Bike lanes to be installed on Spring Garden Street this summer; GDOT says it will address trade-offs and negative impacts

Click on the graphics for more information

News from Hannah Cockburn, City of Greensboro Director of Transportation:

Thank you for the opportunity to engage with the neighborhood and property owners directly impacted by the Spring Garden resurfacing project as we evaluated extending bike lanes in the corridor.

We received a significant amount of feedback from the pop-up event that informed our final decision to install the bike lanes in both directions between Tate Street and Fulton Street.  On the balance, survey responses supported this installation. The extension of bike lanes in this location also supports the city’s goals of making Greensboro car optional and the recommendations of the adopted bicycle and pedestrian plan.

We recognize there are trade-offs and negative impacts associated with this change. In an effort to address the impacts and concerns raised, GDOT is:

  • Reviewing opportunities to add additional on-street parking spaces on intersecting streets in the vicinity of Spring Garden Street,
  • Signing the lane in front of College Place UMC for parking use during religious services,
  • Adjusting bus stops to minimize on-street parking impacts along this stretch of Spring Garden Street,
  • Launching an education campaign to support broader understanding of bike lanes, and
  • Providing consistent, ongoing parking enforcement in the corridor.

The resurfacing contractor is currently adjusting utility access points in the corridor. We expect the milling process to occur by early June and the resurfacing project to be complete by the end of July, depending on the weather cooperating. The contractor will place door hangers on properties directly impacted a day or two ahead of the milling and paving activities.

Please let me know if there are additional concerns and we will continue to provide updates. Thank you!

Posted in Bicycling, Fulton Street, Spring Garden Street, Tate Street, Traffic | Leave a comment

Tuesday fitness on the Greenway is back through September, plus Goat Yoga at MLK Drive next Saturday morning

May-Spetember schedule for fitness on the greenway

details on goat yoga class

Posted in Downtown Greenway, Spring Garden Street | Leave a comment

Spring Garden’s pop-up bike lanes to be taken down this week to accommodate sooner-than-expected repaving of the street

temporary bike lanes on spring garden street

News from Hanna Cockburn, Greensboro director of transportation:

The resurfacing contractor is making quick progress toward the resurfacing of Spring Garden Street and is beginning to raise water-service boxes and manholes to the finished elevation. To facilitate this work, the pop up installation will be removed Friday April 23. This will provide room for the contractor to work and allow for more operational flexibility for roadway users.

We will continue to collect feedback on the bike-lane installation through the remix platform and the survey through April 30.

I plan to participate in the neighborhood meeting on April 26th to share the feedback we have received to date and the timeline for final design decisions and any information we have from the resurfacing contractor on schedule.

Posted in Bicycling, City Government, Spring Garden Street, Traffic | 1 Comment

Online meeting on new bicycle lanes for Spring Garden Street between Tate and Fulton to be held Monday March 22, 6 p.m.

Click here to leave comments on the interactive map.

Posted in Bicycling, City Government, Fulton Street, Mendenhall Street, Spring Garden Street, Tate Street, Traffic | Leave a comment

College Hill bakery is a winner in a national contest; vote online this week to help it win $5,000 for Greensboro Urban Ministry

venee, ian and her winning creation

A College Hill pastry chef has won a national award, and with your help she also could win $5,000 for the Greensboro Urban Ministry food bank.

Veneé Pawlowski of Black Magnolia Southern Patisserie is one of 20 winners of the General Mills 2020 Neighborhood to Nation Recipe Contest, an annual event for independent restaurants and food trucks across the country. Today through Friday, customers and neighbors can vote online for Black Magnolia to win an additional $5,000 to be awarded to the Greensboro Urban Ministry. To vote, leave a comment on the photo of Veneé’s winning entry on the General Mills page on Facebook. You can vote once each day through this Friday, February 26.

Veneé won for her Bourbon Banoffee Pecan Cinnamon Rolls. She received $5,000 plus paid advertising and other marketing tools for the business. “Our bakery has seen success from these Brioche Cinnamon Rolls we offer every Saturday, with Bourbon Banoffee Pecan being our best seller,” she told General Mills. “Banoffee” is a combination of banana and toffee that originated in England.

Veneé and her husband, Ian, operate the business at 920 Carr Street. Customers place orders online and pick up their purchases at the house. “Black Magnolia Southern Patisserie is a small batch cottage bakery that provides all made from scratch classic Southern desserts with an elevated French Patisserie flair,” its website says. “Our products are made from locally sourced ingredients with a goal of enriching our community by supporting our local economy.”

Veneé has been baking for about nine years, working at a number of restaurants and bakeries. She won honors as pastry chef for Table 16, the longtime restaurant in downtown Greensboro, and at Sweet Josephine’s bakery in High Point. After establishing Black Magnolia through catering and producing special orders, the couple started baking a menu of items on a continuing basis, all available now as special orders. The menu includes rolls and pastries, pies and tarts, cookies, and custom cakes. Beignets are available one Sunday each month. Black Magnolia baked goods also are sold at The Green Bean on Mondays and Thursdays. The Pawlowskis now are looking for a commercial kitchen where they can increase their capacity.

Black Magnolia is closed on Mondays, which is a happy coincidence for Veneé and Ian. Today is the first birthday of their daughter, Amelia.

 

Posted in Businesses, Carr Street | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Support your neighborhood business owners and professionals

College Hill residents are a diverse group, and the business owners and independent professionals in the neighborhood are quite a varied group in their own right. Here’s a list of neighbors who operate their own businesses. Buying local is always a good idea, and it’s never been more important than it is now. Buying hyper-local from our own neighbors is even better.

Who’s missing? This list is a starting point, no doubt incomplete. If you’re a business owner or independent professional who isn’t included yet — or if you know of one — please tell us!

[Update 1: La Belle Skin by Katrina has been added]
[Update 2: Black Magnolia Southern Patisserie added]

For future reference, this list has been added to a new page on the website. Click here.


Black Magnolia Southern Patisserie

Veneé Pawlowski


Breadservice

Jeff McCarthy


DLM Builders

David Millsaps


Gate City Preservation

Samantha Smith


Miriam Herin, novelist (Amazon)


KB’s Pottery

Kim Burroughs


La Bella Skin by Katrina

Katrina Guilford-Hayes


Linkfish Media

Julie Joyce and Jay Thomas


Martin Meliton Piano Duo (YouTube)

Elena Martin and Jose Meliton


Ian McDowell, journalist and author (Amazon)


Music Across the Water (Amazon)

Dan and Samantha Smith


Arlen Nicolls, Realtor


Oden Brewing

Jan Oden


Win-Win Remodeling

Eric Crouse

Posted in Businesses | Tagged | Leave a comment

News from Tate Street, McGee Street and around College Hill: Bitcoin ATMs are a coming thing, and the College Mart has one

window of the College Mart woth neon Bitcon ATM sign

Cutting-edge crypto-coin technology arrives at a convenience store near you.

For those interested in making their lives as complicated as possible, there’s now a Bitcoin ATM at the College Mart on Tate Street. People who have figured out cryptocurrency can use it to buy Bitcoins, Bitcoin Cash and something called Litecoins.

More from Tate Street: Slices by Tony has opened a second location. It’s on Spring Garden Street on the other side of campus between Josephine Boyd and Chapman streets. … Construction is now complete on UNCG’s big new School of Nursing building.

The pandemic has been bad for businesses everywhere, but almost all of the Tate Street businesses are hanging in. Exceptions: Coffeeology, which still has a notice on its door dated last March, saying they’ll reopen when it’s safe to do so. They posted a few updates on Facebook, but nothing since July 4. And Pedro’s Taco House, which has been dark since March.

On McGee Street, Greensboro College has cut down its large, dying sycamore tree. That’s part of a new landscaping project along McGee recently approved by the Historic Preservation Commission. The plan calls for planting elm trees on McGee between College Place and Fulton Street and planting holly trees to screen a new scoreboard for the athletic field, among other things. It’s scheduled to begin this winter. The full plan can be found here.

A belated thank you

decorated College Hill sign at Market and Tate streets

Beth and Kim Langlois did a beautiful job of decorating the College Hill signs for the holidays. Their beautification efforts throughout the year make our neighborhood a better place to live.

Downtown Greenway news

colorful artwork painted on underpass on Spring Garden Street

Photos from Action Greensboro

From Action Greensboro: The repainting of the bridge supports at Morehead Park on Spring Garden Street has been completed. Artist Darlene McClinton led a team that created the new painting, titled Bridging the Gap.

The section of the greenway running along Greensboro College (the former railroad track) is scheduled to go to bid in April. Construction is planned to begin this summer and to be complete next year. It will be the final section of the four-mile loop around downtown.

Posted in Businesses, Downtown Greenway, Greensboro College, McGee Street, Spring Garden Street, Tate Street, UNCG | Leave a comment

New president for the College Hill Neighborhood Association; longtime president James Keith leaving as business expands

painted wooden fence

This brightly painted fence on Edgar Street was one of the first improvements made by Samantha Smith and Joshua Stewart after they bought their Tate Street home.

Samantha Smith has been elected president of the College Hill Neighborhood Association, succeeding James Keith. James stepped down in December as he was selling his house on South Mendenhall Street. The association board voted unanimously to name Samantha president.

Samantha Smith

Samantha is director of community engagement and digital learning at Old Salem. She and her husband, Joshua Stewart, live on Tate Street. Her parents, Daniel Smith and Rosemarie DiGiorgio, live on Walker Avenue in College Hill.

In addition to working at Old Salem, Samantha is the owner of Gate City Preservation LLC, a historic preservation consulting firm. She previously served as executive director of Historic Bethabara in Winston-Salem and as a park ranger at Guilford Courthouse National Military Park. Samantha graduated from N.C. State University with a bachelor’s degree in history and anthropology and a master’s in public/applied history. She also holds a post baccalaureate certificate in historic preservation from UNCG.

Samantha and her father perform folk music as Music Across the Water. The covers of the their albums feature art by Patti Pogodzinski, an illustrator and textile designer. Patti and her husband, Thomas Kilian, recently bought a house on Carr Street.

James Keith: Double Oaks and new opportunities

James and Amanda Keith

James and Amanda Keith sold their home at 303 S. Mendenhall Street in December. James told the neighborhood association last month that he and Amanda haven’t had much time to maintain a residence in College Hill while they expand their business. In addition to owning and operating Double Oaks Bed & Breakfast on North Mendenhall Street in Westerwood, they’re planning to restore a historic hotel in western North Carolina.

James has served as neighborhood association president since 2013. He has led several projects that have improved the quality of life in the neighborhood, including the Mendenhall Street redesign project, a continuing, multi-year effort to reduce the speed of traffic on the street; the addition of many badly needed streetlights throughout College Hill; and the development of the neighborhood’s long-range plan. He also led the neighborhood’s successful fight to preserve fire-damaged 919 Spring Garden Street, which involved partnering with the Preservation Greensboro Redevelopment Fund and the City of Greensboro. His efforts resulted in a change in the city’s Municipal Service District ordinance to allow use of the historic district’s MSD funds for preserving significant properties.

James and Amanda bought the Effie M. Anderson House at 303 S. Mendenhall Street in 2008. Their restoration of the house was honored with a preservation award from Preservation Greensboro. The Keiths also secured Historic Landmark Designation from Guilford County. The 1914 Colonial Revival home was designed by prominent Greensboro architect Harry Barton. James and Amanda accepted a full-price offer three days after listing the house for sale in October.

The Effie M. Anderson House, 303 S. Mendenhall Street

Posted in Carr Street, City Government, College Hill Neighborhood Association, Historic Preservation, Mendenhall Street, Spring Garden Street, Tate Street | 2 Comments

Following up on tropical-storm damage at 703 Walker Avenue: One apartment’s roof damaged by fallen tree, no one injured

tree down in front of brick apartments

The tree was identified as an elm with a trunk 39 inches in diameter in the 2013 inventory of trees in College Hill.

roof damaged by fallen tree

workers removing fallen tree

Posted in Fulton Street, Walker Avenue | Leave a comment

Storm brings down large tree on Fulton Street at Walker

Tree down on Fulton at Walker

Thursday’s tropical storm brought down a tree in the front yard of the brick apartments on Fulton Street at Walker Avenue. (Photos by Liz Pinson)

Posted in Fulton Street, Walker Avenue | Leave a comment