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GREENSBORO — The benches behind Bilbro Street were meant to spark conversation, not confrontation.

But now they’re doing just that.

Later today, Warnersville residents are expected to ask the City Council to remove those five benches bolted in a semicircle behind Bilbro. Intended to be an enduring symbol of the neighborhood’s heritage, the benches apparently attract drunks, drug addicts and prostitutes.

City Council candidate Ben Holder will present the council with a petition signed by at least 20 residents who want the benches to go. Councilwoman T. Dianne Bellamy-Small wants the benches to stay. She’s running for re-election. And Holder is running against her.

Our very own Benchgate is more than just another political fight.

First, some history.

Warnersville was Greensboro’s first black community, the first home for freed slaves after the Civil War.

But the neighborhood has felt forgotten by a city it once trusted.

Next, some geography. Warnersville sits near South Eugene and West Lee, a spot one former pastor called Greensboro’s “corner of concern.’’ And those benches have drawn the homeless, the hungry, the jobless, the weary.

They’re our city’s forgotten folks, the people who frequent Greensboro Urban Ministry, the Salvation Army Thrift Store and the community clinic HealthServe.

And they come to crash — and do their business, illegal or otherwise — on the benches.

But these benches aren’t just any old benches.

The nonprofit Action Greensboro paid $5,000 for North Carolina artist Gary Gresko to create them. He made them from steel and African teak and turned them into the first public art erected along the $26 million, 4.8-mile Downtown Greenway.

The Downtown Greenway — a 12-foot path ringing the center city — already has garnered $5 million in private money and $7 million in our tax money. The project needs another $14 million to finish it in the next decade.

It’s a project Action Greensboro has pushed. And pushed hard.

All along, the nonprofit wanted to start the Downtown Greenway beside Warnersville to pay tribute to the neighborhood’s resilient history.

During three community meetings last spring, Gresko heard about that history. Then,  using a blow torch with a 5,000 degree flame, he burned into the backrests words he thought embodied the spirit of Warnersville.

Endurance. Triumph. Faith. Strength. Hope.

But the problems still came.

Earlier this month, the city erected a camera to deter those problems. Called a flashcam, it takes pictures of any kind of motion after dark and has a speaker that barks something like this: Go away!

According to Chris Wilson, the division manager for the parks & recreation department, the flashcams have worked well in deterring vandalism in the city’s other parks — so well, the city has yet to prosecute anyone for anything.

And since the flashcam has been trained at the benches near Bilbro, Wilson says it hasn’t caught any illegal activity.

Or any activity, really.

Last week, Action Greensboro cut a check for $6,000 to pay for installing permanent  camera equipment there; the city has to rotate its five flashcams among its 102 parks.

But is a camera enough?

Check out the grounds away from the camera’s lens, and there’s a handful of empty beer bottles, not to mention a pair of shorts and underwear, nearby.

Then, look behind a pile of brush. A drunk is passed out, holding a brown bag in his hand.

That’s what Holder saw. Just a few days ago.

“If you don’t take care of the little stuff,’’ he says, “the Greenway will be a battle forever.’’

It makes you think about the words burned into the backrests of those benches, words like endurance, triumph and hope. They’re meant to stand for something, something bigger, something timeless.

And right now, some residents don’t believe that’s true.
 

Contact Jeri Rowe at 373-7374 or jeri.rowe@news-record.com