliday asked the human relations commission to address the findings of the Greensboro Truth and Reconciliation Commission in July 2006, although no vote was taken at the unofficial meeting. Instead, that charge appears to have been channeled into Impact Greensboro , a successor initiative to Holliday’s pet project, the Mosaic Partnerships.
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