EdCone.com

I'm so old I can remember the happy talk about housing prices never taking a nationwide swoon, and now it can't stop happening.

This was no ordinary recession.

Given the logic behind this old post, I should rephrase that: This is no ordinary recession.

It's all fun and games until somebody shoots the bear.

A bear, anyway -- not clear yet if this was one of the two recently entertaining the neighbors.

Press release:

A coalition of concerned citizens will sponsor on June 23 a screening in Greensboro of portions of the film "Gasland" and a discussion of issues related to hydraulic fracturing for natural gas in North Carolina.

The event, which is free and open to the public, will be held at Elon University School of Law in downtown Greensboro.

Robbie Perkins will formally announce his candidacy for Mayor of Greensboro at 11:00 this morning at the Board of Realtors building on Oak Branch Drive.

Perkins will then survive any primary vote, and go on to win the November general election.

Three articles on very different topics on this morning's NYT front page -- increased auto sales, a crackdown on illegal immigration, and the shifting political views of MDs -- have in common a focus on big, below-the-waterline changes in each of the areas discussed.

Behind Detroit's return to health: "By refocusing on small cars and de-emphasizing the gas-guzzlers that had long sustained the industry, General Motors and Ford in particular are preserving jobs and positioning themselves to prosper."

Inside immigration: "Obama administration officials are sharpening their crackdown on the hiring of illegal immigrants by focusing increasingly tough criminal charges on employers while moving away from criminal arrests of the workers themselves."

And among the physicians: "Doctors were once overwhelmingly male and usually owned their own practices. They generally favored lower taxes and regularly fought lawyers to restrict patient lawsuits...But doctors are changing. They are abandoning their own practices and taking salaried jobs in hospitals, particularly in the North, but increasingly in the South as well. Half of all younger doctors are women, and that share is likely to grow."

I caught a couple of sessions at NC Rising, the anarchist convention that wrapped up this afternoon in downtown GSO.

Magpie Killjoy (left) used his new book to get the room to reach consensus on a series of decisions, each of which pushed the narrative in a different direction.

The second session I attended was called something like Crime and Community Building, the idea being that crime can bond people against The Man. The best stuff came from the audience, which pushed back against (or at least expanded upon) the emerging "haha it's fun to be an asshole" and "stealing from your crap job is an act of rebellion" vibe, especially the guy who pointed out that crime is not inherently liberationist, and the guy who said that crime often leads to organized criminal gangs, which are just as heirarchical and opposed to the independent operator as other, legal (or as I guess the room would have it, "legal") organizations.

I made it to Lyndon Street for the closing session, but it was announced that people who were not planning on being part of disrupting the 2012  Democratic National Convention in Charlotte should leave, so I did.

Our Fisher Park correspondent reports that The Bear was seen quite recently on a lawn on Simpson St., and then turned up Victoria towards Eugene. 

Animal Control knows it's in the area but is leaving him alone unless he poses any danger to anyone. He's beautiful!

Let's hope he finds his way out of the city soon.

The high cost of hybrid vehicles (p. 5), and other news from the City Manager.

The Rhino has a very nice front-page photo from Saturday's Mosaic Festival, which drew about 3,200 people to Festival Park. 

I had hoped the N&R might at least devote its Thursday photo feature to the event, which seems like kind of a big deal in a city that prides itself on its diversity, and involved a lot of hard work by the local Church World Service team and its partners...but no such luck.

UPDATE: That's our Frank Cone. He was reassigned from the 26th Cav to the 86th FA when he got shipped to the Philippines; various records failed to catch up with him from base to base, resulting in the misinfo about his home state. And, per my first cousin (in-law) once-removed Joan, who my mom had the sense to contact directly, "No one has any explanation about why the gravestone is a cross."

My cousin Brad, while in the Philippines on a recent medical mission, went looking for the grave of Frank Cone, my grandfather's younger brother, who died in a Japanese POW camp during WWII.

He found this marker for a Frank Cone, and the date on the stone is the same as the date of death in family records...but the rest of the information is off.

This Frank Cone is said to have been from Colorado, not Baltimore, and to have been a captain in the 86th Field Artillery, while our Frank was a medical doctor (and thus also a captain) attached to the 26th Cavalry (both the 86th and the 26th were designated Philippine Scouts, which accounts for the (PS) on the cross). And our Frank would likely have had a Star of David, not a cross, over his grave.

Both the 86th and the 26th spent time at Fort Stotsenberg, near Manila. Maybe our family was given the date of this man's death by mistake, or maybe they died on the same day. I think one of those options is likelier than this being our kinsman's grave, with all kinds of erroneous information inscribed on the stone.

I haven't found any information on the Google about a Capt. Frank Cone in the 86 FA, so if anyone knows how to search the relevant records I'd appreciate a tip.

If you want nice things, you have to pay for them.

Expecting the tax-cut fairy to foot the bill means you end up swimming in red ink.

Now we get to argue about what constitutes a nice thing.

My sense is that Americans like the Medicare.

Those wars sure are expensive, though.

Manny's Universal Cafe, 321 MLK.

Highly recommended.

Jordan does some heavy lifting on redistricting for Guilford County.

Think Grateful Dead songs would sound better without the vocals?

You're not alone.

Nice backing tracks from Mars Hotel here. Higher-numbered files are cleaned up versions with less hiss. Luna and I just listened to 12 through 15 twice.

Here's another attempt at saying what I've evidently not done a very good job of saying so far about one of the many lessons to be learned from the Greensboro Truth & Reconciliation process:

This is a well-argued letter by a thoughtful person about a controversial issue.

But there's just no way that people would accept as the final word on Greensboro's landfill options a report that includes this letter's tagline, The writer [...] is employed by Waste Industries, because Waste Industries, as one of the finalists bidding on the landfill project, has a huge self-interest in the way this story gets told.

That doesn't mean the writer should be ignored, or silenced, and it's not an attack on the writer himself or his company -- it's just about the objectivity of the process.

That's what I have been trying to say to other Truth & Rec groups about the GSO TRC.

Another important point is that the ultimate responsiblity for putting daylight between the GTRC and the GTRP lay not with the survivors group, but with the leadership of the GTRC and its commissioners.

Nature's Revenge: Rise of the Animals continues its run in GSO, this time with a fox attack on friends of our family, Bernie and Victor.

 

GPD press release: "Another Black Bear Spotted in Greensboro."

The press release (full text after the jump) says there's been "another black bear sighting," which is not necessarily the same thing as another bear.

If there are two bears, are they working together?

This one's in a tree at Battleground and Cornwallis. For those of you unfamiliar with GSO, that's a very busy intersection, several miles within the city limits.

My proposal for Guilford County government would be to increase membership on the board of commissioners to 23,500, with meetings held in the Greensboro Coliseum.

But if for whatever reason that idea is deemed impractical, the N&R's VOG editorial offers a reasonable alternative.

Budget numbers and trash talk in your weekly update from the City Manager.

One of the good guys, and the smart ones, Dick Wharton, RIP.

So why didn't the cops arrest GSO's urban bear, or at least relocate it?

The North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission explains (thnx to Morgan for the link).

An interesting look inside Fox News, with a focus on Ailes and his centrality to the company. As usual with Murdoch properties, one sees an emphasis on business over ideology, even when the business is ideology, which makes the brief moment of crazy when Ailes tell Axelrod that he fears that Obama wants to create a national police force all the stranger.

Pretty much everyone who has commented here about the thin roster of GOP presidential candidates agrees that it's early days yet and someone viable will emerge, but the insight into Fox and the candidates is pretty telling nonetheless.

I think the GOP contenders have a real positivity problem that is going to be hard to overcome -- where's the vision for when the cutting is done?

After Friday's roundtable discussion of the Greensboro Truth and Reconciliation process, which was keyed to the fifth anniversary of the release of the TRC report, I was asked by a member of the Boston delegation to elaborate here on some of my comments at the event, specifically my contention that the GSO TRC was hurt by the perception that it lacked independence from the survivors' group that initiated the project.

City press release:

Black Bear Update

GREENSBORO, NC (May 22, 2011) – Greensboro Police have responded to numerous calls concerning a black bear seen in the area of Battleground Avenue near Holden Road. Earlier today the bear was located in a yard on Quail Drive. Wildlife officers and animal control were contacted. The bear was not aggressive and was allowed to leave. The bear was last seen traveling south from that location.

Police are requesting your help. Please do not approach, feed, chase or corner the bear. If you have pets, put pet food inside your residence and secure any trash cans. If the bear comes in your yard go inside and secure any pets until the bear leaves.

If you have any questions please contact the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission at 800-662-7137.

Previously (comments are worth reading).

Mosaic Festival, Festival Park, GSO, tomorrow from 2PM-8PM.

Last year's inaugural event was good, I'm told this year's model will be better.

I took this pic last week inside the Norman cathedral in Monreale, Sicily, unaware that back at home some of my countrymen were preparing for a live interview.

More here.

[F]ive years before the Supreme Court decision that would forever change America, in the city where the decision was filed, Dean Smith was standing up for justice to integrate the Topeka High School basketball team.

Thnx to Seymour for the pointer. The hidden history of desegregation in the pre-Brown era deserves to be less hidden.

This group is urging North Carolinians to call Gov. Perdue, like, now, and ask her to veto the muncipal broadband ban.

Tell her I said hey.

Lisa Scheer took this pic last week near Noto, Sicily.

Newt Gingrich was almost as pretendy a candidate as The Donald, but I have to admit I didn't expect him to implode quite so fast.

Bonus points for getting keelhauled for telling the truth about the radical Ryan plan.

The Greensboro City Council needs to show its work on several aspects of the White Street landfill plan. We should undertand total costs over time much more clearly before moving ahead with this project.

-- What would the costs be to have the City run the landfill, including eventually closing it, vs the cost of contractors?

-- What will be the cost of necessary roadwork and other improvements to area? Numbers published by the City suggest this could be quite expensive.

-- How far along are possible technology solutions offered by the vendors, and how much onsite due dilegence have Councilmembers actually done?

-- Why are we in such a hurry to sign a 15-year contract?

In celebration of this blog's ninth birthday, the blogger is going to devote a little time to other projects. Back soon. Be nice to each other.

1. Advance radical plan.

2. Bask in commentariat's approval of radical plan's super-seriousness.

3. Vote to support radical plan.

4. Argue, briefly, that radical plan really doesn't do what it does.

5. Figure out that everyone outside the commentariat hates radical plan.

6. Retreat!

"Turks don't like the American government, but they do like the American people."

Much like Americans!

Jim Buie on the post-Osama vibe in Turkey.

Greensboro PICNIC, Friday May 6, 6-10 PM, at Elsewhere, 606 S. Elm Street.

Video says beer from Natty Greene's and food from Table 16, Vintage 301, and Mellow Mushroom.

Website says the event is open to the public, costs $5-$20, features a "locally-sourced meal and an opportunity to fund a worthy project voted on by attendees..part of a national network of suppers encouraging neighbors to fund communities."

We enjoyed the The Jewish Museum's show, Collecting Matisse and Modern Masters. The works on loan from the Baltimore Museum of Art (good stuff by Matisse, Picasso, Gauguin, Renoir, van Gogh, and more) are on display in an intimate setting. And the large center room is dedicated to textiles, once seen as craft-work but increasingly understood as fine art (here, a detail from an Indian silk Etta and Claribel Cone picked up on their 1906 trip around the world). Curator Karen Levitov has included personal letters and documents, jewelery, and other touches that help bring the collectors to life. Worth a visit.

Very heavy security at the Lincoln Tunnel this evening. Lots of cops, some with shotguns, walking the lanes beyond the toll booths. According to a well-placed source, there was not a specific threat, just stepped-up presence in the wake of Bin Laden's termination.

Thigpen's list of hinky mortgages in Guilford County.

Killian reports.

Norah Hoover, currently on duty as documentarian at Elsewhere, took this photograph at the Museum of Natural History in New York last September, toward the end of a cross-country trip she made with her friend Lila Roo, who can be seen posing at left in this picture.

The City Council is doing an effective job of uniting people on a variety of issues, although much of that unity is in opposition to the City Council.

Jordan blogged last night's meeting.

N&R coverage of the less-bad redistricting plan passed on a do-over.

N&R also front-paged the news about the County tax cut having a big impact on City taxes, just five days after it first appeared online.

Remaking the furniture market businesss.

Las Vegas Review-Journal seems to have the best early coverage:

The ongoing struggle to sign tenants and lure buyers to visit that began when the World Market Center opened in mid-2005, coupled with a recession that hammered the furniture industry, had driven most of the complexes in the merger to their financial knees.

World Market Center had defaulted on the $556.3 million in loans covering two of its buildings as occupancy dropped and companies that signed new leases did so at lower rates. The $488 million loan on the third building came due later this year with no hope of repaying it.

Likewise, a number of the High Point buildings had gone into foreclosure or receivership.

N&R front-pager and an editorial say High Point is the big winner. Maybe. Let's check back in a few years.

More staff cuts at the N&O.

Sing along, you know the words:

The newspaper publisher continues to see declines in print advertising revenue, mirroring similar trends nationwide. Online ad revenue is increasing, but is still a smaller part of the total...Despite steady improvement in the broader economy, many recession-weary advertisers aren't ready to resume buying ads, especially in traditional newspapers.

Hope the hypnotherapy session in the office next door got back on track after I played this a few minutes ago...

American special forces may have been the proximate cause of Bin Laden's violent death, but the efficient cause is a great strategic upheaval that America does not yet understand, and is not prepared to respond to.

However he was discovered, there's a lot going on over there that isn't all about the U!S!A! U!S!A!

City press release:

A public hearing to receive community comments on redistricting will be held during Greensboro City Council’s meeting on Tuesday. The Council meeting begins at 5:30 pm and the redistricting hearing is scheduled as agenda item No. 17. Residents who would like to address redistricting are encouraged to attend.

Redistricting maps here.

N&R picks up on the Thigpen robosigning story.

County commissioner Billy Yow was involved in one of the transactions uncovered by Thigpen. Not known for his advocacy for activist government, Yow says, "The federal government needs to step in and hold the state regulators and the banks responsible."

The old line is that a conservative is a liberal who got mugged, so I guess a liberal is a conservative who got mugged by a bank.

Probably a little premature with the Taliban spring offensive just underway, but then again probably a few years too late at the same time...

[T]his incident reveals that we are really at war with Pakistan, not Afghanistan...Without bin Laden and with Pakistan working against us, the logic for withdrawal just got a lot stronger. Which is why, I suspect, the hegemonists are busy reminding us this war is not over. Because for them, it's never over.

But your average American? We did what we went there to do after 9/11. And after ten years, it is time to leave. With our heads high. And justice done.

No great surprise if you follow the car business, in fact it's pretty amazing they held on so long...

Downtown has lost its last car dealership.

An official at Gate City Lincoln Mercury said today that the company has been sold to Green Ford and has moved to vacant property on Wendover Avenue.

My grandfather used to buy his Chryslers there, my dad worked there during summers, and I made more than one visit to the body shop in high school.

I could still sing you the jingle from their old teevee add if you asked nicely.

Whatever your feelings about his politics and policies, you've got to admit the guy has icewater in his veins:

We know now that Obama had just signed off on the what would likely be the most consequential and high-stakes decision of his presidency and knew a commando team would be going into action in a matter of hours in the suburbs of Islamabad.

I said from the beginning that the big world events flowing from 9/11 felt removed from the personal stuff, and I was surprised at the emotional impact Bin Laden's death had on me. Symbolism is powerful stuff.