What do we say when we are on the cusp of change, but not quite there yet? When we wonder if we’ve really messed our city or town up for good with a decision we made, either on the large-scale as an elected official or on the small-scale when that family member or friend decides to excommunicate you for something you did. Do you pack up your bags and move on, thinking that you’ll never get elected again or your dad won’t forgive you and turn the family back around for you? Are you forever doomed to be the black sheep? Not smart enough? Not in the target demographic or shopper profile?
Over the past 48 hours, I’ve been in rooms and had conversations with people over what their neighborhoods should look like, what their organizations are really doing in the community and for the community, what our transportation should or could look like and even whether or not we are a good enough city to come back home to and recommend to our friends.
And at the end of all of this, it all comes back to one thing: resilience. Resilience encompasses an open mind for change, despite the fact that there may be more failures than successes. Your neighbors will want different things, but you find something that you all like and makes the neighborhood attractive for both new and old residents. Poor have chances to become rich and have the homes the want, even if it takes a few false starts after a long period of unemployment or incarceration.Your company may not make money in its first few quarters here and same store sales might look puny at first. Those companies come to realize that growth is not just financial, but social and cultural too. Organizations and elected officials that were at odds decide to partner on big civic projects, risk their election years and sometimes realize that all that might be needed is a little vision and hope in their own minds and hearts. People fall in love with people, as friends, not as pawns or trophies or after they’ve decided that they need to settle down. The friendship is not a power struggle or an ego trip, but an honest exchange between two friends, who happen to be in love, either romantically or like father or daughter, sister and brother. Families love each other for who they are and what they can be, even though they may continue to fail a bit.
Resilience is the heart of what makes a city attractive, malleable, lovable and eternal. It’s not easy to forgive, forget and push forward. However, it ensures that for every sunset, there’s a sunrise to follow.
Chew on that this weekend, along with this news:
These three stories from the SynerG panel on rezoning and how it affected the Greensboro Trader Joe’s decision.
What Action Greensboro does have planned right now.
Don’t expect Greensboro’s Dixie apartments to survive the redevelopment of their block. What some of those tenants feel about losing their home. Also not surviving, the Zenke House, which will be demolished on Monday.
Business are concerned about the changes on Lee Street and High Point Road in Greensboro.
The City of Greensboro says it’s not picking on the civil rights museum.
While Greensboro debates restrictions on panhandlers, a couple street corner vendors in Winston-Salem are holding dance offs.
The Guilford County courts now accept credit cards.
The General Assembly is taking another look at its teacher tenure law.
There is a 6.5 millon dollar funding gap for Raleigh’s new Union Station.
A consultant hired by High Point business and tourism leaders has recommended against a downtown road diet.
Triad City Beat wants to know what downtown Greensboro project is the most important and the Triad Business Journal asks what North Carolina brands are the most important nationally.
The Bobcats and the Charlotte tourism authority want 41 million dollars of improvement monies from the city of Charlotte.
The Charlotte-Douglass Airport commissioners toured all the new facilities at the airport yesterday, even though they can’t yet run the airport.
Asheville-based Tupelo Honey Cafe is expanding into Atlanta.
Fayetteville and Cumberland County are considering reviving their youth council as a more political board that addresses concerns of students and teens. Cumberland County municipalities are also petitioning the Pentagon to not remove the 440th Airlift Wing from Fort Bragg.
Oak Island officials are considering limits to house sizes.
Pender County’s consolidation of its health and human service departments continues to be tenuous.
New Hanover County has boosted its transit funding.
The Wake County District Attorney is going back into private practice.
And finally, the Durham community is rallying around North Carolina Central’s first men’s NCAA basketball tournament appearance.