Friday Malinois Photo

War Memorial Stadium, John Hammer, and What I'm Hearing

I wrote earlier that I've been asked to participate with a group of Greensboro citizens and city staff in picking the architects who will plan the renovation of War Memorial Stadium. In that post, I asked for input about what's most important in that project: preservation, usefulness, parking, beautification, etc. You can read that post here.

The people who wrote back had some interesting and thoughtful things to say; here are their responses. I was suprised that none of them thought it particularly important to retain the original seating capacity. They were more concerned to preserve the facade and to update the locker rooms, seating, and other amenities so as to make the stadium more attractive to fans and to college and youth baseball tournaments.

Their responses fly directly in the face of John Hammer's editorial in yesterday's Rhino Times, which accuses "the city" (a rather nebulous entity) of planning to "tear down" War Memorial Stadium by reducing its seating capacity.

Perhaps John is right in a way that he didn't intend. When he said "the city," he probably meant city staff and elected officials. But the course of action he derides seems to have the support of some ordinary citizens -- and they are "the city," too.

At any rate, I want to hear more from ordinary people before we start picking architects. Please add comments here or e-mail me at david.wharton@gmail.com.

UPDATE: Thanks to Ed Cone for the link!

Blogging in the UNCG Curriculum

TheShu picked up the fact that I have set up a blog for one of my classes within a few hours of my creating it -- I don't know how he does it.

I'll be using the blog as a discussion forum for my students, and I'm excited but a little apprehensive. Kids say the darndest things, as Art Linkletter used to remind us. So I've told them to behave, since anyone can read their posts. But that's also an upside for them. Not only are they likely to be on their best behavior, but they may attract input and discussion from people outside of class, and outside of academia. They'll start blogging sometime next week.

MORE UNCG BLOG NEWS: In preparing for some curriculum committee work tomorrow morning, I discovered that a proposed new course in UNCG's English/Jounralism curriculum is going to include a unit on bloggers, and the instructor is planning to ask some local blogger/journalists to talk to the class. My advice to the invited bloggers: make sure you get a meal out of it.

Summit Avenue Wonk-O-Rama

My neighborhood has been working to improve and beautify the main thoroughfare that rips right through it -- Summit Avenue -- for about 20 years. Until recently, we've had little success.

But things have started looking up. We hosted a design charrette in 2002 which included a conceptual plan for improvements to Summit, and in 2003 we persuaded City Council to adopt our Strategic Plan, which also had some important proposals regarding Summit. In 2004, City Council agreed to fund a corridor study of Summit.

TODAY, a group of us working on this project study chose two consulting firms as finalists to perform that corridor study. We'll be interviewing them in the middle of February to pick the best one. And then, they'll do the study sometime in 2005.

(Here follows the really wonky stuff, for those of you who want to know what REALLY happens in city hall.)

What's a corridor study? In our case, it will begin with a very detailed study of transportation patterns & needs (cars, pedestrians, public transportation), of the current market conditions, and of current land use and zoning on Summit. It will involve asking residents, business owners, and potential investors what they like and don't like. Using all this information, the consultants will produce a set of very concrete proposals for improving Summit, such as new traffic patterns, new zoning, and design guidelines for new development that can be used by the city and private investors.

Who gets to decide on hiring the consultants? This part of the process was organized by city staff in the Department of Housing and Community Development. The working group included representatives from HCD, the Planning and Zoning Department, GDOT, Parks and Recreation, and the Aycock neighborhood (me, with the help of Mindy McReynolds and Aycock President Betsey Baun). City Manager Ed Kitchen appointed the group at the direction of City Council.

How were the decisions made? By group discussion and voting. We received preliminary portfolios from 10 firms, and, after some discussion, invited 6 of them to submit proposals. One of these dropped out, and at today's meeting we reached a quick consensus on the top 3. One of the three, however, was priced about 3 times higher than the city could afford (and, oddly, 3 times higher than all the other proposals), so we ended up with two to interview.

Why are you telling us all this? I threatened earlier to blog the city-hall activities of TREBIC, so I thought it only fair to shine the light of truth and openness on my own behind-closed-doors lobbying in the MMOB (Melvin Municipal Office Building). And I wanted to show that most of what happens there is not sinister, but . . . dull. Actually, it's not dull to me, and if you've read this far, it's probably not dull to you, either. But I think you'd agree that most people would find it dull. But in city politics, slow, steady, and dull often wins the race. I'm hoping Summit will be much improved by 2013.

Nontrivial APA Blogging

I didn't make any attempt to blog the meetings of the American Philological Association last weekend, confining myself to trivial sartorial judgements as an afterthought.

But Angelo Mercado did the real thing. If you want to find out what really happened at the APA (and not just Mr. Sun's salacious daydreams), visit Angelo's blog.

Running into friends unexpectedly

I almost never pick up the paper version of the NY Times, since the on-line version is free (though you do have to register).

But I was flying home from Boston this morning and grabbed a copy at Logan airport. The cover story of the NYT Magazine was about fraternity life, and since I'm right in the middle of I am Charlotte Simmons, a good chunk of which is devoted to fraternity decadence, it seemed timely and interesting. And it was.

But I had a nicer suprise as I flipped to the back of the magazine. Greensboro writer and UNCG professor Michael Parker had a brief reminiscence on the last page about his teen-aged years in rural North Carolina. It's always nice running into Michael unexpectedly and to see that he's doing well.

I've Been Away . . .

I've been at the annual convention of the American Philological Association (known to the world at large as the Classics Geek Convention) in Boston. I won't bore you with the details of the scholarhship presented there, since many of the topics discussed are obscure even to professional classics geeks like myself. Instead, I'll confine myself to some trivial observations:

(1) I used to think of the APA convention as having the highest concentration of tweed, corduroy, and comfortable shoes to be found anywhere on the planet, and there's still plenty of it there, especially among the older scholars. But I noticed that the younger generation (which doesn't include myself) was dressing considerably more snappily. Along those same lines . . .

(2) My friend Bruce, a Bostonian and a non-classicist who stopped by the convention center to take me out to dinner, remarked that the lobby was "crawling with babes." Classics babes?I thought he was joking at first, but then I looked around. There wasn't a dowdy academic spinster in sight. Rather, we were surrounded by brainy and beautiful women. (I shouldn't have been surprised; I married one of those, after all.) Academic demographics are changing.

(3) Classics scholars don't get any social prestige from what they do, and they don't get paid much money for it, but they really love learning, scholarship, and teaching. I admire that a lot.

Blogging TREBIC

TREBIC (the Triad Area Real Estate and Building Industry Coalition) is in the news a lot this week. Today it is criticising the local Sierra Club's report on sprawl. And a few days ago, an article in the N&R (not posted on their site) intimated the way that TREBIC gets to influence local legistlation in Greensboro. The article said that city staff is working on an ordinance to increase the number of trees in the city, and TREBIC gets to participate in the actual writing of the ordinance. Talk about the fox guarding the henhouse! That's access with a capital A.

But this is what TREBIC does, and it's quite up-front about the fact. In a recent half-page ad placed in local builders’ trade publications, titled “What Has TREBIC Done For You Lately?”, the group boasted that it had weakened the RUCO ordinance, the sidewalk ordinance, and local environmental legislation. It claimed it was working hard to place TREBIC supporters in important positions on appointed boards. It also boasted that it had feted members of the City Council and other elected officials at a pig-pickin’ shindig in order to curry their favor.

Gosh, thanks TREBIC!

Seriously, though. Although TREBIC's spokeswoman, Marlene Sanford, often claims that the group is just promoting free-market competition, TREBIC’s exercise of influence has little to do with laissez-faire economics. It has more to do with skewing real-estate related legislation and quasi-judicial boards (such as the Zoning Board and the Board of Adjustment) in its own favor. Adam Smith, the granddaddy of free-market capitalism, had this to say about regulations emanating from the economic class (merchants and manufacturers) which forms TREBIC's main constituency:

The proposal of any new law or regulation of commerce which comes from this order ought always to be listened to with great precaution, and ought never to be adopted till after having been long and carefully examined, not only with the most scrupulous but with the most suspicious attention. It comes from an order of men whose interest is never exactly the same with that of the public, who have generally an interest to deceive and even to oppress the public, and who accordingly have, upon many occasions, both deceived and oppressed it (Adam Smith, An Inquiry into the Causes of the Wealth of Nations).

What then should we do? If TREBIC is guarding the making of law regarding real estate and building in Greensboro, quis custodiet cusodes ipsos? (“Who will guard the guards themselves?”)

I nominate myself. And you. This looks like a perfect opportunity for the blogosphere’s “long tail” to leak a little light and air into the smoke-filled rooms of ordinance-writing.

So I’m announcing the BLOGGING TREBIC PROJECT. I’ve asked city staff for access to all the meetings where the tree ordinance will be discussed with TREBIC, and I’ll blog what I hear, see, and say, if they'll let me in. If you would like to join in, I’m happy to let you guest blog. E-mail me at david.wharton@gmail.com.

In fact, I'd like to see TREBIC blogged in all its interactions with city and county government. Wouldn't you?

Treehugger

I spent the evening taking the lights and ornaments off the Christmas tree, which only now is beginning to drop a few needles. I'll take it outside tomorrow morning.

One of the nice things about cutting your own tree is that it stays alive for weeks if you keep it watered. Ours is still drinking about a quart of water a day, and it was taking in almost half a gallon a day at first. (It's a big tree.)

But that's the problem, for me -- it's still alive. I contemplated stopping watering it days ago, knowing that it was coming down. But I just couldn't. It would be like . . . starving a pet.

It's kind of weird, but I always feel sorry for the tree when we put it out by the curb. We picked it out, brought it into our home, lavished decorations on it, made it the center of many celebrations. And now we're just going to throw it out into the street?

Like I said, it's kind of weird. Is it just me?

The Da Vinci Code, Star Wars, and the Bible

I taught a Freshman Seminar last fall at UNCG called "Gods and God in the Ancient Greco-Roman World." It was a broad survey of ancient ideas about divine beings, and I had the students read a lot of primary sources, starting with Homer, and ending with St. Anselm in the Middle Ages (yes, the course is slightly mis-titled).

One of the oddest things to emerge from the seminar was the personal theology -- I should say theologies -- of the students.

Out of 20 students, all but 2 claimed to be Christian; the other two were somewhere between atheist and agnostic. But among the other 18, only about 4 held beliefs that bore much resemblance to orthodox Protestant or Catholic thought. Most of them believed that the Bible had been seriously altered or adulterated by wicked men sometime between Christ's lifetime and ours. They also tended to describe God as a "force" that permeates the universe, and some had quite detailed ideas about how this divine Force operates: "Life creates it, makes it grow. Its energy surrounds us and binds us . . ."

In short, these young Christians had aquired most of their ideas about the Bible and theology from two sources: Dan Brown's faux-theologico-historical pot-boiler The Da Vinci Code, and George Lucas's Star Wars movies. Some of them acknowledged this openly, and said they were more inclined to be influenced by Brown's book and George Lucas than by the New Testament.

So I'm glad to see that Brown's outrageously erroneous ecclesiastical history is getting some serious scholarly criticism by UNC religion professor Bart Ehrman. Unfortunately, most people don't read books like this. But they will go to the movie based on Brown's book that Ron Howard has apparently agreed to direct.

Sigh.

Why Does the News & Record Give Free Advertising to Developers?

On many Sundays, the lead story in the News & Record's TriadHomes section appears to be nothing more than a press release from a developer. Today is one of those Sundays. The headline reads, Community Profile: Hobbs Landing. Luxury homes offer desirable location.

Here's the story's lead:

A unique concept in neighborhood living has arrived in Greensboro. Pierce Homes of Carolina is developing and building Hobbs Landing in the heart of the city. Hobbs Landing is an exclusive group of 16 luxury homes . . .

The body of the article describes in glowing terms how the new development is good in every way. Then comes the closing paragraph:

For more than 20 years, Piecrce Homes has served the Carolinas as one of the area's largest builders of condominiums, town homes, and single-family residences . . .

This is a news story? Only Brian Pierce, the President of Pierce Homes, was quoted. The reporter interviewed no residents of surrounding neighborhoods to find out what they think of the new development. No research was done on the quality of work in previous Pierce projects, or on the level of satisfaction among Pierce Homes buyers. Nor were experts knowledgeable about neighborhood and city planning consulted.

The quality of housing and the design of neighborhoods are issues that powerfully affect our quality of life in Greensboro. If developments are done badly, the city (and unhappy homeowners) are stuck with them for generations.

The N&R prints disinterested reviews of movies, restaurants, and books. But when it comes to something that's far more important -- neighborhood development --, the real estate industrty gets not only a free pass, but free advertising as well.

I just don't get it.

Update: Ed Cone notes that there's a narrow banner at the top of the TriadHomes page that says, "Classified Advertising Supplement." Thanks for the extra pair of eyes, Ed: I looked twice for visible indications that the story is an advertisment, and didn't see this (didn't have my reading glasses on). But I'm sticking to my complaint. The article in question has a headline and a byline. It's printed right next to a syndicated real-estate advice column by Robert Bruss. Below it are printed public-service announcements. In short, it is being presented as a news story, not as classified advertising.

Hey, watch this!

It looks like Robert McNeil has done his homework for his primetime special about American language: "Do You Speak American?" on Wednesday, January 5, 8 p.m. (PBS).

Nearer to home, check out Walt Wolfram's North Carolina Language and Life Project. The UNCG Linguistics Program brought him to Greensboro last year, and he delighted the audience with what he and his fellow researchers have found out about North Carolina speech.