Relief (at last) for High Point/Lee?
Tuesday's No. 2 editorial.
Picture giving visitors to marquee events such as the ACC Tournament something more to see on High Point Road and West Lee Street than vacant lots and prostitutes.
All it takes is a village. Or in this case, three villages, say city planners, in a new, 124-page report that re-imagines the tattered, 3.5-mile urban gateway as a kinder, gentler place to visit, work and live.
Those villages would emphasize the area’s considerable but threatened assets. One village would focus on hospitality, another on sports and recreation and still another on the corridor’s physical closeness to UNCG.
It’s really not that much of a stretch to see the possibilities.
For instance, a hospitality emphasis is a natural, given the location of the Sheraton Hotel/Koury Convention Center complex in the area, as well as the city’s Convention and Visitors Bureau and the new Doubletree Hotel.
The same holds true for the “University/Mixed Village,” which capitalizes on UNCG’s need for room to grow and the need for new development on High Point Road and Lee Street.
Some thoughts to consider as the plan moves forward:
Make it walkable. The plan could receive a crucial jump-start from voters if they approve $7 million in streetscaping (and they should) as part of a $134 million transportation bond package on the Nov. 4 ballot. Those improvements would include wider sidewalks and more pedestrian-friendly crossings.
Make it safer. Although the report notes that, in 2007, only 7 percent of major criminal offenses in the city occurred in the corridor — which, in fact, saw its fewest major offenses in three years — perception is reality. The city should consider overtures by Koury Corp. to provide a site there for a police substation.
Make it more livable. Businesses are only part of the story. All along High Point Road and Lee Street are proud, old neighborhoods such as Glenwood that are struggling to survive.
For all that this area once was, it can become even better. Under all that cracked pavement, there’s gold.
Comments (6)
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Why Allen what sports did you have in mind? certainly not swimming and diving as you once again poo poo-ed the idea.
Posted on October 28, 2008 12:40 PM
Well, Mick, there are all kinds of sports events at the Greensboro Coliseum.
Posted on October 28, 2008 1:05 PM
Has anyone talked to the people who own the railroad tracks. I am still figuring out why in the hell are you going to put a residential mixed use facility right on top of the tracks. Wasn't there talk of having double tracks through Greensboro and all the fuss over who owns the property near the track.
Posted on October 29, 2008 12:04 AM
WTF's going on with the Canada Dry building? First the report is the city's buying it. Now it looks like it's undecided. I mean, not that this is unusual. (first a cop has been terminated, but then not really, a memo doesn't exist, but then it does, an agreement not to sue doesn't exist then it does and on and on).
If I was JR, I'd go to the city and read them the riot act. I'd say, "Look you clowns. I've bent over backwards trying to prop you jokers up. Buy the g.d. building or I'm unleashing the dogs. I'm unleashing my killer editorial staff-Dirty Doug and the pugilist Allen "Little Jack" Johnson on your butts. Or how about the Tafster doing a little investigational piece on the whole Wray thing. How would ya like that?"
This needs to be resolved
Posted on October 29, 2008 9:43 AM
As I understand it, the city has made a tentative offer on the property but the council officially will say yes or no to the purchase following a public hearing.
Posted on October 29, 2008 10:13 AM
Don't smoke crack on the railroad tracks!
Very important words of wisdom....
They must get rid of the BS to uncover the gold that lays beneath.
Maybe Koury should invest in the housing to house decent working human beings who would LOVE a little house with a yard, (Like Cone Mills did back in the day) instead of paying for cops.
Cops have a place in our society, but it seems that after Jerry Bledsoe's articles.. the cops and the ho's all know each other in this city, and the fox watching the hen house story is relived.
Despite anybody's best efforts to unearth the gold that lies beneath, it will be an exercise in futility unless the Canada Dry building goes, those HO-tels go, and the Train Tracks are either taken up or better policed. Maybe by their OWN Police Department (known as the Yard Bulls).
I don't have 100% of the solution, but I think I'm on the right track no pun intended.
Posted on October 30, 2008 1:29 PM