Honoring the Past, Building a Future
A Low Turnout We Cannot Repeat I remember the last city election all too well. What should have been a moment of civic pride felt like a letdown. Too few people showed up. Ballots went uncast, voices went unheard, and the decisions that shape Rocky Mount neighborhoods were left to the hands of a small … Continue reading Voter Turnout: One Month From Today – Ward 3’s October 7 Election
Stand on one of the streets in Wards 1–4. There is no crime happening before your eyes, no sirens or flashing lights. But its presence is everywhere, in the silence, in the shuttered homes, in the caution that has settled into the air. Crime is not visible in the moment, but it lingers in what … Continue reading Rocky Mount, NC: You Fix Neighborhoods By Making Them Safe:
The Prosecutors Summation to the Jury. It is not easy to hold two truths at once. That OIC has brought real good to this community: yes. That the tutoring programs, the workforce training, the wraparound services have helped people climb out of hardship: yes again. But it is also true that when council members sit … Continue reading The Prosecutors Summation: OIC and the Question of Public Trust
The courtroom doors swing shut. The prosecutor rises once more. A Financial Auditor takes the stand, sworn to testify. What follows is not rumor, not speculation, but evidence entered into the record. Today the case turns to OIC, its leadership, its ledgers, and the uneasy lines that bind public office to private control. Exhibit B: … Continue reading OIC on the Stand: Exhibit B and C
Friday afternoon, August 8 in Rocky Mount. I was downtown to photograph the building at 112 NW Main Street. In the stretch of street where I stood, I counted six cars. Six. The building I came to photograph, and the ones reflected in the glass across the tracks, looked like a patchwork quilt stitched by … Continue reading A ‘Raggedy Ass’ Friday In Rocky Mount, NC
Some days, it feels like we’re living inside a Southern novel. Not the kind with porch swings and sweet tea, but the darker kind, where power and corruption hides in plain sight, and self-preservation outweighs public service. The longer I write about Rocky Mount, the clearer it becomes. We are not just observers in this … Continue reading When Real Life Reads Like a Southern Novel
Main Street Rocky Mount 