Greensboro Public Library's David Theall is smart

Having recently criticized the City of Greensboro for their user-unfriendly distribution of press releases, I think it is only appropriate to note an admirable exception. Press releases from the city library's David Theall arrive with a meaningful subject line and the press release in the body of the email (I know, sounds normal, but it is not the way most City press releases are sent). Somebody ought to call David for some pointers -- or give him a promotion.

Council candidate Vaughan offers public economic interest disclosure

[full disclosure: The candidate's husband is a client of my web site design services]

In March, 2009, the Greensboro City Council passed a resolution supporting legislation that would require municipal officials to comply with the same ethics guidelines as state officials. Although not yet required by law, at-large city council candidate Nancy Vaughan has completed and made public the North Carolina State Ethics Commission 2009 Statement of Economic Interest. She has issued a challenge to "current city council members and candidates to complete the same form."

Problem: High vacancy rates. Solution: Encourage building

Sometimes dumb is just plain dumb. Guilford County Commissioners are contemplating a gift to the construction industry in the form of tax rebates for building or adding on to property. As District 3 City Council candidate George Hartzman points out, the Triad has a glut of space:

Retail Vacancies: 10.5%
Office Vacancies: 18%
Warehouse Vacancies: 22.6%

According to Forbes, Greensboro is the nation's fourth most vacant city.

Look, Commissioner Arnold, nice try. You get an A for good intentions but please, put the idea down and step away from the table. Incentivising the production of something already in oversupply earns you an F in economics. If the interest is honestly in trying to stimulate economic activity, give a tax credit to everyone and anybody who creates a job. The current plan is not economic stimulus, it is a stinky stew of narrow thinking and political patronage.

Broken PTI promotion

The Bargain Blog says that Piedmont Triad International Airport has started a new "digital advertising campaign" to promote low fares and convince us that flights from PTI are often cheaper than from Charlotte or Raleigh.

This was the fare advertised today.

The ad takes one to the Delta web site where there is no $218 flight, but simply the form to search for fares. After several configurations of dates for GSO to CUN, the actual lowest fare offered was, one-stop (Atlanta) $468.83.

Hmm.

Orbitz offers sixty-three flights on those days, from GSO to CUN, each cheaper than PTI/Delta's "Low fare," the cheapest, $298.00 on Continental.

And, as for PTI's intention for this promotion to convince us that flights from PTI are often cheaper than neighboring airports, Orbitz offers the same travel dates from Raleigh Durham, one-stop, for $218 total and from Charlotte, non-stop, for $446 total.

If one is going to launch a digital advertising campaign, one should have some idea of how people shop digitally.

On Medicare and against "government run health care"

Mike Baron seems like a nice guy. He has certainly had some very hard knocks and one can only sympathise with the devestation wrought by his job loss and subsequent cancer. Still, symapthy is not an innoculation against critisism for hypocricy.

Mike says:

"We must never allow government to run health care."

He also says:

"I now live on Medicare and disability."

How is that possible?

Steve Gordon of Kernersville disinformed, News & Record gives him extra space without correction

It is one thing when the editors of the (Greensboro, NC) News & Record allow misinformation to go unchecked on their opinion pages, it is even more troubling when they give authors extra space to assert make believe without comment or correction.

Today, the N&R gives the additional words of a "counterpoint" column to Steve Gordon of Kernersville. In it, Gordon writes:

"First, the United States has had to borrow money from practically every major nation on the planet, mainly to cover the trillions of dollars of deficits run up by incompetence in Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security programs..."

Gordon repeats an unfortunate but increasingly common theme among the popular right as of late, asserting myth as reality by unteathering an argument from the facts. Gordon mimicks a sound argument, he strings together comprehensible words and seemingly founds his point on things that, by the strong conviction of their assertion, sound a lot like facts, but they are not. His opinion is a house of cards, built on fantasy; built on crap he either made up or does not know to be untrue.

The FACT is that Medicare and Social Security face future unfunded liabilities, but they currently pay for themselves by taxes and trust fund assets. The government does not borrow "mainly" to cover incompetence in Medicare and Social Security. In inescapable reality, the government does not borrow for these programs at all. Gordon is just flat wrong and the News & Record says "Here is something worth additional space." Geez. How embarrassing.

It is one thing if people opposed to helath care reform want to oppose it on an emotional level. Pretending that they can explain their opposition rationally by making things up is absurd. Ayn Rand would find the complete dismisal of objective reality despicable.

How to cut a hole in a tile floor for a dryer vent

I needed to cut a four inch round hole in a tile floor for a dryer vent. This is one of those things I expected to find instructions for on the Internet. My searches came up short though so, for those who come Googling behind me, I offer my instructions, with help from an outstanding young sales associate from Lowe's, for "how to cut a hole in a tile floor."

Cutting a hole in a piece of tile is one thing, it is a different proposition to cut a hole in tile that has already been laid. You have to be careful not to cause the tile to crack. It can be done. Here is what you will need:

1. A RotoZip tool.
2. A RotoZip diamond grit Floor Tile XBIT
3. An electric drill
4. A hole saw attachment for your drill.
5. A magic marker or carpenter's crayon.
6. A vacuum cleaner
7. Aluminum Snap-Lock pipe
8. Bathroom and kitchen caulking
9. A caulking gun
10. Tin snips
11. SAFETY GOGGLES (No joke, you are going to put your face very close to high speed equipment and flying particles. DO NOT follow these instructions without proper eye protection or you will hurt yourself.)
    
12. Dust mask. You are going to be hovering close to a dusty work area for an extended period of time.
    

Mark the hole.
Begin by marking the outline of your hole on the tile. You do not want your hole obstructed by floor joists, plumbing or wiring. Look under the floor before you begin and make sure you know what is underneath your hole. (Find a "landmark" such as a pipe, electrical outlet or heating vent from which you can measure distance below and above the floor to make sure you will not encounter obstacles.)

Depending on the color and surface of the tile, you will find a magic marker or a carpenter's crayon most effective. Simply trace the outline of the hole saw drill attachment in the desired location. After you cut through the tile, you will use the hole saw to cut through the sub floor, so it is okay if your circle is a little wider than the hole saw itself, in fact, you want that or else the hole saw will get stuck if it does not have a little play. An outline of the hole saw will be just the right diameter.

Cut the hole.
Put on your dust mask and safety goggles. With the diamond grit floor tile bit on the RotoZip tool, begin to cut your hole. START VERY GENTLY. The trick here is that you are going to slowly make many passes around the circumference of your hole, cutting an ever-deepening groove. Be very patient, it will take some time. Until you have an established groove, you risk having the tool "jump" on you and scratching the tile. To avoid this, start the tool above the tile and slowly lower it to the tile at about a 45 degree angle to make contact -- not straight down. You are not "drilling" -- think more like "engraving" or "routing." Slowly move the bit around the marked circle in a clockwise direction. Keep the bit at an angle to the floor. As you make several passes, you will begin to cut a circular groove. As the groove deepens, you will be able to speed up your progress by GENTLY "rocking" the bit from an angle to vertical and back again as you go around the circle.

Vacuum and cool
Dust in the groove you are cutting will slow your progress. A heated bit will slow your progress. Vacuum the dust from the groove often. Let the bit cool while you are vacuuming and maybe an additional couple of minutes of cooling every so often.

Finish cutting the tile and backerboard
Depending on how your floor was laid, you may find a layer of backerboard beneath your tile (you should hope so, actually, as that is part of a professional installation). Continue to cut with the RotoZip if you encounter backerboard. Cut completely through the tile, cement and backerboard. You should end up with a circular piece of tile and backerboard you can lift or gently pry out of your hole. (If the tile remains attached, just move to the next step. You can use the hole saw in the groove you have cut, just make sure you have cut a groove all the way to the wood.)

Finish cutting the hole
Once you have reached the wood sub floor, use your drill with the hole saw attached to complete the hole. Hold the drill vertically and "drill" straight down until you have sawed completely through the floor. Congratulations! You've made a hole!

Making a dryer vent. 
If the purpose of your hole is to vent a dryer, use the tin snips to cut the aluminum snap-lock pipe to length. "Roll" it to lock it into shape. Friction may hold the pipe in your hole, or you can use some duct tape on the other side to hold it in place. Apply caulking. Let dry. You can now attach your dryer vent to this pipe and vent it from underneath your house as desired.

This is what you have when you finish:

News & Record editor, duplicitous or seclusive?

The (Greensboro, NC) News & Record editor coughs up the name of the hotel that hosted the Nazis (La Quinta). He does so with "Now that the 'threat' is over, I fully expected someone to ask the motel be identified. No one did."

Well yes, we did ask. Here, here and here, well before the update appeared on JR's blog. I am left wondering, is the editor of our local daily really oblivious to the local blogs discussing his paper and his decision or was he aware of these blog posts and just pretending he did not see them?

"Why is it important to you that you know the name of the place?"

The (Greensboro, NC) News & Record editor John Robinson defends his paper's decision not to disclose the location of the local hotel hosting a meeting of about forty Nazis. After commenters condemn and commend, Robinson asks, "Why is it important to you that you know the name of the place?"

I'd like to know what local hotel would host this group so that I can boycott them forevermore. Now that the original reason for keeping this information secret, the safety issue, has passed, the N&R has no reason not to reveal the name of the hotel-- add it to their online story and JR's blog post so that it becomes a part of the record, unless they are also interested in protecting an advertiser.

Requesting Records in Greensboro

Based on a true story.

Who "passed" those polygraph tests?

The (Greensboro, NC) News & Record's editor John Robinson mentions on his blog today that all of the Greensboro City Council members who took a polygraph test over who leaked the RMA report "passed" the lie detector test. To his credit, and for good reason, Robinson puts "passed" in quotation marks.

Let us remember, the results of these tests were verbally self-reported by each test subject to then-Mayor Keith Holliday who then relayed them to the public.

A subsequent records request by yours truly for the records of the actual tests came up short when City attorney Jemiah Watterman first claimed that the polygrapher said he did not have any records then, when confronted with the polygrapher's statement that he did have records, the City failed to request those records from him on this citizen's behalf.

Instead, the City invited the council subjects to consent to have the polygrapher prepare a report summarizing in writing the results of that individual's "test."

Three council persons consented and there is a written summary from the polygrapher that says they "passed" (i.e. did not "show deception" when asked if they leaked the RMA report). Those who consented and who the polygrapher reported as having passed were:

Yvonne Johnson
Mike Barber
Sandra Anderson-Groat

Five other council people did not give their consent to have the polygrapher prepare a report of their test, so there is no record that they passed other than Keith Holliday's account of what he says they said their results were. Those who did not consent to a written report were:

Keith Holliday
Tom Phillips
Florence Gatten
Sandy Carmany
Goldie Wells

T. Dianne Bellamy Small says she did not leak the RMA report, but would not take a polygraph exam. Five of her colleagues say that they passed a polygraph test but would not consent to a report of their results. I don't see the difference.

.

"Open your minds and your eyes wide enough to see more than black and white."

"That’s so 1950s."

The Late Show with Fecund Stench

Jeff Martin, aka Fecund Stench, is becoming Greensboro's John Stewart. More of his mechanized mockery here.

Greater Greensboro

There are some things about the city of Greensboro that are just great. Whenever the need arises for someone from the city to perform some psychical task, in my experience, the work force has always been commendable. When we first moved into our house, we discovered that heavy rains would send gully washers down the street and into our gravel driveway, washing pounds of rocks into the street. With then-city council person Sandy Carmany's help, it was arranged for a crew to come out and pour a cement apron that fixed the problem, the first time and for good. When a storm uprooted a huge oak tree and sent it sprawling across Normandy Ave., a crew was on the scene as soon as it was safe to be outside again, getting the street cleared.

Today it was a little thing, but one more to remember. The ravages of time had done a number on our garbage can. A little horizontal crack around the middle of it had been growing progressively larger. Yesterday, it finally gave way, nearly splitting in two and spilling garbage onto the street beneath the helpless mechanical arm. As he shoveled up the spill, the truck driver told me to call 333-CITY for a new can, Which I did. I didn't have to get transferred around or wait on hold very long at all. The first person to answer the call was able to take my information and instruct me to leave the dead can at the curb and it would be replaced.

When two o'clock rolled around today and we still did not have a new can, I called again, just to see if I should leave the old one out over the weekend. "Leave it out until 5:30 and I'll send a reminder," said the man who answered the phone. Sure enough, within an hour the old can was removed and a shiny new garbage can was rolled up our driveway.

There are a lot of people working for the city who work hard and treat "customers" right. It doesn't go unnoticed or unappreciated.

News & Record fooled again

They say as you age, your sense of smell starts to go. That certainly seems to be the case with the opinion pages of the (Greensboro, NC) News & Record as another letter to the editor full of misinformation passes the editors' smell test to make it into print.

Today there is a letter from Robert L. Simpson of Burlington. In it, Simpson refers to an "article" published in Pravda titled "American Capitalism Gone With A Whimper." Simpson reminds us that, if anyone should know what the death of capitalism looks like, Pravda is "an expert on Marxism."

LOL. The "article" in question is an opinion piece first published on a Russian man's blog in which he makes the convoluted assertion that Wall Street is behind the advancement of Marxism. As for Pravda's Marxist bona fides, the Pravda that was once the official Communist newspaper of the Soviet Union was shut down in 1991. The Pravda web site on which the blog post was republished, begun in 1999, is decidedly capitalistic, running ads for pictures of Miley Cyrus in her underwear and for "Dog gives birth to mutant creature that resembles human being," pictured here.

Why does the city of Greensboro send cryptic press releases in DOCX format?

I am on the city of Greensboro's media list. They send press releases by email with the release as an attachment with cryptic or meaningless subjects, some recent examples:

- HumRel092509.docx
- 08.24.09 0300 Press Release Nothing to Report
- School supplies2009.doc

There are a few smart exceptions, but most of these emails are void of any body text describing what the release is about, much less the release itself. There is no reason why the email body could not contain the message. Instead, one must open a compatible image or document program to view the attachment and solve the puzzle of what it is about.

Now, to make it even more cumbersome, documents are being attached in the DOCX format. So if you don't have Microsoft Office 2007 or later, you have the pleasure of trying to figure out how to open that file type on your computer.

It seems to me that the city might give some thought to how it distributes its press releases, with some consideration of efficiency and accessibility to a broad range of recipients.

"Nearly any business in the county?" N&R's Witt inaccurate in his characterization of incentives plan

The Guilford County Commissioners are contemplating an incentives plan that will provide for tax abatement for businesses that add value to real estate by building, adding or remodeling. The News & Record's Gerald Witt characterizes this patronage of the construction industry as an incentive for "nearly any business in the county."

It is not. If you rent your place of business, a program that offers tax abatements for improvements to property you do not own is not an incentive for you. "Nearly any business?" Hardly. My guess would be, in fact, a minority of businesses.

Nataly Dawn

The closing credits of HBO's Hung had me going to the Google to see who performed the song "Play the Game." It was Queen. I found a cover though that is delicious. It is by Nataly Dawn. She has a small following on MySpace, a channel on YouTube and no record label... yet.

She will.

This was one of my favorites.

And here is the sweet cover of Play the Game.

Emotions as a cause, Ayn Rand on the popular right

A thread at Ed Cone's turned to a discussion of epistemology, ie. how do we know what we think we know? I am reading "Atlas Shrugged" by Ayn Rand and Rand has a lot to say about epistemology and politics and how one influences the other. Rand asserts that there is such a thing as objective reality, that the success or failure of a populace in assessing objective reality has social/political consequences.

I find it ironic that Rand, a philosophical wellspring of modern conservatism, admonishes the socialists/communists villains of "Atlas Shrugged" for failings of reason in a way that can be properly directed at the modern popular right.* I've observed it as people trying to assert a point of view by untethering themselves from reality, Rand describes it thus:

"[They] have reversed causality in their consciousness, then strive to reverse it in existence. They take their emotions as a cause, and their mind as a passive effect. They make their emotions their tool for perceiving reality. They hold their desires as an irreducible primary, as a fact superseding all facts."

"They want to cheat the axiom of existence and consciousness, they want their consciousness to be an instrument not of perceiving but of creating existence, and existence to be not the object but the subject of their consciousness..."

And, elesewhere, this:

A rational process is a moral process. You may make an error at any step of it, with nothing to protect you but your own severity, or you may try to cheat, to fake the evidence and evade the effort of the quest--but if devotion to the truth is the hallmark of morality, then there is no greater, nobler, more heroic form of devotion that the act of a man who assumes the responsibility of thinking.

* I recognize that I am making a generalization, one that I think is credible but, as a generalization, implicitly acknowledges that there are individual exceptions.

Wyndham washout

Went to the Wyndham golf tournament today. The course looked great, good crowd, friendly workers, easy access to great viewing with the abilities of professional golfers made all the more impressive in close-up person -- then the rain came.

Although it was heartening to see Greensboro City Councilor Mike Barber soaked to the bone, working the shuttle bus line, shuffling people with young children off to dry confines, the rest of us bums had to stand outside in a line easily one thousand people long for an hour as the rains came down and a trickle of shuttle buses ferried people back to their cars at the coliseum.

A little better planning for inclement weather next year, and I'm sure the Wyndham will be an unqualified success. This year though, bring a poncho and plenty of patience.

"Right wing garbage?" Me?

A commenter whose anonymity should in no way call into question the certain courage of his convictions says I'm writing "right wing garbage" -- apparently because I equate gangs with organized crime. Maybe the Latin Kings are not that organized, I really don't know, but I am certain a lot of people will get a chuckle out of this chowderhead's characterization of my opinions as right wing.

At the Wyndham, parking or not? Which is it?

Greensboro Sports reports that heavy rains have closed parking at the Wyndham for the remainder of the tournament. The tournament website says spectators can still park at the venue (with no information about the shuttle from the Coliseum). So, who to believe? The official site of the tournament or the "amatuer" sports reporters?

More "death panel" idocy, this time local

Greensboro blogger and curmudgeon Bubba posts a super scary video about a woman on a public health care plan in Oregon that declined to pay for a cancer fighting drug for her. The health plan will pay for "physician aid in dying" though, that being legal in Oregon. See? SEE?!? DEATH PANELS!!!

So, the drug in question is Tarceva. A course of treatment can cost up to $100,000. My $300 a month Blue Cross Blue Shield of NC policy has a $2,000 annual maximum payout on this type of specialty drug. Should I need this drug, my cost, after my insurance "pays for it" would be $98,000.

So tell me, all you Bubbas, am I -- or anybody with BCBSNC insurance -- are we really in any different situation than that lady in Oregon with our "free market" solution?

Let's face it, because it is abundantly obvious, there are some people so damn insistent that Obama not achieve any success, that they are willing to keep Americans, their neighbors, on the brink of disaster and no tactic, no matter how despicable, is off limits. It is really disgusting.

Inside Triad Stage

A new blog showed up on We101 today, Inside Triad Stage. I think I'm going to really like this one.

Making the public option simple: Allow me the option of buying into Medicare

I am in my mid forties. With the exception of three months of prescription quit-smoking drugs, my utilization of professional health care services over the past ten years has been limited to six physicals. Including the drugs, about $1,500 worth of health care over a decade.

During the past ten years, my insurance premiums have totaled just over $20,000. My monthly premiums have risen every year from their original $90. Most recently, they jumped from $200 to $300 three months after I quit smoking.

My "non-profit" insurer pays its CEO $4M a year, spends 18% of its premiums on administrative costs, rewards its top couple hundred sales people with Caribbean vacations and is currently spending my premiums on advertising trying to block health care reform. It also employs a cadre of nurses not as care providers, but as gatekeeping bureaucrats whose jobs are to ration care by approving or denying payment.

Here is the simple "public option" I want: Let me buy into Medicare if I want to. Price it so it is self-sustaining, heck add a couple bucks a month if it helps ameliorate the coming financial challenges. Then let me decide if the care and costs work for me.

Unless you are a mean self-centered fart who just cannot stand to see people have better options or a rigid slave to a broken ideology, how can you possibly have a problem with that?

Council candidate's 'Troubling association with organized crime?' More yellow journalism from Yes! Weekly

Going downhill fast. That's my perception of the deteriorating "journalistic" standards at Yes! Weekly that have them willing to smear people for sensationalism's sake.

Recently, Yes! decided the best way to promote a story of prosecutorial incompetence was to plaster the mug shots of innocent people on its cover and web site (no pictures of the prosecutors who actually fumbled the cases though).

This time around, reporter Jordan Green asks Greensboro city council candidate Max Benbassat "Have you stopped beating your wife yet?" Okay, not really, but he might as well have. In a profile of Benbassat, Green writes:

"Benbassat’s purist attitude towards politics contrasts with what some may see as a troubling association with organized crime."

What!?!? Are your friggin' kidding me? "Some may see?" Some who? "You the reader after I insinuate it right here?" And what association with organized crime? An association as asserted by whom and where? I asked Green to clarify. His response speaks for itself (or, in case it does not, the allegation is anonymous, uncoroborated and unreported):

"Roch, I received an anonymous tip from someone raising the possibility that Benbassat had been involved in organized crime in New York. I am duty-bound to maintain confidentiality, so I don't have a lot more to say about it.

There is an old saying in the newspaper business: "If your mother says she loves you, check it out." If some anonymous person insinuates something derogatory about a political candidate, you might want to check that out too... unless you are striving to be the local version of The National Enquirer.

Postscript: What is sadly ironic is that, of Jorge Cornell, the one candidate in the council race who actually has acknowledged ties to organized crime, Green inserts editorial praise into in the same article, writing that Cornell has "Upstaged the rest of the slate with an uncanny ability to connect to the man and woman on the street..." Anonymous, unsubstantiated rumors of gang associations? Troubling. Actual gang leader? Man of the people.

Forget the unprincipled construction industry patronage, the fair and smart way for Guilford County to spend $1.3 million

Thinking more about the Arnold/Austin proposed economic development incentives construction industry patronage, would not the proposed first year $1.3 million cost of the plan be better used if it provided a $1,000 grant for every new job created paying above $11.00/hour?

Would not that truly be an incentive for all businesses? Would not that be far fairer and more equitable than the current proposal? Would not that be the more direct, purposeful and justifiable reason for incentives, the creation of jobs?

Which is the better incentive?

- Giving a business a $1,000 grant each year for three years for adding $130,000* in value to a property through construction of or renovation to a building.

- Giving a business a $1,000 grant each year for three years for creating a new good paying job.

* Correction, 8/21/09: At Guilford County's current tax rate, $1,000 of property taxes would be on a property value of $130,000, not $13,000 as originally stated. That has been corrected.

Alston's and Arnold's notion of economic development unimaginative

Construction is not economic development. Making construction the centerpiece of an economic development plan is an upside down approach to economic development. It is the kind of "build it and they will come" thinking that is delightful for real estate and construction businesses, but which will fail Guilford county in two ways: One, by lessening the risk of building useless crap more prone to vacancy than productive use it will encourage it; and, two, in opportunity costs, directing our economic development energies away from the true economic engines of the future which, trust me, are not more strip malls and burger joints.

The proposal by Guilford County Commissioners Steve Arnold and Skip Alston to provide monetary "grants" equal to three years of property taxes to property owners who build, renovate or remodel property is a nice little gift to a narrow group of industries, but it is laughable to call it an economic incentive. It is a development incentive.

Arnold and Austin are relics who have turned to the only thing they know -- an antiquated notion of economic development. A real plan would have as its measure the creation of good paying jobs. This plan isn't it. It will pass because it will line the pockets of enough people to make it popular. It will also mark the continuation of Guilford County leadership as unimaginative.

[added] If you are opposed to incentives in general, this plan is a bad idea because its largess could otherwise be spread to all businesses in the form of an across the board tax reduction. If you find incentives acceptable, the plan is unimaginative because it encourages only construction. It does not extend grants for the purchase of a new x-ray machine, computer or other business expanding equipment or even for what should be the real bottom line, the addition of a new employee.

Higher ethical standards for local elected officials?

Keith Brown at Triadwatch has a post (scroll down past irrelevant video) about a new law in Greensburgh, New York that would "make it illegal for public officials to accept campaign contributions from developers, contractors or their lawyers or agents for a year before and a year after an application is reviewed by a town board."

When asked about contributions from developers and attorneys who bring matters before city council, often to win a rezoning or multi-million dollar tax abatement, council people will often say, "My vote cannot be bought." Fine. If that's the way it is, then they should have no problem with an ordinance similar to Greenburgh's. I wonder if any council candidates will propose this.

"Greensboro Savings & Specials" email? Proceed with caution

You probably already have your email program configured not to load images by default and up-to-date anti-virus software that scans your email messages... right?

Even so, I got an email today that looks like trouble. I haven't tried to confirm my suspicions, but if you get an email with the subject "Greensboro Savings & Specials," be advised that it attempts to load an application octet stream from a domain name registered just nine days ago. Seriously suspicious. You probably should delete this email without opening it if you are the least bit uncertain of the strength of your anti-virus protection.

Greensboro Rooms to Go tried to rip us off, made us JC Penny customers

Unbelievable. We tried to buy a sofa at Rooms to Go on Friday. They were willing to sell it to us at the prior week's sale price under one condition, that we buy it that day. We agreed. At checkout, we declined the $100 additional fabric protection. Mike, the salesperson, told us he did not think we could buy the sofa at the sale price if we did not also buy the fabric protection, a condition not mentioned to us verbally or represented in any of the written displays.

We told him we would leave if he insisted. He did. We did.

We ended up back at JC Penny, where an honest salesman told us the sofa we were looking at (our first choice, but just a little too expensive originally) would be 10% cheaper the next day as part of Penny's Friends and Family sale. The next day, we purchased the better (made in America, not China) sofa from JC Penny, in our price range and thanks to Rooms to Go's shortsighted stupidity.

I recommend John at the Four Seasons Town Center JC Penny's furniture department if you are in the market for some furniture.

News & Record scrubs another article. Who misrepresented 'neighborhood's wishes' on night out cancellation? Reports contradict city officials' claims.

The (Greensboro, NC) News & Record's new practice of updating articles on its website by scrubbing information from previous versions is really discouraging. It makes it difficult to pin down the facts and it diminishes the value of the N&R for one of a newspaper's primary missions: as an official record for the purpose of holding those in power accountable.

Who said that residents of Hickory Trails did not want a "national night out" at their apartments?

Various un-archived versions of the News & Record report attributed that secondhand account of residents' sentiment to Interim City Manager Bob Morgan, Mayor Yvonne Johnson, Police Chief Tim Bellamy, unnamed Housing Authority officials or unnamed city officials. Who was it?

Who can we hold accountable for attributing that unverified sentiment to unnamed residents when the documented actual sentiment expressed by actual residents contradicts that account both in the most recent version of the N&R article and in this interview by council candidate Ryan Shell with the mother of Tuesday's shooting victim? City Council district one candidate, Ben Holder, who had the idea for the event, also reports a series of events that contradict city officials and points the finger at Interim City Manager Bob Morgan.

Strange bedfellows

Jeff, on the "compromise" watershed protection rules:

"The developers ran around the rest of us and made a deal with the tree huggers, all the while waving eco banners as they take our money. The stormwater didn’t get cleaned, the fish still died, but the do-gooders got paid."

Thank you City Council

This evening, I went before the Greensboro City Council to ask that they postpone consideration of a new records retention and disposition policy. Records may have been improperly deleted under the old policy and passing a new policy before the extent of the improper deletions is known would obscure the issue.

Most importantly however, Assistant City Manager Denise Turner, who is currently on maternity leave (congratulations Denise and Mr. Turner), has been working on an update to the city's public records policy and procedures. Her initial efforts, as I've seen them so far, are encouraging and her intention to solicit public comment will be far more productive than tonight's hasty attempt to slide something through on a consent agenda without any public announcement until the quiet inclusion on the agenda four days ago; with no public input; with no copy of the policy made publicly available.

Thank you Mayor Johnson and City Council people for getting this one right. It will pay off in the long run.

Recalling email?

I am on the City of Greensboro media email list. Occasionally they send out something with some wrong information and that is followed by another email "recalling" the first email. I only ever get email recalls from the City of Greensboro and I am never sure how to respond. Should I send the original back to the sender, as I would return a recalled can of tuna? Isn't attempting to recall an email like trying to recall a fart?

City council candidate arrested

Last night, gang leader and Greensboro city council candidate Jorge Cornell was arrested in what Cornell describes as "a clear case of racial profiling and dehumanization." At the beginning of the video, one can see Cornell step in front of a police officer and the officer can be heard telling Cornell to "Get out of my face" and "Get away from me" or be arrested.

Accommodating racists

Sue has a post about newspapers, including the (Greensboro, NC) News & Record, deleting racists comments (in the case of the N&R, deleting entire comment threads in which objectionable comments appear.)

Here is what I said at Sue's, an opinion I would extent to also include sexism, homophobia, xenophobia and other ignorance-inspired hatreds:
--------

I fully understand a private enterprise not wanting its resources being used in a manner it finds objectionable. Fundamental property rights, the way I see it. However, whether a newspaper wants to assume this role or not (and I think there is a good argument that it should), there should indeed be some facility for racists to make their views publicly known. And not just in a limited, hush hush, out of the way manner either, but in a full blown, all out, unlimited way that gives their views full voice. Why? Because the alternative is worse.

I would rather know the extent, breadth and depth of racism in my community than to make myself (and the community) intentionally ignorant by turning a blind eye. People who find racism objectionable should want this too. If we successfully keep racism in the shadows, it is a lot harder to convince people that it is significant enough to warrant fighting it. Nobody gets motivated to fight something they perceive to have been already vanquished.

Getting past dumb

An offline commenter was chastising me for focusing on Yes!Weekly's bonehead sensationalism wrapped around Jordan Green's article, "Poor documentation and fraud found in dwi dismissals," instead of the significance of what was revealed by the reporting.

He has a point. So let me take one last swipe and say this is another reason why posting online and printing on the cover of the print edition the mug shots of people who are only tangentially related to the subject of the article was so incredibly lame. It shortchanged Jordan, failing to promote the substance of his article and taking attention away from it; It insulted readers, assuming we would not get to the meat without some cheese as bait; and it embarrassed people unnecessarily, making them look like culprits while the real culprits are nowhere to be seen.

As I told the commenter, Yes! cannot expect us to read it like the Times when it packages its reporting like the Enquirer. (Yes! is often schitzophrenic that way, but that is another topic.)

So, with that out of the way, go read Jordan's article. It is important. It is about a broken court system, the kind of thing we should all care about seeing fixed.

Greensboro policy: All candidates are equal, except when they are not

Ben Holder, candidate for Greensboro City Council district 1, notes that the city's policy of providing information requested by any council candidate to all candidates is not applied equally. To make his case, he offers evidence that he did not get information provided to his incumbent opponent.

Yes! Weekly yellow journalism

What gives at Yes!Weekly? Their investigative reporting ranges from Woodward and Bernstein-like to being led around by the nose by defense attorneys. Their editorial decisions from impressive to sub-National Enquirer. I wish they'd find their footing and stand tall instead of bending to the crazy and going off the rails from time to time.

This week they have an interesting article about DWI cases getting dismissed for reportedly unacceptable reasons ranging from incompetence in the DA's office to apparent fraud.

Unable to confidently let the article stand on its merits, however, Yes! found it necessary to publish the mug shots of the innocent people whose cases were dismissed. It is shameful sensationalism. It is yellow journalism.

I asked Yes! editor Brian Clarey to explain why he published the mug shots of people whose cases were dismissed. His explanation was that these people's cases were "dismissed under suspicious circumstances, including procedural errors, poor/incomplete documentation and one case of documented fraud." That may be true (although "documented fraud" is a reach), but there is zero indication that the people whose cases were dismissed were in any way responsible for the procedural errors or incomplete documentation. They are, in fact, innocents who Yes! justifies subjecting to public humiliation because of the bad acts of others.

Clarey said that his paper did not decide to publish these photos "lightly" or "without serious discussion." So what? No matter how seriously considered, the decision reached was wrong and the explanation offered deficient. The people whose pictures belong attached to the article are those Yes! implicates as responsible for the errors and misdeeds, not the innocent bystanders.

Reporting the "blood alcohol concentration" of those whose cases were dismissed is also malpractice. Since these people never had their cases go to trial, the claims against them remain simply allegations, allegations that were never adjudicated and, therefore, not entitled to be reported as facts. The alcohol levels, reported as fact by Yes!, are just readings from a machine. Importer calibration, operator error, subsequent and more accurate blood tests with different results are possible refutations of this number. For a news organization to report a law enforcement accusation as a fact, when it is merely an allegation, is astoundingly objectionable.

Come on Yes! You might think crap like this spices up your reporting. It doesn't. It colors it yellow.

Kee kicks off

I went to Jim Kee's Greensboro city council (district 2) campaign kick off this afternoon. Hopefully his deficient web site will soon get updated so you can learn more about him. I think the rest of Greensboro will be as enthused as I am by his candidacy.

This afternoon, before a crowd of about fifty, Kee laid out warmly and confidently his reasons for running. He spoke of supporting businesses large and small, of specific ideas he'd like to implement to improve public safety, of working for a clean environment and of seeing one Greensboro, not a divided Greensboro.

I don't know much about Kee's two other opponents, but he's off to a great start and, if he can stay true to himself, he will make a great council person.

Shell changes his mind on district 2 scholarships

Having previously promised to create five $1,000 annual scholarships for district 2 students should he be elected, council candidate Ryan Shell, upon deciding to change from running in district 2 to running at-large, now says he will only give one scholarship to a district 2 student.

News & Record scrubs comments on gangster candidate story

The (Greensboro, NC) News & Record, once again (previously), scrubs online content without note or comment.

Alert reader N says that there were about twenty comments on this story about a gangster filing to run for city council this morning, then they were gone. I contacted Amanda Lehmert, the author of the story, and this is her reply:

"The comments, which are monitored by our online folks, got inappropriate. So they used their discretion and turned them off."

Here is a cached version of the story, with comments through 1:39 this morning. Here are the deleted comments:
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ncb
July 16, 2009 - 7:43 pm EDT

Sad thing is, he'll probably win. Impoverished blacks and Latinos will vote for him because its a sign of sticking it to the Man. Good thing I'll be leaving this mudhole in a couple of months

rmacz
July 16, 2009 - 7:57 pm EDT

Earl Jones will probably endorse him.

notoriousBLOG
July 16, 2009 - 8:06 pm EDT

Earl will endorse anybody who will write a check.

jsipe29
July 16, 2009 - 9:11 pm EDT

You have room for three more and two dogs? I want to leave with you!

holland4
July 16, 2009 - 8:02 pm EDT

Señor Cornell should fit right in with his bling-bling, tats, and gang signs. Would make for some interesting Tuesday evenings. The Council should go ahead and budget for the MMOB metal detectors now.

But seriously, he has a snowball's chance in hades. Greensboro isn't that stupid, right? Right?

Panacea
July 16, 2009 - 8:07 pm EDT

If he wins, someone ought to pitch Greensboro City Council meetings to Hollywood as the next hit reality show.

speakup2
July 16, 2009 - 8:27 pm EDT

Can you be a member of the city counsel if you have a Police Record? And can you vote if you have a record?

Lakeshia
July 16, 2009 - 9:02 pm EDT

Can this possibly be any worse this Diane BS or Goldie ???

jsipe29
July 16, 2009 - 9:12 pm EDT

I really doubt it!

honestcitizen
July 16, 2009 - 10:00 pm EDT

I thank GOD everyday that I don't live in Greensboro. But he should fit right in with the other
clowns on the city council, including that wonderful mayor. You people go ahead and vote him in
and see what kind of mess you have then. You already have a messed up police department.

DaveW
July 16, 2009 - 10:55 pm EDT

I do not live in Greensboro so I cannot vote but I will watch this one closely. If he wins I may have to spend as much time as possible outside of Greensboro. Unfortunately my wife works in downtown Greensboro. I will probably worry about her every working day.

holland4
July 16, 2009 - 10:52 pm EDT

Maybe if Jorge gets elected to Council, we can rival Detroit in the amount of drama and meltdowns. We almost have a quorum now for moonbats on the Council. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yiogXT9xZBQ

pigsfly
July 16, 2009 - 11:04 pm EDT

No need for the fence along our border now huh? Welcome to the new reinvented MEXICO.
Greensboro deserves better than all those serving on their City Counsel now. Racism? I believe the gangs are causing their own problems! Wow, I believe the gangs should be cleared from all cities and towns in the USA, I'm sure not going to support them.

theroadrunner
July 16, 2009 - 11:23 pm EDT

I guess he figures if Mike Easley could do it why not him? I'm moving.........

crosstrojan
July 16, 2009 - 11:37 pm EDT

Why not,the kkk has Billy Yow

camelcityman27105
July 17, 2009 - 1:39 am EDT

Jorge Cornell may be exactly what the city needs to help reach out to gang members, disillusioned teens who rob stores, hijack cars, and terrorize the public, and angry black and Latino residents, who are not satisfied with local government. Just because he's a felon does not have anything to do with his effectiveness as a leader and government representative of the people. He is already the leader of his group, so he has leadership experience. Sometimes we need unusual people in office to help us get the ball rolling and open the doors of dialogue. May he succeed and win.

Greensboro and Carroll company co-defendants in lawsuit

Keith Brown of Triadwatch learns that The City of Greensboro and one of developer Roy Carroll's companies are co-defendants in a lawsuit. More reason, as if it is needed, why the scrubbed plan to fly Greensboro mayor Yvonne Johnson and city staff to Washington, D.C. on Carroll's plane for free was inappropriate.

The suit, filed by Kotis Properties, alleges that Carroll plans to deny Kotis access to a public street by building a "reserve strip" that the city approved and defended.

The suit also alleges that the approval for this plan was "the result of Carroll's exertion of political influence over the planning staff, board members, and members of the Greensboro City Council."

Here is the complaint:

Kotis v. Greensboro & Horse Pen Creek Village

Disrtrtict 2 candidate Kee, serves or served?

As Keith notes in the comments at this post, Greensboro city council district 2 candidate Jim Kee now has a rudimentary web site online. It claims Jim Kee:

"Serves Board of Adjustments."

I don't know if Kee actually serves the board of adjustments in some way (I don't think he is a waiter) but, while he has served on the board of adjustments in the past, he does not currently. (His opponent, Ryan Shell, does serve on the board.)

Keith also would like to know what the "Mayor's steering committee" is (I suspect it is her campaign committee) and more details about the 100 jobs Kee says he has created.

Explain please.

I am confused. Am I supposed to fear a government health insurance option because it will be really bad at providing health care or because it will be so good it will drive private insurers out of business?

More on "reportedly"

The (Greensboro, NC) News & Record editor John Robinson commented on this post, in which I expressed dislike for his use of the word "reportedly." Here is what he wrote, followed by my reply:

Oh, please.

It's reported because a couple of my reporters told me about it. Does it have to be "published?" I say no. I guess you say yes. OK. We disagree.

But given the sorts of things the blogosphere talks about, particularly as it pertains to candidates and the newspaper, I was surprised that this wasn't commented on.

One of the "reports" is that you discussed the issue of talking with the newspaper with Ben, Roch. Did you?

My reply:

Which explains and informs? Naming your sources or saying "reportedly?" Which works to add confusion, mystery and to obfuscate the facts? Naming your sources or saying "reportedly?" Whether information has been published or not is not the question, the use of the word "reportedly" to hide where the information is coming from is what is troubling.

It seemed as if you were going out of your way to create mystery and confusion and avoid cutting to the chase:

1. You avoided naming the candidate in question in both of your posts on this matter.

2. You avoided simply stating the source for your information, substituting "reportedly" for "Reporter X says...".

3. You exaggerated what was going on, saying that a candidate had decided to "not talk" to the N&R. That is, reportedly, not true at all. Ben has talked to and continues to talk to elections reporter Amanda Lehmert and even, reportedly, had her in his home the day before your post.

On the other hand, I do appreciate you taking the time to comment here. You are always welcome. I would have commented on your blog, but I find the inability to do so without registering inconvenient. Reportedly, I am not the only one.

Before you brought this up on your blog, I was going to write a post about it. My focus was going to be on the N&R's online candidate profile for Ben reporting, in the place of any information, that the candidate declined to answer questions and that it even left out information election reporter Amanda Lehmert knows independent of answers from the candidate.

But I called Amanda to discuss and found my interest changing: From critic to facilitator--thinking that I might be able to help bring about an outcome better for both Amanda and Ben (and therefore, the public).

In a nutshell, those conversations consisted of a lot of listening, then some "translating." My comments to Amanda, as I remember them, were essentially that Ben's alarm bells went off, that he has a history of tussling with the N&R and that he perceived this to be another round in that match.

My advice to Ben, as I remember it, was to stay on his game; to be the man he will be if he gets elected, to imagine himself responding not as the old Ben working out lingering beefs with the N&R, but to respond as he would were he the district 1 council representative; and to give Amanda a chance.

Like crooners?

Silky. Smooth. Michael Buble. (Scroll down a bit to sample music tracks.)

"Reportedly"

"Reportedly." That lazy "journalists'" way to avoid being a journalist. It is a substitute for conveying the facts. It is a deception and should be stricken from the vocabulary of journalists everywhere. It is a favorite crutch of the Rhinoceros Times and now the News & Record's editor John Robinson uses it to hilarious (unintended) effect.

"Can one of the bloggers who reportedly advised the candidate or the candidate himself tell us about it?"

Where was it reported that bloggers advised the candidate and if such a thing has been reported, why is Robinson so in the dark? Funny.

[11:12 A.M. edited for spelling]

This is watershed. Political types, ignore at your peril

I have had and still have reasons for being critical of district 2 City Council Candidate Ryan Shell, but damn if he isn't the one who is finally showing sleepy ol' Greensboro how representation, advocacy and internet communications can work in the hands of an unafraid and committed candidate.

I am not saying that future candidates and elected officials should be media mavens, although writing a blog and posting video to YouTube are no more complicated than dialing the phone; and I'm not saying that internet communications should replace on-the-ground interactions (which Shell does as well). What I am saying is that modern communications tools put great power into the hands of an individual--power that, for a while now, some of us have been saying could be used to great benefit of local governance. Shell is showing the way.

[Note: To those candidates whose "advisers," in their infinite backwards wisdom, have told you not to blog or, worse, to stop blogging, they are tethering you to the past. That has had appeal in Greensboro, it won't continue much longer. The future is here.]

[Update: The above is not to diminish the use of the web for advocacy as now-district 1 candidate Ben Holder has before becoming a candidate nor to dismiss the (locally) ground-breaking blogging of former councilor Sandy Carmany, but Ryan is bringing it together in way that no candidate has yet.]

Shell crushing Kee

I sure would like to see district 2 Greensboro City Council candidate Jim Kee get his act together online. Opponent Ryan Shell is crushing him. Kee has a perfunctory and uninteresting presence on Twitter. Shell, meanwhile, is communicating real thoughts, enthusiastically, in depth and in multimedia. May not matter, who knows? But Greensboro could really use some elected officials who understand and are not afraid of modern communication tools.

Are you sure?

Does anybody want to raise their hand to inform us of an ongoing matter in which developer Roy Carroll and the City of Greensboro share a financial interest before the story breaks and has people back on their heels again?

"The Proposal." Don't accept.

Went to see "The Proposal" yesterday. Two lead actors I like and a premise for some hilarity. It was the worst movie I've seen in a decade. I could explain why, but I've already typed more words than it deserves.

(And the Grande at Friendly Center: $17 for a two large drinks and a large popcorn? Ruthless! And your new signage that displays your snack offerings in vivid video but displays no prices? Stoopid. I continue to like the Carousel better.)

Has the (Greensboro) News & Record scrubbed another online article?

Keith of Triadwatch says the (Greensboro, NC) News & Record's online article about lawyers telling elected officials not to accept a free trip on a developer's plane was scrubbed of a quote from the mayor without comment or note. The quote, says Keith*, was there, then it wasn't. A commenter in the comments to the story says the same thing.

Amanda Lehmert, the article's author, did not respond to a request for comment prior to me clicking the "publish" button.

[* On a phone call with me.]

Kudos to WFMY's Justin Quesinberry

Keith at Triadwatch calls WFMY's Justin Quesinberry piece on the scrapped plans to fly elected officials to Washington on a developer's plane a "puff piece." I disagree.

Prior to Quesinberry's story, we had no indication that city and county legal officials had issued opinions that the trip would be inappropriate. Prior to Quesinberry's story, the (Greensboro) News & Record had only reported Walker Sanders of the Community Foundation of Greater Greensboro as saying there were "concerns raised by city staff." It was WFMY's Quesinberry who ferreted out the important facts that those staff were lawyers and those concerns were over legal propriety. Good job, Justin.

Baby teeth

Shortly after writing about my support for a state bill proposed by John Blust that would put some teeth into state public records law, I emailed my state representative Maggie Jeffus to ask her to support Blust's bill. She wrote me back less than ninety minutes later to say that she was in session where debate was underway on an alternate public records law bill.

HB 1134 would also make changes to North Carolina's public records law, appears to be supported primarily by Democrats and is further along than Blust's bill.

It is good that the legislature has recognized the need to encourage greater compliance with public records law and is taking action. I would like to hear some legal opinions, but, on first read, I think Blust's bill may be more effective.

As I replied to Representative Jeffus, it appears to my layman's understanding that HB 1134 might actually chill the pursuit of public records by making those who sue for records responsible for the attorney's fees for the public body, even if the public body is ordered to release some records but it "substantially prevails" overall.

HB 1134, like Blust's bill, also would have public employees personally financially responsible for obstructing records requests but, the way I read it, it exempts government attorneys. Anybody familiar with requesting records from the City of Greensboro knows that the legal department is almost always were the denials for access to records comes from. A law that proposes financial consequences to obstruction but exempts attorneys is insufficient to fix Greensboro's problems.

Blust proposes teeth for public records laws

This is why I am an unaffiliated voter; why I find it impossible though word or action to give my permanent allegiance to one political party or another. Because, while I may find myself agreeing with Democrats more often than with Republicans, good ideas can and do come from any direction. Such is the case with a bill introduced in the North Carolina General Assembly by Guilford County Representative John Blust (R).

HB 734 came to my attention today in a post from Pierce Egerton's new blog. The bill would change state law to greatly improve access to public records by making those who stand in the way of access personally financially liable.

One of my greatest frustrations with records requests in Greensboro has been that there are no consequences to those who obstruct access. Bureaucrats can drag their feet, undertake a request with little or no diligence or even lie. I've experienced them all. What happens? Nothing.

Blust's bill would change that. The people who obstruct records requests would be personally responsible with a fine of up to $50 per day for each day that an official fails to produce a record without good cause. Good. Necessary.

Should this bill become law, I do not think I will any longer have the City of Greensboro legal staff tell me that a record holder says he doesn't have records when the record custodian has said no such thing; nor will a city employee tell me that there are no records responsive to my request when he has not even looked.

Blust's bill would also create the Open Government Unit that would disseminate information about public records law, issue opinions and mediate disputes. (more from the AP here.)

If you live in Guilford County, you can find your state representatives on this web page. None of Guilford's other representatives are currently sponsors or co-sponsores of this bill. Let them hear from you.

Letter to a friend: Greensboro's greatest need

I wrote this to a friend today.
----------------------------------

I really think there is a tendency in Greensboro that keeps us distracted, small and suspicious. It is the inability to man up with candor and admit the simplest of errors or even, short of that, to even acknowledge the most obvious of inconvenient facts. The N&R on the black book, Johnson in his handling of Wray, Wray in his handling of the police, Bellamy-Small on the RMA leak, Carmany with her unquestioning acceptance of the RMA report, the players of 11/09/79, the destruction of police records that turned out not to be that at all, the secret recordings of black leader that turned out to have a (as yet not publicly acknowledged) innocent explanation; the CFGG's press release, however minor it might be in comparison, is just the latest example of a similar reticence to deal with things accurately and honestly.

Can you imagine (not rhetorical, try to really imagine) how different your lifetime thus far in Greensboro would be if it were a place where we didn't go flying off the rails because people were too small to admit a mistake or be candid? Each of the examples above, and a dozen others I can think of, were exacerbated to the unnecessary point of dramatic crisis because people would not address them with candor. Each could have been remedied if they had been addressed with honesty.

I know we are disagreeing about some specifics at the moment, but think about the value to Greensboro of getting us to think, collectively, more about candor, sincerity and genuine goodwill. Maybe my tactics need honing but, as a strategic goal, I think this is the most compelling single thing to propel us to a better future; more than aerotropolis jobs, more than attracting the creative class, more than any initiative proposed or pursued, correcting our aversion to candor would send us soaring.

About those "misperceptions" of "some"

You will recall that an unsigned press release from the Community Foundation of Greater Greensboro offered this reason for postponing the plan to have developer Roy Carroll fly local elected official to Washington to lobby for stimulus money:

"Questions have been raised as the result of the misperceptions of some regarding the use of this donated plane. While we are disappointed by the misperceptions this travel plan has caused, more importantly we value the public’s trust and do not want to do anything to damage that trust. Therefore, we are postponing the trip."

It turns out those "misperceptions" were of City and County legal staff. So, in reality, it was those who originally thought this trip would be okay who held the misperceptions. Despite the Community Foundation's attempt to turn the facts on their head, the "some" who saw it as inappropriate were correct. The lesson? Supercilious explanations do not engender respect, especially as a substitute for contrite candor.

The Good Earth Company, beautiful nature photography

Local photographer Jon Johnson knocked on our door this evening, doing a little door-to-door in the neighborhood offering note cards of his photographs for sale and inviting people to check out his web site. Some really beautiful North Carolina naturescapes, available for sale in a variety of medium.

Anthony Triplin not running for Greensboro city council -- this year

Yes! Weekly reported that Anthony Triplin has formed a campaign committee for an at-large city council race. According to Triplin, a self-reported Grimsley High School graduate,, he actually formed the committee in 2006, but never filed to run. He says he does not intend to file to run this year either as he is running for a seat in the Virginia House of Delegates.

Triplin would also like us to know that the web site address offered for his campaign in the comments at the Yes! post has been hijacked by Russians (it's true). His real web site is at www.vote4trip.com.

Best of luck to this Greensboro son who says he's leaving open the possibility of running for city council in the future.

Cyndy Hayworth, get your facts straight

Cyndy Hayworth wrote a letter to the editor of the (Greensboro) News & Record today. I've copied it here and tethered it to reality with notes in bold:
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I agree with the July 5 letter concerning the apology the City Council recently made to the Truth and Reconciliation committee. [The City Council did not apologize to the Truth and Reconciliation committee.]

First of all, I do not need any group, council or person to apologize on my behalf! [The City Council did not apologize.] I am an adult and I take responsibility for my actions. If I do something harmful or hurtful, I will be the first to apologize. The City Council certainly does not have to do it for me. [They did not.]

I am really not sure why this “committee” still exists [It does not], except to continue to live in the past and negatively influence the future.

Come on, Greensboro citizens, let’s not live under this cloud of ugliness that the majority of us had absolutely no part of and are tired of having regurgitated back in our faces.

Come on, Truth and Reconciliation committee, go find the “truth” in some other issues that truly impact all of the citizens of Greensboro. [The Truth and Reconciliation Commission closed its offices and disbanded after releasing its final report in 2006.]

Cyndy Hayworth
Greensboro

"To be rather than seem"

Speaking of, among other things, Greensboro's inability to operate with genuine sincerity, from Ed Cone:

What's odd is that we're talking about it happening with a well-publicized effort by a well-funded, well-intentioned group to promote GSO's creative culture -- a group that ignores significant creative aspects already underway in the city.

I'm not even sure there's a mechanism for dealing with creative endeavors that arise organically from the local scene. Sean got a meeting, but it sounds like that was all on his own initiative.

People are going to do their thing. That's part of being creative. But there is sometimes a role for a group like AG, and -- the reason we're having this conversation in the first place -- they proclaimed their interest in this topic.

I've given the example of the ConvergeSouth conference. Instigated and run by volunteers, it brought people from DC and Atlanta and across the Carolinas to A&T each year to talk about (as the founding motto had it) creativity on the web for all people.

We ran it successfully until it felt played out and we were burnt out on it, and then we shut it down. We were happy with what we'd done.

But -- what if institutional support had been there at some point, not just for funding but for planning, marketing, etc?

What if the ideas and energy of the grassroots creative folks had been combined with the muscle of AG?

Then GSO today might have an ongoing creative arts/new media festival, something like a regional version of SXSW -- an actual creative effort that drives economic development, just as the creative culture rap has it.

But we don't. Rather than having the downtown leadership adding to the mix, we had a mayor who laughed that he couldn't use a computer and declined all invitations to attend the event.

So we did our thing, and it worked, and after a while it was done.

Learning the lessons of Ed Cone and Jim Rosenberg or why a lack of candor is killing Greensboro

A few years ago, somebody posted a copy of the "RMA Report" to the website Greensboro 101. I owned and operated the site, but I had set it up from the start to be guided by the advice of a seven person advisory board (myself included).

Several of the board members expressed immediate concern about the already twice-leaked "secret" report being on a web site with which they were involved. Their reasons ranged from having to maintain respect among the business community to not wanting scandal to interfere with their political ambitions. Frankly, I didn't think much of their reasons or their panicked response. So I ignored their calls to take the RMA report offline until we could meet to discuss it.

The board quickly did meet though and four of the seven board members resigned in protest. Joe Guarino and Patrick Eakes stayed on board, earning my eternal gratitude and respect, but I digress.

I was not sure how to respond to the embarrassing resignations. I used my lifelines and called Ed Cone and Jim Rosenberg. They both gave me some really good advice, some life-changing advice that I know has made me a better, more confident, more responsible person: Understand your mistakes, admit them and apologize to those you've offended.

That's what I did in response to the board member resignations. I came to understand, not just to be able to mouth the words, but to really understand, that I could not ask people to volunteer on an advisory board then poke them in the eye when they saw problems. No matter what I thought of the reasons for their concerns, it was just plain disrespectful to ignore them.

So I admitted why my actions were wrong and I apologized.

I am now able to have honest and spirited conversations with the board members who resigned. They entrust secrets to me in confidence and I to them. Respect has been restored. What happened has not been forgotten, but it is integrated into our histories as an innocuous, well-healed, unnoticeable scar instead of festering as an open sore oozing bloody puss all over the living room Berber. In short, we've moved forward--productively, respectfully, confidently forward. We are sources of motive power in each others' lives, when we choose, instead of closed doors.

Admitting mistakes and apologizing are not only cathartic, they are the only way to avoid getting bogged down in the mire. Candor and contrition get one out of the ditch and back on the freeway.

That is a lesson I wish Greensboro, in its collective consciousness--among its leaders and organizations, could come to understand: Candor is empowering.

It has become Greensboro's bane that we expend our energies on days, months, years and even decades avoiding admissions of even the smallest missteps rather than simply admitting them and moving on. We thus create a swamp of mistrust fed by a steady seepage of unresolved grievances.

Cries rise up for us to please move on, but absent the proper acknowledgment of our errors, those cries are no more appropriate than were I to have said to the board members that they should just get over it and move on. How could they? How can we? How can we continue to put faith and trust in our institutions and our leaders when we have no confidence that they can even recognize right from wrong?

I had started to offer a list of examples of local people and institutions who have failed to acknowledge missteps or betrayals of the truth, but I realized that a list off the top of my head would be at least a dozen and would overwhelm this post. Suffice it to say that our local media, city council members, civic leaders, city staff and the police chief have all made significant errors in judgment or representation of the facts that remain unacknowledged, much less corrected. The offenders already know. The public does too.

The cost of this tolerance of mendacity to Greensboro is great. We have lost time, time we spent pressing for even the most basic acknowledgment of the most evident of facts. We have lost the inspiration of potential heroes, people with great minds and abilities who, had they not lost credibility, might have gone on to show us the way to great things. We have lost the untold achievements that can only be reached by communities confident that they stand together on a basic foundation of candid sincerity.

That sincerity, that fidelity to our ideals is the most important thing we've lost--the thing that, once its absence is noticed, will soon have only the most jaded or hopeless wanting to live here. It would be different if we fashioned ourselves a Las Vegas, where bluffing is part of the game and deception in the service of a win is expected and admired. It would be different if we put ourselves forth as some cut-throat place where people are expected to always and only act in their self interest. But we are not that place; or we say we are not.

It is time for Greensboro to consider the North Carolina state motto as its own: "Esse Quam Videri:" "To be rather than to seem." If we are going to say we are a decent place, if we are going to ask people to believe that Greensboro is a place where we engage each other with genuine goodwill, we have to stop the practice of running away from our digressions, stop the increasingly common practice of obscuring the truth and obfuscating our mistakes. It makes us hypocrites in the face of what we say are our ideals.

If we cannot do that, if Greensboro cannot undergo the change that I personally did at the tutelage of Ed Cone and Jim Rosenberg, if we cannot come to understand that it is not a mark of weakness but actually a sign of confident capability to admit an error, if we cannot recognize that candor is a virtue, then let's drop the pretense. That would be better than to continue, over and over again, to cast ourselves as a nice place but prove ourselves the city of the lie.

We can call it growing up, coming to our senses, admitting our weaknesses -- whatever makes us feel better. But for God's sake let us, one way or another, stop spinning our wheels in a ditch of hypocrisy, it is going to make this an unbearable place to live.

On behalf of myself and the other misguided morons in Greensboro, I apologize to the Community Foundation of Greensboro

It has got to be a real drag when the ignorance of us regular folks gets in the way of others' ambitions. Remember how our lack of "education" got in the way of poor Time Warner Cable's perfectly reasonable plan to make Greensboro one of only four places on earth where its internet access customers would pay by the amount of data consumed? As TWC explained, the problem wasn't that it was a bad idea, it just seemed like a bad idea to its customers because of our lack of understanding.

Now our misunderstanding has gotten in the way of another perfectly legitimate plan, this one of the Community Foundation of Greensboro and apologies are in order.

The plan was for local developer Roy Carroll to fly some elected officials and city staff to Washington so they could make the rounds of legislators' offices to lobby for some money for some nebulous ideas for developing the South Elm/Lee streets area.

According to a statement issued by "the foundation" (no name was reported attached to the statement):

"Questions have been raised as the result of the misperceptions of some regarding the use of this donated plane. While we are disappointed by the misperceptions this travel plan has caused, more importantly we value the public’s trust and do not want to do anything to damage that trust. Therefore, we are postponing the trip."

You see? We ignorant morons and our misconceptions. How thoughtless can we be? Silly, stupid us. I thought, on its face, it might be inappropriate for elected officials to fly gratis on a plane owned by a real estate developer; flown for free by a man with interests in issues coming before city council; flown by a man who has a political action committee that attempts to influence local elections; by a man who has made substantial financial campaign contributions to local candidates, including to at least one of those he proposed to fly (Here, scroll down past the annoying, irrelevant video).

Boy was I wrong. I do not know how I was wrong, the statement from the foundation doesn't tell me; but I am confident I would not have disappointed an entire foundation with my notions if my notions were not misperceptions and if my misperceptions were not so disappointing. So with all the sincerity this situation allows me to muster, on behalf of myself and the other misguided morons in Greensboro, I apologize to the Community Foundation of Greensboro for causing it disappointment.

(Greensboro) News & Record scrubs Ahearn's Greensboro College Story

(hat tip: Ed Cone)

On Sunday, June 28, the (Greensboro, NC) News & Record published an article by Lorraine Ahearn titled, "Greensboro College fending off creditors." If you read the story online, you will see that it is prefaced with this:

"Editor's Note: Because of incorrect information provided to the News & Record, this article misreported who pays the bill for a personal trainer for the wife of Greensboro College President Craven Williams. Williams personally reimburses Greensboro College for that expense."

If you read through the story looking for the "misreporting," you won't find it. Without explaining that they've done so, with no notation of an edit or change in the pub date, the N&R quietly removed the "mistake," leaving one unable to read just what Ahearn had originally and erroneously reported -- unless you read this blog.

Here is how the story now appears:

Here is how it originally appeared (highlight added):

Gone is:

"With charges ranging from $1,258 to $1,386 monthly, the club bill is for membership along with extra charges including twice-a-week personal trainer sessions for Williams’ wife."

You can still find the original here.

[Postscript: I my opinion, I don't know that this even qualifies as an error to be corrected. The problem arose when people wrote letters to the N&R and commented at the original article stating that Williams reimbursed the college or directly paid for (depending) for his wife's trainer. That doesn't change the facts as originally reported, although, if the letter-writers are right, the original reporting does create a false impression. What would be more appropriate than deleting from the record would be a followup confirming, presumably from examining the records, that Williams has reimbursed the school for those expenses.]