Well, here we are at the end of February. My people have celebrated their history and everyone has taken the time to celebrate love. Here on the blog this month, I’ve taken several moments to express how much I love various parts of cities, and my hometown and places outside of the city. However, I want to end this month of looking at love by talking about my love of the press.

One of the things my dad did on the  side when I was a kid was  deliver papers for the recently merged Greensboro News and Record, which he still referred to affectionately as the Daily News. One day he took me to the newsroom.

I think that was probably the beginning of my love affair with the press. Between that and watching WFMY News 2, then reading The Rhinoceros Times (it was only the Rhino as a nickname then) and somewhat agreeing with some of the Beep callers, then growing out of the views after I picked up my first Independent Weekly in Raleigh, returning home to meet YES! Weekly and now greeting the Triad City Beat with open arms, I have a special love for my local media.  Oh and of course I have a digital subscription to the New York Times and I did to the Washington Post when it was pay-walled, because I’m a solid media nerd.

Some folks will say that having so many papers and platforms is clutter. I can agree, but only in the sense that I too suffer from information overload. I too feel things more when I read them in print or hear them in an official setting such as a podcast or TV show. Yet, what I truly love about our media world, is that it is a free world. At least here in the United States. People may express views that are good and bad, and some that are even slanderous and libelous. Yet, we have protections that allow us to express views and leave them as views and to deal with views that are wrong-headed or physically harmful, by gathering as a people or going one-on-one to solve them. That is the beauty of the free press and that is why I love it so much.

So as I come to you from my little platform, I am constantly grateful for the opportunity.  So grateful, that I’m doing what I can to make it bigger, better and above all a service not just to clearing my head, but a service to those of you who want to know things to help others and help yourselves live better lives. A couple of days ago, I mentioned that I had news about the future of this space. I’m not ready to give everyone the goods just yet, but I do want to invite you to subscribe to my email list, for a sneak peek at what’s to come. If you are reading this in the email, get ready, it will be a fun ride.

And with that, I’m going to give you a taste of what I thought was great in the many papers, blogs, TV news websites and the like that I think you need to know. Thanks again for loving me too and may our March march in like a lion, so we can end it like a lamb:

News from North Carolina

Everyone who has filed thus far for election in North Carolina.

The internal Greensboro city police review board is under review.

People are complaining about the panhandlers at Friendly Center in Greensboro. Yet, for the panhandler featured, it’s just one piece of an attempt to string together a living for his family after a recent job loss.

A dollar surcharge on tickets at the new Greensboro performing arts center could go to helping other nonprofit arts organizations.

After receiving an offer of 2 million dollars for the old Forsyth County sheriff’s building in  downtown Winston-Salem, the county commissioners may start a formal process to sell it off.

United Therapeutics, a Maryland-based life sciences company, is almost ready to move into its new location in the heart of the RTP, revamping one of the original park buildings for itself.

Yadkinville turns a beat up old building into a cultural anchor.

Pine Street Flowers in Durham hopes to rekindle an old florist shop, along with aid local florists and gardeners with selling their wares close to home.

Wilkes County residents are fighting against two new industrial-grade chicken farms.

Asheville’s Haywood Street Parking Facility demolition is set to start on March 11.

What has come of this year’s city budget process in Charlotte.

Wake County Commissioners has ceded some control of the school construction process back to the school board. Guilford County Schools has renewed their superintendent’s contract.

The Fayetteville Public Works Commission is suspending putting ammonia in the water for the month of March.

A former Wilmington golf club is set to become a development of single-family and town homes.

News and Lessons from Elsewhere

Why we (Americans) don’t walk. This person doesn’t drive in Los Angeles and is ok.

I commend and wish the best of luck Dr. Amara Eniya, who hopes to take her knowledge of urban planning and good governance and become the next mayor of Chicago.

How to make bike lanes on the cheap. Also, the worst hills around the country for bikes.

How the Cleveland garment industry echoes the Greensboro garment industry.

What start-up culture looks like in Detroit.

What land banking is looking like in New York State after it’s first two years. In NYC, a man turned an opportunity to be photographed eating chicken into a opportunity to let folks know about his crusade to maintain current standards at the New York Public Library.

Governing asks if it’s time to lift the ban on tolling interstate highways.

And finally, a great historical sketch on the Pullman Porters and their fight for fair wages and justice, as we conclude Black History Month.