Author: John Hammer

In a major shift, at the Tuesday, Jan. 18 City Council meeting, Councilmember Yvonne Johnson was recused from the discussion as well as the vote on funding One Step Further with an additional $400,000 to oversee the Cure Violence program in Greensboro.

The Greensboro City Council meeting on Tuesday, Jan. 18 may have set a record for city manager participation. Interim City Manager Chris Wilson, future City Manager Tai Jaiyeoba and former City Manager Jim Westmoreland all spoke during the meeting.

A request for Planned Unit Development (PUD) zoning at the northwest corner of Pisgah Church Road and Church Street on the agenda for the Tuesday, Jan. 18 City Council meeting is strikingly similar to a rezoning request the City Council denied in September.

Greensboro will be closed on Tuesday, Jan. 18, or at least the City of Greensboro offices and facilities will be.

The North Carolina Senate is set to vote on Wednesday, Jan. 19 on further delaying the statewide primaries to Tuesday, June 7. 

The Greensboro City Council has a total of four different annexation and original zoning requests on McConnell Road on the agenda for the Tuesday, Jan. 18 virtual meeting at 5 p.m.

The City of Greensboro has announced that the 5 p.m. Tuesday, Jan. 18 Greensboro City Council meeting will be a virtual meeting.

Guilford County School Superintendent Sharon Contreras announced in a letter to school employees on Friday, Jan. 14 that she would be leaving at the end of the school year.

The race for the North Carolina Senate seat in 2022 is projected to be one of the most expensive in the country’s history.

The Greensboro City Council is scheduled to hand over another $400,000 to a fellow councilmember at the Tuesday, Jan. 18 meeting. This $400,000 will be in addition to the nearly $900,000 the City Council has already paid for the Cure Violence program run by City Councilmember Yvonne Johnson in her role as executive director of One Step Further.

The Greensboro Police Department (GPD) recently received its 11th national accreditation from the Commission on Accreditation for Law Enforcement Agencies (CALEA).

The four-year terms of the Greensboro City Council expired in December 2021. Here in the middle of January 2022, nobody knows how long the current City Council will be serving their extended terms.

A decision by a three-judge panel to uphold the redistricting maps approved by the North Carolina General Assembly may move the state closer to actually holding an election in 2022. Or maybe not.

Monday, Jan. 17 is Martin Luther King Jr. Day and City of Greensboro offices and most facilities are closed. Once again, on a holiday when schools are closed, many of the city facilities that kids might use are closed.

The Guilford County Republican Party held a candidates forum for Republican candidates for the Greensboro City Council and only one candidate, Katie Rossabi, who has filed to run in the at-large race, attended.  Two candidates who have filed, District 5 City Council candidate Tony Wilkins and District 2 City Council candidate Latoya Gathers, both were unable to attend because of COVID-19 quarantine restrictions.  District 3 City Council candidate Zack Matheny had a scheduling conflict.

A surprise announcement was made at the Guilford County Republican Party candidates forum on Monday, Jan. 10.

Guilford County Schools announced that because of a shortage of school bus drivers, school bus service would not be provided to eight high schools.

The sudden closing of North Eugene Street for waterline replacement and streetscaping was so controversial that the Greensboro City Council asked that the street be reopened until accommodations could be made for the businesses in the two-block area.

Despite the fact that the Greensboro Police Department currently has 119 vacancies, overall crime was down in 2021 compared to 2022.

It is extremely unusual for the Greensboro City Council to cut off a city department head in the middle of a report. However, the City Council cut off Greensboro Department of Transportation (GDOT) Director Hanna Cockburn at the Jan. 4 meeting when she was attempting to explain why the concerns of the business owners on North Eugene Street had not been recognized or addressed by GDOT before North Eugene Street was closed between Smith and Bellemeade streets.

The North Eugene Street closure debacle gets more confusing, convoluted and distressing as more information emerges.

The City of Greensboro announced on Wednesday, Jan. 5 that masks would be required in all city facilities beginning on Monday, Jan. 10.

The Greensboro Grasshoppers have a new owner, Temerity Baseball.

North Eugene Street was closed on Monday, Jan. 3, but it is supposed to be open again on Wednesday, Jan. 5 at the request of the Greensboro City Council.

It appears Guilford County will impose a mask mandate of some kind in the near future.

In 2021, the Greensboro Police Department (GPD) operated most of the year about 100 officers short of its full authorization of 691.

Greensboro Mayor Nancy Vaughan said that she would not support a mask mandate for the City of Greensboro.  Vaughan said, “At this point we don’t have the personnel to support it.  We have people out sick.  We have people out with sick children and yesterday we had a big weather event that we will be dealing with for a couple of days.  We don’t have the personnel to enforce even a temporary mandate.”

Unlike many cities in the country, Greensboro did not have a record breaking year for homicides in 2021. According to the Greensboro Police Department there were 53 homicides in Greensboro during 2021, which is down from 62 in 2020, but is still the second highest total on record for the City of Greensboro. 

It appears the Greensboro City Council is taking up right where it left off with the first City Council meeting of 2022 on Tuesday, Jan. 4 at 5:30 p.m. The agenda for the Jan. 4 meeting was posted at 1:53 on Wednesday, Dec. 29.  The agenda was then amended and reposted a few hours later at 8:08 p.m.

Beginning on Monday, Jan. 3, North Eugene Street between Smith Street and Bellemeade Street will be closed to vehicular traffic.

The City of Greensboro Emergency Rental Assistance program funding dashboard is posted on the City of Greensboro website and can be accessed here: GERAP Dashboard.

Taking a look back at 2021, the biggest story of the year was not what the City Council did, but what it didn’t do. Members of the City Council didn’t run for reelection. 

Bars and restaurants were the subject of two new ordinances and one new policy passed by the Greensboro City Council at the Tuesday, Dec. 21 meeting.

If enjoying Winter Wonderlights at the Greensboro Science Center (GSC) is on your to-do list for the holidays, it’s not too late.

With four days left in 2021, it’s a given that it will be 2022 before the voters know what is going on with the Greensboro City Council elections.

As expected, questions about Greensboro’s new city manager, Tai Jaiyeoba, are already being raised.

Eric Robert announced by email on Wednesday, Dec. 22, his intention to run for mayor.

The final regular Greensboro City Council meeting of 2021, on Tuesday, Dec. 21, had all the hallmarks of how this City Council has done the city’s business for more than four years.

The Greensboro City Council passed a resolution in support of establishing a Safety Review Board at the Tuesday, Dec. 21 meeting.

By a 7-2 vote on Tuesday, Dec. 21, the Greensboro City Council established a “Social District” in downtown Greensboro, where people can legally walk around with alcoholic beverages in designated to-go cups.

It wasn’t on the agenda, but at the Tuesday, Dec. 21 meeting, the Greensboro City Council hired Taiwo Jaiyeoba as the new Greensboro city manager.

Greensboro City Councilmember Justin Outling, who is running for mayor in 2022, is not a supporter of the proposed Safety Review Board.

The North Carolina Supreme Court caught many people off guard with a ruling on Wednesday, Dec. 8 that immediately suspending filing and delayed all primary elections in the state from March 8 to May 17.

It’s not as easy to give away federal money as it seems.

As if to make certain everyone knows that the proposed Safety Review Board is a work in progress, the Greensboro city clerk’s office revised the City Council agenda again at 5:22 pm. on Monday, Dec. 20.

on Monday, Dec. 20, the city clerk’s office reposted the agenda for Tuesday’s meeting shortly before 1 p.m. with item “I.7 2-21-543 Resolution Supporting Adoption of City Safety Review Board.”