My Wendover rant
A letter writer took exception to my Wendover Avenue rant last Sunday, which she says we typically do at the News & Record at least once a year.
She's right.
This certainly wasn't my first or last screed on The Mistake at I-40.
The reason Taft Wireback's news story appeared and my column followed were the impending changes to that thoroughfare, which represents some of the best and the worst of planning and vision in Greensboro.
East Wendover is poised to see a wave of development with the completion of the Urban Loop.
Are we willing to repeat the oversights of West Wendover there? I'm convinced we can and must do better than that.
Comments (4)
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Although I agree with both of the N&R's regularly performed spatial fetishes--the badness of Wendover and the goodness of downtown--I think there's something to be said for segregating the big boxes in their own little world. Better on Wendover than where I live (close to downtown).
Posted on August 3, 2006 2:43 PM
I'm not against that myself. I just think they could have planned it a lot better, and made it a much more pleasant experience than it is.
Look at Southside and the Village at North Elm.
Posted on August 3, 2006 2:53 PM
Yeah, but there are no big boxes at either of those places. And frankly, many people like big boxes--I like some of them myself. And apparently you do as well, since you visit Wendover when you "have to." I'm not sure any geographers or urban planners have any decent way of dealing with big boxes, but I agree, it's hard to imagine a worse way than Wendover. Make Keith Debbage write a column about it.
Posted on August 4, 2006 12:42 AM
On the other side of Wendover, just south of it, there's also a new development called Willow Oaks that is trying to capitalize on the Southside success. Pretty homes. The question most likely will be schools, schools, schools.
Big boxes are not going away: Americans demand low prices.
On the other hand, there's the boutique experience offered where a fine piece of Modernism once stood on Friendly Avenue. Is that preferable to the big boxes? Maybe the traffic won't be as bad, but if you take Northline behind it, you get the ridiculous sight of false pilasters with bricked -in spaces where arches or windows would go. What a metaphor for our national religion: cathedrals that shut out the light. It's a Kafkaesque metamorphosis of medieval Europe with Egyptian pyramids. Not to mention the Vegas-style Chinese Emperor's tomb horses out front. Oops, mentioned them.
Posted on August 4, 2006 1:44 PM