Author: John Hammer

The 2020 presidential primary season starts in 10 days, with the Iowa Caucuses on Monday, Feb. 3.One month later, North Carolina will hold its primaries on March 3, Super Tuesday, when a total of 14 states will hold their primaries.

On July 16, 2019, the Greensboro City Council voted to offer Pactiv $167,000 in economic incentives, and Friday, Jan. 24, the North Carolina Department of Commerce announced Pactiv would be bringing 25 new jobs to Greensboro and invest a minimum of $8 million to expand its current facility.

The Indigo Girls will perform a free concert at Piedmont Hall, part of the Greensboro Coliseum Complex, beginning at 8 p.m. on Saturday, March 7.

The Downtown Greenway dodged a bullet in the form of a loss of funding from the North Carolina Department of Transportation (NCDOT), which was explained at the Greensboro Urban Area Metropolitan Planning Organization (GUAMPO) meeting on Wednesday, Jan. 22.

It looks like the Greensboro City Council will have a hot rezoning case on the agenda for the Tuesday, Feb. 18 meeting.

Former Page High School Basketball Coach Mac Morris has been named to the North Carolina Sports Hall of Fame.

Deputy Police Chief Brian James won’t be sworn in as the Greensboro Police Chief until next week, but he held his first community forum as police chief on Wednesday, Jan. 22 at Peeler Recreation Center and answered every question thrown at him for two hours.

Imagine you’re finishing out your bucket list with a hike up the Himalayas and, suddenly, you wonder if that toilet at your house back in Greensboro was still running or had finally been fixed.

The presentation the City Council heard on Permanent Supportive Housing at the City Council Work Session in the Plaza Level Conference Room on Tuesday, Jan. 21, didn’t turn out quite like the supporters intended.

Score one for the Working class & Homeless Organizing Alliance (WHOA).

Downtown Greensboro Inc. (DGI) announced it has received a $20,000 grant from Lincoln Financial for the 2020 version of the Downtown Greensboro Summer Passport Program.

The Greensboro City Council will hold its first business meeting of 2020 on Tuesday, Jan. 21 at 5:30 p.m. in the Council Chamber.

Deputy Police Chief Brian James, who will take over as police chief on Feb. 1, will appear at a community forum on Wednesday, Jan. 22 from 6 to 8 p.m. at Peeler Recreation Center at 1300 Sykes Ave.

The housing market in Guilford County the last quarter of 2019 was up in almost every category according to a report from the Greensboro Regional Realtors Association.

City Councilmember Justin Outling described his monthly “Java with Justin” meetings as “eclectic” discussions with a “diverse” group of people.

There is little doubt about who is calling the shots on the Greensboro City Council and it isn’t Mayor Nancy Vaughan, Mayor Pro Tem Yvonne Johnson or any of the councilmembers with some seniority.It’s City Councilmember Michelle Kennedy who is in her first term.

If you believe in coincidences, here’s one.Point South Association has been in a dispute with the City of Greensboro for about a year about being charged by the city to empty a dumpster that didn’t exist for 12 years.

The judges who oversee the courts in Guilford County on Wednesday, Jan. 16 announced a new policy on setting bonds that should reduce the number of people in the Guilford County jails.

The Greensboro City Council approved the $1.7 million incentive for Syngenta at a special meeting on Thursday, Jan. 16 in the Council Chamber.

The City of Greensboro has released the conditions for the $1.7 million economic incentive package being considered for Syngenta.

District 2 City Councilmember Goldie Wells is holding a town hall meeting on Thursday, Jan. 16 from 6:30 to 8 p.m. at the Bennett College Global Learning Center at 521 Gorrell St.City Councilmember Justin Outling is holding his monthly “Java with Justin” on Friday, Jan. 17 at 8:30 a.m. at Dolce Aroma coffee shop at 233 N. Elm St.

Monday, Jan. 20 is Martin Luther King Jr. Day, a holiday recognized by the City of Greensboro, which means city offices are closed.

Downtown Greensboro Inc. (DGI) is holding a series of pop-ups in January, but these aren’t shops.These will be pop-up events to gather more input from people on the proposed 2030 Vision strategic action plan.

North Carolina won’t have a 2019-2021 budget according to President Pro Tem Sen. Phil Berger, who held a press conference in Raleigh on Tuesday, Jan. 14 to make the announcement.

Deputy Police Chief Brian James will be the next Greensboro police chief according to a press release from the City of Greensboro on Tuesday, Jan. 14.

Greensboro City Attorney Chuck Watts said he thought the article in the Rhino Times about the Point South Homeowners Association lawsuit gave an unfair representation of the city’s position.Point South is suing Greensboro because, in 2019, the homeowners association discovered that it had paid for dumpster service on a dumpster it didn’t have from 2007 to 2019 and the amount of the overpayment was $68,000.

About 30 neighbors met Monday night, Jan. 13, at the McNairy Library to discuss how best to oppose the rezoning request for the corner of Lake Jeanette Road and Lawndale Drive.

This is the week in between regular City Council meetings and is usually a slow week as far as City Council business is concerned. But on Thursday, Jan. 16, the City Council is holding a special meeting at 4 p.m. on an incentive request that has a lot of implications.The request is from Syngenta for $1.7 million.

Guilford County District Court Judge Mark Cummings resigned from the bench effective Dec. 20 according to the Raleigh News & Observer.

City of Greensboro meetings in 2020 so far have at least on thing in common, someone makes a plea for people to participate in the 2020 Census.

Every City Council town hall meeting begins with speakers who have signed up to speak about SCAT, the paratransit service of the Greensboro Transit Agency (GTA).

The first City Council meeting of 2020 on Tuesday, Jan. 7 was also the first meeting under the new format where city business is conducted at the first meeting of the month and it went well.

There is a good chance that the Greensboro City Council is going to turn down a $138,000 Justice Assistance Grant (JAG) from the US Department of Justice when the money is awarded.

Former Sixth District Congressman Howard Coble died over four years ago, but he’s still receiving awards.

Imagine you discovered the city had been double billing you for garbage collection.  So you contact the city and the city agrees that through a clerical error, you had been double billed and for years paid twice as much as you should have for garbage service.

It looks like Greensboro is going to have a 12-week paid family leave program for its employees included in the 2020-2021 budget, if not sooner.

The Greensboro City Council passed the three amendments to the construction budget for the Steven Tanger Center for the Performing Arts at the Tuesday, Jan. 7 meeting.

Judicial Watch is known for suing government entities, and now it has set its sights on the Guilford County Board of Elections office, which is hard to understand.

The vast majority of press releases from Downtown Greensboro Inc. (DGI) are filled with good news about downtown Greensboro.But the press release that went out Monday, Jan. 6 wasn’t about downtown Greensboro or DGI. It was about a new position for DGI President Zack Matheny.Matheny has been elected to the International Downtown Association board of directors.

One item dealing with The Steven Tanger Center for the Performing Arts has been dropped from the agenda for the City Council meeting on Tuesday, Jan. 7, and two agenda items have been amended.

The Greensboro City Council is holding a special meeting on Thursday, Jan. 16, to consider a unique request for a $1.7 million economic incentive.The request is from Syngenta, and what makes the request unique is that Syngenta is requesting an economic incentive, not for a capital investment that will allow it to add to its workforce, but for a capital investment so it won’t move its operation – including 650 jobs that pay an average of $107,000 – somewhere else.

At the Greensboro City Council meeting Tuesday, Jan. 7, the council will take votes and conduct the city’s business.Which may not sound like news, but for the past two years the City Council has held a meeting on the first Tuesday of the month where it did neither. The council, with the notable exception of Councilmember Sharon Hightower, sat and heard speakers come to the podium and speak for five minutes about whatever was on their minds, but by agreement did not discuss their statements or take action.

Goal setting can be a tricky process, and as it turned out Greensboro wasn’t even close when it set the goal of turning 100 renters into homeowners in 2019.But it wasn’t close in the right direction. By the end of 2019, the Neighborhood Development Department and Housing Consultants Group (HCG) had helped 317 families purchase homes, which translates into nearly $43 million worth of real estate purchased according to HCG Executive Director Sofia Crisp.

The population of Greensboro is growing and it’s also getting older according to an annual report by the Greensboro Planning Department.

Greensboro in 2020 is going to be in the mental health business, which has always been a province of the Guilford County government.One of the issues raised about Greensboro starting a mental health program was that it was a service provided by Guilford County, but it appears that Guilford County is at least going to participate in paying for the program.

In 2019, a year when Greensboro had 44 homicides, which is the most murders Greensboro has ever had in a year, the first homicide was reported on Jan. 16, 2019.The first homicide for 2020 was reported on Jan. 1, and it was a triple homicide.

The Greensboro Aquatic Center (GAC) announced another big win in the competition for national swimming meets.It was announced Thursday, Jan. 2, that YMCA of the USA (Y-USA) will hold five national swimming championships at the GAC.

The Greensboro Farmers Curb Market on Saturday, Dec. 28 was the last one for a while at 501 Yanceyville St. where it has been for over 60 years.Jan. 4, 2020, the Greensboro Farmers Curb Market will have moved down the street about a mile to its temporary home at Revolution Mill. 

Ken Miller resigned as police chief of Greenville, SC, on Tuesday Dec. 31.