Author: John Hammer

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.”

On Sunday, Dec. 19, when some Greensboro residents went out to pick up their newspaper, they found along with their paper an antisemitic hate-filled flier representing the opposite of the Christmas spirit.

It’s not what’s on the Tuesday, Dec. 21 City Council agenda that’s disturbing, but what isn’t. What’s not on the agenda for that meeting is an item related to the new city policy creating the Safety Review Board to supervise security at restaurants, bars and establishments that don’t have on-premises alcohol consumption licenses but allow customers to consume alcohol on their premises illegally.

In a new twist to Guilford County Board of Education elections, five candidates have announced they are running as a team. Of the five, only District 4 Guilford Count Board of Education member Linda Welborn is an incumbent. Welborn has been serving on the school board since she was first elected in 2012.

Greensboro Mayor Nancy Vaughan is all in on the proposed restaurant and bar Safety Review Board.

North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper announced on Thursday, Dec. 16 that Lollytogs LTD, which does business as the LT Apparel Group, is expanding its operations in Greensboro.

The much-maligned restaurant and bar security ordinance promoted by Mayor Nancy Vaughan is back.

The ordinance on the agenda for the Dec. 21 Greensboro City Council meeting will create a “Social District” beginning March 1 in downtown Greensboro, where people will be allowed to consume alcoholic beverages – beer, wine, fortified wine and mixed drinks – purchased from a business with an on-premises alcohol consumption license, while walking around in the defined “Social District.” (See map above.)

During the COVID-19 restrictions, bars and restaurants were given “special event permits” to extend their outdoor facilities on to adjacent property with the permission of the property owner. At the Tuesday, Dec. 21 Greensboro City Council meeting, an ordinance will be considered that would allow the “Extension of Licensed Premises” to continue.

Greensboro City Councilmember Justin Outling is currently alone in the 2022 Greensboro mayor’s race.

Greensboro Field Operations department just added seven new glass recycling locations to bring the present total up to 19, which means there should be a glass recycling location near you.

With Christmas less than two weeks away, the City of Greensboro has announced its holiday closings. The long and the short of it is that if you have any business to do with the City of Greensboro before the end of the year, this would be the week to get it done.

Former 6th District Congressman Mark Walker, who announced his run for the open North Carolina Senate seat over a year ago, told the Associated Press (AP) on Thursday, Dec. 9 that he’s still in the race, for now.

If you aren’t confused about the schedule for the 2022 election, you are most likely in a tiny minority. Four rulings from three different courts in the past week have pretty much everybody shaking their heads.

The Golden LEAF Board of Directors held a special meeting Monday, Dec. 6 and voted to award $40 million to the North Carolina Department of Transportation (NCDOT) for public road infrastructure to support the manufacturing facility being built by Toyota Battery Manufacturing, North Carolina, which will result in the creation of over 1,750 new jobs and an initial investment by Toyota of over $1.29 billion.

The Greensboro City Council didn’t appear to have much interest in the report on the Cure Violence program at the Tuesday, Dec. 6 meeting.

The North Carolina Supreme Court on Wednesday, Dec. 8 closed filing for the 2022 election, as well as delayed the primary from March 8, 2022 to May 17, 2022.

Wow.  Just when it seemed like we were going to have an election, the North Carolina Supreme Court has suspended filing for all offices and delayed the March 8 primary to May 17.

The News & Observer in Raleigh is reporting that the airplane manufacturer Boom Supersonic is negotiating to locate its manufacturing facility at the Piedmont Triad International Airport (PTIA).

The Tuesday, Dec. 7 meeting of the Greensboro City Council as the first regular meeting of the month was primarily devoted to the once-a-month public forum.

District 3 City Councilmember Justin Outling made it official when, backed by a hall full of supporters, he filed to run for mayor shortly before noon on Wednesday, Dec. 8 at the Guilford County Board of Elections in the Old Guilford County Court House.

Ten candidates had filed to run for the Greensboro City Council as of noon on Wednesday, Dec. 8.

At the official announcement that Toyota Battery Manufacturing Inc. had committed to building a new $1.29 billion facility at the Greensboro-Randolph Megasite, there was a lot of talk about the Toyota plant the megasite lost four years ago.

The Greensboro City Council will hold its regular first meeting of the month on Tuesday, Dec. 7 at 4:30 p.m.

If you are confused about the candidate filing for the 2022 elections, you are not alone.

The big news from the official announcement at 2 p.m. Monday, Dec. 6 at the Greensboro-Randolph Megasite was not that Toyota Battery Manufacturing Inc. was coming to the site, because that story had been confirmed earlier in the day. The big news was the future commitment of Toyota to the megasite and North Carolina.

Both the Greensboro City Council and the Randolph County Board of Commissioners met Monday morning on Dec. 6 and approved economic incentive packages for Project Darwin at the Greensboro-Randolph Megasite.

According to sources familiar with economic development projects in the area, Amazon is planning to build a 2-million-square-foot fulfillment center that will employ about 2,000 people at a site on Ritters Lake Road between Randleman Road and South Elm-Eugene Street.

Greensboro City Councilmember Hugh Holston must have learned pretty quickly that you don’t often get what you asked for on the City Council.

The Greensboro City Council will receive a report on the Gate City Coalition (GCC) Cure Violence program at the Tuesday Dec. 7 meeting.

The Greensboro Holiday Parade, after taking a year off in 2020, returns to downtown Greensboro on Saturday, Dec. 4 beginning at noon.

The Greensboro City Council has released more information about the public hearing at 10 a.m. Monday, Dec. 6 in the Katie Dorsett Council Chamber. But it hasn’t released the key piece of information people are waiting to hear – the name of the company.

The Festival of Lights in downtown Greensboro is back.

The Greensboro City Council will hold a virtual work session on Thursday, Dec. 2 beginning at 2 p.m.

The North Carolina Court of Appeals didn’t waste any time in blocking Superior Court Judge David Lee’s order in the Leandro case that the state government spend an additional $1.7 billion on public education.

A technical correction to the budget appropriations bill passed by the legislature on Monday, Nov. 29 includes a Job Development Investment Grant (JDIG) of $106.7 million dollars for a project at Piedmont Triad International Airport (PTIA).

Courts are known for moving slowly. However, in the Leandro case – where North Carolina Superior Court Judge David Lee has ordered the state government to allocate an additional $1.7 billion for public education – the North Carolina Court of Appeals is moving with unusual speed.