News-Record.com

Well JR a good beginning would be to print a fair and balanced paper void of its usual Liberal, and often racial slants making it news worthy for all citizens of Greensboro.

Yeah, thanks, Beau. What else?

Mr. Robinson the community can not move on and commence healing until the current problems are resolved. There is too much corruption and lies in seats of power and city departments that must be weeded out, and until they are Greensboro residents will continue to tear at each other. I have only lived here since October 2004 but I have studied city history thru the N&R and The Rhino archives as well as city and county records of meetings thru the last 4 decades and I have not yet found a time of "peace" in Greensboro. The races are further apart now than ever in my opinion. The distrust of city government seems to be a way of life. And too many problems have been just shoved under the rug without a satisfactory outcome with the ambiguous words “Let healing begin.”(Project Homestead is the one that comes to mind first. Those who are guilty are still out there and many are still in power.) The city fathers are completely out of touch with the residents and the real needs in the community. They are putting hundreds of thousands into parks used by relatively few and letting the police department staff fall to skeleton crew levels. Giving hundreds of thousands to well off companies while sewage spews thru our streets every time it rains.

Healing can only come after the infection has been cleaned out and sanitized. Sorry, this is not what you wanted to hear, but these are the sad facts. Brenda Bowers

It begins with a fully staffed and greatly expanded police department capable of handling crime on the street as well as crime in the courthouse. As I look out my window preparing tomorrow's Greensboro Gang Report ( http://www.musecrafters.com/bloggingpoet/Greensboro%2BGang%2BReports/ ) and thinking of all the warnings printed in your very newspaper I can't help but feel as if someone downtown stands to gain from the crime explosion our city currently faces.

As long as my neighbors continue to tell me they live in fear of calling GPD there really is no hope that the city or its messengers are to be trusted. Faith and trust are what makes healing possible. A city government and local media that stands-up and demands safe streets, living wages, adequate health care and opportunity for every child will earn the trust and respect of the people-- anything else will be a failed effort.

The best thing the N&R could do in the short term is retract your recent endorsements of local incumbents running for reelection. While some of them are certainly nice people the last few years has proved them inept. I'll certainly not endorse inept and fail to understand how thew N&R continues to do so.

As for Beau... John, I thought you were a conservative.

JR, what an absolutely brilliant response! It makes me want to run down to the local Raceway and buy a copy of the N&R! The tragady is that due to your efforts you have a sliding publication that effects those you employ, not to long ago you had to let some employees go, I hope they have found other more competent employment. Poet I suspect there was a joke there somewhere, keep your day job.

Thanks, Brenda and Billy. Beau, I understand the urge to blame so much on the paper. I'm hoping that we can have a discussion here that doesn't center on all the perceived problems our bias/liberalism/racial focus/ineptitude cause. So, your suggestion is noted. What else you got to contribute?

People don't trust each other in Greensboro. It's a problem which doesn't lack a forum. It's been shown to multiply in a forum.

Instead of introducing the virus into a News & Record-branded petri dish, kill it. Develop a simple set of collaboration and problem-solving standards which you intend to apply editorially to issues and leaders beginning in 2008. There is plenty of wisdom out there from smart, experienced people. Here seems like a good place to start. You could use ConvergeSouth to build some early momentum.

Announce the initiative by taking a hard look at your own organization -- with real humility and reflection. Throughout the upcoming year, apply the standards conspicuously, drawing a line from from success and failure to current issues. Be accountable to the standards, and hold others accountable. Keep the issue of community problem-solving top-of mind. Promote positive and denounce negative behaviors. Call 'em like you see 'em, but keep a sustained focus -- don't let the initiative fade away.

You can't get trust by talking, only doing. If you set these standards and use them consistently as a highly visible carrot and stick for a whole year, it will raise the profile of collaboration and conflict resolution, and maybe even serve as an inspiration to make better decisions, which in turn will build trust one person at a time.

Then in 2009: lather, rinse, repeat.

Don't start another bullshit session - lead on the issue.

Thanks, Jim. So, I can be clear as I think about this, and while I know this is an over-simplification, you're suggesting that we lead by example and that we establish standards of behavior, for want of another word, for ourselves and others? If that's on target, do you suggest any outreach or role for other organizations or do they "get it" by osmosis?

And, if I am understanding your idea correctly, how do we avoid this being another N&R-branded petri dish?

Both Mr. Rosenberg and Billy make excellent points.

Enough talk already. I've lived off and on here since 2000, and the same subject always comes up periodically, usually initiated by the N&R or Action Greensboro. I just filled out another AG survey over the summer and the questions were very similar. What can we do to build trust? How can we get more "young professionals" involved on local boards and governments? yatta yatta yatta...

Here are my thoughts...at 35, of color, still a "young professional", a father of one, very active in my daughter's PTA, vote in just about every election, and crazy enough to run for a school board seat next year. Billy makes a good point about opposing any incumbent who's running or who plans to run. If we "clean house" that's a big, yet positive start.

There's distrust at city council, our "juvenile" county board does not want to pass rules to govern their bad behavior; it's embarrassing...race-baiting is alive and well with a particular school board member at every meeting...it's sad, and yet, we the general public are okay with their "bad behavior"...we're okay with it. Then the incumbents are reelected by only 10% of their constituents. Where's the outrage? Does anyone care?

I care. And if you're a reader of my blog, you know I'm going to tell it like it is. And I say vote the bums out, that's number one...then create real opportunities for young professionals to step up and want to become active in our community. We're out here, and we're ready to step up to the plate and create a climate that's inviting for those who actually want to settle down here and raise a family.

JR, your paper has done similar things...you've come out periodically and have asked your readers to jump on the bandwagon and demand change and healing. Talk is cheap, demand action, create an action plan, stick to it and make it have some teeth. This is our home, this is our city, this is our county, we can and must do better.

I stand ready in help in this endeavor in any way I can.

I'm with Jim, and I'm tempted to revisit the exchange I had with Jay Rosen a while back. This is an endeavor that might not work on the Web, where you're always going to have this hard-core band of 10-12 people who just want to yell at you about bias and racism.

I'd suggest sending every reporter you have out into the streets. Ask people who aren't already arguing about it in a Web forum -- which, as Jim suggests, is simply a breeding ground for hostility.

Perhaps you'll find deeper fault lines than you ever imagined. Or perhaps you'll find that Greensboro actually functions quite well, and that the handful of people who yell on blogs are just misrepresenting the whole town.

I have no idea which of those will be closer to the truth. It'll be a great public service if you can find out.

More ideas?
Your recent town meetings were a good start. Yes, some were confused by the unusual format but they accomplished much.

Send reporters out all across town asking the same question, "What's wrong with Greensboro?" Go door to door unannounced and report back your findings but follow up with "What will it take to fix it?"

If you really want to involve and understand you have to meet the people face to face, one on one. Town meetings are a start but they fall short as the most disadvantaged demographics are least likely to attend. (I've never worked for an employer who would allow time off for citizen political efforts.) Too many in Greensboro have simply lost hope. A perfect example is my recent work at getting signatures to raise Greensboro's Minimum Wage. The vast majority who signed my petition were Greensboro's well-to-do. Greensboro's poor are so disenfranchised they almost always replied, "Don't matter, it ain't never going to happen," as they walked away without signing. You have to go where the stories are and since 1956 the only N&R employee ever seen on my street was delivering the paper.

Why bother with the politricksters when they're only in it for their own gain? Become the voice of the people and let the politricksters find another way to spread their lies. Politics is a rich man's game and until the media learns to quit pandering to the politricksters the media will never be able to fulfill its obligations to the people.

More ideas...no more surveys, no more committees, just get out there and just do it! Do not send me another survey, I will not fill it out. If one is e-mailed to me, I will delete it. I have filled out so many recently, it makes me crazy.

The citizens of our community form their opinions, by and large, from the information contained in your newspaper and local TV news coverage, which is often a rehash of your N&R articles.
Strive to be accurate, fair, balanced, and cover all sides of an issue. Present the facts from each aspect of a public policy issue without bias and let the readers use those facts to reach a conclusion.
Your newspaper is perhaps the single most persuasive voice in our community. Report the news, don't make it.

Thinking through the comments so far -- and thank you for them -- say that we've talked to a lot of people and say that their comments, by and large, reflect a divided community (divided by age or race or socioeconomic; it doesn't matter). Then what?

JR, ConvergeSouth is one of those places where people generally get along fine for a few hours at least. As an open conference, no one sets the conversation and moderators are beaten virtually about the head to ensure that no one monopolizes a conversation - and that all voices, even the shy ones, are heard.

Case in point: Doug wrote that One Guilford @ Guilford is blogger-friendly and I asked what he meant. He replied that it had open wifi. I responded that so did S. Elm Street and Center City Park. I was trying to figure out why it was advertised as blogger friendly and instead, Doug was probably being sarcastic in his answer (read the whole thing here.

The big response that you're asking for from us should have come from Doug. He should have told us which forums or groups were designed for the omnipresent blogger unhappiness voiced so loudly online. He might have indicated which topics were selected because they're interesting to a blogger segment of the community.

Jim is right (above). Lead by example. Advertise blogger friendliness, but be ready to back it up with something selected because it is special for bloggers. (this is only one example that is recent.)

Two N&R hosted district sessions this year were held in predominantly minority districts, I believe. Is that leadership or is that begging the story? I asked when one would be scheduled in my district and got the unsatisfactory: this is a test, let's see what happens. I cannot believe the choice of districts was arbitrary. Lead by example: schedule one in every district; let every voice be heard equally. Don't pre-write the story by selecting what are likely to be racially impacted audiences.

I'll sign off now and try to find some more hotel rooms for presenters, but if the N&R were serious about "using" (feh!) ConvergeSouth as a platform, I suggest you learn by example. Watch the people interact; listen to the Republican who endorsed a Democrat last year; hear Fec say, "there are no cliques at ConvergeSouth;" listen to the applause when Dr. Wharton announced he started blogging again; join in the pre-welcome sing-along with Hogg's sweet voice loving North Carolina.

You could have had a session this year dedicated only to bloggers' interests and getting questions they have for the N&R answered.You can still have the session; we have rooms and we have security (grin). Take them on. Hash it out. Call it over and move on.

"...say that we've talked to a lot of people and say that their comments, by and large, reflect a divided community (divided by age or race or socioeconomic; it doesn't matter). Then what?"

That's where my second question comes into play: "What will it take to fix it?"

Not all will agree on the solutions but you will begin to find consensus. Then you start beating your drums until the politricksters take notice and act in a responsible manner. Our current city leaders are all in-bed together. The Mayor is a banker and the vast majority of the Council are in the real estate, construction and development industries. Why would any of these well-to-do people want an $11,000 a year job if not for the fact that it's to their own advantage to be able to control the very markets in which they work? Same goes for the County Board. These people will never act in any way that threatens their own livelyhoods.

Conflicts of interest need to be made known and the N&R should be leading the way in getting the people to rise-up and demand our elected represenatives come from outside of the industries they control. (As an example: A few years ago the Bush Administration put mining company officials in charge of mine safety and we all know how that worked out.) The same is true of our city. I mean, face reality, even those persons with the best intentions sometimes have trouble overcoming emotions like fear and greed. I trust you John, but imagine if you were in power and were suddenly able to tweak some city ordinance that would make big bucks for the N&R and secure a huge raise from Mr. Sauls... For the newspaper business that's a long shot but our current leaders face that choice almost daily.

I can sit around all day and think of great ideas that would allow myself and my neighbors to earn more money and add to the tax base but every time I come up with another idea I discover the City of Greensboro has some lame excuse as to why my neighbors and I will not be allowed to do it.

And in the meantime nothing changes for the better. The rules are written to protect the status quo and no one plans to change a thing.

(nudge, JR, my comment got spammed again)

Sue, your comment is posted above.

I suppose I wasn't clear. I never suggested we use ConvergeSouth as a platform. I don't want to talk about healing Greensboro at ConvergeSouth. I was suggesting that the conversation about it resulting from this blog post be a way of showing how healthy dialogue about community dialogue could take place online. (It was really just a throwaway line to give a little more promotion to Converge.)

A couple points about your post. I was struck by the blogosphere's reaction to Doug's post about One Guilford. Struck in a bad way. The timing was questioned, which is fair, although it's not clear to me what the conflict with ConvergeSouth is. They're on different days at different places and involve different topics. I suspect the audiences will not overlap by much.

I think Doug was just making a point about wifi, but then questions were raised about bloggers on the panel and the like. Something special for bloggers? I'd have thought we'd be past the idea that bloggers need anything more than citizens who don't blog, other than wifi-access. But OK, Doug's a big boy and can fend for himself, but it seemed like everyone was being pretty self-absorbed to me.

We only did two town hall meetings because that was all we could handle. Your idea that we do them all or nothing was an option that we discarded. Half a loaf was better than no loaf was the idea. We selected the two that we did because we thought they were the two with the most interesting primary races. "Prewrite the story?" "Racially-impacted audiences?" What the heck are you talking about?

I know that bloggers love to talk about the News & Record. I've listened to them do it during sessions at ConvergeSouth for the past two years. I seriously doubt that having a session and hashing it out would thereby permit to to "call it over and move on."

Print the facts..not the opinions.

Print both sides without drawing conclusions unless the conclusions are part of the facts.

If wrong spend more than a couple of sentences making the correction. If it ran on front page then correct it on front page.

I hope that it rarely happens that a leader is interviewed and chooses to not tell the truth. The reporter should be asking for evidence.

The meetings can't hurt you. You might just hear what you need to create a better sold newspaper.

A lot of people in the blog world don't seem to trust you. I don't know why. Why don't they?

You seem like a good honorable person to me.