Local blogger Keith Brown is working hard to get protest petitions reinstated for Greensboro. Protest petitions give citizens a bit more power in the zoning process, and Greensboro is the only city in North Carolina that doesn’t allow them as an option. Check out Keith’s site, Protest Petition for Greensboro North Carolina for lots more info.

It’s a classic tale of longing, rejection, and fulfillment. You know: Reporter requests document. City denies the existence of the document. Local blogger posts the document. City suddenly finds the document.

This cartoon didn’t end up running in the paper this week. Unfortunately, the timing was off – the whole incident happened over a Wednesday and a Thursday. Since I turn in my final cartoon by Thursday mornings, I wasn’t able to submit the cartoon until this past week. Allen Johnson, the Opinion page editor at the News and Record, liked the cartoon but felt that the story would be a little stale by this point.

I can understand that – since my cartoons would only run on Sundays, there were quite a few times when there was a bit of a lag between my cartoon and the event I was addressing. This one happened to be on the far outer edge of that lag. I still think the underlying issue – the competence and credibility (or lack thereof) of city leadership – is very much in play, so I’m posting the cartoon here anyway.

On another note: When I spoke with Allen at the end of last week, he let me know that due to budget considerations at the paper, they’ll no longer be running my cartoons. When I saw this post at David Hoggard’s blog, I figured this would be coming. It was a lot of fun, and I really enjoyed working with Allen and seeing my cartoons in the paper. I’ll still be posting them here from time to time though. Allen did give me the option to run one final cartoon; I haven’t decided if I’ll take advantage of that or not. If something jumps out at me over the next day or two, I may, otherwise probably not.

Finally, there’s a cameo appearance in this week’s cartoon. One of the folks in there trying to help the city search for some shred of credibility is a local Greensboro blogger who’s been a bit more sympathetic to city leaders over the past week and a half than most. Meaningless bonus points to the first person who can correctly identify him (and points off for my characituring skills if no one gets this).

A little sports related humor this week.

I’d also like to apologize for the recent neglect of my bloggerly duties – a few side projects and a very busy end-of-the-year have precluded regular updates here, but I’ll be back.

Bluegreen Corp., a Florida-based real estate development company, is looking to turn some unique land along the Haw River into a gated community and golf course. The land is unique because it’s the key to expanding the fledgling Haw River State Park.

If the developers get their way, 100,000 gallons of water per day will be diverted from the headwaters of Haw River for the purpose of irrigating their golf course. At the moment, the outcome hinges to a large degree on the Guilford County Board of Commissioners, who are supposed to have a hearing on rezoning the land for the development in December. Normally, I would say that doesn’t bode well for this turning out in favor of the park, but public sentiment – and that of some of the board members – seems to be leaning heavily towards not allowing the rezoning to go through.

There are well over 200 golf courses in North Carolina, but only one place where Haw River State Park can gain a more solid foothold.

More info:

Citizens for Haw River State Park
“Guilford at a Fork in the River” (Ed Cone)

It’s been almost two years since Wray resigned as Greensboro Police Chief, being essentially forced out by City Manager Mitch Johnson. This whole time we’ve been told that if we only know what the city knows, we would understand why the city did what it did.

The general consensus seems to be that we would love to know what the city knows.

The Greensboro blogosphere is divided on just about everything, but nearly everyone is united on this one aspect of this one issue. Tell us everything that went into the city’s decisions on the Wray matter, and let us decide if the actions taken were justified. City leaders are going to be dogged by questions and accusations until they do that – or until they’re voted out of office.

The city of Greensboro has taken the first steps towards assimilating some nearby neighborhoods.