Allen Johnson: Fast car (not the song), big spiders, White Street and A&T's brand (2024)

So many thoughts, so little time and space:

In a rare victory for tranquility in the escalating noise wars, a Seattle judge has fined an intentionally loud driver of a souped-up muscle car $83,000 for consistently disturbing the peace.

Miles Hudson has delighted for more than a year in racing his tiger-striped Dodge Charger along downtown streets, sometimes at more than 100 miles per hour, while reveling in its rumbling engine and window-rattling backfires. In the process, Hudson has built a base of 750,000 followers on Instagram, where he has gloated about his exploits.

Hudson also has gleefully tweaked the police who have ticketed him, telling them that tickets are the cost of doing business. His huge Instagram following, where he is known as the Belltown Hellcat, has paid him well. Fast bucks, so to speak.

In one Instagram video from his high-rise apartment, he started is car remotely and bragged to his viewers, “My city actually hates me.”

We have our share of loud motorists in the Triad, whether its music, intentionally engineered backfires, roaring engines or all of the above.

“Today’s ruling is a meaningful step toward stopping Mr. Hudson’s hazardous and nuisance activity,” Seattle’s city attorney, Ann Davison, said.

Even if it’s a thousand miles way, the judge’s decision says out loud what many of us have been thinking: Slow down and grow up. We are neither impressed nor amused by your high-octane cries for attention.

Three muffled cheers for peace and quiet over selfishness and stupidity.

Add to our immigration problems our newest neighbor, the East Asian Joro spider.

These scary-big yellow arachnids can grow to the size of a human fist and the younger ones move from point to point by surfing on breezes with a wisp of web spun into a hang-glider.

Until recently Joro spiders lived primarily in Japan, China and Taiwan, but hitched rides to America most likely in shipping containers.

So, naturally, this is Joe Biden’s fault.

The White Street Landfill/Bingham Park conundrum will be resolved during a special meeting of the Greensboro City Council on July 23.

City leaders will ask the affected residents to trust them.

The affected residents will ask why. We’ve trusted you before and see where that got us.

The seeds of mistrust that city leaders have planted over the years will be in full bloom.

But in the end it won’t matter. The outcome is preordained.

The council will vote to move the tainted soil under the currently closed Bingham Park in one part of Greensboro’s Black community to the White Street Landfill in another.

Having gauged the resistance to the move, I expect the council to conclude that the political costs are tolerable and that there’s enough time between now and the next election for the contaminated dust to settle.

If I were a betting man (and I’m not) this is how I’d wager the final vote shaking out:

Council members say they’ve kept open minds about this issue, but it has been obvious from day one that they prefer the White Street option.

Could I be wrong? Yes. But I’m not.

The seismic shifts in enrollment trends that have rattled UNC Greensboro and forced painful cuts in academic programs — and faculty positions — are not unique.

UNC Asheville Chancellor Kimberly van Noort has proposed eliminating several academic programs and departments from the university.

“By carefully identifying a number of consistently underenrolled academic programs to be phased out,” van Noort said in a recent statement “The University will ease its budget deficit and free resources for necessary reinvestment in higher-demand programs.”

Van Noort also proposed cuts to faculty. Tenured and tenure-track faculty whose jobs are eliminated will receive six to 12 months’ notice, she said.

Just so you know, van Noort added, she has already eliminated 12 staff members, including some from her office.

This raises the question: Will the same trends affect the nation’s largest HBCU, N.C. A&T?

In a May interview, UNCG Chancellor Frank Gilliam says the few schools that may not suffer from the demographic shifts are the ones with the strongest brands. He mentioned UNC-Chapel Hill.

The same may hold for A&T.

From 2011-2021, applications to A&T grew by 246%. UNC-Chapel Hill’s grew by 128%.

In 2011, 6,216 students applied for admission to A&T. Last fall, more than 40,000 applied, Chancellor Harold Martin said.

Looks like a strong brand to me.