“The downtown area continues to grow; over 1,000 new residential units were developed over the last three years. And Jason [Theil] tells me that we’ll soon have over 5,000 people living in downtown. Can you imagine that? Years ago, we said that you could shoot a cannon down Fourth Street at 5 pm and not hit anybody. Today it… More
The storefronts at the 1400 block of North Liberty were recently discussed at length by the W-S City Council. Councilmember Annette Scippio bemoaned their destruction. Councilmembers D.D. Adams and Barbara Burke both acknowledged at the February 6 Council meeting that the Liberty Corridor (Liberty Street, Cleveland Avenue, an… More
Housing Justice Now appeared in force at the February 20, 2023, meeting of the Winston-Salem City Council. HJN’s anti-eviction action at 12oo Willie Davis Drive earlier in the day helped push the City to offer residents facing eviction a generous resettlement package. But that’s not enough. There isn’t anywhe… More
The City’s pricetag for the Flats at Peters Creek has risen steadily over the years. From a modest $15,000 (2016) for a study that got the project off the ground to $1.2 million (Forsyth County paid half of the $1.2 mil) to obtain the former Budget Inn property (2019). Then Shalom and its development partners returned to the City Council… More
A man was found dead Tuesday on the steps outside Our Lady of Fatima Church in downtown Winston-Salem. The W-S Journal’s John Hinton reported that “Michael Todd Smith, 60, who had no permanent address,” was lying near the church’s Cherry Street entrance when police found him unresponsive. No foul play is s… More
“My favorite book of the Bible is the book of James. Go figure, right? And one of my favorite quotes there is faith without work is dead. My friend Bishop Fulton is back there, and he’s nodding with me. Because, If God doesn’t test you, how do you know that he is the risen savior? And right now, in Winston-Salem, we are being tested. We are bei… More
“It sounds like a good idea, but it’s outrageously expensive if you were to do the whole neighborhood… I think that’s a huge amount of money to pay six graduate students.”
“They are not building anything. They are just studying. I don’t mind the concept, but I just think we are being taken … More
Looking through the Housing Authority of Winston-Salem’s meeting notes recently, I noticed the frank language HAWS used to describe its Housing Choice Voucher program, also referred to as Section 8. HAWS’ November 8, 2022, minutes tell the story of a housing voucher program that is difficult for people to obtain and d… More
Sports betting supporters believe this will be the year the North Carolina legislature legalizes online sports betting. Sen. Paul Lowe predicts that NC will legalize sports betting this year. It’s a shame that the state is on the verge of legalizing sports gambling, but it is nowhere near legalizing marijuana. Gambling is ad… More
John Railey wrote an excellent article last week in The Chronicle. Railey criticized the City of Winston-Salem for spending hundreds of thousands on housing studies but failing to implement policy recommendations from those rather costly studies. That’s a criticism I have been making against the City for some time now.
It&… More
