Polaris' pool-cleaning robots get updated with added intelligence, four-wheel drive

Polaris' pool-cleaning robots get updated with added intelligence, four-wheel drive

It's been almost exactly a year since Zodiac Pool Systems last expanded its line of Polaris-branded pool-cleaning robots, and it's now back with two more additions that fill out the top and bottom end of its lineup. That includes the company's most advanced robot to date, the $1499 Polaris 9400 Sport (pictured above), which adds four-wheel drive for the first time, as well as the company's new accelerometer-enhanced ActivMotion Sensor technology -- something Polaris says allows the robot to continually sense where it is in the pool and optimize its cleaning action accordingly. The 9100 Sport, on the other hand, gets neither of those new additions, but it'll "only" set you back $799, and will still clean pools up to 40 feet long in about two hours. You can get a closer look at those, as well as the company's existing offerings, at the source link below.

Continue reading Polaris' pool-cleaning robots get updated with added intelligence, four-wheel drive

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CloudFlare Wants to Make Your Site Look Like A Billion Bucks With Instaflare

Instaflare_cloudflareWhen Facebook acquired Instagram for $1 billion earlier this month, quite a few pundits were left wondering if Facebook hadn't overpaid for the photo-sharing service. Another company that is currently rumored to be raising funding at a $1 billion valuation is CloudFlare. The service, which promises to protect websites from security threats and helps speed up loading times in the process, launched a little riff on the rumors around its valuation today - and is making some fun of Instagram in the process - by launching Instaflare. With Instaflare, website owners on the CloudFlare network can apply five Instagram-like filters to the images on their sites with just one click and make their photos look "like a billion bucks."

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Who Made 'Time' Magazine's "Most Influential" List?

According to Time, we're all under the influence... of Rihanna! The magazine has just published its annual list of "The 100 Most Influential People In the World," which identifies the people who have changed our culture in the past year. As usual, a handful of celebrities and athletes are featured alongside the political leaders, business moguls, scientists, artists and writers Time has chosen to honor. This year, the Barbados-born "Where Have You Been" singer was one of the more surprising additions. So who else made the cut?

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Brain cancer vaccine proves effective

[ Back to EurekAlert! ] Public release date: 17-Apr-2012
[ | E-mail | Share Share ]

Contact: Jason Socrates Bardi
jason.bardi@ucsf.edu
415-502-6397
University of California - San Francisco

With help of patient groups, phase 2 clinical trial paves way for testing therapy that combines cancer vaccine with the drug Avastin

A new brain cancer vaccine tailored to individual patients by using material from their own tumors has proven effective in a multicenter phase 2 clinical trial at extending their lives by several months or longer. The patients suffered from recurrent glioblastoma multiformewhich kills thousands of Americans every year.

These results, to be announced Tuesday, April 17 at the American Association of Neurological Surgeons (AANS) meeting in Miami, compared the effectiveness of the vaccine for more than 40 patients treated at UCSF's Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center, at the Seidman Cancer Center at University Hospitals Case Medical Center in Cleveland and at New York-Presbyterian Hospital/Columbia University Medical Center in New York City.

The trial found the vaccine could extend survival for the patients by several months when compared to 80 other patients who were treated at the same hospitals and received standard therapy47 weeks compared to 32 weeks. Several of the patients who received the cancer vaccine have survived for more than a year.

"These results are provocative," said UCSF neurosurgeon Andrew Parsa, MD, PhD, who led the research. "They suggest that doctors may be able to extend survival even longer by combining the vaccine with other drugs that enhance this immune response."

The next step, he said, will be a more extensive, randomized clinical trial to look at the effectiveness of the vaccine combined with the drug Avastin, a standard therapy for this type of cancer, compared to the effectiveness of Avastin alone. Those trials, to be run by the National Cancer Institute, will begin enrolling patients later this year.

Clinical Trial Paid for In Part by Patient Groups

The UCSF Department of Neurological Surgery is ranked by U.S. News & World Report as one of the top departments in the world. Its doctors perform more than 1,100 neurosurgeries a year to remove brain tumors, and in the last 30 years, this work has helped to build one of the most extensive brain tumor repositories in the United States, with tissue samples collected from thousands of people with cancer.

Part of the funding for the Phase 2 trial came though a $1.5 million-a-year grant to UCSF from the National Cancer Institutecalled Brain Tumor SPORE (Specialized Program of Research Excellence). Now in its 10th year, the grant aims to translate basic laboratory and clinical discoveries into optimal ways of delivering treatment and monitoring a patient's progress.

The Phase 2 trial also was partially paid for with funds provided by the patient advocacy groups American Brain Tumor Association, Accelerate Brain Cancer Cure and the National Brain Tumor Societygroups that Parsa credits with spearheading the effort.

"It never would have happened without them," Parsa said. "Patient advocacy groups are an important component of how we inform patients about this disease. These groups are also increasingly critical to funding translational research, which bridges the gap between the laboratory and the clinic."

Parsa has not received any personal financial support, consulting fees, or travel expense reimbursement for this work from Agenus, Inc., the biotech company that makes the new vaccine. Neither Parsa nor UCSF have any financial interest in the company.

Background on Glioblastoma and Cancer Vaccines

Some 17,000 Americans are diagnosed with glioblastoma every year, and only 2 percent of them survive longer than five years even with treatment. The cancer always recurs, he added, and it is only a matter of when.

Glioblastoma treatment generally begins with a surgical resection, in which neurosurgeons remove the cancerous tissue from the brain. The surgery usually is followed by radiation therapy and then chemotherapy to kill any remaining cancer cells. Many people undergo treatment only to have the cancer return a few months later, at which point doctors may operate again, followed by more chemotherapy.

Cancer vaccines are a relatively new approach that has appeared in the last decade. In 2010, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved the first therapeutic cancer vaccine for prostate cancer, and several more cancer vaccines are in clinical trial. The basic concept is similar to a vaccine for a disease like measles or mumps: an injection in the arm induces an immune response that helps the body fight the particular pathogen or in this case, the cancer. An effective immune response would then shrink tumors and extend lives.

In the past, vaccines did not seem to work because they did not produce effective immune responses: either they did not kill all of the tumor cells or they worked on some patients but not on others. Work on the new vaccine began after several brain cancer advocacy groups pooled their resources several years ago and approached doctors at leading cancer centers, requesting proposals for new ways to fight recurrent glioblastoma. Parsa and his colleagues proposed a new type of cancer vaccine based on tiny molecular bundles called heat shock proteins.

These molecules are recovered from tumors surgically removed from patients in the trial. Agenus, Inc., prepares a vaccine specific for each patient and ships the vaccine back to the doctors who then inject it into the patient's arm several times over the course of the year.

###

The presentation, "A Phase 2 Multicenter Trial of Autologous Heat Shock Proteinpeptide Vaccine (HSPPC-96) for Recurrent Glioblastoma Multiforme (GBM) Patients Shows Improved Survival Compared to a Contemporary Cohort Controlled for Age, KPS and Extent of Resection" by Andrew Thomas Parsa, Courtney Crane, Seunggu Han, Valerie Kivett; Anne Fedoroff, Nicholas Butowski, Susan Chang, Michael Prados, Jennifer Clarke, Mitchel Berger, Michael McDermott, Manish Aghi, Andrew Sloan, Jeffrey Bruce will be from 10:30-10:44 a.m. on April 17.

UCSF is a leading university dedicated to promoting health worldwide through advanced biomedical research, graduate-level education in the life sciences and health professions, and excellence in patient care.


[ Back to EurekAlert! ] [ | E-mail | Share Share ]

?


AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.


[ Back to EurekAlert! ] Public release date: 17-Apr-2012
[ | E-mail | Share Share ]

Contact: Jason Socrates Bardi
jason.bardi@ucsf.edu
415-502-6397
University of California - San Francisco

With help of patient groups, phase 2 clinical trial paves way for testing therapy that combines cancer vaccine with the drug Avastin

A new brain cancer vaccine tailored to individual patients by using material from their own tumors has proven effective in a multicenter phase 2 clinical trial at extending their lives by several months or longer. The patients suffered from recurrent glioblastoma multiformewhich kills thousands of Americans every year.

These results, to be announced Tuesday, April 17 at the American Association of Neurological Surgeons (AANS) meeting in Miami, compared the effectiveness of the vaccine for more than 40 patients treated at UCSF's Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center, at the Seidman Cancer Center at University Hospitals Case Medical Center in Cleveland and at New York-Presbyterian Hospital/Columbia University Medical Center in New York City.

The trial found the vaccine could extend survival for the patients by several months when compared to 80 other patients who were treated at the same hospitals and received standard therapy47 weeks compared to 32 weeks. Several of the patients who received the cancer vaccine have survived for more than a year.

"These results are provocative," said UCSF neurosurgeon Andrew Parsa, MD, PhD, who led the research. "They suggest that doctors may be able to extend survival even longer by combining the vaccine with other drugs that enhance this immune response."

The next step, he said, will be a more extensive, randomized clinical trial to look at the effectiveness of the vaccine combined with the drug Avastin, a standard therapy for this type of cancer, compared to the effectiveness of Avastin alone. Those trials, to be run by the National Cancer Institute, will begin enrolling patients later this year.

Clinical Trial Paid for In Part by Patient Groups

The UCSF Department of Neurological Surgery is ranked by U.S. News & World Report as one of the top departments in the world. Its doctors perform more than 1,100 neurosurgeries a year to remove brain tumors, and in the last 30 years, this work has helped to build one of the most extensive brain tumor repositories in the United States, with tissue samples collected from thousands of people with cancer.

Part of the funding for the Phase 2 trial came though a $1.5 million-a-year grant to UCSF from the National Cancer Institutecalled Brain Tumor SPORE (Specialized Program of Research Excellence). Now in its 10th year, the grant aims to translate basic laboratory and clinical discoveries into optimal ways of delivering treatment and monitoring a patient's progress.

The Phase 2 trial also was partially paid for with funds provided by the patient advocacy groups American Brain Tumor Association, Accelerate Brain Cancer Cure and the National Brain Tumor Societygroups that Parsa credits with spearheading the effort.

"It never would have happened without them," Parsa said. "Patient advocacy groups are an important component of how we inform patients about this disease. These groups are also increasingly critical to funding translational research, which bridges the gap between the laboratory and the clinic."

Parsa has not received any personal financial support, consulting fees, or travel expense reimbursement for this work from Agenus, Inc., the biotech company that makes the new vaccine. Neither Parsa nor UCSF have any financial interest in the company.

Background on Glioblastoma and Cancer Vaccines

Some 17,000 Americans are diagnosed with glioblastoma every year, and only 2 percent of them survive longer than five years even with treatment. The cancer always recurs, he added, and it is only a matter of when.

Glioblastoma treatment generally begins with a surgical resection, in which neurosurgeons remove the cancerous tissue from the brain. The surgery usually is followed by radiation therapy and then chemotherapy to kill any remaining cancer cells. Many people undergo treatment only to have the cancer return a few months later, at which point doctors may operate again, followed by more chemotherapy.

Cancer vaccines are a relatively new approach that has appeared in the last decade. In 2010, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved the first therapeutic cancer vaccine for prostate cancer, and several more cancer vaccines are in clinical trial. The basic concept is similar to a vaccine for a disease like measles or mumps: an injection in the arm induces an immune response that helps the body fight the particular pathogen or in this case, the cancer. An effective immune response would then shrink tumors and extend lives.

In the past, vaccines did not seem to work because they did not produce effective immune responses: either they did not kill all of the tumor cells or they worked on some patients but not on others. Work on the new vaccine began after several brain cancer advocacy groups pooled their resources several years ago and approached doctors at leading cancer centers, requesting proposals for new ways to fight recurrent glioblastoma. Parsa and his colleagues proposed a new type of cancer vaccine based on tiny molecular bundles called heat shock proteins.

These molecules are recovered from tumors surgically removed from patients in the trial. Agenus, Inc., prepares a vaccine specific for each patient and ships the vaccine back to the doctors who then inject it into the patient's arm several times over the course of the year.

###

The presentation, "A Phase 2 Multicenter Trial of Autologous Heat Shock Proteinpeptide Vaccine (HSPPC-96) for Recurrent Glioblastoma Multiforme (GBM) Patients Shows Improved Survival Compared to a Contemporary Cohort Controlled for Age, KPS and Extent of Resection" by Andrew Thomas Parsa, Courtney Crane, Seunggu Han, Valerie Kivett; Anne Fedoroff, Nicholas Butowski, Susan Chang, Michael Prados, Jennifer Clarke, Mitchel Berger, Michael McDermott, Manish Aghi, Andrew Sloan, Jeffrey Bruce will be from 10:30-10:44 a.m. on April 17.

UCSF is a leading university dedicated to promoting health worldwide through advanced biomedical research, graduate-level education in the life sciences and health professions, and excellence in patient care.


[ Back to EurekAlert! ] [ | E-mail | Share Share ]

?


AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.


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Why Hire a Moving Company when Relocating | Real Estate ...

Moving to a new place is common for many people. They may transfer to a new house or transfer their business or office location to a new place. And moving as we all know is not really an easy thing to do.

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Moving to a new place is tiring because of the many works you need to do such as packing your stuffs and transporting them. However, there are moving companies that you can call on to help you with your moving plan.

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When relocating, the first thing you need to do is to sort out all the things in your house. Have the list of every thing you own from the most important to the less valuable. This will help you determine which among which you will bring to your new place and which are not. If some of your things that are piled in your basement and can still be used, you can donate them to charities, or perhaps have the garage sale.

The money you earned will be used for your expenses during the relocation.

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If you have the decision to which stuffs you are to bring, the next thing to do is to organize them for easy packaging. Yet, this task is also tiring. However, you can save your time and energy doing the entire packing if you choose to hire a moving company. How? The moving company will provide you the service appropriate for moving person like you. Such service will include the staffs that would give you a hand in packing your stuffs.

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If you are looking for a moving company, choose the one that could provide you the full relocating service that includes manpower or the staffs, transportation and even insurance for your stuffs. It is for your convenience and assurance of safety for your precious possession.

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Moving Company Austin will be your partner for easy and safe relocation process.

The company provides reliable and honest service. They give satisfaction to their clients with their efficient moving service that does not only help the movers to move conveniently but also make sure every thing is in good hands.

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The company meets the standard required that must be possessed by a moving company. And that is why it you will get the best assistance that you need for your relocation.

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Acquiring the service of the Moving Company Austin makes you feel excited for the thought of living in a new place and meeting new people and neighborhood. The service is worth the price that you need to pay for the moving company.

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Company, Hire, moving, Relocating

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Computer Hardware Specialist | Shoe Angels

Computer Hardware Specialist

Link Technologies ? Newark, DE ? Link Technologies is currently looking for a Computer Hardware Specialist for a long-term contract assignment in Newark, DE. This is a Full time contract opportunity that is primarily responsible for the activities related to the technical support of Workstation computers, applications, peripherals, and associated technology. Activities include interaction with application and operating system? peripherals ? Various other duties as identified to assist Client Support Requirements ? Must be pursuing or have achieved an Associate?s or Bachelor?s degree in Information Technology, Computer Science, or have relevant professional IT experience. ? Experience demonstrating skills using PC-based word processing, spreadsheet, database, e-mail software and the Internet. ? Experience demonstrating skill?

View Full Job Description

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Unemployment Insurance Faces Changes Across The Nation

Unemployment Benefits

In this March 7, 2012 file photo, job seekers stand in line during the Career Expo job fair in Portland, Ore.

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When Sean Davis of Lunenburg, Mass. lost his Census job in October 2010, he figured he'd be able to claim unemployment insurance for 99 weeks. That's how long benefits lasted, according to the state government and every news report about unemployment at the time. Of course, he hoped he'd find a job way before 99 weeks had passed. So far, no luck.

He wouldn't hit the 99 week mark until this summer, but when he called the state unemployment office several days ago to file his weekly insurance claim, he found that the rules have changed and his benefits will be stopping very soon.

"They told me that they were no longer doing the 99 weeks because of the federal government action," Davis, 40, said in an interview.

All across America, unemployment insurance is changing, and in most cases, it's becoming more stingy. More than a dozen states this month will lose eligibility for the second of two federal unemployment programs, subtracting as many as 20 weeks of benefits from the amount previously available to the long-term jobless. The shortened compensation period represents a compromise between congressional Republicans, who wanted even fewer weeks of federal benefits, and Democrats, who wanted to preserve federal programs in their entirety for the rest of the year.

Furthermore, unemployment claimants receiving federal benefits -- which kick in after a worker uses up the standard 26 weeks of state benefits -- now face stricter rules requiring them to keep a paper trail of their job search, thanks to the compromise law Congress enacted in February.

And at the same time federal programs are changing, state lawmakers are making changes of their own. Arizona and South Carolina are currently mulling drug test bills, while Georgia recently slashed the duration of state benefits.

HuffPost readers: Got a story to tell about unemployment? Tell arthur@huffingtonpost.com. Please include your phone number if you're willing to be interviewed.

Worker advocates dislike the changes, but there is one thing they're happy about: new federal support for work-sharing programs, which help businesses reduce hours instead of laying people off. The payroll tax cut legislation Congress passed in February included nearly $500 million for work sharing, which the National Employment Law Project and the Center for Law and Social Policy hailed as a "breakthrough" for the policy, also known as short-time compensation.

"This landmark legislation represents an unprecedented opportunity for states to launch and expand work sharing programs and help fend off layoffs now and in the future," George Wentworth, a NELP senior staff attorney, said in a statement.

Instead of laying off 20 percent of their employees, for example, businesses participating in a work-sharing program could reduce everyone's hours by 20 percent, and workers would receive unemployment insurance dollars for the time they miss on the clock. Twenty-three states and the District of Columbia offer short-time compensation programs, according to CLASP. The new law allows states to receive full federal reimbursement for compensation paid to workers.

For labor groups, the good news about work sharing is partially offset by bad news about shorter benefits in Georgia. Last week the Georgia General Assembly reduced the maximum duration of state benefits from the standard 26 weeks to 20 weeks, or as few as 14 weeks if the state unemployment rate falls to 6.5 percent (currently it's 9.1 percent). The changes will take effect in July. Georgia lawmakers modeled their legislation on benefit-slashing bills passed last year in Michigan and Florida.

Those cuts are a double whammy: Shorter state benefits will also mean shorter federal benefits, since the duration of federal extensions is based on the number of weeks available from states.

And federal benefits are already getting shorter on their own. In the February payroll tax cut deal, Congress preserved all federal unemployment programs for the rest of the year, but a state can't remain eligible for the second of the two programs -- known as Extended Benefits -- unless the state's unemployment rate is at least 10 percent higher than during a corresponding three-month period three years ago. Since unemployment rates across the country have slowly fallen since then, by October the program will have been phased out in the 30 states where it remains in effect. The maximum duration of benefits will fall to 73 weeks by the end of the year.

On April 7, the Extended Benefits program is ending in Kansas, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Missouri, Ohio, Oregon, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Wisconsin (it has already ended in Michigan and Maine). According to a National Employment Law Project analysis of the arcane "trigger" system that determines whether a state is eligible for the program, Extended Benefits will stop on April 21 in Alabama, Delaware, Georgia, Indiana, Maryland, and Washington.

Sean Davis received a letter from the Massachusetts state government last week informing him that the week of April 7 would be the last one for Extended Benefits, "regardless of any remaining EB credit that you might have."

He had expected the benefits to last until summer. He said he's been looking for administrative work similar to what he was doing for the Census, but that most similar positions require a college degree that he doesn't have. He said he previously worked in warehouses.

"It's been a real pain," Davis said of his job search. "It just seems like half the jobs I'm looking for I would qualify for in terms experience want a higher level of education than I have."

Follow Arthur Delaney on Twitter.

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A Little Urbanity: Ghost Stadium

I was surprised that the city council voted to postpone the demolition of the major part of World War Memorial Stadium. If you're not familiar with what happened at this week's council meeting, Ed Cone has a brief summary with links. If you want the long history, just click the tag for "World War Memorial Stadium" below and you can read all my posts over the past years.

The council is in a quandary about what to do, so while they're waiting for another engineering report, I thought I'd gather my scattered thoughts and try to organize them a bit.

The Preservationist Perspective

A good place to start is with the Secretary of the Interior's Standard's for the Treatment of Historic Properties. They guide all federally-funded preservation projects, and they apply to WWMS because it's listed on the National Register of Historic Places -- but they are enforceable only if federal money is involved in the renovation.

Here are the standards for preservation:

  1. A property will be used as it was historically, or be given a new use that maximizes the retention of distinctive materials, features, spaces, and spatial relationships. Where a treatment and use have not been identified, a property will be protected and, if necessary, stabilized until additional work may be undertaken.
  2. The historic character of a property will be retained and preserved. The replacement of intact or repairable historic materials or alteration of features, spaces, and spatial relationships that characterize a property will be avoided.
  3. ?Each property will be recognized as a physical record of its time, place, and use. Work needed to stabilize, consolidate, and conserve existing historic materials and features will be physically and visually compatible, identifiable upon close inspection, and properly documented for future research.
  4. Changes to a property that have acquired historic significance in their own right will be retained and preserved.
  5. ?Distinctive materials, features, finishes, and construction techniques or examples of craftsmanship that characterize a property will be preserved.
  6. The existing condition of historic features will be evaluated to determine the appropriate level of intervention needed. Where the severity of deterioration requires repair or limited replacement of a distinctive feature, the new material will match the old in composition, design, color, and texture.
  7. Chemical or physical treatments, if appropriate, will be undertaken using the gentlest means possible. Treatments that cause damage to historic materials will not be used.
  8. Archeological resources will be protected and preserved in place. If such resources must be disturbed, mitigation measures will be undertaken.
The city-proposed plan, euphemistically called "renovation," meets only the first of these criteria: the stadium will still be a war memorial, will still be used for amateur sports as it was intended, and the proposed plaza in front of its impressive triple-arched entry will give it a possible new use, since the area, if carefully and amply designed, may accommodate any number of public, civic, or patriotic activities. But it meets the standard in a greatly diminished way, bringing in only 30 spectators at best for college baseball games, when once it attracted thousands.

The guidelines call for "identifying, retaining, and preserving character-defining features" of the building. In the National Register nomination for the stadium, these features were identified not only as its entry arches, but also the inverted "J" shape of the seating, distinctive because it is unique to the stadium.?The exterior masonry walls beyond the pylons are also architecturally significant, as are the decorative windows, which still exist but have been blocked up. (You can see them on this old postcard).?Finally, the canopy over the seating, though not original, has gained its own significance over time, and certainly makes watching afternoon games more pleasant.

In short, what is proposed is a preservationist's disaster. Less will be left of the 80-year old stadium than remains of the 1900-year old Roman Colosseum.

At the council meeting, Bill Burckley asserted that most, if not all the significant features can be preserved for the $1.4 million the city has to spend on it, and that is why the council voted to get a second opinion on the state of the stadium's concrete. It would be great if he's right, but I have no idea whether he is.

The Neighborhood Perspective

The Aycock Neighborhood has spent a decade advocating for the preservation of the stadium, and even commissioned its own renovation plans (with a lot of help from friends like Preservation Greensboro). Its concern has been not only with the structure and its use, but its neighborhood setting. Neighborhood representatives served for years on a city-appointed task force that came up for not one, but three different plans for a "park within a park" to include not only the stadium but also the nearby tennis courts, Greensboro Farmers' Curb Market, and the old VFW building across the street. The idea was to increase the public use of the stadium area and also to use the stadium for occasional musical entertainment.

Although none of these facilities are in the Aycock Neighborhood per se, they adjoin it, and are identified as vital elements of our neighborhood life in our city-council-adopted Strategic Plan and Summit Avenue Corridor plan. While the neighborhood has been funding and carrying out many of the elements of those plans on its own (including streetscape improvements and signage), the city has yet to execute any of the promised capital improvements.

My sense is that, while the neighborhood cares very much about the preservation of the stadium, it sees it as only one element of a neighborhood improvement plan, and not the most important one. The Strategic Plan, based on a very open and careful public process, identified the improvement of Summit Avenue as our number one priority. Number 5 on that list was "prepare a plan for War Memorial Stadium and Veterans' Plaza". Veterans' Plaza is the area of public use proposed for the area between the stadium and the Farmers' Curb Market, and the neighborhood's current interest as a?neighborhood in the stadium is mainly in that public space now that minor league baseball is gone.

Make no mistake, though: the stadium was a huge neighborhood asset when neighbors could walk on summer evenings to see the Greensboro Bats play. The city council and various city boosters at that time promised that the old stadium would be well-maintained and well-used after the building of the downtown stadium.

The Parks and Recreation / Greensboro Sports Commission Perspective

The Greensboro Parks and Recreation Department, which operates the stadium, has always been adamant (since minor league baseball left) that it wants to use it for only one purpose: amateur baseball. The primary tenants of the stadium have been NCA&T University and Greensboro College, along with some youth leagues (the infield is too big for little league). But Greensboro College has since moved on to greener infields, and the number of youth league games has declined as interest in baseball has waned.

Parks and Rec representatives on the stadium task force have always opposed using the stadium for other entertainments because of wear and tear on the playing surface. And any hopes that the old stadium might attract such acts were crushed by Greensboro Coliseum manager Mack Brown, who stole a march on the WWMS renovation proponents by building the White Oak Amphitheatre, much of which he completed even before the city council knew about it.

Members of the Greensboro Sports Commission have consistently said that there is no chance of bringing regional tournaments to the stadium, at least as long as Greensboro's new downtown stadium is standing. The old stadium simply cannot provide the amenities that modern athletes and fans expect (although downtown stadium boosters claimed in 2003 that "War Memorial Stadium would be an ideal location to host regional, state, and national baseball tournaments.")

Parks and Recreation and the Greensboro Sports Commission representatives have always maintained that there is no need for more than a few hundred seats at WWMS, and their statements have turned out to be true for the stadium's use over the last seven years.

The Political Perspective

The current city council is facing a dilemma left to it by previous councils when the decisions were made to build the downtown stadium and later the White Oak Amphitheatre. Those two votes assured that there wasn't and isn't going to be enough baseball or outdoor musical entertainment to make full use of the old stadium. The newer facilities have sucked the life out of the old one, and there is nothing the present council can do about that.

Even if WWMS received a full-scale preservation and rehabilitation, with all its architectural features returned to their former glory, it would still be a melancholic place -- its empty seats a silent testament to its own diminishment, and to our diminished feelings for the soldiers who died in a war 100 years ago that few recall or understand.

So the council will have to decide how to allocate resources to a large and expensive structure for which there is now very little use -- unless they can think of some new use for it, and make sure that it gets used.

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