UPTOWN GREENSBORO |03

Inspirational mixed-media art & handmadegreeting cards.StudioBEMedia.com336.944.6609

DO YOU...LIVE, WORK, SHOP, DINE, PLAY, or

WORSHIP HERE IN UPTOWN?

DO YOU HAVE or KNOWSOMEONE IN THE UPTOWN AREA

WITH A STORY TO BE TOLD?

ARE YOU A TALENTED SINGER,FASHION DESIGNER, or AN IRONCHEF THAT’S READY TO SHINE?

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Between Uptown Man-hattan, New Orleans,

and Seattle... our goal isnot to

reinvent the wheel withUptownGSO, but rather

initiate the“groundbreaking”

process.

facebook.com/UptownGreensboro or

UptownGreensboro.com

A “Gold Rush” is a period of feverish migration of workers to an area that has adramatic discovery of gold deposits, whereas “fool’s gold (iron pyrite)” is agold-colored mineral that is often mistaken for real gold, that neverachieved the subjective value that was placed on gold. I say this to saythat, it is my personal opinion that, the area we’ve mapped out as Uptown,is Greensboro’s next gold rush!

As a one-time Architectural Engineering student at NC A&T StateUniversity, my love for this field of study revolved around design. Iwanted to design houses, restaurants, high rise apartment buildings,theatre’s, and so on, but I digress. When I drive around the city now,especially Uptown and see an empty lot or abandon building, I beginto wonder what it once was and what it could be. I look at the cur-rent use and condition of the land, whether it’s for residential, busi-ness, or for community purposes. I look at the throughfares and avail-able parking, industries embedded in the community, the characteristicsof the population, crime and litter, as well as the employment and eco-nomic conditions.

I’ve come to the somewhat bias conclusion that WE are sitting on a revi-talization goldmine. One of Uptown’s main strengths is the wide streets ofEast Market, Summit Avenue, East Bessemer, Yanceyville, and NorthEnglish Street. They feed beautifully into side streets of potential for livingand working (mixed-use development), shopping, dinning, playing, andworshipping.

This “side of town” used to be a booming community and with the rightattitude, marketing (i.e. this magazine), community planning and outreach,along with legislative authorization, it still can. Basic improvements shouldinclude street and sidewalk cleaning, graffiti removal, custom trash recepta-cles, special events, improved streetlights, and pole-mounted holiday decora-tions. These are very doable beautification projects.

“UPTOWN, UPTOWN,” say it loud, proud,and with conviction, because for far to long,we’ve sat back in silence and sweep whatwe saw as impossible under the rug of com-placency. We live in a far more technologicallyadvance and connected society (facebook, twitter,

and kickstarter for example) and many communitieshave been built using much less. So if the Americanidiom from the 1800’s still holds true... “Thesqueaky wheel gets the grease,” let’s start tomake some noise to invest in Uptown!

““AALLLL GGOOLLDD EEVVEERRYYTTHHIINNGG””

UptownGreensboro.com

Contact me at UptownGreensboro@yahoo.comjOseph A. Wilkerson III (Publisher)

LIVE . WORK . SHOP . DINE . PLAY . WORSHIP . INVEST

was surprised that the city council voted to postpone thedemolition of the major part of World War Memorial Sta-

dium. If you're not familiar with what happened at this week'scouncil meeting, Ed Cone has a brief summary with links. Ifyou want the long history, just click the tag for "World WarMemorial Stadium" below and you can read all my posts overthe past years.

The council is in a quandary about what to do, so while they'rewaiting for another engineering report, I thought I'd try to or-ganize my scattered thoughts.

The Preservationist Perspective

A good place to start is with the Secretary of the Interior'sStandard's for the Treatment of Historic Properties. They guideall federally-funded preservation projects, and they apply toWWMS because it's listed on the National Register of HistoricPlaces, but they are enforceable only if federal money is in-volved in the renovation.

Here are the standards for preservation:1. A property will be used as it was historically, or be givena new use that maximizes the retention of distinctive ma-terials, features, spaces, and spatial relationships. Wherea treatment and use have not been identified, a property

will be protected and, if necessary, stabilized until addi-tional work may be undertaken.2. The historic character of a property will be retained andpreserved. The replacement of intact or repairable historicmaterials or alteration of features, spaces, and spatial re-lationships that characterize a property will be avoided.3. Each property will be recognized as a physical record ofits time, place, and use. Work needed to stabilize, consol-idate, and conserve existing historic materials and featureswill be physically and visually compatible, identifiable uponclose inspection, and properly documented for future re-search.4. Changes to a property that have acquired historic sig-nificance in their own right will be retained and preserved.5. Distinctive materials, features, finishes, and construc-tion techniques or examples of craftsmanship that char-acterize a property will be preserved.6. The existing condition of historic features will be evalu-ated to determine the appropriate level of interventionneeded. Where the severity of deterioration requires repairor limited replacement of a distinctive feature, the newmaterial will match the old in composition, design, color,and texture.7. Chemical or physical treatments, if appropriate, will beundertaken using the gentlest means possible. Treatmentsthat cause damage to historic materials will not be used.8. Archeological resources will be protected and preservedin place. If such resources must be disturbed, mitigationmeasures will be undertaken.

The city-proposed plan, euphemistically called "renovation,"weakly meets only the first of these criteria: the stadium willstill be a war memorial, will still be used for amateur sports asit was intended, and the proposed plaza in front of its impres-sive triple-arched entry will give it a possible new use, sincethe area, if carefully and amply designed, may accommodateany number of public, civic, or patriotic activities. But it meetsthe standard only in an attenuated way, bringing in 30 spec-tators for college baseball games when once it attracted thou-sands.

UPTOWN GREENSBORO |05

by David Wharton

II

The guidelines call for "identifying, retaining, and preservingcharacter-defining features" of the building. The National Reg-ister nomination for the stadium identified not only as its entryarches, but also the inverted "J" shape of the seating, distinc-tive because it is unique to the stadium. The decorated exte-rior masonry walls flanking the pylons are also significant, asare the distinctive windows, which still exist but have beenblocked up. (You can see them on this old postcard). Finally,the canopy over the seating, though not original, has gainedits own significance over time, and certainly makes watchingafternoon games more pleasant.

In short, the city's proposal is a preservationist's disaster. Lesswill be left of the 85-year old stadium than remains of theRoman Colosseum.

At the council meeting, Bill Burckley asserted that most, if notall the significant features can be preserved for the $1.4 mil-lion the city has to spend on it, and that is why the councilvoted to get a second opinion on the state of the stadium'sconcrete. It would be great if he's right, but I have no ideawhether he is.

The Neighborhood Perspective

The Aycock Neighborhood has spent a decade advocating forthe preservation of the stadium, and even commissioned itsown renovation plans (with a lot of help from friends likePreservation Greensboro). Its concern has been not only withthe structure and its use, but its neighborhood setting. Neigh-borhood representatives served for years on a city-appointedtask force that came up with not one, but three different plansfor a "park within a park" to include not only the stadium butalso the nearby tennis courts, Greensboro Farmers' Market,and the old VFW building across the street. The idea was toincrease the public use of the stadium area and to use thestadium occasional musical entertainment.

Although none of these facilities is in the Aycock Neighborhoodper se, they adjoin it, and are identified as vital elements ofour neighborhood life in our city-council-adopted StrategicPlan and Summit Avenue Corridor plan. While the neighbor-hood has been self-funding and carrying out many of the el-ements of those plans on its own (including streetscapeimprovements and signage), the city has yet to follow throughon any of the promised capital improvements.

My sense is that, while the neighborhood cares very muchabout the preservation of the stadium, it sees it as only oneelement of a neighborhood improvement plan, and not themost important one. TheStrategic Plan, based on a very openand careful public process, identified the improvement of Sum-mit Avenue as our number one priority. Number 5 on that listwas "prepare a plan for War Memorial Stadium and Veterans'Plaza". Veterans' Plaza is the area of public use proposed forthe zone between the stadium and the Farmers' Market, andthe neighborhood's current interest as a neighborhood in thestadium is mainly in that public space now that minor league

baseball is gone.

Make no mistake, though: the stadium was a huge neighbor-hood asset when neighbors could walk on summer eveningsto see the Greensboro Bats play. The city council, the GuilfordCounty commissioners, and various city boosters at that timepromised the neighborhood that the old stadium would con-tinue to be a well-maintained and well-used neighborhoodasset.

The Parks and Recreation / Greensboro Sports Com-mission Perspective

The Greensboro Parks and Recreation Department, which op-erates the stadium, has consistently been adamant (sinceminor league baseball left) that it wants to use it for one pur-pose only: amateur baseball. The primary tenants of the sta-dium have been NCA&T University and Greensboro College,along with some youth leagues (the infield is too big for littleleague). But Greensboro College has since moved on togreener infields, and the number of youth league games hasdeclined as interest in baseball has waned.

Parks and Rec representatives on the stadium task force op-posed using the stadium for other entertainments, citing wearand tear on the playing surface. And any hopes that the oldstadium might attract such acts were crushed by Greensboro

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Charles Aycock / Summit Ave Real Estate & Homes For Sale

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How old are you? 36Where are you originally from? Greensboro, NCWhat is your zodiac sign? TaurusHow long have you been a barber? 15 years

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Why did you become a barber? When I was in 9th grade,my older sister gave me a pair of clippers. I got really goodat it and eventually my Dad bought me a full set. I thenstarted cutting some of my friends’ hair in the neighborhood.

How do you market yourself as a barber... businesscards, word of mouth, print media, or social media?Business cards and word of mouth.

What are the 3 topics usually get talked about at thebarbershop? Religion, politics, and Joey's mother (Joeylaughs)

How often do you workout? And why? 6 days a week. Ilove it. I feel like it will add a few more years to my life, eventhough nobody knows when they will eventual die. Also a littlebit for the vanity.

Describe your musical day? Get in the car it's gospelmusic, at the gym it's Hiphop, and the rest of the day is what-ever 97.1FM is playing.

What 3 things would you buy if you won the lottery($20M)? Rolls Royce Phathom. House. Travel

I hear you like wresting and you have a collection ofaction figures, so if you were a superhero, who wouldyou most like to be? The Incredible Hulk

If Hollywood made a movie about your life, whomwould you like to see play the lead role as you? Thebarbershop patrons chime in... Kevin Hart, Lou Ferrigno, TayeDiggs, 50 Cent, Morris Chestnut, basically any short dark skinbrother that works out...

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Worst rapper alive? There are so many, but I'm going tohave to go with Chamillionaire

UPTOWN GREENSBORO |09

EEaarrll HHaarrppeerraka ““11000000 PPuusshhUUppss””

No.22

By Joya Wesley

• The Market is located at 501 Yanceyville St., at the corner ofLindsay St., across from the old War Memorial Stadium, and isopen Saturday mornings year-round, and Wednesdays be-tween May and December. At the peak of summer the en-closed building’s doors are flung open and vendors with freshlocal produce spill into the parking lot. During other seasons,the doors may be closed against the elements, but even inwinter, regular shoppers are assured a broad selection of sea-sonal produce such as greens and squashes, as well as thelocal eggs, meats, baked goods, prepared foods and craftitems that are available through all seasons.

• It is Greensboro’s original Farmers Market, first establishedin 1874. It was started at another location downtown as a true“curb market,” where farmers would pull their trucks up to thecurb and sell their goods. It opened at its current location in1962.

• The City of Greensboro, after many years of managing themarket itself, turned over management on Jan. 1, 2012, tothe community-based nonprofit Greensboro Farmers Market,Inc., a broad based group of vendors, customers, and commu-nity leaders whose appreciation of what the market is andwhat it can be for Greensboro fueled its winning managementproposal. GFM hired Elizabeth Gibbs as the new market man-ager. Gibbs is a longtime farmer herself who also has extensiveexperience with other farmers markets, both as a vendor andin management. She managed the Durham Farmers Marketfrom 2000-2005.

• Coinciding with its first anniversary, the Market unveiled anew logo and the tag line, “connecting farmers, food andfriends.” Greensboro design firm Bouvier Kelly worked with

staff and boardmembers, ven-dors and cus-tomers to findout what theyloved about themarket, thencaptured it inthe tagline andinterlocking im-ages of a heart-shaped beet(“heartbeet”),fork and roos-ter.

• First-time visitors to the Market may be surprised to findvendors of all races, ranging in age from their teens to their90s, selling more items than they knew were available fromthe fields, greenhouses, chicken coops and pastures within a100-mile radius. For a growing community of vendors and cus-tomers, many of whose families have been buying and sellingat the Market for generations, it really is the “heartbeet” ofGreensboro -- a place to gather with old and new friends, andincreasingly a place for fun and learning, too.

• The Market’s first year under this new management wasmarked by an expanded number of special events -- includingsome that got television and other news coverage; expandedoutreach efforts and food demonstrations. While there werealso some growing pains, there was mostly good food andgood times. From the Strawberry Day and Blueberry Day pan-cake breakfasts to the annual Chili Challenge and annualFarmers Appreciation Day, special events provided live music,raffles and prizes, and family-friendly fun. Food demonstra-tions offered useful information, inspiring ideas and delicioussamples. (Congratulations to The Wards Happy Chicken Eggsfor winning best overall at this year’s Chili Challenge on Jan.19. Coming up next is the Market’s second annual Heart toHeart event for Valentine’s Day, featuring heart-healthy recipedemonstrations and heart health screenings, from 8am-noonSaturday, Feb. 16.)

• Compelling reasons to shop at a farmers market are manyand varied, and becoming more broadly known across thecountry as more and more people seek to take control of theirhealth by taking control of their diets. The Greensboro Marketis a cost-effective way to supply the diets rich in dark leafygreens and other fresh vegetables and fruits touted by all thehot doctors, from Oz to Weil to Mercola.

• More information, including a list of reasons to buy local, isavailable about the Greensboro Farmers Curb Market at thewebsite, www.gsofarmersmarket.org. There, you also can signup for the weekly electronic newsletter, which includes news,free recipes and a listing of what’s available at the Market thatweek. Also connect to the Market on Facebook, and throughthe iphone local food finder app, FarmStand.####

10 |UPTOWN GREENSBORO

Checkout this FREE discover andshare iPhone app about your localfarmers market.– Farmstand!

Eight things to know about theEight things to know about theGreensboro Farmers Curb MarketGreensboro Farmers Curb Market

With more and more cell-phone videos showing uponline, using services likeYoutube, facebook, andVimeo to share everythingfrom indie music videos,funny pets, news, and ulti-mate fails, I think it's timefor a PSA in video. Turn.Your. Phone. Sideways!!

Here are two videos shot to demonstrate. First, the tall video.See how much of the screen is wasted on black bars? Seewhat you subject the world to when you don't bother to flipyour phone a mere ninety degrees to either side? What wouldit be like if every time someone gave you a dollar to spend,you spent 33 cents and threw the other 67 cents in the trash?This is like that. #PayItForward #You’reWelcome

Coliseum manager Matt Brown, who stole a march on theWWMS renovation proponents by building the White Oak Am-phitheatre, much of which he completed even before the citycouncil knew about it.

Members of the Greensboro Sports Commission have said thatthere is no chance of bringing regional or national tourna-ments to the stadium, at least as long as Greensboro's newdowntown stadium is standing. The old stadium simply cannotprovide the amenities that modern athletes and fans expect(although downtown stadium boosters claimed in 2003 that"War Memorial Stadium would be an ideal location to host re-gional, state, and national baseball tournaments.")

Parks and Recreation and the Greensboro Sports Commissionrepresentatives have maintained that there is no need formore than a few hundred seats at WWMS, and their state-ments have turned out to be true for the stadium's use overthe last seven years.

The Political Perspective

The current city council is facing a dilemma left to it by previ-ous councils when they decided to build the downtown sta-dium and later the White Oak Amphitheatre. Those two votesassured that there wasn't and isn't going to be enough base-ball or outdoor musical entertainment to make full use of theold stadium. The newer facilities have sucked the life out ofthe old one, and there is nothing the present council can doabout that.

Even if WWMS received a full-scale preservation and rehabil-itation, with all its architectural features returned to their for-mer glory, it would still be a melancholy place -- its emptyseats a silent testament to its own diminishment, and to ourdiminished feelings for the soldiers who died in a war almost100 years ago that few recall or understand.

So the council will have to decide how to allocate resources toa large and expensive structure for which there is now very lit-tle use -- unless they can think of some new use for it andmake sure that it gets used.

PPSSAA: Please Turn Your... Cellphone Sideways WhenRecording Video!

UPTOWN GREENSBORO | 11

Also, checkout this new app foryour iPhone & iPad. Cost $1.99 – the 8mm Vintage Camera!

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 06

tanley Leigh Rodenbough is a skillful painter with a raresoul. His artistic journey has spanned many decades and

even now, as an octogenarian, he continues to push theboundaries of his creative potential. A true renaissance man,who has worn many hats in life, he pursued his endeavor tobecome a gallery artist much later in life than is typical.

Before turning to brush and easel, Roden-bough spent three years serving in theUnited States Navy, 18 years in active Re-serve, and practiced law for 51 years be-fore reaching 80. Rodenbough joined theNavy in 1943 and worked his way throughMidshipman School, to Ensign to Lieutenant Commander.While en route to the Pacific for destroyer duty, President Tru-man dropped the bomb on Hiroshima, Japan, ending the war.

After his active military service, Rodenbough finished collegeand earned a degree in law under the GI Bill. Over thedecades that followed, he worked diligently as an attorney, adevoted family man, a competitive sailboat racer and, eventu-ally, a professional fine artist. His devotion to art began inearnest when, at age 65, he decided to devote one day perweek from his law practice to paint with a group of artists fromRockingham County. That group, known as the “StudioGroup,” continues to hold the distinction of being the longestlasting painting group in North Carolina. They have met on aweekly basis for over two decades.

His children grown and educated, Rodenbough continued tohone his skills by painting with his weekly Studio Group, at-tending occasional workshops, and practicing what he hadlearned by painting family portraits and landscapes during theweekend. It wasn’t until he was 80 years old, however, thatthis self-taught painter hung up his hat as an attorney-at-lawand turned his focus to painting every day.

PPrroo “LEIGH” ffiicc Rodenbough- TTIIMMEELLEESSSS RREEFFLLEECCTTIIOONNSS

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CONTINUED ON PAGE 14

S

UPTOWN GREENSBORO |13

“Fill in the grid so that every row, every column, andevery 3x3 box contains the digits 1 through 9.”

SSUUDDOOKKUUMEDIUM PUZZLE # 2

Standing at his easel, Rodenbough was finally free to expressthe excitement and adventurous ideas that had captured hismind as a boy. Inspied by his past journeys to remote vistasaround the oceans, Rodenbough’s artistic inclinations oftendrift towards landscapes in which water and sky play dominantroles in the compositional scheme.

To call him a prolific artist, would be a huge understatement,because he has much more to give. Through his soulful inter-pretations of the earth’s glorious landscapes and seascapes,he has much to teach about the value of hard work and build-ing towards excellence. If one looks closely at his paintingswith an intuitive eye, one may see the simple wisdom thatmade all the difference for this enduring artist: for a life welllived, do what you love most, every day...

Leigh Rodenbough is represented by Ambleside Galley, Ele-ments Gallery, and Uptown Artworks (his working studiospace) in Greensboro, NC. and the Ann Jacob Gallery in High-lands, NC.

Written by Michelle Morton, Arts Writer and owner ofMorton Arts Media, a Greensboro book publishing andPR company.

All of us are familiar about corporatelaws or Business laws. We follow theserules in order to show more responsibil-ity towards our work and people gettingaffected by it. Same rules are appliedwhen you promote your business on-line. These rules become more specificwhen we have to use different SocialMedia networking channels to promoteand enhance our business. Here are 2rules you must follow while promotingyour business through Social Media.

1. Share ~ People join social medianetworks so that they can share their

life with their friends. Same applies to the business world. Createclient oriented content and share it for free over Social Medias.Don’t restrain yourself by sharing only your company details andproducts, share other people business achievements too andwhile doing this don’t forget to mention them.

2. Respond ~ When customers responds to you by thankingyou or by just asking you a question be courteous enough toreply them back. And be quick in responding, delaysare often perceived negatively.

This article is written by Prashant Mamtora

14 |UPTOWN GREENSBORO