Outling Follows Through
Dear Editor,
July – the month for fireworks, cookouts, a long-awaited Beyoncé album and, this year, municipal elections. Don’t let the unusual date on the calendar prevent you from showing up to vote for our next mayor and councilmembers. It’s not November, but this is an important election.
As an East Greensboro resident, I am tired of the lack of substantive action by Mayor Nancy Vaughan. Nancy touts economic development, but we don’t see much on this side of town. We need grocery stores, sidewalks, affordable housing, trees, buried power lines and efficient public transportation. We need real, tangible services – not just talking, but actually getting things done.
This is how I know Justin Outling will be a mayor that follows through: I mentioned to him in passing that there was profane and vulgar graffiti on a section of sidewalk in my neighborhood where kids often ride bikes. The next day, I was contacted by city customer service. The graffiti was gone by that evening.
Greensboro needs a mayor who will listen to all residents, set an agenda, create a plan of action and follow through on campaign promises. Justin Outling is that person. I look forward to voting for him on July 26.
Jolie Pringle
So if 100,000 people ask him for 100,000 things, is he going to personally help each one of them? I don’t think so. He is not a personal attendant and this story seems highly coincidental at election time.
This is definitely smarter than Nancy, but he is no less of a faker. I’ll never forget just after the 2020 riots in GSO, when everyone was on the anti-police bandwagon, Outling was right there with them, and called out GPD for just trying to do their jobs with an armed person call on the Greenway. Now that it’s politically less inconvenient to be on that same wagon, he is suddenly (and falsely) pro-police. It’s like magic.
Careful Don, your law enforcement history is showing.
What kind of cop were you, anyway?
More like calling Outling out for the sham artist he is. Admittedly, he is better at it than Nancy, which makes him more dangerous.
Officer Don shills for the police as often as he can – even when it’s completely irrelevant to the subject, as is the case here.
This letter is about Justin Outling and economic development in East Greensboro, but Officer Don makes it about cheerleading for the cops… again.
Get off your hobby horse, officer.
Well, the “health” of almost every society can be correlated with its crime rate. Sadly, in today’s world, society relies on the police more than each other to address crime. So yeah, I like to pay attention to how the city treats its cops and how the cops treat the citizens. In Greensboro, that relationship is quickly breaking down, as evidenced by Outling and the rest of council’s lack of support and even open anti-police rhetoric, like I cited here, and will continue to cite any time Outling’s name comes up. He is a faker, just like this letter is fake. He did not magically address some random citizen’s complaint just before election time. Come on. Youre not that gullible.
You want less graffiti? Maybe don’t undermine the cops to the point that you’re missing 120+ officers. 200+ gone by 2023, you’ll see. Maybe you don’t care, Austin, but a lot of people do. Our police problem was built brick by brick by this council, Outling included, and it will continue to worsen until this entire council is well and truly voted out.
I said nothing about graffiti.
Please pay attention – and try to focus.
For example, you could confine your comments to the subject of the letter : Justin Outling and the economic needs of East Greensboro.
It’s not always about cops, and it’s not always about you, officer.
I guess it’s not always about you either. A part of the article is about how Outling suddenly made graffiti go away, hence my mention of it. And since police are often called to document said graffiti, it is police related. Perhaps not missing 100+ officers might have prevented the open air tagging of the sidewalk in the first place.
Oh for God’s sake, give it a rest.
We get it : you’re a cop or ex-cop and you can never shut up about how great cops are.
What a blowhard.
The only one complaining is you….and sometimes your boy, Chris.
I was just correcting your misunderstanding that this article had nothing to do with graffiti, which it clearly does, since that’s the magic wand Outling supposedly waved just before election time.
You’re a wanker.
I never said anything about graffiti.
But you sure brought the police into the discussion, didn’t you?
Give it a rest, Officer Don. The letter has nothing to do with cops.
Get over yourself.
Quote from the article: “This is how I know Justin Outling will be a mayor that follows through: I mentioned to him in passing that there was profane and vulgar GRAFFITI on a section of sidewalk in my neighborhood where kids often ride bikes. The next day, I was contacted by city customer service. The graffiti was gone by that evening.”
Note the word “GRAFFITI” that I went ahead and put in all caps for you. No, you did not mention it, but the original writer did. It is not the “subject” of the letter as you say, but it is part of the content of the letter. Hence, my comments are relevant to the article. Do try to pay attention sir.
If you were addressing the issue of graffiti, you needed to address your remarks to the letter writer – not me.
Your reply to me was therefore irrelevant. I never mentioned anything about graffiti.
Do try to keep up.
Alright, I’m going to move on from this circular conversation. You clearly either don’t read the comments or don’t understand. Before I go, here is how this played out, bro.
I commented to the OP that Outling is a faker and gave an example, which was police related. You commented that this article had nothing to do with the police and was only about economic development. I corrected you, pointing out that graffiti was part of the article, is related to crime and health of the city, etc. So that’s how we got where we are.
I assume my sentence, “You want less graffiti” has thrown you off. You thought I meant You, specifically. It’s a general “you”, as in you, the reader, not you exclusively, Austin.
Anyway, Outling is a faker, mayors can’t bury power lines, and graffiti is bad for the neighborhood.
Sidewalks are not necessary. How many people do you see walking on them while in the burbs?
I note streets in my home area where sidewalks are being installed on the other side of the street across from an existing walk (that is hardly ever used). This is nothing but make work, and a big waste of taxpayer money that could be spent maintaining existing streets.
If you don’t think sidewalks are necessary, consider yourself privileged.
Your argument is not based in fact, but is just a personal attack.
The last time the city tried their own grocery store in east Greensboro, it failed PDQ. Private enterprise chose not to build a supermarket; it is easy to follow why.
Duke Energy buries all new power lines. It is their choice not to remove existing poles, as it is not cost-effective to replace them underground. Same with a road or highway, you maintain them.
Bicycles are specified to be ridden in the streets; otherwise why would the City define bike lanes?, The City overlooks their use on sidewalks.
“Affordable housing” translates to tax-payer subsidized housing. If I can pay for mine, you can pay for yours. I have seen the result of public housing projects all over the state. This is nothing but Socialism.
We have public transportation now, well under-utilized, and heavily subsided by the taxpayer (like you and me)
I respect your choice for mayor, but it is not mine. Neither is Nancy.
East Greensboro had HAD a grocery store on Phillips avenue that the affordable housing residents STOLE out of existence! The residents of these affordable housing complexes VOTE FOR DEMOCRATS EVERY TIME and expect a different result every time… this is the definition of INSANITY!!!! In my opinion, if you are living off of MY MONEY, YOU SHOULDN’T GET A VOTE! Why in hell should you get a say in how my money is spent or taken When YOU DONT CONTRIBUTE and you will always vote for whoever will GIVE YOU THE MOST OF MY MONEY.!? This is Ridiculous! Talk about a conflict of interest. REPRESENTATION WITOUT TAXATION!!!! Wake up AMERICA! Btw folks, this IS a FREE COUNTRY. If you don’t like it here GET THE HELL OUT! No one will stop you and the country will be better off! Or, GET A DAMN JOB!
I remember when the Winn-Dixie on Phillips Avenue announced it was closing (1990’s?).
A reporter for WFMY TV disclosed that the management said that store had a problem with bad checks and shoplifting.
That reporter was never seen again.
A real truth is that from 1787, for many years, only white male property owners could vote. If you didn’t own land, nor pay any taxes, why should you be able to vote yourself a free lunch off the taxpayer?
Although discriminatory, these laws & practices, had their origin in fact. The Republican Party, from Abe Lincoln on, championed women’s and minority rights. Votes for women were a hard sell, but the Republican Party finally got it done.
The Democrat Party of Andrew Jackson, reinforced slavery & white supremacy, and has done so to this day. Now buying minority votes with that same free lunch, financed by the tax-payer and the Fed.
The Democrat Party of today has been hijacked by wokie leftists; and is doing more damage now than even Jackson, A. Johnson, Wilson, LBJ, Obama, or even Hayes. Many in power stand to profit from these policies (Big Govt, Big Business, Big Media). It is up to the voter to stop it, if they really understood what is going on.
Where is Harry Truman when you need him?
Yeah, I love seeing the empty buses endlessly circling the city. Time to do away with those monstrosities. A better idea would be to go to large passenger vans, like a Transit, for most routes. Keep the buses on any route that is constantly full (if there are any) and use the smaller vehicles for less traveled areas. You could just about offer an Uber type service and I bet it would be cheaper than the antiquated bus system. Such a waste of money. But they had to build a multimillion dollar garage facility just for the buses and pay a bunch of employees to maintain them. So that black hole isn’t going anywhere anytime soon.
great ideas! subsidize UBER & discontinue the monster bus with just 0 to 5 passengers wasting fuel. subsidize taxis? ubiquitous cellphones make it possible & convenient & cost effective.
Agree 100%. Just look at the sidewalks from on West Friendly going west to the interstate. Would be interesting to know the true cost of funds that have been poured down the drain creating those sidewalks. They even put them at intersections when the intersection itself needs to be repaved.
Sidewalks in the inner-city, great. Sidewalks in the burbs with 45-50 miles an hour traffic? Not a good idea.
“We need grocery stores, sidewalks, affordable housing, trees, buried power lines and efficient public transportation.”
I don’t like Vaughn and I’ll probably vote for Outling, but how is any mayor supposed to make housing affordable, make grocery stores magically appear, or bury power lines (which, by the way, are not buried where I live on the west side of town)? The residents of east Greensboro have been voting for democrats for decades, and are no better off than they were decades ago. It’s insane to keep voting for democrats and expect anything to improve. If you want your lives to be more like those of the people on the west side of Greensboro, start thinking like they think and doing what they do. Hint: finish school, get MARRIED, and have children, IN THAT ORDER! The best anti-poverty program is a JOB. The most likely children to be in poverty are those without a father being raised by a single mother who is hardly out of childhood herself.
Seriously, if you want better results than what you have had, you will have to change your actions and attitudes. It won’t happen any other way.
Couldn’t have said better. Good post.
As someone who grew up on the southeast side (Hightower is the representative for where my relatives still live), why don’t you blame the lack of representation that the east side has had for years. Yvonne Johnson, Goldie Wells, and Sharon Hightower have been presiding over that area for years. They have done nothing for you but redirect money to their own non-profits or friends/relatives. I would love to see the east side have a revitalization but it is not going to happen with the current city council, who will all be voted back in to office.
Just like how they all say the “support” police and then remove money from the budget and defund through encouraging attrition and poor recruiting, they give the east side lip service by saying they want it to improve. Most on this council have had YEARS and nothing has changed, in fact it is worse. So keep voting for the same people and you will get the same results.