This week's column: We did a bad, bad thing
Born, innocently enough, as a vital connector road from east to west, Wendover Avenue has become something altogether different today.
Go east if you're meek, where over-development hasn't choked the life out of the road. Yet.
Go west, if you dare, into a bumper-to-bumper jungle where fat, gas-frothing SUVs lurch from one big box to another.
Wendover as we know it is approaching its 40th anniversary.
Begun as a model of foresight, the western stretch of Wendover has become twisted and gnarled into a terminally clogged artery — and a paved monument to missed opportunities and afterthoughts.
Afterthoughts about traffic volume.
Afterthoughts about pedestrians, who might actually want to get out of their cars and walk somewhere without being killed.
Afterthoughts about development and prudent planning.
Wendover, especially West Wendover, was clearly engineered for automobiles, not human beings.
How does the song go? We did "a bad, bad thing."
And we may not be finished.
To be fair, Greensboro remains an infinitely better place to drive than Raleigh or Charlotte. Comparably sized cities have their own issues with overtaxed roads — Winston-Salem has Hanes Mall Boulevard and those terrifying Business 40 entrance-exit ramps, for instance.
And, yes, we have had our share of success stories in Greensboro: Bryan Boulevard, for instance, and new roundabouts that actually work. But we can do better.
Ironically, the original idea for Wendover Avenue in 1948 was remarkably visionary for its time. We screwed it up anyway.
In an interview with the News & Record's Taft Wireback, Betty Holt, a retired Guilford County planner who oversaw the blueprint for West Wendover, called the big-box megalopolis that sits there now "a catastrophe."
"It about gives me a heart attack every time I go out there."
County planners knew the danger of too much commercial development in the area and wanted to limit retail growth. They envisioned an office and retail buffer between the thoroughfare and housing.
"It was the only plan that went to the city of Greensboro, the town of Jamestown, the city of High Point and the commissioners, and didn't get even one negative vote at any of the presentations," Holt said.
Then the city of Greensboro annexed the land and allowed all hell to break loose. Stores and hotels and restaurants and strip shopping centers and gas stations and more strip shopping centers.
"They assured me that we did have a good plan and that they intended to keep it in mind," Holt told Wireback. "Well, somebody had a loss of memory."
What is there not to like on West Wendover?
Confusing, wire-suspended directional signs above the bridge at the I-40 interchange seem to shift as you approach and can lure you into the wrong lane and keep you stuck there in heavy traffic. Streets are virtually uncrossable on foot. (Even a massive sidewalk project won't end that nightmare.)
As for ambience, there isn't any. Nor is there any sense of place or community. Some people say they like the abundance of places to shop and eat at West Wendover.
More power to them. I visit only when I have to.
Meanwhile, there's hope for the eastern half of Wendover, where residential growth is gathering momentum and a new GTCC campus may draw additional growth. In addition, an interchange with the city's under-construction Urban Loop should help drive development.
You'd think we could get it right this time. You'd think we'd learned by now not to repeat the sins of the past in the east.
As for the west, there's still more to come. The new I-73 interchange could give West Wendover two interstate connections within spitting distance of one another. Developers already are rubbing their palms in anticipation.
I'm putting my hands together, too. To pray.
Comments (2)
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I'm with you, Allen. I avoid West Wendover like the plague and fear the same might happen on my end. As always, when it comes to Greensboro's leaders: money trumps quality of life.
If city leaders are serious about attracting the "creative class" then they need to learn that quality of life must always be put first.
Posted on August 2, 2006 1:29 PM
Billy, the thing is, successful business and good planning aren't mutually exclusive. Look at the Village at North Elm and Southside as examples.
Posted on August 2, 2006 1:32 PM