Winston-Salem City Council Meeting Merry-Go-Round: Front Street Capital And Industry Hill Move Forward, Purple Crow Gets $200,000

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Monday’s meeting of the Winston-Salem City Council was a good example of how our City Council serves Winston’s wealthiest, well-connected few. All of the items on the City Council’s agenda were approved unanimously, without any dissenting votes. Think about that; not a single dissenting vote was cast in a meeting that lasted well over an hour. One could argue that the mayor and councilmembers were simply agreeing on zoning measures and a relatively modest incentive deal with a local manufacturer. But Allen Joines and his compliant councilmembers were rubber-stamping developer’s prerogatives, while largely ignoring the concerns of the working class.

Crystal Towers Residents Want The City To Address The Sixth Street Freeway In Front Of Their Building

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There wasn’t a lot on the Public Safety Committee’s agenda last night. After going through a list of routine items, there was time available for the residents of Crystal Towers to speak. Three residents of Crystal Towers took to the people’s microphone last night and asked the City to address unsafe intersections at and around Crystal Towers. Shockingly, there aren’t adequate safety measures in place at Sixth and Polar,  in front of Crystal Towers. The 200-unit, 100 percent disability building, should have one of the safest intersections in the city at its doorstep.

The People’s Business: Week of September 16, 2019

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Monday

W-S City Council, 7:00 p.m. City Hall, Room 230, 101 N. Main Street. View/Download Agenda

Tuesday 

WSFCS Board of Education, Curriculum Committee, 4:00 p.m. in the Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Schools Education Building, Room 223, 4801 Bethania Station Rd. No agenda available

Thursday

Forsyth County Commissioners, 2:00 p.m., Commissioners’ Meeting Room, located on the 5th Floor, Forsyth County Government Center, 201 North Chestnut Street. No agenda available

The People’s Business: Week of September 9, 2019

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Monday

W-S City Council, Finance Committee: 4:30 p.m. in the Committee Room, City Hall, Room 239, 101 N. Main Street. View/Download Agenda

W-S City Council, Public Safety: 6:00 p.m. in the Committee Room, City Hall, Room 239, 101 N. Main Street. View/Download Agenda

Tuesday

W-S City Council, Community Development/Housing/General Gov. Committee, 4:30 p.m. in the Committee Room, City Hall, Room 239, 101 N. Main Street. View/Download Agenda

W-S City Council, Public Works Committee, 6:00 p.m. in the Committee Room, City Hall, Room 239, 101 N. Main Street. View/Download Agenda

WSFCS Board of Education, 6:30 p.m. in the Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Schools Education Building, 4801 Bethania Station Rd.

The Winston-Salem City Council’s Dixie Debate Word-For-Word

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Monday night’s Winston-Salem City Council meeting was one for the history books. The resolution to rename the Dixie Classic Fair passed by a 4-2 margin, with one abstention, effectively the resolution passed 5-2. Denise Adams, Dan Besse, Vivian Burke, and Annette Scippio voted yes. John Larson and Jeff MacIntosh voted no. And James Taylor, who was the first politician to suggest that the Dixie Classic Fair’s name should be changed in 2015, abstained.

Breaking Crystal: What We’ve Learned In The Year Since HAWS Announced Plans To Sell Crystal Towers

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It was one year ago to the day that the Housing Authority of Winston-Salem (HAWS) announced that it was putting Crystal Towers up for sale. The 11-story high-rise located at 625 West Sixth Street in downtown Winston-Salem, opened in 1970 and is home to approximately 200 residents.* According to Heather Fearnbach, the woman who wrote the book on Winston’s architectural heritage, Crystal Towers was the city’s first high-rise dwelling erected since the late 1920s. Crystal Towers, (along with its sister high-rise, Sunrise Towers) was designed to serve as housing for the elderly. Today, one hundred percent of Crystal Towers’ residents are elderly and or people with disabilities. These are the last folks that the Housing Authority should be evicting.

The People’s Business: August 12, 2019

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The Winston-Salem City Council will be back in their old form this week. After taking July off, the Council eased their way back last Monday, with a City Council meeting that lasted a mere 16 minutes. With a full slate of committee meetings this week, the Council is back in business. The murder of Julius Sampson continues to be the topic that’s on everyone’s mind. The Mayor held a press conference this morning to address concerns regarding the case.

The People’s Business: June 17, 2019

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It’s time to pass a budget. The nearly $500 million, 2019-2020 City of Winston-Salem budget dominates today’s City Council agenda. Higher taxes to pay for bond obligations and stagnant pay for city workers, while councilmembers received a huge raise-these are some of the topics that will be discussed at today’s City Council meeting. The City Council will also debate purchasing land on Burke Mill Road for a new fire station. As usual, some topics that need to be discussed will be ignored.

A Slice Of Incompetence From The City And Atkins CDC

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This week’s Winston-Salem City Council meeting doesn’t have much on the agenda. It’s the calm zoning meeting before the City’s new budget is debated and adopted over the next two weeks. So here’s a rewind of what transpired at the May 28th meeting of the W-S City Council, specifically Elizabeth’s Pizza pulling out of its Union Station lease with the City and Atkins CDC. The purpose of winstonwatchman.com is not to critique local Black businesses or community development organizations. And for the record, I’m neither for or against pizza parlors.

Chronicle Is Publishing Forsyth County Press Releases Without Revealing That They’re Written By Forsyth County

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Todd Luck worked as a journalist for The Chronicle for several years. I crossed paths with Luck on a couple of occasions at community events and local government meetings. According to his public LinkedIn page, Luck began working for The Chronicle in 2005. Search for Todd Luck on The Chronicle’s website, and you will find 88 pages of content going back to August 2012. The last article credited to Todd Luck was published in November of last year.