The City of Greensboro is opening an overnight cooling center tonight, Thursday, June 11, in response to extreme heat.
The city announced Thursday morning that it’s activating its Orange Flag program, which means overnight cooling services will be available from 7 p.m. to 7 a.m. at the Interactive Resource Center at 407 E. Washington St.
The overnight cooling center will be operated by staff from the Greensboro Community Safety Department and it will be open to both single adults and families.
Orange Flag activation occurs on days when forecasted daytime temperatures reach 90 degrees or higher and overnight temperatures aren’t expected to fall below 70 degrees.
The program is part of a larger summer effort by the city and the Guilford County Continuum of Care meant to help people deal with extreme heat – especially those who are homeless or otherwise don’t have reliable access to air conditioning.
The overnight Orange Flag cooling center is separate from the daytime cooling stations and hydration stations that are already operating in Greensboro this summer.
Beginning Saturday, June 6, the city opened a weekend cooling center at the Interactive Resource Center. That weekend cooling center will operate from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. every Saturday and Sunday through the end of August.
The IRC is also serving as a weekday cooling station from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday.
Other weekday cooling stations this summer include Glenwood Together at 1310 Glenwood Ave., which is open from noon to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Thursday, and the Tiny House Community Development HOPE Center at 360 W. Gate City Blvd., which is open from 8 a.m. to noon Monday through Friday.
During the summer, people can also stop by the Greensboro Police Headquarters at 100 E. Police Plaza from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday, except on holidays, to get a free bottle of water from the mini fridge in the lobby.
The city noted that the daytime cooling stations and the hydration station operate regardless of whether or not an Orange Flag has been activated.
The Greensboro Community Safety Department is handling the Orange Flag overnight operations. That department was created to take a broader approach to public safety, including prevention programs, crisis intervention and case management for people whose issues – such as homelessness, mental health problems or substance abuse –have brought them into frequent contact with law enforcement.
The Guilford County Continuum of Care is the regional planning and coordination body responsible for helping prevent and end homelessness across Guilford County.
More information on Greensboro’s extreme heat initiatives is available at www.Greensboro-nc.gov/CoolingCenters.
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how many people would die if electricity & A/C failed for 3 days ? no refrigeration of food & poor sleep etc i am using evaporative cooling @ my house sans electricity but it is worthless on > humidity days. google ‘swamp coolers’. it took me 20 minutes to soak roof & yard this cool morning .
marklsparkl, mankind survived for thousands and thousands of years without benefit of electricity, but mankind continued to advance. Mankind advanced because there was no government coddling them and no large city populations living in a steam bath of tall buildings, paved roads, and sidewalks. Living in a city is suffocating. But it is what it is and now we are here. I believe that many of a city’s decisions are based on fear of the population, especially certain groups. However, I think there are city governments that are so corrupt that riots and fraud are tolerated, e.g. Minneapolis but not the only one. Yes, it is hot and, yes, cities providing “cooling centers” is a humanitarian thing to do, but the impetus for this is not only humanitarian. Votes matter. Call me cynical.
Yup, you are Cynical with a capital C.
You sound like the type of person who, when they smell flowers, looks around for a coffin.
Professor, if you will notice, my comments relate to actions by government because government cannot be trusted. As far as cooling stations provided by government, they are not provided for altruistic reasons. As far as government budgets, the budgets are filled with nongovernment functions resulting in taxpayers paying for employees and related expenses that help few taxpayers. Government creates departments out of whole cloth and politicians know this but will not admit it. So, it is up to the taxpayers and voters to hold them accountable.
Government produces nothing and if it sticks with just the necessary functions of government, the cost of government would be manageable. But it will not because politicians today do not go into government service to serve.
Four more county attorneys, you jest. The Taj Mahal community center that was built as a poke in the eye of White taxpayers. The continuing maintenance and number of employees needed will keep taxpayers paying year after year after year.
Nonprofits are allowed to live tax-free while taxpayers pay for what they do not. This is government prioritizing what government believes is deserving.
Cynical with a capital C? Everyone should be cynical of government. Government is not to be trusted.
my dog is not to be trusted . . . but
The problem with viewing everything through the lens of government distrust is that eventually no good deed can ever be acknowledged as a good deed.
A city opens a cooling center during dangerous heat? It must be buying votes.
A city funds firefighters? It must be expanding bureaucracy.
A city maintains parks? It must be political favoritism.
I smell flowers? It must be a funeral.
At some point cynicism stops being skepticism and becomes an inability to recognize that some public services exist because people actually need them.
You say government produces nothing, yet somehow roads appear, water comes out of the tap, sewage disappears, fires get put out, public health crises get managed, and emergency shelters open during heat waves. None of those things happen by magic. And as for cooling centers, the people using them are often seniors, low-income residents, and people with medical conditions. If preventing someone from dying of heat stroke earns a politician a vote, that seems like a pretty reasonable transaction.
Lastly, the irony is that many of the government functions you object to are attempts to prevent small problems from becoming expensive problems. Ignoring the homeless doesn’t eliminate homelessness. Ignoring poverty doesn’t eliminate poverty. Ignoring heat emergencies doesn’t eliminate heat deaths. It just shifts the costs onto the rest of society—and taxpayers end up paying anyway, usually at a much higher price.
Always happy to have these civilized discussions.
Cheers
wut r the other ‘impetus’ ? hot, sweaty, uncomfortable people get angry easier so our fine guvmnt proactively cools them as <$ as possible to < rioting & domestic violence – & IT WORKS. NC has A/C in most prisons to make life more bearable for THE GUARDS et al. ancient guvmnt structures forced storage & guarding of food to < famine & formed military to deter CONSTANT conflict with the OTHER for resources. guvmnt advanced civilization not anarchists. but i agree there is too much hard surface & 90* angles in OUR city. guvmnt helped 'specialists' to form.
when plagues decimated urban centers, the ‘outliers’ survived
We’ve experienced no A/C for three weeks last June. Fans everywhere. All south-facing window blinds closed. Kept the house under 80 most of the time, slept at Mom’s house a few times. We had no A/C when I grew up. Some nights were tough, but that’s it.
i soak my bungalow roof for ten minutes just before sunset, watch the steam float off. phase change cooling/heating magic
professor, all the examples you gave as government production are services. Many paid for by residents of a location: water and sewer are examples; the Taj Mahal as built was not necessary as a community center and, yes, the taxpayers, not the city, will continue to pay for this (community center) forever, the city government made this misguided decision based on payback; public health crises (?,) the best action by government to deal with COVID was to do nothing other than put out alerts about ways to stop the spread, but that would not have made drug companies rich and would not have shown governments how easy it is to control the population, and let’s not forget the fraudulent PPP payments, most of which were paid without question, we can only hope that there is a 100% audit of the payments, including payments to a school that was not in operation and payments to companies that suffered no interruption of business.
Government prevents small problems from becoming expensive problems? Are you serious? Ignoring homelessness? Government has not ignored homelessness and now we have more homeless than ever.
Government does not know how to stay in its lane. Government fosters discrimination through DEI, government picks and chooses winners and losers as in David Couch, government does not apply merit to promotions and new hires. Government allows nonprofits to make enormous profits but allows nonprofits to decide how to use their profits that allows them to meet governments’ definition of nonprofit. And who pays the nonprofits’ taxes they do not pay? You and me.
And while I am at it, let’s mention several acts at the federal level that would improve America but special interests block:
*End dual citizenship. It is a conflict of interest and divided loyalties. The Exclusive Citizenship Act of 2025 is a bill introduced by Senator Bernie Moreno (R-Ohio.) China and Japan do not allow dual citizenship. Why should we? Miriam Adelson has dual citizenship with Israel. She is a super, strong supporter of Israel and the Iran War that is allegedly ending. Contact your representative about the Exclusive Citizenship Act if 2025. The Act is needed, especially in the future. Why does George Clooney get dual citizenship? Make a choice, Mr. Clooney.
*End Birthright Citizenship (anchor babies.) If the mother is not a US citizen at time of conception or birth, the child does not become a US citizen. Sperm is now being sent from other countries to US to impregnant a US female so the baby will be a US citizen. This should be illegal.
*Pass the Save Act. How any red-blooded Americans who want only American citizens deciding our future would not support this act?
*Term Limits. It should be enough just to mention certain names that would encourage support of Term Limits: Elizabeth Warren (DMA), the American Indian; Nancy Pelosi (DCA) who was able to get enormously wealthy while a House member, Bernie Sanders (DME) a main and Main socialist; Chuck Schumer (DNY) who allegedly protects Social Security and Medicare while voting to spend, spend, spend assuring that the fund will run dry; Lisa Murkowski (RAS) who was instrumental in changing the voting rules in Alaska to assure she would get re-elected as a Senator, maybe believing that since her father had held the seat, she is entitled; Tim Kaine (DVA,) what can be said about Kaine, a bobo; and Lindsey Graham (RSC) who has never met a war he did not like.
*End the Federal Student Loan Program administered by the Department of Education. In 2010, the Obama administration ended student loans by banks. Federal student loans were to be issued by the Department of Education. There is no doubt that the federal government is responsible for the current higher education costs. Universities were receiving so much money from the students who were becoming so heavily in debt that ended up as an albatross around their necks. But universities became rich without improving higher learning. They began offering programs and academic degrees in useless, niche areas. A correction is coming. Ending the Federal Student Loan Program is a good start, as well as the Department of Education.
*End Omnibus spending bills. Instead, stand-alone, specific bills. Omnibus spending bills increases debt.
So, go ahead, professor, and believe that all government is good. I’ll stick with my cynical view and tread lightly.
. . . now voting could begin, after these comments, here, @ this site & others, & the issues decided, a course of action determined, quick fast easy compared to our current decision making process. let’s get our voting done on the internet ?
this was posted in error. Please disregard.
The city can open a cooling center with taxpayer money; but the taxpayer has enough trouble with their cost of living, and paying their own ever-growing electric bill.
A cooling center is not a core need.
Just make me King of Guilford County. I’ll stop this c^)p PFQ.
my last electric bill was $31 for 31 days. bald, single man sans hair dryer & screens – gas stove & water heater – box fans
The problem with viewing everything through the lens of government distrust is that eventually no good deed can ever be acknowledged as a good deed.
A city opens a cooling center during dangerous heat? It must be buying votes.
A city funds firefighters? It must be expanding bureaucracy.
A city maintains parks? It must be political favoritism.
I smell flowers? It must be a funeral.
At some point cynicism stops being skepticism and becomes an inability to recognize that some public services exist because people actually need them.
You say government produces nothing, yet somehow roads appear, water comes out of the tap, sewage disappears, fires get put out, public health crises get managed, and emergency shelters open during heat waves. None of those things happen by magic. And as for cooling centers, the people using them are often seniors, low-income residents, and people with medical conditions. If preventing someone from dying of heat stroke earns a politician a vote, that seems like a pretty reasonable transaction.
Lastly, the irony is that many of the government functions you object to are attempts to prevent small problems from becoming expensive problems. Ignoring the homeless doesn’t eliminate homelessness. Ignoring poverty doesn’t eliminate poverty. Ignoring heat emergencies doesn’t eliminate heat deaths. It just shifts the costs onto the rest of society—and taxpayers end up paying anyway, usually at a much higher price.
Always happy to have these civilized discussions.
Cheers
marklsparkl
marklsparkl on June 15, 2026 at 1:17 PM
wut r the other ‘impetus’ ? hot, sweaty, uncomfortable people get angry easier so our fine guvmnt proactively cools them as <$ as possible to < rioting & domestic violence – & IT WORKS. NC has A/C in most prisons to make life more bearable for THE GUARDS et al. ancient guvmnt structures forced storage & guarding of food to < famine & formed military to deter CONSTANT conflict with the OTHER for resources. guvmnt advanced civilization not anarchists. but i agree there is too much hard surface & 90* angles in OUR city. guvmnt helped 'specialists' to form.
Reply
TERMLIMITS
TERMLIMITS on June 16, 2026 at 9:21 AM
professor, all the examples you gave as government production are services. Many paid for by residents of a location: water and sewer are examples; the Taj Mahal as built was not necessary as a community center and, yes, the taxpayers, not the city, will continue to pay for this (community center) forever, the city government made this misguided decision based on payback; public health crises (?,) the best action by government to deal with COVID was to do nothing other than put out alerts about ways to stop the spread, but that would not have made drug companies rich and would not have shown governments how easy it is to control the population, and let’s not forget the fraudulent PPP payments, most of which were paid without question, we can only hope that there is a 100% audit of the payments, including payments to a school that was not in operation and payments to companies that suffered no interruption of business.
Government prevents small problems from becoming expensive problems? Are you serious? Ignoring homelessness? Government has not ignored homelessness and now we have more homeless than ever.
Government does not know how to stay in its lane. Government fosters discrimination through DEI, government picks and chooses winners and losers as in David Couch, government does not apply merit to promotions and new hires. Government allows nonprofits to make enormous profits but allows nonprofits to decide how to use their profits that allows them to meet governments’ definition of nonprofit. And who pays the nonprofits’ taxes they do not pay? You and me.
And while I am at it, let’s mention several acts at the federal level that would improve America but special interests block:
*End dual citizenship. It is a conflict of interest and divided loyalties. The Exclusive Citizenship Act of 2025 is a bill introduced by Senator Bernie Moreno (R-Ohio.) China and Japan do not allow dual citizenship. Why should we? Miriam Adelson has dual citizenship with Israel. She is a super, strong supporter of Israel and the Iran War that is allegedly ending. Contact your representative about the Exclusive Citizenship Act if 2025. The Act is needed, especially in the future. Why does George Clooney get dual citizenship? Make a choice, Mr. Clooney.
*End Birthright Citizenship (anchor babies.) If the mother is not a US citizen at time of conception or birth, the child does not become a US citizen. Sperm is now being sent from other countries to US to impregnant a US female so the baby will be a US citizen. This should be illegal.
*Pass the Save Act. How any red-blooded Americans who want only American citizens deciding our future would not support this act?
*Term Limits. It should be enough just to mention certain names that would encourage support of Term Limits: Elizabeth Warren (DMA), the American Indian; Nancy Pelosi (DCA) who was able to get enormously wealthy while a House member, Bernie Sanders (DME) a main and Main socialist; Chuck Schumer (DNY) who allegedly protects Social Security and Medicare while voting to spend, spend, spend assuring that the fund will run dry; Lisa Murkowski (RAS) who was instrumental in changing the voting rules in Alaska to assure she would get re-elected as a Senator, maybe believing that since her father had held the seat, she is entitled; Tim Kaine (DVA,) what can be said about Kaine, a bobo; and Lindsey Graham (RSC) who has never met a war he did not like.
*End the Federal Student Loan Program administered by the Department of Education. In 2010, the Obama administration ended student loans by banks. Federal student loans were to be issued by the Department of Education. There is no doubt that the federal government is responsible for the current higher education costs. Universities were receiving so much money from the students who were becoming so heavily in debt that ended up as an albatross around their necks. But universities became rich without improving higher learning. They began offering programs and academic degrees in useless, niche areas. A correction is coming. Ending the Federal Student Loan Program is a good start, as well as the Department of Education.
*End Omnibus spending bills. Instead, stand-alone, specific bills. Omnibus spending bills increases debt.
So, go ahead, professor, and believe that all government is good. I’ll stick with my cynical view and tread lightly.
You just illustrated my point.
We started with cooling centers during extreme heat. Now we’re talking about COVID, PPP fraud, DEI, nonprofits, birthright citizenship, dual citizenship, student loans, omnibus bills, and half a dozen senators. The fact that government sometimes wastes money, makes mistakes, or even engages in corruption does not prove that every government action is wasteful, mistaken, or corrupt.
You point to homelessness as evidence that government programs don’t work. By that logic, because crime still exists, we should eliminate police departments, because fires still occur, we should eliminate fire departments, and because disease still exists, we should eliminate public health agencies.
The existence of a problem is not proof that attempts to address it are worthless.
You also keep returning to the idea that taxpayers pay for everything. Of course they do. Taxpayers pay for roads, schools, courts, police, fire protection, water systems, parks, libraries, and emergency services. That’s how government functions in every developed society. The question isn’t whether taxpayers pay. The question is whether taxpayers receive value in return.
Sometimes the answer is no. Government absolutely deserves scrutiny.
But when a city opens a cooling center during dangerous heat, I don’t need to invent a conspiracy involving votes, social control, or political payback. The far simpler explanation is that elderly people, poor people, and people with medical conditions can die in extreme heat, and the city would rather prevent that than deal with the human and financial costs afterward.
Skepticism is healthy. Assuming a hidden motive behind every public action isn’t skepticism—it’s cynicism. And as I’ve said before, you seem quite proud of your Cynicism with a capital C.
Professor, you are obtuse. I responded to your comments which were not about cooling centers only, but included roads, water/sewer, fires, and public health. I digressed to federal issues that may be important to every American citizen. Student loan debt looms large over American young people who fell for the easy money offered to them for an education that does not live up to the promise of American jobs. Student loans that made universities rich and enticed universities to offer fields of study that were useless. Obama’s administration ended student loans by banks and set up federal student loans under the Department of Education. Why? Probably because banks did the unthinkable and securitized the ability to repay the loan. Maybe it was the result of the lobbying by the “higher education” lobby. There was a time when a young person could pay the tuition costs of higher education by working during summer break and maybe a part-time job. That is unheard of today.
Now I will digress further. Tom Cotton, Arkansas Republican, who is the chairman of the Senate Intelligent Committee, has put forth a 192-page intelligent authorization bill in which Section 622 titled “United States-Israel Intelligence Sharing Enhancement” would require the president (all future presidents) to “expand and enhance intelligence sharing with the Government of Israel.” This is insane. There has never been a law written to require the US to share intelligence with any country, ever. Tom Cotton will be gone from the US Senate at some point but this insane bill, if passed, will live on. Cotton wants to codify forcing the US to share sensitive intel with Israel, even if against our own security interest.
Cotton is proposing this bill because US citizens are tired of increasing our debt to pay for Israel’s crazy lust for land and control. Enough is enough. Because the majority of US citizens now realize how damaging to the US our relationship is with Israel, the Senate Republicans who carry water for Israel, must bypass opinions and codify their misguided allegiance to Israel. The Israeli lobby is flush with cash that can buy results. Remember, Mike Huckabee, Ambassador to Israel and also from Arkansas, is more than a staunch supporter of Israel, he believes that Israel should expand to Old Testament territory. Crazy!
Email your Senator to reject this bizarre notion. We have propped up Israel to the determent of American citizens by increasing our debt to pay for Israel’s defense and existence. Enough is enough.
– You can still receive student loans from banks, but they aren’t as interested in issuing them since they are high-risk loans unless parents’ co-sign. What Obama did was end commercial banks issuing federally subsidized student loans. The waste of that was banks profited from underwriting the loans and not being accountable for defaults which is the same issue that crashed housing in 2008….private banks made billions from that model. THAT was the waste of that program.
– You and I agree that the US needs to reduce it support of Isreal. I don’t think we abandon Isreal but certainly begin reducing the financial military support by a significant amount. Won’t happen with Trump his is currently spending Billions on a war with Iran strictly because Isreal talked him into it…..manipulated a drowsy old man into like any con man that see senior citizens as easy marks.
Cheers, always a pleasure to exchange our differing thoughts on politics.
The Israeli government, the Israeli lobby, the War Department, and evangelicals pressured Trump into war with Iran. Trump thought that Iran would capitulate within a matter of weeks; he misjudged Iran’s resolve.
ditto minority (zionist) rule ?
We can both agree on that point for sure.
Trump is just a tool that is easily manipulated by far more strategically intelligent global leaders. Nothing Trump does has been good for America and we certainly aren’t Great after only a year and a half of his weak leadership.
With all this hollering, foot-stomping, and mudsling here amongst strangers, I have to admit that I read hardly any of it now. So I miss some interesting points.
. . . an opportunity to safely vent ? a committee voted to remove one of the ten commandments – we no longer have to love neighbors we are bombing so that orwellian worldview conforms