Case Dismissed

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.

[I know, this is not a Glenwood topic, but I expect I will veer from Glenwood from time to time.]

A Victim of Crime

I guess I lived in the make-believe world of those who didn't believe their home would be a target for a burglary. My home sits high on a hill on a corner very visible to the streets; however, both the house next to me and the house next to me are vacant and in foreclosure, the lot across the street sits empty with only concrete steps a reminder that a house once stood there, and the small apartment complex across the street doesn't face the street but rather is situated perpendicular to the street of its address. I do have two neighbors across the street - one of which has a dog that is a neighborhood nuisance and the other neighbor, it turns out, had the screens removed from their windows in someone's attempt to get in their house.

The break in occurred within a two hour window of late morning and the burglars likely were not in the house more than a few minutes and only grabbed items which were portable and likely easily concealed in a large jacket and quickly exchanged for cash or for drugs. Nonetheless, our front door and window were smashed and are now awaiting the plywood treatment; which, ironically will make our house look like so many others in Glenwood - only ours will be inhabited and not vacant. I don't think property crime is any worse here in Glenwood than it is in Fisher Park, Starmount, or New Irving Park, nor do I doubt the crime in our neighborhood is worthy of front page news. Frankly, people see that as a given of living in Glenwood which is probably why when we say we live in Glenwood so many raise their eyebrows.

We feel vulnerable now and uncomfortably so knowing at least one other person entered our house without invitation and rummaged through our belongings...even locking a cat in the bathroom to keep it out of the way. Coming home to a smashed front door and a bird flying out of my house was about as disarming a feeling as I've had in some time. My wife and I have always told me that we feel safe in our neighborhood and I'm certain that we feel less confident about that than before.

The burglary has raised all sorts of emotions for me as I want to point fingers at the shabbily dressed people who make their way each day between the Great Stops and Kenneths, to the obvious drug dealers that drive the streets, to the drug-addled prostitutes, to the landlords who don't maintain their properties, to the unsolvable persistent nuisance properties within a few blocks of my home, to the mail man who saw the broken glass and assumed the homeowner knew about it (doubt he would have assumed this in a NW neighborhood, but in Glenwood, apparently all too common). I'm eager to place blame and to foist my anger on someone for this intrusion. I don't want revenge, but I do want my sense of security back - and my portable hard drive and the irreplaceable WWII Navy Seabee medal that belonged to my wife's grandfather.

The police response was adequate but it was frustrating having to wait until midnight for CSI to come before we could sweep up the glass, board up the windows and place things back. We feel fortunate to have not been injured and to have not lost more than we did, but a silver lining to an event like this is really not feasible. We chose to live in Glenwood knowing full well it has its share of problems and we will continue to live here and try to be part of the small group of dedicated residents trying to improve our neighborhood. Sometimes, however, I wish the burden didn't fall entirely on our shoulders...we would welcome a more proactive approach by the City to assist us.