Author: John Hammer

Greensboro Police Chief Brian James held a press conference Monday, Nov. 30 to address the dramatic increase in violent crime this year.

Former Chairman of the Guilford County Republican Party Troy Lawson, 58, died Monday, Nov. 30, while undergoing heart surgery.

A unanimous vote of the Greensboro City Council doesn’t mean much in this the year of the coronavirus.

The City Council agenda for the Tuesday, Dec. 1 meeting has been updated with a “Public Comment Period” added.

Garbage and sewage are two of the main topics on agenda for the Greensboro City Council virtual work session at 3 p.m. on Tuesday, Dec. 1.

The Greensboro City Council has been discouraging people from speaking at the monthly “Public Comment Period” since the council started meeting virtually in April.

The Piedmont Winterfest at Southend, an outdoor ice skating rink, has moved south, which doesn’t sound quite right for an outdoor ice skating rink, but it hasn’t moved far. This year Piedmont Winterfest at Southend is at 123 Lewis St. in the parking lot between Southend Brewing and Fat Tuesday and is open every day until Sunday, Jan. 31, 2021

Gov. Roy Cooper began the press conference on Monday, Nov. 23 with a statement that is misleading.

The 2021 Atlantic Coast Conference Men’s Basketball Tournament will be held at the Greensboro Coliseum from March 9 through March 13.

Greensboro Mayor Nancy Vaughan made a guest appearance at the Gov. Roy Cooper COVID-19 virtual press conference on Monday, Nov. 23.

Downtown trees are nothing new, but the Sonic Forest in downtown Greensboro on Saturday, Nov. 28 is a little different from your average downtown street tree.

Not everyone was pleased with Greensboro Mayor Nancy Vaughan’s emergency declaration on Friday, Nov. 20 that the city would begin enforcing the COVID-19 restrictions mandated by the executive orders from Gov. Roy Cooper.

From Dec. 1 through Dec. 12, not the traditional 12 days of Christmas, but for 12 days in the Christmas, season DGI will be providing 250 warm meals a day to Greensboro Urban Ministry for distribution to those in need. That’s a total of 3,000 warm meals.

The Salvation Army of Greensboro kicked off its Christmas kettle season with a ceremony on Friday, Nov. 20 that involved a lot of bell ringing.

The City of Greensboro will be mostly closed down on Thursday, Nov. 26 for Thanksgiving and mostly reopened on Friday, Nov. 27.

Mayor Nancy Vaughan issued an emergency declaration in Greensboro on Friday, Nov. 20.

The emergency declaration doesn’t include any restrictions in addition to the latest round of coronavirus executive order restrictions from North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper.

The City of Greensboro is in the process of changing the way it responds to 911 calls involving someone in a mental health crisis, without authorization of the Greensboro City Council.

On Dec. 17, 2019, the City Council passed a resolution authorizing City Manager David Parrish to enter into a contract with the S.E.L. Group to provide mental health counselors for the city on a 24-hour-a-day, 7-day-a-week basis through Dec. 31, 2020 for not more than $500,000.

The Greensboro City Council is supposed to have a meeting on public safety in the near future, which is appropriate because Greensboro was recently rated as the most dangerous city in North Carolina.

There are ways to keep traffic on the main thoroughfares and off residential streets other than restricting development. The most notorious are speed bumps and their first cousin, speed humps, which are lower, wider versions of speed bumps. Greensboro did install speed humps on Cotswald Terrace, but they are a rarity in town.

Downtown Greensboro Inc. (DGI) not only has big plans for the future of downtown Greensboro, it has strategies for how to accomplish those plans. The DGI Strategic Vision Plan 2030 was supposed to be presented to the City Council in May, but COVID-19 got in the way and the revised Strategic Vision Plan 2030 was presented to the City Council at a virtual work session on Tuesday, Nov. 17.

The City Council approved a new contract with One Step Further to run the Cure Violence program in Greensboro for another year at the Tuesday, Nov. 17 meeting.

By a 7-2 vote, the Greensboro City Council on Tuesday, Nov. 17 approved rezoning 23.3 acres on Cone Boulevard for a 480-unit luxury apartment community despite strong neighborhood opposition.

On Monday, Nov. 16, Republican District 59 Rep. Jon Hardister (R-Guilford) was reelected the House majority whip by his fellow Republicans.

The number of people, according to the NCDHHS, who have tested positive in the state is 299,061 and the number NCDHHS reports have recovered is 276,132, and the number of deaths attributed by NCDHHS to COVID-19 since March is 4,704, which means the number of people in North Carolina who currently have active cases of COVID-19 is 18,225 in a state with a population of 10.5 million.

The Greensboro City Council is scheduled to receive a report about the vision for the future from Downtown Greensboro Inc. (DGI) at the Nov. 17 work session beginning at 3 p.m.

The Greensboro City Council has a lengthy agenda for its one business meeting of the month, which will be held virtually on Tuesday, Nov. 17 beginning at 5:30 p.m.

The virtual town hall meeting held by District 3 City Councilmember Justin Outling on Tuesday, Nov. 10 did reveal the strategy of the opponents of the Koury Corporation rezoning request for 23 acres on Cone Boulevard…

But Downtown Greensboro Inc. (DGI) President Zack Matheny provided the City Council with good news about a project that is working much better than anticipated at the City Council work session last week.

An article in the News & Observer on Monday, Nov. 9 has the scary headline, “NC rolling average for new COVID-19 cases reaches record high, breaks 2,400 cases.”

The highly controversial rezoning request from the Koury Corporation for 23.3 acres on Cone Boulevard and Cleburne Street will be the topic of a virtual town hall meeting at 6 p.m. on Tuesday, Nov. 10.

The North Carolina State Board of Elections should know exactly how many absentee ballots were mailed by the Nov. 3 deadline and where they are in the system right now.

It’s no secret that the economic shutdown ordered to slow the spread of COVID-19 has had a devastating effect on the economy.

But seeing actual numbers is still shocking.

This week, President of the Greensboro Convention and Visitors Bureau (CVB) Henri Fourrier presented the numbers for 2020 to the Greensboro City Council during a work session.

In the two contested Guilford County Board of Educations races on the Nov. 3 ballot, the total number of ballots separating the election night winners from losers was 275 votes.

What’s the story on all these absentee ballots that are out there and won’t be counted until Nov. 12?

The most expensive US Senate race in history is over and Republican Sen. Thom Tillis won reelection.

Tillis, with 2,640,379 votes for 48.7 percent, defeated Democrat Cal Cunningham, who had 2,543,672 votes for 46.9 percent.

Democrat Kathy Manning won the North Carolina Sixth District congressional race with 62.3 percent of the vote to 37.7 percent for Republican Lee Haywood.

Judicial races on the Guilford County ballot on Nov. 3 are consistently inconsistent.

The North Carolina Council of State races followed the same pattern as 2016.

In Guilford County, as far as the state House races are concerned, Tuesday, Nov. 3 was a good time to be an incumbent.

In Guilford County, the Republican versus Democrat count on North Carolina state Senate races remains the same, which is two Republicans and two Democrats.

Good news for the few voters in Guilford County who plan to vote but have not yet voted – no lines and no waiting.

The Greensboro City Council’s eyes are definitely bigger than its plate when it comes to work sessions.

The Greensboro Police Department once again came under attack from the Greensboro City Council at the virtual Monday, Nov. 2 meeting.

The Democrats are refusing to follow the laws for handling absentee ballots that was finally resolved after numerous court cases and two U.S. Supreme Court decisions.

Saturday, Oct. 31 was the traditional day of the JDRF One Walk Triad, which in past years has begun with thousands of supporters gathering for a walk to raise money for JDRF (formerly the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation). But in 2020, the JDRF One Walk had to be held without the walk.

NC House District 59 Republican Rep. Jon Hardister is being challenged by Democrat Nicole Quick in what is considered a competitive district. The political rating on the district is R+2, which means it leans Republican but not by much. Before the last redistricting, District 59 was considered an R+10, which was a safe Republican district. According to Politics North Carolina, the combined total spent in the 2018 NC House District 59 race was less than $100,000. Hardister said that when the final figures come in, which will be after the election, he expects the amount spent on the race will be over $1.5 million and possibly as high as $2 million.

The Greensboro City Council will hold the monthly virtual meeting devoted to hearing from the public on Monday Nov. 2 at 5:30 p.m.

The Greensboro City Council virtual work session on Monday, Nov. 2 at 3 p.m. is slated to have some disheartening news.

Some media outlets reported on Wednesday, Oct. 28 that the Supreme Court had made the final decision on extending deadline for absentee ballots in North Carolina to Nov. 12.

According to the National Recreation and Park Association (NRPA), the Greensboro Parks and Recreation Department did a stellar job and was awarded the 2020 National Gold Award for Excellence at a virtual ceremony on Tuesday, Oct. 27 at the NRPA annual conference.