Market opens
East Kivett Drive now runs four lanes all the way from Business I-85 to downtown High Point. It's a major thoroughfare bringing traffic to the furniture market. Kivett work was completed with only a few days to spare before today's opening of the fall market. It's a big improvement, and the city actually added sidewalks in overdue recognition of the fact that a lot of people in that working-class part of town get around on foot.
Incoming traffic today was much heavier than you'd see on a normal Monday. But it wasn't terribly heavy for a market opening day. Downtown was busy, but maybe not quite as busy as usual for the occasion. When I passed through just after 7:30, there was still plenty of parking available. One reason for that, however, is that more and more marketgoers use the plentiful shuttle buses.
Earlier, while on my morning run, I saw about twice the number of joggers and walkers out as I normally would. The market visitors tend to be those who don't return my "good morning" greeting. We High Pointers are supposed to be friendly to our guests, but nothing says they have to be friendly back. I hope they have a good market anyway.