An amazing thing happened last night during the City Council meeting that I think needs pointing out.

There was a proposal submitted by GDOT to purchase the historic Ice House as reported by the N&R.  The plans call for buying the early 19th century building and property next to the tracks on East Market Street.  A site plan was presented which demonstrated what the property would look like after GDOT got through with it.  Which of course means that the site plan shows the building removed... for another downtown parking lot for city owned buses.

In years past such a proposal would hardly raise an eyebrow and Greensboro would have lost ANOTHER historic building.  But these are not years past thank goodness.  My great friends Heather Seifert of Preservation Greensboro and Julie Curry of the Guilford County Preservation office came to the podium and put the Council on notice that they had noticed what was afoot.  

The audible boot shaking that occurred in Council chambers after Heather and Julie's comments was because of PGI's reputation for a no-holds-barred commitment to save and preserve what remains of Greensboro's historic structures.  Best exemplified through the role they played in the Dudley High School and War Memorial Stadium renovation efforts, PGI has proven its mettle and will not be taken lightly.

To their credit, the Council voted 8-0 to purchase the property and instructed the staff to look at alternatives to tearing the building down despite the insistence by the staff that "the building is beyond repair"... which I have heard so many times in this city that I get nauseous at the utterance.

No historic building that I have EVER seen is beyond repair, the statement is simply code for "we don't want to mess with it" or "I have not one creative bone in my body".

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The White Street landfill issue is giving me fits.  Even though the current Council voted to close it in 2005, long before its projected lifespan, I know that the issue will come up again before it is all over.

Editing Note: I originally wrote a blog entry on this subject which begins with the above paragraph and had it here, but my fear of being really labeled as too verbose caused me to offer this link to its entirity instead.  My predicament is that if I provide it as a link, my chances of getting you to read it diminishes.  But on the flip side, if my posts are too lengthy... you won't come back.  Give me some guidance. Here is the last paragraph...

I am going to talk to more proponents and opponents of the landfill closing over the next couple of days and will write more but right now I think that it might be best to let sleeping dogs lie and let White Street phase out, but perhaps on an extended schedule while we explore emerging alternatives.  Anyone care to reply with their take on the issue?  I know that John Hammer is following my blog and he is a staunch proponent of keeping it open.  (So he really isn't against EVERYTHING is he?)

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As will be my practice through this campaign, I just added Jason Arispe's website to the navigation links to your right.  I met Jason once at the Rhino a few weeks back and found him to be a very pleasant guy.

It is my goal for www.hoggard4council.com (live this weekend) and this weblog to become a portal to ALL information that is pertinant to the City Council contests. 

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