The 2011 US Figure Skating Championships are going to be held at the Greensboro Coliseum and that's already led to work for some local agencies:
Annese Public Relations of Winston-Salem is handling the PR for the championships.
Second Harvest is in dire need of food and financial donations. Check out Life in Forsyth for some info, as well as WXII's story on the record shortage that Second Harvest is enduring.
At the day job we've been running a food drive for a while now and it all culminates at our monthly dinner meeting next Tuesday. We're hoping to gather the equivalent of 50,000 cans of food and as you can see from the stories Second Harvest can use every one.
If you have donations you'd like to make, but for whatever reason aren't able to get them to Second Harvest, just let me know and I'll be happy to collect it and add it to the box we have in the office. Money also helps greatly so you can visit Second Harvest's website or give them a call to make donations.
Smitty published his "Best of Winston-Salem" results and I'm proud to say that this humble blog was runner up to "Best Blogger in Winston-Salem for Life" Esbee. Thanks very much to those who voted for me and let this be a lesson to everyone that begging and groveling does indeed work.
An interesting thing happened to me when I moved from the DC area to the Winston-Salem area five years ago this week: in short order I gained 20 pounds (BBQ) and simultaneously lowered my blood pressure. I've always thought that one big reason was that I escaped the turmoil and traffic of Northern Virginia for the relative peace and quiet of the Piedmont Triad. Allstate just published some accident data that tends to support my theory: Winston-Salem is ranked 25th in terms of safe drivers while DC is ranked dead last at 193, and Arlington, VA is 172 and Alexandria, VA is 174. In addition to the fact that people in Winston-Salem generally drive 10 MPH below the speed limit, another factor that works in Winston's favor is that there are about 1/100th the number of cars per mile than in DC. Neither place has a rush hour, but for totally different reasons. DC has "rush days" from Monday through Friday (and often much of Saturday and Sunday), while Winston-Salem has rush 1/4 hours in one or two places around town.
The biggest problem I have is that there's no impediment to me getting to every good burger, steak or BBQ joint in town which I believe has led to my increase of two pant sizes in five years. Still I'll take peace of mind and a paunch over stress and a coronary while sitting in the world's longest parking lot any day.
ESPN has been running a series of sports related Make-a-Wish pieces and last night's piece featured Lewisville native Chris Paul hanging out with a kid who had a fight with cancer (luckily it's now in remission) and the two of them shot hoops at Paul's alma mater, West Forsyth HS, which also happens to be my kids' school. It's a nice piece (see video below) and helps boost the respect that Paul continues to earn:
Four UNCSA students were arrested in Myrtle Beach for allegedly filming lewd acts under a pier. I knew that UNCSA had an innovative program, but I had no idea they'd gone to this end of the arts spectrum.
Northwest North Carolina was in the grips of a monster drought until the beginning of this year and the message we residents received was, "Conserve water." And honestly isn't water conservation a good thing even when there isn't a drought? That's why you have to scratch your head in wonder when you read that Winston-Salem is raising its water rates because usage is down by 10%. Somehow I think it would be a better idea to reward conservation rather than punish it, but they have their reasons:
Saunders said the city must pay $100 million in new construction for projects like the $55 million water plant currently under construction off Martin Luther King Drive. Saunders said raising water rates is the only option to recoup those costs.
"We wouldn't need a rate increase if we could increase sales by 20 percent, but we can't do that. We can't market the water (usage)," Saunders said.
But here's my favorite quote from Mr. Saunders, who is the utilities director:
"The less you use, the lower your rate increase will actually be," Saunders said. "Even with these rate changes, Winston-Salem still has the lowest cost of water than any major city in North Carolina."
Uh, unless I missed something his first sentence there is a little wrong. No matter how much water you use your rate increase is going to be the same, but your gross increase will be less than it would be if you used the same amount of water. And I guess if you look at this from a purely economic theory standpoint you will probably promote conservation by raising the rate because people will have to use less water in order to keep their bills down. Still, it doesn't sound good when you have to introduce a rate increase because your moving less water even if our rate is still the lowest in the state (which I DO think we should be thankful for).
Oh, and please don't think I'm not thankful every day for the fact that I can turn on a spigot in my house and have clean water whenever I want it, whether it's to drink or shower or wash dishes. Also, after dealing with our septic problem I'm keenly aware of how much water we use on any given day and how inconvenient it is when you can't use it. I really am very thankful that we have Mr. Saunders and his crew doing their thing, and from what I can tell they do a good job. So let's say I absolutely understand the need to keep up their infrastructure, but boy do I wish they didn't have to raise rates to do it at a time when they could be bragging to the rest of the world that we are actually using less water around here.
Want some evidence that people are p-o'd at the ownership of the Winston-Salem Dash, a venerable Carolina League franchise that's been an integral part of Winston-Salem summers for decades? Just check out this story about the Dash having the best season they've had in years on the field yet only averaging 600-700 butts in seats per game. Even with the new stadium I'm wondering how realistic it is to expect an average of 4,000 fans per game which is what the powers that be say is necessary for the financing of the stadium to work.
The following thoughts aren't mine, they were emailed to me by fellow Lewisville-ian Dwight and I thought they were well worth sharing (with his permission):
This is in reference to your comments about the downtown baseball stadium. As a couple of Lewisville residents, aren’t we glad to be distanced (albeit only a few yards) from those dodos in Winston-Salem.
I have recently enjoyed watching the College Baseball World Series on ESPN and was very interested in the commentator’s take on the new TD Ameritrade Park soon to replace Rosenblatt Field as the site of the College World Series. As you would expect, they said, “It’s going to be a beautiful facility”, but mostly they bemoaned the loss of a very special landmark.
Well, does that sound familiar? We (and yes, I include us among the dodos because Forsyth County residents have a stake in this fiasco as well) had a very special landmark in Ernie Shore Field but now it is gone.
All this prompted me to google Omaha, Nebraska for info on the financing of their new baseball facility. I have to admit that I am not the sleuth that I would like to be, but I did learn that their new facility is expected to cost $120 Million and will have a capacity of 25,000 and TD Ameritrade is paying $20 M for naming rights. The remainder (I think) will be financed by public bonds administered by a special Commission. WOW! Why didn’t we think of that? We have the successful WSFC Utilities Commission and the unsuccessful Tanglewood Park Authority as guides. In my opinion, The Utility Commission was successful because it functioned as an independent Commission staffed with competent people (only recently have they seen revenue decline because local municipalities have been using solid waste fees to fund their recycling efforts). The Tanglewood Park Authority was never successful because it was never “independent” of elected officials.
So where are we?
Omaha gets a new 25000 capacity stadium.
We get a 5000 capacity stadium.
Omaha pays $120M minus $20M. ($4000 per seat)
We pay $42M (and rising). ($8000 per seat and rising)
Omaha owns their stadium when completed.
We have to wait 25 years for a deed (good luck Jon, I won’t be around then).
Omaha will have a watchdog if they appoint competent people to the Commission.
We have Billy Prim.
Jon, I have chosen to send this comment to you via e-mail because it is somewhat critical of elected officials and I do not feel comfortable using your site for my agenda.
You have my permission to post this comment on your sit or not as you choose. As always, thank you for an interesting (and provocative) site.
Dwight
This has been an interesting week. I spent a couple of days in Raleigh for the day job and had my first opportunity to get a first hand look at the NC legislature in action. Here's my takeaways from the experience:
The other thing that made this week interesting was the hometown drama known as the downtown baseball stadium. While I could probably write dozens of pages of thoughts on the whole situation, I'd rather just ask the leaders of Winston-Salem some questions:
Seriously, the city's leadership couldn't have tried to make this deal look any worse. I'm really not sure what the motivation could have been to handle it this way, but whatever it was I can't imagine that it balances out the negative taste that this left in the public's mouth. Put it this way: Mayor Joines and the city council spent a whole lot of their political capital to get this done and while they were going to take a hit no matter how they handled this, I think they at least doubled the damage by handling it in the manner that they did. It will be interesting to see what happens with the next economic development deal that comes along.
Befuddled 