Category Archives: Piedmont-Triad

Summerfield Town Council Has an Interesting Perspective on Marriage

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According to The Northwest Observer the Summerfield Town Council has decided that the spouses of Council members may serve on town committees but they can't be voting members.  From the article:

Council began discussing the issue after Town Manager Michael Brandt recommended that council members’ relatives be allowed to serve only as nonvoting committee members. Brandt said because of their relationship to council members, relatives might carry more weight on committees and it might be difficult for the town manager to discipline them if they did something wrong.

The Council applied the recommendation to spouses but not to other relatives, which leads me to think that they have a different point of view on marriage than I do.  I can guarantee you that of all her relatives I'm the least influential on my wife.

I'd love to be a fly on the wall when someone tries to tell my wife she can't do anything just because she happens to be married to me.  Actually, I wouldn't want to be anywhere near that explosion because I'd definitely catch some shrapnel, but you get my point.

Split Google Loyalties

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Today I attended the Linking Winston-Salem luncheon and part of the program was a plea to support the Winston-Salem effort to get Googled. Winston-Salem is a little late getting started with its public push, especially when you compare it to Greensboro's weeks old effort, but I guess it's better late than never, and since I live in the Winston-Salem burbs I'm happy to see them going for it.

On the other hand thanks to my job and my long-time interest in the Greensboro blog community I've also been invited to participate in their various Google-wooing efforts.  Typical of Greensboro they've been working out the kinks in public, but they seem to be making decent headway.

I've been thinking about this and I've come to the conclusion that I can't be the only one who's in this situation.  I'm guessing that since this isn't an election I can vote for as many municipalities as I want, but I'm also guessing that Greensboro and Winston-Salem could be missing an opportunity.  Wouldn't a consolidated, regional effort for the Triad make a lot of sense to Google?  I haven't studied the requirements in depth so I don't know if this is even an option, but if it is I can think of a lot of compelling reasons for a Piedmont Triad effort:

  • The combination of all the higher ed institutions in the Triad is pretty impressive (Wake, UNCG, Winston-Salem State, NC A&T, High Point U, Salem College, Greensboro College, UNCSA, etc.)
  • The combination of all the large, public corporations between the two cities
  • Each of the cities is doing some pretty cool economic development on its own (FedEx and HondaJet in Greensboro, PTRP in Winston-Salem) but when considered together the efforts seem even more impressive

That's just three positives off the top of my head, and I'm sure that there are people who will let me know if I'm all wet, but I still have to ask if a joint effort has even been contemplated?

I do realize that Google's basic info page says "We'll offer service at a competitive price to at least 50,000 and potentially up to 500,000 people" and that even if you combined only Greensboro and Winston-Salem you'd be awful close to the upper limit so the entire Triad would obviously exceed it.  Still, if Google's going to wire multiple mid-sized cities wouldn't it be of interest to them to do a couple in close proximity for purely logistical reasons?  And if that's the case wouldn't it make sense for the various players in the Triad to throw in together to make a really, really compelling case with Google?  Just askin'.

Nice Article on Labor of Love

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Kim Underwood wrote a nice article for the Winston-Salem Journal about TAA's Labor of Love project at The Children's Home.  As I wrote before, this is one of the most amazing projects I've ever been involved with and I think the article really helps explain why:

The cottage is needed because last Sept. 1, the Children's Home took over the operation of Opportunity House, a nine-bed emergency shelter for young people on Brookstown Avenue. The shelter had been run by the Youth Opportunities organization.

"The intention from Day One was to move that facility on campus," said George Bryan, the president and chief executive of the Children's Home…

When the Children Home agreed to take over the shelter, Bryan estimated that it could take $150,000 to renovate the 10,000-square-foot Stultz Cottage. With no money available, immediate action wasn't possible.

Along came Marc Crouse, a member of the apartment association who volunteers at the home and is in the process of adopting a young person who has been living there. When he approached Bryan about the association doing something at the home for this year's "Labor of Love" project, Bryan thought that fixing up the cottage for the program would be just the thing.

"From the first, we are considering this a miracle," Bryan said.

Labor of Love is a True Highlight

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This weekend was the kick off for a project that I'm already sure will be one of the highlights of my career.  The organization I work for, Triad Apartment Association, is doing it's annual Labor of Love project and this year it really is audacious.  We're taking on a three story building at The Children's Home that has been vacant for over 25 years and fixing it up so that it can be used to house children that the Home serves.  The project includes cleaning and painting every room, installing new carpet, replacing outlets and light switches, repairing all plumbing fixtures, re-glazing all bathroom tiles, replacing/repairing floor tiles, repairing and refinishing a parquet floor, removing an interior wall from one room, installing new appliances, installing 9 new ceiling fans, repairing exterior woodwork, providing new furniture and installing new landscaping. What makes it so incredibly rewarding is that all of the materials, time and money have been donated by companies and individuals involved with TAA, and even more remarkably, people in the community who somehow heard about it and volunteered to help.

We're getting all this done in four days, Feb 12-13 and 19-20, which you'd think would be impossible until you consider that on the 12th we had over 70 people show up to help and on the 13th we had over 90. We're expecting just as many, if not more, next weekend.  We had so many people that we had enough to go out and do other projects on The Children's Home grounds.  

One of our volunteers is a woman who grew up at The Children's Home and lived in the building that we're working on.  I can't even describe the feeling of standing in a room with her as she painted a window and told a story about her first night at the Home spent in that very room and how it changed her life.  It gives me goosebumps just thinking about it.

There aren't words appropriate enough to describe what all of these volunteers have given The Children's Home, so to those of you who have participated please accept these humble words: Thank you! If you would like to help with The Labor of Love you still can and please feel free to shoot me an email if you're interested.  Otherwise there is always a need for volunteers at The Children's Home and there's plenty of information on how to help at their website. 

One Opinion Column You Can Be Pretty Sure Won’t Be Picked Up by the Local Papers

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The Washington Post has a new opinion column called The Spirited Atheist (h/t to Ed Cone for the link).  I'm thinking it won't be picked up by the Journal, News & Record or any other local paper here in the Piedmont Triad, although if they really want to gin up some angry "Letters to the Editor" they should give it a go.

Local Connections to Haiti Help Us Appreciate the Magnitude of the Tragedy

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Of all the countries to get pummeled by a major earthquake I can't think of many less prepared to deal with it than Haiti.  Of course there are other Third-World countries out there, but because of Haiti's proximity to the eastern U.S. those of us who live here in NC are more likely to know someone who has been there or is involved with a group doing work there than elsewhere.

In the last hour I've received two emails from people who have friends or acquaintances in Haiti.  One came from friend (and former neighbor) Susan Ewing, who has a very close friend, Pam Carter, currently in Haiti and she asked for all of us to pray for Pam.  Luckily Pam is okay and she was able to get an email out to her husband and daughters to let them know that she's fine.  Here's an article in the Charlotte Observer with more details. Of course things can go from "okay" to "very bad" in short order so please do keep Pam and everyone else in Haiti in your prayers.

The second email came from Bob Krebs, a board member of the organization I work for who is also heavily involved with Free the Kids.  Free the Kids supports an orphanage about three hours from Port au Prince and Bob wrote that the orphanage was okay, that much of Port au Prince is demolished and that food and water are quickly becoming a problem and since the orphanage's food supplies come from Port au Prince they do not yet have a solution for the food problem.

Another local connection to Haiti is Susan Midgett who raised $100,000 for the orphanage by doing the Escape from Alcatraz Sharkfest swim last year.  Hers is truly an inspirational story and I encourage you to take a look at the difference that one person made in the lives of literally thousands of children.

I'm sure there are many more local connections to this tragedy, and while it doesn't make the situation any more or less tragic I think it does help us appreciate the magnitude of what is unfolding down there.  If you know of ways that people can help please feel free to share them in the comments or by emailing me and I'll try and get the word out as best I can.

Update 1: Gotta love Twitter.  Just found this : Text HAITI to 90999 and $10 will be charged to your cell phone bill for the Red Cross effort in Haiti (via @barackobama )

What NOT To Do on I-40

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Yesterday I was driving on I-40 and about 30 yards in front of me a minivan in the middle lane was being tailed closely by a police officer. He turned on his lights and siren and waited for the driver of the minivan to pull to the shoulder. The driver of the minivan continued on at a stately pace for at least a half mile and didn’t make a move toward the shoulder despite having a clear lane to go through. Sensing that there might be trouble I backed off even more, as did the other drivers around me. Good thing, because when the officer pulled up next to the minivan to get the driver to pull over she proceeded to stand on her brakes and come to an almost complete stop before she started to inch over to the shoulder.

Before you say anything about me assuming it was a woman let me just say that we all had time to get a look at her as we passed by at 10 MPH. We’re all lucky we didn’t get rear ended as part of some colossal chain reaction.

Helping The Children’s Home

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This actually has to do with my day job.  The Triad Apartment Association (TAA) is gearing up for it's annual Labor of Love and this year we'll be working with The Children's Home to fix up a building that's been vacant for over 25 years so that it can be used as transitional housing for kids who turn 18. 

As things currently stand when a child turns 18 they are pretty much on their own.  I don't know about you, but if I'd been left to my own devices at 18 I would have been in a world of hurt.  The Children's Home envisions taking this refurbished building and using it as a place to temporarily house the 18 year-olds while they learn how to make their way in the world.

The TAA is going to take several teams of volunteers to clean up, paint, fix the landscaping and make repairs to the building over two weekends in February.  We're in the process of organizing our teams and gathering supplies for the project.  To give you an idea of the scope of this project we anticipate using a minimum of 200 gallons of paint and having dozens of volunteers on site at any given time. 

One of the most exciting aspects of this project is that we keep getting donations and volunteers by word of mouth even though we haven't really been pushing it to this point.  I can't tell you how many calls we've gotten from "friends of friends" who want to know how they can get involved.  What I've been telling them is that we will happily take donations of supplies, or money (financial donations go directly to The Children's Home for the project), to help with the project.  If we get a duplication of donations, say for kitchen appliances, then we've been assured that The Children's Home can find a use for them.  If you have any interest in helping out please feel free to contact our office at (336) 294-4428 or visit our web page about the project here. 

I wasn't yet at TAA when we did the 2009 Labor of Love so I'm REALLY stoked about this year's project.

 

Triad Lost 20K Jobs, Mostly in GSO and High Point

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Here's some not-so-surprising news from the Triad Biz Journal:

The Greensboro-High Point and Winston-Salem metro areas lost a
combined total of 20,400 jobs between November 2008 and November 2009,
according to the latest data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Most of those, 15,800 jobs, were lost in the Greensboro-High Point
area, a drop of 4.3 percent during the year. Winston-Salem lost 4,600
jobs, or 2.1 percent, during that time.

This part of the article was a little shocking:

The pace of job losses in Greensboro was among the 20 fastest in the
nation, tied with other areas including Tampa, Florida and Cleveland,
Ohio.

For all the talk of economic recovery and the celebration of the Dow's return to over-10,000 land, it doesn't mean much until people start working again.  Let's hope that November 2009 to November 2010 sees a return of at least some of those jobs.

10 to 15 Inches and Maybe a White Christmas?

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AMR emailed to let me know about a cool weather blog he's found that called for a significant weather storm here well before the local weather experts did.  In reading his most recent update about tomorrow's projected storm I was stunned to find this:

A major winter storm is about to slam Virginia and North Carolina as a
s/w trough diving down the front range partially or potentially fully
phases with a an area of low pressure in the Gulf of Mexico and
produced a rather potent storm which will move just of the southeast
coast tomorrow and Saturday. It is still unclear as to how much phasing
will occur and exactly who gets the snow. The idea I am working on is
that much of Virginia and western and northern North Carolina see a big
snow, perhaps 10-15 inches in parts of those states.

A little later in the post he writes this:

Beyond this Christmas week looks cold for most of us and like I have
been saying all week the Christmas storm is a threat for the southern
and eastern US. I didn’t like the lakes cutter idea and still don’t
thanks to the massive block over eastern Canada. I still think we could
see a disruptive winter storm Christmas Eve and Christmas Day
potentially for the southern and eastern US.

A white Christmas…in NC?  Methinks hell hath frozen over.