My night in Winston-Salem

I spent most of yesterday in Winston-Salem, where I had a great meeting with leaders in the Foothills Group about how to move forward on Cool Cities there, now that they are signed on with the US Mayors Agreement.

After that I headed off to historic Ernie Shore Field to watch the Winston-Salem Warthogs play the Myrtle Beach Pelicans.

Several observations:

-Winston-Salem really needs a new baseball stadium. One foul ball went straight back through the net and into the crowd, something I'd never seen in hundreds of baseball games I've been to over the years.

The good news is that they're getting a new one, and a somewhat environmentally oriented one at that! It's moving downtown and will be part of a mixed use complex.

Foothills has also shown some interest in encouraging the powers that be to incorporate green features into the new stadium. Hopefully they'll listen.

-It was freaking cold. When I was packing for my five day expedition to the western part of the state last Wednesday it was 80 degrees in Chapel Hill and I just didn't give any thought to the possibility that might change so I did not bring any clothes suitable for cold weather. I ended up wearing my suit coat to the game and looked quite silly.

The team was trying to help with the cold though, setting up portable heaters throughout the ballpark. I saw a bunch of teenage girls using the flames to light cigarettes though, which I was less than thrilled to see.

It was a great time anyway. Winston-Salem is an underrated city and was beautiful on this cold spring night.