Winston-Salem City Council

Resentment Over Downtown Incentives Led To Contentious Trans-AID Debate

By |

Monday’s marathon city council meeting was eventful. In a little under 3 hours, the Winston-Salem City Council passed its $482.4 million 2017-2018 budget by the thinnest of margins, 4-3 (Council Member Adams was absent). The highlights of the budget include; a marginal tax increase and higher pay for police and firefighters as well as other city employees.

Winston pays its police and fire department and other government workers less than comparable cities in North Carolina. It had no choice but … Read the rest

Winston-Salem City Council

Winston-Salem City Council Meeting Notes-May, 1, 2017

By |

 

… Read the rest
Poverty Thought Force

City-Wide Poverty Solutions Can’t Be Implemented By The Dozen

By |

It’s been a week now since Mayor Joines’ anti-poverty Thought Force released their final report. I hope local activists and concerned citizens have by now taken the time to read it. The 56-page report contains some excellent information. I found the first two sections to be especially valuable. They provide a helpful overview and analysis of poverty in Winston-Salem. But I found the conclusions, recommendations and suggested next steps of the anti-poverty Thought Force a little disappointing. Instead of … Read the rest

Allen Joines

Apparently Poverty Can Wait In Winston-Salem

By |

It’s finally done. Or perhaps it’s just beginning to unfold. Mayor Allen Joines’ Poverty Thought Force finally released its findings on Monday. It’s been a long wait. Mayor Joines first mentioned his intention of creating a Thought Force in December of 2013. Triad City Beat’s Jordan Green’s article, A city divided: The resurgent downtown and the abandoned urban core-my favorite article of 2016, has the timeline. It took two more years and a few national studies casting Winston in … Read the rest

Incentives

CAT Cuts Jobs At Winston-Salem Plant

By |

Incentives are a losing bet, anyone who tells you otherwise is either ill-informed or they aren’t being completely honest. Dell was wooed to Winston in 2004 with generous state and local incentives. The plant opened with much fanfare in 2005, but just 5 years later Dell closed the plant down. When Dell relocated to Winston just a year later we were told that Caterpillar wasn’t Dell.

But just a few years after they opened a plant in the southeast corner … Read the rest

Activism

Mayor Joines, Democrat Council Members Endorsed Clinton At Wake

By |

Nearly a month ago, before North Carolina’s Democratic primary, Bill Clinton visited Wake Forest. The former president spoke at Wake’s law school before a couple hundred students and members of the community. Melissa Harris-Perry’s Wake the Vote brought Clinton to Wake. Clinton spoke to young voters, a demographic which clearly prefers Bernie Sanders, Clinton urged them to vote for Hillary.

Here is an excerpt of Bill Clinton double-talking on the issue of student debt:

“As he progressed through issues,

… Read the rest
Winston-Salem City Council

Winston’s LGBTQ Community Voices Its Opposition To HB2

By |

Concerned members of Winston’s LGBTQ Community and their allies packed City Hall Monday night. They patiently waited their turn to publicly comment on House Bill 2. After the city council finished debating other matters, Councilman Dan Besse introduced his resolution condemning House Bill 2. Besse criticized House Bill 2 as an unConstitutional legislative over-reach by Governor McCrory and the General Assembly. Besse said that House Bill 2 was bad legislation that would among other things, ban Winston-Salem from awarding city … Read the rest