TCB Feb. 17, 2016 — Tiny House Nation

Greensboro / Winston-Salem / High Point triad-city-beat.com February 17 – 23, 2016

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Tiny

House Nation

City Planners and neighborhood advocates contend with urban downsizing Lax ladies

PAGE 16

PAGE 26

Calling Roy Cooper PAGE 14

Gimme three steps PAGE 21

Celebra

ting

2 Years

Feb. 17 — 23, 2016

Experience innovative dishes & craft cocktails, boasting an enticing mix of seasonal ingredients and distinct flavors.

Wolfgang Puck’s Newest Concept 607 Green Valley Road, Greensboro, NC 27408 / 336-854-0303

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An early surprise

by Brian Clarey

22 UP FRONT

OPINION

FUN & GAMES

3 Editor’s Notebook 4 City Life 6 Commentariat 6 The List 7 Barometer 7 Unsolicited Endorsement

14 Editorial: A letter to Roy Cooper 14 Citizen Green: It begins with beer 15 It Just Might Work: Chicharrónis 15 Fresh Eyes: Remembering Manzanar

26 Positive in the press box

NEWS 8 S hopkeep vs. political institution in Northeast primary 10 Poor health 12 HPJ: Don’t mess with market

COVER 16 Tiny House Nation

CULTURE 20 Food: Restaurant supergroup 21 Barstool: A secretive clubhouse 22 Music: Garage love 24 S&S: The danger of beauty

GAMES 27 Jonesin’ Crossword

SHOT IN THE TRIAD 28 Zev Place, Greensboro

ALL SHE WROTE 30 Classic Cruz

QUOTE OF THE WEEK

There’s this Buddhist idea: If you haven’t touched it in a year, you should get rid of it. If the house was on fire and you’ve got seven minutes, what do you grab? What is worth saving? Not that much. The artifacts of our lives, some pictures maybe. We don’t need the CDs. The pets would be first.

— Jody Davis, in the Cover story, page 16

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Cover photography by Amanda Salters John Williams inside a shipping containers that he’s making into a home.

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EDITOR’S NOTEBOOK

CONTENTS

I strongly suspected there would be a fantastic October Surprise in the 2016 election season, but I had no idea it would come in February.

I thought the October surprise this year would be the indictment of Hillary Clinton, which still might come to pass whether she’s done anything wrong or not. Or maybe that a birther movement inside the GOP would neuter the campaign of the Canadian Ted Cruz — excuse me, I mean Rafael Eduardo Cruz — or a Michael Bloomberg candidacy that would throw all the math into sparsely charted territory.

Long money had Trump slapping someone during a town hall meeting, which I believe still might come to pass.

But who could have foretold the passing of Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia — I mean, besides anyone familiar with the general lifespan of husky Italian-American men? Seriously, the guy was just a few weeks shy of his 80th birthday, and definitely next in line on the SCOTUS deathwatch, because the over/under on Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the only justice older than Scalia, has got to be 100.

It’s a tricky spot for the strict constitutionalists of the right wing who like the idea of the Barack Obama appointing three of nine justices to the highest court in the land even less than they like the idea of the Big O himself.

I’m watching my conservative friends squirm on social media as they run through worst-case scenarios — most of which involve a repeal of the Second Amendment and other serious delusions.

I like the one where Obama gives the seat to Hillary Clinton, which is why she had Scalia killed in the first place.

Of course the Republicans will try to run out the clock on Obama’s appointment, which would make it the longest such circle-jerk in history — but that’s a serious gamble, too.

One could only speculate who a I like the one where President Donald Obama gives the seat to Trump would apHillary Clinton, which is point to the court.

Rudy Giuliani? why she had Scalia killed Regis Philbin? in the first place.

And if we have either another Clinton presidency or a Sanders administration, each would have to consider the constitutional lawyer with Oval Office experience for the job.

African-American men as a rule don’t live quite as long as Italian-American ones do, but we would still have a good 20 years of Justice Barack Obama. By then, there will be nothing left of Donald Trump but a few tufts of hair.

korinna@triad-city-beat.com

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Feb. 17 — 23, 2016

CITY LIFE February 17 – 23 WEEKEND Ruby Slipper Fringe Festival @ Milton Rhodes Center for the Arts (W-S) Local indie women artists get a chance to test out new works in fine arts, theater, spoken word, craftmaking, dance and many other disciplines. Over the span of this weekend and the next, artists will be given 90-minute spots to present their pieces and receive feedback during artist talkbacks after each presentation. Don’t miss “Blancaflor,” a retelling of a traditional Spanish folk tale on Saturday night, and “Violation Withdrawal” on Sunday afternoon, a dance piece exploring themes of social media and isolation. For schedules and tickets, visit rubyslipperfringe.org.

THURSDAY

Winter exhibits artists reception @ Theatre Arts Galleries (HP), 5:30 p.m.

Local artists are given ample room to showcase their range in TAG’s winter season: photographer Barbara Tyroler and sculptor James Barnhill share the space with Les Caison III, a previous Elsewhere artist in residence and mixed-media painter. If you can’t make the reception, exhibits will be up until March 11. For more information, visit tagarts.org.

Free the Grid tour @ Winston-Salem Marriott (W-S), 6:30 p.m.

Americans for Prosperity NC hosts a discussion on the “power struggle” in the state and how to cut down utility costs. Panelists include Sen. Andrew Brock (R-Davie) and Rep. Chris Millis (R-Pender). Plus: free dinner. Reserve your spot at freethegridtour.eventbrite.com.

FRIDAY Una velada con Don Quixote @ Scuppernong Books (GSO), 7 p.m.

Casa Azul of Greensboro teams up with Scuppernong Books for an evening with Don Quixote and his windmill-chasing legacy as part of the statewide El Quixote Festival. Traditional Spanish music and original artwork by local artists are the order of the day. Community members will read their favorite parts from Don Quixote, and Spanish wine will be served.

For more information, visit the event page on Facebook.

Internet Cat Festival @ a/perture cinema (W-S) If you were already planning on spending the weekend in a darkened room watching cat videos on YouTube, why not do that with other people and raise money for charity? Worship cats like you’re in ancient Egypt at a/perture this weekend; a portion of your ticket supports local charity Forgotten Felines of Forsyth. See aperturecinema.com for showtimes.

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Spring dance concert @ High Point University (HP), 7:30 p.m.

A collection of dance works choreographed by faculty and students present a wide range of styles and approaches. Performances will take place at 7:30 p.m. Thursday-Saturday, and bring a nonperishable food item for a drive if you so wish. The event is free; find more info at highpoint.edu.

by Joanna Rutter

Haven: Fearlessness Reimagined @ Wake Forest University (W-S), noon TEDxWakeForestU returns for its fifth year for an afternoon of talks on all things security, from computers to food safety. Speakers include CEOs of the Polaris Project and Oracle corporation, professors from Chapel Hill and Wake, and the architect of the 9/11 Memorial. Buy tickets at events.wfu.edu.

Charity Yule Ball @ Guilford College (GSO), 8 p.m.

One can only guess at what a “performance broom” is or looks like, but if you win it in the auction, you can fly on over and tell us all about it. This event hosted by Guilford’s Quidditch team is sure to be an evening of magical geekery. Proceeds go toward the charity Lumos, founded by our lady of perpetual Potterdom, JK Rowling herself. Formal attire is recommended. Tickets can be purchased at the door (and Guilford students enter for free with ID). For more information, see the event’s Facebook page.

Take Yourself-ie Downtown.

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SATURDAY

SEE AND BE SEEN WITH

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Ryan Shelton Greensboro, NC

Royal House and White Violet @ the Garage (W-S), 9 p.m.

Headliner White Violet’s sophomore album, recorded in 2014 in Kernersville, is full of sensibly poppy love songs, such as “Fernandina”, a catchy, soaring song about a whirlwind romance at a beachside hotel. Royal House brings more of a dark folk-rock vibe reminiscent of Ben Howard. Tickets and info at the-garage.ws

SUNDAY Ibestock @ Ziggy’s (W-S), 3 p.m.

The life of the late Ibrahim Myers will be celebrated in what Ziggy’s is billing as “quite possibly will the last Ziggy’s show.” Myers passed away in January after sustaining serious injuries from a cycling accident in 2011. Stories about “Ibe” will be shared, and the day will be packed with tribute performances from Winston bands such as Uzzard and 1970s Film Stock. All money collected will go to Myers’ mother. Check Ziggy’s Facebook page for more details.

Get the lowdown on Downtown Greensboro and share your favorite downtown moments by posting on Instagram, Facebook or Twitter using #DGSOSelfie (or you can email them to Selfies@downtowngreensboro.net). And all your postings may get you featured in our upcoming ads and social media feeds!

By sharing your photos, you allow Downtown Greensboro Inc (DGI) to use them for the purpose of advertising. Photos will only be used by DGI and the City of Greensboro.

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Feb. 17 — 23, 2016 Up Front News Opinion Cover Story Culture Fun & Games Games Shot in the Triad All She Wrote

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Streamlining Greensboro streets Read your column “6 names for Triad streets” [by Joanna Rutter, Jan. 20, 2016].

You were right on target about how unsensible it all is. I moved from Miami in mid-January 2015 and really depend on my GPS to get around. None of this will be on Tom Tom. None it will be on Google Maps. I would suggest that these brilliant minds have an obligation to notify Google Maps, Tom Tom and all other GPS manufacturers. If it’s not broke, don’t fix it. All the officials are shortsighted and incompetent.

Carol D’Agostino, Greensboro #HighPointRising Slowly, ever so slowly, High Point is gaining momentum. [“Citizen Green: A brewpub might be the catalyst High Point needs”; by Jordan Green; Feb. 15, 2016] Best of luck to Brown Truck! May they be the tipping point for a revitalized city core!

Mary McInerney, High Point Great article. I think between this new business and the activity happening in the area with 98 Asian Bistro and Hair Kutts, High Point is beginning to do some good things. Now let’s see how things go with the library park area. I have to be honest, I’m not a big fan of the ballpark idea, but maybe others know more than I do!

AE Reed, via triad-city-beat.com Food security trucks Thank you for writing this article! [“It Just Might Work: Tackling hunger with a food truck”; by Joanna Rutter; Feb. 10, 2016] This is exactly what I brought Mac & Cheese Ministry to Greensboro to do! Two years I’ve been trying to make headway with this. But all the roadblocks have made it ipossible!

Hopefully, change in on the horizon.

Rashelle Brooks, via triad-city-beat.com Greensboro used to have many such trucks. My daddy operated on for several years selling fresh produce from my grandfather’s farm. The city of Greensboro regulated them out of business.

Billy Jones, Greensboro

8 noteworthy Supreme Court justices

by Brian Clarey 1. Antonin Scalia (1986-2016) I was in high school when President Ronald Reagan appointed Scalia to the bench. I remember my family — mostly Catholics and Italians — was way into it. He was a staunchly conservative addition to a left-leaning court, which in later years would drift to the right, and he kept those principles throughout his tenure, which not every supposedly conservative appointee has done.

2. John Jay (1789-95) The first chief justice of the Supreme Court, appointed

by George Washington himself, came with a distinguished résumé: president of the Continental Congress, contributing author of the Federalist Papers, secretary of foreign affairs.

Washington created the job for Jay, whose wonkiness in government matters shepherded the court through its first procedural years.

3. Oliver Wendell Holmes (1902-32) Holmes set the template for the 20th Century jurist, a Civil War veteran (he fought for the Yankees) appointed by President Teddy Roosevelt. He coined such phrases as “clear and present danger” and “fruit of the poisonous tree,” referring to evidence obtained during illegal searches.

4. William Howard Taft (1921-30) What made Taft’s appointment by President Warren G. Harding unique was that Taft himself sat as president for a single term. His effect on the court was profound. He consolidated its power over lower courts, streamlined procedure and spearheaded the effort to build the Supreme Court Building.

5. Felix Frankfurter (1938-57) Frankfurter makes the list because of his cartoon name — “Felix Frankfurter, at your service!” — but also because he was an Austrian Jew from a family of rabbis who advised FDR and helped create the ACLU before ascending to the bench.

6. Earl Warren (1953-69) President Dwight Eisenhower appointed Earl Warren, who as attorney general of Cali-

fornia was responsible for establishing Japanese interment camps during World War II, with the notion that he would be a bedrock Republican judge. But as chief justice, Warren presided over a tumultuous time in history with a progressive viewpoint. His first case was Brown v. Board of Education, which demolished the “separate but equal” doctrine, helped end mandatory prayer in schools, and presided over the case that brought Miranda rights into the lexicon. After he retired, he led the investigation into the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.

7. Thurgood Marshall (1967-91) The first African-American justice to the Supremes came to prominence a few years earlier while arguing the Brown v. Board of Education case. Before that, he went to college with Langston Hughes and Cab Calloway. On the bench, he stood fast against the death penalty and for individual rights, especially in matters against the government.

8. Sandra Day O’Connor (1981-2006) The first of three justices appointed by Reagan, O’Connor was the first woman on the bench. Like Scalia, she was one of a small faction of conservatives on the bench. Unlike Scalia, she could occasionally be persuaded to vote against the conservative bloc. But in the end, she came through, casting the swing vote in the 2000 Bush v. Gore decision.

Readers: Based on your responses, y’all are a pretty tolerant, forward-thinking, urbanist bunch, although not exactly passionate: No one bothered to comment and turnout was pretty disappointing. So here’s the tally: 25 of you, or 66 percent, responded: “No, that’s cool.” “Who cares?/ Unsure” beat out “Yeah, that’d kinda bug me” nine to three.

New question: Which Triad city is the best for raising kids?

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60

40

10

26%

Who cares?/Unsure

8%

Yeah, that’d kinda bug me

All She Wrote

66%

No, that’s cool.

Shot in the Triad

20

Games

30

Fun & Games

50

Culture

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by Joanna Rutter Senior Editor Jordan Green wrote in December about how the Community-City Working Group came about after the Charleston massacre, an assembly of teaming up with the Guilford Anti-Racism Alliance to host the Doing Our Work series. It’s disconcerting to rake through centuries of oppression and discrimination with a fine-toothed comb, as I discovered when I attended a session on race and education earlier this month. It’s because of that pain that I plan on attending the rest of the talks. Here’s why.

As a white person shielded by my privilege, to own the historical narrative of oppression that I’ve benefitted from is distasteful, though of course it’s a microscopic discomfort compared to actually bearing the weight of that oppression as a person of color.

The Doing Our Work series, held on the first Monday of the month at Congregational United Church of Christ in Greensboro, mainly functions as a place for white people to be educated about the dark side of our county’s history, acknowledge their part of that story, and then do something about it, though people of all colors attend. I find myself resistant to holding that horrific narrative and accepting the fact that I play an active role in it by simply existing, but as the talks reinforce, I absolutely must if anything is to change. Guilt is not enough.

Perhaps what made the discussion so moving for me was the novelty of its raw honesty. In my experience, the conversations about race I’ve eavesdropped on hosted by white people, or pieces I’ve read about race written by white people, have usually been nestled in the comfort privilege affords, speaking of the oppressor as “the other” and not “us.” Maybe I’ve just been listening to the wrong people. Regardless, Doing Our Work endeavors to pull white people out of that bubble, and it hurts.

After all, in most conversations about race, in my privilege I can remove myself and observe, detached, if I want to. With the spotlight on my privilege and the injustices it was purchased with by my forefathers, though, there is nowhere to hide. Perhaps this is why some tangible action can emerge from these talks. Hearing phrases like “eugenics movement” alongside “testing in the education system” make me nauseated.

And that reaction is a starting point. But voting in a school board who will put better policies in place and not re-segregate schools is the next step. And going to the next session, on March 7, is going to be the step after that.

Cover Story

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Doing Our Work

Opinion

Jordan Green: Sorry, I’m exercising the right of recusal

Eric Ginsburg: No, I wouldn’t mind, though I’m partial to the big vegetable garden they have now. The Triad cities should seriously consider tiny houses and any other potentially viable alternative to cope with a dearth of affordable housing.

News

Brian Clarey: I would be totally fine with a tiny house in my neighborhood. In my mind it’s no different from the carriage houses of New Orleans, small residences on lots with larger properties, which I and a lot of my friends used to rent. I had one apartment that was so small that I could almost touch all four walls from the center of the bedroom.

And it’s possible that I might want to install a tiny house on my property, either as a residence for aging relatives, or rental unit or, best case scenario, a little getaway for me and the wife.

on this one considering that I wrote the cover story.

Up Front

As a companion to this week’s cover story, we asked how you would feel about your neighbor installing a tiny house in their backyard. The responses from our editors (below) dovetail pretty well with how readers feel.

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What if your neighbor had a tiny house?

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Feb. 17 — 23, 2016 Up Front News Opinion Cover Story Culture Fun & Games Games Shot in the Triad All She Wrote

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NEWS

Storeowner takes on political institution in Northeast Ward primary

by Jordan Green

A downtown shopkeeper is taking a second shot at the Northeast Ward seat on Winston-Salem City Council, challenging a political institution who has held the office for almost four decades.

Many have tried, and all have come up short.

Keith King, owner of Kingz Downtown Market on Liberty Street, is challenging Mayor Pro Tem Vivian Burke, a one-woman political institution, in the Democratic primary for the Northeast Ward seat on Winston-Salem City Council on March 15.

King ran against Burke as an independent in the last municipal election in 2013, a three-way contest in which he garnered 14.0 percent of the vote, while the incumbent commanded 75.2 percent. Earlier, in that year’s Democratic primary, Burke had carried 53.8 percent of the vote against two challengers.

Burke has served on city council since 1977. In comparison, the next longest serving members are Mayor Allen Joines and Councilman Robert Clark, who were both elected in 2001. Her fellow council members honored Burke with a bust in City Hall after her last election — it was financed by private funds raised by her supporters — recognizing her as the first black woman elected to city council, the first black female mayor pro tem and the first female chair of the public safety committee.

King is hoping that voters unsatisfied with the pace of economic progress in the Northeast Ward, much of which lies to the east of Highway 52 and runs north from 14th Street, will consider him as a replacement.

“It seems like the Northeast Ward has been at a standstill while the rest of Winston-Salem is improving,” King said during an interview in his tiny office at the back of his downtown store. “Take a look at Peters Creek Parkway and Stratford Road — they’re booming. We haven’t seen the progress in the Northeast Ward. Under new management, that will change.”

Among the highlights of her current term, Burke mentioned starting

Mayor Pro Tem Vivian Burke

a scholarship fund with Mayor Joines, enhancing the visibility of the police and communication with citizens, and promoting civic engagement. She cited Project We Care, a citywide program she launched in 2009 to promote voluntarism, which she said drew 600 volunteers during its annual program at the city fairgrounds last September, as well as the Gathering Place at Fairview Park Summer Festival in May, which featured a gospel act bringing together different church choirs.

“These were ideas from working with neighborhood groups — not what I want, but what they want,” Burke said. “I want these initiatives to come through the neighborhoods. I’m very pleased that I’ve been able to work with people on these initiatives.”

Burke acknowledged some disappointments in efforts to promote economic development in the ward.

The mayor pro tem placed blame on city staff for the poor performance of the Liberty Street Market, an openair pavilion owned by the city on the northeasterly thoroughfare. The market failed to attract more than a handful of vendors when it opened in the spring last year, and the vendor selected by the city to manage the facility pulled out before the end of the season.

“It was not managed well by the city

The Northeast Ward is situated mostly to the east of Highway 52 and runs north from 14th Street.

staff,” Burke said. “We know we made some mistakes, and they made some mistakes. What the city manager did in communication with me was he talked about how we could turn it around.”

Without mentioning his opponent by name, King suggested Burke could have worked harder to push the project forward.

“It looks to me like if you really cared about your community you’d be on that every single week trying to find someone to run it,” King said. The candidate cited his background in retail, along with 16 years of experience in the fast-food industry, as an asset in putting together a viable deal. He added that he’s talked to a farmer who assured him that he could afford to sell produce at the market at a price point below Wal-Mart’s.

Similarly, the city has invested hundreds of thousands of dollars in the Ogburn Station Shopping Center in the Northeast Ward through the Revitalizing Urban Commercial Areas program in the hopes of a restaurant opening that will be able to serve area residents. The project has been plagued

COURTESY IMAGE

with delays because of lack of coordination between the restaurant owner and shopping center owner.

“The same department that was working with the Liberty Street corridor was also working with the restaurant,” Burke said. “I felt that there was not enough overseeing of the individual that was in charge of that project. We had to step back with the city manager and look back at how things were not moving the right way.” The mayor pro tem added that she felt the city put the restaurant owner “through too much.”

“When we don’t do it right and admit we haven’t done it right, I think the taxpayers understand that staff has to regroup and avoid having that happen again,” Burke added.

Both candidates said promoting open communication between residents and the police is important, and spoke highly of the Winston-Salem Police Department.

King said he would be more transparent than the ward’s current representative.

“I would be having more public meet-

some residents feel safe because they don’t at the moment. They are concerned about the police. I would make sure they feel safe and make sure the police are safe, too. Then economic development will begin.”

Burke has had the same campaign slogan for decades.

“I always say, ‘Let the record speak,’” she said, “as I move, coming and going throughout the Northeast Ward across generations and working with all people to have a better life and a safe life in this ward.”

Up Front

hood in the city. Residents should feel that they can communicate with the police. If you see a police walking in your neighborhood, you don’t need to walk away from them. You need to walk up to them. They’re not always there because there’s a problem; sometimes they’re there because something good happened.”

King said he will focus on public safety as a foundation for economic development.

“I would start with communication in the ward,” he said. “Start with making

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ings,” he said. “God forbid an incident happens in the Northeast Ward, but if it does the councilman needs to be there telling people what they know, not a council member from another ward.”

His comment referenced an incident in December when a 31-year-old resident named Travis Page died in police custody in the Northeast Ward. Concern about the incident overtook the agenda at a community meeting hosted

by Councilman Derwin Montgomery, who represents the East Ward, the next day, although the meeting had been scheduled long before.

Burke declined to comment on Page’s death on the grounds that the matter remains under review. But she applauded the police department’s efforts to engage in dialogue with different segments of the community.

“In having these neighborhood meetings, police are invited to participate with neighborhood groups,” she said.

“This is to make the police more sensitive and make the citizens more willing to talk to the police. We can always improve. Police should be more comfortable with going into every neighbor-

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Feb. 17 — 23, 2016 Up Front News Opinion Cover Story Culture Fun & Games Games Shot in the Triad All She Wrote

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New health clinic targets underserved population

by Eric Ginsburg

A new community-oriented health clinic is now open part-time in east Greensboro, with plans to expand hours and feed a holistic network of neighborhood health resources.

The full tour of Mustard Seed Community Health takes less than five minutes, and that’s including time allotted to discuss future plans for a playground and additional garden beds in the back of the building.

The office — a converted pastor’s residence next to New Hope Missionary Baptist Church in east Greensboro — is modest, backing up to the Maplewood Cemetery on English Street. But considering that much of the new health clinic’s plans extend beyond these four walls, it suits the start-up nonprofit’s needs.

Opening a small hallway closet, founder and Medical Director Beth Mulberry joked, “This is our IT department.” Around the corner and down several steps, she showed off the break room that doubles as storage for janitorial supplies. The building contains just one office space — with one of the two desks situated in an open closet doorway to maximize the room —unless you count the front desk and waiting area.

A peek in the two exam rooms and a stop to look out at the back porch, back parking lot and three garden beds completes Mulberry’s tour.

But Mustard Seed isn’t supposed to be a glitzy new medical office or private practice; it’s a community health clinic in a neighborhood that hasn’t had its own physician in decades, she said.

This community known as Cottage Grove stands midway between North Carolina A&T University’s main campus and the joint nanoscience school, encompassing the area around Hampton Elementary. Most of the residents are black, Mulberry said, followed by immigrants and refugees from southeast Asia. There’s a pocket of Burmese residents nearby too, and the clinic is bringing a predominantly Latino clientele with it, she added.

The Cottage Grove neighborhood suffers from one of the highest rates of hospitalization and emergency-room visits as well as cases of asthma, diabetes

Office Manager Katrina Brooks (left) and Medical Director Beth Mulberry make up the core of the Mustard Seed’s team.

and heart disease, she said. Those are just some of the reasons Mustard Seed opted to open in the community.

To fully understand Mustard Seed, it helps to know Mulberry. She moved to the area in 2000 after working in remote areas of Alaska, operating a private practice locally until 2007 when she joined the now-defunct Healthserve Community Health Clinic providing healthcare access to those without coverage. And for the last two and a half years, as Mustard Seed took root, she helped operate a sort of pop-up clinic for immigrants and refugees in conjunction with FaithAction International House near the organization’s downtown office at Holy Trinity Episcopal Church.

Now, with a predominantly Latino client base, Mustard Seed has opened its doors in east Greensboro. Plans to open part time for three additional days per week are imminent, pending some issues with electronic record keeping, Mulberry said.

Mustard Seed will provide integrated primary medical and behavioral healthcare — in other words, all that a regular

primary care facility would provide for people of all ages as well as behavioral resources, including a plans for a licensed, clinical social worker. The goal is to expand medical care to those who haven’t had access to it and focus on preventative steps to avoid catastrophic health events, Mulberry said. Plus, it will dramatically reduce costs for patients by preventing emergency room visits through better access to care, she said.

The organization is also a part of the National Association of Free & Charitable Clinics, and receives funding from local churches, individual donors, grants, and foundations including one affiliated with Cone Health and the Community Foundation of Greater Greensboro, Mulberry said.

Though a more informal version of the clinic operated at Holy Trinity, Mustard Seed is still in its early stages.

But the clinic is already connected to students with the registered nursing to bachelor of science nursing program at UNCG and social work students at UNCG and A&T. Moving forward, Mulberry said the clinic will be able to pilot a program for one to three com-

ERIC GINSBURG

munity health workers who will likely be assisted by local students to extend Mustard Seed’s reach into the surrounding community with home visits and a variety of wrap-around services.

By taking a more holistic view of healthcare that includes safe housing, food access, education and employment, Mulberry hopes that the clinic can be a force for broader neighborhood change.

With the help of members of her church — the Congregational United Church of Christ — and New Hope, Mulberry is already a part of an educational and healthy breakfast program at Hampton Elementary.

Working alongside local groups including the Cottage Grove Initiative and the Greensboro Housing Coalition, Mustard Seed has started forming a nexus of community outreach to address problems such as black mold and connect residents to resources such as food pantries and a GED program.

Ultimately the goal is to help people do for self, with a newly formed neighborhood association, a possible PTA and community health workers hired out of the neighborhood building

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greater community power. Mulberry hopes that she, and Mustard Seed, can play an integral role in catalyzing it, and remain part of a more cohesive community once it’s under way.

Despite the skills of Mustard Seed’s staff, its existing connections and Mulberry’s ambitions, projects of this magnitude require tremendous funding, dedication and community support. But this is what needs to be done, Mulberry said. After all, you can’t just treat chronic disease forever, she said — at some point, you need to get down to the root.

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Feb. 17 — 23, 2016 Up Front News Opinion Cover Story Culture Fun & Games Games Shot in the Triad All She Wrote

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HIGH POINT JOURNAL

High Point opts to keep recycling function in house

by Jordan Green

The city of High Point will invest in equipment upgrades at its Material Recovery Facility, where conveyor belts are literally held together with duct tape, and continue to operate the facility instead of outsourcing the function to a private company.

The city of High Point will invest about $450,000 to upgrade its Material Recovery Facility and continue to operate it with a staff of 12 following a 6-3 vote on Monday, in which the city council decided against outsourcing the function to a company in Davidson County.

Known to city officials by its acronym the MRF (or “murf ”), the facility opened in 1990. The facility relies on manual sorting to divert recyclable materials such as glass bottles and paper from the city-operated landfill, with an estimated annual cost savings of $2.7 million. A consultant with the firm CDM Smith told council members that, as reflection of how run down the equipment has become at the facility, conveyor belts are being held together with duct tape. The lowest bidder, North Davidson Garbage Services, proposed to take over the function for $484,413, compared to $666,020 — the cost to the city after upgrades. Base proposals from two other vendors, Waste Management and ReCommunity, came in above what the city would spend.

During a special meeting on Monday, Deputy City Manager Randy McCaslin urged the council to not delay a decision.

“We really need an answer quick on this,” he said. “If you can vote tonight that would be great. Our equipment is falling apart. If we’re gonna keep it in house, we’ve got to make that investment pretty quickly. Quite honestly, we’ve got some employees out there who have been on edge for three or four years about whether they’re gonna lose their jobs.”

Some council members noted the differential between the bid from North Davidson Garbage Services and the two other vendors. And while they said it was clear that North Davidson Garage

David L. Collins with CDM Smith lays out the options for members of High Point City Council and senior administrators.

Services wants the city’s business, they also expressed concern about the risk of contracting out to business with a relatively unknown track record.

“If North Davidson ended up high and dry, there’s no way we’re gonna get that price from Waste Management or ReCommunity,” said Councilman Latimer Alexander, an at-large representative. “They’ll know they’ve got us.”

Alexander made a motion to make improvements to the MRF and have the city continue to operate the facility.

Councilman Chris Williams, seconded the motion. The motion carried 6-3, with Mayor Pro Tem Jim Davis, Councilman Jay Wagner and Councilman Jason Ewing voting in the minority.

Davis made an unsuccessful substitute motion to continue the item until March 21. Wagner, who supported Davis’ motion, argued that the city is “subsidizing” the MRF to the tune of $1 million, citing the current cost of operating the facility, as opposed to the reduced cost after the upgrades are completed.

“We’re subsidizing a business that’s in competition with the private market,” he said. “That’s unfair. It’s like if the city put a grocery store in a neighborhood and went into competition with Food Lion and Harris-Teeter.”

McCaslin said even the city had opted to outsource materials recovery to a private company, the city still would have to invest $300,000 to $400,000 because the private companies aren’t willing to handle old appliances, medical waste and electronics.

Mayor Bill Bencini agreed with Alexander and Williams that the biannual furniture market, which relies on the city to collect packing material and other recyclables, changes the dynamic. Williams, who is employed

by International Market Centers, said the turnaround time for the city to haul off packing material is about an hour, but estimated that if the function was outsourced to North Davidson Garbage Services, which operates its own facility in Davidson County, the turnaround

JORDAN GREEN

time could double. When recyclables accumulate on the loading docks, it can impede new furniture shipments, he said.

“With the sheer volume of recyclables, when you consider the risk that could happen when you privatize this and that the furniture industry generates $5.4 billion for the region, that’s not a risk I’m willing to take,” Williams said.

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Feb. 17 — 23, 2016 Up Front News Opinion Cover Story Culture Fun & Games Games Shot in the Triad All She Wrote

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OPINION EDITORIAL

A letter to Roy Cooper Dear Attorney General Cooper, We understand from published news reports that you have declined to debate your opponent in the Democratic primary for governor at High Point University on March 1.

If these reports are accurate, this is indeed a regrettable decision, and we urge you to reconsider.

As a newspaper serving more than 35,000 readers across the Triad each week, we intend to cover the debate, and your absence will be conspicuously observed.

Of greater importance, voters in High Point, Greensboro and Winston-Salem deserve the opportunity to hear from both candidates, find out where they stand on the issues and gauge their ability to think on their feet. There is no substitute for a debate in getting a feel for how informed candidates are and how well they deal with pressure.

It’s frankly insulting that you would pass up an opportunity to speak to voters in the Triad. While your decision might be guided by a strategic calculation, as the presumed frontrunner, that debating does not work to your advantage, your refusal also gives the unfortunate impression that you don’t want Triad citizens’ votes.

We are the third-largest urban region in the state, with more than 500,000 registered voters in Guilford and Forsyth counties. You likely cannot win the election without the Triad. If you take us for granted during election time, how much confidence can you place in you to consider our citizens’ needs when you’re in office?

This is a critical election and many voters in the Triad are ardently seeking an alternative to the socially regressive, mean-spirited, anti-poor and economically counterproductive policies of Pat McCrory. It’s vitally important to have a vigorous debate on the issues so that the Democratic Party nominates the best candidate to challenge McCrory in the general election and North Carolina voters have true choice.

You must appreciate that an enlivening primary contest will send Democratic voters into the general election feeling energized. By refusing to debate your primary opponent, you are squandering the opportunity to allow voters to get to know you and get them excited about your candidacy, not to mention a chance to prove you have the mettle to effectively take the fight to McCrory in the fall. Voters want to know what you’re about beyond platitudes, family portraits and carefully crafted campaign speeches. If your only strategy is to be the anti-McCrory, you won’t win.

In short, we want to see you and hear from you on March 1. We sincerely hope you will reconsider your decision and pay us the respect of speaking with the people of the Triad directly.

Sincerely, The Triad City Beat editorial team

CITIZEN GREEN

A brewpub might be the catalyst High Point needs A handful of big projects are transforming Winston-Salem and Greensboro.

The Wake Forest Innovation Quarter on the eastern flank of downtown Winston-Salem is reshaping the urban landscape, with buby Jordan Green colic Bailey Park and Flywheel Coworking only the most recent manifestations of the transformation.

Downtown Greensboro woke from its slumber with the activation of RailYard at the South End, while also blossoming on the north side, with Preyer Brewing and Crafted joining Deep Roots Market in anchoring LoFi, a recently acvtivated space.

While one can argue about which particular project made the difference, it’s apparent that the Twin City and the Gate City have already hit their respective game-changers, and what follows will be consolidation and a building upon strengths. High Point, in contrast — while boasting some fabulous infrastructure to support the biannual furniture market — is still looking for an urban game-changer of its own to breathe new life into its core. One potential catalyst that appears to be on track, according to all reports, is a new ballpark that could potentially link a dormant end of the central business district to the Washington Street commercial district.

But there’s a project far smaller in scale with no public funding that may have already tipped the balance in High Point in the past five days. That’s Brown Truck Brewery, the brewpub started by Britt Lytle, John Vaughan and brewmaster Ian Burnett, which made its first official pour on Feb. 12. The handsome public house, converted from a former appliance repair shop and outfitted with a finished concrete bar, long tables and rustic wood finish, is strategically located in the heart of Uptowne — a surrogate downtown in a city whose central business district is colonized by the furniture market.

On its second day in business, Lytle surveyed the upbeat crowd surging through his brewpub, and remarked, “I’m ready for anything: another restaurant, whatever. We just really want people to take ownership of this place.”

When Lytle and Vaughan dreamed up Brown Truck they envisioned a place that Emerywood residents and High Point University students could walk or ride their bikes to. They intentionally decided not to serve food because they didn’t want to be all things to all people.

The idea is that instead they’ll invite food trucks to pull in to the parking lot, or cater to people who want to stop for a drink after dinner at a nearby restaurant. They want to play a complementary role in a larger organism made up of interdependent parts.

David Armstrong, who owns the Brewer’s Kettle with one location each in High Point and Kernersville, shares the spirit.

“Fantastic!” he said, hoisting a glass of Brown Truck’s pale ale as a patron asked him for a verdict. He said he sees no competition between the two businesses. As a bottle shop with taps that doesn’t make its own product, Brewer’s Kettle serves a different function than Brown Truck. And anything that stimulates interest in craft beer can only help his business, as Armstrong sees it.

The key ingredient for urban revitalization is people.

A beautiful park, an impressive sports or arts facility, or a major mixed-use project can all make a difference, but they don’t ultimately matter and don’t need to happen if they don’t draw people. People getting together for meetings or bumping into each other in chance encounters is, after all, what makes up the social fabric that gives a city its personality. A brewpub is appropriately scaled for this kind of activity.

When I visited on Brown Truck’s second day in business, Doug Clark, an editorial writer at the Greensboro News & Record and High Point resident, was enjoying a English dark ale when Lytle stopped to chat.

The two agreed that they wished High Point City Council had acted on a recommendation to impose a road diet on North Main Street.

“To me, it’s as if — take the Friendly Center in Greensboro, which is probably the hottest shopping area in the county — someone said, ‘Hey, I’ve got an idea: Let’s put a highway right through the middle of it with cars going 45 mph. It’ll be great!’ We’re so obsessed with getting people here, but we don’t give any thought to encouraging them to slow down and stay for awhile.”

I wanted to ask Lytle if the city is going to start enforcing the pedestrian crosswalk in front of the business so that people can safely cross North Main Street, but I was afraid his answer might dampen the celebratory mood.

For revitalization to continue, one small success must follow another. A functioning crosswalk is the kind of small detail that can determine whether the fragile enterprise of revitalization takes hold or not.

Brown Truck Brewery was bustling on its second day of business.

JORDAN GREEN

Chicharrónis

Cover Story Culture Fun & Games

threatened to give the world an honest glimpse of the sordid treatment of these loyal Japanese Americans. But federal officials ignored Adams’ constitutional right to freedom of speech and shredded most of the copies of his graphic exposé.

Eventually, officials relaxed their ban on images depicting camp life. Los Angeles professional photographer Toyo Miyatake lived in Camp Block 20. He initially smuggled camera equipment into the compound to shoot on the sly. Later, he was allowed to advance to the position of official photographer of Manzanar. His intimate shots depicting Americans in captivity on their home soil regularly bring tears to the eyes of visitors to the museum.

As the afternoon wound down, I stood with my two writer friends at the white stone monument marking the compound’s cemetery. Brilliant winter sunlight and sharp wind whistling out of the High Sierras dispelled a modicum of the lingering dark mood of this place. I busied myself shooting photos while half expecting some lurking federal official to leap out and smash my Nikon.

My friend fired off a staccato burst of shots with his tiny pocket camera.

Then the unexpected happened. Two familiar faces spontaneously danced across the memory screen of my roiling mind. Both were famous Americans who were separated by several generations and vastly divergent political beliefs. But both were perfectly willing to toss the US Constitution into the toilet in the name of exaggerated national security.

The visages careening in my head were FDR and Donald Trump. Suddenly the mountain wind seemed much colder. And alas, I was again hanging my head in shame.

William C. Crawford is a photographer and writer in Winston-Salem. He was a grunt and later a combat photojournalist in Vietnam. He can be reached at bcraw44@ gmail.com.

Opinion Games Shot in the Triad All She Wrote

The burly, ex-Ivy League defensive back shuffled out of the bright sunlight and headed straight through the dimly lit museum portal. These last few steps provided a sharp contrast between the windswept beauty of the mountain

by William C. Crawford rimmed valley outside and the subdued light of the museum. The cluttered interior offered up a somber, monochrome reminder of a World War II tragedy.

Nestled in the shadow of California’s High Sierras, this former Japanese relocation camp now houses relics of American national security paranoia run amok. With majestic Mount Whitney towering to the south, we also got a big taste of American exceptionalism gone terribly sour.

Pfc. Sadao S. Munemori threw himself on an enemy grenade in Italy to save his comrades from deadly mayhem. He took this heroic action while his parents were locked in this concentration camp in the desert.

They were forcibly required to sell all of their property and belongings. Then they were ordered to report to this remote site circled with barbwire and watched over by several guard towers outfitted with machine guns and searchlights.

Pfc. Munemori was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor for his brave commitment to the American cause. His parents were further rewarded by being stripped of their freedom and dignity here in the Owens River Valley. The United States had brutalized innocent people here before. In the 1860s, more than 1,000 peaceful Paiute Indians were forcibly removed by the US Army because miners and ranchers wanted control of this idyllic real estate with its reliable water supply.

We moved slowly through the museum with stark exhibits portraying daily camp life in the early 1940s. My chin suddenly sank as my head drooped in shame. I was deeply embarrassed to be a round-eyed American. My friend, Dave, was overcome, and he dabbed at his eyes as he drank in the pathos of loyal Americans betrayed by their own government.

We saw aging photographs of young Japanese-American soldiers in GI uniforms visiting their interned parents in the clapboard barracks of Manzanar. The irony of these poignant visits drove home the glaring fact that America often has a real problem discerning the identity of its true patriots.

Japanese-American captives produced camouflaged netting for the US war machine in a workshop at the corner of D and Manzanar streets. Three Buddhist temples and a Catholic church helped the prisoners keep up their faith in the face of government barbarism.

Legendary landscape lensman Ansel Adams shot extensively here. His chilling volume of 1940s photographs

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Here’s why.

There are a variety of types of chicharrón, but the Central American traditions I’m used to consist primarily of ground pork, or sometimes chunks. As far as I can tell, the best way to consume them is in Salvadoran-style pupusas.

Regular readers might be sick of me bringing up the national dish, but in case you’re not familiar, picture a thick, handmade tortilla almost like a pancake. Pupusas generally come with chicharrón, cheese, beans or some combo therein, stuffed in the center, and just two can fill you up instantly. Naturally, I prefer the meat and cheese option.

But what if someone added pepperoni to pupusas revueltas?

The recipe adjustment is simple: just add some pepperoni into the mix with the pork and cheese, and you’ve created the perfect Salvadoran-American fusion cuisine.

It’s almost like a homemade Hot Pocket, Salvadoran style.

I can practically smell the pepperoni fusing with the soft quesillo cheese as pupusas cook on a flattop grill.

Chicharrónis could actually be any number of things, including adding chicharrón and pepperoni together in a calzone. Stop and think about that for a second.

Now quick, somebody copyright the term, register a company under the same name, and start releasing various product lines capitalizing on my ingenuity. All I ask is a little kickback, a free lifetime supply and that you start with pupusas.

There are more than a million Salvadorans living in the United States, thanks in large part to a brutal military regime backed by the US government, particularly during 12 years of civil war that ended in 1992. But the only thing I’ve seen here that approaches Salvadoran fusion food are the restaurants serving distinct dishes from a handful of Latin American countries. I’m sure plenty of people have experimented in their home kitchens, but I’ve yet to find a public crossover.

Pupusas aren’t easy to make, and though I received an impromptu lesson once in a rural Salvadoran kitchen, patting the dough back and forth between my hands, I’d rather leave this one to the pros at places like El Triunfo in Winston-Salem and Manny’s Universal Café in Greensboro. Maybe you grew up making them, or feel adventurous and skilled enough to make the attempt.

Somebody please try this, and invite me over to taste the second batch. And if you run a restaurant that serves Salvadoran cuisine, I implore you to offer this as a special.

I’ll even help you promote the event.

Shedding a tear for America: Remembering Manzanar

Up Front

by Eric Ginsburg

While recently checking the spelling of chicharrón, or fried pork, I accidentally typed ‘chicharroni’ into my search tab. What started as a mistake turned into a joke about combining chicharrón and pepperoni, but now I’m convinced it was a (key)stroke of genius.

FRESH EYES

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IT JUST MIGHT WORK

The monument to Japanese internment at Manzanar.

WILLIAM C. CRAWFORD

15

Feb. 17 — 23, 2016

Tiny House Nation City Planners and neighborhood advocates contend with urban downsizing

by Jordan Green

Cover Story

For a long time Jody Davis has harbored a desire to pare down and simplify his housing, or “go tiny,” as he put it, and his partner Will Champion was down.

16

“There’s this Buddhist idea: If you haven’t touched it in a year, you should get rid of it,” said Davis, sitting in the living room of the house he shares with Champion on a street full of modest 1950s-vintage, aluminum-sided homes on the north side of Greensboro. “If the house was on fire and you’ve got seven minutes, what do you grab?

What is worth saving? Not that much. The artifacts of our lives, some pictures maybe. We don’t need the CDs. The pets would be first.”

“Definitely the pets,” Champion agreed.

“Not even the TV,” Davis continued. “Well, maybe the TV if we had another 30 seconds.”

Davis, a 34-year-old massage therapist, and Champion, a 50-year-old dog trainer — their names have been changed for this story — have owned their house since 2004, and plan to pay off the mortgage by the end of this year. They’re both self-employed. Champion works with dogs that have behavioral problems like aggression towards people or other animals. Sometimes he makes house calls, and sometimes he brings them back to his place, where he lets them run the yard with Keiko, his rehab dog. Davis helps out with his partner’s business, and has been looking to transition to a new career since massage therapy is beginning to take a physical toll on his body. He tried working as a bank teller for a while, but found it wasn’t as fun as it looked.

The primary motivation behind their interest in living in a tiny house was aesthetic. But the financial rewards of conserving space are a definite bonus.

“I think this gives us more financial freedom,” Davis said. “We’ve been playing the mortgage rat-race for too long and we’re wicked sick of it.”

When a friend invited Davis and Champion to attend a seminar on tiny houses at Paul J. Ciener Botanical Garden in Kernersville last summer, they figured they had nothing to lose by checking it out.

The seminar was led by John Williams, a 63-year-old Iowa native who built earth-covered homes in the late ’70s and has recently started experimenting with retrofitting steel shipping containers. The idea of making a home out of a shipping container appealed to Davis.

“One of my only fears of going tiny is inclement weather,” Davis said. “I’m a little bit worried about tornados. The shipping container’s made of solid steel. It’s definitely not

going anywhere.”

Now, only eight months after the seminar, Davis and Champion have a red, 40-foot K-Line shipping container in their backyard running most of the length of their northern property line.

A fabricator hired by Williams has scored cutouts for double French doors in the center and three windows, using a plasma cutter, along the south side to capture heat and light from the sun. The top is also cut out at both ends A rendering on a small piece of wood laying along an inside wall depicts the eventual profile of the structure: A roof pitched from the center slopes downward to the west end to provide adequate head room for a loft. At the east end, a separate roof slopes from the center to the east end, albeit with a gentler pitch.

In the middle, the top of the container provides a platform for a deck accessible through the loft with rails on either side following the pitch of the east-facing roof.

“I refer to this as a ‘Pop-a-Top 40,’” John Williams said on a recent sunny afternoon as he met at the site with Ralph Duke, a contractor who will be overseeing construction, and John’s brother, Tony, who will be doing much of the work. The shipping containers, which John procures from a broker in John Williams (center-left), Tony Williams (partially obscured) and Ralph Duke (right) South Carolina, are typically 40 feet north side of Greensboro. Inset: A rendering on a piece of scrap wood depicts the dw long, although he sometimes cuts them nance. Guidelines for accessory dwellings in Greensboro in half to make two 20-foot tiny houses. And while Davis broadly conform with those in Winston-Salem, Durham and Champion’s backyard tiny house will feature siding to and Charlotte; Raleigh, alone among the state’s five largmatch the principal dwelling on the property, the rooflines est cities, does not allow such structures. The ordinances at either end suggest the profile of a pop-top camper. typically allow only one accessory dwelling unit per lot, reAt John Williams’ suggestion, Davis and Champion are quire additional off-street parking space and stipulate that calling their future home a “studio” in an effort to sidethe property retain the appearance of a single-family lot step municipal zoning regulations. Champion said he and from the curb. Requirements for setbacks, minimum lotDavis have not obtained a building permit for the project. size requirements and limitations on the size and height of (Their names are changed in this article to protect them the accessory dwellings vary from city to city. from adverse regulatory consequences.)

City planners in Greensboro and Winston-Salem have noted a growing interest in tiny houses from an array of constituencies ranging from builders to people experiencing homelessness, and have expressed openness to Whatever the owners call their tiny house, it likely falls regulatory adjustments to accommodate the changing under the city of Greensboro’s accessory dwelling ordi-

demands of the marketplace.

“We are always interested in working with the community to make sure people have affordable housing,” said Hanna Cockburn, the city’s long-range and strategic planning manager. “And what that looks like changes.

“Our ordinance already allows a huge amount of flexibility,” Cockburn added. “An ordinance is a living document that reflects the desires of the community and the demands of society. The purpose of the ordinance is to ensure that people will be safe, and to do that we have to take in a universe of considerations.”

Mike Kirkman, the city’s zoning administrator, said interest in tiny houses fits into paradigm shift towards urban downsizing, likening the transformation to the large-scale introduction of multifamily housing in North Carolina

JORDAN GREEN

cities some 65 years ago.

Cockburn, who lives in the Southside neighborhood near downtown, noted that many of her neighbors have accessory dwellings on their properties.

“What we’ve found is that it’s a recruitment tool as much as anything else,” she said. “It introduces people to the neighborhood, and they want to stay. When a house comes on the market, they will often jump at the chance to buy it.”

Builders, homeless advocates and others have already approached the city with an interest in building clusters of tiny houses in one location — or tiny-house villages.

“We’ve had three or four groups come to the city saying, ‘We know this is a developing trend; what can we do to make this work?’” Kirkman said.

An evangelist for the tiny-house movement, John Williams has been in a near constant state of motion in the past couple years.

He worked as an appraiser in the Des Moines Tax As-

triad-city-beat.com

) discuss plans to upfit a steel shipping container into a tiny house for a couple looking to downsize on the welling, as it will ultimately look, with pitched roofs at either end and a deck in the middle.

City staff has a meeting scheduled with a group interested in building a tiny-house village on a 0.34-acre lot zoned for multifamily on Guerrant Street on the east side of the city, not far from the National Guard Armory on Franklin Boulevard.

“I think they’re talking about four or five units, kind of a small-scale grouping of dwellings with a community garden, maybe a community center — I’m not sure,” Kirkman said.

He added that staff is open to the idea of reviewing the code of ordinances to make it easier to build and site tiny houses, but they need more definitive input from advocates on what changes would be helpful before they get started.

Urban planners in Winston-Salem have similarly embraced the downsizing movement in housing. The Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Planning Department undertook a review of its accessory dwelling ordinance in August, albeit for reasons of legal compliance rather than proactive innovation. Unlike Greensboro, where there are no restrictions on the types of people who may rent accessory dwellings, Winston-Salem’s accessory dwelling ordinance limits the residency of so-called “granny flats,” in-law apartments, guest houses, carriage houses and laneway/alley houses to relatives, adopted persons, dependents and servants. The review was prompted by a warning from the city attorney’s office that the restriction may not be legal, based on a 2008 North Carolina Court of Appeals decision establishing that cities do not have the right to regulate land use based on the identity or status of the users of the property.

Paul Norby, the director of planning and development services and a vocal proponent for urbanism and affordable housing, trumpeted accessory dwellings as helpful in achieving the city’s goal of “gentle density” in a memo last August to Mayor Allen Joines and members of Winston-Salem City council.

Citing the city and county’s Legacy 2030 plan, Norby wrote, “It is expected that the population of Forsyth County will grow by approximately 120,000 individuals over the next two decades. Creative housing options such as accessory dwellings can help accommodate this population influx within the existing municipal limits, and can offer a number of additional community benefits.

Accessory dwellings are likely smaller than and more affordable than other options currently on the market.

These units can also utilize existing infrastructure and can generate income for the owner of the principal structure, increasing affordability for the owner. Lastly, accessory dwellings can provide an opportunity for aging in place for the elderly, sick or those on fixed incomes that need to be close to family or simply desire to remain within their neighborhoods.”

17

Feb. 17 — 23, 2016 Cover Story

18

sessors office and taught at a community college there in the early ’70s. Through his teaching job, Williams had the opportunity to attend a seminar on alternative building techniques at the University of Minneapolis, which instigated his interest in earth-covered homes. He came to Kernersville in 1995 at his sister’s prompting to help with a downtown revitalization plan and wound up working as an IT at the Winston-Salem Journal before retiring after 15 years. He started retrofitting shipping containers for housing as a retirement hobby last spring, and people began seeking him out for advice when he posted photos of his handiwork on Facebook and Pinterest.

Williams teamed up with Kelly Mattocks, who owns a four-acre spread south of Kernersville, to form Camp Tiny House. Mattocks’ four-acre spread outside of Kernersville provides a staging area for the assembling materials and building new units. A 20-foot modified shipping container on the premises that is covered with tongue-and-groove knotty pine and black contemporary-style trim served as a showpiece at a street festival in downtown Winston-Salem and at the fall 2015 furniture market in High Point.

“We are a tiny-house co-housing incubator of tiny-house builders,” Williams likes to say. “We hatch out tiny-house people.”

Salvaged shipping containers throng the back corner of the property, some of them awaiting retrofitting while one is reserved as a storeroom for materials. One of Williams’ projects includes stacking two containers crossways, creating a shelter for a carport.

“It is up-cycling and it is repurposing surplus material,” he said.

“The benefit is it is hurricane proof and storm protected. The structure is already here.”

Not everyone agrees. Kirkman, the zoning administrator in Greensboro, said concerns have been raised about the structural integrity of shipping containers, although he said the issue arose with a project involving two stacked containers.

In contrast, Dan Dockery, the chief building official for Winston-Salem and Forsyth County, said there’s no question about the durability of shipping containers.

“These things are built to withstand anything — being tossed and turned on the ocean, wind when they’re going down the road, vibrations on a train, being banged together by a crane when they’re being put on a ship,” he said. “These are tough as nails.”

Further illustrating the point, Dockery noted that shipping containers are stacked up to six units high on ships and are designed to withstand the compression of a vessel pitching 30 degrees in either direction.

“Like all bureaucrats, we don’t know the answer, so we just say no,” he added. “We’re the back of the wave. It’s a terrible way to run a railroad.”

While shipping containers are his primary medium, John Williams is interested in all kinds of non-traditional, small-scale building, including tree houses, pods, houseboats and converted school buses.

Williams first came to the attention of the Winston-Salem/ Forsyth County Planning Department through a complaint from one of his neighbors. The premises of his low-slung ranch house in suburban Winston-Salem near Salem Lake is quite a bit more cluttered than the tidy spread at Mattocks’ place. Williams’ backyard teems with salvaged materials: a stage that was used as a rotating stand for a Lincoln Continental at a car show; a 26-by-eight pontoon that he’ll use as a platform for a tiny house; a 40-foot school bus in good working order that’s outfitted with a Jacuzzi; and wooden pods, which were also salvaged from a car show, that

Ralph Duke (left), Tony Williams and John Williams (right) talk about how to make a home out of a chopped shipping container

JORDAN GREEN

Jody Davis and Will Champion with their dog rehab dog Keiko in their backyard in front of the chopped shipping container where they eventually plan to live.

JORDAN GREEN

In Winston-Salem, the desire among tiny-house advocates to increase affordable housing options is running squarely into reaction from neighborhood associations whose leaders are concerned about preserving the value of their members’ investments.

“For most people who are able to buy a house, their house is their biggest purchase,” said Eric Bushnell, president of the Winston-Salem Neighborhood Alliance, after the City/County Planning Board voted to continue the proposed amendment to the accessory dwelling ordinance on Feb. 11. “I worry about deteriorating values. How well your neighbor’s property is maintained has a lot to do with how well your own property retains its value. When you make a really sweeping change, for people who have invested their lives in their property, it’s really scary.”

No one signed up to speak in support of the proposed amendment during the public hearing. Four people, including Bushnell, spoke in opposition.

“We have a neighborhood where one of the charms is the quiet enjoyment of our backyards,” said Bonnie Crouse, a resident of Ardmore. “And if someone on each side of, say, my yard could build a structure that was basically a sidewalk’s width away from my property line on both sides, and on my back side my backdoor neighbors maximize the access of the setback requirement that they were allowed, I would be living in a box looking up on three sides at 24-foot structures with substantial reduction in the pleasure and the appeal of my property.”

Crouse and other speakers said they want the accessory dwelling ordinance to include a ban on manufactured housing. Sunny Stewart, a resident of Washington Park, added, “We would like to suggest that temporary

structures be prohibited, that structures be required to be placed on a permanent foundation so that we don’t have tiny homes on wheels, for example, as something that would be allowed.”

As a separate issue, Stewart said she wants planning officials to look into the possibility of prohibiting people from renting out their accessory dwellings on a nightly or weekly basis, referencing the San Francisco-based sharing-economy pioneer Airbnb.

The Winston-Salem City Attorney’s office believes that it would be legal to prohibit short-term rentals, according to a staff memo, which also noted that “such a provision would be very difficult to enforce, and planning staff would not recommend its addition to the ordinance.”

The planning board will likely consider neighbors requests to add additional parking restrictions to the ordinance, Principal Planner Kirk Ericson said, before the ordinance comes up for a vote again in March.

“We’re getting close to becoming the most restrictive city in the state other than saying you can’t have accessory dwellings at all,” Planning & Development Services Director Paul Norby told the board.

The current draft limits detached accessory dwellings to lots of a minimum of 9,000 square feet where the principal dwelling takes up no more than a third of the area.

Under those restrictions, a November 2015 staff memo notes that compact neighborhoods like Washington Park, West End, Sunnyside, West Salem, Waughtown and East Winston would only allow detached accessory dwellings on larger lots, while more spacious neighborhoods like Ardmore and Konnoak would have “pockets” where they couldn’t be constructed.

Ralph Duke paced the chopped container behind Jody Davis and Will Champion’s house in Greensboro. Duke sized up the space as John Williams enthused about plans for a rain catchment, a composting toilet and perforated pipe along the fence line to drain off gray water. His brother, Tony, mostly hung back, occasionally venturing a suggestion.

Duke squinted, deep in thought. He let his back slide down along the interior wall into a squatting position and fished in his breast pocket for a cigarette. He lit it and took a couple drags as he let his mind scan over the details of where the dog kennel would go, how the top of the kennel would make a bench seat, where storage compartments and a television would be located.

He worried aloud about water condensing in a cavity above the showerhead.

Although Duke holds 40 years of experience as a carpenter, he acknowledged that his experience with metal is fairly minimal. He predicted that one of his biggest challenges will be bolting the loft floor to the steel sheet of the container.

“This is not gonna be an easy drill,” Duke said.

“It goes pretty good,” John Williams assured him. “I’ve done it with toilets.”

The codes for typical residential construction don’t

apply within the relatively tight confines of a habitat fashioned out of a shipping container, Duke said.

“The old adage is, plan your work and work your plan,” he said. “If a person had the knowledge that the mobile-home industry had, you’d want to use every square inch, save material and eliminate waste. That’s key.

“With this, you’re skirting the codes,” he continued.

“You have to adapt. You have to keep things like head room, attachments, stairs and venting in mind.”

With siding on the outside of the steel envelope and drywall on the inside, the builders will have to ensure that the walls can breathe adequately so the two cavities don’t collect moisture.

Sequencing will be essential: Bolting the loft floor to the steel walls will come first. Then exterior siding. And finally drywall on the inside.

John Williams offered to give Duke a tour of Camp Tiny House outside Kernersville so he could get some ideas about how to fasten wood to metal.

“At this moment in time I don’t want to contaminate my mind,” Duke said.

“With what I’ve been doing,” Williams said, finishing his sentence.

“That’s the nicest way to put it,” Duke said.

After he comes up with a plan of his own, Duke said, he might look at Williams’ work to draw a comparison.

“I’m like John Lennon,” he said. “I want to hear my own music.”

Sophie Marzullo at home in a tiny house on wheels outside of Kernersville.

AMANDA SALTER

triad-city-beat.com

will be used to assemble a “five-plex” tree house. And where the property slopes down towards a small lake on a neighbor’s property, he’s made a deep cut into the earth for a planned “Hobbitville,” where he plans to bury two shipping containers to build earth-covered, solar passive dwellings.

Williams, who divorced a couple years ago, rents out four rooms of his house to tenants who share his interest in alternative building techniques and sustainability. He has chicken coops in the backyard, but had to give up the fowl last summer because he got too busy to take care of them. He has a vertical garden on the southwest wall that cools the house in the warm months.

For Williams, the logic of downsized housing is inescapable.

“The college students with student loans to pay off, they don’t need to go out and conform to the social expectation of the castle on the hill and amass as much material wealth as you can,” he said. “The young people are saying, ‘I don’t need that social status anymore.’ This can be a starter home. This can be a house on wheels.”

He rapped on one of the shipping containers.

“This can be put on a rail car and moved across the country,” he said. “It can be trailered, trucked or railed.

That’s what it’s made for.”

19

Feb. 17 — 23, 2016 Up Front News Opinion Cover Story Culture Fun & Games Games Shot in the Triad All She Wrote

20

CULTURE Group wants to create incubator kitchen

by Eric Ginsburg

T

he former Lotus Lounge nightclub looks nothing like it used to, gutted to make way for a yet-tobe-named tenant that new building owner Andy Zimmerman promises will be better for the neighborhood and community than the previous occupant, which generally played rap music and was loosely tied to two downtown shootings.

A photography studio operating out of the back of the building on West Lewis Street in downtown Greensboro has left too, and the members and heavy machinery from the Forge makerspace across the street temporarily replaced it.

If things move according to plan — which they may not, considering that a deal to entice Bestway Grocery ERIC GINSBURG Dana Dillehunt, Mary Lacklen, Hayley Putnam and Andy Zimmerman (l-r) plan to open an to the site already failed — there will be a music venue incubator kitchen in the former Lotus property on West Lewis Street. here, taking up about 6,000 of the 14,000 square feet of space, according to Zimmerman. The new venue that he headed up Clean Energy Durham, according to which also imposes a deadline. would offer “good listening music, not head-banging his LinkedIn page. But you probably recognize his name Curry drew up plans for a market before this, and music,” he added, and he could see a variety of other from his days as the city of Greensboro’s sustainability impressed Zimmerman with the level of detail. But uses for the rest of the space. Maybe a wine bar and manager, or before that as the deputy director and both of them, and everyone else in the room, would bistro, if one interested party bites, or barcade. Worstdevelopment manager of the city’s department of ideally like to see all of it come together symbioticalcase scenario, he said, would be office space. The best housing and community development. ly, involving a market, a kitchen and possibly other case? Possibly an incubator kitchen.

Since about October, Curry has been handing out components.

For something like that to happen — the creation of small slips of paper to people as a way of announcOne of the major sticking points of the discussion a shared commercial kitchen that would help incubate ing his intentions for a project that might relate to last week arose out of an attempt to discern exactly new businesses, be it food trucks, catering companies, Putnam’s. what would be legal, or allowed, in Guilford County, as home bakers looking for a certified space — it’s going “An urban marketplace is being planned for downattendees differed on what David Foust in the county to take a tremendous amount of planning, committown Greensboro,” it reads. “If you would like informahealth department had told them. Zimmerman evenment and capital. But last week, the first pieces started tion about this unique retailing opportunity for 12-15 tually produced an email that appeared to show that pulling together. small businesses, contact Dan Curry at…. dancurrycona single commercial kitchen could be used by multiple A small handful of people clustered in the midsulting@gmail.com.” parties as long as someone appropriately managed section of the former Lotus Lounge, burrowing their As the informal business card suggests, the people the space, running counter to what Lacklen said she’d faces into the tops of scarves and coats in the barely in the room on Feb. 9 came to the table — they did previously been told. lit building as the sunlight faded. With Zimmerman eventually move to a table in a meeting room at HQ Foust couldn’t be reached for comment before press acting as a nonchalant tour guide, the group shivered Greensboro co-working space across the street — for a time. through his newly acquired building, stepping around variety of reasons. Until now, participants only met unFor Putnam, who had considered opening a cookconstruction equipment and debris. And so began the der the “Let’s Get GSO an Incubator Kitchen” Facebook ing-based business with a friend but lacked a certified first meeting of the skeleton crew working to launch group, and haven’t yet agreed on exactly what the kitchen, and the other proponents of a shared space, an incubator kitchen. project will entail. But with the prospect of space from it’s easy to find models around the state and nation The path to successfully launching the project would Zimmerman, who also said he’d be willing to make a including 7th Street Public Market in Charlotte and the likely be just as unglamorous as the lounge is now, Cookery, a culinary incubator in Durham. But to realize substantial investment to upfit the property including but organizer Hayley Putnam pulled together a sort their hopes of making either a reality, they’ll need possibly paying for the kitchen equipment, there’s of dream team to jumpstart the motor. Among them more clarity and people to bottom-line the vision. added incentive to work something out.

Mary Lacklen, a woman with so many food-related An indoor market with an qualifiers next to her name they adjoining incubator kitchen? A Pick of the Week hardly need to be mentioned, but restaurant component to bolster Get involved by joining the Opening Week @ the W on Elm (GSO) suffice to say she’s been chipping the appeal of the planned music Facebook group “Let’s Get The Ham’s Restaurant chain vacated its prime away at this concept for about five venue? A small storefront to help GSO an Incubator Kitchen.” spot across from the Green Bean on Elm Street last years. members sell their wares? Several year.

In its place comes a “farm to table to city” Dana Dillehunt, Putnam’s friend ideas circulated during the meetfine dining joint headed by Brian Fox, previously who works as a start-up strategist ing, and though things are just of Southern Roots in Jamestown. On the menu: and creative consultant, and two people who would getting started, there’s a sense of urgency. chicken skins with plum mayo and pear jam, duck actually use such a kitchen — Rashelle Brooks of Mac & That’s because Brooks has struggled to operate confit flatbread, and sorghum pilaf. The W opens on Cheese Ministry and Melinda Wolf of Brilliant Bakery — her business in Guilford County, where she said the Thursday at 11 a.m. and is taking lunch and dinner round out the squad. health department is more restrictive than where she reservations on OpenTable. For more information, And then there’s Dan Curry. previously operated in the Triangle. Zimmerman hopes go to thewonelm.com.

Curry runs his own consulting practice, and before to have a tenant for the rest of the building by June,

News Opinion Cover Story Culture Fun & Games Games Shot in the Triad All She Wrote

and is an expert at dodging questions. Which is a good thing, because the inquiries rolled in from our host quickly, beginning with, “What do you do?”

There were four people in the bar as we entered: a man ERIC GINSBURG It wasn’t easy to shake the feeling that we weren’t exactly chain-smoking at a small welcome at Willie’s Honky Tonk. circular table by the door, the bartender who let us in, I acknowledged later that we each had the distinct our host in the hoodie and a likely centenarian playing feeling that we’d overstayed our welcome. If we’d ever touch-screen games on one of the monitors lined up been welcomed in the first place. They’d tolerated us, near the front. Despite the country music drifting from briefly, and we agreed we wouldn’t push our luck by the speakers, Willie’s wasn’t the place for a personal coming back. conversation.

Not that we particularly wanted to, especially after I managed to say almost nothing until we separated we did a little research and realized Support 81 is a ourselves by moving over to a pool table, but our host term for Hells Angels affiliates. hardly revealed more. Mark asked a few questions, Feds hit Hells Angels in South Carolina with a rackeout of curiosity and to shift the attention to the venue teering conspiracy indictment a few years ago that also itself, but didn’t get very far. charged members and associates with armed robbery, How long has this place been around? Since maybe dealing guns and drugs, arson and money laundering. ’89. Who’s Willie? We’re all Willie.

Sixteen people went down.

Well alright.

Maybe that’s why our host was tight-lipped; she A sign advertised snacks and pizza, but we were told might’ve thought we were cops.

Willie’s doesn’t have food. A partially filled popcorn machine stood on the far end of the bar, but we all politely ignored it. A plaque on the bar in front of Mark said his seat belonged to a different woman, and though she wasn’t present, we moved anyway.

From one of the two pool tables, I had a better vantage point of the room. A small triangular stage, less than half a foot off the ground, occupied a front corner, complete with amps and a chair waiting, presumably, for a honky tonker. I hadn’t realized that Willie’s does have one window, next to the door allowing patrons to see anyone approaching while obscuring a view inside.

A long mirror, signed maybe 100 times, lay on a side table with balloons from a recent birthday party.

T-shirts and a jacket promoting Willie’s and a biker club hung from a rack, and a wooden chopper stood back towards the bathrooms. A crooning country ballad playing said something about coming from the coalmines, and the low ceilings, lack of natural light and human smokestack inside made Willie’s feel like an underground shaft, too.

I overlooked several signs reading “Support 81” until Mark pointed them out, and we wondered quietly to ourselves what it could be. Two quick games of pool and one beer later, we reached for our jackets.

Thanking our host for the hospitality, I asked — trying to make it sound like a casual afterthought — if Support 81 was some sort of racing club, gesturing towards the NASCAR artwork.

“Some’n like that,” the woman said.

Enough said. We were leaving anyway, but Mark and

Up Front

I almost turned around when I reached the door and realized that Willie’s Honky Tonk is the kind of place where you need a membership key. A fenced patio obscures the heavy-duty black door from the street in

by Eric Ginsburg this semi-industrial part of Winston-Salem’s fringe, and it wasn’t until I stood in front of it that I read the large “Members only” sign painted near the pronounced lock on the windowless door. But before I could turn around, I heard a woman’s voice inside say, “There’s somebody outside.”

So I knocked.

After a pause, a middle-aged woman with long, brown hair cracked the door. I awkwardly explained that I’d happened upon this place — a standalone building that looks older than the city itself — and wanted to grab a beer. The skepticism and confusion on her face made it clear that this was not the sort of thing regular people attempted.

Willie’s is members only, she said, but when I gently prodded about the text on the door offering membership, she backed down a little. If a member would sign me in, I could stay, she said, or I could fill out paperwork and pay a fee to join. This far along, I decided I better plunge in.

Before I did, a friend whom I’d convinced to come along showed up, and though this further raised the woman’s suspicions, we were somewhat begrudgingly granted admittance.

After being signed in as guests by another, more jovial woman wearing a Wake Forest sweatshirt, we took up seats at the bar, and ordered.

I arrived at Willie’s Honky Tonk with a couple expectations. Based on the name of the place, the country music, NASCAR decorations and four different pieces of Confederate paraphernalia didn’t surprise me.

Nor did the biker gear, given that a mini motorcycle adorned the top of an outdated sign outside advertising a Super Bowl party, though the presence of decals promoting Indian and Harley bikes took me slightly off guard.

But more than anything, I expected the portrait of the South that little Yankee kids conjure in their minds — a dimly lit room where the smoky air is as thick as the accents, where people don’t take too kindly to outsiders. Willie’s Honky Tonk, even from the parking lot, felt like being transported to a rundown town in 1950s Alabama, or at least the mental association I’d created for it.

I don’t scare easily, but I knew I’d be out of my element and would likely feel uncomfortable, so I enlisted the help of a friend who we’ll call Mark, a bearded white guy 10 years my senior who is native to this city

triad-city-beat.com

A secretive clubhouse

21

Feb. 17 — 23, 2016 Up Front News Opinion Cover Story Culture Fun & Games Games Shot in the Triad All She Wrote

22

CULTURE Love finds a way through primitive garage rock

by Jordan Green

T

he date is etched into his memory: Nov. 30, 2013.

An itinerant musician performing for a spell as the one-man band Pinche Gringo, Joshua Johnson had long ago switched from guitar to drums, and had been playing with a Charlotte garage-punk band. He landed in Greensboro with nothing but “a drum set and a suitcase of clothes,” as he put it.

“It was the end of a Paint Fumes tour and I had nowhere to go,” Johnson recalls. “I ran into this lovely lady. I woke up the next morning surrounded by scrambled eggs.”

Lindsey Sprague, the woman in question, noted that the eggs had been cooked by Lauren Holt, her former bandmate in the now defunct girl group Daddy Issues.

Sprague and Johnson began playing music and writing songs together almost from the outset of their relationship. The band they formed, Wahyas, reflects their shared love of stripped-down, lo-fi garage rock and roll. As the lead guitarist in Daddy Issues, Sprague relished the opportunity to learn to play drums for Wahyas, while Johnson got to scratch the itch as a guitarist once more.

“I haven’t played guitar in forever,” Johnson said, as the couple shared tequila shots and PBRs after a Valentine’s eve set at Krankies Coffee in Winston-Salem. “It’s cool to play out of your comfort zone.”

For her part, Sprague found playing drums to be liberating.

“It’s a more pure feeling,” she said. “It’s not as technical as guitar. I don’t have to worry about hitting the right notes.”

Hunched over his guitar during Wahyas set opening for the Tills, Johnson bashed out a loud, raw groove on his guitar stripped of flashy solos or processed manipulation, with vocals that were simultaneously agitated and laconic, as Sprague pounded out a primal rhythm, standing upright and striking a hi-tom and snare.

“Third Eye,” a highlight of the show, matched sweaty desire with psychedelic warp, representing a calling card of sorts for the band.

“Won’t you take me to the coast,” Johnson deadpanned with a rising undercurrent of excitement.

“Drink tequila and f*** a ghost/ Stay up all night, yeah ’til the sun/ And I just want to, girl, make you cum.”

Sprague reciprocated with winsome, ’60s girl-group vocals that complemented Johnson’s primitive instrument: “Heartache, it’s what you give/ You don’t tell me how to live/ Heartache when you lie/ Because you open my third eye.”

It’s one of a pair of songs recorded at Legitimate Business in Greensboro in October 2014 that were released earlier this month in a limited-edition split production with Sprague and Johnson’s Shipwrecked Recs and Six Tonnes De Chair Records in France.

After schlepping their gear off the stage and repairing to the bar for drinks, the couple looked forward to

Joshua Johnson picked up the guitar again to form the Wahyas with his lady friend Lindsey Sprague.

celebrating Valentine’s Day. They had booked a hotel room in Winston-Salem so they wouldn’t have to drive back to Greensboro, and planned to get brunch in the morning.

The Tills, an impossibly catchy garage-punk band whose members are split between Asheville and New York City, had just wrapped a recording session at Fidelitorium Recordings in Kernersville. With their last show two months behind them and eager to hit the stage again after their session with Rebecca Mueller, aka Missy Thangs, they came on with a vengeance.

They got started with a pair of songs from their 2014 “Howlin’” 7-inch, released on Winston-Salem indie-rock impresario Philip Pledger’s Phuzz Records. In contrast to Wahyas’ minimalism, the Tills painted from a broader palette, with the Ramones-eque power pop matched with Replacements-like heartworn but manic vocals displaying only a sliver of their range. The band’s prolific output includes two full-lengths’ worth of material (Mixtape Vol. 1 and Mixtape Vol. 2, the former of which is posted on Bandcamp), but their forthcoming album scheduled for release this summer will be their first proper album.

While the Tills’ appearances at Phuzz Phest in Winston-Salem over the past two years have drawn enthusiastic crowds, the handful of songs they performed from their forthcoming album revealed a new level of focus and stylistic breadth, from catchy vocals set to scrappy garage rock to synchronized, rapid-fire drumming and guitar playing with quick chord changes that hinted at the power and thrust of early ’70s Alice

ETHAN GREEN

Cooper.

Guitarist Harry Harrison and drummer Marty Martier, traded vocals on many of the songs, acting as a foil for one another. Dressed in a red, satin Cheerwine jacket with a short moptop, Harrison’s playing was all manic uptightness to Martier’s muppet-like looseness.

The comparatively stoic lead guitarist Jesse Meyers and bassist Tom Peters, who also contribute vocals, provided crucial ballast to the performance.

Just before the Tills’ last number, replete with Meyers’ turning his instrument towards his amp to draw out a squall of feedback and Harrison leaping off the bass drum, Martier paid a holiday-appropriate tribute to Wahyas.

“That first band that opened for us was Valentines Day to me,” he said. “Stripped-down rock and roll. I love it. I mean, they’re all love songs to me.”

Pick of the Week Third Thursday Concert @ Centennial Station Arts Center (HP), 7 p.m.

New Chatham Rabbits, helmed by recent newlyweds Austin and Sarah McCombie, brings old-timey, traditional Southern music to downtown High Point for Third Thursdays. Their inspirations include Hank Williams, Gillian Welch and their namesake, the original Bynum, NC Chatham Rabbit Stringband from the 1920s. A $5 cover will be taken at the door programs@highpointarts.org.

triad-city-beat.com

Touring Theatre of North Carolina presents the

WRONG

www.ttnc.org

Up Front

Or You DoneMe

News Opinion Cover Story Culture

THE CROWN AT THE CAROLINA THEATRE

Fun & Games

February 19 (pay as you can), and 20 at 8 pm; February 26 and 27 at 8 pm 310 S. Greene St. • Downtown Greensboro

A $1.00 theatre Facility Fee and sales tax is added to the price of each ticket.

There is an additional $3.50 added to online purchases.

Please consider investing in our Creative Campaign to help bring more great works to the stage. Donate on our website ttnc.org or by mail.

PO Box 9733, Greensboro, NC 27429

All She Wrote

For tickets call 336-333-2605 or visit carolinatheatre.com

Shot in the Triad

Tickets are general admission: $ 20: Adults $ 17: for groups of 10 or more $ 15: Students with school ID

Games

Over the Edge or You Done Me Wrong, is scheduled to run days after Valentine’s Day, the most romantic day of the year. However, this production is clearly NOT a valentine.

Rather it is a combination of pithy short stories centering on failed relationships and disappointments with characters definitely in need of therapy.

23

Feb. 17 — 23, 2016 Up Front News Opinion Cover Story Culture Fun & Games Games Shot in the Triad All She Wrote

24

CULTURE ‘Waiting Room’ offers bleak laughs about beauty

by Joanna Rutter

A

sense of foreboding sets in early in The Waiting Room at Wake Forest University, which opened last weekend and will run until Feb. 21, beginning with its promotional poster art featuring Botticelli’s “Birth of Venus,” who, upon closer inspection, has bound breasts and feet, both of which are bleeding. And hilarity ensues!

Well, not quite. It’s hard to laugh at many points of this play, which is billed as a comedy, even when the audience knows they ought to. With lines like, “Corset hurts bad, huh?” — “No, only when I breathe,” the long and horrifying history of cosmetic augmentation women have undergone in order to fit beauty standards is laid bare, to sobering rather than humorous effect.

Directed by theater department head John ER Friedenberg — “Jerf” to his students — the play features women from three different time periods each seeking a medical procedure to cure afflictions caused by their attempts to fix something deemed ugly by their cultures.

Wanda, played by senior Heather Sullivan, is a modern-day cosmetic surgery addict with a crass sense of humor who comes to the doctor seeking a new pair of silicone breast implants, only to discover that she has breast cancer. Lillie Burrow as Victoria KEN BENNETT plans to get her ovaries removed in order to From left: Suna Guo, Heather Sullivan and Lillie Burrow star in Wake Forest University’s dark take on the comedy The Waiting Room. cure her emotional outbursts according to late-1800s beliefs about hysteria. Forgiveand bustle. mishaps with props broke the believability of the story ness from Heaven, hailing from 17th Century China (and Fans of the 2011 film Hysteria (or any gender studies on occasion, and music between scenes distractingly portrayed with comedic brilliance by Suna Guo) needs majors) will likely be in on the joke early when Victoria varied between a traditional Chinese erhu and ’80s a toe reattached, having lost it from the practice of first begins explaining her “condition” to Forgiveelevator muzak, with no apparent rationale. This confoot-binding. trasted sharply with the smoothly ness from Heaven. Hysteria, derived from the Greek There’s never any reason given word for uterus, was believed up until the turn of the executed set design by Jonathan for their anachronistic coexis20th Century to be a conversion disorder akin to the Christman, consisting of a rotatCatch The Waiting Room tence, but that little detail is soon dubious “vapors,” symptoms of which included “erotic ing stage and two doorways that swept away in the mélange of a Thursday through Saturday tendencies” characters would be transported plot. Ancient and current body at 7:30 p.m. and Feb. 21 at It’s hard not to wince as Victoria describes her through as tableaux at the ends of modification are juxtaposed mertreatment with leeches (and where she put them) or scenes.

2 p.m. in the Scales Fine cilessly, all three comparatively Music notwithstanding, it’s horrific in method and ridiculous Arts Center at Wake Forest impressive to have a production in purpose.

University. On Friday and Pick of the Week stacked with green freshman Early on in the first act, howevFeb. 21, faculty will host deliver so many striking perforOver the Edge @ the Carolina Theatre (GSO), er, it becomes apparent that this mances. Burrow captivates as post-performance discusisn’t just a play about the silliness weekend of beauty standards; it’s actually If Sunday’s pink and frilly holiday left you sour, sions. Get tickets at college. the goofy yet pitiful Victoria, her panicked naiveté made even sillier just as much of a play about canthis show will placate your grumpiness. The wfu.edu/theatre. parsed in crisp, late-1800s English. cer, though it critiques corruption Touring Theatre of NC adapts dark short stories To be fair, she does get to deliver in the medical industry as well. written by local authors for the stage, mocking all the best line in the play when her Playwright Lisa Loomer weakens things Valentine-related and highlighting failed husband accuses her of having a Freudian fixation on her script’s strength by trying to preach to too many relationships. A date night for the cynical. Though her father, swearing with the utmost gravitas: “I’ve cultural issues, but the story is bolstered by acting that the show will run all weekend, Friday is a pay-whatnever wanted to sleep with any man!” Her delivery is eclipses those shortcomings. you-can night (with a $10 minimum). For tickets, go supported (literally) with excellent period costuming The blocking of the play did exactly what it should to carolinatheatre.com. from Ketti Shum, including a torturous-looking corset do by not drawing attention to itself, though a few

Theatre

presents

sHe KiLLs monsters

February 11-21, 2016

Opinion Cover Story

Written by Qui Nguyen Directed by Jim Wren Visit theatre.uncg.edu for prices and showtimes For information call 336-334-4392 or Triad Stage at 336-272-0160 Showing at Taylor Theatre, 406 Tate St., Greensboro, NC

News

Comedy at a 4d10 intensity Coming

Up Front

calm Brenda of being hysterical as he loses his temper.

The irony can’t be missed that women across cultures and centuries have been altering their appearance as long as we all can collectively remember; the cord of irony is finally snapped by Wanda fiercely shouting from a hospital cot, “It’s my body! My body!” in a chilling thesis statement of the play. The anti-body-modification message was perhaps more groundbreaking in 1994 when the play was first performed, but is still powerful and disquieting enough to leave a lingering impression long after leaving the Scales Theater.

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the hysterectomy she’s waiting to have, but then again, that’s the point, as she’s discussing undergoing the procedure alongside a woman losing toes to infection from her three-inch-long bound feet and another who has a tumor in her breast worsened by her set of implants. Though their stories are set hundreds of years apart, the graphic nature of the procedures to obtain beauty (and the faux science that informs those procedures) described by each character is decidedly nauseating.

The men of the production offer a counterpoint caricature to the three women’s stories, though not at all in a flattering way. Sophomore Tyler Johnson is perfectly boorish as Larry, who, in between using his position on a hospital board to block a potential cancer cure in order to advance one that better suits his interests, occasionally picks up the phone to bark at his wife, “Sweetie, I’m in a meeting!” Johnson makes it remarkably easy to hate this character.

Junior Jason Chinuntdet’s Dr. Douglas is much more sympathetic as a bumbling physician. An office scene with his nurse Brenda, portrayed with gravity and wit by junior Justice von Maur, is possibly the most powerful of the play, culminating in his loudly accusing the

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Feb. 17 — 23, 2016 Up Front News Opinion Cover Story Culture Fun & Games Games Shot in the Triad All She Wrote

26

FUN & GAMES

W

hen the UNC-Chapel Hill’s women’s lacrosse team visited High Point University for the latter’s season opener, I prepared for the cold, but not for such a blowout.

The Lady Heels are ranked

by Anthony Harrison second in the nation, and the team exhibited martial discipline. An assistant coach harshly blew a whistle prompting her players to twirl their sticks in their chapped, bare hands.

Meanwhile, plenty of Panther faithful braved the chill to cheer on the home team. Some members of the women’s basketball team, who would lose to Gardner-Webb University in a close contest the next afternoon, were some of the most enthusiastic fans.

Now, I love this kind of stuff. As a writer and observer, it is my bread and butter.

But right before the first draw, I got a call from Mark LaFrance, HPU’s assistant athletic director for communications.

“Where are you?” LaFrance asked.

“I’m down in the stands,” I said.

“You wanna come upstairs where it’s a bit warmer?”

I wish I could say I hesitated, but I immediately tramped up the aisle. LaFrance met me at ticket sales, and we walked up to the press box.

Typically, when I attend sporting events, I prefer sitting in the stands. I like picking up on the exclamations of the crowd, and I sometimes get lucky and pick up on dialogue between players and coaches. There’s plenty of color to be found in general admission.

But on this night, I reveled in the press box, largely due to escaping the elements.

Purple and gray carpeting dressed the floor, and the left-hand wall was painted a similar shade. Two rows of tables on two terraces of stairs sat before the glass wall overlooking the field. From here, observers could see the entirety of the field in a glance. Beyond and to the right, Lexington Avenue wound down in a curving slope, headlights and taillights glinting and tracing.

Staying positive in the press box Further right, one could see the HPU bell tower, lit in a soft, golden glow.

Still, there was a strange sterility to watching the game from this sequestered view.

Machines powering the sophisticated broadcast equipment whirred quietly along with the air conditioning. The large, flat-screen television hanging in the left corner showed the game, producing a disorienting, doubling effect. Also, the crowd noise could be heard, but stifled through the sealed glass.

And, while you could see the whole spread from this bird’s-eye view, details proved difficult to catch.

“I forgot what it’s like doing night games,” LaFrance said at the outset, watching the game through binoculars. “Won’t be able to see anything.”

But Carolina quickly put on a show. Too quickly.

In minute and a half, the Heels scored three goals: One free-position shot by junior attacker/midfielder Molly Hendrick, then two goals back-to-back by freshman attacker/midfielder Olivia Ferrucci.

LaFrance had to call out each Carolina score for the stat keeper, maintaining an impartial monotone.

“Shot for Carolina, Z-shot on 23… 10 from 27. Second goal for 10, third assist for 27… Shot, Carolina 4, goal…”

The Heels raked in nine unanswered goals, and High Point had hardly crossed into Carolina territory. When the Panthers did attack, they were met by impenetrable defense and halted by fouls and impressive saves by goalie Caylee Waters.

The mood among the other observers turned towards sorrow.

“Is there a mercy rule in lacrosse?” one asked.

“10,” LaFrance said from behind his binoculars, still trained on the action.

Finally, with eight minutes and 14 seconds left in the first period, a glimmer of hope: High Point junior attacker Samantha Brown sent a free-position shot home to put the Panthers on the board.

Muffled cheering from the stands outside; an uneasy sigh of relief from those assembled in the box.

Carolina got right back into rhythm with the next draw. In 20 seconds, Hendrick scored yet another goal for the Heels, flicking the ball into the net like tossing

a dirt clod with a shovel.

“Is there a mercy-mercy rule?” someone asked.

Rough chuckles.

“UNC’s treating this like a scrimmage, like practice,” another moaned.

“Let’s be positive in the press box,” LaFrance said.

In the second period, High Point showed some offensive promise, matching Carolina’s four goals.

There was no catching up to the Heels after their early run, though: The final score was 17-5.

HPU head coach Lyndsey Boswell stayed positive.

“We have some young players on the field that are learning this pace and this style of play,” Boswell said.

“When you have high-school players step in for the first time against the No. 2 team in the country, chances are they’re gonna be a bit behind.“ Boswell especially pointed out freshman goalie Molly Andrews for praise.

“Her first time on the field, she’s seen 44 shots,” Boswell said. “I think to have any save when they’re coming straight at you is a good thing.

“They’re all competitors,” Boswell added, “so I don’t think anyone feels good about this, but I think it’s a good starting point.”

After all, as someone remarked in the press box, at least High Point didn’t get shut out.

Pick of the Week Take me out to the brrr-game Georgetown University Hoyas @ Wake Forest University Demon Deacons (W-S), Thursday, 6 p.m.

Whoever said February was too early to kick off the baseball season? It’ll be mild to start and chilly to end for opening day, but boy, will it be nice to see a diamond. It’s a sign that spring’s right around the corner, and with it, lazy days of hot dogs, warm weather and cracking bats. For ticket sales and more info, visit wakeforestsports.com.

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GAMES

‘The Movie Room’ is there room for more?

by Matt Jones Across

Down

Opinion Cover Story

Playing February 20 – 15

Culture

1 Major uproar 2 Time-half link 3 Asian capital nicknamed the City of Azaleas 4 Fork over 5 “According to me,” in shorthand 6 Small bite 7 Less caloric, in ads 8 Neighborhoods 9 Prison chief 10 Best Actress nominee for 2015’s “Room” 11 Alaska’s ___ Fjords National Park 12 Blow off 13 Club crowd-workers 17 Masc. alternative 21 Canter or trot 23 Fish served on a cedar plank

25 “Huckleberry Finn” transport 26 Johnny ___ (“Point Break” character) 27 He played a part in 2000’s “Boiler Room” 29 Maurice and Robin’s brother 30 In storage 34 Wrestler’s objective 35 H, as in Greek 37 Apple MP3 player 38 P, in the NATO phonetic alphabet 41 “The Five People You Meet in Heaven” publisher 44 “___ know what it’s like ...”

48 Olympics broadcaster Bob 51 “___ Fideles” 52 Architectural rib 53 Tennis champ Rafael 54 Primrose protector 56 Use 62-Down 58 Austen title matchmaker 59 Skyline haze 61 Right turns, horsewise 62 Sculling needs 63 “Rapa-___” (1994 Easter Island film) 66 2222 and 2468, e.g., briefly

News

57 Rainy-day boots 60 “Keep Portland Weird” state 64 Chemistry suffix 65 He wrote, directed, and starred in the 2003 cult film “The Room” 67 Short cleaner?

68 Jouster’s outfit 69 Ferrell’s cheerleading partner on “SNL” 70 Antlered animal 71 Bumps in the road 72 Loch of legend

Up Front

1 Charlie Brown’s oath 5 Acquisition by marriage 10 Library vols.

13 Songstress Shore 14 “The West Wing” actress ___ Kelly 15 Exercise unit 16 She starred in 2002’s “Panic Room” 18 Shiba ___ (Japanese dog breed) 19 It keeps pages from flying everywhere 20 Certain orthodontic device 22 Hardwood trees 24 Keep from escaping 25 Republican presidential candidate Marco 28 “Rock-hard” muscles 31 “Boyz N the Hood” actress Long 32 Devoured 33 Awake into the wee hours 36 Big game show prize, maybe 39 Circulation improver 40 He played the central unifying character in 1995’s “Four Rooms” 42 Reduction site 43 Pad prik king cuisine 45 Country with a red, white and blue flag 46 “Alley-___!”

47 Agcy. concerned with fraud 49 Bill ___, the Science Guy 50 Po, in a 2016 sequel, e.g.

52 How walkers travel 55 1850s litigant Scott

Esoterotica: The Films of David Lynch presents

Fun & Games

“Eraserhead”

10 pm Saturday, February 20, $5 ticket includes FREE BEVERAGE

Answers from previous publication.

Games

STREET FIGHTER V

“The Walking Dead”

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All She Wrote

(PREMIERE TOURNAMENT!) $5 venue - $5 entry - CASH PRIZES! 9 pm Sunday, February 21 TV CLUB presents

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27

28 All She Wrote

Shot in the Triad Games

Fun & Games

Culture

Cover Story

Opinion

News

Up Front

Feb. 17 — 23, 2016

SHOT IN THE TRIAD

Zev Place, Greensboro

Snow day surprise.

PHOTO BY CAROLYN DE BERRY

Up Front

New Bus Routes - January 2, 2017

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Thank You! Gracias! Je vous remercie! Cảm ơn bạn! 謝謝! Obrigado!

Salamat! Благодарю! Hvala vam! Faleminderit! Vielen Dank!

Gratias ago tibi! Grazie! Mahadsanid! Asante! Ngiyabonga!

News Opinion Cover Story Fun & Games Games Shot in the Triad All She Wrote

As we move closer to 1/2/2017, we invite you to join us as we take the next step in public transit for Winston-Salem.

Culture

Thank you for attending WSTA’s public meetings on proposed changes to our fixed route bus system. Your voice contributed to the development of what we believe will be a great new transportation system coming in 2017. We listened very closely and made modifications based on some of your concerns about the proposed changes. That information is now available for you in the form of a booklet with routes and turn by turn directions. Pick up a copy at the Clark Campbell Transportation Center or download the information from our website @ wstransit.com.

29

M

All She Wrote

Shot in the Triad

Games

Fun & Games

Culture

Cover Story

Opinion

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by Nicole Crews

30

other: So what did you do last night?

Me: I went to punk-rock karaoke at College Hill.

Mother: Didn’t you hang out there when you were in your twenties?

Me: That’s what I love about College Hill, mom. I get older, College Hill boys stay the same age.

It’s 10 p.m. on Saturday night and I’ve just had a civilized glass of malbec and a round of lofty conversation at a fine-dining establishment in Greensboro. I’m just unzipping the boots when Felix, my feline-like friend of 26, whose demeanor leans more to the white-telephone movies of the 1930s and ’40s than the iPhone generation texts me.

Felix: What are you doing? Eddie Money is rattling my windows and downtown sounds like it’s been overrun by soccer hooligans.

Me: I just got in and I’m mildly considering bed. I’m exhausted from insomnia.

Felix: You just moved back and have barely been out. You should mildly consider being my partner in crime tonight and going to College Hill. I’ll send a cab over.

Me: I am dressed like a motorcycle-jacketed cheerleader for the Fighting Irish….

Felix: And I look like Steve McQueen before the coffee enemas.

We’ll fit right in. See you in 15.

Eleven p.m. and we’ve triangulated our downtown existence thanks to a cabbie named, I believe, Boutros Boutros-Ghali (it’s been a tough decade for Egyptian politics), and wound up at Greensboro’s most venerable dive since it opened in 1982, College Hill Sundries.

It is, indeed, punk-rock karaoke night and the bar is so packed it’s morphed into a multi-cellular organism.

At the mic is a full-sleeved guy with a fauxhawk singing a Journey song that he probably only knows because of “The Sopranos” swan-song episode. The Over-the-Hillers are here, marking their territory with subtle swings of thinning ponytails and passive prison cafeteria stances. Idle ingénues with pixie haircuts and coronas of bangs wearing military jackets float past like drunken Ophelias. On the men, ironic haircuts, glasses and vivisecting jeans are as abundant as the Newcastles and fireballs on special.

Felix (texting me from across the bar): Nicole, your phone is ringing off the hook. What’s going on there?

Me: I know it’s shocking, but guys over 35 actually use their phones to call girls from time to time.

Felix: I thought you said your vagina was No Country for Old Men? Midnight in the garden of beer and foosball and the young barrister brigade is mixing with the MFA crowd from neighboring UNCG. The dreadlocked DJs are leaning in tight with postmodern preppies and newbies from neighboring college housing — the Province-als — are stuck to the bar like stalac-

Classic Crews (March 19, 2014) tites. Pretty girls croon in Karaoke Corner and in the handful of booths that line the shotgun bar, phones are down and conversation is garrulous.

Felix: What’s your best College Hill story Nicole?

Me: That’s a tough one. I think maybe the time I was coming from Charlotte to a fancy party at Greensboro Country Club and needed a place to change into my cocktail dress….

Felix: And you chose College Hill?! I haven’t been in the ladies room, but if the men’s is any indication….

Me: It was an odd hour and convenient! Anyway, I was running late and while I was changing I noticed that the ceiling tile above me was askew so I took a broom handle to fix it and, BOOM, it broke in half and about a half a pickup truck load of some of the most terrifying porn I’ve ever seen fell down on me — along with crumbling ceiling tile.

Felix: OMG, what did you do?

Me: What could I do? I cleaned myself up and strolled out Golden Gate Shopping Center in my heels and dress and told [then owner Jim “Angel” King], 2270 Golden Gate Dr. “That’s the dirtiest bathroom I’ve ever seen. Someone needs to Greensboro, NC clean it up.”

It’s approaching last call and Felix and I put the word out to the United Nations of late-night transport and take a last look around the joint. It’s come a long way from its heyday meltkitchenandbar.com inception to its skunky beer-cooler past when it earned the moniker “Down Hill” due to former owner neglect. Yet College Hill has maintained its street cred throughout it all and remains one of the most popular bars in the Triad.

Jason Paul, who started tending bar here about 15 years ago and bought in when things began to sour between King and the landlord, says, “I think what sets us apart is that we are genuinely friendly, anti-gimmick and pretty authentic and that’s become something of value The Merit Pit Bull Foundation strives in a sterile world.” for a compassionate world where pit I’ll say, and the bull type dogs live in responsible homes next time my bathand where owner education, training room is filthy, I’m and anti-cruelty legislation support all going to describe it pet owners regardless of breed. as “pretty authentic.” Thanks Jason!

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Photography by Sara Lyn

Texts in the City

Up Front

Feb. 17 — 23, 2016

ALL SHE WROTE

www.themeritpitbullfoundation.com

(336)618-PITS

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HIGH POINT UNIVERSITY

Monday, Feb. 22 at 7 p.m.

FOX8 WGHP Gain insight on the future of aging from the nation’s foremost expert in the field.

High Point University’s Access to Innovators Series

Dr. Ken Dychtwald

Aging in today’s society carries many misconceptions. Gerontologist, psychologist, lecturer, entrepreneur and the foremost expert on aging-related issues, Dr. Ken Dychtwald sets the record straight in his informative exchange with High Point University President Nido Qubein.

CEO of Age Wave Entrepreneur and Expert on Aging Research

Together they explore how our aging population affects our economy and reveal why retirement

ENJOY THE CONVERSATIONS THAT INSPIRED THE HIGH POINT UNIVERSITY COMMUNITY.

isn’t what it used to be. Dr. Dychtwald also shares approaches we can all use to help slow down the aging process. Originally aired on PBS, Dr. Dychtwald’s encore appearance runs exclusively on FOX8 WGHP as part of HPU’s ongoing commitment to community service. Don’t miss it!

COLIN POWELL

Monday, January 18

STEVE WOZNIAK

Monday, January 25

SETH GODIN

Monday, February 1

MONDAYS AT 7 P.M. JANUARY 18 MARCH 7 FOX8 WGHP TOM BROKAW

Monday, February 29

WES MOORE

Monday, March 7

JOHN MAXWELL

Monday, February 8

MALCOLM GLADWELL

Monday, February 15

OTHERS IN THE SERIES

CONDOLEEZZA RICE

BONNIE MCELVEEN-HUNTER

Share the conversation. Email communication@highpoint.edu to request a complimentary DVD of the Access to Innovators Series.

AT H I G H P O I N T U N I V E R S I T Y, E V E R Y S T U D E N T R E C E I V E S A N E X T R A O R D I N A R Y E D U C AT I O N I N A N I N S P I R I N G E N V I R O N M E N T W I T H C A R I N G P E O P L E . highpoint.edu