Author: John Hammer

Next month the North Carolina Folk Festival will fill downtown Greensboro for three days with music, crowds of music lovers and much more. The North Carolina Folk Festival will be held Friday, Sept. 9 through Sunday, Sept. 11 and is free.  However, those attending are given opportunities to make donations to support the free event.

From the Thursday, Aug. 11 Greensboro City Council work session presentation, it appears the plans have shifted and much of the $59.4 million will be allocated to nonprofits and spent on city maintenance projects like replacing roofs, which no one would consider transformational.

The City of Greensboro, through the end of next month, will be accepting new and unwrapped school supplies or cash donations to the Guilford Education Alliance Teacher Supply Warehouse as payment for parking ticket fines.

On Monday, Aug. 8, the 112th Greensboro Police Academy class graduated and the recruits joined the...

Downtown Greensboro Inc. (DGI) has announced that it has hired Rob Overman to serve as director of strategic initiatives. Overman will be the first director of strategic initiatives for DGI and will be responsible for implementing the goals and objectives of DGI that are outlined in the 2030 Strategic Plan.

The Greensboro City Council meeting schedule this week is odd. On Thursday, Aug. 11 at 2 p.m., the current City Council, which has been serving since December 2017, will hold a work session and, at 5:30 p.m., the newly elected City Council will be sworn in for about a three-year-and-four-month term.

For the 2022 City Council election, the swearing in will be the second Thursday in August.  The meeting is scheduled for 5:30 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 11 in the Katie Dorsett Council Chamber at city hall.

Joohyung “Tom” Kim shot a 61 in the final round on Sunday, August 7, to win by five strokes over Sungjae Im and John Huh, who finished tied for second. 

Sal Leone filed a dubious complaint with the Guilford County Board of Elections on July 27 in regards to the At-large Greensboro City Council race on Tuesday, July 26.

The City of Greensboro has begun fulfilling one of the goals of the massive increase in taxes in the 2022-2023 budget – increasing the number of bureaucrats at city hall. On Wednesday, July 27, Greensboro announced that it had hired Latoya Caesar-Crawford as the city’s first intergovernmental relations manager.

In a normal City Council election, the primary is a fairly accurate poll of the general election. There was little normal about the twice delayed Tuesday, July 26 City Council election, and in the mayor’s race Mayor Nancy Vaughan won both the primary and the general election but the percentages were far different – and as expected the voter turnout was less in the general election than in the primary.

One of the unwritten rules of the City Council bit the dust with the Tuesday, July 26 election. The rule was, “Don’t raise taxes in an election year.”  The belief among members of the City Council for decades was that if they voted for a tax increase in an election year it would hurt their chances of being reelected.

District 3 City Councilmember Justin Outling – who finished 425 votes down in the mayor’s race – has not conceded.

 All five bonds on the ballot passed by wide margins.  If they were candidates, people would say each bond package won in a landslide.

The voters of Greensboro expressed satisfaction with the three at-large city councilmembers, electing them all to four-year terms.

The City Council will have one new face when it is sworn in on Thursday, Aug. 11.

Mayor Nancy Vaughan won another four-year term for what she calls, “The best job in Greensboro.”

It seems fitting that the Greensboro City Council will hold its final work session on Thursday, July 28 on the topic it has discussed far more than any other topic during the past four-and-a-half years – the Minority and Women’s Business Enterprise (MWBE) program.

The old Southern Railway passenger station at 400 S. Elm St., owned by the Norfolk Southern Railroad, is being sold to the North Carolina Railroad Company in partnership with the City of Greensboro, the Preservation Greensboro Development Fund and Downtown Greensboro Inc.

It’s hard to believe, but if you haven’t voted in the 2021 Greensboro City Council election there is still time.

The At-large City Council race confuses even people who have been involved in political campaigns for years.

There are five district City Council races in the 2022 Greensboro City Council general election on Tuesday, July 26, but voters will only see one race on their ballots.

For over 12,000 voters, the Tuesday, July 26 Greensboro City Council election is over except for the counting.

It’s been reported that inflation in June reached an annualized rate of 9.1 percent across the nation. Anyone filling their car up with gas or making a trip to the grocery store doesn’t have to be told that prices have increased, and the Congress Joint Economic Committee has been publishing a “State Inflation Tracker” to inform people how inflation is affecting prices in their state as compared to the nation.

The long confusing 2021 Greensboro City Council election is approaching the finish line. Early voting ends at 3 p.m. on Saturday, July 23, and Election Day is Tuesday, July 26, when the polls will be open from 6:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m.

The terms of the current City Council will end on Thursday, Aug. 11.

Early voting for the Tuesday, July 26 Greensboro City Council election ends Saturday, July 23 at 3 p.m. at all early voting sites. Predictions were that voter turnout for this unique summer City Council election would be low, and the early voting totals so far indicate those predictions will be accurate.

Residential real estate in the second quarter of 2022 continued to be a strong seller’s market according to the latest report from the Greensboro Regional Realtors Association The report states that Greensboro and Guilford County saw some increase in inventory in the second quarter of 2022 (from April through June), but houses continued to sell at above list price and sales prices continued to rise.

Under Greensboro City Manager Tai Jaiyeoba, “innocent until proven guilty” doesn’t appear to exist...

With election day a week away, it was no surprise that the campaign raised its ugly head at the Greensboro City Council meeting on Tuesday, July 19. The two mayoral candidates, Mayor Nancy Vaughan and District 3 City Councilmember Justin Outling, have been having a back and forth on recusals during the campaign.

It appears the City Council may back away from the decision to fine people $25 for not rolling their garbage cans back from the street by 7 p.m. on garbage collection day.

The announcement that Top Golf is coming to Greensboro came from an unlikely source

Property tax bills in Guilford County have been sent and by now the vast majority of people have received a bill much higher than last year.

Social media sites lit up with comments about the “massive” tax increase and many of the comments indicated that people were not clear about why their tax bill dramatically increased.

It’s amazing when you see a political ploy work.

Signs are popping up all over northwest Greensboro, like the one above, that indicate the Greensboro Science Center will receive money from the parks and recreation bond on the July 26 ballot.

Young golfers will once again have the opportunity to get instruction from PGA Tour professionals at the Wyndham Championship this year. The youth clinic is back at the 83rd annual Wyndham Championship this year conducted by The First Tee – Central Carolina.  The First Tee Youth Golf Clinic will be held at 4 p.m. on Tuesday, Aug. 2 at the Grandover Resort practice range.  The clinic is open to junior golfers ages 7 to 18 and is free of charge. 

According to Guilford County Schools, construction costs have increased by 50 percent since the...

Greensboro will be earning its moniker Tournament Town in the next three weeks by hosting three major athletic events. During the next three weeks, Greensboro will host the AAU Junior Olympic Games, the YMCA Long Course National Swimming Championships and the Wyndham Championship PGA golf tournament.

The Greensboro City Council will hold its monthly public forum at the Tuesday, July 19 meeting at 5:30 in the Katie Dorsett Council Chamber.

What could be the last meeting of the Greensboro City Council elected on Nov. 7, 2017, will be held at 5:30 Tuesday, July 19, in the Katie Dorsett Council Chamber.

Ontex celebrated the official grand opening of its new manufacturing facility in the South Rockingham Industrial Park on Wednesday, July 13. The Ontex factory is the first facility to open in the 350-acre South Rockingham Industrial Park owned by The Carroll Companies, which also owns the publication.

Unbelievable, the COVID-19 emergency in North Carolina is almost over. According to North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper, the emergency will be over on August 15.

North Carolina is the number one state in the country for doing business according to CNBC.

The Steven Tanger Center for the Performing Arts had a remarkably successful first fiscal year despite the fact that the year was only 10 months long. The fiscal year ended on June 30, but because of COVID restrictions The Tanger didn’t have its inaugural performance until Sept. 2, 2021.

After the $27.9 billion state budget was signed into law by Gov. Roy Cooper, District 62 state Rep. John Faircloth (R-High Point) sent out a press release about the $6 million included in the budget for Guilford County.

The endorsements of George C. Simkins Jr. Memorial PAC had at least one surprise.It wasn’t who was endorsed as much as who wasn’t endorsed. It endorses every incumbent running for reelection except one.  District 4 City Councilmember Nancy Hoffmann.

People have a lot of questions about crime and the Greensboro Police Department (GPD) has just released a new tool to provide up to date information about crime in Greensboro.

Monday, July 11, North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper signed the $27.9 billion 2022-2023 budget passed by the legislature.

According to a report by Agent Advice on the cities with the highest property tax increase in the country, Greensboro has a shot at being number one in 2022-2023.

All indications are that the Tuesday, July 26 election will set a record for low voter turnout, which means the few who turn out to vote will determine the direction the city will take in the coming four years.