by Brian Clarey
I came up with the term “citizen of the Triad” a few years ago when, in my travels between the three cities I cover, I’d encounter folks out of their element: Greensboro drinkers in a Winston-Salem bar, High Point musicians playing gigs in downtown Greensboro, Winston-Salem people… well, Winston-Salem people don’t venture out much.
It’s not their fault that our three cities backed into each other 150 years ago, or whenever it all began, that Winston-Salem faces west and Greensboro faces east and that very little connective tissue has formed between us.
Back in the early days of regionalism, I was part of a small corps that sought to knit these cities together. Under the hand of Jeri Rowe, I along with cohorts Nicole Crews, Allison King, Tim Dineen, Kim Thore and dozens of others filled the pages of Triad Style with news of the burgeoning cultural scenes percolating in our downtown districts.
I came late to the party, just a couple years before the News & Record folded Triad Style into the main paper’s operations and called the small staff from their outbuilding in the parking lot into the Big House. I stayed on for another year at the new publication, GoTriad, writing about bars and nightlife before moving on.
I’m not sure, but it’s possible that I’m the longest tenured journalist covering the entire Triad. Rowe’s been out for a couple years now, and the rest of the Style crew have long since found respectable work. Crews might challenge me on longevity, if I could ever get her out to Winston-Salem, and Mark Sutter at the Triad Business Journal might come close. Ogi Overman, a towering figure in local A&E journalism, probably deserves the crown — he’s been making the trip on Business 40 since it was a dirt wagon path.[pullquote]That road becomes more traveled as the population shifts towards those who don’t mind driving 24 miles for work, or a date, or even a quick lunch.[/pullquote]
That road becomes more traveled as the population shifts towards those who don’t mind driving 24 miles for work, or a date, or even a quick lunch. There are more citizens of the Triad now than ever before — I know because I’m still out there, bouncing between Greensboro and Winston and even High Point, and I see them all the time: others like me, deliciously out of context, making connections where none existed before.
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That’s an interesting assertion, but that’s all it is. Census data on commuting for work might shed light on whether’s there’s anything more to it than the author’s opinion based on anecdotal observation.
My anecdotal evidence is as good as your science.