It appeared to affirmed optimists as if the City of Greensboro was finally going to fix the bizarre traffic pattern on Greene Street, but no such luck.
The headline on a press release from the City of Greensboro on Tuesday, Feb. 14 reads, “Portion of Greene Street Closed Beginning February 20.”
For 20 years the City of Greensboro has been promising to put an end to the inexplicably confusing and accident causing traffic pattern on Greene Street, so this headline gave some hope that finally the city was going to do what should have been done decades ago.
Unfortunately, Greene Street is being closed for restoration work on the Carolina Theatre and not to fix the bizarre traffic pattern.
Greene Street is a two-way – one-way – two-way street. North Greene Street is two-way up until Bellemeade Street where it becomes one-way down to Washington Street where, as South Greene Street, it becomes two-way again.
In his last term as mayor, from 2005 to 2007, Keith Holliday said one of his goals before he left office was to get Greene Street fixed so it would be two-way its entire length.
That was 16 years, four mayors and four city managers ago. District 3 City Councilmember Zack Matheny, when he was on the City Council the first time from 2007 to 2015, told this publication repeatedly that he believed he had solved the Greene Street problem and that in a matter of months an announcement would be made about fixing Greene Street.
Now after taking a five-year break, Matheny is back on the City Council and is president of Downtown Greensboro Inc. (DGI) but Greene Street remains a two way – one-way – two-way street. Since he was elected to the City Council in July, Matheny has not made the promise that Greene Street was about to be fixed.
It’s worth noting that 2022 came and went with no progress on solving what seems to be a simple problem to fix.
Perhaps it is because there are no funds available to address these street infrastructure issues. Nevermind, forgot that there was a sizable Bond for Downtown Street Scaping that was passed several years ago. So long in fact that I can’t actually remember the year. In classic Greensboro fashion, I am sure some highly touted and paid consultation firm will get hired again to look into issues with Greene Street. Public interest will be stoked, and then nothing will happen until another study can be performed in a decade or so. It’s happened with downtown street scaping and our City’s amazing downtown greenway, why not Greene Street. Our tax dollars at work.
A $25 million bond for downtown streetscaping was passed in 2016.