NYT’s David Brooks — who so lovingly admired then Sen. Barack Obama’s pant leg —still has a mancrush on the president, as if we would think otherwise. Appearing in today’s N&R, Brooks writes:
Normally, presidents look weak during periods of economic stagnation, overwhelmed by events. But Obama has displayed a kind of ESPN masculinity: postfeminist in his values, but also thoroughly traditional in style — hypercompetitive, restrained, not given to self-doubt, rarely self-indulgent. Administrations are undone by scandal and moments when they look pathetic, but this administration, guarded in all things, has rarely had those moments.
..I’d say that Obama is a slight underdog this year: the scuffling economy will grind away at voters. But his leadership style is keeping him afloat. He has defined a version of manliness that is postboomer in policy but preboomer in manners and reticence.
Just like the president really stepped up to the plate as North Carolina was going at it over Amendment One. Give me a break.
No CommentsN&R reports:
The Greensboro City Council voted Tuesday night to take the first of three procedural steps to put a $30million bond referendum on the November ballot to help build a downtown performing arts center.
The council’s 6-3 vote came after members heard the results of a consultant’s study, which said that a new downtown venue would enhance the city’s entertainment choices and pump more than $7 million a year into the local economy.
I watched with interest ANS’ presentation, knowing full well what the conclusion be. Quoting Triadwatch’s George Hartzman —who spoke against starting the bond process — it was the ‘most obvious thing’ you’ve seen in Greensboro for a while. That said, I admit AMS representatives handled questions from council well, providing sound details about their market research, which gauged the opinion of about 2,000 people in a city of 270k.
Council members who voted against the motion to start the bond process were Trudy Wade, Dianne Bellamy-Small and Marikay Abuzuaiter.
No CommentsThis isn’t exactly the left-handed compliment architect Andres Duany paid High Point a few weeks ago, but it’s not exactly a favorable comparison from fellow architect Tom Low, who’s part of Duany’s team working with city leaders in the effort to bring downtown back to life:
…Low said his company has created consensus in the other cities in which it has been the most successful.
He cited Naples, Florida, which he said was “a gap-toothed, one-story main street a few years ago” but is now a multiple-story main street that has drawn hundreds of millions of dollars in investments.
He cited his hometown of Roanoke, Virginia, where he said the company transformed the city’s market area.
And he cited the redeveloped Southside neighborhood in Greensboro. “As the mayor said, it was the best project in the last 50 years,” he said.
Low repeated the advice of his boss —- if you want to revitalize downtown HP, throw out burdensome rules and regulations.
City planners are indeed rewriting the city zoning ordinance, but as Paul Clark notes it “seems unlikely that the High Point Planning and Zoning Department will come up with fewer rules.”
No CommentsGubernatorial nominee Lt. Gov. Walter Dalton waxes in front of state Democratic Party’s Executive Committee about Chairman David Parker’s ‘selfless act,’ only to have Parker emerge from behind the curtain, still the chairman.
Read on in the N&R’s account of the committee’s meeting in Greensboro:
Perry Woods, a proxy who helped campaign for Baldwin, said Parker found a loophole in the rules requiring the party to vote to accept or reject his resignation, which Woods said he hadn’t seen done before.
“He made it about David Parker, and it’s a sad day to be a Democrat in the state of North Carolina,” Woods said.
Greensboro Sen. Don Vaughan —who was vying for the chair, said Democrats will “come back unified and fired up for the November election.”
Sitting here now, it appears as though it will take a miracle for President Obama to win N.C.
No CommentsLocker Room passes along this N&O article speculating on the John Edwards trial is having on Greensboro’s economy:
It’s a big week for spectacle in this Piedmont town: the Greensboro Youth Council’s annual carnival is set up in the coliseum parking lot, and a few miles away, there’s a minor media circus around the federal courthouse where former Sen. John Edwards is on trial.
Only one has an actual roller coaster, but both have their ups and downs.
“Overall, I think it’s been a very good thing. Certainly for the local economy, it’s been very good,” said Ed Wolverton, president and CEO of downtown Greensboro Inc., an economic development group.
The N&R wrote up the media circus last week. Everybody’s gotta eat lunch, which is good for downtown, but otherwise —according to CNN reporter Bob Woodruff— it doesn’t sound like they have much time to get out and about:
“I’ve been to two restaurants and went down to the Green Bean (coffee house). Great stuff. But that’s about the only time I’ve gotten away,” Woodruff said. “You get out of court, have a meal, write a piece for ‘World News,’ write a piece for ‘Good Morning America’ and go to bed.”
James Hill, a Chicago-based producer for ABC, said he got a chance to explore the area last year when he was in town for Edwards’ indictment. But this time around, he said, he is spending “a lot of time with the very nice people at the Marriott.”
“I keep waiting for the Greensboro Grasshoppers to play, seeing a Cuban kid, Jose (Fernandez), that’s with them,” he said. “And there are all those nice pubs and restaurants on Elm Street. I hope to actually be able to try them, but we’re doing 14-, 16-hour days.”
This is good for the hotels, which means more hotel tax money, which means more money the downtown performing arts center, eh?
No CommentsAll the years of watching Guilford County commission meetings, I never understood why Billy Yow and Steve Arnold always voted against approving the consent agenda.
This might have something to do with it. Looks like the Rhino breaks the story of outgoing Count Manager Brenda Jones Fox’ golden parachute, with the N&R following up.
But the angle here is the policy change that lifted the cap on lump sum payouts was buried in the consent agenda for the March 1 meeting. The N&R’s angle is Fox is charged with the duty of helping commissioners figure out which items in the consent agenda need to be pulled for further discussion and debate. Surprise —the policy change that gave Fox a bigger payout wasn’t one of them.
All this makes me think of that warrior against liberalism up I-40 in Asheville, the former City Council member Carl Mumpower, who once pulled almost every item from a lengthy consent agenda for a separate vote.
No CommentsThe Piedmont Authority for Regional Transportation will cut routes due to —you guessed it –yet another funding crisis.
The High Point Enterprise says the “only way to prevent the latest round of route cuts from taking effect July 1 would be an infusion of county, state or federal funding.” Odds that will happen?
No CommentsJon Lovitz skewers President Obama and his ‘artificial numbers’ in a less profane manner.
Mandatory viewing, especially at about the four-minute mark when Lovitz reveals how his Hollywood buddies really feel about the president’s class warfare rhetoric. And still they’ll vote vote for him.
No CommentsOpponents of Amendment One stressed “warned it could result in a host of problems for unmarried couples with children,” and also “could even deprive unmarried women of protections against domestic abuse.”
The morning after Amendment One passes we learn a Winston-Salem police officer has been charged with assault on a female. The victim is the officer’s girlfriend –they have been living together for several years and have three children together.
2 CommentsTwo incumbent Guilford County Board of Education incumbents —Paul Daniels and Sandra Alexander — finished second in their respective, primaries, meaning they’ll be running from behind in the November general election.
Alexander lost by 41 to 38 percent, while Daniels’ margin was much larger —53-33 percent. Daniels told the N&R “no one indicated they were unhappy with my representation,” so he will “sit back and digest the results and see where we need to go from here.”
Daniels is the most conservative member of the GCS board, and recently made news when he expressed his support for Amendment One from the dais during a recent board meeting, prompting fellow board members Kris Cooke and Jeff Belton to walk out.
Hard to say if that made a difference. For what it’s worth at this point, the Rhino wrote up the controversy, reminding us that during a February meeting board member Amos Quick recently addressed the Trayvon Martin wearing a hoodie and no one walked out.
However, note also —-according to the Rhino — Quick stated at the April 26 meeting that he didn’t “necessarily disagree with the position [Daniels] was advocating.”
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