Uptown Greensboro magazine ~ December 2012

Action Labor Force

QUALITY TEMPORARY INDUSTRIAL SERVICES

Warehouse Light Industrial Moving Jobs (Helpers) Construction (General, Semi Skilled & Skilled Laborers) You have tried the rest, now try the BEST! 1019 Arnold Street, Greensboro NC 27405 contact Joe Sharpe @ 336-274-5023 or 336-580-5774 UPTOWN GREENSBORO

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LIVE . WORK . SHOP . DINE . PLAY . WORSHIP

jOseph A. Wilkerson III (Editor-in-Chief)

YES...

I’m back at it yet again with YES... another newspaper-magazine!!

For those that remember me from the days when I used to publish a newspaper-magazine called Urban Literature... here is the new-new magazine, UPTOWN GREENSBORO – that undaground business improvement district sneak attack that’s encrypted by design, empowering by nature, with an addictive flava that’s an intoxicating cocktail, like Sex on the Beach with a Black Russian during a Tequila Sunrise. Back on that proverbial publishing grind, looking for the perfect beat like an Outkast, this new incarnation is So Fresh, So Clean, that One Day It’ll All Make Sense, or at least that’s what I keep telling myself. LOL! For you lucky few that were able to pick-up this publication at your local barbershop, beauty salon, restaurant, clothing store, college campus, working artist studio, or coffee shop and remember UrbnLit from about 6yrs ago, this is Affirmative Action at its best, that don’t stop- won’t stop.

But Don’t Get It Twisted, the Temperature’s Rising, it’s Survival Of The Fittest, and we want you to reign supreme using us as your publication of choice for your advertising needs. For those of you hearing about me and what I’ve done for the first time, ABARACADABRA… With so many business owners content with using smoke signals as their sole marketing strategy in the digital age as well as neglecting the affordable print opportunities once offered to them through my old publication... I went back to the basics to offer you a means to promote what it is you do.

This magazine will focus on what I’ve determined to be UPTOWN (page 7) in comparison to downtown Greensboro. Covering the “live, work, shop, dine, play, and worship” stories within this area, this magazine will be work-in-progress, but always striving to give you the best that we can!

WHY? Why not and why not now... so with that said, let the journey begin!

Contact me at UptownGreensboro@yahoo.com 04

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guerilla marketing.

People have a funny idea of what a publicity stunt is. They think it is cheezy and obvious. It doesnt have to be. But even if it is…so what?

The ART and SCIENCE of GUERRILLA PIMPING the COMPETITION

By The Hustler

To some of you, this might be a new term. This refers back to a type of pimping dubbed “Gorrilla Pimping.” This is the type of pimp who would keep his girls in line by beating them, threatening them or even killing them.

The Gorilla Pimp only knows one way to communicate, “It is my way or the dead way.” It is effective even if it does seem cruel. Other pimps steer clear of the Gorilla Pimps, because they are likely to set you on fire in the middle of the street just to make a point. But their tactics work. Girls are too terrified to leave or disobey and competing pimps would sometimes just move to another neighborhood.

Real pimps and players will tell you that true smooth pimping is when the girls actually love their pimp. They WANT to give them all the money. The loyalty is to the death and those girls will go out and recruit other girls to help out their “family.”

Gorilla pimps go after the weak and strong. They don’t care. They scare their employees into submission and their competition into leaving. Every pimp and hustler has a little Gorilla in them, but the smart ones keep him in the cage unless absolutely neccesary.

So now that you know what a Gorilla Pimp is, lets talk about the business equivelent – Guerrilla Pimping. And yes that term is copyrighted and no you cant use it. I am writing a book about Guerrilla Pimping so sit back and get a sneak peek.

I had a phone call yesterday froma friend who was looking to bounce some ideas off of me. He had been going to networking meetings and different mixers to listen to marketing experts. They had all kinds of ideas but none applied to what he was doing. He was feeling like he was wasting his time.I told him that it was time to take his marketing to the next level. Publicity Stunts. Street level

The point of marketing and advertising is exposure.

Rememebr what they say? “Any press is good press.” I would be willing to go to jail on a $500 trespassing ticket to get front page and news media exposure in the right context. A $500 ticket and a slap on the wrist for $15,000 worth of exposure? Yeah, that math works out.

The second thing people are afraid of (other than embarrasing themself) is creating a war or pissing off other bunesses. I don’t get this. If you have no relationship with these other businesses, why do you care? I have sent people to stand at other clubs and stand at the end of the line and tell people to come to my spot. Give the people a free pass to not pay a cover charge or whatever. That’s Guerilla Pimping. My team did this and drove 20 or 30 people to my bar. That equated to $600 in “free” money and exposure. What did the other club say? Nothing.

I sent 12 people out to crash a big business shopping center sponsored event. This shopping center is a block away from my restaurant and bar. They will not let me participate because I am not in their shopping center. But thats ok. I have other ways. By the time the security guard found one of my street team members and notified a Sheriff to remove them from the property, the other 11 had already distributed 1,600 flyers – in 40 minutes. This resulted in $1,000 in extra business. It cost me $40 and free t-shirts for the kids doing the flyers.

Next week at the same event (they do this event 4 times duing the summer) I will have a guy in mascot costume go out and pomote. I’m not going to say exactly what I am going to do, but if I get caught, what will happen? The photographer I have going with my mascot will be photographing the local Sheriffs escorting my mascot off the property. My photographer has press credentials and does work for the local paper on the freelance basis. The next day that picture will make the paper. Hopefully front page. Either way I will have video and photos to distribute online and off. I will make wanted posters of my mascot and have them distributed. I will make the mascot character an infamous local figure. I will put a bounty on his head and offer cash prizes to anyone who can catch him and bring him back – alive and unhurt of course. My first reward will be to the Sheriffs who catch him this Friday. I may even show up with a giant check made out to one of their sponsored charitable organizations. Of course, with a photographer and press release in hand sent in advance to the local media with an apology from the mascot. No reason to make the cops look bad. We might need them later.

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UPTOWN GREENSBORO

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UPTOWN GREENSBORO...

the term uptown often refers to a specific portion of a city in contrast with the local downtown area. The uptown neighborhood(s), separated from the city's lower or central business district, may often be residential, sometimes with particularly upscale or fashionable connotation. This uptown area may not necessarily be located to the north of or at a higher elevation than the downtown, regardless of designation.

Consider these examples: Uptown Charlotte is known for its heavy concentration of museums, hotels, upscale dining options, and bars. Uptown Chicago is a very popular tourist destination and home to various music CONTINUED ON PAGE 09

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DO YOU...

LIVE, WORK, SHOP, DINE, PLAY,

or WORSHIP HERE IN UPTOWN? DO YOU HAVE or KNOW SOMEONE IN THE UPTOWN AREA WITH A STORY TO BE TOLD? ARE YOU A TALENTED SINGER, FASHION DESIGNER, or AN IRON CHEF THAT’S READY TO SHINE? PUT YOUR WORDS IN AN EMAIL AND SUBMIT YOUR WRITTEN STORY or PERSON OF INTEREST TO...

UptownGreensboro@yahoo.com 336.944.6541

Between Uptown Manhattan, New Orleans, and Seattle... our goal is not to reinvent the wheel with UptownGSO, but rather initiate the “groundbreaking” process. facebook.com/ UptownGreensboro or UptownGreensboro.com

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venues, nightclubs, and shops as well. Buckhead is an upscale uptown district within the city of Atlanta, Georgia, sometimes promoted as the "Beverly Hills of the South."

Greensboro has a downtown and it has down fairly well with it’s own efforts to revitalize. We took that into consideration and with our inception in 2006 (with the purchase of UptownGreensboro.com), we waited patiently before launching our outreach campaign.

The simple goal and desire of Uptown Greensboro Inc., is to change the negative perceptions of this area to a positive. Some of the key efforts to accomplish this, is to provide for a cleaner, safer and more appealing business district that will attract long-term retail and business economic development. By working closely with the community to provide input into decision making policy about Uptown issues including parking, security, sanitation, and landscaping... we believe that an effort to revitalize the area through a range of supplemental services in coordination with municipal services already provided by the City of Greensboro is the best way to go.

The formation of a Business Improvement District (BID) is a public/private partnership in which property and business owners elect to make a collective contribution to the maintenance, development

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and promotion of their commercial district. In other words, multiple property owners/stakeholders agree to the extra fee (assessment) that is used to improve the area. These improvements may include street/sidewalk cleaning, graffiti removal, special events and holiday decoration, improved streetlights, custom trash recptacles, street signange, and etc.

To be keep up-to-date about the process or to help, sign up to get our newsletter at UptownGreensboro.com

Studio BE Inspirational mixed-media art & handmade greeting cards.

www.etsy.com/shop/StudioBEmedia StudioBEMedia.com 336.944.6609

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Located at 1007 Arnold Street beside Warehouse 29 (a Latin & Alternative lifestyle club) and across the street from Carolina Cookie Company, this 5,000 square foot building sat doormat for about 3 years before it was transformed into a working artist studio and gallery for local artists.

When “Winter Light Gallery & Art Studio” closed November 2011, seven of their artists transition into new and larger studio spaces at Uptown Artworks. Built in stages, the open floor concept of the one-time auto parts warehouse allowed for the construction of a total of 15 studios ranging in several different sizes. Then there’s the large front gallery space where artists can hang and sell their masterpieces, while a second rear gallery wall was recently erected for even more art to be put on display.

There hasn’t been an art studio in the area in several years and the jury is still out if the Greater Greensboro arts community will continue to suppport the efforts of this studio.

Host to workshops taught by internationally known artist and Monday art classes taught by Carol Moates, the studio will concluded their last “Second Sunday” opening on

December 9th and begin to promote “First Friday” opening starting January 2013... More info about the studio at UptownArtworks.org or facebook.com/UptownArtworks

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Carol Moates

Since retirement I have devoted full time to painting and teaching. I teach a watercolor class and a calligraphy class each week at Uptown Artworks.

Judy Meyler

I am an oil painter specializing in color and light. This is a very broad specialty as it affects every subject out there.

Painting is my passion, and I paint for the process. To me, the medium is mysterious and exciting, and creating art is about the basic need to experiment with the process. I love making art and watching colors mingle and glow.

I love to do pleinair landscapes. Warm sunny days are the best but sometimes overcast skies produce more moody, tranquil scenes.

My large florals are always a challenge. I love to show the difference between light reflecting off the petals as well as the gorgeous glow of the luminous light glowing from within.

My paintings are not always representational, but rather expressions of the subject or scene.

Taking liberties with color and choosing interesting subject and shapes are the methods I use in striving to capture the feeling for subject, rather than a description.

Figures will always intrigue me, bodies moving through light and shadow and sometimes interacting with other bodies or objects. One of my most cherished pleasures is drawing the portrait from life. Personalities can be revealed.

My work is primarily in watercolor, but I have a great love for oils as well.

Teaching is another joy for me, learning more and more by sharing what I know. I love every aspect of the work I do.

CarolMoates.com

JudyMeyler.com

Kathy Phillips

"After a rewarding career as a graphic artist , a product designer with Potpourri Press and Colonial Tin Works and a licensed artist in the giftware industry, I am now able to devote myself full time to painting. I work primarily in soft pastel, a medium that fascinates me and affords endless possibilities. The color and textures are fabulous and I never tire of experimenting. I am drawn to the landscape as well as to the human figure. I never run out of subject matter that attracts me!

I have studied with some of the best pastelists in the country, and I continue to learn because it is in the process of learning, that I grow as an artist.

Allie Scott

I am a signature member of the North Carolina Watercolor Society and a signature member of the Georgia Watercolor Society.

My subject matter includes floral subjects, island scenes and the houses and barns of the Blue Ridge Mountains. My preference is for a close up or a less than traditional viewpoint or color.

I enjoy incorporating texture through various watercolor techniques in all of my pieces.

Spatter, salt and masking are all used to create interesting textures.

I enjoy doing commissions of favorite places, pets and children. I love meeting people who appreciate art and would like that special piece for their home. "

The watercolor paper I uses is Arches and pigments are primarily DaVinci paints. My materials are gathered through photos and sketches on site then developed in the studio. Floral reference materials are frequently made available from my husband's prolific gardening skills...

pops-artists.com/kathy-phillips.html

watercolors-by-Allie-Scott.com

Steve Robinson

I am a retired physician (neurosurgeon) and started painting as a hobby in 2004. My medium is oil and I do landscapes and still life's on canvas. I use photographs almost exclusively as a source for my paintings. Since I began painting, I have taken weekly group classes at the studio of Connie Logan. I initially participated in the studios at Two Art Chicks, then moved to Winterlight Studios and, last November, took a studio at Uptown Artworks.

During this time, I have been associated with a wonderful group of very talented artists (Judy Meyler, Carol Moates, Kathy Phillips, Allie Scott, and Vicky Johnson) that have done their best to assist me with my artistic endeavors.

Since moving to Uptown Artworks, I have also benefited from working with Heath Carrier and Leigh Rodenbough. I very much enjoy painting and the art community. I get especially excited about taking a two dimensional canvas and developing a 3 dimensional appearance to a painting, and like to use value differences to define structures.

Heath Carrier

Art and design have always been a very large part of my life from my youth to the present. My educational direction was first in architecture later to the practice of landscape architecture . As a landscape architect, I have used the beauty of nature to formulate living environments for man’s enjoyment. I prefer landscape painting working with acrylic and oil mediums along with pen and ink drawings. My painting is a direct product of my design work expressing my feelings of pleasure with the environment. I see the landscape pallet as a never ending stream of images and I hope my work expresses this excitement we see around us every day .

I am from Charlotte ,NC and have lived in Jamestown ,NC my adult life . I graduated from North Carolina State University College of Design and practiced landscape architecture design in the Southeast since then. la67hel@aol.com

Vicki Johnson

I have been interested in the creative process for as long as I can remember and I have worked in almost every medium. I spend a lot of time thinking about the subject and design of most of my work, but the actual painting for me is an adventure of discovery.

Working predominantly with mixed water media on wet paper, I like to let the various mediums mix with each other for unusual effects.

I love to paint people, animals, and the natural world. My early work was generally realistic, but as I have worked and grown as an artist, I gravitate more and more to abstraction, using form, color and design as the basis for my paintings. I want my paintings to be a collaborative between myself and the viewer, if I show them every little detail, there won't be anything left for them to imagine and wonder about. Art should strike a nerve in the viewer and engage them on a visceral level,if it doesn't, then it is just another pretty picture.

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No.1 - Amanda Austin-Bolton Product Designer & Artist No.2 - Jay Bruni Contemporary, Modern, & Custom Designs No.3 - Leigh Rodenbough Pastel & Oil paintings No.4 - James Howell Airbrush Canvas Artist No.5 - Vera Machalanyn Painter No.6 - Paul DeLorenzo Modern Master of Realism and Classical Art No.7 - Sally Lambrecht Member of American Watercolor Society No.8 - Chuck McLachlan Painter of oils and watercolors, etc...

How to go about finding the right nail salon?

By Alicia Vaz

The plight to find a great nail salon can be difficult if you’re not sure what to look for. It doesn’t have to be this way if you prepare ahead of time for the experience. If you’re anything like me, going to the nail salon or spa is an event and I look forward to opportunities to sit back, relax and be pampered, my me time. My suggestion, don’t settle for second best or mediocre services. There are lots of professional nail technicians out there that are passionate about providing excellent nail service. Our preferences might be different but I doubt there’s anyone out there desiring to be treated haphazardly with it comes to the care and attention given at your nail salon or spa visit. The level of expectations you’ve set for yourself would help in determining the choice you make the next time you visit a nail salon or spa for nail services. Let’s make it good one!

Here’s what Ghostwriter and film consultant Christina Hamlett had to say about: How to Choose a Nail Salon via eHow: • Compliment friends, associates and even total strangers who have well groomed nails and ask them for a referral.

Many salons have built a good reputation for themselves as a result of word of mouth; if customers are happy with the quality of the work performed, they’re not going to be shy about sharing it with others. I’ve also found that hairdressers are a great resource for nail salon referrals because their own clients have a demonstrated interest in regular “upkeep” regimens. If you’ve just moved to a new community, you may want to consult a phone book and make a list of local salons to check out. While all of them are going to offer basic manicures and pedicures, some of the larger ones may provide additional services you’re looking for such as facials, massages, waxing, and threading.

• Visit each of the salons on your list to glean a sense of what they have to offer. Although many salons happily accept walk-ins, the purpose of your first visit is just to observe their operations and ask questions. Since your quest is to find the best match for what is going to be a long-term relationship, it’s important not to rush into anything.

• Take a deep breath when you first enter a new salon.

Your nose will tip you off as to whether there is enough air circulation and proper ventilation in the facility. If there’s an overpowering aroma of nail polish and acetone, your weekly/bi-weekly appointments are going to leave you feeling nauseous, not to mention exposed on a regular basis to harmful chemicals.

• Observe the clientèle in the salon and their interaction – or lack thereof – with the nail technicians. For instance, are the technicians chatting away on personal cell phone calls while they’re doing their customers’ nails? The quality of their work may suffer if they’re not giving the individuals in their chairs the courtesy of their full attention. Are the technicians noisy and gregarious? If you’re someone who wants a spa experience to be tranquil, soothing, and quietly blissful, you’re not going to relax if you’re sitting across from a motormouth who wants to gossip. Nor may you feel entirely at ease in an environment where there are communication challenges (or paranoia that all the giggles are because they’re talking about you and you can’t understand a single word). Take note as well whether the pace in the salon is leisurely or frenetic. If, for example, you see two technicians furiously working on one manicure, it’s a tip-off that the salon is going for high volume, not high quality. Every manicurist has a slightly different way of doing things and you don’t want your left hand fingers to look radically different from your right.

• Inquire whether the technicians have licenses issued by the state. Many of them will have their licenses on display at their respective work stations but it’s important to ask if you don’t see them. If they refuse or seem in any way hesitant to comply with your request, this isn’t a salon where you want to be doing business.

• Observe the salon’s level of cleanliness and hygiene insofar as the work stations, floors, pedicure tubs, and sterilization of equipment. Bacterial and fungal organisms will thrive in an unsanitary environment and it’s critical to ensure that potential problems and diseases carried in by a prior customer aren’t being passed on to you through the sloppiness of a technician who does not disinfect or discard nail care instruments after each use.

• Survey the salon’s product line. If it’s a cheap product, it’s not going to improve once it has been applied to your fingers or toes. If you’re new to this beauty regimen and aren’t sure what the various brands of polish are, you can either call an upscale salon that you know carries only the best products and ask them about respected brand names or visit the cosmetics counter of a department store and seek advice there.

• Ask whether the salon guarantees its services and will refund your money or redo the manicure/pedicure if you’re not totally satisfied. Salons want to attract and retain good customers. To that end, many of them will repair a broken nail for free if it should break within the first two weeks.

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Yes this will make the paper and probably make the local news.

How many people will be on the look out for the mascot?

How many people will talk about it? How many people will come by the business after seeing the exposure, news, mascot – whatever? How much will it cost? $50 for the guy to walk around town for a few hours and the cost of the costume. Photos of the winners will be posted inside on a wall of “Bounty Hunters”. Is this all goofy? Hell yeah. I won’t lie. It sounds dumb as hell.

But where and how else will I get $50,000 in media placement, exposure, free advertising and word of mouth marketing for $250 total out of pocket expense?

That’s GUERRILLA PIMPING That’s Hustling...

Take some notes. Some of the greatest marketing takes place without any money out of pocket. Think about those smooth pimps who go out and talk those women into selling their bodies and giving the money to the pimp. What did that cost them? Nothing but time to learn the game.

I’m giving you the tools, you just have to work your hustle.

What can you do to put your business between the customers you want and your competition. Thats Guerrilla Pimping.

Keep Hustling

facebook.com/ealexanderphotography

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BILLY JONES THE GREENSBORO

TYRANNICIDE

Tyrannicide literally means the killing of a tyrant, or one who has committed the act for the common good.

By jOseph

Tell US a little about yourself... what is your background, how long have you lived in Greensboro, and what are the positives and negatives of the city!

I was born working class poor, first generation removed from mountain sharecroppers in Gibsonville in 1956. I moved with my family to our Northeast Greensboro home in 1958 and like too many young people, spent many years trying to get away from Greensboro as I saw no opportunity here. No chance for a better life and not many fun things to do. It was violent and dangerous here and nobody wanted to do anything about it. I've got the scars emotionally and physically to prove it. Two weeks ago, I watched from my bedroom window as 24 year old Reginald DeMarkus Wrenn was gunned down in cold blood, but that's nothing new to Northeast Greensboro. Somehow, no matter how hard I tried or how far away I moved, I always ended up coming back. After all, if you're going to be poor, you might as well be poor where someone cares about you.

The most positive thing about Greensboro is the genuineness of Greensboro's working class, black, white and hispanic... we're all in this thing together and while it took us too long, we're finally figuring out we need one another to survive and prosper. The worst thing about Greensboro is the old elite power structure that still attempts to maintain control of this city and its working class through long standing institutional racism and classism in a never ending attempt to divide, conquer, and control the working class.

You operate a number of websites/blogs (name a few)... most of which seem to center around Greensboro politics. Most recently, you signed an email correspondence using the moniker "your friendly freelance neighborhood Tyrannicide!"

Explain this title and what event or events set you off on this crusade?

The website I'm most well known around the world for is BloggingPoet.com and while I have several others, the one that gets most of my time is East Greensboro Performing Arts Center -(http://greensboroperformingarts.blogspot.com/)

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When Mayor Perkins first proposed a downtown performing arts center, I looked at the 50 plus years of intentional neglect that Northeast Greensboro and other Greensboro neighborhoods have suffered and hatched a plan to draw attention to our plight. While I knew it would never happen, I knew I could make a case and counter any argument for building a downtown performing arts center with a better argument for placing the PAC in Northeast Greensboro. Accessibility, crime, cost, affordability, parking, infrastructure, economic development, civic pride... every argument they came up with I bested. The only reason they could come up with for not building the PAC in Northeast Greensboro was the one reason I knew all along -- their downtown investments couldn't profit from it. In other words, the only reason Greensboro is planning to build a downtown PAC is to subsidize Downtown developers and business owners.

I knew somebody had to do something about it and because no one else was doing it, I decided it would be me. Let them build GPAC, but before they do, make them become vested in the rest of Greensboro.

Early on, someone told me to look into the many non profits that are funded by and involved in the management of the City of Greensboro. I started documenting part of what I found at Greensboro Partnership Exposed (http://greensboropartnership.blogspot.com/). What I learned was shocking. While these non profits go by dozens of different names, they are for the most part, all run by the same people. In other words, they're a non-profit version of shell companies who get money from the City of Greensboro and pass it back and forth among themselves with each one getting a "management fee" each time the money changes hands. Right now, thanks to my efforts, the City is auditing several of these non-profits, but there are many yet to be audited.

I know, it comes off as if I'm bragging and I don't want it to be that way, but that's just what I spend my time doing now that I'm no longer able to work. I don't want to be on disability, but if I'm going to be, I'm going to try and do something worthwhile with my time. If I can save my community tens of thousands of dollars a year by exposing corruption, then I feel a little better about being on the public dole.

Tyrannicide, while not entirely unfamiliar to me is not a term I would have ever thought of had I not stumbled upon it on the Internet one day. Tyrannicide literally means to kill a tyrant or one who kills a tyrant. Mayor Perkins was pushing to build GPAC in such a way that he could be considered no less than a tyrant. From day 1, he declared it would be built as if he were Greensboro's ruler and the people had no choice. I decided the moment I stumbled upon the word that Greensboro has a choice and I would be the Tyrannicide who showed the Mayor it was so.

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Perhaps you read in the News & Record and the Rhino Times of Mayor Perkin's problems with the IRS, the repossession of his home and his pending divorce? It was Billy Jones, your your friendly freelance neighborhood Tyrannicide who first published those stories online before the others picked them up without attribution.

If you were Mayor, should Greensboro compete with Raleigh and Charlotte for new residents and business and if so, how would you do it?

What's the point in competing with Raleigh and Charlotte?

And how can we? Raleigh has the entire State of North Carolina to help fund its expansion. The entire state built Research Triangle Park, not one or two cities. On the other side of Raleigh is the State funded Global Transpark. How can Greensboro compete with State money? And Charlotte? Charlotte didn't attract those big banks that built Charlotte, those banks were born there. North Carolina National Bank bought out Bank of America and took over its name. Same story with Charlotte's other banking empires. To the 52% of Greensboro residents who aren't from Greensboro, time to learn some North Carolina history and quit falling for all the nonsense Greensboro's "movers and shakers" are peddling. Here's a better idea, instead of competing, why not try taking care of our own?

Greensboro has all the talent, resources and labor we need to become anything we could ever want to be. Competing with other cities is simply code for building more empty industrial parks on the county lines while Uptown and other parts of Greensboro die.

On a national scale, did America get it right with the reelection of Barack Obama and what effect if any do you think his reelection will have locally?

I had really high hopes for Barack Obama the first time around. His message of hope and change really spoke to me. But by the time election came around I was really disappointed. I looked hard at Mitt Romney but could not in my heart bring myself to vote for the man who had put more Americans out of work than any other single man in my lifetime... Did America get it right? The right choice was probably in one of the 3rd party candidates but the media being what it is we'll never know enough about them to make an informed decision.

I've come to believe the Democratic Party is the place where progressive and liberal ideas go to die. Did America get it right? Not that Barack Obama is a bad man, but voting for him was probably the lesser of two evils.

SUDOKU EASY PUZZLE # 1

“Fill in the grid so that every row, every column, and every 3x3 box contains the digits 1 through 9.”

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A Brief History of Greensboro

T

his historic look at Greensboro emphasizes the beginning of the city as a county seat and the changing central area known as downtown. It traces the growth of public services, the municipal limits, and major businesses, while touching on the places and events that shaped the community’s social life.

wealthiest man in town) began operating a steam-powered cotton mill north of courthouse square, the first of its kind in North Carolina. By 1833, 75 looms were in production, and cotton material was being exported to neighboring counties and states.

Textile manufacturing took an early lead in Greensboro’s economic life.

Greensboro was established in 1808 as Guilford’s county seat on a site selected not for natural advantages but for its location at the exact geographic center. In fact, the site had disadvantages since it was in a low area covered by water with ducks swimming where the town should be built. There is a marker in Fisher Park east of Elm that cites this history.

Forty-two acres were purchased from Ralph Gorrell for $98 and the town was laid out in blocks of lots.

Originally it was a paper town without buildings or residents, named for a Revolutionary War hero Nathanael Greene.

EDUCATION

Growth was gradual and the first census in 1829 recorded 369 white residents, 101 slaves, 26 free blacks, five stores and three saloons. Greensboro was truly a frontier town during the early decades. Four developments before the Civil War were important in shaping the future city.

First, in 1828, Henry Humphreys (the

A second development during the 1830s was in the area of education.

Religious groups established two schools that exist today. Guilford College, founded by the Quakers as New Garden Boarding School, was the first co-educational school in North Carolina. Greensboro College, chartered by the Methodists, was the first state-chartered college for women in the state. A number of influential people were associated with these institutions and those that followed – Bennett College in 1873, UNCG in 1892 and A&T in 1891. The presence of five colleges and universities has influenced the city’s climate and expanded its cultural and educational opportunities. Another school outside the city also had a major impact on local residents and across the nation. Dr. Charlotte Hawkins Brown established Palmer Memorial Institute in eastern Guilford County early in the 20th century, and it was an outstanding institution for African-

American education until it closed in 1971.

RAIL LINES A third key event during the ante-bellum era related to transportation and occurred in 1856 when the first train ran over the completed tracks of the NCRR. This rail system promoted by former governor John Motley Morehead was a substitute for a river to link eastern and western portions of the state since nature hadn’t provided one. It began a network of rail lines that drew the Cones to Greensboro in the 1890s, the founder of Burlington Industries in the 1930s and the US Army in the 1940s.

Both railroads and college campuses influenced the development of suburbs, as people chose to live outside the congested business district and around the colleges. Southside, with Asheboro Street as its boulevard, developed in the 1890s in southeast Greensboro, and houses in the College Hill Historic District were constructed as early as the 1840s.

Copyright 1997 Gayle Hicks Fripp/ Greensboro Historical Museum

an·te·bel·lum [an-tee-bel-uhm] adjective -- before or existing before a war, especially the American CivilWar; prewar

photo by jOseph

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#UptownGSO (From Left to Right)

Sensous Scents, Proximity United Methodist Church, Greensboro Farmer’s Curb Market, Jim Young State Farm, World War Memorial Stadium, Eastern Division Police Substation, Carolina Cookie Company, East Market Street Railroad overpass, and Yanceyville Street water tower Photographs by jOseph

UPTOWN GREENSBORO

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Al Van and John Passmore

Marcya Cain

Juanita Blackmon and Rod Stanley

Shirley Walker and Ron Davis

Ruben and David Perez

Robert Allen & Thomas Eyring

Debbie Wright, Joe Fisher, and Eli Abrams

Roberta Pearson

UptownScene The Greater Greensboro Leads Group meets every Tuesday at the Emerald Event Center Tuesday, November 6, 2012 Photographs by jOseph

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