TCB Dec. 29, 2016 — The Triad 100 by Triad City Beat

Greensboro / Winston-Salem / High Point triad-city-beat.com Dec. 29, 2016 â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Jan. 3, 2017

What mattered most in 2016

Cut the crap

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Defying Trump

PAGES 3, 6 & 7

FREE

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Hellish neighbors

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Dec. 29, 2016 â&#x20AC;&#x201D; Jan 3, 2017

315 South Elm Street Greensboro, NC 27401

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The scenic route

We make the drive to New York every Christmas. The first time it was just Jill and me by Brian Clarey in her champagne-colored Jeep. It guzzled gas so fast we could actually see the needle dropping in the gauge; once the soft top blew off during a rainstorm in Virginia. As our relationship deepened and our family grew, we made the trip in a Saturn, then another Saturn, a Subaru, a Jetta and, now, in a hybrid Hyundai that can handle nearly the entire haul on a single tank of gas, even with a back seat full of children who no longer look and act so much like children. We’re always looking for a way to outsmart the I-95 corridor, which bunches up with dense traffic somewhere near Richmond, Va. and holds all the way through New Jersey, when it actually gets a lot worse. If you can handle the stoplights, Highway 29 is a fine option, running through the soft mountains and Civil War battlefields of central Virginia before approaching Washington, DC from the west. This year we hit Charlottesville and made a left, dropping at the foot of the Skyline Drive: 105 miles of curvy two-lane

Radical Brunch road that wends through Shenandoah National Park with switchbacks and cliff sides and a tunnel blasted right through the granite, climbing high enough to pop our ears a dozen times. With a max speed limit of 35 — which, I must admit, I did not strictly adhere to the entire time — we were looking at probably three hours for a stretch that I could manage in just over an hour under ideal conditions on I-95. But on I-95, ideal conditions do not exist. In the end it probably took us about four hours to crawl above the valley, with ample stops at overlooks and short trails to take in the view and just… breathe. At the right time of day, in the right time of year, this piece of the Blue Ridge Mountains looks like folds of velvet in the distance. Up close the naked trees are skeleton hands emerging from the rock. We saw it all at a leisurely pace while the long, angry snake of cars on I-95, 100 miles to the east, made its slow slither. Skyline Drive dropped us off just 80 miles west of Washington, DC — the closest we came to the capital on this drive — allowing us to slip into Baltimore, our first stop, through the back door by cutting through a corner of West Virginia and the tiniest sliver of northern Virginia. In the end, the scenic route probably took about the same time as the slog through the heart of I-95. But it was a way better deal.

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We’re hiring! TCB is looking for a freelance music writer. If you’ve always dreamed of being Cameron Crowe and enjoy listening to disparate types of music, this job’s for you. Send a resume and writing samples to brian@triad-city-beat.com to apply.

QUOTE OF THE WEEK Are you guys serious about putting out a newspaper that says, ‘Join the resistance’?.... That’s why you guys lost [the election]. Now, it’s our turn. Prepare. — Anonymous caller to Triad City Beat, Monday (We are — preparing, that is.) 1451 S. Elm-Eugene St. Box 24, Greensboro, NC 27406 Office: 336-256-9320 BUSINESS PUBLISHER/EXECUTIVE EDITOR Brian Clarey

ART ART DIRECTOR Jorge Maturino

PUBLISHER EMERITUS Allen Broach

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EDITORIAL MANAGING EDITOR Eric Ginsburg

SALES EXECUTIVE Cheryl Green

SENIOR EDITOR Jordan Green

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DIGITAL SALES Tynesha Brown

EDITORIAL INTERN Joel Sronce intern@triad-city-beat.com

CONTRIBUTORS

PIZZERIA

Carolyn de Berry Kat Bodrie Jelisa Castrodale Stallone Frazier Anthony Harrison Matt Jones

Cover by Jorge Maturino feat. photos by Amanda Salter, Stallone Frazier, Carolyn de Berry and others

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Monday – Thursday

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Dec. 29, 2016 — Jan 3, 2017

CITY LIFE Dec. 29 – Jan. 3 THURSDAY

Triad Storytellers Exchange: Story Slam @ Scuppernong Books (GSO), 7 p.m. Head to Scuppernong Books to hear incredible true stories from people in the Triad, or even present one of your own. Akin to the Moth Story Slam format, up to 10 members of the audience will be chosen to tell a 5-minute true and personal story without notes or props. Volunteer judges then select the best three stories for cash prizes. More info at scuppernongbooks.com.

by Joel Sronce

FRIDAY

Nephew Tommy @ The Carolina Theatre (GSO), 7 p.m. Infamous pranker Nephew Tommy from “The Steve Harvey Morning Show” comes to Greensboro with Freddie Ricks from Shaft and Baby Boy and other friends. The show also includes host Mike Brooks and opening act King Tink. More information at carolinatheatre.com.

SATURDAY Noon Year’s Eve celebration @ Children’s Museum of Winston-Salem (W-S), 10 a.m. Bring the kids to count down to the noon-year before the adult parties commence. Activities include creating sound shakers, singing songs and story time. More info at childrensmuseumofws.org. Denim & Diamonds New Year’s Eve Party @ Centennial Station (HP), 7 p.m. Close out the year with the High Point Arts Council. This NYE event includes music by the Stephen Legree Band, food by Plain & Fancy Catering and a wide open dance floor. Plus, with an early toast to the New Year at 10 p.m., you can make it to the next party before the clock strikes 12. Find more info on the Facebook event page. (Diamonds sold separately.) ‘Twas Bananas @ the Garage (W-S), 9 p.m. A New Year’s Eve party at the Garage includes Triad bands the Genuine, Gunnar Nagle and the Collection. More information at the-garage.ws/ index.html.

ALL WEEK

Kwanzaa celebration @ Various locations (GSO) All are invited to the Greensboro Kwanzaa Collective’s week of inspiring, family-friendly events as they celebrate the 50th anniversary of Kwanzaa. The week includes traditional storytelling, drumming, dancing and candle-lighting, as well as community-building opportunities. The interfaith experience encourages guests to embody Kwanzaa’s seven principles (unity, self-determination, collective work and responsibility, cooperative economics, creativity, purpose, and faith) throughout the year. Find more information at indigoscac.org.

by Brian Clarey

And Virginia Tech lost to the Demon Deacons in 2014, meaning Tommy might not have gotten paid for that one. But wiping away the stain of WakeyLeaks forever is Wake’s victory in the Military Bowl over Temple — a convincing 34-26 victory that was more lopsided than the final score indicates. Now when fans of the black and gold think of the 2016 season, they’ll remember the win and not that stupid thing that whatshisname did before he got drummed out of the business.

Triaditude Adjustment

204 S. Westgate Dr., Greensboro

Shot in the Triad

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Crossword

gatecityvineyard.com

5. That shots are mandatory Whether you’re someone’s coworker, college friend or romantic partner, everyone’s taking shots. It’s a reunion, a holiday, the turn of a year and just chilly and socially cumbersome enough to justify a drink with a little extra warmth.

Sportsball

4. Where the secret places are Here’s where to park for free. Here’s where to buy beer after 2 a.m. Here they sell single cigarettes. Now a place to get free food, or pump bike tires, or hike or shoot hoops without company. The city comes alive with conveniences.

At the Vineyard you can come as you are and be yourself. Whatever your thoughts about church, whatever your beliefs about God … you are welcome here.

3. Tinder gets weird Your date repeatedly gets up from the table to hug and have lengthy conversations with old friends. (These interactions are garnished with the worst type of introduction, followed by awkward, dueling clarifications.) You hear a lot about the bar you’re in, or street you’re on, or school you’ve never heard of, or dog that died, and not even recently. They read aloud the lengthy parade of texts from a parent who tells your date about tomorrow’s brunch, or the uncle’s whereabouts, or grandma’s wine intake. Thankfully, the evening ends early as you slip away from a crowd of former classmates who appear like a sudden bouquet of reminiscence and rescue.

Culture

Gate City Vineyard is a modern, Christian church that exists to serve the community around us. Our desire is to help people of all ages and backgrounds grow in their understanding of God.

2. Your friends go to lousy restaurants for nostalgia’s sake You know that “Since 2014” pizza place you love? Your friends haven’t been, and aren’t interested. Instead you’ll join them at a hole-in-the-wall near their high school with poorly appropriated cuisine that has since defined their taste for queso, or ramen, or lasagna. But it’s so good and this, this and this happened there and the group all but colors on the paper menus. (Unless, of course, they’re coming home from waaaay out of town, when the same Southern fast food you threw up last week is what’s for dinner.)

Cover Story

“What’d I Do Wrong,” penned by Toussaint, Harris projects a woman COURTESY PHOTO The unmatched driven to her wit’s end by an Betty Harris. unfaithful love that she’s sacrificed everything to have, and she wrings desperation and dashed hope out of every syllable. The brassy, upbeat “Mean Man,” also written by Toussaint, has become something of a signature for Harris since she came out of an extended retirement in 2005. The final single of the run, “There’s A Break in the Road” — released in 1969 — is a piece of aggro-funk drenched in feedback that sounds years ahead of its time. A scan of Harris’ live performances on YouTube since her return to the stage, including multiple appearances at the Ponderosa Stomp roots music festival in New Orleans, proves she’s still got it.

1. Your geography sucks You’re new here, but you’re not going the wrong direction down one-way streets anymore. You can get to work, the grocery store and the interstate without Google Maps drowning out Diane Rehm or Q-Tip. The cardinal directions are even taking form. But then come late December, your friends who call the city where you just moved their hometown discuss growing up in neighborhoods you’ve never heard of, cackle at your once-confident contorted routes and remind you with little patience that to get where they’ve already arrived — about 10 minutes prior — you’ve got a long way to go.

Opinion

by Jordan Green I know it’s heresy to mention anyone other than Aretha Franklin as the “queen of soul,” but I can think of a couple of other black female vocalists of 1960s vintage that should be contenders for the title. I’ve always had a soft spot for Irma Thomas, the New Orleans singer whose song “Time Is On My Side” was covered by the Rolling Stones. And, let’s face it, Mavis Staples is hard to beat as an icon of deep soul, ’70s funk and movement-inspired gospel. But the one I keep coming back to is Betty Harris, a Floridian who I stumbled across on Pandora. She only charted three times in the ’60s before retiring from the music business in 1970, but to my ear her songs are unparalleled for emotional texture, kaleidoscopic mood setting, stylistic boldness and sheer, gutsy performance. An early single — a slowed-down cover of the country-soul-R&B amalgam “Cry to Me” — goes deeper into the abyss than the original by Solomon Burke, if that’s even possible. After that, she recorded for the Sansu label with New Orleans producer par excellence Allen Toussaint. Three songs from that partnership stand out. On

by Joel Sronce

News

Betty Harris

5 things you realize during your first Triad holidays

Up Front

Okay, so, fine: Wake Forest radio analyst Tommy Elrod gave some plays from the football team he was covering to their opponents — just like that episode of “The Brady Bunch” when Jerry Rogers from rival Fairview High feigned interest in Marcia to steal Greg’s playbook. But let’s look at the facts: Just two schools, the University of Louisville and Virginia Tech, were fined by the ACC for receiving and using this information. Louisville won their game on Nov. 12, sure — a 44-12 blowout that was but one of a handful in a very strong winning season. They didn’t need the plays to beat Wake Forest.

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WakeyLeaks doesn’t matter anymore

Dec. 29, 2016 — Jan 3, 2017 Up Front News Opinion Cover Story Culture Sportsball Crossword Shot in the Triad

OPINION

CITIZEN GREEN

EDITORIAL

Cut the crap, already Anyone who spent the holidays out of state undoubtedly heard some form of the question: What the hell is going on in North Carolina? It’s the new “What’s the matter with Kansas?” After our General Assembly was unable to figure out a plan to repeal HB 2, the law that has cost the people and institutions of this state perhaps $500 million in lost revenue and legal fees, our state made national news (again). An op-ed piece in the New York Times — “What’s the matter with North Carolina?” — elucidated the tyranny of our slim majority, and a blistering package of reporting and editorializing in the Washington Post showed the rest of the country what it looks like when the majority becomes marginalized. After mounting a trifling opposition to the repeal of HB 2, the Republicans of the North Carolina Legislature forfeited any pretense of moral high ground against those in the Democratic Party who came before them. Only children justify behavior they know is wrong by saying the other kid did it first. Thie last four years relied on disenfranchisement, outright bullying and orchestrated deceit — along with the recurring practice of moving the legislative goalposts any time the GOP looked like it might lose an issue, or a vote, or even a couple points in the imaginary game they and their supporters seem to be playing. Here’s the truth: If a party’s initiatives are any good, they don’t need to cheat to sell them to the people. What’s going on in North Carolina — through illegal gerrymandering, cabal-style politics, anti-intellectual ideology, unconstitutional laws, unscheduled special sessions, uncontested elections and every other crappy tactic, technique and machination that has been thrust upon the good people of this state — is that the people have been usurped; our government lacks popular legitimacy. A permanent Republican majority is not a democracy, particularly when the game is rigged to keep a party — any party — in power. The claim we make now, in some of our state’s bluest cities, is taxation without representation. How long, legally, can this sort of disenfranchisement stand?

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Triaditude Adjustment

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A sanctuary to defy Donald Trump?

Should the City of Arts & Innovation declare itself a sanctuary city? Three residents made their case to city council on Dec. 19 that Winston-Salem should by Jordan Green go on record, along with at least 37 other cities across the country, as a sanctuary city with policies that constrain their police from acting as the long arm of federal immigration enforcement. This would be in defiance of a threat from President-elect Donald Trump to punish these cities by withholding federal funding. Valeria Cobos told council members that although she’s lived in Winston-Salem for most of her life, she was unable to obtain a driver’s license or access federal student financial aid to attend college after she graduated from high school because of her undocumented status. Only because she was a victim of domestic violence by the father of her child was she able to obtain permanent residency. The rest of her family remains undocumented. “When President Trump says he’s going to deport criminals, that’s vague,” she said. “We’re all technically criminals for being here without documentation, as he wants to put it. So I realize maybe people say, ‘It’s not feasible to deport 11 million immigrants.’ Well, guess what? Just deporting one person in my family certainly will make it feel like the whole world is going down the drain. Nobody wants to lose a member of your family just because somebody decides you’re not a valid human being or that you shouldn’t deserve any kind of right to stay in this country.” If cities are going to maintain their status as hubs of innovation and economic growth in the Trump era, they will need to lay down some markers to defend essential values of openness and inclusion. Cities that don’t stand up for their values may have a tough time attracting the talent they need to prosper. Maybe this is the place to draw a line, or even pick a fight before Trump takes office and consolidates power. Winston-Salem wouldn’t be the first, of course. Burlington, Vt. has enacted a sanctuary city policy in reaction to Trump’s election, while Urbana, Ill. and Pittsburgh are considering similar measures. The nation’s largest cities have set the example. In his #AlwaysNewYork speech two weeks after the election, Mayor Bill de Blasio vowed to legally resist any attempt by the federal government to create a registry of Muslims, to protect immigrant families

threatened with deportation and to ensure that stopand-frisk policing is not resurrected in New York. And on Dec. 19, the city and county of Los Angeles unveiled a $10 million fund, raised from public and private sources, to provide legal services to immigrants facing deportation. Proponents of defying Trump over sanctuary cities cite the 10th Amendment as a roadblock, or at least a speed bump, to slow down the president-elect’s efforts to carry out the threat. There are grounds for optimism: The US Supreme Court established a “germaneness rule” in the 1987 South Dakota v. Dole case, which addressed the question of whether the feds could withhold highway funds to a state that refused to raise the legal drinking age to 21. In that case, they could because the purpose of the funds was safe interstate travel. Withholding federal public safety funds for political reasons would be a stretch, considering the compelling argument that sanctuary cities actually enhance safety by giving victims and witnesses who are undocumented the confidence to come forward and report crimes to law enforcement. The 10th Amendment defense in North Carolina is complicated, to say the least, by the fact that HB 318, signed into law by Gov. Pat McCrory in Greensboro last year, specifically prohibits adoption of any “sanctuary ordinance” by cities or counties. A little recent history is in order. North Carolina politicians ran with the inflammatory demagoguery against undocumented immigrants whipped up by Trump when most journalists were still predicting that the president-elect would get knocked out of contention by a more moderate Republican candidate. Speaking on the state House floor, Rep. George Cleveland (R-Onslow) argued in favor of HB 318 using language reminiscent of Trump’s slanderous xenophobia by saying that undocumented immigrants have “committed murder, they’ve committed rape, they’ve committed child abuse, and they’re here because we allow it.” The bill’s backers were well aware of its national resonance. “Hopefully, we’re seeing in the presidential race, this is becoming an issue,” Rep. John Blust (R-Guilford) said during debate over the bill in September 2015. And when he signed the bill into law, Gov. McCrory suggested North Carolina was setting an example for the rest of the country, saying, “We want to be the model of how to do things right in North Carolina and in our country.” In this case, picking a fight with Washington likely also means picking a fight with Raleigh. I somehow doubt there would be much love lost.

The patriotic response to Trumpism

and fairness. Above all, he was a man Chinatown residents could applaud because he stood up for the downtrodden and the underdogs of the world. In a story that should be told more, he infuriated German officials in 1935 by sending Jewish NYPD detectives to investigate after American Communist Party members stormed the SS Bremen docked in Manhattan and tore down its swastika flag. These were formative stories for many young New Yorkers who, like my uncle and father, would find themselves in the frontline just a few years later. Trump, as we know, was born just a year after the war and today prides himself as the Queens furbo (clever smart-ass) who can out-deal and outfox any fesso (schmuck). If you’re unclear about what I mean, watch Goodfellas again. Resisting Trumpism will not be a career builder but it will be the patriotic, right thing to do.

Opinion

Andrew Young is an artist who chooses to live in Greensboro and not progressive bastions like Asheville or Brooklyn because the big changes to come will happen here.

News Cover Story

accountable and expecting more from them. It means pressuring those who are running for office, particularly those seeking reelection, to answer where they stand on a number of issues, from the anti-democratic actions of the General Assembly to police body cams to the daily indignities the working poor have endured for years. It means holding the News & Record to a higher standard. It means oldsters asking themselves some pretty big questions that go beyond themselves, craft beer and shopping local, like what do they have to offer the next generation coming up, the one that’s really going to get hammered by Trumpism. It means asking them if they will open doors for next-generation leaders who do not look like them or our current leaders, because the region’s demographics have changed forever. It means that it is within our collective power to transform Greensboro into a decent and affordable Southern city whose chief attraction to investors, employers and millennials is its commitment to the unfinished business of the international Civil Rights Movement, equality and social justice. This is not the vision of the chamber of commerce or the agenda of any economic development meetings I’ve ever attended, but Trump’s right-out-loud racism might change the equation. Common decency might be our region’s newest brand. When I was growing up my mother fondly recalled Fiorella LaGuardia, the Republican mayor of New York, for his general decency

Up Front Culture Sportsball Crossword Shot in the Triad Triaditude Adjustment

My uncle died a couple of weeks before the November election. Had he lived, he’d have voted for Clinton, not because he thought she was fabulous but because at age 90 he had lived long enough to have experienced the consequences of bad leadership. by Andrew Young During Christmas 1944 he was in a German prisoner-of-war camp because a few days earlier his leaders, inexperienced and stupid, thought sending his company across an open field filled with snow and landmines would be the quickest way to capture a town filled with enemy soldiers armed to the teeth. After the war he led a quiet, modest life. The Lutheran Church was important to him and it wasn’t until he was about 80 that I asked him about his one and only battle. “We were ordered to fire and I did,” he said. They fired blindly. He couldn’t see anything. Decades later, he hoped he didn’t kill anyone. Like Ishmael in Moby Dick, my uncle survived to tell the next generation his story. Like the replicant character in Blade Runner, my uncle saw a sight no one today knows: the winter sky filled with 1,000 American heavy bombers headed to Berlin. After his funeral we went through his things and I found his dog tags and German POW identity badge. His service jacket, with corps and division insignia along with two stripes — he made corporal, not bad for a Chinatown boy serving in an all-white regiment — hung neatly in his closet. We never knew he cared so deeply about the violent past, because he was a soft-spoken, gentle man. On Election Day I was helping Latino college students rehearse a workshop presentation that would take place later in the week. Their topic was on the importance of increasing college access for immigrants and refugees, especially those who were locked out of federal and other loans because they were undocumented. They stumbled through their talking points. They weren’t prepared and I told them so. Their facts were accurate but they weren’t saying why listeners should give a damn about what they were saying. The day after the election they were quiet, as we all were. On their next rehearsal, they did a bit better but I reminded them their presentation was about themselves, their communities, friends, relatives and younger siblings. After Trump’s victory, they had to speak from the heart. Personally, I was deeply fearful that they didn’t get it; they were now the frontline youngsters in a war they didn’t ask for, whether they liked it or not. At the conference they soared. After reciting their PowerPoint facts one stood to explain to the audience, “Let me tell you what it’s like to walk in my shoes,” and proceeded to talk as an undocumented young adult at a private college which prides itself for its part helping enslaved Americans (i.e., property) escape to safety. Later I spotted the group conferring with audience members, young people like themselves, who needed to find one another and together build hope and strength. For the well-intentioned, liberal white older types, winning the struggle against Trumpism means winning here in Greensboro and the Piedmont, holding elected officials

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FRESH EYES

3. Greensboro Distilling Dec. 29, 2016 — Jan 3, 2017

Bill Norman and Shelly Johnson, who own Kneaded Energy massage in Greensboro, took up residence on a revitalized Lewis Street downtown to create the first legal distillery Guilford County has seen since Prohibition. Tiny Cat vodka and Emulsion gin are the first in a line that will soon include barrel-aged spirits and rum.

4. Affordable housing The affordable-housing crunch hit Winston-Salem in full force in 2016, with the apartment search website RentCafé finding that the city was one of only 14 across the country where 100 percent of all projects with at least 50 units were built for the luxury and high-end markets. On Dec. 19, city council authorized a $1.6 million loan to the housing authority to acquire the troubled New Hope Manor Apartments, where local officials report widespread housing-code violations and squatting. In an effort to preserve existing, affordable housing stock near downtown, the city/county planning board turned down a rezoning request from a local developer to build a highend hotel, housing and retail complex that would have displaced an estimated low-income 80 residents.

5. HB 2

Cover Story

What mattered most in 2016

What’s going on with North Carolina? That’s become a frequent refrain in the national media over the past couple years, and no issue drew a harsher spotlight on the state than the law passed by the state General Assembly in special session in March that required people to use the bathroom according to the gender on their birth certificates, along with a slew of other anti-LGBT and anti-worker measures. The backlash against the law resulted in Bruce Springsteen canceling a concert in Greensboro, launching a boycott that would later mean the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament pulling out from the Greensboro Coliseum as well. After Charlotte rescinded its anti-discrimination ordinance, Gov. Pat McCrory called another special session at which the controversial law was expected to be repealed, but the deal fell apart.

by Jordan Green and Brian Clarey

1. Presidential candidate visits The presidential campaign really kicked off in the Triad more than a year ago when Democratic candidate Bernie Sanders thrilled an overflow crowd at the Greensboro Coliseum Special Events Center with his message of economic populism in September 2015. The pace picked up considerably after the primaries when Donald Trump spoke to a smaller crowd at the same venue in June (see Item No. 77). The importance of North Carolina was underscored by Trump’s choice to make his first appearance after the Republican National Convention at Lawrence Joel Veterans Memorial Coliseum in Winston-Salem, with a slew of GOP luminaries, including vice presidential nominee Mike Pence, US Sen. Richard Burr and Gov. Pat McCrory in tow. “I’m gonna be in North Carolina so much you’re gonna be sick and tired of me,” Trump promised. And indeed, he showed up at White Oak Amphitheater in Greensboro during the same week as President Obama, when his campaign seemed to be on the rocks because of sexual-assault allegations. Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton also prioritized North Carolina (in hindsight, she should have been spending more time in Michigan and Wisconsin), choosing the Joel Coliseum as the venue to make her first appearance on the campaign trail with First Lady Michelle Obama. The season ended ominously with student activists interrupting a speech by former President Bill Clinton at UNCG the day before the election, his third stop in Greensboro this election season.

2. Dejuan Yourse Just as Charlotte was garnering unwelcome national

6. Guilford County School Board

Dejuan Yourse (seated, center) listens to a discussion about police brutality.

ERIC GINSBURG

attention after the police killing of Keith Lamont Scott, Greensboro City Council members reacted with horror when they viewed the police-body camera video of Officer Travis Cole pummeling and tackling Dejuan Yourse, a man who was sitting on his mother’s porch in southwest Greensboro. Cole and Officer Charlotte Jackson, who also responded to the call, both resigned, but Guilford County District Attorney Doug Henderson declined to press charges against either of them. City council voted to release the video, prompting a furious response from the Greensboro Police Officers Association, but the council has so far resisted calls to release files from Cole’s investigation.

A partisan election plan went into effect in 2016, giving Republican candidates more opportunity to compete in the general election, but Democrats managed to retain a narrow majority. About half of the members are new, thanks to the retirement of former members Amos Quick (he’s moving up to the General Assembly) and Ed Price. Former Greensboro City Council member Dianne Bellamy-Small ousted Keith McCullough during the Democratic primary for District 1 and Republican Pat Tillman snagged an open seat in District 3. Republican Anita Sharpe defeated incumbent Democrat Jeff Belton, but she’s served on the board before.

7. Greensboro Police Community Review Board The city of Greensboro unveiled a new police community review board in 2016 and city leaders emphasized its independence, but all the members of the board are appointed by the human relations commission, themselves

8. Al Heggins Al Heggins lost her job as human relations director for the city of High Point in October 2015, and predictably she filed a federal lawsuit alleging violations of the 1964 Civil Rights Act and seeking to enjoin the city “from racial harassment or any other employment practice that discriminates on the basis of race.” There’s no dispute that the series of disciplinary actions that led to Heggins’ firing began soon after conservative city council members complained about the use of the term “white supremacy” in a description of a presentation about police accountability, and the city’s human resources director has admitted under oath that she counseled Heggins “that using the term ‘white supremacist’ was as offensive as calling a black person a n*****.” The city has denied any wrongdoing, and in late November the parties agreed to go into mediation.

“Museum’s debt close to $26M.” The correction concluded: “In fact, the nearly $26 million in question was in the form of tax credit grants to the museum to be used for the museum’s construction and opening. We regret any misunderstanding and confusion caused by the error.”

13. High Point Millennial Task Force

17. Greensboro Swarm The NBA’s D-League affiliate of the Charlotte Hornets began its inaugural season at the Greensboro Coliseum in November. They are 6-12 as of press time, on the back end of the hump in the Eastern Conference, with a lot of ball left to play.

High Point City Council identified “attracting and retaining millennials” as one of three priorities for 2016. They’re pretty specific about the type they want: “active, engaged, entrepreneurial and working”; we’re not sure if that includes broke artists or low-wage restaurant workers, but it sounds like it definitely excludes gutter punks and college graduates living in their parents’ basements. City Manager Greg Demko tapped Sarah-Belle Tate, a Greensboro native, 2015 graduate of High Point University and marketing communications director for the High Point Chamber of Commerce, to lead the charge.

18. Jeff Gauger resignation

9. Renaissance Community Co-op opens

14. South Ward election mess

The November opening of Renaissance Community Co-op fulfills an arc of struggle for northeast Greensboro, which suffered the closure of a Winn-Dixie grocery in 1999 and whose residents successfully blocked the reopening of the White Street Landfill in 2011. The member-owned venture is also a national model of a cooperative grocery opening in a food desert, with an emphasis on healthy and affordable food.

Election officials never like to see close contests because they reveal how messy the process actually is. Exhibit A would be the 2016 Democratic primary for the South Ward seat on Winston-Salem City Council, where election night returns showed Carolyn Highsmith prevailing over John Larson by four votes. The state Board of Elections ordered a new election after the local election office acknowledged that at least 18 eligible voters were given the wrong ballot and prevented from voting in the race. The do-over election in June drew less than half as many voters as the first primary, and Larson dominated Highsmith by a 26-percent spread. He won handily in the November general election.

The city of Greensboro completed its first cycle of participatory budgeting in 2016, with residents in the city’s five council districts approving financing for dozens of projects ranging from a bus tracking mobile app to a crosswalk near the Spring Garden Street location of Hops Burger Bar for a total of $500,000. Greensboro is the first city in the southeastern United States to adopt participatory budgeting.

10. Aycock Middle School The Guilford County School Board voted in August to rename Aycock Middle School, stripping the name of Gov. Charles B. Aycock, a white supremacist who played a significant role in bringing the state into the era of Jim Crow, lasting from 1898 to 1965. The board is considering a proposal to rename the school in honor of Melvin Swann Jr., a former Guilford County educator.

11. Rich Fork Preserve The Guilford County Commission approved a plan to allow mountain biking in the Rich Fork Preserve in High Point in a split vote along partisan lines in August, with five Republicans in favor and four Democrats opposed. The commission also voted to solicit proposals to shore up a farmstead in the 116-acre preserve, but tensions with a local advisory committee that has raised money and developed plans for the site were evident.

12. International Civil Rights Center & Museum In December, the International Civil Rights Center & Museum announced the retirement of $36 million in complex tax-credit arrangements that financed the institution’s opening in 2010. The museum also reinstated a libel lawsuit against the News & Record, alleging that the daily newspaper “conducted a public campaign in the newspaper against the museum and its board of directors in which the defendants persistently forecast that the museum and the board of directors would fail (which they did not).” The newspaper responded with a Dec. 17 correction to a November 2014 front-page article under the headline

15. Chieu di Thi Vo and Tim Bloch Greensboro City Council voted to release police bodyworn video showing the fatal shooting of Chieu Di Thi Vo, a Vietnamese woman with limited English ability and an intellectual disability, responding to public pressure and a request from the woman’s family. The video provides a rare and disturbing glimpse of lethal force, showing a woman with a knife ambling down a sidewalk and then crumbling under Officer Tim Bloch’s fusillade, but the Guilford County District Attorney’s office stood by its finding that the killing was justified. A month after the release, the Republican-controlled General Assembly passed a bill sponsored by Rep. John Faircloth (R-Guilford) restricting public access to police-body camera video.

16. Harm reduction The cheese that made the police body camera bill go down easier might have been an unrelated provision legalizing needle-exchange programs to allow heroin addicts to access clean needles. North Carolina already had a Good Samaritan Law that protects people who call 911 to report a drug overdose from being prosecuted for small amounts of drugs or paraphernalia, making the state a leader in the harm-reduction approach to the drug crisis.

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appointed by city council.

Jeff Gauger took on the editor-in-chief position at the News & Record in 2012, coming in from Canton, Ohio to helm Warren Buffet’s new property. He resigned in April and is now editor of the Shreveport Times in Louisiana. Greensboro’s newspaper of record lost a substantial amount of talent this year, including political writer Joe Killian, educator reporter Marquita Brown and niche publications manager Melissa Umbarger.

19. Participatory budgeting

20. Greensboro skatepark It only took 10 years, but the $575,000 bond for a skatepark approved by Greensboro voters in 2006 finally yielded a location — in Latham Park off of Hill Street, just north of Green Hill Cemetery — and the city collected feedback from skaters at several public meetings this year.

21. Kalvin Michael Smith released It seemed like the day would never come, but Kalvin Michael Smith walked free in early November after spending about 20 years in prison for the brutal beating of store clerk Jill Marker. A 2004 investigative series by Phoebe Zerwick in the Winston-Salem Journal cast significant doubt on the investigation leading to Smith’s conviction. Subsequent independent investigations by a local citizen panel and retired Assistant FBI Director Chris Swecker further undermined confidence in the conviction, but both state Attorney General — now Gov.-elect Roy Cooper — and the Winston-Salem City Council refused to file motions for a new trial. A judge ordered Smith released after two local lawyers filed a motion arguing that his original lawyer failed to submit evidence that could have resulted in a shorter sentence. Smith is still seeking full exoneration.

22. Greensboro bonds Greensboro voters approved four separate bond referenda totaling $126 million to pay for economic development, parks and recreation, housing, and transportation projects. To pay for the bonds, property owners will incur a 2.1 percent tax increase, meaning that the annual property tax bill on a home valued at $150,000 will translate into an increase of $32.

Dec. 29, 2016 — Jan 3, 2017

23. Mustard Seed Community Health clinic Mustard Seed Community Health clinic opened in the Cottage Grove neighborhood, a predominantly African-American community with a sizable immigrant population located midway between the campus of NC A&T University and the joint nanotech campus. The neighborhood suffers from the highest rate of hospitalization and emergency room visits in the city, along with the highest number of asthma, diabetes and heart-disease cases.

24. Tim Tsujii The general counsel for the state Board of Elections once mused to a Forsyth County Board of Elections employee that it would be difficult to fire Elections Director Rob Coffman because they needed a steady hand to turn out the 2012 election — then 22 months out. Nope. Tim Tsujii, formerly a deputy elections director in Guilford County, started his new job as director of the Forsyth County Board of Elections on Feb. 29, less than three weeks before the primary.

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25. North Carolina election law overturned One of the more memorable legal phrases to enter the public sphere in the past year was the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals finding that North Carolina’s 2013 election law targeted “African Americans with almost surgical precision.” The ruling killed the state’s voter ID requirement, restored same-day registration and added back seven days of early voting. That didn’t stop North Carolina GOP Executive Director Dallas Woodhouse from instructing Republican members of county election boards to “make party line changes to early voting” by restricting access to early voting sites on Sundays (popular with African Americans) and on college campuses (popular with students).

26. Bardolph building sale The Dorothy Bardolph Human Services Center has housed Senior Resources of Guilford and a methadone clinic operated by Alcohol & Drug Services, but the city of Greensboro sold the downtown property near the depot to developer Marty Kotis, who plans to use it for a mix of offices, retail and restaurants. Kotis acquired the property for less than a third of its assessed valued.

the brewpub is playing a catalytic role, with Sunrise Books and Public House boutique & wine shop opening soon after in the area. Brown Truck quickly earned its stripes by winning 2016 Very Small Brewing Company/Brewer of the Year at the Great American Beer Fest in Colorado.

29. Eric Robert Downtown developer Eric Robert dropped his lawsuit against the city of Greensboro in February, forsaking his claim against federal development dollars for his mill on the edge of downtown. And before the Bearded Goat took up residence in his newest building on the corner of South Elm and Lewis streets, Robert captured security-camera footage of a guy purposefully bashing in the side windows with a big stick.

30. Ellin Schott Triad City Beat broke the news about the death of Ellin Schott, a Greensboro woman with a history of health challenges who went to jail for panhandling and experienced a health emergency after being denied her anti-seizure medication in August 2015. She died a couple days later at Cone Hospital from “complications of prolonged seizure activity.” Schott’s death fits a pattern of questionable medical practices by Correct Care Solutions, a private company that provides healthcare to inmates at the county lockups in both Guilford and Forsyth. In August 2016, the estate of Jen McCormack filed suit against the company, alleging that nurses in Forsyth failed to provide her with the anti-nausea medication Zofran, leading to her death.

marched down a country lane in rural Caswell County and then caravanned across the Virginia state line to Danville, where they held another march. The Klan surfaced a couple hours later 35 miles to the east in Roxboro, terrorizing a family with a transgender teenager — among others — with their presence.

33. NC GOP post-election power grab Andrew Reynolds, a professor of political science at UNC-Chapel Hill, made the stunning declaration in a Dec. 22 op-ed piece in the News & Observer that North Carolina can no longer be considered a functional democracy. That’s based on a score of 58 out of 100 given to the state in a recent Electoral Integrity Project report on the 50 states. The report doesn’t even take into account that after voters in North Carolina elected a new, Democratic governor, the Republican-controlled General Assembly and lame-duck Republican governor stripped him of authority, requiring Senate confirmation of the governor’s appointees to cabinet level positions, reducing the governor’s political hires and taking away his ability to make appointments to the UNC boards of governors and Charter School Advisory Board, among other indignities.

34. Rolling Hills Section 8 fraud

Reconsidered Goods, a nonprofit that diverts materials from the city’s waste stream for creative repurposing, opened a retail store in 2016 on Patterson Street in Greensboro.

Winston-Salem residents responded with outrage to revelations in June that residents of the low-income apartment complex Rolling Hills were enduring sewage backups, unwarranted utility cutoffs, mold and other intolerable conditions, but that wasn’t all. A former maintenance supervisor and a former property manager accused Aspen Companies, the owner of the apartment complex, of defrauding the federal government by seeking reimbursement for vacant Section 8 units. The US Department of Housing & Urban Development pledged to look into the fraud allegations during a new inspection. The company has categorically denied any wrongdoing.

32. Klan/antifascist reaction to Trump election

35. Say Yes

An antifascist protester creates a buffer JORDAN GREEN between the police and marchers.

Undocumented students protest their exclusion from the Say Yes.

The Loyal White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, a fledgling white supremacist group, vowed to celebrate the election of Donald Trump with a “klavalkade” but when the appointed day arrived in early December they evaded a group of about 150 antifascists, mostly from the Triangle, and an international press corps. The antifascists

Say Yes, a “last dollar” scholarship program, opened with much fanfare in Guilford County in 2016, but administrators acknowledged that they had overpromised to undocumented students, who are not eligible for the financial aid. Some donors and members of the program’s scholarship board said they are interested in finding a way

31. Reconsidered Goods

27. Crisis center opens CenterPoint Human Services, the regional mental health authority that serves Winston-Salem, broke ground on a new 24-hour crisis center in April. The 16-bed facility jointly operated by Novant Health and Baptist Hospital will provide round-the-clock urgent care and evaluation and is expected to open in January. A consortium of health workers, law enforcement personnel and court officers is exploring ways to divert potential offenders from jail to treatment at the center.

28. Brown Truck Brewery

The much-anticipated Brown Truck Brewery opened in February and quickly drew enthusiastic crowds to High Point’s Uptowne district, and there’s some evidence that

JORDAN GREEN

36. Forward High Point After at least two years of political struggle, the city of High Point funded a nonprofit downtown development nonprofit equivalent to Downtown Greensboro Inc. and the Downtown Winston-Salem Partnership, as Wendy Fuscoe — the person previously tasked with that purpose — left the city to work as a commercial real-estate broker. The new Forward High Point hired Ray Gibbs, who was credited with starting the revitalization of downtown Greensboro, as its executive director.

37. Charter schools The battle over charter schools is likely to escalate in North Carolina, with lines being drawn between the Republican-controlled General Assembly and progressive local leaders. In June, the General Assembly created a new “Achievement School District” to be comprised of five low-performing public schools and operated by a charter school company. Two Republican challengers with close ties to the charter school movement sought seats on Guilford County School Board, but voters returned veteran education leaders with a skeptical view of charters to the board in November. Meanwhile, Republican lawmakers strengthened their influence over charter schools by stripping incoming Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper of the ability to make appointments to the state Charter Schools Advisory Board.

38. Eric Pegues Eric Pegues, who was murdered outside the Paper Moon Gentlemen’s Club in Winston-Salem on May 23, was not just a hip-hop promoter. In the wake of his death, Pegues’ friends attested that he provided employment opportunities for many African-American young people and gave back to the community by serving free food to people in need. Pegues’ friend, Cedric Duke, carried on the tradition by serving food at Bethesda Center for the Homeless and Rolling Hills Apartments.

39. WSTA hit with ADA violations A compliance review issued the Federal Transit Administration in February found that the Winston-Salem Transit Authority’s service for people with disabilities violated the Americans with Disabilities Act in 16 different ways. The feds found that buses sometimes arrived 30 minutes late, and ordered the agency to make pickups within 15 minutes of scheduled times, among other mandated corrections.

40. George Black The dream is yet unrealized, but state Rep. Evelyn Terry’s goal of restoring her grandfather George Black’s house and brickyard as an anchor for economic revitalization in the aptly named Dreamland Park neighborhood re-

ceived a boost through a planning charrette in April. The charrette was funded through a grant from the Marion Stedman Covington Foundation.

44. Chief Wayne Scott

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to include undocumented students, but Skip Moore, the volunteer executive director of the scholarship board, threw cold water on the notion, telling Triad City Beat in November: “At the current time I don’t see any action we can take.”

41. Forsyth County school bond Forsyth County voters approved a $350 million school bond to fund two new middle schools on Robinhood Road and the Smith Farm area, among other things, despite opposition from the Koch brothers-backed Americans For Prosperity. A coalition of urban leaders withheld support for the bond because it didn’t include funds for a new middle school on the east side of Winston-Salem or replacement of Ashley Elementary.

42. Redistricting congressional and state legislative lines A federal court panel ruled that the congressional district maps drawn by the Republican-controlled General Assembly were unlawfully racially gerrymandered. The court ordered the legislature to draw new maps, resulting in a special election in June. Despite the new maps, the Republicans maintained their 10-3 advantage, including the new 13th District, which will be represented by Republican Ted Budd (see item No. 66). Surprise, surprise — the courts also found that the state legislative districts drawn by the same lawmakers were also unlawfully racially gerrymandered. The courts ordered the General Assembly to draw new maps by March 15, and a special election will be held in 2017.

43. FaithAction ID In October 2015, Gov. Pat McCrory signed a bill outlawing community-issued IDs used by undocumented people to access local government services. His choice to sign the bill at the Guilford County Sheriff’s Office in Greensboro was widely viewed as a swipe at the city, which embraced an ID created by local nonprofit FaithAction for that purpose. Yet lawmakers had already carved out an exception for law enforcement through a technical corrections bill. The nonprofit continued to sign up new people and build partnerships with local law enforcement agencies — including the Winston-Salem Police Department and the Forsyth County Sheriff’s Office — this year, and a state Senate bill to close the loophole failed to gain traction.

Greensboro police Chief Wayne Scott

COURTESY PHOTO

The Greensboro police chief settled into the role in his second year, addressing a racial discrepancy in traffic stops by ending traffic stops for minor infractions, in his department. In September, he urged city council to release the body-camera footage of then Officer Travis Cole mistreating resident Dejuan Yourse.

45. Ralph Speas The Triad lost a cultural and intellectual touchstone this year when Ralph Speas passed in October. For decades he served as the historian for the Piedmont Blues Preservation Society, and before that he pioneered sex ed in area high schools and colleges.

Dec. 29, 2016 — Jan 3, 2017

46. Startup accelerators and Triad tech companies There are now about 160 startup accelerators in the United States, according to a recent report in the New Yorker, and proof of the movement’s maturation is the fact that it’s taken hold in the Triad. In the spring, consultant Joel Bennett ran the New Ventures Challenge Accelerator at Flywheel Coworking in Winston-Salem. In October, the Cary-based investment fund Cofounders Capital announced a $300,000 investment in Greensboro-based Urban Offsets, a company that brokers carbon offsets. Urban Offsets graduated from Groundwork Labs accelerator in Durham.

47. National Folk Festival

co-founded the Beloved Community Center with the Rev. Nelson Johnson in the early 1990s, led a campaign for racial justice at K-Mart and helped launch the Greensboro Truth and Reconciliation Project.

51. Caleb Caudle Maybe it’s easy for locals to get jaded, but Winston-Salem native and resident Caleb Caudle has been working persistently to refine his craft as a songwriter, singer and recording artist. With the release of his seventh album, Carolina Ghost, in 2016, he experienced something of a breakthrough with a resplendent profile by former Spin magazine editor Charles Aaron at the Bitter Southerner, a video feature at rollingstone.com and favorable reviews from NPR and No Depression magazine. He’s currently waging an Indiegogo campaign to finance his next album.

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52. Five Row recognized

The National Folk Festival brought together a wide range of music.

STALLONE FRAZIER

Highlights included of the second annual National Folk Festival included the Bahamas Junkanoo Revue, “Kosher” gospel singer Joshua Nelson, tapper Leonardo Sandoval and fado singer Nathalie Mires. But the epitome had to be hip-hop icon DJ Grandmaster Flash, who threw two dance party in the parking lot by the News & Record building that were just surreal.

48. Winston-Salem poverty While downtown Winston-Salem continues to experience a stunning renaissance, the city holds the unfortunate distinction of having the highest poverty rate among North Carolina’s five largest cities. A “poverty thought force” launched by Mayor Allen Joines held a series of charrettes to discuss the problem in 2016. A TCB investigation found the high poverty rate is rooted in the city’s incomplete transition from the old manufacturing economy and stubborn patterns of racial segregation.

49. Tiny houses Some Triad residents are downsizing their living quarters by retrofitting shipping containers into tiny houses. Urban planners in Greensboro and Winston-Salem have embraced the trend, but some residents are wary of the additional density and increased traffic that comes with adding new units to existing lots.

59. Z. Holler

The Rev. Zeb. N. Holler — better known as Z — who died in 2016, may not be well known in Greensboro, but he should be. A white Presbyterian clergyman, he

Have you dined at Silo Bistro & Bar and May Way Dumplings or visited European Touch Day Spa — all part of Reynolda Village? You’re likely aware that the village was once the home of the dairy farmers and horticulturalists — all white — who provided some of the manpower for Reynolda, the country estate of the Winston-Salem tobacco family. What you probably don’t know is that the black workers employed by the estate lived in a separate community in the valley below called Five Row. It was demolished in 1961 to make way for the Silas Creek Parkway. The community was finally recognized in 2016 with a historic marker.

53. #WakeyLeaks What compels a former Wake Forest University football player and former assistant coach to leak game plans to opposing teams? We don’t know for sure because Tommy Elrod, who was quickly fired from his position as a radio analyst for IMG, isn’t talking, but it might have something to do with the fact that he wasn’t retained in his coaching position when Head Coach Dave Clawson was hired in 2014. A better question is why coaching staff at University of Louisville, Virginia Tech and Army didn’t immediately report the leaks to their superiors and to Wake. As punishment, University of Louisville Assistant Coach Lonnie Galloway will have to sit out the Citrus Bowl on New Year’s Eve, and the Atlantic Coast Conference issued $25,000 fines to both Louisville and Virginia Tech (Army isn’t part of the ACC).

54. Wilbur Ross Rust Belt voters who are counting on Donald Trump to bring back manufacturing jobs might be interested to know that his pick for secretary of commerce is a billionaire investor who bought Greensboro’s two largest textile companies out of bankruptcy and shifted some of their production from North Carolina to Mexico and China. Sometimes you’ve got to cut off an arm to save a life. Or something like that.

55. White working class There’s been plenty of ink spilled on the white, work-

ing-class people who fueled the rise of Donald Trump, but Daniel Bayer, a member of that cohort, made some of the most incisive observations. After the election, he wrote about the need for a space for white, working-class people to talk to each other. “On the right, Fox News and talk-radio hosts present listeners and viewers with a constant stream of conspiracy theories and scapegoats for their problems, while plying them with patriotic bromides and assuring them that they’re the ‘real Americans,’” he wrote in TCB. “On the left, the white working class is either derided as backward bigots, or provided with solutions in the form of leftist ideologies that few of them are interested in. The only place that a real conversation can take place is within the white working class itself.”

56. Lewis Street Music Foundry A new music venue is always an iffy proposition, but Greensboro may be ready. The Blind Tiger remains a goto for jam-band music and Cone Denim Entertainment Center has a lock on the nostalgia market, while bookings at the charming Crown are relatively sporadic. Entrepreneur Dustin Keene aims to open Lewis Street Music Foundry behind the forthcoming Boxcar Bar & Arcade in April with an eclectic booking philosophy and the intention to program as many nights of the week as possible.

57. Law enforcement pushback The election of Donald Trump gave law enforcement a morale boost in the face of sustained criticism for racially charged incidents of brutality and death. Emblematic of the emboldened law-enforcement culture, State Highway Patrol Sgt. Joshua Church urged the 2016 graduating class of Forsyth Tech’s Basic Law Enforcement Training class to remember their training when they enter the field. “Remember that there is countless documented situations where unarmed people have killed officers,” he said. “Rely on your training. Make good, sound decisions, and do what it takes to come home to all the family members and friends that are here today. You will have their support. You will have our support. And you will have the support of the thin blue line across the nation. That’s how we roll. Criminals have their gangs. Guess what? We do, too, and ours is a whole lot bigger than theirs.”

58. Pokémon Go For a couple months this summer, downtown streets and public spaces were jammed with Pokémon hunters. Businesses latched onto the Pokémon Go craze by capitalizing on Pokéstops, firing off lures and running specials, while Tanglewood Park in Clemmons sought to dismantle a well-known Charmander nest within its confines. In November, Winston-Salem gamer Vinnie Mannino was assaulted in a downtown parking lot while playing the game, and the community responded with a benefit concert.

59. Desegregation of hospitals A historic marker unveiled in November recognized nine black physicians in Greensboro whose efforts led to the desegregation of hospitals across the nation. The marker on North Elm Street reads, “Simkins v. Cone:

60. Winston-Salem drink houses Residents in black working-class neighborhoods, particularly in Winston-Salem and High Point, have long complained about illegal drink houses. Estella Brown, chair of the Reynoldstown Neighborhood Association in Winston-Salem, estimates there are five establishments on her block where people buy liquor, play cards and use drugs. In late April, a 27-year-old man was shot at a rental house owned by Mayor Pro Tem Vivian Burke and died shortly afterwards. Brown doesn’t hesitate to call the police to report problems. “Right in this here block they’re friends to the people who are the lawbreakers, and they have some kind of code of silence,” Brown told TCB. “I say, ‘I don’t owe ’em s***.’ Regardless of how I feel — how my hip might feel or my throat might feel I get up in the morning and go to work and pay these bills. I just pray and move forward.”

61. High Point library plaza Beyond signs of new life in the Uptowne district — entirely thanks to the efforts of private citizens — the signature revitalization project in High Point is a makeover of the public library. An outdoor children’s courtyard was completed in the fall, and later phases of the $2.9 million project include a clock tower at the library’s southeast corner and a hybrid plaza and parking lot.

62. Dania Yadago Donald Trump ran a successful presidential campaign by exploiting fears about refugees from predominantly Muslim countries in the Near East, escalating rhetoric by other Republican politicians including outgoing North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory and US Rep. Mark Walker. They need to meet Dania Yadago, a refugee from a Christian family in Iraq who took the oath of citizenship this year and is studying for a degree in teacher education at Salem College in Winston-Salem. “These refugees who will come here go through so many interviews and background checks,” she said. “Pretending to be a refugee would cause the process to be even longer than it would ordinarily be. Does that mean there won’t be one family that will cause terrorist stuff? There might be. Is it worth making 100,000 others suffer?”

63. RiverRun International Film Festival Highlights of this year’s event included Tower, a chilling documentary about the 1966 sniper shooting at the University of Texas, and a documentary about Maya Angelou. But the biggest RiverRun news came when longtime Executive Director Andrew Rodgers stepped down to run the Denver Film Festival instead. Rob Davis, who formerly led the Fort Lauderdale Film Festival in Florida, is RiverRun’s new executive director.

64. Reanimator After almost four years, Anthony Petrovic and Shawn Peters shut down their record shop/art gallery/perfor-

mance space/day-drinking spot on Patterson Street, which was also the satellite office of TCB Publisher Brian Clarey. The two continue to book shows under the Reanimator brand at Test Pattern.

65. Jon Hardister Republican Guilford County Rep. Jon Hardister won his third term in the state House and was rewarded for his loyalty by being named the House whip by his party. Hardister had formerly championed nonpartisan redistricting in the state, a position that may not survive his new post.

66. Ted Budd The name Ted Budd isn’t familiar? It should be. The owner of the ProShots shooting range and gun shop outside Winston-Salem received $500,000 in advertising support from the Club for Growth super PAC, catapulting him to the Republican nomination in the new 13th Congressional District, which covers two thirds of Greensboro and 95 percent of High Point. If Budd isn’t well known among voters in the two Democratic-leaning cities, that’s probably because the district has enough Republican votes in the rural areas to the west that he doesn’t need support from urban voters. The first-time candidate won the general election for the Congressional post in November.

67. Winston-Salem Open Pablo Carena Busta won the singles title at 2017 Winston-Salem Open after two weeks of fast play in high heat. Guillermo Garcia-Lopez and Henri Kontinen took the doubles tournament.

68. Wyndham Championship South Korean Si Woo Kim won the Wyndham Championship at Sedgefield Country Club after pulling a spectacular 10 under par in Round 2, a course record for the Donald Ross-designed links.

69. Lebauer Park Lebauer Park, Downtown Greensboro’s newest public space, opened in August with a performance stage, a playground, foosball and ping-pong tables, a couple restaurants and a signature art piece, “Where We Met,” by Janet Echelman. It’s a multicolored net suspended between four enormous posts, but it’s much more beautiful than it sounds.

70. Jordan Green The TCB senior editor won our first national award, Second Place for Political Columns from the Association of Alternative Newsmedia, for his weekly column Citizen Green.

71. Darryl Hunt dies The renowned Winston-Salem man served 19 years in prison for a murder he did not commit. After being free for more than a decade, Hunt apparently took his own life in March.

72. Skippy’s Hot Dogs When Mike Rothman, owner of the best hot dog joint in Winston-Salem, was diagnosed with brain cancer in March, dozens of Camel City restaurant workers and downtown characters reopened the Fourth Street shop and raised more than $100,000 for his treatment.

73. Sidewalks

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Landmark federal court of appeals decision 1963 involving Cone Hospital led to racial integration of hospitals in US.”

New sidewalks went up in Greensboro, a city that can be hostile to pedestrians, on Randleman Road, Florida Street and Phillips Avenue, paid for by a 2008 bond and federal funding. Still no sidewalks on Yanceyville Street, though.

74. The Blind Tiger After going dark for a couple weeks in the late summer, the Blind Tiger reopened in Greensboro under new management. New partner Brad McCauley was a part of the team that ran Ziggy’s in Winston-Salem.

75. The clowns By early September, a nationwide phenomenon of clown sightings hit the Triad, the first two in Winston-Salem and later in Greensboro, claiming the clowns were packing machetes or trying to lure children into the woods with candy and laser pointers. In October, a Western Guilford High School student was arrested for threats he made under an Instagram account greensboroclowns. The Winston-Salem culprit turned out to be David Wayne Armstrong, 24, who was arrested for filing a false police report.

76. Police body cameras Greensboro police released two sets of police body-camera footage this year, one involving Dejuan Yourse and Officers Travis Cole and Charlotte Jackson, and another that showed the police shooting of Chieu Di Thi Vo in 2014 (See Item 15). Winston-Salem police released footage of the officer-involved death of Travis Page, which exonerated the officers involved.

77. Winning “We are going to start winning again. We’re gonna win at every single level. We’re gonna win so much that you’re gonna beg me: ‘Please, Mr. President, we’re winning so much. We can’t stand it, Mr. President. We cannot stand it. Please, a little less winning, Mr. President.’ I’m gonna say, ‘There’s no way I’m gonna do that.’ We’re gonna win, win, win, and we’re gonna make America great again. That’s going to happen. Thank you. I love you, North Carolina. I love you. Thank you, North Carolina. Thank you.” — President-elect Donald Trump in Greensboro, June 14, 2016

78. Earl L. Philip The black Republican was a natural choice to lead Trump’s effort in North Carolina, but he made statewide news when he bounced TCB Senior Editor Jordan Green from a meeting at the Golden Corral at Hanes Mall in Winston-Salem in June. A couple weeks later, he was sued

Dec. 29, 2016 — Jan 3, 2017

by a campaign staffer for jabbing a firearm into his knee.

79. Trudy Wade for Trump State Sen. Trudy Wade shed her normally quiet and calm demeanor to execute a passionate, screaming stump speech for Donald Trump at the candidate’s June 14 rally in Greensboro rally (See Item No. 77). The photo of her screaming and extending her arms like Nixon, was one of the iconic shots of the campaign.

80. Hasan Harnett The first black chairman of the NC GOP was removed in April after being censured for “exceeding his authority,” creating “an uncertain and disrespectful environment” at headquarters to dropping the admission price for the GOP convention and hacking into the party website.

Cover Story

81. The DGI RFP Legislation from state Sen. Trudy Wade required a request for proposals for tax monies collected from business improvement districts like downtown Greensboro. As a result, DGI was but one of the entities that competed for the purse, which totaled $600,000, for economic development, marketing and other functions. Only one other entity make a play for the BID — Eris Robert’s QUB Studios, which went after the marketing portion of the budget. But city council awarded the contract to DGI in May.

82. Piedmont Triad Partnership embezzlement David Powell, CEO of the Piedmont Triad Partnership, was indicted by a grand jury in March after being accused of embezzling $250,000 from the group’s coffers for personal use.

83. Chris Sgro The executive director of Equality NC was named to fill in for deceased state Rep. Ralph Johnson for the remainder of the term, even though Amos Quick won the seat in the primary. Sgro, one of two openly gay legislators, came on strictly to fight against HB 2.

84. Olde Mecklenburg Brewery The Charlotte-area brewer tabled plans to build a distribution warehouse in Greensboro, citing a state law limiting production for independent distributors as the reason.

Ricki Gray at the corner of Elm and Washington streets — known as the Glitters Building, after its sole tenant — has become a poster child for downtown real-estate speculation. Amid the windows blocked out with Hardieplank, a sign on the outside wall explains why the building isn’t fully renovated and fully occupied: “Available for development by lease, joint venture or offer to purchase…. The right place — the right time.” The contrast between the Grays’ building with the property next door, where Greensboro City Councilwoman Nancy Hoffmann has invested money to create a space for Scuppernong Books, has occasioned tension and a lawsuit between the neighbors.

88. Deb Moy The survivor of a 2008 murder attempt, assault and arson in Greensboro graduated from Elon Law School in May.

89. Art For Art’s Sake Building Until recently, the southwestern corner of 7th and Liberty streets was a rare example of real estate speculation in downtown Winston-Salem. Owned by Sam Ogburn Sr., it was little more than a weed-choked parking lot encircled by a low-sitting chain that prevented the patrons of the Garage music venue next door from using it. But Arts For Arts Sake purchased the property for $500,000 in November 2015, and Frank L. Blum Construction Co. is now nearing completion of a new, Rubik’s Cube-inspired building to house the arts organization’s galleries, studios and administrative spaces.

93. Ninendo SuperFamicon Hundreds of gamers descended on downtown Greensboro for the first SuperFamiCon in November, dedicated to Nintendo in all its forms. Geeksboro owner Joe Scott organized the affair.

94. Kimpton Cardinal Hotel and the Katherine Brasserie opens A luxury hotel and restaurant moved into the Reynolds Tower in April, bringing the historic gem back to life. There’s even a small bowling alley in the basement.

95. Morehead Foundry opens Iron Hen owner Lee Comer rehabbed a huge space at the foot of Spring Garden Street in Greensboro, a multi-million-dollar project that includes a farm-to-fork restaurant, a coffee shop and bakery, a burger joint, a speakeasy and a catering hall.

96. Stephen Gee dies Longtime hand at the Broach Theatre Steven Gee passed in May. In tribute, the Community Theatre of Greensboro ran a production of his Tuna Christmas in December.

97. ‘Interactive Bird’

Chef Kris Fuller brought her Crafted: The Art of the Taco concept to Liberty Street in downtown Winston-Salem in November. It’s the third Triad restaurant bearing the Crafted name.

“Interactive Bird,” a sculpture by Aaron Gibbons, debuted at Winston Square Park in December, its giant pupil creating a mild state of surveillance paranoia. The public art piece is the first in a series commissioned by the Winston-Salem section of the American Institute of Architects with funding support from the Arts Council of Winston-Salem & Forsyth County.

91. The Traveled Farmer/Marty Kotis

98. Downtown construction

Marty Kotis abruptly shuttered his British gastropub the Marshall Free House in September, after almost two years of hype and almost as long in operation. His new concept, the Traveled Farmer, brings a farm-to-fork mentality to his so-called Midtown district.

In Greensboro, construction on Eugene Street near the greenway and Roy Carroll’s new space by the ballpark, a rerouting of the roads by LeBauer Park and orange cones running on every north/south downtown thoroughfare brought traffic to a snarl throughout the year. Construction on Trade Street in downtown Winston-Salem has also affected the district.

90. Crafted W-S opens

92. Joymongers opens

99. Manhole explosions downtown Greensboro

In April, the Forge makerspace in downtown Greensboro moved into the building once occupied by the Flying Anvil rock club, off Lewis Street.

On a cool March evening, two explosions near Washington Street in downtown Greensboro sent manhole covers flying through the air. One absolutely destroyed a car and then blasted through the window of the Biltmore Hotel.

86. Urban Loop advances

100. John Blust

85. The Forge

As the urban loop tightens around the north side of Greensboro, almost a dozen property owners in its path filed suit to stop it.

87. Glitters Building

time industry pro and former Natty Greene’s brewer Mike Rollinson.

The two-story brick building owned by Sidney and

Joymongers, Greensboro’s fifth brewery, opened in 2016.

ERIC GINSBURG

Downtown Greensboro’s fifth brewery opened in July on the path of the Downtown Greenway, featuring long-

State Rep. John Blust has survived many elections. But this year he participated in more than his share: He ran in the Republican primary for the 13th US Congressional District (see Items 42 and 66), finishing second to Ted Budd, then settled for his current seat in North Carolina’s House District 62, where he ran unopposed.

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Dec. 29, 2016 — Jan 3, 2017 Up Front News Opinion Cover Story Culture Sportsball Crossword Shot in the Triad Triaditude Adjustment

CULTURE The top eats of 2016 that you can’t miss in 2017 by Eric Ginsburg

ate well in 2016, and if you took my advice, you did too. I tried food from all over the world, sampling cuisines I’d never experienced before, none of it more than a couple dozen miles from home. I did sneak in a review of my quick tour of Austin, Texas this summer, when our crew went to an annual newspaper convention there. (Humblebrag: Eater Austin and Texas Monthly’s BBQ blog both linked to the article, actually.) And a few meals were cooked in my own kitchen, as I wrote about the power of memory and a pasta dish from my former Belgian neighbor and signed up for Blue Apron to force myself to cook more. I did a couple eccentric pieces, investigating how the Greensboro City Council spent our tax dollars on food, exploring what inmates eat at a local jail and reviewing City of Gold, a film about renowned LA restaurant critic Jonathan Gold that screened at A/perture in Winston-Salem. But mostly, I got out there and took a gamble. Over and over again, that exploration served me well. Here are the highlights. Most popular food news: The announcement that Crafted would open a second taco joint location in Winston-Salem (the third restaurant overall for the brand), generated a tidal wave of excitement, which isn’t surprising considering Kris Fuller’s success in Greensboro. Runner up: People flipped for the news that Jerusalem Market would be opening a second shop, this time in downtown Greensboro. The good news is, the restaurant lives up to the hype. Most popular restaurant review: Winston-Salem dominated this year, not only taking the top category for food news (the biggest overall), but also pulling in both of the Top Two restaurant reviews in 2016. First up, the Cham sandwich with fried chicken and ham at the classic TJ’s Deli. The review is the only one to nudge out the high online readership posted by Camel City Coffee and Tart Sweets, which drew in thousands of sets of eyeballs in the first few weeks of the year, thanks in part to an unbelievably good stuffed cookie. Best upscale cuisine: The category this year belongs to 1703, another Camel City standout. To be fair, I didn’t pay much attention to restaurants in this price range, because journalism isn’t exactly a high-dollar game. But 1703 deserves all sorts of credit for its creative and delicious cuisine. Best new restaurant: I’d be lying if I said this was an easy decision. I find myself craving the saimin (similar to ramen) with chicken katsu and manapua (similar to bao) at ZC Hawaiian BBQ in Greensboro pretty frequently. And people can’t shut up about Slappy’s Chicken in Winston-Salem; my friend Pablo and I went to three hot chicken places in the city in one day so that I could definitively state that Slappy’s is superior. Yet the lunch buffet at Taaza Indian Bistro, not to mention the dosas, make this west Greensboro restaurant the winner. People rave about Taaza, which many knew from its original Burlington spot. Best deal: How could you beat a crave-worthy, $3 Salvadoran enchilada? Don’t picture the enchiladas you’re used to getting at Mexican spots — this sizable appetizer from Mambo Café in south Winston-Salem

Best overlooked restaurant: Captain Chen’s Gourmet China. Props to Sam Logan for introducing me to this Sichuan-style restaurant.

looks more like a tostada. It tastes fantastic, too. Best event: This one is easy — Knife Fight at Mission Pizza Napoletana in Winston-Salem. It helped if you were a judge, as I was. Otherwise you didn’t get to try the dishes served up by battling chefs. Recurring popup events like Knife Fight should be the trend in 2017, if we know what’s good for us. Best overlooked restaurant: You need to go to Captain Chen’s Gourmet China, a small Sichuan-style restaurant filled with spicy and flavorful fare that couldn’t have left me more satisfied. It isn’t new, but this northwest Greensboro restaurant is easy to overlook thanks to poor signage and a storefront that isn’t street facing. That’s no excuse not to go. The people’s chef: This year I profiled George Lopez, the unflappable cook behind Taste of Cuba in Greensboro. He’s running an unconventional restaurant — more of a catering business that has a storefront — and he makes all sorts of Cuban-inspired, healthy food on demand. Call ahead, and leave some time to chat with this talented hard knock. Runner up: I also featured Michael Touby for his work with Belizean hot pepper sauce company Marie Sharp’s. Get your hands on a bottle. Best of High Point: I admit, I’m not very good at showing love to High Point. But I loved the torta at Taco Toro, and would totally be a regular if I lived nearby. More High Point in 2017 — I promise. I already have my eyes on a seafood joint in the Third City. The adventurer’s must-try list: In addition to the abovementioned restaurants, I visited several others this year that offer something distinct. Make a plan to visit all of them in 2017, if your budget will allow. In Greensboro, don’t miss the adobo and other Filipino food at the new Mequeni restaurant, try the thiebou djenn (or “cheb”) fish dish at Marie’s African Cuisine,

ERIC GINSBURG

and check out the mole and chilaquiles at Mariachi Mexican restaurant. I’ve already mentioned the top spots in Winston-Salem this year, but I also hit three Caribbean joints in 2016, including two Jamaican restaurants — go to Irie Rhythms — and Miami Restaurant & Bar, where you should order the ropa vieja Cuban beef entrée. What’s still missing: Despite all of the marvelous things I ate and types of food I learned about, we’re still missing some key things in the Triad. Considering the size of different African communities here, it’s a shame we don’t have more to choose from on that front. My excursion to Austin underscored the need for a dedicated ramen restaurant, though I did learn that Sushi Republic serves some and you can often find me ordering the dish as takeout from Don Japanese. The Triad needs a bona fide Jewish deli, something I realized after visiting family in Boston for Thanksgiving and ordering from Mamaleh’s Delicatessen. Someone recently asked me if I could recommend a local Lithuanian spot, underscoring the lack of eastern European options and reminding me that I’ve never eaten national dishes from some of the countries where I can trace my heritage. I could go on, but let’s focus on the positive. Plus, you never know what could open up in 2017.

Pick of the Week New Year’s Eve Market @ Greensboro Farmers Curb Market (GSO), Saturday, 7 a.m. Support local farmers and artisans and enjoy the early winter harvest at this NYE market. There’s no better place to give those slippery new eat-healthy resolutions a chance to last the week. More info on the Facebook event page.

Up Front News Opinion Cover Story Culture Sportsball Crossword

Not a bad year, as far as the Barstool is concerned, and certainly not a boring final lap for me as this paper’s booze columnist. As the year draws to a close, please join me in raising your glass to Bodrie; she’s going to take us great places in 2017. Just don’t drink too much — you don’t want to end up like me last New Year’s Day.

Triaditude Adjustment-

and the award-winning Brown Truck Brewing in High Point. The column also afforded me the chance to write about the opening of the Kimpton Cardinal hotel in Winston-Salem, with its fancy bar and basement bowling alley, I finally made it onto the grounds of the private Greensboro Police Club and I interviewed Malcolm Gladwell about his rules for drinking.

Shot in the Triad

If anything, you’re drinking to forget 2016, not flipping to the booze column to relive the highlights of this flaming garbage heap of a year. But this reflection is sort of like a victory lap, given that the race is already over for me and I’ve handed off Barstool to the capable and adventurous Kat Bodrie. Here’s a quick rundown of my self-proclaimed greatest hits in this space, ranked by what I had the most fun by Eric Ginsburg reporting, the biggest news and the pieces that y’all wouldn’t stop yammering about weeks and months later. I started off 2016 in style, puking up a bunch of snacks and booze I’d thrown down at what had been an amazing New Year’s party at Hoots brewery. Sometime after singing karaoke to “I Want It That Way” with my girlfriend and my planned New Year’s Day party, I lost my cool. Some of you gave me a hard time for writing about it, probably with some justification considering it self-indulgent and a little gross, but I think it’s important if you’re writing about booze week in and week out to acknowledge occasionally that this stuff is actually controlled poison. My next three pieces I won’t soon forget either — a tour of the forgotten Marriott bar in downtown Greensboro, a behind-the-scenes look at Greensboro’s ABC system (Did you know it’s headed by a black woman? Pretty badass.) and adventures making gin at home during a snowstorm. Y’all really loved that last one — I heard more about it than almost any other piece this year. What won? Regular readers already know: that time I earnestly showed up at Willie’s Honky Tonk in Councilwoman Denise D. Adams ERIC GINSBURG Winston-Salem and genuinely didn’t have tries out the slide at the Kimpton Cardinal hotel. a clue that it had ties to the Hell’s Angels. Lots of readers refused to believe I could be so unaware. But there’s no visible sign outside, I’m not from around here and three locals who I mentioned it to (including my friend who came along with me) were equally uninformed. I admit to being a little concerned for a week or so that someone in the biker gang would decide that the piece warranted retaliation, but despite one threatening phone call to our office, it appears there’s no bad blood between us, and I’m grateful for that. A few other pieces garnered considerable enthusiasm and feedback, especially the piece trumpeting the fact that you can legally drink in LeBauer Park in downtown Greensboro if it’s from one of the adjacent businesses. Y’all need to take advantage of that. Readers frequently mention the time I brewed a beer at Gibb’s Hundred — I named the mint saison “Taylor Swift’s Boyfriend,” and even though the small batch sold out in record time, she still hasn’t called me (I wish you would, Taylor). Good news though; I’ll be making another beer soon with Preyer Brewing, this time to benefit TCB’s investigative fund! Other big things happened and appeared in this column in 2016, including the opening of Joymongers and Fainting Goat Spirits in Greensboro

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The year I gave up beer

Dec. 29, 2016 — Jan 3, 2017 Up Front

Those who rocked in 2016 by Jordan Green

his year marked my second retirement as a music writer; the first took place in 2009 at another Triad weekly. It’s bittersweet: The transition is allowing me to dive deeper into investigative reporting and do a better job of keeping my finger on the pulse of Triad news. And yet with all the gamesmanship, subterfuge and outright cruelty and oppression in the political arena, music has been a necessary antidote to sustain joy. I’m grateful to the many talented musicians across the Triad who gave me pleasure, and I’m awed by the

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12/30 The Wasnots

701 N Trade Street Winston-Salem, NC 27101

(336)955-1888 Pick of the Week Mantras @ The Blind Tiger (GSO), Saturday, 8 p.m. Check out the Mantras, a funkrock group with Middle-Eastern, electronica and metal influences, joined by the carnivalesque, psychedelic People’s Blues of Richmond. More info at theblindtiger.com.

care they put into their craft, which rarely receives monetary reward and often doesn’t get the public appreciation it deserves. The truth is, much as I love listening to live music and writing about it, I always considered myself a caretaker of the role, a kind of John the Baptist preparing the way for one greater than myself. I don’t really have the time to keep up with new releases, religiously attend concerts, develop expertise on the wildly varying genres of music that define the Triad or fully explore the different musical subRYAN SNYDER Thee Oh Sees’ scorching yet playful performance at Bailey Park was a cultures in the region. If that’s you, highlight of Phuzz Phest. we’ve got a position to fill and we’d like to talk to you. among equals in 2016 was Tange Lomax, a High Point rapper In this, my third year covering music for Triad City Beat, I who slayed the Black 2 Hip Hop showcase at the Blind Tiger in approached the job more as a fan than in the past, seeking February with spitfire rhymes, electric delivery and an unprerefuge in music and a sense of community in the scene. And I dictable stage presence. needed it, personally and as a citizen of a world that seems to Also proving the premise that the most talented artists be coming apart at the seams. don’t always enjoy the highest profiles was G-$antana, a As both a showcase of talent and enactment of community, 21-year-old McDonald’s employee who awed KRS-One at a cythe Stand Against HB 2 concert at the Millennium Center in pher on the campus of NC A&T University in Greensboro, and Winston-Salem in July — one of a series of concerts across the then finagled a backstage pass to the hip hop legend’s show at state — captured the spirit of the year. Singer-songwriter Lara Dynacon Event Center in April. A week later, G-$antana was Americo showed her vulnerability by talking and singing about opening for KRS-One in Orlando, Fla., and a couple months the experience of being transgender while the reunited Little after that he was on tour with the legend in Europe. Diesel telegraphed a timeless celebration of gender-queer While G-$antana deconstructed hip hop to its fundamenliberation with a raucous rendition of the David Bowie song tals, the Sinaloan narco-corrido artist Alfredo Rios, aka El “Rebel Rebel.” Since 2013, Snüzz’s “North Carolina, We’re Komander, proved that traditional Mexican music is a modern Better Than This” has become the state’s unofficial anthem of force in the Latin American diaspora. While the artist’s merceconscience, and while illness kept him away from the event, nary persona — with lyrics depicting violence and band memboth a reunited Bus Stop and an ensemble led by Kenny Roby bers wearing uniforms with an AK-47 ensign — are nothing and Caitlyn Cary paid tribute with two separate renditions. to celebrate, his concert at Disco Rodeo in Winston-Salem in Those were only a few of the highlights of the day, which also February was dazzling. Like a cross between Eazy-E and Elvis, included excellent performances by Sarah Shook, Chris StaKomander earned his name with a dominating stage presence, mey and the Camel City Collective. and the roster of similarly inclined acts on the supporting The sixth iteration of Phuzz Phest, streamlined into two bill suggested the excitement of early rock-and-roll bills in days in April with about 50 acts, also felt more cohesive than the ’50s that included the likes of Carl Perkins, Little Richard, past years. If one moment encapsulated the spirit of commuChuck Berry and Jerry Lee Lewis. nion, it was the Los Angeles psych-rock outfit Thee Oh Sees’ Irata, possibly the hardest persevering metal-rock band in scorching yet playful set on the first night at Bailey Park, as Greensboro, released Sweet Loris in October 2015, but had to fans went into a frenzy — grinding against each other, laying cancel a string of concert dates because drummer Jason Ward hands on amps for salvation and sharing big smiles. The next was hospitalized with an infection stemming from a broken night, rapper/poet/songwriter Shirlette Ammons of Durham collar bone. An album release party in January 2016 had to be claimed a sex-positive, queer-positive feminist space with the canceled because of a snowstorm and the band eventually backing of a sonically devastating rock combo. The musicians performed in a secret, underground location. An East Coast were also fans that weekend, as attested by Cashavelly Morritour scheduled for March with Nashville’s All Them Witches son guitarist Ryan MacLeod’s admiration for the country noir — a crowd favorite at the Garage in Winston-Salem — proves sound of Lera Lynn’s band. Irata is trudging towards the recognition they deserve. Cashavelly Morrison, the performance moniker of MaTotally Slow, a band that plays good, old-fashioned punk cLeod’s wife, Melissa, released a stunning debut, The Kingdom, but nonetheless shares scene camaraderie with the more in 2015, with songs that sound like they could have been metal-ly Irata, took a more linear route. The band recorded its written a hundred years ago in Appalachia. In November, they excellent sophomore album, Bleed Out, at Legitimate Business performed new material that features a more spacious sound in Greensboro in January, and released it in September. at the Garage as they prepared to go into the studio to record Despite being otherwise challenging, it’s been a good year their second album. for music. In 2017, I won’t be processing music as an intellectuNorth Carolina’s underground rap scene is unfortunately al exercise, chasing down song titles or looking for storylines. fractured, but its lack of hierarchy makes spotting talent, Next time you see me in the venues, I’ll be with you experiencof which there is no shortage, all the more rewarding. First ing the music as a fan.

In 2016, art in the Triad went public by Brian Clarey

Open Mic Night

Friday, December 30 @ 8pm

Mark Kano & Mike Garrigan Monday, January 2 @ 7pm

Mystery Movie Monday Tuesday, January 3 @ 8pm

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Wednesday, January 4 @ 7pm

Healing Psychic Readings by Lucía Shot in the Triad

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Deserving of kudos is filmmaker Brendan Malone, who won Greensboro’s 48-Hour Film Fest with his short “Libris Mortis,” and then took another short, “Foodie” to the Cannes Film Festival’s Short Film Corner. In other film news, longtime RiverRun Executive Director Andrew Rodgers stepped down from his post to helm the Denver Film Festival. His replacement, Rob Davis, comes from the Fort Lauderdale Film Festival, and is already working on the 2017 slate. The Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art took on a new director as well: Katherine Foster, formerly of the New Winston Museum. While the theater community mourned the passing of local producer and director Steven Gee, the Community Theatre of Greensboro, which now takes up residence in the old Broach Theatre space on South Elm Street, ran a revival of his play A Tuna Christmas, his first success in that intimate space. On the comedy scene, the Idiot Box comedy & improv club moved from its space in downtown Greensboro to the lower decks of Geeksboro, a few miles to the north on Lawndale Avenue. And in literature, Greensboro author Quinn Dalton released Midnight Bowling, her fourth book, and celebrated its release with an event at Scuppernong in March. The Weatherspoon Art Museum stayed current this year with Unbranded: A Century of White Women, 1915-2015, a study

Thursday, December 29 @ 8pm Sportsball

he art story that dominated 2016 in the Triad now dominates a section of downtown Greensboro’s skyline: the iridescent netting of sculptor Janet Echelman’s “Where We Met,” hovering over the performance space at LeBauer Park, that city’s newest downtown public space. Elsewhere in the public sphere is… Elsewhere. In 2016, the living museum finished up a massive infrastructure upgrade that enables it to remain open all year long on Greensboro’s South Elm Street. Later in the year, Elsewhere installed a full-on Ferris wheel in the street out front, granting rides for a dollar to all comers on First Friday. And a growing collection of murals in our cities gained notorious new real estate. A giant clutch of irises adorns he wall of a building along Holliday Circle in downtown Greensboro, part of the No Blank Walls project that placed five murals in the city beginning in 2015. In downtown Winston-Salem, the mural wall at the art park turned over again, even while the Art for Art’s Sake building rises from the lot next door. Winston-Salem artist Kendall Doub probably takes the prize in 2016, contributing a piece to the West End Mill Works, a piece in the West Salem Historic District and another near the News & Record in downtown Greensboro. And Winston Square Park near the Milton Rhodes Center for the Arts got a new resident in December: a baby bird constructed from pipes and plastic by artist Aaron Gibbons dubbed “Interactive Bird.”

ERIC GINSBURG

Culture

Janet Echelman’s sculpture “Where We Met” at LeBauer Park is the single most significant piece of art in the Triad this year.

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Peter and the Wolf @ Old Salem Visitor Center (W-S), Thursday, 11 a.m., 1 p.m., 3 p.m. All are welcome at the music and dance interpretation of this classic story, a collaboration between Music Carolina, Helen Simoneau Danse and Peppercorn Theatre. More information at oldsalem.org.

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of commercial imagery with the brand names and logos omitted, showing starkly the expected roles of women through the 20th Century. Among the most popular art stories this year at triad-city-beat.com, top honors went to a profile of Winston-Salem illustrator Kyle Webster who, among other pursuits, designs all the labels for Foothills’ beers. The model for the People’s Porter label, he told TCB in October, was original brewer and current CEO Jamie Bartholomaus.

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CULTURE

Dec. 29, 2016 — Jan 3, 2017 Up Front News Opinion Cover Story Culture Sportsball Crossword Shot in the Triad Triaditude Adjustment-

SPORTSBALL

A 2016 booth review

like the last time Stanford and Wake faced off in the f you’d told me two years tournament. ago, when I began working Speaking of crazy happenings at Wake, how about for Triad City Beat as an edthat #WakeyLeaks scandal? It’s the stuff of political itorial intern, that I would intrigue. helm the sports section, I As politics would have it, the state and the Triad lost would’ve laughed in your face. some major athletic opportunities due to the despised Yet here I am, having House Bill 2. The NBA pulled the 2017 All-Star Game occupied the column for the from Charlotte. Greensboro lost the honor of hosting past 20 months, for better or by Anthony Harrison not just the ACC Women’s Basketball Tournament and worse. And the end of 2016 others, but also the NCAA Men’s Division I Basketball represents the first full calenTournament’s first- and second-round matches for the dar year I’ve covered sports for you. South division. It’s been a crazy ride around the sun in the wide, Allow me to point out that I advocated for such rewide world of sports. percussions back in April, not that I am happy about it. There’ve been some incredible wins. But honestly, there’s a silver lining to the loss of The Chicago Cubs advanced to the World Series for these opportunities. I get to seek out funky little the first time since 1945, breaking two curses along events to write about, which are just about as fun as the way, and won their first championship since 1908. the huge ones the other papers around here cover. I had the opportunity and pleasure to see them play at Most recently, I found myself checking Wrigley Field back in May, when they beat my elitism at the King of the Concrete the Philadelphia Phillies on my birthday. Against my go-kart races at the Greensboro ColiseOn an only tangentially related note, I got to watch the Boston Red Sox beat the editorial board’s um. I questioned appropriation of racist symbols at Winston-Salem’s Heavy Chicago White Sox at Fenway Park this insistence, I still Rebel Weekender car show. I rooted for year, too. a classic-style, side-scrolling video game Sadly, we’ve witnessed some harsh snuck in some created by High Point University students losses, as well. participatory that seemed poised as an underdog to The Carolina Panthers, who unequivowin an award at a major gaming concally kicked the asses of (nearly) all comjournalism. vention. Quite like TS Eliot, I lingered in ers throughout the 2015 regular season, the chambers of the Greensboro Aquatic flopped hard in Super Bowl 50 against Center and watched mermaids and mermen glide the Denver Broncos early on this year, thanks partly to gracefully through the water with silicon tails. If ever I referee Clete Blakeman. (Ugh, Anthony, you know not attend to a steer-roping contest, I can proudly proto blame the officials....) claim, “This ain’t my first rodeo,” sans irony, because Then, the UNC-Chapel Hill Tar Heels men’s basketI went to a Professional Bull Riders event at Lawrence ball team ran riot through the NCAA tournament, Joel Veterans Memorial Coliseum. reaching the national championship game against Against my editorial board’s insistence, I even snuck Villanova University Wildcats. Their loss was unlike in some participatory journalism. the Panthers’ tortuous defeat, but the quick, Band-Aid I shot a legit bow and arrow for the first time ever pull stung all the same, partly because I’m a lifelong thanks to Remy Epps’ archery clinic at Greensboro’s Heels fan, but also because I watched them begin their Hester Park. I wrote about fishing in the still, quiet tournament journey in Raleigh. hours of a summer morning. I braved a torrential After the Wake Forest University men’s soccer team monsoon attempting to rocket down an enormous slip defeated Atlantic Coast Conference rival Virginia Tech ‘n’ slide. I ruined some nerds’ lives at a Raleigh spelling to move on to the College Cup Final Four, they were bee, and I danced my butt off between innings of a trounced by none other than Stanford University Winston-Salem Dash game at BB&T Ballpark. during extra time in the championship game — kind of

Speaking of things we can never forget, remember that time I rambled insanely about my March Madness bracket-filling system, then had to report its subsequent, abject failure in praxis? Of course, it’s not all about me. I had the honor to interview two incredible local women, Dee Todd and Doreen Bryant, who helped usher in a new era of women’s basketball. I spoke with a humble, mild-mannered giant of college football, NC A&T head coach Rod Broadway, about his upbringing and career. And though the conversation was a bit one-sided, I had the chance to profile a local legend: Greensboro’s World War Memorial Stadium. Finally, I’ve found plenty of time to cover a rising star in the local athletic community: the Greensboro Swarm. The D-League NBA team captured my attention in ways other events haven’t. I mused with TCB Managing Editor Eric Ginsburg about the team’s importance during the Swarm’s close Dec. 22 loss against the Los Angeles D-Fenders. No matter if they’re D-League or not, these talented men are just one step removed from the pros, world-class talent right here at home. In the same way, I’ve taken it upon myself to deliver the most entertaining sports writing I can for you, whether you give a damn about sports or not. Hopefully in the next full and fun year, you will.

Pick of the Week For ACC lang syne Clemson University Tigers @ Wake Forest University Demon Deacons (W-S), Saturday, 12 p.m. Before you start popping corks, placing silly hats on your heads, honking on those kazoo things and finding a stranger to kiss at midnight, support the Demon Deacons (9-3 as of Wednesday) as they host their first home game of conference play against the Tigers (9-2). Visit wakeforestsports.com for more info.

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CROSSWORD

‘Keep Dividing’ the pieces get smaller and smaller. by Matt Jones

62 Deck that all episodes of Hulu’s “Shut Eye” are named after 66 12.5% of a push-up undergarment? 70 Cat or goat type 71 Poker couple 72 Capital attachment? 73 What many gamblers claim to have 74 “___ Like the Wind” (Patrick Swayze song) 75 “Help wanted” sign?

Playing Dec. 29 – Jan. 2 The First Joke of the New Year!

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Down 1 ___ Men (“Who Let the Dogs Out” group) 2 Flashy gem 3 Flower bed planting 4 Titular TV attorney of the ‘90s-’00s 5 “Now I understand!” 6 Big guffaw 7 Just say yes 8 “Bridesmaids” producer Judd 9 “Batman Forever” star Kilmer 10 Cultural periods 11 Gain altitude 12 Withstand 13 Pillow cover 18 “Dogs” 19 Drops in the grass 24 Mature 25 Angry bull’s sound 27 Pedestrian path 28 Excite, as curiosity

29 Dern of “Jurassic Park” 30 Lighted sign at a radio station 31 Be rude in a crowd 33 Howl at the moon 34 Cremona violinmaking family name 35 It’ll make you pull over 36 “I ___ thought about it” 39 Late “60 Minutes” reporter Morley 42 Bitterly cold 43 Watered-down 44 Like a litter of puppies 49 City where the Batmobile is driven 51 “The Jerk” actress Bernadette 52 “Bearing gifts, we traverse ___” 54 Use blades on blades 56 Affirmative votes 57 Crawling with creepers 58 Frittata needs 59 Chance 61 Destroys, as bubble wrap 63 MLB stat, incorrectly but commonly 64 “... ___ I’m told” 65 Bagpipers’ caps 67 One less than quattro 68 “Yeah” opposite 69 D20 or D8, in D&D games

Up Front

Across 1 “Better Call Saul” star Odenkirk 4 BLT spread 8 Keeps from happening 14 “The Simpsons” character with an 18-letter last name 15 Common freshwater bait fish 16 Outcast 17 50% of an ice cream dessert? 20 “The Zoo Story” dramatist 21 As of this time 22 Look to be 23 Spock’s dominant feature 26 Blow the socks off 28 One of many on a serialized TV show 32 Indiana-Illinois border river 37 James Bond novelist Fleming 38 Capitol Hill figures, slangily 40 Mythical monster that’s part woman, part serpent 41 25% of property to play in? 45 “David Copperfield” villain Heep 46 Stir-fry ingredient 47 Number that looks like itself repeated, when expressed in binary 48 Insect with two pairs of wings 50 Maintenance sign 53 Jacques or Jeanne, par exemple 55 Scuba spot 56 The “Y” in YSL 60 Sweater, say

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Crossword

Answers from previous publication.

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Dec. 29, 2016 — Jan 3, 2017 Triaditude Adjustment

Shot in the Triad

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SHOT IN THE TRIAD West Gate City Boulevard, Greensboro

Mort Ducker, owner of Curry Tire and Auto, two days before his retirement after 39 years in the business. Mort’s plans for 2017 include drinking beer on his porch and playing Words With Friends.

PHOTO BY CAROLYN DE BERRY

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Genovese family’s cement shoe factory; living room, like David Lee Roth in a Talbots turtleneck. • That time Bigfoot came over for an enthusiastic It was like that the entire time that they lived there, afternoon of hopscotch; and providing the incessantly loud top half of the annoying • That time they prepared their WWE auditions, resandwich where my apartment sits. Right below me peatedly launching themselves from a set of turnstiles is some kind of combo dog-groomer/kennel, so most they’d strung between a pair of Pottery Barn sofas. days I hear non-stop muffled barks, like my closets are But they’re gone now, thank goodness, and in a few full of last season’s cocker spaniels. Meanwhile, upshort days, 2016 will be too. Next year’s going to be stairs, they’d start vacuuming at 6 a.m., apparently so better, right? It has to be. To paraphrase the now-late they could sneak up on the dust mites while they slept. George Michael, we’ve gotta have faith. We’ve gotta When I first met them, I had no idea what they were have faith a-faith, a-faith. capable of. I’m not sure we ever actually spoke during the three years (seven months, two weeks and four Jelisa Castrodale is a freelance writer who enjoys pizza, days) that we shared an address. They always stood obscure power-pop records and will probably die alone. silently beside me in the elevator, wordlessly mashFollow her on Twitter @gordonshumway. ing the button for their floor while I stared at the sides of their heads and wondered whether it was possible to hate someone to death. Then I’d unlock my door, step inside and brace myself for whatever combination of unidentifiable decibels was about to come through the ceiling. I never figured out exactly Ach what they did to be so offi for meving u the-charts irritating, but I y ne p to $ ighb 1 think some of the highorho 69 SQ/ F od S lights included: eller T • That time they invits ed a marching band for a large-scale reenactment of Fleetwood Mac’s Tusk; • That time they had aggressive intercourse in a kayak, while wearing spiked golf shoes for traction; • That time they challenged Michael Flatley to an all-night dance off, when each of the participants were judged for both stamina and obnoxiousness; • That time a group of centaurs stopped by for a cocktail party; • That time they hosted the qualifying tournament for the Olympic Long Jump, the one where each athlete was judged on their best 3,000 attempts; • That time they cloned dinosaur DNA using an amber-encased mosquito and built a prehistoric theme park, complete with sevPresented by eral triceratops stomping Frank Slate Brooks beside the kitchen island Broker/Realtor® and velociraptors constant336.708.0479 ly Clever Girl-ing their way FrankSlate.Brooks@trmhomes.com to the front door; • That time they worked as quality checkers for the

Up Front

just sat down in the kitchen, clearing a space for my computer between a pair of half-eaten panettones and the crumbs of what Santa Claus couldn’t choke down before he went over the fence to the neighbors’ house. An hour by Jelisa Castrodale ago, about halfway through Christmas dinner, our phones all started beeping with alerts that Grammy-winning superstar and Hall of Fame stubble-haver George Michael had died. We had an impromptu tribute at the table, playing “Last Christmas” and providing the most solemn backing vocals that a Wham! song could ever hope for. George Michael was a longtime favorite of mine. When I was about 9, I had a poster of him holding a guitar and wearing a pair of blue jeans that made you give silent thanks that Levi Strauss started stitching rivets into pieces of denim. (My parents also made me take that poster down every time my grandmother came over, possibly concerned that it would be hot enough to ignite the chemicals in her home perm.) In addition to being a beautiful man, he was also a top-shelf songwriter. I’ve always argued that there may not be a better Side One on any record than you’ll find on Michael’s first solo release, Faith. The four songs that are stacked together – “Faith,” “Father Figure,” “I Want Your Sex,” and “One More Try” – include three Billboard No. 1s and a No. 2. (“I Want Your Sex” never made it to the top spot because even though relatively tame lines like “Sex is natural/Sex is good” sound like they could’ve been lifted from something David Attenborough narrated, the song was controversial enough that some US radio stations — and even Sir Dave’s own BBC — refused to play it). So yeah, it’s Christmas night and George Michael is gone and I’m starting to wonder whether any of us are going to survive the last few days of the gasoline-soaked diaper pail that 2016 has become. This year has been wall-to-wall garbage. It has been a stomach virus with a face. It’s the hair you find woven between the bristles of your toothbrush, the mouthful of raisins you mistook for chocolate chips, the sound of a dog barfing in the exact spot where you’ll step out of bed. On New Year’s Eve, I wish I could grab Father Time by the sleeve of his faded robe and tell him not to let the front door hit him on his way into the ether, but we already know that he’s going to run straight through the walls, like Mr. Kool-Aid if his pitcher-shaped body was filled with sadness and stale hot-dog water. Since this will be my last column of 2016, I’ve tried to find some way to end on a high note, something redeeming that we could carry onto our shiny new calendar pages, but that’s stupid: We know what this year has done. So while I’m slumped over my keyboard, hate-eating from a plate with Santa’s name on it, I can only think of one good thing that’s happened: My awful upstairs neighbors finally moved out. I’ve never been more excited to see a U-Haul parked outside or to hear hand-trucks being loaded into the elevator. Now that I think about it, this year started with a literal thud, when Mrs. Awful Upstairs Neighbor resolved to get in shape with some kind of DVD that instructed her to jump and kick her way around their

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TRIADITUDE ADJUSTMENT Like a good neighbor