WSTB

Jblewis, this is a pretty positive place with attention to a shared commitment to seeing Winston thrive. While we all get grumpy and occasionally prickly, the hear is good and intentions honorable.

Between this post and your other negative one regarding winston’s future, I wonder if you might have other motivations.

Jblewis, this is a pretty positive place with attention to a shared commitment to seeing Winston thrive. While we all get grumpy and occasionally prickly, the heart is good and intentions honorable.

Between this post and your other negative one regarding winston’s future, I wonder if you might have other motivations.

I call it like I see it, walker. There are significant problems in Winston that will continue to plague the community until they are fixed. The lack of a functioning airport is a huge problem. The leadership downtown and their inability to attract young talent/new businesses is another big issue. The inability to simply keep the strong business that are already here- another huge problem. If we’re unable to stomach a discussion about these things it’s no wonder the city has issues. I cannot remember the last time Mayor Joines made a significant executive decision for the city with positive results. And nobody can be critical of this?

And about my prior post- I guarantee Hatch/WFU/Atrium are not as starry eyed about Winston Salem as some on this board. They’re the decision makers, not us.

Hey, whatever floats your boat.

But, dude, hatin’ ain’t critique. If you have a supported, clear concern or complaint, great. But it you just suspect that all them dogone no-good so-and-sos are just doin’ nuttin’. Well, bless your heart.

Gossiping about the mayor’s private life has nothing to do with the issues of concern to this board.

We’ve had a few trolls give us a ride and are experienced enough to tell valid discussion from intentional disruption.

As I wrote before, this is a community of shared interest with a common goal of advancing our city. If that’s your bag, baby, glad to have you. If you’ve got something else on your mind, I suspect you’ll be disappointed.

I do really dislike agreeing with this statement.

Been sayin' this for years and hopefully is not in the back of WFU decisions.

I'm glad this doesn't apply to me or "yadkinitis."

And I thought I was the nihilist around here . . . sheesh!

There’s a saying that is often attributed to Eleanor Roosevelt that I like. It probably wasn’t her who said it—the most similar phrasing is from Henry Thomas Buckle—but it’s still worth repeating— “Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people.”

Don't feed the troll, please.

It's exciting to see Winston-Salem looking into defunding the police. Though small, it could be a chance to have discussions on doing something very innovative in the City of Innovation. How do you think public safety should be reimagined in Winston-Salem? #BlackLivesMatter

https://www.journalnow.com/news/local/c ... 2ec73.html

We seem to be really fortunate to have good community relationships with the police and a very professional and competent force. So Winston starts well ahead of the curve in many ways.

That having been written, there are clearly new ideas to explore that could fundamentally shift the model to a true emphasis on service first. So here’s hoping, as you do F&M, that we can lead in some of these experiments. I’m sure that there are many worse models than what we have but I truly believe that there are better, too.

Here’s also acknowledging the risks that police take every day and the sacrifices they make. It must be an incredibly challenging job on many levels. So I hope that healthy cities like ours will honor that spirit of selflessness even as we seek to make the system work better for all of our fellow citizens.

I have been rather proud and pleased to see that Winston-Salem protests have been peaceful, democratic (in allowing all to speak their minds), and meaningful. Unlike in all other major cities even in North Carolina, where there has been violence, vandalism, and curfews. Defunding our police is not the answer for social change and acceptance, and will only backfire when it comes to a peaceful and law abiding society, and only play into the hands of those who espouse disorder, socialism, violence, and anarchy.

Exactly. Dismantling the department entirely and rebuilding from scratch is the answer.

Look at Camden, NJ - once a failed PD- now a model for law enforcement.

Reconfiguration would mean shifting the huge police budgets and some responsibilities which now fall to and burden law enforcement.

Reallocate duties and increase jobs for social workers, mental health professionals and others more qualified than cops to address.

Realign - reassign - demilitarize.

No one is advocating for "anarchy".

Don't believe everything the President tweets from his bunker.

https://www.citylab.com/equity/2018/01/ ... en/549542/

It seems as if the City and Police are interested in at least experimenting with a small "partial" defunding. Just as there is preventive health in today's healthcare, there can be something similar for public safety in our communities and that is what defund the police is about. It's not about not having any public safety at all. It's about reinventing public safety for our cities. Current officers can still be a part of it. Two things I would like to see, and this is something the City can do right now without changing the budget, is punishing false race-based 911 calls and make it official that you can record video or take photographs of police and the police can't take your phone / camera or question you about taking photographs/videos of their actions. Both are issues in Winston-Salem. Some officers will treat you as a criminal if you record their actions or just photograph a bicycle officer as a cool photograph. And we had a reminder of the first item with the gardeners story from a few days ago. Even just a sizable fine for calling the police on someone working in the yard or someone taking a jog around the neighborhood for exercise will help to discourage people from calling the police on them. It's great to see both the local Police and City are open to new ideas and it will make it easier to not just propose, but to implement changes.

It would be interesting if Occupy Winston-Salem / Triad Abolition Project would select someone to run as a write-in candidate for an office or two and work to promote that person (or persons) before the election. It could help them gain more attention from those in political office.

Republican Representatives Donny Lambeth and Lee Zachary have introduced House Bill 39 which will increase the size of the City Council by adding two At Large seats to the current 8 council wards. This is the result of the recommendations of the Winston Salem Local Governance Study Commission which was convened after Lambeth attempted to blindside the City by introducing a bill back in '19 that would change the composition of the Council by reducing the number of wards to 5 and create 3 at-large seats.

The action created a lot of blowback both from Council and the community at large. A compromise between the city and Lambeth was reached with the creation of the commission to elicit public input and from that input develop a recommendation. Several public meetings were held in early 2020 before the Pandemic struck. The bill also requires that the election of Councilors take place every four years on even numbered presidential election years with all terms running concurrently. The two at large candidates getting the most votes would be seated. The seats would remain partisan. While the City Council received the report, they did not actually endorsed the recommendations. Mayor Joines said that the bill reflected the findings of the commission as to public sentiment. Reaction on the Council is mixed with some preferring no changes and others being on board with what's being introduced.

Since the bill will be introduced as a local bill with limited statewide implications, Gov. Cooper doesn't have veto power over the legislation. If approved, it would go into effect with the 2024 General Election. This structure would put Winston-Salem in line with the other large cities in the state.

Philosophically, I do prefer a mix of at large & ward members. First, it increases the voters ability to have a greater say on whose on the council, by increasing our vote to not only the mayor and our ward representative but also 2 additional councilors. I would have preferred that the races were non-partisan so that we would not be constrained to just Democrat & Republican candidates, (especially considering how bat-sh*t crazy the R's have become) That is the biggest flaw to this bill in that it prohibits an Independent candidate from running on their own.