TCB Sept. 2, 2015 by Triad City Beat

Greensboro / Winston-Salem / High Point triad-city-beat.com September 2 – 8, 2015

FREE

No easy

walk Two cities’ cycling and pedestrian infrastructure in the post-sprawl age PAGE 20

At the gun show PAGE 18

Art of destruction PAGE 30

Kardashian like me PAGE 38

September 2 — 8, 2015

Fire Sale!

EVERYTHING

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CONTENTS

by Brian Clarey

Business

Publisher Allen Broach allen@triad-city-beat.com

Editorial

Editor in Chief Brian Clarey brian@triad-city-beat.com Senior Editor Jordan Green jordan@triad-city-beat.com Associate Editor Eric Ginsburg eric@triad-city-beat.com Editorial Interns Chris Nafekh Daniel Wirtheim intern@triad-city-beat.com Investigative Reporting Intern Nicole Zelniker Photography Interns Amanda Salter Caleb Smallwood

Art

Art Director Jorge Maturino jorge@triad-city-beat.com

Sales

Director of Advertising and Sales Dick Gray dick@triad-city-beat.com Sales Executive Alex Klein alex@triad-city-beat.com Sales Executive Lamar Gibson lamar@triad-city-beat.com Sales Executive Cheryl Green cheryl@triad-city-beat.com

Contributors Carolyn de Berry Nicole Crews Anthony Harrison Matt Jones

32 UP FRONT

MUSIC

3 Editor’s Notebook 4 City Life 7 Commentariat 7 The List 8 Barometer 8 Unsolicited Endorsement 9 Triad power Ranking 10 Heard

28 Hurricane party

NEWS

GOOD SPORT

11 Bonds on the fast track 12 Meeting about meetings 15 HPJ: Human relations curbed

34 Underdogs and glory

OPINION

35 Jonesin’ Crossword

16 16 18 18

Editorial: High Point goes dark Citizen Green: Redistrictarama It Just Might Work: Craft ice cream Fresh Eyes: Canadian at the gun

show

COVER 20 No easy walk

FOOD Cover: Photo illustration by Daniel Wirtheim

Downtown déjà vu

26 Dessert for dinner 27 Barstool: A beer panel and tasting

ART 30 Tearing it up

STAGE & SCREEN 32 The lies of wealth and fortune

GAMES SHOT IN THE TRIAD 36 Springwood Drive, Greensboro

ALL SHE WROTE 37 Kardashian like me

We’ve seen it all before. A parking-lot confrontation late at night, during the mass outpouring of downtown clubbers that happens every weekend after last call goes out. Cops call it “the dump.” The dump is crazy: thousands of people trying to remember where they parked, heedless of traffic as they lurch along — traffic that tests the limits of downtown Greensboro’s streets and roadways at points along Elm Street and Greene. Interaction is inevitable. Early Sunday morning, it was fatal. One 19-year-old, Patrick Simmons, is dead. Another, Jermaine Couch, is being held without bail in the Guilford County Jail. And those of us who care about downtown have to figure out what to do about it. No doubt there will be a reaction from Downtown Greensboro Inc., whose new president, Zack Matheny, marked his time on council with sets of nightlife ordinances that included curfews and sound restrictions. Now Paul Talley, who owns the building housing Lotus nightclub, where the victim and suspect were allegedly partying, is on the board. On the cusp of an election, councilmembers and candidates will surely seize on this tragedy and shape it to fit their platforms. And in just a couple weeks, downtown Greensboro will play host to the National Folk Festival, putting immense pressure on a new police chief to come up with a solution to a problem that never fully seems to go away. The media will do its job with breathless TV reports amping Those of us who care up the climate of fear and newsabout downtown paper stories that will quickly have to figure out have their comment threads what to do next. shut down. We’ve seen it all before. And we are not alone. A shooting that very same morning rocked downtown Mobile, Ala. Since then there have been shootings in downtown Cincinnati and downtown Seattle. We are not immune to a national trend of gunplay and the willingness to engage in it. There is nothing a bar, a downtown booster organization, a city council or a local law enforcement agency can do about a state-mandated closing time in a nation that’s absolutely permeated with guns. But they’ll try anyway. Look for a clamor to forcibly close Lotus, buoyed by thinly veiled racist rhetoric. Look for new ordinances that will merely tighten the old ones. Look for Oscar-worthy grandstanding in the name of the good people of Greensboro. And sure as shootin’ there will be awful lot more cops on the downtown streets at night, at least until the folk festival has packed it in for the year. We’ve seen that before, too.

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1451 S. Elm-Eugene St. Greensboro, NC 27406

EDITOR’S NOTEBOOK

September 2 — 8, 2015

CITY LIFE

September 2 – 8

WEDNESDAY The Fifth Ingredient beer school @ Gibb’s Hundred Brewing (GSO) The new-ish brewery’s beer education series focuses this week on cider, ceyser and mead. It begins at 6 p.m., and don’t forget to bring a bottle for sharing. Find out more at gibbshundred.com.

FRIDAY First Friday @ downtown streets (GSO/W-S) Greensboro: The Gate City’s First Friday offerings include a Zac Trainor show at Urban Grinders and a Housing Hangout at UNCG’s Center for Housing and Community Studies centered on communities and affordable housing. Winston-Salem: The Camel City scores a First Friday win with Collective Impressions wending through Delurk and Ember Gallery, featuring works from member artists; IIIan Art Show at Reanimator, featuring images of robots, monsters and rock form three guys named Ian; and a rock/art show at the Garage with Tyler Nail.

THURSDAY

Gardening workshop @ Old Salem (W-S) The fall gardening series begins today at Old Salem, with a workshop on prepping soil for the fall harvest. It begins at noon. Register at oldsalem.org.

Artist talk: Beverly Semmes @ Weatherspoon Art Museum (GSO) Beverly Semmes’ project, Feminist Responsibility Project, features “totemic and abstract works” that look at the female form through media images and sculpture and is on display at the ’Spoon through the weekend. She’ll be talking about her work at 6 p.m. I’ve Done Bad Things reading @ Revolution Cycles (GSO) I’ve Done Bad Things is a small ’zine that features anonymous writings from people who don’t always stick to the straight and narrow. Celebrity readers include Molly McGinn, Pete Schroth and others who feel the need to confess. Showtime is 7 p.m.

G. Love & Special Sauce @ the Blind Tiger (GSO) The Sauce hits the Tiger tonight, kicking off a huge month of shows. Tickets still available at theblindtiger.com.

Rushmore @ Reynolda House (W-S) Bill Murray + Wes Anderson = an eternal classic. Check it for free at Reynolds House’s Cinema Under the Stars series. Screening begins at dusk.

triad-city-beat.com

SATURDAY

Read the beat, talk the beat, walk the beat. Shirts for sale at... triad-city-beat.com 9/11 stair climb @ Bellemeade Parking Deck (GSO) The fifth annual 9/11 memorial stair climb begins at 9 a.m. Entrants will climb 73 flights of stairs, the rough equivalent of New York firefighters on that fateful day. Registration begins at 7:30 a.m., and Leslie Lippa has more at 336.574.4088.

Gate City Get Down @ Kohinoor Hookah Palace (GSO) This “multi-turntable format” promises “nothing but grooves & rhythms” beginning at 9 p.m. with DJ J-Lone, Sönder, Darklove, Prez, FiftyFoot Shadows and DJ Bonzani.

SUNDAY Have Gun Will Travel @ the Garage (W-S) The Florida band plays selections from their newest album Science From an Easy Chair beginning at 9 p.m. for a rare free show.

September 2 — 8, 2015

Up Front News

“There was a flier that went out referencing ‘white supremacy’ and a lot of other things that were very troubling to many in the community. It was the language that folks did not appreciate. There are many things in the modern language that folks said, ‘Gee, that’s an inappropriate thing to say.’” — High Point Councilman Latimer Alexander, in High Point Journal and Editorial, pages 14 and 16

I felt like a cat in a dog pound: Danger surrounded me and the hundreds of strangers who swarmed to purchase guns and ammunition, but it didn’t faze them a bit.

“New Orleanians, when they’re sad or there’s something heavy, they throw a party. We put some food out and bring in some musicians to play.” Right before the ball could hop out of bounds, Herbert — back to the net, still in front of the ball, mind — tapped it backwards between his damn legs, sending it in a high arc right back towards the stunned Anderson.

All She Wrote

Shot in the Triad

Games

Good Sport

Stage & Screen

Art

Music

Cover Story

— Chris Nafekh, in Fresh Eyes, page 18

Food

Opinion

HEARD

— Beth McKee, in Music, page 28

— Anthony Harrison, on Pierre-Hugues Herbert’s amazing return at the Winston-Salem Open, page 34

“Usually a curator is here to protect and serve. This is the first time I’ve seen anything be destroyed here.” — Greenhill Curator Edie Carpenter, on Jonathan Brilliant’s Greensboro Piece, page 30

“I follow the mantra of ‘no short cuts.’ One time I cut through a parking lot at the corner of Reynolda Road and Fairlawn Drive. They had strung up a wire across the parking lots that I couldn’t see. I’ve still go scars on my arm to prove it. It about took my head off. I was laying there in the parking lot. Nobody helped me. Ever since then, I don’t cut through parking lots or get up off the road onto the sidewalk.” — Cyclist Bill Petrie, in the Cover, page 20

“When district lines go block by block to divide voters, divide neighbors into different districts because of their race, even in counties where candidates of choice of African-American voters have experienced long and substantial political success, the electorate’s confidence in the integrity of democracy is undermined.” — Civil rights lawyer Anita Earls, in Citizen Green, page 16

paninis salads small plates craft beer & wine patio daily specials Golden Gate Shopping Center

2270 Golden Gate Dr. Greensboro, NC meltkitchenandbar.com

Stage & Screen Good Sport Games Shot in the Triad All She Wrote

9. U nder what circumstances is an inmate involuntarily medicated? “We do not involuntarily medicate anyone. If a person is in acute need, we will send them to a hospital.”

Art

8. What percentage of inmates were medicated for January-April? “Percentage of population receiving mental health medications — Jan: 13 percent, Feb: 12 percent, March: 13 percent, April: 15 percent.”

Music

7. If approximately 50 percent of inmates are receiving mental-health services but only 16 percent are receiving mental-health medications, what are the other services provided? “‘Receiving mental-health services’ includes those who were evaluated after an initial mental-health intake screening and referred to mental-health staff for further evaluation, but does not mean they, ultimately, needed medication. They may receive counseling services or other mental-health services.”

Food

3. Is a mental-health assessment done at intake or on an as-needed basis? “Both. In addition to being identified by intake screening, inmates may be referred by medical staff, correctional officers, or inmates may refer themselves via sick-call process at

6. When you say 16 percent, does that cover all medications, or are other inmates on other forms of medication? “Approximately 18 percent of the population are on some sort of medication, including over-the-counter medications and other treatments for non-mental-health conditions.”

Cover Story

Politics of vindictiveness Jordan, I just read the article you did on Jay [Wagner], [“Election challenge results in committee appointment dustup”; by Jordan Green; Aug. 26, 2015] and all I can say is you did a fabulous job. I am not surprised Jay or [Bill] Bencini would not respond. Saturday night Cynthia Davis and I were helping the police by passing out the flyer I gave you and I happened to look around and there was Jay Wagner in his car just sitting there watching us for about 30 seconds and then drove off quickly. I don’t know if he was taking pics or what. Thanks again for a great report! Jim Bronnert, High Point

2. What forms of medication are most common (including the name of the drug)? “Medications most commonly prescribed are antidepressants, and antipsychotics.” West struck a line from her response that is still visible in the sidebar edits reading, “Celexa and Vistaril (for depression/anxiety) and Risperdal (for psychosis).” In a follow-up question asking for confirmation of the three medications, West simply wrote, “Patients are on a variety of medications depending on what their needs may be. There is no set list of what medications are available. We will provide whatever medications are determined by our providers to be clinically necessary.”

5. What percentage are receiving some form of medication at any given time? “[In May 2015], 16 percent of inmates were receiving mental-health medications.”

Opinion

Calling bull Repression is clearly the council’s agenda! [“High Point guts human relations commission after forums on racism”; by Jordan Green; Aug. 28, 2015] Shelia Cheng, via triad-city-beat. com

1. What sort of mental-health services are available to inmates? “Mental health services begin with a screening for mental health issues at intake. Based on responses to initial screening, inmates are referred to mental-health staff for further evaluation of their needs. There is no separate housing unit for inmates with mental illness, unless there is an acute psychiatric need. At that time, a patient is placed in an area with increased observation. Medication is prescribed by the psychiatrist for mental-health issues.”

4. What percentage of inmates are receiving mental-health treatment at any given time? “All inmates are evaluated for mental health treatment upon intake. Approximately 50 percent of inmates are receiving mental-health services at any time.”

News

6th highest paid athlete in the world though I am sure he would take $5 million if offered up. Your last paragraph, the word hooples is used … what is that? Next year please come out to watch the golf tournament and get up to speed prior to your next article about the tournament. Again, not a big TW fan but it was great he came along with the other 143,000 people to the Wyndham Championship. The charitable foundation that runs the tournament, which gives a lot of money to needy causes, appreciates his visit also. Layne Fuller, via email

any time.”

Up Front

Tiger tussling Mr. Clarey, I read your article on page 4 of this week’s Triad City Beat regarding the Wyndham Championship and Tiger Woods [“A tiger by the tale”; by Brian Clarey; Aug. 19, 2015]. Can’t really say that I have ever been much of a Tiger fan except when representing the US in international events such as the Ryder Cup or Presidents Cup — just can’t pull against the home team against another country. I will also admit to hoping he won the Wyndham this past week, not for him, but for the extra benefit the Triad would receive from him doing so and the extra dollars generated from the tournament, which would go to charity. You deserve credit for getting it correct that the man was actually number 187 in the FedEx points standings. The rest of your article left a bit to be desired. “Even a win wouldn’t get him into the playoffs, so there’s not all that much on the line” — you couldn’t be any further off. Coming into the week a win or a solo second place would have had him in the FedEx playoffs. Matter of fact, Davis Love III said before play started Thursday he or Tiger needed to win… Love did and is playing this week at the Barclays. You also said he could use the $5 million purse these days. At golf tournaments the purse is split between players making the cut with a the first place guy getting the biggest check down to last place getting the smallest check … so Davis Love III got the biggest check just shy of $1 million. FYI, Tiger Woods made $61.2 million in 2014 making him the

by Eric Ginsburg Curious about what sort of mental health resources exist in the Guilford County Detention Center in downtown Greensboro, also known as the Greensboro jail, I called the nurse’s office with several questions. After being redirected several times, I finally landed with Karla West, a public information officer in Nashville with Correct Care Solutions, a company providing “healthcare in correctional environments,” including the jail in Greensboro. Here’s what she said during a recent email exchange.

triad-city-beat.com

9 questions about mental health in jail

September 2 — 8, 2015

Up Front News Opinion Cover Story Food Music Art Stage & Screen

Winston-Salem is struggling to preserve affordable housing as the city picks up and gentrifies, a challenge that also looms on the horizon for Greensboro. So we asked our readers and editors what percentage of new downtown Winston-Salem housing should be earmarked at affordable prices.

Brian Clarey: 10-20 percent. We’ve got to have affordable housing in our downtown districts, for lots of reasons, not the least of which being that if only rich people could live there, downtown would suck. The whole point of living downtown is to be immersed in the culture — loud though it sometimes may be. It’s to live in the heart of it all, where every corner of the city comes together. There should be amazing apartments, yes, but there’s got to be somewhere for the creative underclass to stay, the young families who prefer urban living, the laborers who want easy access to pubic transportation. And the truth is that most rich people don’t want to live downtown, or else they already would. Jordan Green: I’m going to go with 50 percent. There’s no lack of housing options in downtown Winston-Salem and Greensboro for wealthy people who want marble counters, fitness centers and all the other bells and whistles. I believe that even without higher profit margins developers can make money on downtown housing. Together, Greensboro and High Point comprise the second largest urban region (High Point isn’t in the downtown housing market yet) of North Carolina. Greensboro should join Winston-Salem in providing incentives for affordable housing, and the two cities should improve on Winston-Salem’s paltry performance standards to come up with program that truly moves the needle. Eric Ginsburg: 50 percent. I’m tempted to say all of it be-

All She Wrote

Shot in the Triad

Games

Good Sport

What percentage of new downtown housing should be affordable?

cause as Jordan said, there is no lack of options downtown for the rich. I live in what would be considered affordable housing in downtown Greensboro (inside the forthcoming Downtown Greenway loop), and I can only stay because rent hasn’t changed in the five years since I moved in. Maybe instead of saying 50 percent of new downtown housing in either city should be affordable, we could say that at any given time, 50 percent of existing downtown housing must be affordable, though mixed-income housing would be preferable. Readers: First place was split between “half of it” and

Half of it

32%

None of it

32%

“none of it (let the market decide” with 32 percent each. Not far behind, 26 percent said 10- 20 percent, which is in line with a city council plan to support redevelopment of the Pepper Building, while the remaining votes went to “all of it” and “other.” The only commenter, S. Cochrane, expressed dismay at the possible loss of old, beautiful trees in the Camel City. New question: What’s the best greenway in the Triad? See our cover story this week for more info, and vote at triad-city-beat.com!

10-20%

26%

All of it & Other

10%

The Two-Wheeler Edition 3. High Point

They don’t do bike lanes in High Point, the 9th largest city in the state of North Carolina, where poverty and sprawl would make the bicycle an attractive means of conveyance were it welcome on city streets. But there is a stretch of bike-friendly roadway crossing the north end of town, a few trails for off-road cycling and four bike shops, a testament to residents’ interest in riding around on two wheels.

2. Winston-Salem

Winston-Salem has been designated a bronze-level Bike-Friendly Community by the League of American Bicyclists since 2013, with 17.8 miles of bike lanes on city streets and off-road options all over the city. There are just three bike shops in Winston-Salem, though, aggravating its place in the rankings. But more commuter bicycle options are in the works, including a path parallel to Business 40, which in another year or so would put Winston-Salem at the top of this list.

1. Greensboro

Greensboro was designated a bronze-level Bike-Friendly Community in 2009 and again in 2013 — designations last four years — largely due to its efforts in increasing bike lanes on city streets. It also boasts nearly 100 miles of off-road trails and greenways appropriate for cyclists. And there are 10 bike shops in the city limits, more than in Winston-Salem and High Point combined. That’s enough for first place… for now.

Lost Ark Arcade by Chris Nafekh

Cover Story Food Music Art Stage & Screen Good Sport Games Shot in the Triad All She Wrote

DAVID COHEN

Opinion

Wrestlers show their stuff at teh barbecue festival.

News

DAVID COHEN

Up Front

Strongman Titano Oddfellow jams a pair of scissors up his nose at the East West barbecue festival in downtown Greensboro.

There’s something very strange about playing Pac-Man in a dude’s basement while he tries to feed you sausages. But that’s exactly the premise of Scott Leftwich’s Weiners and Losers “arcade” in Winston-Salem, which he runs out of his basement. Leftwich’s bizarre world aside, Lost Ark in Greensboro is the Triad’s only legitimate video arcade, and it recently celebrated four years in business. Almost every game in Lost Ark’s arcade is a multiplayer fighting game, making it a social experience. There are no tickets or prizes, only the satisfaction of tearing your friend a new one over a high-stress brawl in Super Smash Bros. Owner Daniel McMillan hosts small tournaments that bring people together for a competitive experience where they win and lose in the same place rather than distant living rooms. Killing time here alone is okay too; Lost Ark has stellar pinball machines. The store demonstrates a true appreciation for ’90s Japanese culture, and I enjoy browsing the shelves holding gems that span across the short history of video gaming. The atmosphere itself is worth a quick visit; walking inside transports customers to a place where heated debates spawn from nerdy questions like, “Who would win a wizard fight: Gandalf or Dumbledore?” And McMillan understands the importance of variety; every time I walk into Lost Ark’s arcade the games diversify and increase in number. On my last visit I saw a copy of Mortal Combat where Marvel vs. Capcom 2 once stood. On a recent Monday afternoon, I watched as McMillan eagerly unpackaged several new candy cabinets, the large plastic shells that house arcade games. After an animated conversation about the in-house gaming artifacts, he talked about the games he’ll soon add to the arcade’s collection. Not long after Lost Ark blazed the way in Greensboro, Geeksboro Coffeehouse Cinema opened, buttressing the subcultural interests the arcade holds dear and adding an additional space for geeky fandom and gaming culture. But while both venues serve as gathering places with a focus on community, Lost Ark’s fusion of recreational and retail gaming is unique.

triad-city-beat.com

More than barbecue

September 2 — 8, 2015 Up Front

News Opinion Cover Story Food Music Art Stage & Screen Good Sport Games Shot in the Triad All She Wrote

NEWS

Winston-Salem fast-tracks public safety and parks bond projects by Jordan Green

The rollout of Winston-Salem’s $139.2 million voter-approved bond is resulting in significant projects in outlying areas of all of the city’s wards. Three new district police stations. Spraygrounds at nine parks across the city. A scenic quarry with an observation deck linked by a greenway. An east-side park with a lazy river. Street resurfacing, sidewalk construction and child pedestrian safety programs. A road widening project at Meadowlark Drive with a greenway. A street diet on Polo Road making room for a bike lane. Repair of brick sidewalks at Old Salem. Those are only a few of the many projects underway or slated to be contracted out in the next eight months across Winston-Salem’s eight wards as part of a $139.2 million bond approved by voters last November. And that doesn’t even count $37.8 million earmarked for the renovation of Union Station and the Benton Convention Center, along with improvements to the Business 40 corridor, leveraged from limited obligation bonds. City leaders emphasized during a council meeting on Monday that they plan to spend the money quickly so that residents in all eight wards can see the results right away. “This is one of those meetings that I think is going to be pretty fun in that we’re getting a report from staff on bond projects the voters approved last November from the east to the west and north to south,” Mayor Allen Joines said. “We told the voters we would spent the money quickly and report back.” City Manager Lee Garrity said the last time Winston-Salem voters approved a bond issue, it took the city about 13 years to spend the funds. “It’s not going to take 13 years this time,” he said. “We’re probably going to have it spent in four to five years.” Out of $31 million approved for public safety projects, the most noticeable investment for many residents will likely be the construction of three new district police stations under a redeployment plan previously approved by city

council. The District 2 station, serving the southeast area of the city, breaks ground on Sept. 11 on the site of the old Lucia Apparel Group Outlet Store on Waughtown Street. The site is next door to the historic Nissen Wagon Works, which dates back to in 1834, according to a state historical highway marker. Two other district police stations will be built on North Point Boulevard and Winterhaven Lane on the northern and western sides of the city respectively. The city has budgeted a total of $9 million for the three projects. Other allocations for public safety include $7 million to renovate the second floor of the Alexander Beaty Public Safety Training and Support Center on Patterson Street for a forensic crime lab, fire training facility and evidence storage center; and $10 million for renovations of the Public Safety Center on Cherry Street. The 1983 building needs a new HVAC system, plumbing and electrical upgrades, and a new security system. Among the more novel projects included in the $30.9 million parks and recreation bond is development of the former Vulcan Quarry in southeast Winston-Salem as a new park. The $4 million project includes construction of an observation pier and lawn amphitheater. Funded separately under the streets and sidewalks bond, the city has allocated $1 million to build a greenway connecting the Waughtown Street area to the quarry, along with the Peachtree Greenway, Reynolds Park and the Anderson Recreation Center. “At the end of the pier you can see the Winston-Salem skyline,” City Engineer Robert Prestwood said. “I’m told on a very clear day you can see Pilot Mountain.” Also budgeted at $4 million, renovations of Winston Lake Park on the east side feature a new splash park and lazy river, along with a conventional swimming pool. Contracts for both the quarry and Winston Lake Park projects are expected to come before city council in

The old Lucia Apparel Outlet Store will be retrofitted as the District 2 Police Station on Waughtown Street.

January. Along with development, renovation and repair projects at 16 other parks across the city’s eight wards, the bond also includes funds for spraygrounds at nine different parks. Councilwoman Denise D. Adams said she was grateful that her constituents would get a sprayground at a location on Bethabara Park Boulevard. “All up and down Reynolda Road we have sidewalks,” she said, “but people say, ‘We have no place for the children to go.’ “It was strategically placed so children don’t have to cross the street,” she added. “No parent wants their children to cross Reynolda Road.” The street marks the boundary between the North Ward, which Adams represents, and the Northwest Ward. Mayor Pro Tem Vivian Burke said she was gratified to see a $150,000 investment in the Bowen Boulevard Park in the Northeast Ward, which will pay for a new bathroom facility. She said her initial run for city council in the 1970s

JORDAN GREEN

came about because her plea to city council to improve the park fell on deaf ears. When she eventually got elected, she said, she made the park her first order of business. Along with $15.3 million for street resurfacing, $10 million for sidewalk construction and repairs and $1.8 million for bicycle and pedestrian projects, the transportation bond also includes funds to revamp two significant thoroughfares. The bond allocates $5.6 million for the widening of Meadowlark Drive on the west side to alleviate traffic congestion. The project includes a parallel multi-use path connected by a crosswalk to the Village at Robinhood shopping center. And a $2 million improvement project on Polo Road will reduce the street from four to three lanes while adding sidewalks, bike lanes and a linear park. Mayor Joines congratulated City Manager Garrity on the rollout of the bond projects. “I’m impressed by the amount of work that’s been done by you and your staff,” he said.

triad-city-beat.com Up Front

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Cover Story

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September 2 — 8, 2015 Up Front

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Academics respond to problems born on the street by Eric Ginsburg

Three years in, a group of educators, activists, clergy, city leaders and other interested parties continues to meet with the goal of creating a more inclusive and just city, but a meeting last week highlighted the gap between rhetoric and reality. The push for institutional and community-wide change is bound to be a slow one, Greensboro City Councilwoman Marikay Abuzuaiter acknowledged to the room full of people at the Interactive Resource Center last week, but more voices are being heard and important improvements are underway, she said. Just look at the city council’s votes at its previous meeting to raise the minimum wage for city employees and the implementation of an employment restoration academy. It may not be as fast as we want, Abuzuaiter said, but the change is still relatively quick. That struggle between patience for institutional shifts and the frustration of immediately oppressive conditions underscored a meeting of concerned residents on Aug. 26. During the individual introductions to start off the two-hour meeting, a man stood and said the gang members and people he works with regularly don’t have time for slowpaced, “ivory-tower” dialogue. Immediate conditions make it impossible to wait, he said, as he excused himself and left the building. Later Guilford College professor and meeting co-facilitator Sherry Giles would return to the point saying, “We need to have people involved who are just trying to survive.” The pace of the group known as Counter Stories hasn’t been rapid by any measure. It emerged after UCBerkeley Law School professor Mary Louise Frampton and a colleague spent months surveying hundreds of Greensboro residents about race relations in the city, and some interviewees watched a play about racial dynamics together. With the goal of deeper community-wide dialogue that could serve as a catalyst for action, Counter Stories formed. But that was three years ago. It wasn’t until recently that the group decided to hone in on police-community relations, and a few months ago the collection of

Andre Robinson (center) and Mary Louise Frampton (left) participate in one of the three small-group discussions towards the end of the Counter Stories meeting last week.

residents began hosting conversation groups co-hosted by a police officer and a resident to openly address the gulf. Last week, with a seemingly more cohesive goal in mind that still lacks specific details for execution in many respects, the group invited new participants to join the process and reached out to people who had fallen off in an effort to help draft action plans around restorative justice tactics and to continue the police-community dialogues. “The first project is to explore restorative justice practices and their application to police procedure, the courts, and disciplinary measures in the schools,” the email invitation read. “The second project is to create a series of workshops, led by civilian criminal-justice experts and police officers, to educate citizens about their rights, responsibilities, and avenues of recourse in police-civilian encounters.” Members of the Greensboro Police Department and the city’s human relations commission joined Councilwoman Abuzuaiter in representing the city, but most attendees came from activist groups, academia or the nonprofit sector. For the most part, regular participants in Black Lives Matter actions in

the city were absent, an omission that a few participants addressed. Love Crossling, the city’s human relations director, said that “a polarization of other work” in the city is “overwhelming,” and that Counter Stories and others need an intentionality to avoid fragmentation that prevents new people from getting involved. After someone inquired about how the group relates to the recommendations of the Greensboro Truth & Reconciliation Commission held to address the Greensboro Massacre, Giles said Counter Stories is “of a piece” with the commission’s final report. “We’re working towards the same thing, but with somewhat different strategies,” she said. It lines up with the commission’s recommendation to hold police accountable and address the city’s polarization, she said, and Counter Stories is in touch with the Beloved Community Center — the nonprofit where the commission originated and in some ways tied to the center of local Black Lives Matter mission — to avoid fragmentation and prevent any effort to force a wedge between the two strategies. Giles has also been deeply personally involved

ERIC GINSBURG

with the Beloved Community Center over the years, which has long pushed for police accountability reforms with limited institutional success and recently spawned an unofficial civilian review board to examine cases of alleged police misconduct. Most of the Counter Stories meeting last week focused on orienting new or returning members to the group’s work, answering questions about how the organization differs from other efforts in the city and fielding comments about how to involve a greater cross-section of the city’s population including ideas for outreach to immigrant and refugee communities. Giles and her co-facilitators, including Frampton, also reported back about a pending grant request for $35,000 annually for two years from the Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation in Winston-Salem to further its efforts. The Bonner Center at Guilford College is the grant applicant, and would fund restorative justice workshops, implicit bias and structural racism trainings and strengthen the group’s capacity, facilitators said. Buy-in from police will be key not just for the grant but for the success of Counter Stories more broadly, with

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action-plan remained elusive. But a commitment to figuring it out overshadowed a lack of specifics, with attendees staying to continue discussions even after facilitators brought the meeting to a close and remaining thoroughly engaged and active for more than two hours, with many participants arriving early for a shared dinner before setting down to business.

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Frampton pointing to a unified effort in the small town of Reedley, Calif. to divert kids from the school-to-prison pipeline with a restorative justice approach as a potential model for Greensboro. As the room of about 40 participants broke into three groups to discuss next steps for community-police workshops, facilitation and restorative justice efforts in the education and legal systems, the conversations often remained abstract. People wanted to take action, they said in the small meetings, and a few ideas were batted around, but a concrete

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HIGH POINT JOURNAL

Human relations commission curbed after talks about racism by Jordan Green

High Point City Council tightens the reins on its human relations commission and creates a mechanism to replace its membership in reaction to a program about police-involved shootings and a flier with the phrase “dismantling white supremacist systems.” The nine members of High Point City Council unanimously approved an overhaul of the local ordinance governing the city’s human relations commission during a special meeting on Aug. 27. “The main change is it brings it back to council,” City Attorney JoAnne Carlyle explained. “A lot more control is with council. You set the direction.” Among the amendments to the ordinance: • Reference to a “director of human relations” hired by the city manager is replaced with the term “human relations program.” • Under “functions and duties,” language referencing the commission as “the authorized agency” that “shall” perform specifically outlined duties is replaced with the term “advisor to the city council,” which “may” carry out certain duties “specifically as approved by city council.” • The amendment completely strips the commission of the ability to investigate complaints of “the denial of equal access to, and discrimination in employment, housing, education, recreation and public accommodations where the denial and discrimination against either an individual or a group is based on race, creed, color, national origin, sex, age or handicap.” Under the rewrite, the commission is charged with developing “plans and analyses for human service needs.” • The commission is also stripped of the ability “to act as a public forum to hear complaints from groups and/or individuals whereby misunderstandings, differences or alleged unfair treatment may lead to serious conflict.” Under the rewrite, the commission is charged instead with monitoring “the trends and activities in human relations in the city.” • Under functions and duties, the revised ordinance adds the responsibility

High Point City Council unanimously voted to revamp its human relations commission and replace its members as a result of discomfort with the commission’s discussion of racism and policing.

of encouraging “youth to become better trained and qualified for employment.” • In a bid to improve accountability, the rewrite charges the commission with providing “biannual reports to city council that contain a six-month work plan.” • The size of the commission is reduced from 13 to nine members, with the mayor and members of city council making one appointment each. Mayor Bill Bencini asked council members to bring their appointments to the next city council meeting after Labor Day. Each council member holds the discretion of making entirely new appointments or re-appointing current members who are eligible. At-large Councilman Latimer Alexander said the desire to overhaul the human relations ordinance grew out of concern that the department “was headed in a direction contrary to where the city really felt it needed to be.” Human Relations Director Al Heg-

gins, who is black, was placed on paid leave on June 18, after telling City Manager Greg Demko that she felt in fear for her life. A widely circulated email from Heggins aired concerns about racial tension and institutional racism in the city, while a run-in tension with the police department over an antiracism training. Heggins later returned to work and has filed an Equal Employment Opportunity Commission complaint with the federal government. Demko said during the meeting that he plans to make some administrative adjustments in the program without specifically mentioning Heggins’ status or future. He could not be reached for comment after the meeting. “Our human relations department has been in conflict with our police department over a program called ‘Black and Blue,’ and it’s just been a bubbling cauldron of tension between the city, the police department and human relations over the program,” Alexander

JORDAN GREEN

said. “The police participated initially in it. When it didn’t go in the direction we felt it should go, [the police] backed away.” The explicit discussion of race in programming and literature produced by the human relations department disturbed many members of city council and some of their constituents, Alexander said. “There was a flier that went out referencing ‘white supremacy’ and a lot of other things that were very troubling to many in the community,” he said. “It was the language that folks did not appreciate. There are many things in the modern language that folks said, ‘Gee, that’s an inappropriate thing to say.’” Jason Yates, who held the position of co-chair of the commission up to the time of the council’s Aug. 27 vote, said the volunteer citizen board’s only transgression was being responsive to citizens. “We didn’t set the agenda,” he said.

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“People came to us after Mike Brown was killed in Ferguson and after the guy was choked to death in New York. And they came to us and they said, ‘If it can happen in a town as small as Ferguson and as large as New York City, why can’t it happen here?’ And we said, ‘That’s a good question.’ The citizens’ concern is what drove us to organize what was intended to be a single event. At that event, the community said, ‘This is a good discussion; we’d like to continue having it.’ And so we set that up on a regular basis. “During the course of that one of the folks that we invited out was Barbara Lawrence, who had a long title for her presentation that included the words ‘dismantling white supremacist systems,’” Yates continued. “And once that flier went out it just created the brouhaha that led to this. To me this was clearly a response to council’s discomfort in hearing or being exposed to conversations about race.” Yates said he’ll reapply for his position, but the new appointment process didn’t engender hope. “It’s an attempt to cherry-pick the people that they want on the board so that they can get people who will not expose them to conversations about race that they’re uncomfortable about,” he said. Former Mayor Bernita Sims, who stepped down last year prior to pleading guilty to a felony offense of passing a worthless check, asked to be recognized from the audience after the vote. “This is not a public hearing,” Mayor Bill Bencini replied. The special meeting had been advertised six days in advance, but City Attorney Carlyle said that unlike rezoning requests, state law didn’t require a public hearing to amend the ordinance in this case. “I just think this whole thing should have involved a public conversation about the changes,” Sims said after the meeting adjourned, “before they adopted these changes and moved on.” The process of rewriting the human relations ordinance, which involved a committee of four council members, reflects a unified effort in local government, Alexander said. “The rewrite of this ordinance was put together by our city attorney and four of our council members,” he said. “Jay Wagner and Alyce Hill both are lawyers, and then Chris Williams and Jeff Golden. We have three attorneys and two African Americans taking a look at a human relations commission. And they brought us an amendment, and it passed unanimously.” Alexander indicated he’s not concerned about the possibility the council’s action might unintentionally set off the kind of unrest seen in Ferguson and Baltimore by shutting down a pressure valve that had allowed citizens to vent frustrations. “I believe you will see in the very near term a revamped opportunity of communication between our police department and our citizens,” he said. “I believe it will allow an interactive communication opportunity, but it will be in a much more structured way, respectful of all sides, without an agenda.”

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OPINION EDITORIAL

High Point goes dark There’s a national conversation discrimination. Director Al Heggins, going on about race, law enforcewho is black, went on leave after an ment, equal protection and unequal email she authored outlining racism access, particularly as it pertains to in city government caused her to minorities and people of color. fear for her life. It’s a dialogue that began in earAnd last week, council unaninest after an unarmed 18-year-old mously voted on a complete overnamed Michael Brown was shot and haul of the commission, redefining killed by a police officer in Ferguits focus, removing its limited powers son, Mo. following on the heels of and dismissing the board. another black man’s death at the The impetus, according to Counhands of police in New York City. cilman Latimer Alexander, was a It grew more nuanced and focused program entitled “Black & Blue” creafter #BlackLivesMatter emerged ated by the commission specifically from the bloodshed, sustained to address issues of race and law through the hot summer of 2015 by enforcement that has been plaguing more racially tinged the country. police shootings “There was a and attacks on law flier that went out enforcement, topped There’s a national referencing ‘white off with a divisive conversation going supremacy’ and a lot controversy about of other things that on about race... the Confederate were very troubling flag. to many in the comAs modern cities nationwide are munity,” he said. “It was the language looking for ways to soften their relathat folks did not appreciate.” tionships with the inordinately poor It’s the same tactic we saw a difand black communities that bear the ferent council use when disbanding brunt of institutional racism, in High City Project and relocating then-exPoint they’re taking a different tack. ecutive director Wendy Fuscoe in In the cities of the Triad, human 2014. That one had consequences in relations commissions often act as the next election. This new council liaisons between cities and citizens showed its willingness to bury its with beef. Imperfect though they collective head in the sand when may be — no subpoena power, no Heggins’ complaints resulted in enforcement mechanisms, no real nothing but her paid leave in June. teeth — human relations commisHigh Point is a divided city on sions have a specific mission. many fronts. In Winston-Salem it works “for Remember, this is a city that has the elimination of discrimination in yet to hold an African-American any and all fields of human relationmayor for a full term, where efforts ships.” to make a proper Martin Luther Greensboro’s human relations King Jr. Drive met with strong recommission aims to “improve the sistance until earlier this year, where quality of life for Greensboro resiincome inequality, food insecurity dents by encouraging fair treatment and general injustice disproportionand promoting mutual understandately affect the 35 percent of the ing and respect….” city that happens to be black. High Point’s human relations Alexander and those he speaks for commission has dealt more this year have one thing right: These truths with internal issues than its stated are uncomfortable. Until they’re mission to investigate complaints of addressed, they always will be.

CITIZEN GREEN

Splitting voters up to maintain party rule When the time. (The Republicans helpfully drew the Republican-conwhite incumbent, a powerful appropriations trolled General chair, out of the new district.) Assembly redrew The civil rights establishment has argued the lines for state that, to the contrary, the maps violate the legislative seats Voting Rights Act by preventing black voters — not to mention from building coalitions with progressive imposing a rediswhite voters to effectively promote their by Jordan Green tricting plan on the political agenda. Based on voting behavior in Guilford County Commission — in 2011, they previous elections, they argue, increasing the effectively busted up an urban-rural coalition percentage of African Americans in a handful of voters that had allowed Democrats to of districts is not necessary under the Voting maintain the upper hand. Rights Act to ensure that minorities have the Urban districts built around a political base opportunity to elect a candidate of choice. To of either African Americans or white liberals their point, if the maps don’t actually dilute also reached into rural parts of the county to the black vote, they certainly muffle the black pick up moderate white voters who still reflexpolitical voice. ively voted Democrat. Civil rights lawyers went beThe new configuration sent fore the NC Supreme Court home state Sen. Don Vaughan In a brilliant ploy to on Monday to argue against and Rep. Maggie Jeffus the 2011 North Carolina confuse and divide redistricting plan, bolstered by — both white Democrats — and created a new suba recent US Supreme Court their opponents, urban-rural coalition, where decision reversing a district the Republican white conservative voters court ruling that upheld a lawmakers adroitly similar plan in Alabama. predominated and could be counted on to keep RepubliThe US Supreme Court cited the Voting can lawmakers in office. Hello, ruled that the Alabama legRights Act as their Trudy Wade. islature and the district court Were the mapmakers guide for the maps. misinterpreted the Voting inspired by political or racial Rights Act by asking how they motivations? In the South, could maintain the existing where black voters are the bedrock of the minority percentages in majority-minority progressive movement, it’s practically impossidistricts rather than asking to what extent they ble to untangle the two. Even during the early must preserve existing minority percentages 1960s, when Southern white politicians were to protect minority voters’ ability to elect the actively and brutally suppressing the black candidate of its choice. vote, they were motivated as much by the Lawyers challenging the 2011 North Carolidesire to hold onto power as racial ideology, na redistricting plan focused on the number of whether they personally harbored racism in split precincts in predominantly African-Amertheir hearts or not. ican districts, according to a report by Sharon In a brilliant ploy to confuse and divide their McCloskey at NC Policy Watch. opponents, the Republican lawmakers adroitly “When district lines go block by block to cited the Voting Rights Act as their guide for divide voters, divide neighbors into different the maps. They packed increasing numbers of districts because of their race, even in counties African Americans into Democratic-leaning where candidates of choice of African-Amerdistricts, arguing that it would give minority ican voters have experienced long and voters a better opportunity to elect a presubstantial political success, the electorate’s ferred candidate of choice. And indeed, the confidence in the integrity of democracy is unnew maps changed the demography of the dermined,” Anita Earls, one of the lawyers for urban Senate District 32 in Winston-Salem the plaintiffs, reportedly told the NC Supreme sufficiently that an African American, Earline Court. Parmon, could carry the district for the first Of the dozens of minority-majority districts

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cited in briefs submitted to the court by the challengers, Senate District 32 in Winston-Salem — currently represented by Sen. Paul Lowe — had the highest number of split precincts. The list also includes Senate District 28, represented by Sen. Gladys Robinson, and House District 57, represented by Rep. Pricey Harrison, both in Guilford County, each with 15 split precincts. “When precincts are split to create bizarrely shaped districts, it becomes harder for voters to participate in the political process,” Earls continued. “It’s harder for them to know which district they live in, who represents them. It’s harder for candidates to know who’s in their district.” Court battles over redistricting typically move at a snail’s pace: The challenge to the 2001 North Carolina redistricting plan put in place when the state legislature was controlled by Democrats wasn’t resolved until 2009. By then, the corrections were largely moot, as the party’s reign was about to end. But there’s no reason to think another change of the guard is likely in 2021, so maybe patience with efforts to remedy the Republicans’ racial gerrymander is in order.

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IT JUST MIGHT WORK

Craft ice cream

I should start by saying that not only do I think a craft ice cream shop might work, I know it works. One of the highlights of my trip to Portland, Ore. was going to Salt & Straw, a little ice-cream shop with a line that’s constantly stretched to the sidewalk. Salt & Straw uses seasonal and local ingredients — cucumbers, olives, carrots, tomatoes, by Daniel Wirtheim cauliflower and watermelon — in their mix. I’ve been thinking about the pear and bleu cheese ice cream I ate from a house-made waffle cone. It could only be challenged by the texture of my brother’s olive-oil ice cream. Salt & Straw’s philosophy is that ice cream is a dynamic food that works well with savory ingredients. It means that ice cream doesn’t have to be full of sugar to be delicious. It’s about using the texture of the cream as a floor for the ingredients to slow dance around your taste buds. What I thought would just be a novelty gave me a whole new lens for seeing dessert. Even my taste-conservative mother, who didn’t want to go to an ice-cream place where cauliflower was on the menu, changed her tune after a scoop of strawberry balsamic black pepper. The thing is, people are hungry for creative ice cream; they just don’t know it. Homeland Creamery has a great product, but the furthest they go to break the mold is cake batter. All I’m saying is that they can do better. “Craft” is a buzzword but it also sets a good standard for products. It pushes businesses to put a local stamp on their goods, and the craft mentality fuels ingenuity. Think of all the collaboration with local farms and small businesses a craft creamery would encourage. There’d be a flavor using mulberries from Lake Daniel Park and Broad Branch Distillery would have another. The point would be to make flavors that distinguish a community. Serving up cream that tells a story of North Carolina agriculture is how you’d brand it. The same philosophy is already working for craft brewing companies. The Triad’s craft beer industry is quickly making a name for itself. Ice cream is something that crosses more demographics and age groups than beer and could be endorsed by nearly any organization that isn’t vegan. The whole frozen yogurt thing is past its prime. It was a nice break from ice cream for a while, but most of the allure comes from topping bars or probiotics that can be easily found in kombucha. Craft ice cream doesn’t rely on any of those gimmicks; it’s for serious ice-cream eaters and serious business.

FRESH EYES

A Canadian at the gun show When I was a young boy growing up in Canada my parents told my siblings and me that guns are something to be feared, not admired. They candidly told by Chris Nafekh us: If you find a gun somewhere, don’t touch it. If a friend pulls one out, call home. And if someone points a gun at you, run the other way. I never had to employ that advice, unlike many other kids — nobody I knew in the North owned a gun except my best friend’s father who was a cop. That’s why my nerves thickened when I walked into the Greensboro Coliseum this past weekend. I felt like a cat in a dog pound. Danger surrounded me and the hundreds of strangers who swarmed to purchase guns and ammunition, but it didn’t faze them a bit. The Greensboro Knife and Gun show happens twice a year. About 300 arms vendors set up shop to buy and sell a mass of firearms to American citizens exercising their Second Amendment rights with little restriction. Although North Carolina law requires a permit to purchase and carry handguns, no state regulations exist for selling and carrying rifles or shotguns — people walked out of the coliseum with automatic weapons in hand. Only a handful of police officers meandered about the concrete convention center, and lax coliseum security allowed people to walk in without tickets. Tables upon tables displayed an amalgam of weaponry. Kalashnikovs, like the one used in an attempted French train hijack only weeks ago, stood on pedestals. A mother, bouncing a baby against her chest, used her free hand to fondle a small, pink-handled pistol. In front of her lay a table of coal-black handguns. Her baby seemed uninterested, but fathers and sons throughout the coliseum marveled at the sheer amount of lethal weapons. At one table labeled “Friends of NRA,” two men named John and Bob, who declined to give their last names, conducted a fundraiser. “It’s a quote ‘semiautomatic,’” John described one of three firearms sitting to his right. “In other words… you squeeze the trigger and it goes rat-a-tat until the magazine is empty.” Raffle tickets scattered across their table. Underneath the semi automatic — an armalite .223 rifle — lay a

Remington 45 caliber handgun and a Kel Tec 12 gauge shot gun. “If you win you win all three.” John said pointing towards the prizes. Gun culture has become normalized in America, where a complacency with violence allows mass shootings to continue on a regular basis. To a Canadian, and I’m sure to plenty of Americans, this is frightening. For 10 years I’ve lived in North Carolina working with and befriending Americans. I eat their food, speak their language, even applied for dual citizenship. Yet, gun culture confounds me. Anybody could’ve bought, or won, an automatic rifle and ammo at the coliseum this weekend, no matter the state of her mental health or criminal record, and leave no trace. After the death of nine Charleston churchgoers, President Obama delivered a speech calling for gun regulation while close to tears. The media and politicians quickly redirected the conversation towards the Confederate flag. Usually, when there’s a mass shooting the media talks about adopting smarter gun policy for a week or two. Congress doesn’t respond and life goes on. We forget until the next shooting, when more people die from pointless violence and the cycle repeats. At the gun show, members of the National Rifle Association actively recruited people from a small corner booth. One recruiter wore a “Ted Cruz 2016” shirt and referred to President Obama as an “overreaching tyrant” more than once. Like most people, he declined to give his name due to a mistrust of the media. There’s a long history of distrust between the American government and its people; it reminds me I’m still a foreigner. In Canada, rifles are reserved for hunters to feed their families and handguns for policemen to preserve law and order. Mass shootings rarely happen up north because of the cultural climate. Canadians trust their government; Americans typically don’t. As an outsider looking in, watching people spend lighthearted family time together celebrating the most deadly weapons available in this state, it bewildered every preconceived notion I held about gun culture. I thought a small number of folks merely appreciated their right to bear arms by keeping shotguns in the closet or small handguns in purses. But masses of families gathered to browse gun collections together, as if visiting the county fair. As I left the coliseum, three children, two boys and a girl, poked one another giggling as they ran towards the parking lot. Their father, toting a shotgun over his shoulder, followed not too far behind.

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No easy

walk Two cities’ cycling and pedestrian infrastructure in the post-sprawl age

by Jordan Green

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Bill Petrie has suffered from various health complications related to high blood pressure since he was diagnosed in 2010. He got his blood pressure back down through medication, and once his doctor cleared him, he started riding short distances on his bicycle — no more than five miles at a time. A Winston-Salem native, the 45-year-old Petrie moved back from Durham recently, and by that time he had started riding his bike to work. He lives out in the county at the north end of the city near SciWorks, and commutes into downtown. At first, before he built up his endurance, he would drive partway and park his car at Reynolda Village, and then finish his trip to his job at Downtown Perk on his bike. “It’s helped me shed about 35 to 40 pounds,” Petrie told me. “Some of it I’ve put back on, and I’m going to have to be more aggressive. It’s a family-genetic thing. With cycling, I’m not having to graduate to more powerful drugs. I’m on an entry-level drug.” Both Winston-Salem and Greensboro are actively trying to reduce barriers to cycling and walking through investment in bike lanes, sidewalks, pedestrian signalization and other infrastructure. Outside the two cities’ densely developed downtowns and areas around some university campuses and hospitals, cyclists and pedestrians still generally encounter a hostile and even dangerous environment. The inertia of 70 years of auto-oriented sprawl is hard to overcome. Beyond college students and knowledge-based workers gravitating to Winston-Salem’s Innovation Quarter, Petrie is part of a small cohort of residents who are actively incorporating cycling and walking into their lifestyles as transportation options. The 2015 Bicycle, Pedestrian and Greenways Master Plan Update, or BiPed Update, which is set for final approval by the Greensboro Metropolitan Planning Organization on Sept. 23, provides a stark picture of the terrain for cyclists and pedestrians in both cities. “Like many other cities across the United States, especially in the South, the historic roadway development pattern in Greensboro since the 1940s was focused almost exclusively on easy automobile access and mobility to the exclusion of other modes,” the plan reads. “The goal clearly seems to have been to enable smooth and unobstructed motorized traffic with very little to no consideration of pedestrians, bicyclists and land-use implications. This approach created an unbalanced development pattern where alternative choices such as walking and biking became inconvenient, unattractive and dangerous.” The bicycle and pedestrian plans for both cities emphasize to varying degrees investment in a well connected network of bicycle, pedestrian and greenway facilities to create healthy and livable communities. While Greensboro started adding bike lanes and adopted its first bi-ped plan in 2006, the city has made only halting progress due to lack of funding. Meanwhile, Winston-Salem has aggressively moved forward with plans to add bike lanes across the city with bond funds approved by voters last year that are specifically earmarked for the project. Winston-Salem is also a step ahead of Greensboro in adopting transportation policies that put cyclists and pedestrians on equal footing with motorized vehicles. The Winston-Salem Metropolitan Planning Organization, or MPO, a local intergovernmental entity that incorporates all the municipalities in Forsyth County, has adopted a Complete Streets policy, in contrast to its counterpart in Greensboro. The Greensboro bi-ped plan recommends that the MPO and city adopt the policy. As the plans spells out: “In contrast with automobile-focused street design, the goal of complete streets is to enable all users to access destinations safely, including pedestrians, bicyclists, motorists and transit users.” Spring Garden Street, which bisects UNCG and connects the campus to student housing in the west and downtown in the east, is cited in the plan as “an example of a complete street, with sidewalks, bike lanes and transit.” While the state of North Carolina adopted a Complete Streets policy in

September 2 — 8, 2015

Cover Story Don Noakes, a CPA who works from home, takes a break to get in a ride on a stretch of Northwest Boulevard in Winston-Salem retrofitted with a dedicated bike lane.

2009 and released design guidelines in 2012, the state hasn’t always been a reliable partner to the cities. “Unfortunately, this policy is more of a paper policy than a consistent implementation practice,” the Greensboro bi-ped plan states. “For example, NCDOT sometimes declines to provide sufficient space for bicycle accommodations on new bridge replacements unless the locals agree to pay for the extra width, even where such accommodations are provided for in an adopted pedestrian and bicycle plan.” While transportation planners in Greensboro were carping about the state stinting on its obligations, voters in Winston-Salem approved a $42.4 million streets and sidewalks bond last year. “Eight-hundred-thousand dollars of those funds was dedicated to bicycle-lane construction, mostly striping on the streets,” Matthew Burczyk, the city’s bicycle and pedestrian coordinator, said. “When we were gathering projects we looked at our bicycle master plan and we looked at the top priorities. Eight or 10 years ago that project was put together. There was a list of projects that the planners and citizens thought were priorities. About 12 bicycle-lane projects are scheduled for the next year and a half.” The bond sets aside $10 million for sidewalk construction and repair, but the big-ticket item is street resurfacing, at a cost of $15.3 million. Street resurfacing is one infrastructure investment that benefits both motorists and

cyclists. “Street resurfacing, while it does primarily help motor vehicles, it’s also done as a service for cyclists,” Burczyk said. “If a street is bumpy it can be uncomfortable for drivers, but it can be really treacherous for cycling.” Beyond the consideration of safety for cyclists, street resurfacing also literally lays the groundwork for significant investment in bike infrastructure. As both Burczyk and Daniel Amstutz — his counterpart with the city of Greensboro — pointed out, street resurfacing provides an opportunity to add striping for bike lanes. Cities can also add “shared lane markings,” which both encourage cycling and alert motorists to be more aware. More radical adjustments include lane reductions that make room for bike lanes while shortening the distance required for pedestrians to cross the street. Greensboro’s bi-ped plan plainly states that the overall condition of the city’s street system is “poor.” The plan cites a “pavement condition survey” commissioned by the city in 2012, which found that to address immediate needs by resurfacing 342.9 miles, the city would have to spend about $97.7 million. The city’s bi-ped plan recommends construction of 268 centerline miles of bike lanes, 20 miles of cycletrack to be segregated from motorized traffic and 41 miles of shared lane markings by 2035. The city acknowledges that implementation in the bike infrastructure plan “is held back by

DANIEL WERTHEIM

deferred street maintenance.” Since 2006, when the first bike lanes were painted onto Spring Garden and Florida streets, the city has added 1.5 centerline miles per year. “It is impossible to implement all the recommended bicycle facilities within the timeframe of the plan at this rate,” the document reads. “Therefore it is critical to meeting the bicycle facility implementation targets that the city significantly increases investment in the annual resurfacing budget.” The city’s underinvestment in sidewalk maintenance comes across as even more scandalous in the report. “In recent years, Greensboro has cut street repair budgets, with which sidewalk maintenance has been grouped, using the savings to close citywide budget gaps, to help pay for other short-term priorities such as more police officers and projects such as the Greensboro Aquatic Center and natural Science Center expansion, and to minimize increases in local tax rates,” the report states. “Repair of sidewalk, to include retrofit of noncompliant curb ramps, has been backlogged for many years and has only recently had a concerted effort to improve the worst areas. Sidewalks in disrepair affect all users, especially those using wheelchairs, walkers and strollers.” The city spends $200,000 per year on sidewalk repair, which covers about three-quarters of a mile. At that rate, staff projects, it would take 82 years to bring all sidewalks rated as “poor” up to good condition, “at which point

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Bike parking at the Morehead Trailhead of the Downtown Greenway is part of a high-concept design emphasizing public art and community for Greensboro’s signature pedestrian facility.

many more segments of sidewalk will deteriorate and slip into the ‘poor’ category.” The city started retrofitting its roadways by adding sidewalks in 2003, after mandating that developers install sidewalks for all new residential and commercial construction. But it’s difficult to gauge the city’s progress in filling in the sidewalk gap because of incompatible measurement systems — streets are measured by the centerline while sidewalks are measured separately on either side of the roadway. In contrast to the fuzzy picture in Greensboro, the portion of streets in the Winston-Salem MPO that lack sidewalks has been clearly quantified: 65 percent.

Cyclists are a frequent sight in downtown Winston-Salem, particularly on West Fourth and Trade streets. The two dieted roadways have long been narrowed to two lanes, slowing motorized traffic, while wide sidewalks and on-street parking provide safety and comfort for pedestrians. On the western periphery of the central business district, Burke Street serves cyclists as a convenient conduit between downtown and the healthcare and retail hub strung between Baptist Hospital and Thruway Shopping Center that flanks the northern rim of the Ardmore neighborhood. On-street parking and a string of thriving

pedestrian-oriented businesses on Burke Street already make the corridor copacetic for cycling, and shared lane markings only enhance the comfort level. On a recent visit to the street, I counted cyclists traveling in either direction at a rate of roughly one every six minutes. Another example of the city’s investment in bicycle infrastructure is a section of bike lane on Northwest Boulevard from Hawthorne Road to Reynolda Road that passes Wiley Middle School and Hanes Park. Cyclists dressed in spandex share the corridor with a number of runners, emphasizing recreation and fitness over necessity or conveyance. I briefly chatted with Don Noakes, a certified public accountant. “For me, it’s a break from work, and it’s cardio,” he said. “I work in the house from my desk, and I get up and ride 10 or 15 miles.” He said he generally sticks to Northwest Boulevard, although he sometimes makes detours into downtown to take in the scenery. Daniel Wirtheim — the Triad City Beat intern and photographer for this story — and I watched a woman in a motorized wheelchair roll down the bike lane and cross the busy intersection at Reynolda Road. With the bike lane ending she rolled onto the curb ramp and continued on the sidewalk. Clearly, at least in some cases, bike lanes and sidewalks are used more for necessity than recreation.

JORDAN GREEN

A proposed bike expressway — or pedestrian/biking path separated from motorized traffic — along Business 40 linking Liberty Street at the eastern end of the downtown with Baptist Hospital is one of the big projects on the drawing boards. Meanwhile, a greenway flanking the new Salem Creek Connector will provide a new southeasterly pedestrian and biking connection between downtown and Winston-Salem State University. And the city is sharing costs with the Wake Forest Innovation Quarter to complete a trail along a discontinued raised rail line from Fourth Street down to both the Salem Creek Connector greenway and Business 40 pathway. In the short term, the city has funds for resurfacing and painting bike lanes on several street segments radiating from the central business district in all directions. Burczyk easily reeled off a list of Winston-Salem streets that are slated for new bike lanes in the next year: Fifth Street, Old Greensboro Road, Waughtown Street, Cleveland Avenue, Liberty Street from Patterson to 14th, Trade Street from Fourth Street to Glenn Avenue, Academy Street, Hawthorne Road, part of Stratford Road and a new section of Northwest Boulevard that turns into 14th Street. The area within a five-mile radius around the city center containing old-line neighborhoods built with sidewalks before World War II might present the best opportunities for walking and biking, Burczyk said, adding that maybe the city should focus its efforts there.

September 2 — 8, 2015

Walking and biking, by the numbers Percentage of streets in the Winston-Salem metro planning area that lack sidewalks: 65 Number of years it will take to bring Greensboro sidewalks rated as “poor” up to standard, at the city’s current rate of spending: 82 Number of pedestrian crashes in Winston-Salem between 2002 and 2011: 700+ Number of bicycle crashes in Winston-Salem between 2002 and 2011: 300+ Number of bicycle crashes in Greensboro between 2007 and 2012: 288

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Number of pedestrian crashes involving a motorist in Greensboro between 2007 and 2012: 848 Number of pedestrian crashes at Greensboro’s most dangerous intersection, South Aycock Street and Walker Avenue, between 2007 and 2012: 7 Number of pedestrian crashes at Greensboro’s third most dangerous intersection, Campus Drive and Westover Terrace, between 2007 and 2012: 4 Amount of money earmarked for street resurfacing in Winston-Salem (in millions of dollars): 15.3 Amount of money the city of Greensboro would have to spend on street resurfacing to meet immediate needs (in millions of dollars): 97.7 A cyclist uses the bike lane on a section of Spring Garden Street bisecting UNCG in Greensboro.

Beyond that, it’s a forbidding territory. Bill Petrie, who commutes to his job at Downtown Perk from his home out in the county, said he maintains a healthy respect for cars. Riding on suburban thoroughfares and rural roads is dangerous, maybe even more so than when he was growing up in Winston-Salem. “I follow the mantra of ‘no shortcuts,’” he told me. “One time I cut through a parking lot at the corner of Reynolda Road and Fairlawn Drive. They had strung up a wire across the parking lots that I couldn’t see. I’ve still go scars on my arm to prove it. It about took my head off. I was laying there in the parking lot. Nobody helped me. Ever since then, I don’t cut through parking lots or get up off the road onto the sidewalk.” Petrie hosts the weekly Winston-Salem Community Bike Ride every Sunday evening. The rides usually start at a location near the city center and loop around 10 miles to explore a different a side of town each week. The group rides slow and no one is left behind. “It’s not where you live; it’s how you live that’s going to

DANIEL WERTHEIM

determine the quality of your life,” Petrie said. “It’s not about speed; it’s about enjoying yourself and feeling safe. It’s a confidence builder: You go out into an intersection and you’re exposed on four sides. There’s nothing to protect you when you go through six lanes. That gives you a sense of confidence: I did this. “We do ride the greenways, but that’s not always an option,” he continued. “We stick to the bike lanes and the low-traffic roads. I scout the roads the week before. I send out a newsletter. I try to give people a heads-up: This part might be hilly.” The idea is that cycling should be accessible to people of all ages and levels of fitness. Just as Petrie embraces a philosophy of “no shortcuts,” he also follows what he calls the “kindergarten rules.” “You need to wait in line instead of moving forward,” he said. “There are two schools of thought. Some people see a line of cars and cruise right past them. But you don’t know what the car in front is going to do — if they’re suddenly going to make a turn.”

It should come as no surprise that most of Greensboro’s cycling is concentrated in downtown and the Spring Garden Street corridor that runs westward to UNCG and beyond. The city has installed more than 100 short-term bike racks, mostly around downtown. But UNCG has truly embraced the trend, installing 866 bicycle parking facilities and four bike-repair stations, according to the Greensboro bi-ped plan. “They’ve got very few parking spaces, compared to the number of staff and students,” Bicycle & Pedestrian Coordinator Daniel Amstutz told me. “They’re really trying to push alternative transportation.” The city’s marquee alternative transportation project is the Downtown Greenway, which when complete will circle downtown and form a hub for a future greenway network. Only 0.7 miles of the planned four-mile greenway is currently complete, including the southwest corner and a

short segment on the north side. Although the greenways are considered a vital part of the city’s pedestrian transportation network, the system so far has limited connectivity and tilts to the affluent northwest side of town. The Atlantic & Yadkin Greenway, named after a rail line that once connected Greensboro to a granite mine in Mount Airy, runs from Summerfield down to Markland Drive in Greensboro, hugging Battleground Avenue. The Lake Daniel Greenway carves a northwesterly arc from Cone Hospital to Wesley Long Hospital adjacent to old-line neighborhoods like Westerwood, Lake Daniel and Latham Park. And the Bicentennial Greenway cuts skirts the suburbs from Guilford Courthouse National Military Park to West Market Street near Piedmont Triad International Airport. The completion of the Atlantic & Yadkin Greenway and the western leg of the Downtown Greenway will require the conversion of a rail spur line. One major hurdle fell away in November 2014 when Chandler Concrete, the last rail user, sold its property and terminated its service with the railroad company, according to the bi-ped plan. The eventual connection of the two greenways dovetails with developer and restaurateur Marty Kotis’ ongoing development of the area he’s dubbed “Midtown.” The Southeast Greenway is one of the few sections of network that reaches into predominantly African-American areas of the city. Branching off the southwestern corner of the Downtown Greenway, it follows Freeman Mill Road to Sussman Street, where a crosswalk across Randleman Road connects it to the Smith Homes public housing community. The bi-ped plan characterizes the trail as supporting the city’s “goal to improve and enhance greenway connections in underserved areas.” Although the bi-ped plan states that the greenway was completed in 2013, the asphalt looks worn with uneven edging. During a visit just before dusk on Sunday, I couldn’t find a single person on the greenway. I also found myself

DANIEL WERTHEIM

alone during a late-afternoon run on the same greenway a couple months ago. On a forbidding stretch of the Southeast Greenway between Gate City Boulevard and Whitman Street, there were few features of visual interest, with the exception of a flock of geese facing down a fleet of industrial earthmovers at the construction site of a new Boys and Girls Club by the Warnersville neighborhood. As for bike lanes, in the absence of bond funds set aside for the initiative, new investment has to piggyback on larger road projects. Amstutz said that the widening of Horse Pen Creek Road at the city’s northwest fringe will include a bike lane. And the city is considering adding a cycletrack separated from motorized traffic on a downtown section of Church Street that runs past the Central Library. “Bike lanes are going to be a part of Lindsay Street, Yanceyville Street, and a lot of roads on the east side,” Amstutz said. “In general, there’s less congestion on the east side. English Street is another one. We want to fill in the gaps on Florida Street and Meadowview Road.” As the Downtown Greenway is completed and more cyclists come into the center city, Amstutz said he anticipates additional demand for cycling infrastructure on downtown streets. The city’s interest in improving connectivity for cyclists and pedestrians leads to a focus on “missing links.” For example, Amstutz said city staff has talked about adding bike lanes on Aycock Street between Walker Avenue and Benjamin Parkway to provide a link between UNCG and the Lake Daniel Greenway, but the ramps off Friendly Avenue and West Market Street pose a challenge. Amstutz said the city plans to improve the crosswalk at Aycock Street and Walker Avenue, a chokepoint for UNCG students walking to class in the morning that is identified in the bi-ped plan as the city’s most dangerous intersection for pedestrians. Plans to address Westover Terrace and Campus Drive,

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A woman maneuvers up a narrow sidewalk along Northwest Boulevard in Winston-Salem after crossing Reynolda Road.

identified as the third most dangerous intersection for pedestrians, are less definite. The Westover Terrace crossing connects Grimsley High School to the Lake Daniel neighborhood. Amstutz said staff has talked about dieting Westover Terrace from Benjamin Parkway to Wendover Avenue by reducing car lanes and adding bike lanes, and adding a median and protective refuge for pedestrians. The project is still at the conceptual stage because of reservations by city traffic engineers, Amstutz said, adding, “It’s kind of on the upper bounds of their comfort level.” When a section of roadway carries about 20,000 vehicles a day, as Westover Terrace does, the level of traffic is generally considered too high to make it a good candidate for dieting. “I’m not an engineer, but my opinion or understanding is that it’s more of a convenience factor” Amstutz said. “It’s more of a traffic-flow factor about getting people through the intersection. It’s hard to say it would be a safety [concern]. When you reduce the lanes you’re forcing people to go slower because the lanes are also narrower. Safety should be improve d when it comes to taking a roadway with a lot of traffic and trying to shrink it.” There’s no hard data on the number of people who are walking and cycling in either city. The Greensboro bi-ped plan suggests “walking for recreation is not uncommon,” adding the practice appears to be on a continual decline as a means of transportation. Whether for recreation, health or necessity, for some it’s essential. I encountered Michael P. Funderburk, a 31-year-old landscaper, walking home from church on Gate City Boulevard at dusk on Sunday. He said he took up walking at his girlfriend’s suggestion. “In this day and age people my age should get out and walk instead of watching TV and playing videogames,” he told me. “It’s been encouraged by our government for decades to improve health and wellbeing.” He had some trouble with the heat earlier this summer, so now he generally schedules his walks for the evening. “Take a bottle of water,” he advised. “Every 15 minutes sit down and take a break. Don’t drink no soda. Gatorade’s okay, but soda actually makes you more thirsty. I have heart problems, so I easily get overheated.” In Winston-Salem, Matthew Burczyk said he expects that downtown redevelopment and increased density will drive more biking and walking trips. But outlying neighborhoods will pose a greater challenge. “You can put in walking trails, but when a school and a store is far away, people are going to continue to drive there,” Burczyk said. While an overlapping network of sidewalks, bike lanes and greenways is a stated goal of the city, the city’s bicycle and pedestrian planning document acknowledges that “it will be many years before the Winston-Salem urban area has a complete network” of the three types of facilities. “It took 60 to 70 years to get where we are now from World War II,” Burczyk said. “It’s going to take multiple years to get walkable and bike-able communities. It’s going to take time to retrofit the old streets and put in sidewalk.”

September 2 — 8, 2015 Up Front News Opinion Cover Story

FOOD

by Chris Nafekh

Of mountains and malt First Friday Tasting with Highland Brewing @ Beer Co. (GSO), Friday Hailing from the earthy green hills of Asheville, Highland Brewing pays Greensboro a visit to share samples of several craft beers like its Gaelic ale, oatmeal porter and Kashmir-English style IPA. For more information, visit highlandbrewing.com. Sit, stay, salud! Pints and Patties for Paws @ the Bunker at Natty Greene’s Brewing Co. (GSO), Saturday Rolling over to wrestle with a big fluffy dog intoxicates the soul like a nice stiff drink. The dogs, who probably love the extra playful dispositions of their inebriated owners, get to meet other dogs and have a cool time too. For more information visit nattygreenes. com. Next stop, Noshington Tour de Food @ Jeffrey Adams (W-S), Saturday A weekly walk downtown starts at Jeffrey Adams and hits several hotspots through the arts district. Barbecue, desert and entrées by the city’s celebrated chefs are all represented on this stroll through satisfaction. For more information, visit tourdefood.com.

Music

Food

Banquet

Art

A sweet-corn budino with house cornflakes and a blackberry/buttermilk sherbet started out the evening for Megan Peters’ four-course dessert tasting at Black Mountain Chocolate in Winston-Salem.

Sinking into sweet certainty at a dessert dinner

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ERIC GINSBURG

ary’s Gourmet Diner

(336) 723-7239

breakfastofcourse.com

by Eric Ginsburg

happens unintentionally. Somewhere in the middle of her sentence describing the peach-pit liqueur, creamy brandied marscarpone and poached peaches that went into this second dessert course, I zone out. Not for any of the usual reasons, like boredom or a wandering mind, but because when Megan Peters is describing her craft, the combination of her gentle cadence and her subject matter is soothing. Soothing in a way that, were she to record herself reading the ingredients and describing her process for her various dessert tasting dinners, people might buy it and play it on loop to lull them to sleep. It’s a Friday night, and Peters is hosting a four-course dessert dinner at the back of Black Mountain Chocolate where she works. To say the scene is

boutique factory. Two walls are exposed intimate would be an understatement brick, one of which includes a glass — there are just 12 of us, with two garage door allowing for easy viewing complete strangers sitting maybe a foot away on the other side of one of three onto Trade Street. The neighbors in the complex — a flashy tattoo parlor and small tables. a lounge — aren’t Before Peters quite ready to open, walks over to tell us After eight dessert-tasting but there’s a steady all that went into flow of people into this second dish, dinners at Black Mountain the front of the the two friends are Chocolate, Megan Peters is discussing online chocolate busitaking an indefinite break ness where Peters’ dating, and though but she will be teaching creations are for I do my best to sale between the avoid listening, our classes at Southern Home chocolate bars and proximity made it & Kitchen (W-S) this fall. gelato. impossible to call Peters is the it eavesdropping rather than just overhearing. 28-year-old pastry consultant and chocolatier for Black Mountain Chocolate, The dimly lit room with tea candles a native of Winston-Salem who studied on the tables is where the first step of baking and pastry arts at Wake Tech. the chocolate-making process hapShe would most aptly be described as pens at the downtown Winston-Salem

in the final course that also included a hard, dark chocolate and blueberry and strawberry cream macarons. That’s one of the signs of the strengths of Peters’ menus; there isn’t a clear favorite and a strong argument could be made for any component. The best approach really is to consider the affair in full, taking into account the residual smell of chocolate in the room because of the manufacturing that happens here by day alongside the multifaceted approach of the complementary courses Peters dreamed up.

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derstand even after a quick web search on my phone. There’s a good chance Peters explained it, but her voice carried me off before I could catch the specifics. Choosing a best among the courses is almost like playing favorites with your children; each is special and rewarding in its own, unique way. But I lean towards the poached peach dish for its taste and combination of unconventional approach yet balanced and reasoned execution. A tablemate says she’s inclined to agree, though my girlfriend favors the third course and rightly so. But our counterparts at the table point to the peach lavender pate de fruit, one of the four kinds of petit fours

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percent chocolate in the third course, a delicious and appropriate foray into the experimental. When Peters walks away to another table and then back to the kitchen a few rooms away, I ask my tablemates if Peters said something about dates or figs. No, they tell me, it’s peaches, and I wonder where exactly my mind drifted. Before long, after her dad clears our bowls, Peters returns with pickled ginger gold apples, meringue sticks that look like mini candy cigarettes, persimmon, a chilly sorghum-apple sorbet and the centerpiece — a long, rectangular soft chocolate. The tasting menu refers to it as a terrine, a word I don’t fully un-

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one of the area’s most interesting and inventive chefs and one of the city’s younger talents. With the help of her dad Brent, who owns the place, Peters has already presented an offbeat opener tonight, starting with a sweet-corn budino (think pudding) with house “cornflakes” and a blackberry/buttermilk sherbet. The corn is the most prominent flavor, aided by the crunchy cornflakes that added a breakfast-like quality and evened out with the sherbet on top, all served in an adorable little glass jar. Not what you’d usually expect for a dessert, I think as I read down the menu to see what’s coming and notice the 70

Opinion Music Art

ERIC GINSBURG A SynerG beer panel at Natty Greene’s in Greensboro ended with tastings. Here, Natty’s employees Adam Glover (left) and Carlee Dempsey.

Games Shot in the Triad All She Wrote

dustry as well, pointing out that nobody is asking when the wine bubble will burst despite 7,000 wineries in the country. The points about differing perceptions of beer and wine received laughs from the audience, who seemed all too aware of the contradictions. Additional breweries would just help those that exist, Calder Preyer and other panelists agreed, as more people converted to microbrewed beer and the range of options deepened. And if the sold-out event and the energy in the room for the tastings that followed are any indication, Greensboro is far away from any sort of brewery bubble of its own.

Good Sport

sour beers. The brewery recently put out an easy-drinking rye saison as well as a more expensive (at $15 a bottle) Clingstone Perzik Lambic sour peach beer released on Aug. 28. Rose talked about how Pig Pounder has struggled with people judging its dark mild based on the color and dismissing it without tasting how much it varies from a standard stout or porter of a similar shade. In general customers have expressed a feeling that the brewery’s beers are similar in color, a concern Rose said he wonders if winemakers ever have to deal with. Mark Gibb, who co-founded Gibb’s Hundred Brewing with his wife Sasha, later drew a comparison to the wine in-

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dred, at 2,500 barrels a year and eight employees, is still a far cry from Natty Greene’s, which can churn out more barrels at its downtown brewpub than any of its compatriots. The company has hit capacity with 20,000 barrels a year at its facility across from the Greensboro Coliseum (that doesn’t include 2,900 barrels downtown) and employs almost 100 people in the city. Attendees sipped pints from the host brewery as they listened to the panel discuss changing state regulations, provide examples of unnecessary red tape and attempt to distill their business philosophies. A lack of vocal projection and somewhat drab presentations dragged the panel down at first, but a question about what excites the brewers for the future brightened the event. Sam Rose, the head brewer for Pig Pounder, said it’s exciting to be working somewhere with “a really eager community that hasn’t had a lot of experience yet,” because people are enthusiastic and willing to experiment. That led to an audience question about how the brewers would change the local consumer base if they could, bringing on some of the most interesting observations of the event. Scott Christoffel, of Natty Greene’s, said that while he wouldn’t necessarily change or condition the market, he is looking forward to wider acceptance of

Food

For the lettered members of Greensboro’s beer scene, a panel with the city’s head brewers hosted by SynerG last week held two revelations: Natty Greene’s plans to discontinue its yearround Guilford Golden beer in favor of an IPA come Jan. 1, and Preyer is about to finish a test batch of a beer it’s making in partnership with Crafted. The neighborly collaboration, a Thai-basil lemon-ginger gose, sounds fantastic. Maybe it will taste like a cross between two recent, satisfying beers — the Basil Farmhouse Ale from Fullsteam Brewery in Durham and the Ginger-Lemon Radler from Boulevard Brewing in Kansas City. But the Aug. 25 panel, followed by a tasting from Greensboro’s breweries, wasn’t necessarily aimed at the scene’s self-styled aficionados, though several of them turned out to the sold-out event in Natty Greene’s beautiful — and generally off-limits — third-floor space. Instead, the event provided an opportunity for the city’s four breweries to explain the past, present and future of their operations, with an eye towards economic impact. Here’s some quick math, for those who missed it: Pig Pounder has the smallest brewing capacity at 1,000 barrels annually, followed closely by Preyer — the city’s infant brewery — at 1,500. Gibb’s Hun-

Cover Story

by Eric Ginsburg

A beer panel and tasting

September 2 — 8, 2015 Up Front News Opinion Cover Story Food

Music Art Stage & Screen Good Sport Games Shot in the Triad All She Wrote

Setlist

MUSIC

by Jordan Green

Hitting the sauce again G. Love & Special Sauce @ the Blind Tiger (GSO), Thursday The 1990s gave us rap-metal hybrids, for better (Rage Against the Machine) and worse (Limp Bizkit). G. Love got in on the hip-hop act at the roots tip as a stylish white boy singing the blues. He returns to the form with a new album, Love Saves the Day, with guests like Lucinda Williams. You can get a taste at the Tiger. Show starts at 8:30 p.m. Twangtrust The Twang Doctors @ Luna Lounge & Tiki Bar (W-S), Friday Friends with guitars, maybe a mandolin or fiddle, a handful of songs and time to spare is as good as any place for music to start. Maybe it remains in the kitchen for a weekly Friday-night jam session, which is fine. All the better if it matriculates to the charmed little stage at Luna Lounge. Show starts at 9 p.m. Don’t look back John Coltrane International Jazz and Blues Festival @ Oak Hollow Festival Park (HP), Sept. 5-6 Oak Hollow Park may as well be a resort compared with the gritty landscape of Underhill Street, where High Point’s most famous native son grew up. I’ve always thought it was a shame that the festival couldn’t leverage Coltrane’s legacy to bring out-of-town visitors to Washington Street, the historic black business district that defined the jazz saxophonist’s early life experience. Now in it’s fifth year, the festival is becoming more surefooted in its booking, landing innovative acts like Snarky Puppy and diversifying with talent like Poncho Sanchez, while easing away from the smooth jazz and watered-down R&B that characterized earlier outings. The festival starts at 3 p.m. on Saturday. Visit coltranejazzfest.com for more info. Wayward sons of gore Gwar @ Ziggy’s (W-S), Sept. 6 When I was growing up in Kentucky in the late ’80s, there was a distinct division between the punk and metal camps (guess where I landed?). Gwar, from Richmond, Va., was one metal band that crossed the divide. Maybe it was the sheer brutality of their music that broke down the walls or their over-the-top gory face-masks. How can anyone resist a metal band with the sense of humor to cover Kansas’ “Carry on Wayward Son” or the Pet Shop Boys’ “West End Girls”? Show starts at 7:45 p.m.

Beth McKee, Jeffrey Dean Foster, Juan Perez and Tommy Malone (l-r) held a jam session at SECCA.

JORDAN GREEN

Like New Orleans, musicians persevere and shine by Jordan Green

I am full of questions, searching for solutions,” Beth McKee sings on “Break Me Down,” the second track on her new album Sugarcane Revival. “Believing I will make it if I can find my confidence. Nobody said it’s easy to fight against the current. I chose this direction, I’ll take all the consequences. Rowing up the river of doubt, I’m about to wear myself out.” The themes of willful independence and communal resilience abounding in the new album also sum up the spirit of New Orleans 10 years after the landfall of Hurricane Katrina. Likewise, they’re a pretty fair characterization the group of talented musicians McKee drew together to mark the anniversary at the

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Southeast Center for Contemporary Art, or SECCA, in Winston-Salem on Aug. 29. A native Mississippian, McKee has lived in different parts of the South. While honing her skills on the accordion in Austin, Texas in the late ’80s, McKee landed a job with the band Evangeline, allowing her to move to New Orleans. The band inked a deal with Jimmy Buffet’s Margaritaville imprint for MCA Records, and became a fixture on the local club scene. And while she eventually moved to Orlando, Fla. to live with her husband, Juan Perez — who is also her longtime and current drummer — McKee has maintained an enduring and affectionate relationship with New

Orleans and southern Louisiana. Reflecting on why she continued to develop her talents as a singer, musician and songwriter after her bandmates in Evangeline decided to quit, McKee said, “I was the only one who didn’t mind being poor.” Like New Orleans, Winston-Salem is a home away from home for McKee and Perez. Her sister has a house on the Yadkin River outside the city, and every summer for a couple weeks, McKee and Perez take up residence in the garage apartment. Winston-Salem serves as a base of operations for gigs in Asheville and Durham. While McKee sat for an interview on the front porch last week, Perez busied himself with a woodwork-

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Featuring a live performance by

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thursday, september 17, 6–9 pm reynolda after hours passholders free members/students $10, non-members $15

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reynoldahouse.org/harvest | 2250 Reynolda Rd.

8/28/15 11:24 AM

Music

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moved from the rollicking syncopation of Professor Longhair to the torn-andfrayed pop of early ’70s Elton John. It was evident in indomitable and sassy vocal of “Long Road Back,” the lead track from her new album. While the lyrics reflect McKee’s ambivalent relationship with her home state, they easily take on a new meaning as a mirror for the homesick Katrina evacuees unable to return to flood-damaged houses. “When I get back home I wonder who I’ll see,” McKee sang. “Won’t be no yellow ribbon tied around no tree./ Nobody’s gonna be there waiting for me./ It’s a long road back to where I’m from./ Seven hundred Sundays in the twilight zone/ I’m a prisoner condemned to roam.” For Foster, the rarified beauty snatched from privation came in an acoustic version of “Life Is Sweet,” a song from his new album The Arrow that he noted is generally played “turned up to 11.” Joyous vocals delivered with Replacements-like verve accompanied muted chords that suddenly exploded in reverberation, both percussive and infectiously melodic. They underscored the song’s coup de gras: “Life is sweet, but it doesn’t last.” And whether paying homage to his hero Ry Cooder on “How Can A Poor Man Stand Such Times and Live?” or performing “Natural Born Days,” a song about his mother, Malone nailed his material with devastatingly soulful vocals and killer guitar solos. The jam session that culminated the concert provided the most revelatory moments, whether it was a minor-key reworking of “When the Saints Go Marching In” or a raucous and uplifting cover of Hank Williams’ “I Saw the Light.” There was one moment when Malone needed to be reminded of the words of a verse in the Bobby Charles classic “Jealous Kind,” but even his banter with McKee as they worked it out was soulful. “This is a full-tilt, New Orleans-centric jam session, which means all mistakes are part of the deal,” McKee said. Perez corrected her. “There are no mistakes,” he said.

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SUMMER ON TRADE \ SATURDAYS / 7-10 PM AT SIXTH & TRADE PRESENTED BY TRULIANT FEDERAL CREDIT UNION NEXT EVENT SEPT 5 DOM FLEMONS TRIO (AMERICAN SONGSTER)

All She Wrote

ing project in the garage. Deborah Randolph, who relocated to Winston-Salem with her husband as a Katrina evacuee, had approached McKee with the idea of hosting a party at SECCA, where she serves as curator of education, to commemorate the anniversary of the storm. “New Orleanians, when they’re sad or there’s something heavy, they throw a party,” McKee said. “We put some food out and bring in some musicians to play.” McKee pulled in Tommy Malone, a New Orleans guitar player, vocalist and songwriter, for the musical gathering. Randolph introduced her to Jeffrey Dean Foster, a local singer-songwriter. During rehearsals for the Katrina anniversary concert, Foster and Perez bonded as musicians who supplement their income with house painting. Foster texted Perez a photo of a fresh coat of paint on a baseboard. “That’s a master stroke!” Perez texted back in admiration. As the musicians shared the anecdote onstage at SECCA, Foster joked, “My true profession.” Malone, seated across the stage with an electric guitar balanced on his knee, chimed in. “Hey, I’ve pushed a paintbrush,” he said. “And I’m not talkin’ about the fine arts.” The four musicians, who were joined by Colin Allured on bass and acoustic guitar, are all old enough to have grown children in college. As artists working in the various rivulets of Southern blues, country, pop and rock-and-roll music over the past three or four decades, they share a stubborn vision and a knack for eking out rarified beauty from music careers that haven’t always delivered financial rewards. Perez abetted the three singer-songwriters as an expert percussionist, able to transition with ease from Latin to country and R&B, combining with Allured on bass as a pro rhythm section. The three singer-songwriters, each an excellent instrumentalist, showed that dedication to craft and joy in the communion of making music with friends while paying homage to their forebears can repeatedly yield stunning moments of soul-baring artistry. There it was in the lustrous and richly textured vocals McKee rendered for new songs like “Promised Land” and “Abraham and Alice,” or her accomplished piano playing which effortlessly

September 2 — 8, 2015 Up Front News Opinion Cover Story

ART

by Chris Nafekh

Black bars and blotter Artist Talk: Beverly Semmes @ Weatherspoon Art Museum (GSO), Thursday Semmes’ Feminist Responsibility Project is currently on exhibit at the Weatherspoon. Abstract expressions of the female form and censored pornographic imagery speak to the artist’s commitment to sexual equity and fairness. For more information, visit weatherspoon.uncg.edu. Papa’s got a brand new bag DADA First Friday Gallery Hop @ Downtown Arts District (W-S), Friday It’s that time of the month again. Winston-Salem and Greensboro’s urban nightlife surges for an evening of music, art and entertainment. Down Sixth and Trade streets, the crowds carve a path through the city with stops at all major gallery’s in the area. Visit dadaws.org for more info. Cold, hard arts and crafts Art in the Park for Adults @ Center City Park (GSO), Sept. 8 Painting natural landscapes en plein air helps inspire raw, untethered art straight from the soul. Romantic or impressionist, realist or abstract, nothing inspires like a vantage point of Greensboro’s cityscape. Visit intothearts.org for more info.

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‘The Greensboro Piece’ took about 70,000 coffee stirrers and 12 days to make, but just 10 minutes to destroy.

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Children and families destroy installation piece by Daniel Wirtheim

first 10 kids loosely organized a line and one by one pulled off strips. Then a few started screaming, there was a shuffling of feet and the kids started grabbing what they could and tearing away. The project didn’t all fall apart at once, but rather came apart in shapeless chunks. One kid jumped and sailed into an arm of the project, pulling it down so that even smaller kids could get at it. It was beginning to resemble more of a heap of trash than anything artistic when the adults started to get in on the action. The installation housed in the Greenhill gallery until last week took about 70,000 coffee stirrers and 12 days to finish, but just 10 minutes to destroy. The Raleigh-based artist Jonathan Brilliant wanted the piece dismantled when the exhibition was over. So on Aug. 26 at least 200 adults and children showed up at the Greenhill Center to

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party and tear down the installation called “The Greensboro Piece,” which was on display at the Greenhill gallery since mid-July. Children took turns ripping apart the coffee stirrers that were held together by tension until the entire installation was diminished to a pile of sticks. Everyone was encouraged to rip a piece of the project off and take it home. Brilliant’s artist statement explains that he wanted to explore his sense that “the coffee shop and related consumer environs are more organic and nurturing than the real natural environment.” There was a feeling of coffeehouse coziness in the installation’s many nooks and coves large enough to fit a seated person. If it were not for the sheer magnitude of “The Greensboro Piece,” it might have come off as a middle school art project. But the installation did deliver some of the organic sensi-

bilities that Brilliant was going for in its movement, the way it snaked around the room and over itself. For an entire summer, Brilliant was an artist-in-residence at Greenhill. “The Greensboro Piece” was part of a larger series the artist is doing called Have Sticks Will Travel. In it, Brilliant makes prints, embosses and erects cavernous structures with coffee stirrers. Ink prints made by rolling Starbucks coffee sleeves and other abstract objects crafted from coffee stirrers line the gallery walls. There’s nothing within the art itself to suggest any higher understanding of coffee culture and it doesn’t help that Brilliant wasn’t there to explain. “Usually a curator is here to protect and serve,” Curator Edie Carpenter said. “This is the first time I’ve seen anything be destroyed here.” For Carpenter, destroying the instal-

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lation not only makes her job easier as the one in charge of dismantling the projects but also reinforces the idea that materials should “go on,” or be recycled by other artists. Tearing off a part of “The Greensboro Piece” meant keeping it as a souvenir. “I think it’s a handsome piece,” attendee Jack Stratton said. “My question is where is he going to go with this? I mean he gets grants. He’s good at getting people to do that. And there’s an art to that, I guess.” If the warmth of a shared community space was what Brilliant was going for during his residency program, he might have achieved that. A mostly crowd in semi-formal attire sipped coffee and wine while kids played within the installation space. Thirty minutes before demolition time, children were running about with fistfuls of coffee stirrers, while swathes of the installation were left bald. When destruction time came chaos ensued. By the end of the night, most everyone left with a piece of the project. The remaining pieces of “The Greensboro Piece” laid amidst the sweepers and children, who clutched their coffee stirrers like the trophies of a prized kill.

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Hot for teacher Rushmore @ Reynolda House Museum of American Art (W-S), Friday A fight for love between Bill Murray and Jason Schwartzman brings a sour rivalry to Rushmore Prep with the dramatic originality of Wes Anderson’s cult classics. This 1998 film spearheaded Anderson’s and Schwartzman’s careers while reviving Murray’s monotonous humor on the big screen. Visit reynoldahouse.org for more info. Cult of Mac Steve Jobs: The Man in the Machine @ Geeksboro Coffeehouse Cinema’s (GSO), starts Friday Alex Gibney’s documentary retells Steve Jobs’ career as a personal computer pioneer from an often overlooked angle. The cult of personality which surrounded Jobs, whose personal turmoil sometimes goes unnoticed in the most valued company on today’s international market, is an uncanny afterthought for most Apple buyers. Visit geeksboro.com for more info. Like climbing Everest, but challenging Meru @ A/perture Cinema’s (W-S), starts Friday It’s a documentary that will excite anyone’s adventurous side, especially thrill-seeking mountaineers. Conrad Anker, a renowned climber, recalls his team’s escapade to the top of Meru Peak through the Shark’s Fin route, legendary as one of the hardest climbs in the world. Visit aperturecinema.com for more information.

DeCicco and Ball play Maggie and Brick, caught in the complexity of their failing marriage.

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The lies of wealth and fortune by Chris Nafekh

second act of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof bleeds irony. Big Daddy, patriarch of the Pollitt family, revels in the news that he isn’t dying of cancer, a lie his children fed him. With a renewed lust for life, Big Daddy heckles his son Brick about the previous night when his son sprained his ankle, suggesting Brick did so while having sex with a woman. The notion that his son might be gay eludes him. The question of Brick’s sexuality is one that Tennessee Williams, renowned playwright and author of this 1955 onstage classic, never answered. Williams wrote a collection of plays, each relating to some grim aspect of the human condition. Cat on a Hot Tin Roof dramatizes the breakdown of a white Southern family a century after abolition; the death and decay of wealthy tradition breeds hatred and dismantles

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tively, whose wives constantly scratch close relationships. at one another with hateful words and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof opened on Aug. petty slights. 29 as Triad Stage’s first production of its 15th season. The theater and its crew Brick remains apathetic for most have a longstanding tradition of perof the play, sipping booze to calm his forming works by Tennessee Williams; nerves. At the beginning of the first scene he exits the shower, a glass of Suddenly Last Summer marked Triad bourbon in Stage’s first ever production in hand. His wife Triad Stage is located at 232 S. 2002. Cat on Maggie takes the a Hot Tin Roof cup as she beElm St. (GSO), and is showing sets the count at Cat on a Hot Tin Roof until Sept. gins her monologue, which six plays by the 20. For more information, visit author. takes up most of traidstage.org. the first act in a On Big Daddy’s birthday, his revealing, nonchildren gather stop narrative around him to celebrate and suck up in of the issues at hand. Brick walks to the bar to pour himself another. hopes of earning his inheritance. Envy, Broadway actress Christina DeCicco greed and mendacity tear apart Brick and his brother Gooper, played by Patplays Maggie and captures her character’s elusive motive. That is to say, it’s rick Ball and Michael Keyloun respec-

Chicago, 1950s A Raisin in the Sun @ the Barn Dinner Theatre (GSO,) starts Friday This play by Lorraine Hansberry premiered on Broadway in 1959, reflecting on racial tensions in urban areas and the morality questions surrounding assimilation. While managing the misfortunes of poverty, members of a black Younger family explore their identities as either African, American, or both. Visit barndinner.com for more info.

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Ancient Greece, modern day Aesop’s (Oh So Slightly Updated) Fables auditions @ Greensboro Cultural Center (GSO), Sept. 9 The Greek storyteller may not have authored these writings — or existed for that matter. But his fables live in the hearts of children to this day. This up-to-date performance dramatizes the Dog and the Bone, the Tortoise and the Hare and the Lion and the Mouse among other shorts. Auditions are for children in grades 4-9. For more information. Visit thedramacenter.com

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On-campus life uncovered It Stops Here @ Huggins Theatre (GSO), starts Thursday An hour-long series of vignettes — small scenes laced with humor that exemplify sexual misconduct on college campuses. Michaela Richards, a senior theatre education student at Greensboro College, wrote and directed this short play as part of her honors thesis. Visit Greensboro.edu for more info.

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hard to tell whether Maggie is committed more to her husband or her portion of Big Daddy’s will. John O’Creagh, who has acted on both stage and screen, speaks the patriarch’s lines with an accent as thick as a mouthful of tobacco. Moreover, Big Daddy represents an uneducated yet successful class of men, a role O’Creagh plays masterfully. A believable father figure, he performs with harsh, forbearing compassion. Director Preston Lane is more than passingly familiar with the Williams canon. The celebrated playwright’s appeal, according to Lane, comes from an ability to balance pessimism with beautiful language. Despite ongoing invidiousness, the Pollitt’s manage to connect on some level — Big Daddy’s relationship with Brick epitomizes that balance. “I think he’s a victim of his own self-loathing,” Lane said, referring to Brick. “What he’s self-loathing, I’ll leave it for the audience to figure out.” Throughout the play, Brick’s temper boils slowly like hot soup. As the play stirs up a rumor mill within the family, tosses in lies and adds the death of a beloved, Brick’s alcoholism builds with the action. Watching the Pollitt family interact is like watching animals in a cage. Set designer Josaphath Reynoso wanted it that way. From the base of the floor-level stage, windowpanes stretch two stories high and create the border of the boxlike set, entrapping a king-sized bed lined with gold sheets, lavish furniture and the Pollitt family standing inside. Besides the Victorian décor and cast, the stage looked as hollow as the words Maggie spoke to her husband. Despite any love the Pollitt family might hold for one another, backhanded insults and greedy motives keep the family from sympathizing with each other’s pain. The finale exposes them in a grand, dramatic gesture as they battle for inheritance. Big Daddy’s cancer begins to set in and he screams in the background as Brick, Maggie, Gooper and his wife Mae throw selfish accusations back and forth. From the outside looking in, Big Daddy could be screaming from the pain of cancer or the mendacity tearing apart his family.

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On Deck

by Anthony Harrison

Goodbye, Grasshoppers! Lakewood BlueClaws @ Greensboro Grasshoppers (GSO), Wednesday Wednesday marks your last chance of the season to catch a Grasshoppers home game. They’re playing the Lakewood BlueClaws (68-62) in the final part of a three-game homestand. Sadly, the Hoppers finish at the bottom of the division with a 48-83 record as of Monday. Seeing as they won every game I attended, maybe I should have shown up more often to support them. But, alas, a columnist’s life is oh-so busy. The game starts at 4 p.m. Midwest matchups Ohio State Buckeyes @ Wake Forest Demon Deacons (W-S), Friday The 11th ranked Wake Forest field hockey team traveled to Ann Arbor and recorded its first win against the University of Michigan. Now, the Midwest comes to the Piedmont. First, the Ohio State Buckeyes will challenge the Deacons beginning at 4 p.m. on Friday. Saturday sees Ohio State playing the Missouri State University Bears at Wake Forest’s Kentner Stadium; the Bears will then play the Deacons at noon on Sunday. For more information, visit wakeforestsports.com. And my brand-new Stetson hat Stetson University Hatters @ High Point University (HP), Friday With a name like Stetson University, how could this Florida school not name their teams the Hatters? The Hatters (2-2-0) will make the trip up to High Point to face the Panthers women’s soccer team, who have recorded a program-best start for the season with two wins and two draws. Then, the Panthers will host the University of North Florida Ospreys on Sunday. I love ospreys, but come on — the Hatters is one of the best mascot puns ever. Visit highpointpanthers.com for more information.

GOOD SPORT Underdogs and glory Americans love winners, but we relish the underdogs, too. Kevin Anderson, ranked No. 15 in the by Anthony Harrison world among the Association of Tennis Professionals, looked to have the 10th game of the second set of the Winston-Salem Open finals in the bag. The score was 40-15 in Anderson’s favor. Under the August sun, Anderson tested the bounce of the fuzzy neon Wilson balls on the blue hardcourt, tossing one to a ball boy dressed in a red polo shirt. His opponent, France’s Pierre-Hugues Herbert, had withered at more than a dozen Anderson aces; the South African would record 17 by the end of the match. But Herbert’s story wasn’t finished. Not at this point. He’d worked far too hard to allow Anderson to simply record another ace, taking the game and tying the set. If he was going down, he was going down fighting. Sure enough, Herbert thrilled Winston-Salem, if only for one final, cresting moment. The unseeded Herbert had slugged through the trenches of the qualifiers, winning eight matches before Saturday’s finals. Along the way, he’d vanquished the qualifiers’ 6th seed in the opening round as well as the 10th and 13th overall seeds. Herbert triumphed over 13th-seeded American Steve Johnson during the semifinals on Aug. 28. The crowd seemed to be rooting for Johnson, who was ranked No. 48 in the world. Not only that, but in his time at the University of Southern California, he became the most-decorated collegiate player in American history. Johnson’s pedigree served him well in the beginning. He took the first set easily, 6 games to 3, based on searing serves and aggressive returns. The second set initially seemed to go Johnson’s way, too. No matter what Johnson threw up,

Herbert stayed cool. His finesse conAgainst the odds, Herbert had some trasted Johnson’s power, and when Herheroics left in him. bert lightly bounced the ball just over The Frenchman scrapped for every the net, Johnson would sprint in vain. point. His concerted effort against Herbert’s play tired and frustrated Anderson’s aggressive play inspired the Johnson. crowd, who cheered at each little vicThe second set went into a tiebreaktory and took every chance to call out, er. Herbert took the offensive with “C’mon, Pierre!” the soft, lethal touch of his backhand. Anderson started pulling forward When Johnson smashed the ball into slowly as the sun began peeking the net after having a dog’s age to prethrough the overcast sky. pare his attack on a ball which seemed But then came Game 10. to levitate straight off the court, the Anderson’s serve rocketed into crowd let out a deep, audible gasp. All Herbert’s right corner, but Herbert manJohnson could do was scowl. aged to return. A shallow volley from Herbert’s win in the tiebreaker spelled Anderson seemed impossible to catch, Johnson’s end. The Frenchman slammed but Herbert dashed to scoop the ball aces all during the third set and took gingerly back over the net before it took it even more handily than Johnson had a second bounce. Herbert skidded, neartaken the first. ly crashing into the sideline ball boy, as Herbert was going to his inaugural Anderson lightly backhanded the ball ATP finals. But there he had to face towards Herbert’s baseline. It bounced Kevin Anderson. softly in the back court. Anderson stands very No matter how hard tall at 6-foot-8, and he Herbert scrambled, throws every inch of his there was no way he frame into his serve. In could return this one, Herbert’s story the semifinals against too. The laws of geomwasn’t finished. Tunisian Malek Jaziri, etry were against him. his serves averaged The game had to be Not at this point. 125 miles per hour; the Anderson’s. fastest clocked in at 137. But Herbert achieved By the end of the match, Jaziri used his something just short of a miracle, and racquet as a shield as the ball blazed he did it with style. toward him. Right before the ball could hop out Herbert would have his hands full. of bounds, Herbert — back to the net, By this time, though, the spectators still in front of the ball, mind — tapped launched themselves behind Herbert’s it backwards between his damn legs, Cinderella story. They accepted his vicsending it in a high arc right back totory over our American boy and reveled wards the stunned Anderson. in the romantic idea that maybe, due Disbelieving shouts of “Oh my god!” to this young man’s hard work, he’d erupted from spectators as the players triumph spectacularly. fell back into routine volleys. The first set of the finals started as a Eventually, Anderson returned a little back-and-forth affair. too hard, and the crowd exploded in apHerbert fired the crowd up after he proval. Herbert basked in the applause. fought back from 0-30 to take the first Sure, Anderson wound up taking the game. But Anderson’s serving swept tournament. But with his legendary Game 2, capped by two aces. Herbert tear through the Winston-Salem Open, matched Anderson’s aces in the third Pierre-Hugues Herbert shot up the ATP game, finishing with two of his own rankings from No. 140 to No. 21 and before Anderson could force deuce. captured the crowd’s admiration. Still, Anderson’s blistering serves After all, we love the underdog. prevailed. He took the first set with 6 games to Herbert’s 4.

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ALL SHE WROTE Selfishing — deep down inside we’re Kardashified Me: Do you like this skirt? Mother: In my day, we didn’t wear dresses to make our butts look bigger. by Nicole Crews Me: That’s because the Madison Avenue model was a skinny blonde WASP from Connecticut. Mother: As opposed to a fat-assed Armenian nobody from Calabasas?

Winston-Salem and type from Greens“Hey lady, your gym shorts are sticking out of your skirt” and “Are you okay boro for those nails to work so I just miss? You look unwell.” went with gilded nail polish or what I Despite the fact that my distended like to call “Gold Digger” in homage to our future president, Kanye. belly belongs on the cover of National Geographic — not Vogue — I’m feeling As for the face, capturing a constant fabulous above the neck about my new wide-eyed vapid expression is harder than it looks. Like Elle writer Holmes, look. I had already decidI too possess a fairly ed to go “Post-Kanye” constant “resting for my Kimmy fashion b**** face” — also Capturing a constant known as “woman debut and dress like a who has thoughts.” really slutty Trappist wide-eyed vapid After much experiMonk in monochroexpression is harder mentation I realized matic colors from head to toe that the look has less than it looks. have been sprayed to do with makeon by Maaco — so, in up and more to do with thinking like a baby who has just other words, what passes for classy in crapped its diaper at all times. (For Kanye-culture. I’ve added stilettos that what it’s worth, this is also the face offset the fact that I’m actually a bridge that Melania Trump employs at all troll with pleasing facial features. It’s times. What is it with these future First only Minute 3 and I am almost transLadies?!) formed.

To celebrate the release of Kim Kardashian’s book of selfies, Selfish, Elle magazine writer Sally Holmes decided to live like the reality star for an entire week and write about it in a four part series. I tried it for an hour. Here’s what happened.

Part 1 — Fashion

Minute one and it feels like my bladder might implode from the tightness of this bandage skirt — or maybe it’s the fourth grader’s Saint Pius X gym shorts I’m wearing underneath. (Kim recently told sisters Kylie and Kendall that she couldn’t leave the house without Spanx and since I don’t own any and SPX is the acronym for the Greensboro Catholic school, I decided to improvise with a recent Bargain Box purchase.) I’m loving the effect of the exaggerated booty from the gym shorts and I’m getting lots of well-deserved attention.

Part 2 — Beauty

Since Triad City Beat’s version of a Glamsquad is Eric Ginsburg buying a hairbrush, I was on my ownish when it came to hair and makeup. Stephanie Butler already took me to the blonde stage of Kimye so I cut a middle part, straightened the Middle East out of my locks and called it a day. Makeup was another story. I’m a writer, so Kim’s signature clawing-myway-to-the-top mani was out of the question. I’d have to put my laptop in

Kim purportedly goes for a run every morning but I have the feeling that she is unclear on the difference between a lip wax and running laps so her fitness routine is still a mystery. My guess is that it’s pretty much comprised of having sex with Kanye, and as far as I can tell it seems to be working. She is pregnant, right? Since I only had an hour I decided to bust hip-hop moves to Kanye songs for 10 minutes and call it a day. I don’t think

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When Horace Greely stole the quote “Go west, young man, go west” from John Babsone Lane Soule, I don’t think he was talking about Kanye. That said, Kim has made her choice, and she is admittedly and E! Channel proven obsessed with her family, so I tried the same with my dogs. After 20 minutes of taking selfies with them they were done with me. They were not remotely interested in my concern that they were being selfish for not promoting my column in Triad City Beat amongst their canine club of friends. They became vociferously violent when I suggested that they might be drinking too much and took their water bowl away. Instead of tweeting catty remarks about me they attempted murdering both a bird and cat in a refreshingly non-passive-aggressive attempt for me to leave them alone. My whiny voice attempt at sounding Kardashianesque apparently got the better of them and they have both since run away. I imagine they are holing up somewhere with Kris Humphries, Ray J and 50 Cent and wondering what the hell just happened. Scout and Molly please come home! Mommy is back — resting b**** face and all.

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