Councilman Tom Phillips just called and said that the ordinance amendment regarding ending times for three-day special events might be a problem after all.  City Attorney Linda Miles alerted the Council to some unintended consequences of the amendment so they will re-visit the whole thing on Tuesday.  In other words, there will be a motion to rescind the amendment in its current form at the behest of the legal staff.

A meeting will be set up between Council Members, City Staff, Action Greensboro, Downtown Greensboro, Inc and all affected neighborhoods to work out the kinks within the next few weeks and the matter will then come back up for a vote at a future Council meeting.

Tom asked me to spread the word via this medium to alert folks who where planning to address the matter Tuesday night.  There will be ample opportunity for public input once meetings can be arranged among all concerned. 

I'll keep you posted.

Tom, if you had one of these fancy communication devices (weblog), you could do this yourself... but I'm happy to help.

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I just added Greensboro is Talking to my blogroll - nothing will get my attention like telling everyone I am right (really it was Roch Smith's idea - I'm just the messenger).

It is time for Roch to get a weblog, too.

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Greensboro has lost one of its most highly regarded citizens.  Kay Bryan Edwards suffered a stroke Wednesday evening and succumbed to its effects last night in Beaufort, NC.  She will be sorely missed in this community.

Arrangements are being finalized.

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Update 9:01 am: The amendment is going to be reconsidered after all.

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I sent a message to all members of City Council (cool and easy communication method) regarding the amendment to the ordinance I described a couple of days ago having to do with the extension til 1:00a of noise restrictions downtown on certain days and for certain holidays. Council members Sandy Carmany and Tom Phillips responded to my email.

Carmany explained that her lone "no" vote was guided by an ancient rule, "Do unto others...." - then she added, "I wouldn't want to live with it, why should I expect others to?"  I like that woman.

Phillips explained his vote as well and shed a different light on the whole thing:

"David, This is not as broad as you might think.  The section of the code that was amended was related to temporary event permits.  Time was only one of many constraints.  The primary requirement for a permit is that the event must last at least three days.  We will take another look at this but I think many are taking this out of context."  Tom

I looked past the meeting's minutes (PDF file - see page 13) and pulled up the actual  ordinance that was amended and found that the amendment is much more benign than I first thought and reported.

This amendment  actually codifies what has already been occuring downtown for many years with festivals such as Fun 4th, the Jazz Festival, etc.

Thanks Tom and Sandy - you both voted correctly. 

In a message I just sent to Council explaining that my fears about the change were probably unfounded I suggested that a few of them might want to start a weblog to head off such mis-understandings in the future. 

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