News-Record.com

It really is a great site. Ive been a member since 2003 and its very informative about whats going on in the Triad.

There is a wish list thread on the forum for what you'd like to see happen in the Triad's downtowns in 2007.

http://www.urbanplanet.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=34254

"in 2007 for the Greensboro, NC (downtown):

My wish list

1) the announcement of a 30-story "Center Pointe II" tower next to Center Pointe

2) a public/private partnership that help makes it more feasible for large scale high-rise projects (parking is a big issue for highrise projects and these developments typically need parking decks. The city could help provide parking for these developments. Recently downtown lost out an an opportunity for a new hotel due to parking issues.)

3) local government and developers implementing the South Elm Street redevelopment plan

4) redeveloping Festival Park and creating continuity between Festival Park and Center-City Park

5) an announcement for a new Bellemeade Village plan

6) a plan for improving the streetscape along Market Street, Eugene Street, Greene Street and Friendly Ave (the way South Elm Street has been done. All street lights throughout downtown need to be decorative, not just on Elm Street.)

7) allowing food stands on downtown streets (strict food vending laws makes it impossible for someone to set up a hot dog stand)

8) a downtown trolley (trolley styled buses)

9) a more detailed redevelopment plan for the far southwest corner of downtown (the area that borders lee Street, Spring Garden Street and the railroad tracks. There are a number of warehouses there and the area is almost out of reach)

10) the city purchase of the rail yard between the depot and Southside (the rail yard is a brownfield that needs to be turned into a park. The rusted train platform can be preserved as a stage for an amphitheater. a large pond and a rock waterfall could be built in the park as well. The park would connect well with the planned City View Apartments in Southside."

1.Return of neighborhood schools in High Point (just like Allens place).
2.A real plan of for High Point schools through Education ONLY.
3.N+R admit that they has helped cause a catastrophe in High Point and demand a solution.
4.Deena Hayes, Dot Kearns, Walter Childs, Kris Kooke all retire from the school board to be replaced by more Routh's, Garrets, Sharpes, Quick's and Garths of this world.
5.Accountability for Terry Grier. We dont need to fire him, he just needs managing.
6.A more questioning N+R of our school's results. There is no point hiding away the failures and treading the party line. The smelly stuff comes out in the end. In the end its the right thing to do for the children.

Allen,

If you read Thomas Sowell's column in today's N&R (http://jewishworldreview.com/cols/sowell011007.php3)
then you must now advocate that there be some sort of lottery in GCS to ensure that the Asian population should be spread equally throughout the schools.

I recently visited the downtown Winston-Salem library and I don't think it needs replacing at all. Sure, it isn't as new and shiny as the one in Greensboro, but it works just fine.

The problem with too many "leaders" is that good enough is never, well, good enough. If the city next door has a sparkling new library, then their city needs one, too. Same thing applies for sports arenas, stadiums, museums, parks, etc.

The problem is that the taxpayers have a finite amount of money to pay for this amenities. If I was a taxpayer in Winston-Salem, I would wonder why some folks want a new library when they have a perfectly acceptable one in place.

The main problem with the libraries both in Greensboro and Winston-Salem is that they have become de facto homeless shelters.

I understand the homeless need a place to go, particularly when the weather is bad. And they have the right to legitimately use the library's resources. But when you've got homeless men bathing in the men's room sinks, sleeping on the couches and surfing the computers for porn, it makes the downtown library a uninviting place for the rest of us.

As I understand it, it's a tough dilemma for all library branches,, but what else can you do?

That's a good question, Allen. I wish I had an answer.

But as a library patron, I wish something could be done. A library should be a place for learning and enjoyment, not a flophouse. Most of the homeless folks I see hanging out in and around the library have no pretense of being there for legitimate purposes.

I find that comment offensive and its very selfish. People have to have somwhere to go and what better place than a place of learning. Its for them too! Just because you dont like them they cant be there?

The world doesnt need attitudes like this.

Librarian,

Do you dispute JS assertions? The purposes of a library are many. However, among them should not be included bathing, sleeping one off or panhandling. I will admit it is a tough situation with some fine lines. I wouldnt let my kids hangout in a Library these days and that is just sad. JS' comments are reasonably accurate be they offensive or not. As my Pops has told me more than once "There is the way things should be and then there is the way they are."

Thanks, Mick.

I don't consider my words offensive, Librarian, and certainly didn't intended them as such.

I agree that the homeless need a safe place to go. I just don't believe that sheltering the homeless is a legitimate function of a public library. Again, these folks aren't there to read or use the library's resources - as Mick said, they're using it as a place to sleep off a bender, take a bath, check out porn on the Internet or panhandle money from the other patrons. It creates a fearful, unwelcoming environment and if you are a librarian, I'm sure many of your co-workers share my opinion.

When I was a kid, I spent many afternoons in the library. But there's no way I'd let my child roam the stacks unaccompanied today - and, yes, that is sad.

On the other hand, someone mentioned to me the other day that in this cyber-age, libraries in their traditional form perform different functions ... and one of them is to provide access to information for residents who lack the means to use computers for research in their homes.

Agreed Allen. However, those are not the folks JS, Librarian and I were referring to.

Some people are welcome there apparently.

As I've thought more aobutthis, I've wondered: Are homeless people really that much of a problem? I've heard more complaints about rowdy, unsupervised youngsters.

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