The Greensboro Department of Transportation is holding a workshop from 4 to 8 p.m. on Thursday, Dec. 7 on what to do about Old Battleground Avenue and Cotswald Terrace, an area that has become a mess since the construction of the Outer Loop closed Cotswald Avenue and cut off Old Battleground.
Why is this being held now, instead of six months or a year ago?
The Outer Loop has been on the books for decades. Cotswald Avenue was constructed as a temporary road because the city knew it would be closed once the Outer Loop was built, so why wasn’t a plan developed before the road was closed and traffic became a problem?
A note to those attending: This drop in session is known in some circles as divide and conquer.
People look at the options and speak individually with government representatives rather than getting a chance to get together as they would at a public hearing held at one time with everyone interested in one room. This way the city staff gets to present its solution to attendees one on one, and those who don’t agree might never learn that there are many others who agree with them and not with the city staff.
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Progress North Carolina has sent an invitation to state legislators to attend a town hall meeting on Thursday, Nov. 30 at Temple Emanuel to discuss proposed changes to judicial elections in North Carolina, which includes a not very veiled threat.
The legislators are told they can sign a pledge agreeing with Progress North Carolina or attend the forum. If they don’t sign the pledge or attend the forum then an empty chair will be placed on the stage representing them.
Clint Eastwood was widely criticized for his discussion with an empty chair at the 2012 Republican National Convention; evidently Progress North Carolina is hoping to have more success in arguing with empty chairs at its forum.
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If you’ve ever wondered how the city would operate without a City Council, the last six months of 2017 provide a pretty good indication. The City Council has held one meeting per month in July, August, September, October, November and has one scheduled for December.
There has not been a time in the past 25 years when the City Council has met so infrequently. Mayor Nancy Vaughan has a plan to schedule one meeting a month to serve as more of a public forum meeting where the main order of business will be to hear from the public. The idea is that will allow the City Council to take care of business at the other two meetings every month.
Whether or not the public will allow itself to be relegated to one meeting a month, and whether Vaughan can find four councilmembers willing to give it a try, remains to be seen.
The big question is what happens when Nelson Johnson and his entourage show up at a meeting that is not scheduled for a public forum? Will they be allowed to take over the meeting as they have done in the past, or will they be told they have to wait?
