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Greensboro / Winston-Salem / High Point February 1 – 7, 2017 triad-city-beat.com

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Block by block What’s new, what’s coming, and what’s gone downtown PAGE 12

Resist! PAGES 5, 6, 10 & 17 Farewell, Wayno PAGE 20 Wise guys PAGE 17

February 1 – 7, 2017

ARTHUR MILLER’S

THE PRICE

Triad Stage celebrates the work of one of America’s greatest playwrights in a 50th anniversary production of what the The Wall Street Journal calls “the best thing (Arthur) Miller ever wrote.”

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EDITOR’S NOTEBOOK

I suppose I’ve known Downtown Greensboro Inc.’s Executive Director Zack Matheny for 10 years now, going back to his first Greensboro by Brian Clarey City Council run in 2007. He had done a couple years on the zoning commission, but as a candidate was not quite used to the kind of pushback that has always been a part of Jordan Green’s repertoire, even back then. Matheny’s been through the wringer and back since then: three more council terms during which we butted heads on more than a couple issues — the downtown curfew springs immediately to mind, but there were others. I know he’s cursed my name, because he has had the temerity to do it — twice, I think, so far — to my face. This is one of the things I like about him. I like him better with DGI than I did on council, too. He’s more effective, and he seems happier. He’s taken his lumps from downtown business and property owners from every quarter, and a DWI in 2015, early in his tenure at the post that has begun to seem like a revolving door, put

even more pressure on him to perform. I’m not saying that Matheny is responsible for the remarkable amount of action that has taken place in downtown Greensboro in the last year (see this week’s cover story, beginning on page 12, to see just how much). But I am saying that very little happens in his 99-block territory without him knowing about it. And he was an indispensable source for the piece. His time here in the heart of the city, now literally on the ground floor, has given him an understanding of Greensboro I think may have been missing during his time in council chambers. He related to me something that Walker Sanders, president of the Greater Greensboro Community Foundation, helped him understand. “If you really pull back and see what this city was founded on,” he said to me at his DGI office on the corner of South Elm and Lewis streets, “we were educating women before women could vote. We were educating African Americans before the Civil Rights Movement at A&T. And on top of that, we were educating African-American women at their own college! “Why did we do all that?” he asks. “Because Greensboro can.” I know he means it, but it sure does sound like he’s running for something.

QUOTE OF THE WEEK I wonder if Winston-Salem would sell me their trolley. — Downtown Greensboro Inc. President Zack Matheny, in the Cover, page 12

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

SALES DIRECTOR OF ADVERTISING Dick Gray

brian@triad-city-beat.com allen@triad-city-beat.com

EDITORIAL MANAGING EDITOR Eric Ginsburg

jorge@triad-city-beat.com

dick@triad-city-beat.com

SALES EXECUTIVE Cheryl Green cheryl@triad-city-beat.com

eric@triad-city-beat.com

SENIOR EDITOR Jordan Green jordan@triad-city-beat.com

EDITORIAL INTERN Joel Sronce

CONTRIBUTORS Carolyn de Berry Kat Bodrie Jelisa Castrodale

Stallone Frazier Anthony Harrison Matt Jones

Cover photography by Carolyn de Berry Construction for the Downtown Greenway slows traffic in LoFi

intern@triad-city-beat.com

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Zack bounces back

Since February 1, 1960

Greensboro

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February 1 – 7, 2017

CITY LIFE Feb. 1 – 7 by Joel Sronce

WEDNESDAY

The Walker Street Fiddlers @ McPherson’s Bar & Grill (GSO), 7 p.m. Student musicians ranging from elementary to high school showcase their love for and dedication to traditional Irish and American fiddle music. A veteran group of adults accompany, and instructor Scott Walker leads the way. More info at thewalkerfamilyband.com.

THURSDAY

Anti-racist white people gathering @ Elsewhere (GSO), 7 p.m. Black Lives Matter Gate City initiates a dialogue with white folks who desire to fight for social justice. Participants learn different types of anti-racist action, as well as showing true solidarity and supporting trans persons of color in North Carolina. More info on the Facebook event page.

FRIDAY

T0w3rs @ The Garage (W-S), 9 p.m. Winston-Salem label Phuzz Records presents bands T0w3rs, Body Games and Breathers. More info at the-garage.ws.

SATURDAY Painting Basics @ Theatre Art Galleries (HP), 9 a.m. Award-winning local artist Jeremy Sams presents Still Life, Looking to Paint, a painting class for beginners. Participants learn drawing basics and create a still-life painting. Space is limited and a reservation is required. More info at tagart.org. Police-community forum @ the Islamic Center of Greensboro, 3:30 p.m. Members of the Greensboro Police Department and the international community join for a panel discussion to develop understanding and relationships between the law enforcement and the city’s immigrant and refugee population. More info on the Facebook event page. GRAWL Brawl IV: Battle of the Stars @ Geeksboro (GSO), 8 p.m. The Greensboro Arm Wrestling League presents its second season of ladies arm wrestling in a Star Wars vs. “Star Trek” battle. The event includes raffle prizes and local celebrity guest judges. Proceeds from the event benefit the nonprofit My Sister Susan’s House, a transitional living facility for homeless young mothers. More info at geeksboro.com.

SUNDAY

Lonnie Holley & Ben Sollee @ SECCA (W-S), 6 p.m. The Blue Ridge Music Center and SECCA present artist and musician Lonnie Holley, along with cellist and composer Ben Sollee. The two artists play one set apiece with a brief intermission. Food trucks and beer from Foothills Brewing are available. More info at brpfoundation.org.

by Joel Sronce

Sportsball Crossword Shot in the Triad All She Wrote

On “Average Joe?” G-$antana projects a sense of himself as a young man moving beyond his roots but honoring a sense of connection with his constituency: “Respect and peace to all my hustlas on the block/ Respect to all the street soldiers holding the spot/ Respect and peace to all the single parents for sure/ Respect to all my students paying money to learn/ I got love for my brothers and I got love for my sisters/ I got love for any person who’s oppressed in the system/ There’s a void we need to close, but we can’t do it alone.” The EP opens with a remix of “Shot Caller” and ends with the straight track. It’s a fitting repository for SandMan’s tension. He starts with youthful wonder (“I smoked up before I hit the plane/ Double shot of Jack Daniels to the brain/ I’m flying over clouds towards the fame/ Realizing nothing was the same, dang!”) but seems powerless to resist the pull of more weighty concerns (“I didn’t get a degree, I transferred to A&T/ Plenty of associates, discarded them like apple seeds/ Watch me plant the seeds, and grow a thousand trees/ We need more oxygen/ Like Eric Garner, I can’t breathe/ I do not like TV, there’s nothing true to see.”)

Culture

devil won the battle, but the war is not over/ We gotta stay connected like a videogame controller/ We gotta stay connected like a tattoo on your shoulder/ We gotta stay connected like an organ to a donor.”

Again and again I hear people quote the Constitution. Yes, in the intensity of these times we seek out guidance; we flail for familiarity and buoyancy. And yes, the document does, allegedly, hold us to some form of democracy and law. Even the more anarchic among us might look to it, now, at the blustering in of untamed and imperious tyranny. But we need to wield it in the right ways. Again, at an event this week, I heard another well-intentioned liberal assert that the Constitution is the backbone of our beautiful country, an inspiration to millions. More or less what makes America great. Its promises — the formation of a more perfect union, or the establishment of justice, that all men are created equal or a defense or welfare that is a common provision to all — are so blatantly disregarded in our society, and always have been, that it doesn’t need to be the torch that those looking for change ignite in dark times. For hundreds of years, others have been saying the words that need to be studied and referenced. And everyday beautiful new speeches are made. We need to hear and quote one another, specifically people of color, LGBT folks, immigrants and refugees and any other marginalized people upon whose deaf ears these worn promises weakly fall. If we do not recognize, publicly and repeatedly, the contradictions present at this country’s violent birth, the shameful privileges and limitations, we resign ourselves to ignore false justifications for today’s dangerous political declarations. If we do not recognize the ancient contradictions ever present around us, we are ignoring those in our communities who have never imagined the words coming true.

Cover Story

by Jordan Green When a 21-year-old rapper quits his job at a McDonald’s in Greensboro to embark on a tour of Europe with a certifiable hip-hop legend — the incomparable KRS-One — things might get a little crazy. When over the course of that odyssey, he watches from afar as his native country slips into the hands of an authoritarian fabulist caught in the grip of dark hallucinations about black America, you could forgive him for losing his mind. Instead, G-$antana has released a remarkably grounded body of music that takes stock of his new station as a young man with budding self-awareness and confidence, and at the same time provides a soundtrack for the new era of resistance. Recorded at LiveWire Studios in Greensboro and Studio 87 in Liverpool, England and released on Sunday, SandMan issues forth with staccato raps over ominous and spare tracks, in contrast to the upstart braggadocio of past efforts. Here he is on “Bright Lights (Letter to America)”: “We gravitated towards a candidate who let us down/ Now, the next four years is hatred year-round/ The

by Joel Sronce

Opinion

G-$antana’s SandMan EP

Quoting the Constitution

News

threats to the American people leaves this writer questioning: Can we really trust our federal government to singlehandedly save us from such an immediate menace? This writer says hell no. So I’m calling on the good people of the North Carolina General Assembly, and none other than, if I may, state Sen. Dan Bishop of Charlotte. I ask you, respectfully: When will enough be enough? Amid so diligently determining and limiting who can barge into our bathrooms, it appears you let the most dangerous perpetrator of all slip by: a porcelain assassin. Hence, we must primarily and swiftly take care of those most vulnerable among us: the politicians. I ask you to build upon your proposed legislation that would protect defenseless politicians such as former governor Pat McCrory from ubiquitous leftist rioters. I call for legislation that would extend the proposed five-year prison sentence to anyone who threatens or intimidates a government official with the mere mention of a bathtub. Who better to put forth now that history is watching? Who better than you, Sen. Bishop, to lead us by example, so that we may stay safe, so that we may sleep well, and so that we may look to you and know that none of us need be any cleaner than our conscience?

Up Front

On a brisk Friday morning, more than 100 opponents and a couple dozen members of the media attended a press conference in Greensboro’s government plaza. The gathering was a community response to President Donald Trump’s executive orders, which include increasing deportations and immigration enforcement as well as denying federal funding to sanctuary cities. Later that day, he would sign another that suspends refugee admissions for 120 days and travel to the U.S. by citizens of seven Muslim-majority countries for 90 days. Near the end of the press conference, a representative from the Islamic Center of Greensboro asked that members of the audience Google the chances of dying in a terrorist attack. His request led to a swift and alarming revelation. What we would find, the representative declared, was that threat of terrorism is overshadowed by a more terrifying, undisclosed killer: drowning in a bathtub. There was no time for fact checking: Bathtubs are a determined threat to everyday Americans. It appears even the White House itself isn’t safe. Do we know how many now linger right under the nose of our otherwise vigilant new commander in chief? They came for William Taft. Barely, he escaped. But seeing our POTUS busy himself with lesser

triad-city-beat.com

Banning bathtubs

February 1 – 7, 2017 Up Front News Opinion Cover Story Culture Sportsball Crossword Shot in the Triad All She Wrote

NEWS

Greensboro officials seek to reassure residents rattled by Trump orders by Jordan Green

Local officials reassure residents that they won’t change local policies in response to President Trump’s executive orders on immigration, with the exception of Guilford County Sheriff BJ Barnes, who did not return calls for this story. In light of executive orders issued last week by President Trump, Mayor Nancy Vaughan vowed during a Jan. 27 press conference that Greensboro police will not become immigration agents. The flurry of presidential orders dramatically expands efforts to deport undocumented immigrants, ramps up coordination with local law enforcement, starts the process of building a wall along the Mexican border and temporarily halts the flow of refugees and migrants from predominantly Muslim countries, among other measures. Alluding to a city council resolution declaring Greensboro to be a “stranger to neighbor” city, Vaughan said, “We intend on staying that way.” The mayor introduced herself using her maiden name Barakat, and declared, “I am a third-generation Syrian [immigrant],” as an expression of solidarity with Syrian refugees. Vaughan said she spoke with police Chief Wayne Scott about how the executive orders might affect police enforcement. “I asked him if anything was going to change in the city of Greensboro after these executive orders and he said, ‘No.’ Our police officers are not [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] officers, and that we are going to continue to welcome people the way that we always have.” Speakers at the press conference represented an array of refugee agencies and faith organizations, along with representatives of the NAACP, Councilwoman Sharon Hightower, an undocumented woman and a Syrian refugee. The event drew about 125 people, some of whom held up signs reading, “Stand with refugees,” “USA is for all of us” and “Resist.” Trump’s executive order dealing with undocumented immigrants requires the Department of Homeland Security to dramatically expand the number of

Greensboro Mayor Nancy Vaughan speaks at press conference on Jan. 27.

people targeted for removal by prioritizing people for a wide range of conduct, including any criminal conviction, any criminal offense where the charge has not been resolved, fraud “or willful misrepresentation in connection with any official matter or application before a governmental agency,” abuse of public benefit programs, and even includes people who may have committed acts that could be considered criminal offenses even if they have not yet been charged. “Under the wording of this executive order, everyone is a priority,” said Jeremy McKinney, a local immigration lawyer. “This is outrageous. It actually threatens our public safety. Why? Because here [in North Carolina] most traffic offenses are misdemeanors. So under the wording of President Trump’s executive order, anyone that’s ever been charged with a traffic offense is an enforcement priority and subject to arrest and detention by ICE. Under this broad language everyone is a priority; therefore no one is. The local detention centers and regional detention centers will now seek a place for everyone. Instead of the very people President Trump says he wants to focus on, our detention centers and our courts are about to overflow with everyday people: landscapers, bricklayers, childcare work-

JORDAN GREEN

ers. Well, we say, ‘Not in Greensboro.’ We say, ‘Not again.’” The executive order also requires Homeland Security to reach out to states and local jurisdictions to execute new 287(g) agreements, a program created under the Clinton administration that was widely used under the administration of President George W. Bush, but largely dismantled under President Obama. Trump’s executive order also calls on Homeland Security to “authorize state and local law enforcement officials… to perform the functions of immigration officers in relation to the investigation, apprehension or detention of aliens in the United States.” McKinney noted that the agreements are voluntary. “Our local law enforcement has the power to ignore these requests from Big Brother to hold individuals that pose no danger to anyone here, that pose no danger to our community,” he said. In an interview on Tuesday, Winston-Salem Mayor Allen Joines rejected the notion that the city would declare itself a “sanctuary city,” as some residents have advocated, noting that the state General Assembly passed a law to prohibit cities from adopting the designation. But he said he doesn’t believe Winston-Salem police officers have any business enforcing immigration law.

“I think our policy is pretty clear: Our police officers have a lot to do,” Joines said. “We’re not going to take on the role of the federal government. Our mission is clearly stated. I don’t know that we need to take any more action to reaffirm.” “We are a city that values inclusion and diversity as part of our mission statement,” he added. “We have a very active program in our human relations department. It’s prima facie that it’s part of our mission to do that. It’s my personal position to very strongly promoted inclusion and diversity.” City Manager Lee Garrity added that the city does not hold a 287(g) agreement with Homeland Security. County-level policies could potentially have a more significant impact on undocumented immigrants considering that the county sheriff holds responsibility for operating jails, which often coordinate with the federal government to initiate deportation proceedings. Forsyth County Sheriff Bill Schatzman is not considering entering into a 287(g) agreement with the Department of Homeland Security, according to Lonnie Albright, the police attorney for the county. Albright planned to meet with Schatzman on Tuesday afternoon to discuss the department’s continued participation in the FaithAction ID program, which was set up in part to build trust between law enforcement and undocumented persons. Guilford County Sheriff BJ Barnes did not respond to inquiries on the matter before press time. Barnes spoke at rallies for Trump and Vice President Mike Pence in the Triad during the campaign last year, and the Guilford County Sheriff’s Office participated in the 287(g) program in 2009 and 2010. At the press conference, Guilford County School Board Chair Alan Duncan said that fear of deportation in light of Trump’s executive orders has already prompted some undocumented parents to keep their children out of school, clarifying that he was speaking on his own behalf and not for the board. Directly addressing “the children of Guilford County who are undocument-

Up Front News Opinion Cover Story Culture Sportsball Crossword Shot in the Triad All She Wrote

Mail resume: C. A. Cook, President, Oakbrook Solutions, Inc, 301 N. Main St, Ste. 2304, Winston-Salem, NC 27101.

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ed,” Duncan said, “By law — and it is still the law — we are not allowed to even ask if those students are documented or undocumented. Rather, it’s our duty to serve and provide the best possible education that we can to every single student that we have. And we as a board — and I SPREADING JOY believe we as a people in this county — are proud, yes, ONE PINT AT A TIME proud, to be able to offer that to all of our students. And I really make a plea: Please don’t hold your children away. We are not going to ask whether your child is documented or undocumented. What we’re gonna ask is: ‘How can we best serve the educational needs of your children?’” One of the executive orders halted refugee admissions from Syria until a new vetting procedure is established and then cut the number of people admitted by half, and suspended refugee admissions from all countries for 120 days. “I don’t know anybody in Syria, but I know that I have Monday Geeks Who Drink Pub Quiz 7:30 family there,” Mayor Vaughan said. “And when I see the pictures of detention centers and what’s going on in that Tuesday Live music with Piedmont Old Time Society Old Time music and country my heart breaks on a regular basis. And we have Bluegrass 7:30 people who are fleeing terrorism; they are not terrorists.” Doha AlTaki, a Syrian refugee who settled in GreensWednesday Live music with J Timber and Joel Henry with special guests 7:30 boro six months ago, told reporters and others at the press conference: “Because I am Syrian, I am not [a] terrorist. Thursday Live music with Josh King, Mark Because I am Muslim, I am not [a] terrorist. Because I Kano, and Jordan Powers with special wear a headscarf, I am not [a] terrorist. I am [a] human beguests 8:30 ing. I want to be a part of this community. I want to share Friday, Saturday, Sunday BEER my experience with you. I want to benefit from having you share your experience with me…. We are happy to be here joymongers.com | 336-763-5255 in America, especially in Greensboro, to live in peace.” 576 N. Eugene St. | Greensboro The executive order addressing removal of undocumented immigrants also takes aim at so-called sanctuary cities and counties, reading, “Sanctuary jurisdictions across the United States willfully violate federal law in an attempt to shield aliens from removal from the United States. These jurisdictions have caused irreparable harm to the American people and to the very J2EE Business Process Management (BPM) fabric of our republic.” Senior Developer (Winston Salem, NC) The order attempts to withhold federal funds from so-called “sanctuary jurisdictions” Provide BPM app dvlpmnt consulting services in support of critical by giving the US attorney general discretion process improvemnt initiatives, knowledge mgmt, personalization, business to designate what cities or counties are defined intelligence, & app integration. Utilize varied skill set & exp to construct, as such, block federal grants, and take enforceimplement & deploy process-centric Business Process Management solut’ns ment action against local jurisdictions that are based on Appian Enterprise BPM sftwr. Analyze reqmnts, model business deemed to be hindering the enforcement of processes & design prototypes & implement solut’ns. federal law. Responsible for hands-on Oakbrook Custom Java Dvlpmnt in support In an interview, Vaughan signaled relucof Req’d Appian Customizations & Smart Node dvlpmnt. Responsible for tance to support any resolution to declare Application Integration of 3rd Party technologies, Database, & Integration Greensboro a “sanctuary city,” as some cities Modules w/the overall WWX solution. Technical lead for client infrastructure are doing as a gesture of defiance towards the installation & configuration. WWX Application Configuration & Tuning. Trump administration, and as residents are Implement quality assurance plans, load testing plans & roll-out plans. advocating in neighboring Winston-Salem. Reqs: Bachelor’s Degree in Comp. Sci. +2 yrs progressive exp in J2EE sftwr The state legislature also outlawed so-called dvlpmnt, includng exp building web based J2EE apps w/JBoss, WebLogic, “sanctuary cities” in 2015. WebSphere, or Tomcat & exp w/RDBMS platforms MySql, Oracle or SQL “There isn’t a definition of a sanctuary city,” Server. Vaughan said. “We’re a ‘stranger to neighbor’ May work remotely from anywhere within the U.S. Must have legal city. We are not going to change that and do authority to work in the U.S. EEOE business any differently.”

February 1 – 7, 2017 Up Front News Opinion Cover Story Culture Sportsball Crossword Shot in the Triad All She Wrote

Vernon Robinson, who made the blueprint for Trump, tones it down by Jordan Green

The “black Jesse Helms” on challenging the Republican leadership in Congress and sacrificing elected officials who stray from the path. This ought to be Vernon Robinson’s triumphal moment. The former Winston-Salem city councilman forced a political showdown by erecting a monument to the 10 Commandments in front of City Hall in 2004. His chutzpah and outspoken social-conservative views helped earn him the title “the black Jesse Helms.” A “Twilight Zone”-themed television ad in Robinson’s unsuccessful bid for Congress in 2006 attacks Islamic extremism, same-sex marriage, feminism, “liberal judges,” and civil rights leaders Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton before concluding, “And the aliens are here, but they didn’t come in a spaceship; they came across our unguarded Mexican border by the millions.” Another version of the message accused his Democratic opponent of seeking to make America “nothing but one big fiesta for illegal immigrants and homosexuals.” The inflammatory rhetoric and shock value of the ad was almost a decade ahead of its time, and Robinson lost by 27 points in a district that was admittedly drawn to favor a Democrat. But the arch-conservative Robinson hasn’t fared much better in friendlier political territory, placing 10th in a 17-candidate scrum for the Republican nomination to the 13th Congressional District last year that was dominated by Ted Budd, a political neophyte backed by the Club for Growth PAC who later won the general election. One might expect Robinson to be elated: A Republican firebrand who appealed to white nationalism and insulted women just finished his first week in office with a flurry of executive orders to build a Mexican border wall, escalate deportations and shut down the flow of refugees and immigrants from predominantly Muslim countries, while promising a Supreme Court appointment in the mold of Antonin Scalia, and with reports of an anti-LGBT executive order in the offing. But in remarks to a conservative luncheon group at the Golden Corral

Vernon Robinson speaks at a conservative luncheon at Golden Corral in Winston-Salem on Monday.

in Winston-Salem on Monday, Robinson largely restricted his comments to economic issues, focusing on the repeal of the Affordable Care Act. A volunteer “sentinel” for Heritage Action for America, Robinson explained how the outfit mobilizes constituents to pressure lawmakers to enact the policy agenda of the conservative think-tank the Heritage Foundation, its sister organization. To be sure, Robinson did speak positively about the new Republican president, noting with approval that Trump appears to have the upper hand against the Republican-controlled Congress. He said he told some commenters on Facebook who were urging the president’s impeachment: “You don’t understand. The Congress is terrified of Donald Trump.” And after the presentation, Robinson said he approved of Trump’s recent executive orders. Arguing that US authorities have no way to check the bona fides of refugees from Syria, he said, “We have to be on the highest level of vigilance.” Politifact has written that the US government “can vet refugees through a process that involves the FBI, plus the State Department, the Department of Homeland Security, the Department of Defense and other agencies,” which can take two or three years. The fact-checking organization went on to say that FBI Director James Comey testified before Congress that while the process was thorough, he couldn’t guarantee there would never be a problem and a terrorist wouldn’t ever slip through the cracks. On Trump’s order to institute a 90-

JORDAN GREEN

day ban on immigration from seven Muslim-majority countries, Robinson said, “I think it’s great.” A public speaker with a pleasant and engaging manner, Robinson focused much of his criticism on the Republican leadership in the two houses of Congress, which he characterized as a “cartel,” including Rep. Virginia Foxx, an arch-conservative who represents the 5th Congressional District and holds the second-ranking position on the House Rules Committee. “This is the deal: The leadership does not want risk,” Robinson said. “They want a majority re-elected. They’re willing to push an agenda as long as it does not force them to take risks. As conservatives we want to take the risks necessary to push a conservative agenda forward. That is a totally different view of how your representative should be voting.” Of the Senate majority leader, a Republican from Kentucky, Robinson said, “Mitch McConnell cannot even spell conservative.” That was mild compared to his characterization of the MSNBC channel and Larry Kissell, a former Democratic congressman from North Carolina, whom he called “communist.” Demonstrating a willingness to risk electoral losses has to be a part of a strategy to enforce ideological purity, Robinson argued. As an example, he mentioned former Republican congressman Robin Hayes’ loss to Kissell after Hayes changed his vote on the Central American Free Trade Agreement; initially, he said he was opposed to the trade deal. Similarly, Robinson said

Republican Gov. Pat McCrory lost his reelection bid to Democrat Roy Cooper last year because he crossed commercial fishermen and commuters upset about a toll road. Many political observers, however, attribute McCrory’s loss to his support for the unpopular HB 2 “bathroom bill.” “I don’t want to be stuck with Cooper; I certainly voted for McCrory,” Robinson said. “But the bottom line was that was a good vote. It was a good vote because Republicans need to be at least concerned in the back of their head that if they do something stupid that the voters told them not to do, that they may lose an election…. They didn’t vote for Cooper; they just didn’t vote for McCrory. And in a close race, whooshboom! You go down.” Robinson expressed suspicion that Republican lawmakers won’t follow through on stated goals to repeal the Affordable Care Act and de-fund Planned Parenthood without adequate pressure from constituents. “You need to be very concerned about the members who say we need to repeal and replace at the same time,” he said, adding that it will be difficult for Republicans to agree on the provisions of a conservative replacement policy. Heritage Action advocates repealing the law first, and then passing a replacement bill before the current provisions expire. “Then they get to work and they have to pass whatever they’re going to do this year,” Robinson said. “Why? Because if the premiums are still going through the ceiling by the mid-terms next year someone’s head is going to be on the chopping block, and there’s not a whole lot of Democrats to execute.” Likewise, he said if it’s a choice between maintaining their majority and de-funding Planned Parenthood, the Republican leadership in Congress would choose the former. Unfortunately for them, he added, now that there’s a Republican in the White House they no longer have an excuse to not deliver on their promise. “That sound you’re hearing,” Robinson said, “is the peasants sharpening their pitchforks.”

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February 1 – 7, 2017 Up Front News Opinion Cover Story Culture Sportsball Crossword Shot in the Triad All She Wrote

OPINION

EDITORIAL

Disrupt the Machine: A lesson from the airports No doubt you spent a portion of your weekend watching massive protests clogging the nation’s airports, inciting several arrests in Charlotte and huge turnout at RDU on Sunday. The victories of the weekend — including court injunctions against part of the Trump regime’s #MuslimBan and more than $25 million donated to the ACLU — are not total, but they’re impressive and provide some important lessons. Here are three victories and takeaways from the airport actions: First, the ability to respond rapidly to the regime’s actions shows the strength of communication, level of focus and deep feelings of solidarity. Things are moving quickly, and the rapid mobilization of thousands at JFK airport is exactly the sort of swift action that the resistance will need to be successful. Second, the location was tactically brilliant. While mobilizations in large urban metros — especially the Capitol — are important as a show of strength and a space to foster unity and hope, the decision to bring the protests to the airports themselves is an uncommon and unexpected choice. It’s visually compelling, which helps broaden media coverage, and it brings the resistance right up to the gears of power rather than a more distant protest from a public park. Third, the airport protesters gummed up the works. They blocked airport access and made themselves impossible to ignore. Writing to and calling your representatives is important — please keep doing that — but those missives can be tuned out. A rally in a public square is easier to ignore than these airport demonstrations, which also weren’t bound by set times and thus were more unpredictable. Taking the fight directly to the source and getting in the way can have a tremendous impact. Yes, get in the streets (as hundreds of people did in downtown Greensboro on Jan. 26 in response to the regime’s attack on immigrants and refugees) but also think about where those protests can have the greatest effect. It’s good symbolism, and it’s great strategy. You can figure out the specifics of where and when — maybe at Sheriff BJ Barnes’ Greensboro office or US Sen. Richard Burr’s Winston-Salem one — but we’ll leave that to you. We will offer this from Mario Savio, a leader of the 1960s Berkeley Free Speech Movement, that seems particularly germane. He delivered an impassioned plea (that you can watch online) where he extolled in part: “There is a time when the operation of the machine becomes so odious, makes you so sick at heart, that you can’t take part; you can’t even passively take part, and you’ve got to put your bodies upon the gears and upon the wheels, upon the levers, upon all the apparatus, and you’ve got to make it stop. And you’ve got to indicate to the people who run it, to the people who own it, that unless you’re free, the machine will be prevented from working at all!”

CITIZEN GREEN

Democracy is not guaranteed

About a year ago the Republican-controlled North Carolina General Assembly redrew the congressional district map after the courts ruled that two existing districts were impermissible by Jordan Green racial gerrymanders. At that time I wrote that the new map was both more racially fair and more politically competitive. The logic is that by unpacking black voters — who reliably favor Democratic candidates — the adjacent Republican-leaning districts would become more competitive. In a purely technical sense, my analysis was correct. But in actuality, rebalancing barely put a dent in the Republican advantage. The most competitive 2016 congressional race, in the 13th District, saw Republican Ted Budd defeat Democrat Bruce Davis by 12.2 points — a slight improvement over the 14.6-point gap in the old 13th District race in 2014. The Republican mapmakers declared their intention to draw a map that would ensure a 10-3 majority in the delegation, and that’s exactly what the 2016 election delivered. Progressive people concentrated in North Carolina’s cities might conclude from that split that they are grossly outnumbered, but of course we know that our state is closely divided. An analysis last month by the nonprofit advocacy group Common Cause North Carolina found by averaging votes in the races for president, US Senate, governor, lieutenant governor and Council of State offices that voter preference broke down as 51 percent in favor of Republican candidates and 48 percent in support of Democratic candidates. Yet Republicans won 77 percent of the US House seats, 72 percent of state Senate seats and 75 percent of state House seats. Common Cause categorized only 12 out of 120 state House races as competitive — that is, won by a margin of less than 10 percent — while only four out of 50 state Senate races were competitive. What that means is that only 10 percent of state House voters, 8 percent of state Senate voters, and no US House voters really had a choice in selecting a candidate. A recent report by the University of Sydney-based Electoral Integrity Project placed North Carolina in the bottom third of the 50 states and Washington DC on its Perceptions of Electoral Integrity index with a dismal score of 58 out of 100. Compared with a global index released about six months earlier, that places North Carolina just below India and Colombia, and slightly better than Ghana, Moldova and Mexico. The global experts who performed the recent state elections review evaluated a number of areas,

including electoral procedures, voter registration, media coverage, campaign finance and vote count. North Carolina bombed in district boundaries, with a score of 7 — the absolute lowest in the country, with Wisconsin (8), Ohio (10) and Pennsylvania (11) closely trailing. Let’s take a hard look at this: If only one in 10 North Carolina voters holds a choice in selecting their state House representative and only one in eight have a say over who represents them in the state Senate, that’s not democracy. State legislators who are virtually guaranteed re-election have little incentive to listen to their constituents. It should come as little surprise that state lawmakers have displayed such indifference to the popular outrage over bills like HB 2 and the recent special session called to rip power away from the new Democratic governor. Gerrymandering has perverted the political process so that state lawmakers no longer serve the people, but instead use the levers of government to accumulate greater concentrations of power. It’s true that Democrats refined partisan gerrymandering to an art when they held power in Raleigh, but the 7-6 split they engineered in the congressional delegation at least indicates that the system more closely reflected the will of the voters. Republican lawmakers might be tempted to write off complaints about gerrymandering as the hypocrisy of an offender getting a proper comeuppance. But they should be careful that their arrogance doesn’t inspire an electoral revolt at the ballot box. Tom Ross, the former chancellor of the University of North Carolina system, has been arguing that moving to a nonpartisan redistricting system “may be one of the most important changes we can make” to save democracy. “That sounds melodramatic to some people, but you know democracy is not a guaranteed form of government by any stretch of the imagination,” he told an overflow crowd in a 450-capacity amphitheater at UNCG on Jan. 26. “It has been resilient in the United States, and helped us bounce back from some very difficult times. We’ve had difficult times around wars, particularly the Civil War. We’ve had difficult times around the impeachment of presidents and other instances where democracy has been tested. But it has stood the test. But there’s no guarantee it always will. “Part of what allowed it to stand the test historically is people who were willing to stand up and fight for democracy, fight for what was right,” Ross continued, prompting an eruption of applause. “And I think we’re at a point right now where our political system is so broken that if we’re not prepared to stand up for our democracy and what’s right, we could lose it.”

What does the white working class want?

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Daniel Bayer is a musician and writer who lives in Greensboro.

Opinion

need the government-subsidized health insurance that progressives support, or food stamps, or public assistance in general. No one will need student aid to go to college if one can simply get a factory job that provides a middle-class standard of living. They’re voting their aspirations about the society they want to live in, not for pragmatic solutions to actual problems, which is why Hillary Clinton’s technocratic approach to government fell flat in the Rust Belt states that Trump carried. Is that society possible in today’s world of interlinked economies? Probably not, but within the worldview itself, all the pieces make sense. The Democratic Party faces a stark reality; winning back the white working class is only possible if they support polices that guarantee a rising standard of living and recognize that one’s ability to work and be self-supporting is central to their sense of identity. The insurgent campaign of Bernie Sanders, which tapped into much of the same economic anger and resentment that Trump’s did, was a start, but was ultimately too little and too late for a party that spent the last few decades unapologetically supporting the policies of globalization.

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the factories that I worked in, “free trade” was about as popular as STDs or beer shortages, and in retrospect Trump is a wrecking ball that anyone could see coming a mile away. The anger over lost jobs and a declining standard of living was always there, it was just that no one had tapped into it the way he did. The post-Clinton Democrats’ solution to the economic decline of the white working class (or “American middle class,” as many of them would refer to themselves, given the vagaries of class identity in the United States) has been the offer of a European-style welfare state, complete with subsidized healthcare, affordable higher education and the like, in return for their acceptance of the political and economic realities of globalization. While this may be a pragmatic solution, that’s not what they want, and that leaves many progressives blaming the white working class for voting “against their own interests,” usually for reasons related to race and religion. When progressives ask:“Why did working people vote for a man who would dismantle the very programs that would help them?” they need to realize that the white working class doesn’t see these things in a vacuum. They see them as part of a unified worldview in which the act of working is a central part of their identity and purpose, and the only morally acceptable route to a better standard of living. With new trade treaties and the return of high-paying, blue-collar jobs to the US, they believe no one will

Up Front

Many years ago, when I was a reporter for the Eden Daily News, I gatecrashed a fashion symposium on the UNCG campus. I wasn’t sneaking in to find out what the hottest outfits would be on the runways of Milan that fall, but to pull a by Daniel Bayer Michael Moore-style ambush on a textile industry bigwig who was going to be part of the panel discussion. After the panel discussion — which included several PowerPoint slides of the company’s gleaming new plant in Mexico — I stood up and asked the executive what this new plant meant for the displaced textile workers of Eden. Much to my surprise, he didn’t try to evade the question or offer platitudes. “There’s nothing that can be done about it,” he said. “Eventually nothing will be made in the United States. Not automobiles, not anything.” I thought about that encounter as President Trump was promising to put “America First” and tear up or revise existing trade deals to benefit American workers. I’ll admit that the blue-collar worker in me takes a certain satisfaction in watching him destroy decades of US trade policy. I voted for Ross Perot in 1996 after President Clinton signed NAFTA, and for Ralph Nader in 2000 after Clinton renewed China’s most-favored-nation status. In

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FRESH EYES

Culture Sportsball Crossword Shot in the Triad All She Wrote

February 1 – 7, 2017

Block by block What’s new, what’s coming, and what’s gone downtown by Brian Clarey • photography by Carolyn de Berry

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ities change every day, sometimes in subtle ways — vacant storefronts turn over one by one, or fresh newspaper boxes crop up on every corner — and sometimes in grand, sweeping movements.

Since we last formally checked in on the progress of downtown Greensboro about a year ago, the city’s central business district has undergone the initial rumbles of a seismic transformation. Downtown Greensboro Inc. President and CEO Zack Matheny, who had come on the job just six months before our last piece ran, now has a full fiscal year under his belt, and he gushed at the progress. He puts the number of dollars invested downtown in that

timeframe at $168 million in new construction and upfit, including high-dollar projects from Roy Carroll, the Union Square campus, an upgrade to the Lincoln Financial Building and streetscape efforts. Also in that time, DGI has moved offices from a tower suite to an Elm Street storefront, an unfulfilled plan he said he discovered in the nonprofit’s archives. “In 1998, the board said we would have a downtown storefront by 2001,” Matheny said. “It was in the minutes!” From his standing desk he can see Rock 92 and the new Bearded Goat bar, HQ Greensboro and the Fainting Goat distillery (no relation). “I see the people with briefcases, the hipsters or whatever they call themselves,” Matheny said. “Everybody comes to this part of town.” It’s here in the South End, he says, that downtown truly begins. “Everyone asks me where the corner of Main and Main is in Greensboro,” he says. “I say it’s South Elm and Gate City Boulevard.” And that is where we will begin our survey.

THE STRIP One of the challenges downtown Greensboro faces is geographical. While most cities’ central districts exist on a grid, Greensboro is, for now, mostly a strip: The length of Elm Street running from Gate City Boulevard down to Fisher Park describes it well enough for our purposes. Some new projects on the fringes this year have fleshed it out a bit, and Matheny says areas to the east and west of Elm will be activating over the next year or so. Still, most of the action in the last 13 months has been on South Elm Street, where we begin our survey. Gate City Boulevard • The Union Square campus, a joint project between Cone Health, NC A&T University, UNCG, GTCC, the city, the county and the South Elm Development Group, opened its doors in September. The $34 million project is basically a nursing school that can also do staff training for Cone, with the capacity to hold about 500 nursing students and

• Duck Head has scaled down operations at the Mill just across the street, though the mural of the corporate logo is still on the side of the building. The retail store is no more, and the company dodged media requests from TCB several months back. • Developer Andy Zimmerman bought the Greensborough Gateway Center on the northwest corner, where he has some renovations planned — he acquired a demolition permit in November. Meanwhile the building’s largest tenant, Home State Apparel, will be making their iconic “home” T-shirts in a new facility, though the location is not yet public. • Greensboro developer Marty Kotis picked up a parcel a block west at Gate City Boulevard and Eugene Street — the old Brooks Lumber site and the adjacent Gulf station — in June 2016 and is generating ideas for its highest purpose. • Lee Comer, best known for the Iron Hen, opened a massive food mall called Morehead Foundry, a $5 million development that contains Four Flocks & Larder farm-to-fork restaurant, the Baker & the Bean coffeeshop and bakery, Revolution Burger, an event space and, through a secret door in the coffeeshop, Hush speakeasy. It’s on Spring Garden Street at the greenway. • The Forge an Andy Zimmerman project, relocated into the old Flying Anvil Space, including a new fence deal there. Maybe you mention that later. Should it be here, near Marty’s mention?****

600 block of South Elm Street • PB& Java has been revamped beyond the PBJ concept to include performances and other artistic endeavors. Proprietors Charlie and Ruth Jones are still holding their Greensboro Grub in their place upstairs, but have hit financial straits and are raising money through a GoFundMe campaign to try to keep the building. • Elsewhere living museum, after a large grant, upgraded the pair of buildings so that the place can remain open through the winter. They kicked off the grand reopening in September by placing a Ferris wheel on the street out front. • Crawford’s Creations, a custom bakeshop, has moved to Coliseum Boulevard, leaving the storefront empty for now. And Alter Vapes has pulled out of its slim storefront as well. • Timothy Smith of Chakras Day Spa has taken over Table 16 at the corner of Lewis and South Elm streets, restyling the interior and revamping the small bar. Lewis Street • Since we last checked in, downtown developer Eric Robert bought 603 S. Elm St. at the corner of Lewis Street, and a bar, the Bearded Goat, has taken residence on the Lewis Street side. This part of the street itself has been undergoing sidewalk and street construction most of the year. • Dixie Lock & Key has moved out of its longtime spot on the north side of West Lewis Street.

• Fainting Goat Spirits — the new, lone distillery in Guilford County — opened at 115 W. Lewis; its Emulsion gin and Tiny Cat vodka are available in ABC stores throughout the state.

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training for 2,800 employees.

• The Boxcar Bar & Arcade opened for business last week in the spot that once housed Lotus Lounge. Dustin Keene, owner of Common Grounds coffeeshop, announced plans for a music hall on the other side of the building, opening later this year if all goes well. 500 block of South Elm Street • Downtown Greensboro Inc. has moved down from its tower suite on the north side of downtown and into a groundfloor space on the northwest corner of Lewis Street. • Bloom, a consignment shop, opened next door and is open by

Roy Carroll’s multiuse, multi-milliondollar project near the ballpark represents $60 million of about $168 million in downtown Greensboro investment over the last 13 months. DGI President Zack Matheny says we may have as many as three cranes going by the end of 2017.

February 1 – 7, 2017

appointment only. The rest of the building — owned by Andy Zimmerman — remains empty. • Jules Antiques owner Gary Brame announced his intentions to close the shop just as we conducted our last survey. The space is still empty. • Coe’s Grocery has closed and Glitters is moving into the spot over the next month or so, down from its longtime location at the corner of Washington and Elm streets. The Railyard • We haven’t seen much action in this sub-space in the last 13 months. City Market, held for the last two years in the parking lot, has called it quits. And Wet Willie’s, the daiquiri bar that took over the Spice Cantina space, has yet to open its doors. • The Cascade Saloon’s renovation, a joint project by Christman Capital Development Co. and Rentenbach Construction, moved ahead last month. Matheny said an entity like the Mast General Store in Winston-Salem might be a good fit for the place.

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The tracks • Matheny says murals and lighting are in the works for the downtown underpass that connects South Elm with Davie Street to make it more inviting at night. And he says DGI is looking into making this section of the Norfolk Southern Line a “quiet zone,” meaning that the train horns will not sound there, but parameters for that designation on the Federal Railroad’s website would seem to make that impossible: “Under the Train Horn Rule (49 CFR Part 222), locomotive engineers must begin to sound train horns at least 15 seconds, and no more than 20 seconds, in advance of all public grade crossings.” 300 block of South Elm Street • The newest thing at Hamburger Square is a humungous mural of Greensboro musician Joey Barnes, who has done an awful lot of things besides being Daughtry’s drummer. • The W restaurant opened in the space built for Bin 33 after a complete remodel following Ham’s departure. • Up McGee Street, Roundabout Hot Dog Co. opened in the fall. • A new mural by Argentinian artist Francisco “Pastel” Diaz went up on the side of the McGee Street Lofts building in June. • The Idiot Box moved to the basement of Geeksboro on Lawndale Drive. Matheny says an “Asheville-style attraction” is being courted for the space, but declined to provide specifics. • Jerusalem Market opened a second location at the spot that was once Minj Grill and, most recently, housed Harlem Express. • Also new is Glam & Glitz Fashion and Beauty Bar at 302 S. Elm St.

• Glitters is out next door, as previously mentioned. Building owner Sidney Gray lost one tenant and gained another, so it’s a wash.

Zack Matheny has a map of a year’s worth of projects in downtown Greensboro.

With about 2,600 residents, downtown Greensboro needs about 3,000 more to hit a critical mass threshold.

• The Blu Martini also appears to be closed. And the Miller Furniture building is still empty.

• Longtime lunch spot Venice Italian restaurant closed, as has the Subway next door.

• Across the street, the Table, an established bakery in Asheboro, opened a shop down the alley where Loaf and Simple Kneads used to be.

• Lincoln Financial, Matheny said, has been reclaiming office space in its building and the former Bank of America building across the street, which it also controls. He named a few notable former tenants, including Greensboro lawyer Henry Isaacson, who moved their offices so Lincoln Financial employees could move in. Shares of the company have moved from a low of 32.65 in February 2016 to a close last week of 69.3.

200 block of South Elm Street • Tunazilla opened in the spot at 223 S. Elm St., then changed its name to the more appropriate Sushi Sapa. • The Greensboro Chamber of Commerce moved from its old spot near the forthcoming Steven Tanger Center for Performing Arts to a ground-floor spot on the southwest corner of February One Place. • Mack and Mack, one of the original businesses that came to Elm Street during its initial redevelopment in 2000, has pulled out of its longtime space after 16 years. The company will still design and manufacture women’s clothing under a new concept that is still being determined. • The Kress Building, after Tavo restaurant and Inferno nightclub closed, still has no tenants on its ground floor. • Matheny says the Elm Street Center is still being considered for a hotel. February One Place • Remedy Salon opened in the spot past Cincy’s. • Matheny says he’s scouting possible tenants to operate a speakeasy in the basement space of the Old North State Bank & Trust. “It would be perfect there,” he said. 100 block of South Elm Street • Downtown Fitness moved out of the building at the corner of Market Street. 100 Block of North Elm Street • Gray Legal has taken over the space at 108 and polished off the façade.

• El Nuevo Mexican restaurant, run by a Korean couple and home to one of Eric Ginsburg’s favorite burritos, closed in 2016. 200 block of North Elm Street • This block belongs to Center City Park and Center Pointe apartments, the only span where nothing has changed in the last 13 months. 300 block of North Elm Street • Most of the long 300 block of North Elm on the east side has been razed for the Steven Tanger Center for the Performing Arts. Matheny said the site would begin breaking asphalt in the second quarter of this year. When the fences come down, open spaces in the plan will allow for pedestrian flow and connectivity to the Lebauer Park area and museum district. • As mentioned, the Chamber of Commerce has moved out of the old brick building at the edge of the Tanger center property. And furniture store Blvd is no longer operating out of the spot at 348. 400 block of North Elm Street • LaRue changed its name to LaRue Elm and moved, befittingly, to North Elm Street in the spot once taken by Ganache bakery, a huge upgrade from the former slot on Greene Street, but also big shoes to fill. • Wrangler, across the street, has launched a Jeansboro campaign celebrating the city’s denim history by, among

• Center City Church, under construction the last time around, is up and running.

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going, probably right around the time baseball season kicks in.

LoFi LoFi’s activation is old news, but in the last few months construction has halted traffic on Eugene Street to one lane between Deep Roots Market and the Preyer/Crafted complex. That’s the Downtown Greenway coming through, though, which should transform the area below Fisher Park for generations to come. • Joymongers brewery opened in the spring, offering a different take on the neighborhood brewpub than Preyer across the street, as well as a slew of new parking spots. Boxcar Bar + Arcade, in the background, is the newest addition to Lewis Street which has gone from a state of urban decay into the anchor of a thriving South End District that also includes Gibb’s Hundred Brewing, foreground.

other initiatives, placing decorative pairs of jeans in strategic locations around downtown. (I have been telling people that they are life-size replicas of Shaquille O’Neal’s Wranglers).

• And the spot at the corner of Church and East Market Street, a former luxury auto dealership that long ago housed Kit Rodenbough’s store Design Archives is under construction and will become the Cadillac Service Garage event space.

OFF-STRIP True, downtown Greensboro is laid out like a strip, but small pockets of the area have been busy for a long time, and others are still being activated.

• The old North State Chevy dealership remains dormant on the Church Street side, but Thomas Tire opened in the building on the Murrow Street side.

LeBauer Park/Church Street/Museum District • LeBauer Park itself is a significant addition to the north end of downtown, a multifaceted green space with activities for kids and adults, a performance space, quick-serve restaurants Noma and Ghassan’s, and a massive piece of public art, “Where We Met” by Janet Echelman, now down for the winter but returning to its lofty perch in late March or early April, depending on the weather. The park provides connectivity between the Greensboro Historical Museum, the Cultural Arts Center and the Central Library back on Church Street. And crucially, it creates connectivity from Center City Park, and combats the curse of the strip by adding an east-west axis of public space. • The Greensboro Cultural Center has a new performance space, the Van Dyke Theater, named for longtime UNCG dancer and instructor Jan Van Dyke, who left $1 million for its construction in her estate. • The Greensboro Children’s Museum is renovating its lobby with a water feature and tech center, and is transforming its parking lot into a picnic area and playground. • Down Davie, the News & Record announced it would cease printing operations at its Greensboro facility, leading speculation that the site will soon be for sale.

• The Flatiron storefront appears to be for sale again after becoming a hookah spot. • Artist Kendall Doub added a couple more murals to his portfolio in this neighborhood: “The Wanderer,” on the Showfety Building’s Davie Street side, and “She Waits” at the corner of Friendly and Davie. BALLPARK Matheny said that the Ballpark District was “next” in terms of neighborhood activation. At the core of it is developer Roy Carroll’s megaproject starting to come together across the street, several planned residential towers and hotels. “It’s time to go vertical,” Matheny said. “There’s nowhere to go but up.” This area’s activation also counteracts the “strip” curse; the Bellmeade east-west axis is pedestrian friendly and connects with the Elm Street corridor. • Roy Carroll’s signature development takes up almost as much sidewalk space as NewBridge Bank Park, a combination of residential, retail office and a hotel, that represents $60 million in downtown investment. There’s major visible construction progress in the last year after a long delay.

• On the Davie side of the N&R property, a new vape shop called the Refinery opened in the summer.

• A third hotel from the “boutique chain” Aloft was announced in December on North Eugene Street across from the southern side of the ballpark.

• On the Church Street side, Marty Kotis purchased the Dorothy Bardolph Building, which currently houses human services including one of the city’s methadone clinics, and is planning a residential development.

• Local House Bar, just outside the left field fence, struggled for years to sell booze next to the ballpark. Timothy Smith of Chakras and Table 16, has taken over the spot and is looking to revamp the site after he gets Table 16

• Contributing to the beer culture of LoFi, BeerThirty bottleshop opened around the corner on Greene Street in April. More • I’m sure I overlooked plenty of things that have happened in downtown Greensboro since December 2015. Let me know what I missed at brian@triad-city-beat. com. There’s more — lots more — to come. Matheny said that downtown Greensboro could see another $300 million in investment. “Tell me where, in a two-year span, you’ve got close to $500 million invested in a 99-block radius?” he asked. Besides the projects already described or alluded to, there is early development in the area southwest of the ballpark, now a tangle of downtown street loops and partially used lots, and the northeast corner where Summit Avenue leads to Church Street. On Matheny’s list for the coming year is public transportation that can move people to the different areas of the sometimes daunting downtown area. “I wonder if Winston-Salem would sell me their [rubber-tire] trolley,” Matheny wondered aloud. But the biggest challenge is residential. Urban planners generally cite a threshold of 10,000 downtown residents to achieve the sort of critical mass that can trigger and sustain growth, and downtown Greensboro currently stands at 2,600, Matheny said. “We are at less than 1 percent,” he said. “That is not a good number. I’d like to get it to 2 percent.” By 2018, he said that downtown Greensboro should have 3,000 residents, about 1 percent of the city’s population, including hotel rooms — “A lot of people forget that hotels count as residential,” he said. “That’s called ‘heads in beds.’” And he said DGI will launch a residential feasibility study this year. “We need some statistics of what the city can absorb, what it might hold,” he said. “Right now there is no inventory, no supply. There is only demand.”

February 1 – 7, 2017 Up Front News Opinion Cover Story Culture Sportsball Crossword Shot in the Triad All She Wrote

CULTURE Foodies, we need to talk by Eric Ginsburg

ou’re reading this, presumably, because you love food. Maybe you don’t like the term foodie — I for one think it’s a little pretentious and sounds stupid anyway — but you must be at least marginally interested in learning about places to find delicious food you haven’t tried yet, or you care at least a little about understanding food culture. Or perhaps you’re just here because you’re bored, and couldn’t think of a better way to —in the immortal words of the Spice Girls — “spice up your life” for the next 10 minutes. If you care even passingly about food, you need to care about immigrants and refugees, and what happens to them. Here we go, you’re thinking, a lecture from a do-gooder liberal. I’ll pass. But you actually need to read this if you’re going to read anything else about food. It affects you, as a human who consumes food products, and so you might as well know about it. First, the obvious: Immigrants probably grew and picked your food. If you eat in a restaurant, chances are high that immigrants are working in the kitchen, and maybe cleaning up after you as well. If you’re going to restaurants I recommend in this space, immigrants often own the restaurant, too. To eat, we all depend on immigrant labor. Some of you will quickly point out that I’m conflating undocumented immigrants with documented, lawful ones. Such a distinction isn’t as clean as it might seem. For starters, individuals’ immigration status often isn’t a fixed thing (stories of people being stranded by their changing status are easy to find, including on our website). Companies also frequently bring people into the United States on temporary work visas, whether it’s to harvest mushrooms

Pick of the Week Pancake jamboree @ the Benton Convention Center (W-S), Friday, 6:30 a.m. The Twin City Kiwanis Club invites everyone to its 60th Pancake Jamboree, which includes all-you-can-eat pancakes, as well as Neese’s sausage and beverages. The proceeds support approximately 30 nonprofit youth programs. More info at twin-city. kiwanisone.org.

If you care even passingly about food, you need to care about immigrants and refugees.

ERIC GINSBURG

or tobacco. Within a given family, you’re likely to find a wide range of legal statuses. Stories of undocumented immigrants whose kids are US citizens (or who have other legal status such as Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals) abound. If you care even remotely about the people who grow, pick, transport, wash, prep, cook or serve your food, you have to acknowledge that either they or their family members lack legal status to remain in the country. You have to admit and accept the price that deporting undocumented immigrants — in addition to likely driving up the price of food in groceries and restaurants due to increased labor costs — would have on millions of documented, legal immigrants. Less importantly, though it may affect you more directly, it would mean the decimation of vibrant and diverse food cultures right here. Some of you are unconvinced, and will argue that undocumented immigrants broke a law that should be enforced. But law enforcement has limited resources, so what you’re really arguing isn’t just that people should be held responsible, but that this should be a priority. Crime rates — regardless of the White House’s planned list — do not bear out this logic. Maybe you’re still unconvinced, and argue that undocumented immigrants are “cutting in line.” There’s plenty wrong with this argument, but let me raise something specific for you to consider. You know how Trump rails against NAFTA, the North American Free Trade Agreement? The 1994 law didn’t work for most of us — it made it easier for companies to move jobs abroad and then ship their sweatshop goods back here, for example. But it also didn’t work well for many Mexicans. NAFTA made it easier for US companies to import their foodstuffs to Mexico, and US corn flooded the market. Our government subsidized this corn production, which meant that it could be sold in Mexico for less than the cost of production. This screwed countless Mexican farmers — their society had remained more agrarian than ours — and people started leaving their land. Mexicans — who’d been known as “the people of the corn” — crowded into their nation’s cities and then many of them, unable to find work, headed north. You can blame Bill Clinton for signing NAFTA or agribusiness for exploiting it, but one thing is clear; the people at the

bottom — the everyday Mexican farming family — didn’t ask for this, and they’re victims here. You can aggrandize Trump for his stance on the Trans-Pacific Partnership if you want, arguing that it would’ve been a similarly damaging deal, but don’t fall prey to his scapegoating and fear-mongering. NAFTA is just one example of why people immigrate to the United States; I could regale you with stories of how the Reagan administration backed an oppressive military regime in El Salvador or funded Contra terrorists in Nicaragua, and we could explore the role former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton played in legitimizing a coup in Honduras, too. But here’s my point: Many immigrants come here because they are fleeing terrible conditions in their countries, conditions that our government frequently played a major role in creating. That means it’s partially our fault. The same is true for refugees, in many cases. Immigrants and refugees are often conflated — they are different legal classifications, and who gets to be considered a refugee is sometimes politically motivated, but you can read more about that elsewhere — but one distinction that’s crucial is that all refugees are documented and carefully screened. Don’t fall victim to hysteria. The Trump regime wants to create a ban on people coming from several African and Middle Eastern nations, while noticeably leaving out neighboring countries where Trump has business ties, as Bloomberg reported. Saudi Arabia isn’t on the list, the country where most of the 9/11 attackers came from. Iraq is, and I don’t need to tell you how our government destabilized that country or killed an obscene number of innocent people there. If you sit and talk with the people who work in our local restaurants, you’ll eventually hear stories about what some of them were escaping. Maybe you’ll talk to the Iraqi man I know who works in a Greensboro kitchen, or the Congolese woman who grew your food. Maybe you’ll meet the charismatic Salvadoran woman who owns the restaurant you’re sitting in, or realize that your mayor is the descendant of Syrian immigrants, or realize that the Mexican kids playing in the corner of their parents’ tienda wouldn’t have anyone to look after them if the undocumented adults in their life were deported. Our immigration system is broken, that’s for certain. I can relate to the fear you might be feeling — the Boston Marathon bombing happened almost directly in front of my parents’ old apartment, and I feared for them for the following tense days. But don’t be a rube; look at the facts, and realize that the fear you might feel (especially if you’re white and aren’t Muslim!) is likely a fraction of what your immigrant and refugee neighbors are feeling right now. Extend a little compassion. If you don’t care about them, about the Syrian refugees who’ve been resettled in our community or about the immigrants who almost certainly made your next meal possible, then you’re not a real foodie. If you’re just here for the food and you don’t care about the back story, about the people and labor and systems behind it, you better start growing all your own food and stop eating out. Oh and by the way, Mexico is the largest supplier of fruits and vegetables to the United States, according to the Washington Post, so if you care about either — or tequila — that whole import tax idea is a no-go. You want your avocado toast? Better fight for it.

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Wise Man Brewing’s long-awaited opening

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The Hash#Tag triple IPA and Scoop Dogg cream ale are two of the first beers at Wise Man Brewing.

KAT BODRIE

Beer lovers enjoy a brew at the Girls Pint Out preview at Wise Man Brewing on Jan. 25.

KAT BODRIE

Sportsball Crossword Shot in the Triad All She Wrote

everal years in the making, Wise Man Brewing finally opened its doors on Jan. 28 at noon. Even by then, the crowd numbered in the double digits, the giant Jenga was already stacked several feet high and glasses around the wide, brick-exposed room were half empty. Since I’d attended the Girls Pint Out preby Kat Bodrie view a couple days prior, I’d been drooling over the Scoop Dogg cream ale, which lit up my mouth like the two pinball machines by the Jenga display. Nikki Miller-Ka, Winston-Salem chef and food blogger, liked it as well. “The flavor kept developing and changing with each sip,” she told me, “almost like a scoop of rainbow sherbet: Each spoonful tastes different from the last.” The beer is aptly named, and not just because of the flavor and style. Rapper Snoop Dogg performed outside the adjacent building — formerly Ziggy’s — in April 2015. There’s a quote floating around the internet that has the artist saying, “When I’m no longer rapping, I want to open up an ice cream parlor and call myself Scoop Dogg.” Hence, Scoop Dogg cream ale. Other Wise Man Brewing quote-themed beers include the Mountain Calling IPA (from the John Muir bumper sticker saying, “The mountains are calling and I must go”) and the Satisfy My Soul stout from the Bob Marley song of the same name. Of particular note is the nitro version of the stout, which has a heft and creaminess worthy of lugging a 32-ounce crowler home. The Hash#Tag triple IPA, a collaboration between Wise Man Brewing and Cornelius’s D9 Brewing, is on point, and those who drank a pint in past months at Juggheads or Winston-Salem’s Crafted: Art of the Taco can attest to its bite. Much care was put into renovating this old building — the former Angelo Brothers Wholesale Supplies, which used to sell everything from baseball cards to rolling papers. Now, the swirling, aesthetically pleasing Wise Man Brewing logo adorns a corner of the façade, plus almost every surface inside and out: the reclaimed wood tables, the beer garden fence and even the giant Connect 4 pieces. Inside, you’ll find water dishes for dogs and games for kids and adults. Jason Morehead, one of the brewery’s three founders, said they’re planning a grand opening with a band and food trucks once they can fill the majority of the 16 taps with their own beers — “Probably within a month,” he said. The window-filled wall separating the taproom from the brewery lists a dark farmhouse, another with cherries and a petite saison currently in the works. Social media posts point to upcoming small batch experiments with the cream ale. By the end of Day 1, most of the kegs had Visit Wise Man Brewing at been kicked, including some that weren’t Wise 826 Angelo Brothers Ave. Man brews. Construction (W-S). Find it on Facebook, and beer making may Twitter and Instagram. have taken 16 months, with the brewery facing setbacks including breakins and a stolen pressure washer, but the wait was well worth it. I’m looking forward to kicking back and tasting what they put out next. Kat loves red wine, Milan Kundera, and the Shins. She wears scarves at katbodrie.com.

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tanding in front of the bustling crowd in Greensboro’s Common Grounds coffeeshop on Jan. 26, Rhiannon Giddens retrieved her fretless banjo — a replica of an antebellum design, when the banjo was an instrument predominantly played by African Americans. Local songwriters Laurelyn Dossett and Molly McGinn, who were performing with Giddens, stood off to the side to let Giddens sing her song “Julie” in the second half of their shared

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all just kind of responding to what’s been happening in the news this week, what we’ve been writing and what the other person played. We set up the bones of what we were going to do beforehand, and then, mostly improvised.” The Women’s March on Washington especially rang through the set. The trio struck that tone once they began the night with Giddens’ a capella spiritual, “We Rise.” “Sister of my tears, sister of my cries/ Hand in hand, we stand as one/ We push, we reach, we rise,” they sang in unison before breaking in three-part harmony, Giddens taking the melody, McGinn a low alto and Dossett rounding off the top in her reedy soprano. “The vibe we’re talking about today is connectedANTHONY ness,” Dossett said after the triumvirate finished the Molly McGinn, Laurelyn Dossett and Rhiannon HARRISON Giddens (l-r) perform at Common Grounds. Reverend Gary Davis standard, “I Belong to the Band, Hallelujah.” “Sisterhood. Togetherness. And which set. songs we all know at the same time.” “This is the very first song I wrote inspired by a slave narraThe folk idiom lends itself naturally to that kind of sharing. tive,” Giddens said in introduction. Giddens commented on it later in the set during the introAnd then, a hitch: A man named Will Henry, sitting on the duction to her song, “Factory Girl.” floor and cradling a Budweiser, decided to pipe up. “The way I started writing songs was taking folk songs and “That’s not where we’re at right now,” Henry said. updating them, in that time-honored tradition,” Giddens said. “That’s where I’m at every day,” Giddens said. “Factory Girl,” for example, is a traditional Irish tune, but Henry kept raising the issue, asking why Giddens was even Giddens took the narrative in a different direction in her verthere. sion, framing it around the 2013 collapse of the Rana Plaza in “I don’t have time for this,” Giddens said. Bangladesh, a disaster which killed more than 1,000 garment Giddens began strumming her banjo, staring straight ahead, workers. both impassive and simmering, a forceful presence. A slow“Nothin’ wrong with wantin’ new clothes,” Giddens said clap began as Henry was escorted out, and Giddens just kept before the song. “But at what cost? A $5 shirt isn’t just a $5 strumming. shirt.” “Sorry to be a killjoy,” Giddens said before finally beginning Folk music has long been the vehicle of protest, and Giddens “Julie.” “But someone asked me why I’m here. It’s not to be on recognized that fact in the moment. ‘Nashville’ [the television show] — though that’s fun. And it’s After finishing “Julie” to rapturous applause, Giddens adnot to play with [country music artist] Eric Church — though dressed the crowd again. that’s fun. It’s to get these voices out.” “I am compelled to mention I don’t like to say stuff,” GidGiddens is preparing to release her second full-length solo dens said. “I just let the music talk… I like to pay my rent, but album, Freedom Road. The Greensboro native was also a memwe’re all here to make a difference making art. To say things. ber of the Carolina Chocolate Drops, an old-time string band You can make art yourself. We’ve been doing it all night. And with which she won a Grammy Award for Best Traditional Folk you can make your own conclusions — clearly.” Album for 2010’s Genuine Negro Jig and been inducted into the Molly McGinn stepped up to the mic next. North Carolina Music Hall of Fame in 2016. “Maybe one thing, moving forward,” McGinn said. “If She just happened to be home last week. someone’s being threatened, do something. Get the hate out. “When I realized Rhiannon would be in town, I just said, I don’t know if he had hate, but I didn’t like what he was doing. ‘Hey, let’s play a show!’” Laurelyn Dossett said in an interview And if we do nothing, it’s our f***ing fault.” immediately afterwards. “‘We don’t need a man. Let’s just The largely white, middle-aged crowd clapped in approval as play together.’” the trio went into Blind Willie Johnson’s “Nobody’s Fault but Dossett arranged the appearance with Molly McGinn, and it Mine.” quickly became the hottest ticket in town. Immediately afterward, Giddens launched into “Pretty Little “It happened quick,” Dossett said. “I expected it to be popuGirl with the Blue Dress On,” shredding on her fiddle and lar, but I didn’t think it’d sell out in four hours.” yodel-scatting up a storm. The three women had played together — Giddens and And even afterward, McGinn said in an interview, Will Henry McGinn had even lived in Dossett’s carriage house at separate called to apologize to all three women for his disruption. times — but never so intentionally. “It was pretty clear he was horrified and traumatized by his “We’ve sung together for rallies and things, with a group, or own behavior,” McGinn said. “I told him I accepted his apoloI’d see Rhiannon at Laurelyn’s house for dinner, or breakfast gy. But his behavior that night was unacceptable.” from time to time when she was passing through town,” McHopefully, he’s learned his lesson: You don’t interrupt RhianGinn said in an interview. “[This] just kind of came together. non Giddens. We both knew a lot of Laurelyn’s songs, and I think we were

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CULTURE Artist discovers a common peace by Joel Sronce herri Peterson put it simply: Certain paintings talk to In an artist statement for her larger body of each other. work, Beverly McIver expresses, “My current Peterson, a gallery assistant at the Southeastern Cenwork is about my relationship with Cardrew. ter for Contemporary Art in Winston-Salem, pointed to I’m searching for who Cardrew is as a man, as three of Beverly McIver’s seven featured pieces. a father, and even who he was as a youngster. “These three did that immediately,” she said, referring to Through painting, I hope to capture the many “Daddy in his Cap,” “Daddy in a Striped Chair” and “Taxi Drivfaces of my dad.” er.” Each of the large paintings prominently features McIver’s Clearly, McIver achieves her goal of presentbiological father, Cardrew Davis, a retired cab driver living in ing her father through the paintings, but it’s Greensboro. the specific faces that McIver chose to cap“You take them down,” Peterson concluded, “and the conture that reveal her acceptance and ability to versation ends.” overcome. Beverly McIver’s seven paintings are the most recent edition “After years of not knowing what a father’s to SECCA’s 12 x 12 artist salon series that presents 12 contemlove felt like,” McIver’s statement says, “I now porary artists from across North Carolina, the nation’s 12th know.” state. The artist’s recent paintings illustrate a cloThe gallery stayed open late on Jan. 24, when SECCA hosted sure that extends beyond the film’s depiction. a screening of Raising Renee, an Emmy-nominated documenMcIver portrayed her father as content, even tary film that tells the story of McIver and her promise to when he’s frail or vulnerable, even when he’s assume the care of her mentally disabled sister Renee after proud. The serenity seems to be an extension their mother dies. of McIver’s own relationship with her father, Though the movie focuses on Renee, who sometimes proves an emotion she allowed for the person on the to be a challenging part of Beverly McIver’s life, the paintings canvas as well as herself behind it. all depict Beverly’s relationship to and perception of men, a Curious of the sisters’ relationship to anothseparate challenge that’s also addressed in the documentary. er man in their life — someone named Lonnie Sherri Peterson’s analysis came from an abstract percepwho not only is mentioned in the film but is tion of artistic aesthetic, though it’s hard to disagree with a subject and title of one of Beverly McIver’s her conclusion. The dialogue between the paintings functions featured paintings — I asked Beverly’s sisters through the unity in theme and artistry — McIver’s bold, broad Renee and Roni who were present at SECCA COURTESY IMAGE Beverly McIver’s painting “Daddy in lines and the warm, bright colors the works display — yet also after the film. his Cap” hangs at SECCA until Feb. 12. through an acceptance, through the ability to find peace and “He’s our favorite cousin and we’re crazy beauty in something deeply challenging. about him because we grew up with him,” As told in the documentary, one day, when Beverly McIver Renee answered. Pick of the Week was 17, an unfamiliar man appeared in Her other sister Roni added, “That her mother’s doorway. Her mother Ethel particular painting…. Lonnie had fallen so Short Tales @ the Caldcleugh introduced him as Beverly’s father, a difhis face was all messed up like that. That’s Beverly McIver’s selection Multicultural Arts Center (GSO), ferent man than the one listed on her birth why he looked so monstrous.” is on display at SECCA (750 Saturday and Sunday, 2 p.m. certificate, who abandoned the family Indeed, the painting of Lonnie depicts Marguerite Dr., WinstonThe Drama Center’s Children’s when Beverly was a child. Facing the man him with one eye shut: vulnerable, even Theatre presents Short Tales, a series Salem) until to Feb. 12. in the doorway, the young Beverly stood hurt, though not unhappy, nor ugly. Again of one-acts for all ages. Students still, confused and silent. McIver contends with masculinity by from UNCG’s theater education Despite making the introduction, Ethel expressing someone at once frail and, in program direct the plays. Admission continued to distance herself from Cardrew Davis. It wasn’t Roni’s words, monstrous, though not in a negative or frightenincludes a $5 suggested donation. until after her mother’s death many years later that Beverly ing light. Once again, it signifies a sense of peace in the artist More info at thedramacenter.com chose to reach out to her father. as well as the subject.

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February 1 – 7, 2017 Up Front News Opinion Cover Story Culture Sportsball Crossword Shot in the Triad All She Wrote

SPORTSBALL

The most dangerous game, redux

lmost two years ago, Triad City Beat published my first column for this sports section. I may be the only one who recalls it was a scene about playing a semi-annual game of capture the flag out at Doodad Farm in the far-flung by Anthony Harrison easternmost reaches of Greensboro with a legion of friends. Perhaps it’s fitting that I should bookend my sports writing tenure with another iteration of capture the flag. I’ve decided to step down from my weekly contributions to Triad City Beat. This was not the easiest decision to make. I feel as though I owe Brian Clarey, Eric Ginsburg and Jordan Green a debt of gratitude. Under their tutelage, I rapidly developed professionally and personally. They became my friends, as did the rest of the staff. Hell, I met my girlfriend thanks to the paper, asking her out after TCB’s anniversary party last year. I owe TCB a lot, but facts are facts: I got a full-time job with Furnitureland South as their copywriter in early December. For a while, I thought I could do both. But the grind quickly wore on me. Perhaps I heaped unrealistic standards on myself, becoming my own worst critic, but I felt as though my product for this paper became unsatisfactory. Regardless, around the turn of the new year, Ron Swanson’s immortal words from “Parks and Recreation” rang through my mind: “Never half-ass two things. Whole-ass one thing.” I’d whole-assed TCB for two years. It wouldn’t feel right to half-ass it. My friends who’d assembled for capture the flag seemed disappointed by the news. “I’m going to miss reading about things you do with us,” my friend Rachel Rossabi said. For her part, she also appeared in a piece last year about the spelling bee at Raleigh’s Daily Planet Café. Other friends agreed. Journalism, like many public services, can be something of a thankless job, and at the very least one wherein you must survive without much direct vali-

Pick of the Week Don’t even play; Star Wars owns GRAWL Brawl IV: Battle of the Stars @ Geeksboro Coffeehouse Cinema (GSO), Saturday, 8 p.m. Greensboro Arm Wrestling League asks which universe is the greatest: “Star Trek” or Star Wars? Lady arm wrestlers Han Yolo, Dark Slayer, Captain Painway and Beverly Crush-Her duke it out to decide. Boba Fetish PSYCHO Therapist will wrestle on behalf of My Sister Susan’s House, a Youth Focus program providing services for young pregnant women and their children.

dation. This felt like a funny time to receive such an outpouring of it. My declaration may have been bittersweet, but the day it came to those assembled friends was a perfect day to play capture the flag — clear blue sky, just a bit breezy, not cold enough to freeze your toes off but chilly enough to warrant layers of camouflage. By 12:30 p.m., we’d gathered in No Man’s Capture the flag, one more time. Land at Doodad Farm, roughly 20 in all. Riley Driver, whose family owns the land, refamiliarized us with the rules, the terrain, the multiple patches of barbed wire. We divided into teams — red for Damn Commies, blue for Dirty Liberals. This time, I’d be a Damn Commie. We tested out rounds of 45 minutes at first. While this idea quickened the pace, that length proved too short to make any real moves on the flag from either team. Four members of the Dirty Liberals wound up in the Reds’ jail, but in the final moments of the first round, a daring jailbreak led to their freedom. The next round ended strangely enough with a loophole befitting of the capitalist pigdogs. Hamish Jackson, a Brit on the blue team, literally plunged into the creek with their flag and chucked the banner close to the borderline before getting tagged. Liberal Vivian Taylor wound up using a stick to drag the flag over to their side. We Reds begrudgingly took the dubious loss. But the Damn Commies steeled themselves for victory. In the final round, I worked my way up the creek bed to conduct recon, only to be sussed out before making a move toward the flag and dashing back to friendly territory. As the sun sank lower behind the poplars, with

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precious little time left and multiple Commies in jail, the Liberals made plays on the flag. The same daring Brit who’d slogged through the creek wiped out on barbed wire, bloodying his mouth in the fall and taking himself out of the game. They soon drew the flag close to their border but lost plenty of teammates in the process. It was our turn to make a move. Unplanned yet synchronized, four of us moved in on the Liberals’ flag, now only featuring two blue defenders. I was part of the frontal assault, with a runner named Matt Trower moving in from the rear on the left flank. “If any of them comes at you, go for the flag!” Riley shouted continuously in distraction as the defenders spread out further from their flag. Our diversion worked. Matt dashed for the flag and burst out of the woods. The rest of us formed a barrier against the straggling defenders. Matt didn’t quite make it, and we all got tagged. Suddenly, Suquanna Butler, a Red who’d been momentarily sidelined, dashed for the flag and brought it to our territory for a proper score. This victory too was bittersweet: The land where we play capture the flag will soon be converted into a tree farm. The poplars, fallen pines and brambles providing all the cover and confusion over the past few years would be stripped out and replaced with orderly rows of trees. It would likely be the last time we’d meet on the old battlefield. But, as with every major transition, we’ll learn to adapt.

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CROSSWORD ‘Exaggeration’ way more than necessary. by Matt Jones

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Across 1 Contacts electronically, in a way 4 They’re the result of extracted genes 8 Chunks of fairway 14 Buck’s counterpart 15 “___ that a kick in the pants?” 16 Hall of Fame quarterback Johnny 17 “Friends” costar Courteney 18 Falco of “Nurse Jackie” 19 Kitchen protectors 20 Theme park chain, grossly exaggerated? 23 French realist painter Bonheur 24 “Conjunction Junction” conjunction 25 Chef DiSpirito 28 End of many failed ‘90s businesses? 31 Autumn mo. 33 “The Fault in ___ Stars” 34 “Wayne’s World” actress Carrere ©2017 Jonesin’ Crosswords (editor@jonesincrosswords.com) 35 Feeling of amazement 36 Caricatured 37 Morris’s favorite cat food, wildly exaggerated? 41 Green dip, for short 42 Tats 43 Eden matriarch 44 Adjective for 2017 (but not 2018) 45 Enjoy brunch, for instance 46 Rabbit relative? 50 “Sons of Anarchy” extra 52 For emus, it’s greenish 55 Negative in Nuremberg 56 “Gone with the Wind” plantation, insanely exaggerated? 60 Duke University city 62 “___ Jury” (Spillane detective novel) 63 Architect I.M. ___ Answers from previous publication. 64 Beezus’s sister 65 Group led by Master Splinter, initially 29 Contents of a cruet 66 “Wow,” when texting 30 Sasha’s sister 67 Like beer or bread dough 32 “E! News” subject 68 They may have polar bears and giraffes 35 Astronaut affirmative 69 Why the exaggeration? Because it’s this number 36 Johnson & Johnson skin care brand raised to the nth power 37 Car on the Autobahn 38 Result of evil acts, supposedly Down 39 “___ Inside” (computer slogan) 1 It usually includes a photo 40 Apple Chief Design Officer Jony ___ 2 Cow sound in “Old MacDonald” 41 One of the Bluth brothers on “Arrested Devel3 Like some illegal hiring practices opment” 4 “Mozart in the Jungle” star ___ Garcia Bernal 45 Given to traveling 5 Computer music format 47 Drink container 6 Big Mac ingredient 48 “Black ___” (historic 1961 book) 7 “Mad Men” pool member 49 Lieutenant’s underling 8 Twofold 51 Community character 9 To a certain extent 53 Glamor partner 10 Leo follower 54 Controversial naval base in Cuba, informally 11 Doctor’s ear-examining tool 57 “If ___ be so bold ...” 12 Camel tone 58 “I don’t believe this!” 13 Draft lottery org., once 59 Barclays Center squad 21 Milk-related 60 Martini preference 22 “Eh, I’m not buying it” look 61 Abu Dhabi loc. 26 Helps with lines 27 Chicago airport letters

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In 70 years, nothing but possibilities I highly recommend it to any of you brave enough to get old. I find it funny to think of myself being old. Those of you who know me know that I don’t feel old. You don’t have to, either. Eat well, exercise and stay excited by great things as well as small ones. Get involved in your community and give back to it, too. I have seen a lot of the world but want to see more. One of the funny things that I have figured out is that it takes a while to learn to retire. I’m learning. I want to go to Ireland, Spain and Italy, as well as South America. In all, I highly recommend retirement. Once you get the hang of it, it’s awesome!

Opinion

Allen Broach is the publisher emeritus of Triad City Beat newspaper and a patron saint of the local arts (our description, not his). Columnist Jelisa Castrodale is on vacation abroad this week, and will return to these pages in the following issue of TCB!

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started Broach & Company which I operated for 30 years until I retired. In 1985, I bought the old Salvation Army building in downtown Greensboro. I used the upstairs for the office for Broach & Company, which eventually grew to 17 employees. Stephen Gee, Hall Parish and David Bell approached me about using the former sanctuary as a performing arts theater. They operated there as the Broach Theatre for 25 years. No one has ever heard of Broach & Company, but they all know the Broach Theatre. From time to time I will be chatting with a younger person and they’ll say they are so bored. I tell them that I can’t even understand the concept! There is way more to do than I can possibly get done. There are so many organizations and individuals who can use my help, and yours as well. Turning 70 feels strange. I feel about the same as I always have. I can still work 18 hours a day or more. I am still excited by new projects like Triad City Beat. I also helped my good friend Scot Sanborn kick off his distillery, Sutler’s Spirits, making awesome gin and aged rum in Winston-Salem’s West End Mill Works. Since I retired I have more time to do the things I want to and I plan to travel more. I like hanging out at my house. I have been organizing old pictures from my past as well as my parents.

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hen you are a child, everything is possible. For some of us that doesn’t change. When I returned from the war in Vietnam I went to work at Ithaca Hosiery as the superintendent of the cut-and-sew by Allen Broach division. From there I went to work at United Advertising as the controller/bookkeeper. I hated the job but loved the work; there I learned everything not to do in the advertising business. The agency closed and, after a year of odd jobs I ended up bartending at the Hilton. That was before liquor by the drink, but I had all the ingredients to make cocktails. I made great money. Then a position came open at American Drew, a furniture manufacturer, as the assistant to the director of advertising. The director had interviewed more than 60 people for the job; I was shocked that I was chosen. He was an ex-Marine, and liked that I was former Army. I was also one of the few people on the list willing to move to North Wilkesboro, and I could spell “advertising.” I was transferred to High Point when Lea, American Drew and Daystrom furniture companies merged to form LADD, and served as director of communications for all five divisions. LADD was owned by Sperry & Hutchinson — was better known for its Green Stamps. I stayed there a couple of years then went to Bouvier Cecil (now Bouvier Kelly) as an account executive. I left there after just over a year and

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TRIADITUDE ADJUSTMENT

Thursday, February 1 @ 8pm

Open Mic Night

Sportsball

Friday, February 3 @ 8pm

Hank Barbee

Saturday, February 4 @ 8pm

Bradley Steele & Renae Paige Crossword

Monday, February 6 @ 7pm

Mystery Movie Monday Wednesday, February 8 @ 8pm

Jon Walters

AGED gatecityvineyard.com

336.323.1288 204 S. Westgate Dr., Greensboro

FOR A COMPLETE PERFORMANCE

602 S Elam Ave • Greensboro

(336) 698-3888

YEARS

SCHEDULE VISIT US ONLINE AT

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Sunday Service @ 10:30AM

2017 PROOF

Shot in the Triad

100%/ART/VOL

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