Author: John Hammer

Over a year later, with the North Carolina General Assembly in session, the state is still living under the law of executive orders. North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper issued three new executive orders Tuesday, March 30, but none of them increased restrictions.

Changing the way reading is taught in the state is the focus of Excellent Public Schools Act of 2021 that was filed in the state Senate Monday, March 29.

Police Chief Brian James said, “Overall crime right now compared to last year is down by 8 percent.” James added, “We’ve done a lot of things to try and work on the root cause.” In the crimes against persons category compared to 2020, forcible rape is down 43 percent, sex offenses are down 69 percent, aggravated assault is down 2 percent and simple assault is down 10 percent.

The Greensboro Police Department needs some assistance from the City Council. However, according to comments made by Police Chief Brian James, one thing they aren’t asking for is a “shots fired system.” City Councilmember Sharon Hightower and Mayor Nancy Vaughan appear to be pushing this technology, which is a computerized system that will inform the police of the exact location of shots fired in a certain area.

Following the City Council work session on Tuesday, March 23, it appears the next step in the development of the Union Square Campus is a go.

The Greensboro City Council included on its Legislative Agenda a request for a law that would only benefit former city councilmembers.

Police Chief Brian James at the City Council work session on Tuesday, March 23, discussed the staffing issues and the problems recruiting new officers.

North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper has announced that starting Friday, March 26, he is relaxing some of the COVID-19 restrictions in the state.

One takeaway from the Greensboro City Council work session on Tuesday, March 23, is that the eight women on the City Council really don’t like lone male City Councilmember Justin Outling’s attempting to take action. At the work session, Outling made what was a reasonable request.  He asked City Manager David Parrish to let him know, by Friday, how many additional police officers the Greensboro Police Department needed.

State Sen. Amy Galey has introduced a bill that could have a significant impact on Greensboro City Council meetings. The bill is titled, “An Act to Increase the Penalty for Disrupting an Official Meeting of a Public Body.”

As far as the number of fully trained Greensboro police officers on the street, according to Greensboro Police Chief Brian James, it’s worse than what has previously been reported. James gave a report on the new Greensboro Police Department Strategic Plan at the Greensboro City Council work session on Tuesday, March 23.

Republicans in the North Carolina state House have filed a bill titled, “Save Women’s Sports Act.” House Bill 358, the “Save Women’s Sports Act,” would prohibit biological males from participating in “interscholastic or intramural athletic activities” for “females, women or girls.”

In elections, some endorsements mean a lot more than others. It’s going to be hard for anyone to compete with the list of endorsements former Sixth District Congressman Mark Walker has racked up in Guilford County for the 2022 US Senate Republican primary.

The North Carolina Association of Educators (NCAE) is asking for some answers from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). On Friday, March 19, the CDC issued a new edict that, in school, students only needed to be three feet apart, not the six feet that the CDC has been recommending and states have been enforcing for more than a year.

If you were thinking about selling your house, there may never be a better time, and if you’re thinking about buying you may want to move fast. According to the Greensboro Regional Realtors Association (GRRA), housing inventory is hitting new lows, which means houses are selling fast. In February 2021, there was only a 0.8 month’s supply of housing inventory according to the Triad Multiple Listing Service (MLS).

As of Friday, March 19, 2021, Greensboro had 11 homicides reported this year.  At the same date in 2020, six homicides had been reported in Greensboro. That sounds like bad news, but it is much worse when you consider that in 2020, Greensboro set an all-time record for homicides with a total of 61 for the year.

The City Council has a work session scheduled for 1:30 p.m. on Tuesday, March 23, with three items on the agenda. The first is a Greensboro Police Department (GPD) update, which will include a presentation by Police Chief Brian James on the “Greensboro Police Department Strategic Plan FY 2021-2024.”

One consequence of the plethora of restrictions invoked as a result of COVID-19 was that people in the hospital and in adult care facilities were not allowed to have any visitors. “The No Patient Left Alone Act” has been filed in the North Carolina state Senate to put a stop to that practice regardless of the emergency situation.

Charter schools in North Carolina got quite a shock this week in a letter from Superintendent of Public Instruction Catherine Truitt. Truitt notes that while traditional public schools can operate grades 6-12 under either Plan A or Plan B and must offer Plan C, charter schools are not permitted to offer Plan A for students in grades 6-12 but must provide Plan C and can operate under Plan B.

Both Greensboro and Durham had major economic development announcements this week. Tuesday, March 16, Greensboro announced that Syngenta was not leaving, and Thursday, March 18, Durham announced that it had been chosen as the site of a new Google engineering hub.

The expectation was that the next step in the development of the Union Square Campus – which was continued from the Feb. 16 meeting – would be approved at the Tuesday, March 16 City Council meeting, but it wasn’t. The proposed project is for a mixed-use development with approximately 250 apartments built over ground floor retail and a seven-level parking deck. Instead, by a 5-to-4 vote, the City Council continued the item until the Tuesday, April 6 meeting.

The citizens of Greensboro dodged a bullet on Tuesday, March 16, courtesy of the Greensboro City Council. Following a unanimous vote of the City Council, calls to the Greensboro Water Resources Department will not be answered by someone in Costa Rica.

Syngenta isn’t going anywhere, which is good news for Greensboro. Instead of moving to a new location, Syngenta announced on Tuesday, March 16 that it would be staying right where it is on Swing Road and invest an estimated $68 million in building new facilities on its current campus.

Councilmember Justin Outling got the attention of his fellow members of City Council with a video he posted on Facebook and an email to fellow councilmembers about the need for immediate action by the City Council to deal with violent crime. Three members of the council used their “council comment” time at the end of the virtual meeting on Tuesday, March 16 to go after Outling, but not by name, and attempt to refute his charge of inaction by the City Council.

With COVID-19 stories on the top of every news site in the country, many people in the state have made checking the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services (NCDHHS) COVID-19 Dashboard a part of their daily routine. Those folks who checked the numbers and did the math had quite a shock on Monday, March 15, which is the only day that the Dashboard reports the number of people in the state who have recovered from COVID-19.With COVID-19 stories on the top of every news site in the country, many people in the state have made checking the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services (NCDHHS) COVID-19 Dashboard a part of their daily routine. Those folks who checked the numbers and did the math had quite a shock on Monday, March 15, which is the only day that the Dashboard reports the number of people in the state who have recovered from COVID-19.

And about 16,000 residents of Greensboro are set to have their weekly schedule thrown out of whack when the City of Greensboro changes their trash and recycling pickup day in April.

In Greensboro, on Friday, March 12, there were two shooting incidents that resulted in five people being shot, and two later died of their injuries. In response to this, Councilmember Justin Outling, who is running for mayor, posted a video on his Facebook Page at https://www.facebook.com/JOutling/ where he begins, “Greensboro, I am sad and frustrated.”

Social media, old fashioned letters to the editor and comments by elected officials have all noted the increase in the litter along the streets and highways.

Three new guests, Holly, Ralph and Bakari, have arrived at the Greensboro Science Center and, quite naturally, are in quarantine. However, their quarantine has nothing to do with the pandemic. Holly is a 3-year-old female pygmy hippo from Zoo Tampa.  Ralph is an 8-year-old male pygmy hippo from Zoo Miami and Bakari is a 14-year-old male okapi from the Disney Animal Kingdom.

Greensboro City Councilmember Justin Outling spoke about the lawsuit filed by the family of Marcus Deon Smith at Java with Justin, his monthly meeting with constituents, on Friday, March 12, which because of the pandemic is held on Facebook.

Funding for the Summit Avenue streetscape is on the agenda for the Tuesday, March 16 Greensboro City Council meeting. The $7.7 million for street and sidewalk improvement on Summit Avenue has been a long time coming.

The Greensboro City Council is facing another agenda full of zoning and rezoning requests at the Tuesday, March 16 virtual meeting. The City Council has two requests for annexation and original zoning and three rezoning requests.  A number of them had opposition at the Zoning Commission meeting.  Zoning matters begin with a staff presentation and then both sides get a total of 20 minutes to make their presentations and councilmembers can ask questions. A zoning issue with opposition is rarely completed in less than an hour and can take two or three hours.

The Greensboro City Council will consider approving the next step in the development of the Union Square Campus at the intersection of South Elm Street and Gate City Boulevard at the Tuesday, March 16 meeting.

Katie Rossabi has confirmed she is running for an at-large seat on the Greensboro City Council.

Some people thought Emergency Powers Accountability Act (HR264) would be one of the first bills introduced in the current session of the North Carolina General Assembly.

Unanticipated funding for public transit in Greensboro was approved at the Greensboro Urban Area Metropolitan Planning Organization (GUAMPO) meeting on Wednesday, March 10.

Like everything else in the 2020s, the pandemic is extremely partisan. Republicans want to reopen the economy and Democrats want to keep it locked down. Republican 13th District Congressman Ted Budd in an email said, “When Joe Biden said it is ‘Neanderthal thinking’ to reopen our country, he insulted thousands of Americans who are working to put food on the table or their families.”

North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper and President Pro Tem of the state Senate Sen. Phil Berger (R-Rockingham) announced Wednesday, March 10, that they had reached an agreement on school reopening.

It was a press conference that could have been covered in a tweet. State Sen. Phil Berger (R-Rockingham), president pro tem of the state Senate, and Sen. Deanna Ballard (R-Watauga), co-chair of the Senate education committee, held a press conference on Tuesday, March 9, to say they were negotiating a school reopening agreement with Gov. Roy Cooper.

Former City Councilmember and President of Downtown Greensboro Inc. Zack Matheny made it official on Tuesday, March 9 that he is running for City Council.

Announcements of candidacy for this year’s Greensboro City Council election are coming in regularly. However, nobody knows if there will be an election held in 2021 or not. 

Four trails in the Lake Brandt area have been closed by the Greensboro Parks and Recreation Department until at least March 16. Reports are that at least three people have been bitten and as many as six have reported being attacked by a coyote on trails in the Lake Brandt area.

One feature of the new downtown streetscape that keeps being promised as coming soon will be a whole lot more signs. The Greensboro City Council has long had a Jekyll and Hyde attitude about signage.  Commercial signage is ugly, clutters up the streets and should be restricted as much as possible.  Governmental signage by contrast is lovely and adds character and beauty to the area.

On March 1, changes to the Greensboro Transit Agency’s paratransit service, Access GSO, went into effect for the premium service area.

A suspect has been arrested in the shooting Saturday, Feb. 13 near the intersection of Elmwood Drive and Cornwallis Drive, according to a press release from the Greensboro Police Department Public Information Officer Ron Glenn. On Tuesday, March 2, a shooting was reported in the 3800 block of Mizell Road. On Wednesday, March 3, police arrested Timothy Daniel Franklin, 24, of Greensboro and charged him with assault with a deadly weapon with intent to kill inflicting serious injury in connection with the Mizell Road shooting. The press release states, “During their investigation, Detectives learned Mr. Franklin was also responsible for the shooting at Elmwood Drive and Cornwallis Drive on February 13, 2021.  There does not appear to be any connection between the two cases.”

The Greensboro City Council agreed with the Piedmont Triad Airport Authority and not the Greensboro Planning Department at the work session on Thursday, March 4. Not a single councilmember spoke in favor of the Planning Department’s convoluted position on the regulations governing the Airport Overlay Districts, the area more commonly called the noise cone.

At the Thursday, March 4 virtual work session, the Greensboro City Council decided it liked the carrot city staff proposed better than the stick the City Council had proposed.

In this ever-changing world of COVID-19 restrictions – one mask, two masks, red masks, blue masks – it turns out the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) Men’s Basketball Tournament won’t be played without fans, after all. Tickets for the ACC Men’s Basketball Tournament went on sale Thursday, March 4 at 10 a.m.

On Thursday, March 4 at 2 p.m., the Greensboro City Council is holding a virtual work session on the newly revised “Economic Development Incentive Program Guidelines.” The new proposed guidelines do not attempt to force any prospective employer to hire employees from a certain area of Greensboro. Instead of forcing companies to hire from economically distressed areas, the guidelines offer additional money to companies already receiving economic incentives that hire a portion of their workforce from the impact zones and also that hire people through the Greensboro Workforce Development Department’s NCWorks Career Centers.

Senate Bill 37, the school reopening bill, is not dead yet. On March 1, the Senate voted to override that veto and the override failed on a 29-to-20 vote. On Wednesday, March 3, according to President Pro Tem of the Senate Phil Berger (R-Rockingham), the Senate will vote to reconsider the override vote.