On October 2, 2009 I was arrested by the Greensboro Police Department and charged with 2nd degree trespassing. I was in the midst of a hastily arranged one-person protest of the City's short-sighted decision to remove the Five Points Bench public art installation located on the Downtown Greenway in the Warnersville section. This part of the Downtown Greenway is located within an easement the City holds on Greensboro College property.
At 7:30 am that morning, I read that in the News & Record that the Public Art was to be removed that day. When I arrived at the site at 8:30 a.m., the only piece of the installation remaining was a single boulder that was part of the backdrop of the Five Points Bench. Parks & Recreation crews were getting ready to remove the last boulder and the mulch surrounding it when I decided to take a seat on the boulder.
Why did I bother? Three reasons - covering, the social, cultural, and political spectrum.
1) As David Noer pointed out in his article this past weekend, removing the Public Art did nothing to address the root causes of the problems identified - alleged prostitution, alleged drug use, public intoxication, and loitering. Worse was that almost no one agreed that this was the right course of action.
2) It showed complete disregard for the extensive process the artist, Gary Gresko, Action Greensboro, the City, and the Warnersville neighborhood went through to plan for an art installation that was befitting of the history of that place. Critics can disagree about the final piece as people often do when it comes to art, but it was a piece of Public Art in a part of the City that was without. In time, this Public Art piece could have become a wonderful place for people from throughout the city to stop, rest, and ponder the significance of the Warnersville community to the development of the City.
3) The removal of the benches demonstrated the ugliest side of local politics. Local leaders, up and down the ranks, missed out on an opportunity to actually lead and stand up for what was right. I'll leave it to others to speculate about all of the political machinations and vendettas that were at play here, but suffice it to say, not a single person, other than Councilwoman Dianne Bellamy-Small stood up for the community, the Greenway, or for Public Art.
It's been difficult to not want to spend my energy to try and hold someone accountable...to bite my tongue and to not rail against the injustice. While I was disappointed in the City's leadership, I was not disappointed by the outpouring of support for my act of civil disobedience. Calls and emails came from within the Warnersville community, from the arts community, from my neighborhood, and from several non-elected civic leaders. Thank you.
These sorts of events have a way of shaping people, and I must say that even as I write this I wonder what the long-term effect this will have on me. For the record, didn't go there on October 2 with the intent to get arrested. In fact, the quickness of the cuffs on me was very surprising. So, I was very glad to get the official news today that my case has been dismissed.
Now, with my ban on being on the Greenway lifted, I look forward to getting out there and smelling the thousand or so roses that were recently planted. With the election over, and with the passage of a bit of time, I do hope the City will do the right thing and place the benches back in the Warnersville community as soon as possible. And, when people raise the same issues that got them removed in the first place, I hope City leaders will stand their ground and say that the Five Points bench needs to be there, deserves to be there, and that future generations will be glad that they are there.
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