Greensboro neighborhoods have own identity, personality
By Margaret Moffett/News & Record, News & Record, Greensboro, N.C. | |
McClatchy-Tribune Information Services |
We've got 165, according to no less an expert than the
So it goes for 104 square miles -- from
Live here long enough, and you can sum up a neighborhood in one smart phrase.
Sedgefield? Oooh, yeah. Fancy. And they're playing the golf tournament there again after all these years.
Every neighborhood has a "thing."
For some, it's a celebration -- think Kirkwood and a certain patriotic parade.
For others, it's a history of activism, of fighting
And in some cases -- yes, we're talking about you, Westerwood and
"
"It's on the opposite side of
Sometimes, though, that "thing" is hard to define. It's a feeling you get, knowing you've found the space in the world where you feel most comfortable.
"I am a block away from the Bog Garden. I can walk the beautiful decks over the marsh areas and visit a man-made waterfall in less than five minutes.
"I can view all of the beautiful flowers, walkways and streams at the
"I've got university faculty, students, tradesmen, small-business owners, musicians and innkeepers all living within a block of me," he said.
Know what all that's called? Home.
A part of something
It is
Not that it matters to the kids -- scores of them, clad in red-white-and-blue outfits, peddling bicycles that are streaming red-white-and-blue crepe paper.
Behind them, hovering over the street, is an American flag that measures 60 by 40. Feet.
This is the annual Kirkwood Parade, a
Around
It's just one neighborhood known for its celebrations.
Every "float" is unique. This year, one family filled a flat-bed trailer with patio furniture, creating a mobile picnic tableaux.
Another somehow hitched a hot tub to their rig, filled it with soap bubbles and children, then hauled it down the street.
This is Kirkwood's "thing."
On the other side of town is Warnersville, sandwiched between
Former residents still come back -- come home -- for Warnersville's reunions.
The neighborhood's landmark,
It's a way to make
"Maybe people identify with neighborhoods in
"Also, neighborhoods today tend to have associations, even newsletters, that stress identity."
Over in
You might notice their newspaper box the next time you're eating dinner at Elam and Walker avenues.
Now that's a "thing."
Protests with picnics
Oh, but
The city of
Residents also will mobilize, and mobilize fast, when something threatens their sense of community and their sense of home.
Last year, upper middle-class neighborhoods near
Their protests were loud enough that the developer nixed the project.
In 1995, residents of predominantly black
The suit asked for cash damages for diminished property value, threats to health and well-being and aggravation stemming from increased noise, noxious odors, litter, rodents, flies and truck traffic.
The tiny neighborhood, east of
Political careers often are born from such localized movements.
It's how
In 1997, she led an effort by the
The former Jefferson-Pilot insurance company wanted to develop a 414-acre tract it owned at
It would have been too much development too close to established homes and wooded areas, Vaughan said. "I think we all just felt, 'We're mad as hell, and we're not going to take it anymore.'"
Vaughan, with the help of other nearby neighborhood associations, convinced
And with that a political career was born.
"It kind of woke up something in me," Vaughan said.
A special place
We hear you, you naysayers, you nattering nabobs of neighborhoods, such as you are.
What's so special about
Maybe. Maybe not.
But you'd be hard pressed to find a city with as many interesting, unique and downright eccentric neighborhoods as
In the coming months, the News & Record will acquaint you with some of them.
You might discover new ones, such as Pennydale, a small neighborhood off
Some neighborhoods, such as
All of them have a "thing," something that makes that area special, like
"I have lived here as a young mom, happy wife and now as a retired special-education teacher and a widow," she said. "My neighbors became family.
"We shared all of life's events, graduations, weddings, births, and sad times became blessings through the kind support of wonderful caring neighbors."
We're looking forward to learning more about yours.
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