Tag Archives: kinston

$Texas, Me Myself and Ty, Politics, Sports

I never meant to hate Cam Newton.

I was born in Eastern North Carolina, which means I wasn’t born in the heart of ACC country: I was born in Pirate Territory.

I explained to a Kinston tourist that local infatuation with piracy had more to do with a black-bearded man named Edward Teach than East Carolina University, but deep down I knew it was all bluster.

My high school colors were purple and gold; my uncle played at Dowdy-Ficklen back in the 20th century when students could also be athletes; heck my mother got her nursing degree while commuting to Greenville, (but she always rooted for the Wolfpack.)

The ACC Men’s Basketball Tournament (which is not canon if it’s not held in Greensboro) is broadcast in nearly every classroom in the state of North Carolina, but when you talk professional sports, you’ll see a schism in this state, not concerning allegiance, but degree of allegiance.

The Charlotte Hornets might as well have been in Tennessee when I was growing up watching from Goldsboro (Don’t forget this is when cable was 36 channels) and the most connection I ever felt to the team was through Mugsy Bogues in Space Jam.

I “rooted” for the Hornets, but Charlotte still felt a world away.

When the Panthers joined the NFL, though — I remember hearing about it from a clown at a birthday party in 1994 — I immediately became a fan. Continue reading →

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Journalism, Me Myself and Ty

In Kinston, a city’s anxiety crests with its river

 

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National Guard vehicles staged at the intersection of Herritage and King streets on Thursday, Oct. 15, 2016.

The parking lots adjacent to the Chef and the Farmer and the Lenoir County Office Complex on Herritage Street have gradually evolved into an unofficial center of operations for emergency management officials this week in the wake of Hurricane Matthew and horrific flooding that’s displaced thousands across Eastern North Carolina.

Tiffany West Park, where Gov. Pat McCrory addressed the public just a day earlier, was completely underwater across the street from where emergency response vehicles from across

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National Guard vehicles staged at the intersection of Herritage and King streets on Thursday, Oct. 15, 2016.

the state are staged. In post-Matthew Kinston, the area around the Lenoir County Farmers Market gives first responders maximum mobility, with National Guard humvees and swift water boats staged nearby to transport aid should an emergency arise anywhere along the river basin that was once the U.S. 70 Corridor.

With most storm prep finished Thursday, Friday was a day of waiting and worrying for residents and business owners from Herritage Street downtown to Cedar Lane in East Kinston. Continue reading →

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Journalism, Me Myself and Ty

Neuse River edges into areas untouched by Floyd

It’s been nearly six days since Hurricane Matthew made landfall in Charleston County, S.C. and the tropical storm’s atmospheric  remnants have long since dissipated into the Atlantic Ocean, leaving blue skies across Eastern North Carolina for the better part of the week.

In some cities across the east, displaced residents are beginning to get an idea of their losses as the river levels ease off, but in Kinston officials, business and homeowners are bracing for the riverside city’s toughest test in recorded history.

Preparations for flooding events along the Neuse River began even before the rain arrived, as crews cleared storm drains in anticipation of the first October hurricane to strike the Carolina coast since 1954. Every day this week volunteers have gone door to door in neighborhoods expected to flood to warn about the rising water, but it was clear Thursday morning that time was beginning to run out for those evacuating.

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More than 150 community members stood within feet of the rising Neuse River waters at Tiffany West Park during a prayer gathering and call to action. “Where you’re standing is going to be underwater,” Mayor B.J. Murphy told those gathered.

The Neuse crept up during the group prayers of more than 150 community members gathered at Tiffany West Park Thursday morning before Mayor B.J. Murphy and council members Felicia Solomon and Robert Swinson gave the latest update: 29 feet.

Flood stage is 14 feet for the Neuse, which begins in Durham County and empties into the Pamlico Sound near New Bern. “Floyd stage” — the record set during Hurricane Floyd in 1999 — is 27.7. By 9 p.m. Thursday the river was at 27.92 and still expected to pick up another foot before finally cresting, although levels are expected to stay near 26 feet through at least Monday, Oct. 17. Continue reading →

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Journalism, Me Myself and Ty, Sports

Values & disaster-stricken North Carolina

Gov. Pat McCrory broadcast his press conference live on Facebook Tuesday night from Raleigh as he laid out the state’s continued response to Hurricane Matthew.

With flood waters along the Neuse River still advancing on hundred-year flood records, McCrory assured that the state’s disaster relief funding will last into 2017 while vowing to call a special session as early as next week if more money is needed to aid displaced residents from affected counties, which stretch from Edgecombe County near Rocky Mount to Robeson County on the South Carolina state line.

McCrory then opened up for questions, but in the end only had to answer two, both from the same reporter: Kirk Ross of the Washington Post.

The first: “I wanted to see if you have any numbers or estimates on the livestock
and what are some of the concerns while you’re trying to get them buried as soon as possible?”

It may sound odd that the first question from the national press about a major weather event that has, as of this writing, claimed the lives of 20 North Carolinians would be about livestock, but Eastern North Carolina is the the production engine of the state’s poultry and pork industries.

The N.C. Farm Bureau Federation reported in July that the state ranks second in the nation in hog & turkey production and fourth in the production of broiler chickens & trout.

How McCrory would have an estimate of livestock lost while the waters in some areas were still rising is beyond me, but make no mistake that the general consensus here in Kinston is that we, too, are very concerned about the animals throughout Eastern North Carolina. Continue reading →

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Journalism, Me Myself and Ty, Politics, Sports

Swinging for the fences

First off, I submitted the Kinston Wholehogs.

I don’t believe anyone ever relishes naming a new team. All selecting a mascot did for the Rio Grande Valley was stir up regional hostilities amidst the already tumultuous merger of two University of Texas branch campuses into a single research institution. the_university_of_texas_rio_gande_valley_athletics_logoThe mascot and team name they settled on — the Vaqueros — still angers alumni who graduated as Broncs, Scorpions or Ocelots and those who see the Spanish word for cowboy as an unnecessary homage to the population of the Valley, which is 90 percent Hispanic but 100 percent in the United States.

Culturally, the regional disdain for the mascot was over my head, but when the Texas Rangers organization last week released its slate of five name options for its new Carolina League affiliate in Kinston, I knew resistance would quickly follow.

While others have dug in on why “Down East” isn’t a true reflection of the team’s locale, I see the organization reaching out with a clear compromise in its five-team offering: the Eagles, which pays homage to Kinston’s first minor league team in 1925 in the Class B Virginia League.

A handful of people I’ve talked to about the team names have suggested the vote is a stacked deck designed to coalesce local support around the Eagles since it’s harder to build a voting bloc behind any of the more outlandish names. Hamhawks and Hogzillas will split the barbecue vote, while Eagles seem to be a more natural fit over the Wood Ducks due to the historic connection I mentioned.

And that is exactly why we must unite behind the Shaggers. Continue reading →

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