Jim Schlosser is blogging

And that's a very good thing.

Jim knows more about the history of Greensboro, and about the history of Greensboro architecture, I think, than any living person.

He's also a very nice guy. I run into him fairly frequently, and I mean run -- he's a dedicated jogger, and our paths cross at races and sometimes while we're running on Elm Street.

He always says hello, but I don't think he quite knows who I am. No matter. He's an engaging writer, and I look forward to learning more about this city from his work.

You can start with his appreciation of David Hoggard, who he calls "a poor man's Jim Melvin." I passed that on to Hoggard on his front porch this evening -- he hadn't seen Schlosser's piece yet -- and he thought it was hilarious.

Country living

We took a break from urbanity this weekend to visit old friends who are building a beautiful place near Lexington, VA. Here's the view from what soon will be their front porch:

PHOTO: SAM WHARTON

Clearly there's a strong case to be made for rurality. Especially when you can do this

PHOTO: SAM WHARTON

in your front yard. I'm shown here attempting to ruthlessly mutilate a tin can. (I failed.)

Sam, too, enjoyed exercising his 2nd Amendment rights on his 16th birthday. Mrs. Urbanity also got a chance to shoot for the first time, but has forbidden me to post photos of her fetchingly firing her 20 gauge.

Our friends were wonderful hosts, and they showed us around the beautiful town Lexington (about whose historical treasures I'm tempted to gush embarassingly), Washington and Lee University, and VMI, which Sam liked, but which seemed forbidding to me.

Ahhhhhhh . . . .

The insect sounds have changed at night.

It's cooler, and the whine of cicadas has given way to subdued cricket chirping not long after sunset. It sounds good and feels good.

I never bothered to drag our window unit up to our bedroom this summer. That room doesn't have central air because doing the ductwork must have been a little too challenging back in the 30's when our coal-grate fireplaces and stoves were retired in favor of central heat.

So through this summer, Laurette and I were cooled only by the good cross-ventilation of our bedroom (windows on 3 walls) and a ceiling fan. Some nights it was pretty warm. But as you know if you've ever seen Body Heat, sweat is not always a bad thing . . .

Anyhow.

It got down into the 60's last night, and that felt pretty good, too.

Suburban mom in the city

Reedy Fork mom Kim took her son on a trip downtown today, and they both loved it:

. . . . . I really needed a city fix. I was just starting to feel too isolated . . . . I'm telling you, it was wonderful. The sights, the sounds and even the smells. There were horns beeping, business people scurrying around, there were people enjoying lunch at outdoor cafes, there were people selling hotdogs . . . . We saw all sorts of people from those who were just looking around like us, business people, kids, residents of downtown and my next door neighbor who was sitting in his patrol car at a traffic light.

She liked it so much, she's pondering her next residence:

During our time downtown I was thinking about how nice it would be to live downtown. I noticed really nice looking condos that I would love to see the inside of. I used to think I would never want a condo because I thought it would be like apartment living, but I'm starting to re-think that.

Interesting. She would certainly have plenty of choice in condominiums.

Kim's an engaging blogger; Read the whole thing.

Bikepool! or, Bike lanes? We don't need no stinkin' bike lanes

A mini-flyer appeared on my Kymco and on every bike on the bike rack in front of my building yesterday:

GREENSBORO FEST!!

A four nite (free) event with bands and bike-pooling to the shows! Each nite (except for Sat.) meet @ 7:30 p.m. on College Ave. in front of the UNCG Jackson library for a group ride to the shows.

I guess a lot of these students have already taken the no-car option, and are having fun doing it. Where they lead, city transporation planners will follow, I think.

In case you want to party with these cycling hipsters, here's the show info:

Friday Aug. 26: Guilford College with Dawn Chorus, Chet Stedman, Citified.

Saturday Aug. 27: UNCG Faculty Center with Giant, Eugene Chadbourne, 6 p.m. Filthy Bird, Tiger Bear Wolf

Sunday Aug. 28: Green Street with Boxcar Bertha, Crimson Spectre, Mortar & Pestle, War! Bomb!

School's NOT out forever

And thank goodness for that!

That sound you're hearing all over Guilford County today is coming from parents who are cheering and sighing as they send their children back to school.

But you may also be picking up a low grumbling sound, if our experience is anything like that of other parents.

Here's a photo of my daughter waiting for her school bus (accompanied by Sweetfoot, whose nickname is Jabba the Cat, for obvious reasons). After waiting 40 minutes, we gave up and drove her to school.

I think you'll be reading about bus snafus in tomorrow's News & Record.

Zoning enforcement blues: 351 Summit Avenue update

Effective code and zoning enforcement is an essential element in revitalizing and maintaining older urban neighborhoods. Without them, irresponsible, predatory, or just plain lazy propery owners can bring real estate values in a neighborhood crashing down.

A while back I noticed that an illegal junkyard had taken root just ouside my neighborhood -- hardly more than a stone's throw from my house, and I put up a post about my efforts to get the situation remedied.

Well, the situation still isn't fixed. The junkyard is still there, though the owners have begun putting a six-foot privacy fence around it. I think they're doing this in response to prodding from the city's zoning enforcement staff.

Here's the relevant bit of zoning ordinance:

Section 30-5.2.48(2) Junked motor vehicles (as an accessory use). Nonresidential Districts: Any vehicle meeting the definition of "Junked Motor Vehicle" shall be stored, parked, or placed on the property in such a manner so as to be screened from view from any street and/or from any adjacent residentially or public and institutionally zoned property. Total screening shall be effected by placement of the vehicles, either within or behind a building, or by plant materials, fences, berms, or a combination thereof, with a minimum height off six (6) feet [my emphasis].

So it would seem that putting up a six-foot privacy fence would solve the problem, right?

I don't think so.

First of all, the junkard in this instance is the primary use of the property, not an accessory use. Secondly, the six-foot privacy fence does not screen the junked vehicles from view from the street, as this photo taken from Fisher Avenue clearly demonstrates:

This fall, when the leaves are gone, the junkard will be even more exposed.

I'm corresponding with city staff on this issue, and will keep you updated as to their determination. But to be honest, I'm having a bad feeling about this. I've never had a go-round with zoning staff in which they agreed with my interpretation of the ordinance.

What do you think?

The $13,000 parking space

UNCG students are getting lots of parking tickets, and they're pissed.

The Carolinian (UNCG's student-run newspaper) reports that some students who have been sold parking permits are unable to find spaces and are being ticketed when they park illegally.

The article seems to imply that the university has sold more B-lot spaces to resident students than it actually has. I don't know whether that's true -- but didn't Jim Bakker go to jail for doing something like that a few years back? I can understand the students' anger if it's so.

UNCG Parking director Kristy Bradley is quoted as saying that the cost of building a new parking space in a deck on campus is $13,000. And that's just initial capital outlay; when you figure in deck maintenance and administration I'll bet it's a lot more.

Which means that the $375 that the university charges for a yearly deck pass doesn't really cover the cost of parking; it just covers the initial building cost of the space for the 35-year life of the deck.

That may seem like a lot of money for a deck pass, but I think it's too little, and here's why.

Sophomore student Hannah Simms is quoted as saying,

"Resident students should have deck passes, because while day students may be here for eight hours . . . residents may not move their car for two months."

Two months? If Hannah is right, that means UNCG's parking rates are so low that students are willing to pay it simply to store unused vehicles.

UNCG does not have a parking problem. It has a pricing problem. The demand for parking spaces is artificially high because they are priced too cheaply. If the university charged for spaces at their true market value, students would find other ways to handle their transportation needs.

It can be done: I spent 2 years in Chapel Hill with a bicycle as my only vehicle (I was in my late 20's at the time). And even now I almost never drive a car to campus; when I do, I find free parking in College Hill.

Update: Sue points out in comments that scooters aren't for everbody, and she's right. But they're getting more popular, as this picture taken in front of my building shows.

Udate II: Councilwoman Sandy Carmany writes in the comments: "UNCG is participating in the funding of the local match money needed for GTA's University Connector service that will provide students alternate ways to get to the campus without having to drive and hunt for parking spaces." That's good news for students.

Now THAT's what I call adaptive re-use

You probably haven't heard of Erbil in Iraq (I hadn't). But it might be the longest continually-occupied site in the world.

"The thing about Erbil is that it is, in fact, a living town," Dr. Gibson said. "It goes back at least to 5,000 B.C.," he said. "It might go back further."

Some estimates put the town's beginnings as far back as 9,300 B.C.

Read the whole thing, especially the part about the Frenchman displaying avant-garde paintings in an ancient bath next to a mosque. Some hope to make Erbil the Kurdish Soho.

Someone I think about when I run

My dad has been going through boxes of old family photos and scanning them; here's one I particularly like:

That's my grandfather, Russell F. Wharton, third from the left, running for the University of Illinois against Wisconsin in 1921.

He was a very good miler for his day, and he ran on a 4-mile relay team in the Drake Relays that set a world record in the early 20's. In 1921 he was a Big 10 2-mile champion with a time of 9:43.2.

Though I'm strictly a middle-of-the-pack, middle aged jogger, I sometimes think about him in his prime when I'm running, and he makes me run a little faster.

Why no bike lanes, Jim?

Sunday's N&R included two long pieces (not posted on the N&R site) on the state of bicycling in Greensboro: one by citizen-bicyclist Jody Deitrich, the other by GDOT-Director-and-bicyclist Jim Westmoreland.

Both are avid cyclists (Jim's also an amateur bike racer), and both told harrowing stories about being struck by cars and having insults and objects thrown at them by motorists. Both of them think that cycling should be safer in Greensboro, and offered concrete ways to make it so.

But among Jim's several policy prescriptions for improving safety for cyclists, one was notable for its absence: he made no mention of bike lanes.

Jody did, though, and she mentioned cities (Palo Alto, CA, and Portland, OR) where this strategy has been popular and effective. Adding bike lanes is also recommended by this policy paper posted on the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration's website.

Now, we all know that Greensboro ain't Palo Alto. But I've also seen a lot of bike lanes in towns like Iowa City, Iowa, and Madison, Wisconsin. Why not here?

Bike lanes not only provide a safer environment for cyclists, but also say to everyone, "bicycles are welcome here."

I think that's exactly the message GDOT should be sending to motorists and cyclists alike.

Flying Malinois

Trajan loves the ball. Good catch, boy!