On Track: Walnut Cove applies for grants to help with downtown revitalization
(Winston-Salem Journal) - With a new year around the corner and a new mayor, Walnut Cove officials are continuing with plans for downtown revitalization and development.
Town officials are applying for grants to develop a land-use plan for the town and for projects recommended by the N.C. Small Town Main Street Program, a program that helps small towns develop downtown areas, said Homer Dearmin, the town’s interim manager.
The town is applying for a $40,000 planning grant from the N.C. Rural Economic Development Center Inc. for the land-use plan, Dearmin said. A land-use plan could help the town get other grants, he said.
Town officials are applying for grants to develop a land-use plan for the town and for projects recommended by the N.C. Small Town Main Street Program, a program that helps small towns develop downtown areas, said Homer Dearmin, the town’s interim manager.
The town is applying for a $40,000 planning grant from the N.C. Rural Economic Development Center Inc. for the land-use plan, Dearmin said. A land-use plan could help the town get other grants, he said.
posted by BP News Bureau | 12:23 PM
5 Comments:
Typical. Walnut Cove is not anyplace people are flocking to, so the city fathers (and mothers) turn to mommy government to bail them out.
Market solutions, people. Walnut Cove is a micro-scale model of Winston-Salem. Walnut Cove's downtown (I can hardly even write that without cracking a smile) "revitalization" will be just as big a failure as Winston-Salem's was. The law of supply and demand is not a suggestion.
I thought Walnut Cove was trying to bring in tourists to see their man-made swamp that also happens to be their sewer.
Walnut Cove's downtown (I can hardly even write that without cracking a smile) "revitalization" will be just as big a failure as Winston-Salem's was.
Actually, W/S's downtown revitalization is serious business now, Steve. And just wait 'til the taxpayers build Billy Prim's new baseball park. Then it's on, Greensboro!
In all seriousness, though, W/S downtown holds a lot of potential and the transformation is underway. You won't recognize it in 5 years.
Now, can Walnut Cove do the same? Without a Billy Prim, (or an R.J. Reynolds), I'd say no.
I've said this before, but downtown Winston will never be anything without a night life. Downtown Greensboro has an active night life, seven days a week. The only thing that passes for night life in Winston is that micro-brewery thing that has a sidewalk cafe and the two or three times I've been by there, it looked like it was closed. I've been told that what few attempts there have been at anything like that were geared toward the West End crowd, which equates to snobbery in most people's minds.
In Greensboro, you've got some twenty-something bars (Stumblestiltskin's, The Pour House, Rum Runner's), places with a pub atmosphere (McCoul's, Natty Greene's), dance clubs (Inferno, Greene Street), music (N Club), and even some West End style snobbery (Much, Churchill's). And all that is just the immediate downtown area. Winston doesn't even have anything close. I have no idea where the kids from Wake Forest, WSSU, and NCSA hang out. Ziggy's maybe, but that's not downtown. Until downtown Winston sheds that bizarre clash of stodgy mill town versus effete arts haven, the city can throw all the money it wants at it. The end result will still be what I overheard one twenty-something say to another: "Winston, what the hell is in Winston?"
I THINK WALNUT COVE WILL BECOME BETTER, WITH UPDATES. MAYBE ADD SOME PLACES FOR TEENS TO GO. BUT THEY DON'T NEED CLUBS AND BARS, THERE ARE ENOUGH OF THEM. BUT THE TEENS DO NEED A PLACE TO GO AND HAVE FUN IN WALNUT COVE. BUT YA KNOW, WALNUT COVE IS A SMALL TOWN, AND MOST OF US LIKE A SMALL TOWN, I WOULD SAY - IF YOU DON'T LIKE A SMALL TOWN - THEN MOVE.
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