TCB at Ten: 10 of TCB’s most-viewed stories

This story is part of our 10-year-anniversary issue. To find all of the stories in the issue, go here.

Not every story goes viral. But when they do, they often surprise us. Here’s a look at some of the most popular stories on our website.

The Pallet community for the unhoused in Greensboro is open. Here’s a look at how it’s going.

This story published by Gale Melcher in January 2023 almost broke our website. It’s a story that looks at how the city of Greensboro’s first round of Pallet housing — temporary pop-up shelters for unhoused folks — was working. Our reporting found that this new initiative, while well-intended, had lots of flaws and shortcomings. It continues to be the most-read story on our website of all time.

Local conservative activists prepare for violent confrontation with Islam

This story published in 2017 by Jordan Green foreshadowed the kind of reporting that Green would go on to do for the national outlet for which he currently works, Raw Story. Just one year after Trump was elected, the story delves into how about 20 conservatives gathered at Captain Tom’s Seafood in Kernersville to talk about a supposed Muslim plot to conquer the United States.

Black men arrested with weapons at protest while armed white militia men avoid charges in Greensboro

This story at the height of the early stages of the pandemic in 2020 is another punchy piece of reporting by Jordan Green. As Black activists took to the streets in the aftermath of the killing of George Floyd, six Black men were arrested by Greensboro police in downtown despite the fact that nearby, white militia men, who had a history of training with white supremacists, went unscathed.

Triaditude Adjustment: Can we stop with this #GoodwillDateNight thing?

An oldie but a goodie, this column by Jelisa Castrodale from 2017 scathingly took down an out-of-touch white couple that went shopping at Goodwill and then went out on a date night wearing the clothes they bought. In their comments, they said that they were hoping someone might think they were “pitiful” after looking at their new outfits. At the time, the post garnered close to 300,000 on Facebook. Mind you, this was five years after Macklemore’s hit “Thrift Shop” had hit the radio. The other thing, of course, was that the whole thing was absolutely tone deaf because people shop at Goodwill everyday for essentials because it’s what they can afford. That’s kind of the whole damn point.

Haters target Winston-Salem concert by African band that stood up to Islamacists

This story from 2019 by Jordan Green delved into the hate that Tinariwen, a Grammy-winning group got after they announced their show at the Ramkat in Winston-Salem. The issue started on Facebook where racists started commenting on the venue’s event posts likening the group to ISIS and stating that the musicians “look like terrorists.” Green’s quick reporting on the issue drummed up support for the concert, which went off without a hitch.

Fresh Eye’s: Aunt Bee’s Siler City cat house

This story by local Billy Ingram has continued to gather views since it was first published in 2014, just months after TCB was launched. The story digs into Frances Bavier, the Emmy-winning actor from the Andy Griffith show, and her life after fame in Siler City. But all was not quiet for Bavier, who had moved to the town to escape the tiring life of a star. Ingram chronicles how her popularity amongst locals drove the star to live “out of her back bedroom, curtains pulled tight, with 14 devoted kitties for company.”

A secret taqueria in Winston-Salem serves up some of the best tacos in the city

This piece by former TCB food critic Nikki Miller-Ka from 2021 had some unintended consequences due to its popularity. In the piece, Miller-Ka talked about her experience finding and visiting a secret taco business operating out of a house in Winston-Salem. While TCB didn’t publish the address, the post got enough traction that sleuths figured out the location which caused an issue of congestion in the neighborhood. That then resulted in the city trying to crack down on the business. Eventually, the family raised enough money to upfit a food truck, out of which their business continues to run today.

Greensboro’s hippest new coffee shop is owned by a conservative church

When Sayaka Matsuoka published this piece in 2019, Union Coffee was just one of the few specialty coffee shops operating out of Greensboro. And that’s why its aesthetic as a hip, millennial-bait business came off as ingenuous when Matsuoka discovered that the shop had ties to a conservative church. Since then, the coffee shop has divested from the church and is operating independently from the previous co-owner.

Staff of beloved Green Bean coffee shop in downtown Greensboro walk out citing pay issues, absent ownership

If coffee house mismanagement was a beat, then Sayaka Matsuoka has made it hers in the last few years. In 2023, she added to her clips with this story about how one of Greensboro’s most popular coffee shops faced a staff walkout. Employees Matsuoka spoke to talked about the business owner’s mismanagement of the schedule, inadequate pay and the owner’s lack of belief in a “living wage,” which caused those who previously supported the shop to turn away. About two months after the walkout, the owner sold the business to her son and the shop reopened.

White frat party is latest wound to students of color at Wake Forest

In fall 2014, Jordan Green reported this story in which it was revealed that white students who were a part of the Kappa Alpha Order fraternity at Wake Forest University had hosted a party in which guests were encouraged to come dressed as Black people. The piece centered the voices of Black students who raised concerns about the event and the racial tensions on campus as a whole.