Category Archives: Winston-Salem

Winston-Salem Curse?

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Is it just me or does anyone else feel like the downtown Winston-Salem baseball stadium might be cursed?  Much as the Red Sox suffered through generations of the Babe's Curse I fear that Winston-Salem may have to suffer through years of the Bane of Billy.  I say this because it seems like even good news related to the stadium comes with issues and according to the mayor there's lawyers to blame:

Winston-Salem's mayor blames paperwork for holding up the downtown stadium loan.

Mayor Allen Joines tells WFMY News 2 that there are 22 laywers working on more than 100 documents to secure the loan.

He says the problem is trying to get them all to agree on the language.

At this rate we might have baseball downtown by opening day 2015.

Local Vets Stuck in Disability Backlog

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Lex Alexander has a post about the fiasco that is the VA disability program right now.  He points out that while the VA health care system is a good one, the VA disability system is in disarray and he provides some startling numbers to back up that assertion. It seems to be particularly bad here in the Winston-Salem area.  From his post:

First, it takes too long even for straightforward claims to be processed. As of a week ago today, the claim backlog stood at more than 422,000 cases nationally, up about 30,000 from a year ago. (Winston-Salem’s regional VA office, with a backlog of more than 21,000, had more cases pending than any other regional office in the country except St. Petersburg, Fla.) Nationally, more than 20 percent of cases had been pending for six months or more.

Lex later quotes Abraham Lincoln and I think the quote says it all:

As the Civil War was ending, Abraham Lincoln called on America in his second Inaugural Address to “care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan.” For the vets (and in some cases, their survivors) who depend on these payments, we need to do a better job.

How to Get a $20,000 Loan You May Not Have to Pay Back in Winston-Salem and Forsyth County

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I'm not sure if this made the local news and I just missed it, or if it's been flying under the radar, but there's a program in Winston-Salem and Forsyth County to help folks buy foreclosed properties.  Back in January I got an email from Sen. Burr's office about North Carolina receiving over $52 million for the Neighborhood Stabilization Program, but didn't really hear much after that.  Then today the following item from FindForeclosureProperties.com (nice URL huh?) showed up in my Google Reader:

Housing officials in Forsyth County and Winston-Salem, North Carolina have partnered with the Center for Homeownership and financial institutions to help eligible buyers purchase bank foreclosures for sale for less than the properties’ appraised value.

Under the Neighborhood Stabilization Program (NSP), eligible homebuyers will be able to receive a maximum of $20,000 as deferred forgivable loan. The funds will be used by the eligible buyer as down payment for buying foreclosure houses, provided that the mortgage holders are willing to sell the properties for less than their assessed value…

Furthermore, the home buying assistance initiative is open to first time property buyers and families or individuals who have not purchased or owned a house for three years.

Eligible borrowers will not be required to pay back the loan under the NSP program if they opt to stay and live in the property for not less than 20 years. Additionally, homebuyers should have the properties under sales contract on or before July 18, 2010 in order to become eligible for the program.

Prospective buyers should have household earnings of equal to or not more than Forsyth County’s 120 percent median income which for a four-member family is $71,640. The median income restriction varies with the family size.

I'm not sold on this being a good idea.  Will this prompt people who may not be financially ready to buy a house and then, a year or two down the road, be in over their heads and threatened with foreclosure themselves?  Normally you might say that the banks wouldn't lend to risky buyers, but given what we've learned over the last two years do we really want to trust the banks with their own due diligence?

I appreciate what the program is aiming to do, but like I said I'm not sold on it's merits.

Here's the link to the county's page dedicated to the NSP.

 

WSFCS Getting Off to a Rip-Roaring Start

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Ah, school.  On this day last year I went on a bit of a rant about the school textbook situation.  Unfortunately I didn't have enough personal time to devote to looking into that situation as I wanted to, but maybe at some point in the future I will.  This year I'm not feeling too good about the whole schedule thing, but before I get into it I want to emphasize that I'm really not trying to give the folks at school who are dealing with this mess a hard time.  I can only imagine how complex this whole process is and I'm certain they've been burning the midnight oil trying to get it all figured out. 

Here's the deal: the school system has decided that they want all the schools on the same kind of schedule, so our kids' high school had to change how classes are scheduled.  I'd provide details if I understood them, but let's just say the change has caused some problems.  To wit:

  • Last spring when my oldest did his schedule with his counselor he signed up for an economics class at the Career Center.  A week or two ago he got a call from his counselor saying that with the new scheduling system his econ class was impossible to fit into his schedule so he needed to pick another class.  From the limited options he was able to get…Shakespeare. If you're looking for an association between the two I guess you could say that one's the dismal science and the other's the dismal art.  Even worse, that's just for one semester.  The other semester he's going to be doing something like assisting people in the office just so he can get a credit. 
  • We got a letter from the school system saying that because of the scheduling headaches the kids wouldn't get their schedules until they showed up at the open house tonight.  Given what we've already seen happen to our son's schedule I'm interested to see what happens to our daughter's schedule.  I will NOT be surprised if we have a nasty surprise or two.
  • Speaking of surprises, I just got this email alert from West Forsyth H.S.: "This message is to the parents of students who have classes at West Forsyth and the Career Center.  Students should be aware that the schedules they picked up at the Career Center's Open House last night may not be accurate. We are asking our students to pick up their West Forsyth schedule at tonight's Open House before questioning their assigned classes. Thank you!"  In a way I guess you could say our son losing his one Career Center class was a lucky break.
  • On the other hand the booster club is on top of things.  The same day we got the letter about the schedule snafu we also received a fundraising solicitation for all things athletic at the school.  I have no problem with that, but it's a little ironic that while all the students are wandering around thinking they might end up in underwater basket weaving the jocks can rest assured that the uniforms will be shiny and the grass extra green.

You know what? Maybe this isn't so bad after all. The kids are getting a glimpse at how the real world works. You know, the mid-managers (principals, counselors and teachers) get to implement the super-duper plan handed down by upper management (school administrators) and then deal with the customers (students and parents) screaming at them for screwing everything up.  Another lesson is that no matter how well you plan, something invariably goes wrong and you have to adjust.   Finally, unless you want to pony up for private school or go the home schooling route then you have to pretty much abide by what "the man" (government/school) tells you to do. If that means trading in Keynes for the Bard then that's what you have to do. Welcome to life, kids.

Only at Wal Mart

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OnlyAtWalMart I tried to post this from my Blackberry last night, but for some reason Typepad's mobile function ain't working for me right now.  Anyway, I took this picture at Wal Mart on Hanes Mall Blvd last night.  Those who know me well know that I rarely shop and I only go to Wal Mart under extreme duress, so let's just say that I had to do a little searching to find what I needed: table leg levelers and table cloths for work.  While searching for the levelers I found myself in the hardware aisle and stumbled on the display in the picture.  Only in Wal Mart would you find a jockstrap, golf tees, golf head covers and batting gloves displayed next to the furniture gliders and other various and sundry hardware items.  And yes, they were supposed to be there according to the price labels on the hangers.

BTW, did you know it's damn near impossible to find a plain white table cloth?  I tried, desperately, to find them at any place but Wal Mart last night and I struck out.  Damn you, Target.  I did find two ivory table cloths at Wal Mart fresh off the boat from China, but unfortunately when I unpacked them this morning they were stained.  As in big, gigantic coffee looking stains.  Had to happen at the manufacturer because the plastic containers they came in were sealed (not opened and returned). 

On a positive note the lady at the check out aisle was very nice to me.  She was ready to close down but saw me in the next line with my two items and said she'd take care of me before she closed down. 

Always lookin' for that glimmer of positive, I am.

Coldwell Banker Triad Launches Mobile Site

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Coldwell Banker Triad Realtors has launched a mobile version of their listings so that house hunters can use their Blackberries, iPhones, etc. to look up listings.  Not sure how many local realtors have done this, but I think if they haven't then they'll need to get on the stick pretty quickly.  I think the days of carrying around listing printouts are numbered.

Anyone know if ListingBook has a mobile version?

A Little Good News for Forsyth County

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According to this report Forsyth County saw the largest increase (5.9%) in visitor spending in 2008 of the large tourist destinations in North Carolina. And here are some interesting stats:

Visitor expenditures directly generated 190,500 jobs and nearly $4.2 billion in payroll income within North Carolina in 2008. Payroll increased 3.9 percent from 2007. Visitor spending in the state also directly generated close to $2.7 billion in tax revenue for federal, state and local governments in 2008, up 3.6 percent from 2007…

Mecklenburg County received more than $3.6 billion in domestic travelers' expenditures to lead all 100 of North Carolina's counties. Wake County ranked second with more than $1.5 billion, followed by Guilford County with close to $1.1 billion.

Why Not a National White Theatre Festival?

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This past week Winston-Salem hosted what has become a very prominent arts festival, the National Black Theatre Festival.  It's a big deal and it's a heck of a boost to the city, and as you'd expect the Winston-Salem Journal has given it significant coverage.  Also not surprising is the feedback that the Journal's editor has gotten.  In a couple of words it's that the paper is "too black."  In his blog post about the issue Ken does the best job of explaining why there's not a "National White Theatre Festival":

One of the issues is of course terminology, its the National BLACK Theatre Festival. And so one caller asked when we were going to cover the National WHITE Theatre Festival and wouldn’t people be up in arms if such an event existed. But of course, such events exist. They’re just not labeled as such. And we do cover them. The labeling along racial and ethnic lines is part of minority groups—racial, ethnic, religious—banding together to tell the majority that they exist. Majority groups don’t have to label. They’re implied.

I think he's right, but I'll add my own two cents.  I don't think there's a need for a national "white" anything, but the day is approaching when whites will no longer be the majority in America.  When that happens and when someone decides that there's a need for a National White Theatre Festival I hope that the same acceptance applies.

Easy Way to Help Second Harvest

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Tonight is the culmination of the Triad Apartment Association's (TAA) food drive for Second Harvest.  The goal is to raise 50,000 cans and we can use all the help we can get, so if you have some food you'd like to donate just swing by the Embassy Suites near PTI (right off of I-40) between 5-8 p.m.  Second Harvest will have a truck there so all you'll have to do is pull up and let the TAA volunteers load it up for you.

This morning Dale Holder, this year's chair of the food drive committee, was on WXII to talk about the campaign.  Here's a link to the video.

Here's the Embassy Suites location:

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