I can’t remember who was mayor when the City Council first talked about building a skateboard park, and because of a fire at city hall in 1888, those records are not available. If the city had just had a few more buckets perhaps the records could have been saved and we’d know exactly when it was.

That’s an exaggeration, but it does go back years, and the site has had more potential locations than I can remember.

But Greensboro has built a skate park in Latham Park off Hill Street, and the grand opening is Saturday, May 20 at 4 p.m.

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The rezoning request for a new Bee Safe Storage facility on Martinsville Road just south of the Lawndale intersection was approved by a unanimous vote of the Zoning Commission on Monday. But it was an unusual hearing in that one and a half people spoke against it. One neighbor listed the usual complaints for a rezoning request, traffic, noise, crime, etc., and then a woman went to the podium to speak against it. After a few minutes the city staff realized she was speaking against a different rezoning request. When the error was pointed out to her, she said she was against this rezoning also, but went back to her seat to save her speech for a rezoning request for land at the intersection of Pisgah Church Road and Lawndale a block away.

It’s unusual to have two unrelated rezoning requests so close together, but it is far more unusual to have someone come to the podium to speak against the wrong rezoning request.

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Speaking of that, it will probably never be fixed but the road name Martinsville is a typo. The correct name for the road is Martinville, which was the name of the county seat of Guilford County before Greensboro was built in 1808. At some point in the intervening 209 years, either a sign painter thought the name was misspelled and fixed it, or Greensboro forgot what the road was named for in the first place.

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The International Civil Rights Center and Museum, better known as the sit-in museum, is adept at playing the race card.

The museum is being asked by Duke Energy to pay its electric bill like everyone else in the state. Because Duke Energy wants the museum to pay its electric bill, Duke Energy is accused by the museum leaders of being racist.

Hasn’t this gone far enough? Everyone I know regardless of race, gender, sexual preference, religion, height, weight, age, education or health is required to pay their electric bill. The city, the county, the state, the federal government, colleges, universities, nonprofits, foundations, churches, temples, mosques, libraries, recreation centers, museums, parks and anything else you can name are all required to pay for the electricity they use every month. How could it possibly be racist to require the civil rights museum to pay for its electricity like everybody and every other organization in the state?

It is silly to even say that requiring the civil rights museum to pay its electric bill is racist.

But in defense of the civil rights museum, calling people racists has gotten them out of paying bills in the past, so it makes sense to stick with what works.

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The Rhino Times will hold its Country Club Schmoozefest on Thursday, May 25 from 6 to 8 p.m. at Starmount Forest Country Club at 1 Sam Sneed Drive. Those who sign in and wear a name tag are welcome to enjoy free hors d’oeuvres and beer and wine (while supplies last).

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On a recent Saturday night, I was at the office and saw a group of women park in the Rhino Times parking lot. The lot has 24-hour towing, so I often warn people that they are likely to get towed. A lot of the time people decide to blame the messenger and start yelling at me. I didn’t feel like getting yelled at so I didn’t go down and warn the young women. But it seems I can’t win at this game because now I don’t feel bad about being yelled at, but I do feel bad because their car was towed and I know what a hassle that is. Maybe I should just quit working late at night on weekends.

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I remember as a child learning that the pyramids were tributes to dead pharaohs. It seemed like an enormous amount of time and effort for a tribute.

Our presidential libraries are approaching the same level of absurdity. The Obama library will cost an estimated $500 million, but as it’s a quasi-governmental project, the final cost will likely be much higher. The big difference is the libraries are for living presidents. In fact, former President Bill Clinton built himself a penthouse apartment in his library in Little Rock, Arkansas, and that is where, according to reliable sources, he lives.