Arlington Park

Fall 2014 Community Health Assessment

Analysis completed by:

Heather Cover, Gabrielle Evans, Brandon Mendenhall, Iza Reyes,

Laura Rolke, and Chelsea Whitfield.

UNC-Greensboro, Community Health Education Graduate Program

HEA-603 – Professor Regina Pulliam

Arlington Park

Arlington Park

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION................................................................................................................... 4

NEIGHBORHOOD................................................................................................................ 5

MAP AND GEOGRAPHIC BOUNDARIES........................................................................6

WINDSHIELD TOUR (GROUP)..........................................................................................8

HEATHER’S WINDSHIELD TOUR.............................................................................20

GABRIELLE’S WINDSHIELD TOUR.........................................................................23

BRANDON’S WINDSHIELD TOUR............................................................................25

IZA’S WINDSHIELD TOUR.......................................................................................... 28

LAURA’S WINDSHIELD TOUR...................................................................................31

CHELSEA’S WINDSHIELD TOUR..............................................................................34

SOCIODEMOGRAPHIC PROFILE .................................................................................36

AGE................................................................................................................................... 38

RACE & ETHNICITY ...................................................................................................39

EDUCATION................................................................................................................... 40

INCOME & POVERTY STATUS..................................................................................42

HOMEOWNERSHIP...................................................................................................... 44

EMPLOYMENT & DISABILITY..................................................................................46

ETHNOGRAPHIC INTERVIEWS.....................................................................................48

METHODS....................................................................................................................... 50

INTERVIEW QUESTIONS.............................................................................................. 2

PREGNANCY.................................................................................................................. 2

NEIGHBORHOOD IMPROVEMENTS.........................................................................1

HEALTH PROFILE............................................................................................................... 2

MORTALITY RATE........................................................................................................ 2

ACCESS TO HEALTHCARE.......................................................................................... 2

TOBACCO USE................................................................................................................ 2

ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY

BIRTH STATISTICS

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Arlington Park SOCIAL DETERMINANTS OF HEALTH

REFERENCES

APPENDIX

WINDSHIELD TOUR

HEATHER’S WINDSHIELD TOUR

GABRIELLE’S WINDSHIELD TOUR

BRANDON’S WINDSHIELD TOUR

IZA’S WINDSHIELD TOUR

LAURA’S WINDSHIELD TOUR

CHELSEA’S WINDSHIELD TOUR

ETHNOGRAPHIC INTERVIEW & NOTES

SOCIO-DEMOGRAPHIC PROFILE

HEALTH PROFILE

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INTRODUCTION

Community health assessments are reports used to identify factors that affect the health of a population and determine the availability of resources that address these factors (Community Health Assessment [CHA] Guide Book, 2011).  This community health assessment specifically analyzes the neighborhood of Arlington Park in Greensboro, North Carolina. In North Carolina, a community health assessment (community is defined as county) is completed by the county health department every four years (CHA Guide Book, 2011). This assessment was completed in during the fall semester of 2014 and specifically looks at a small fraction of Guilford County.

The goal of community health assessments is to form partnerships, gather health-related data, determine priority health issues, identify resources, and plan appropriate community health programs with the community (CHA Guide Book, 2011). For this assignment, we completed the first four of these through two windshield tours, a socio-demographic profile, ethnographic interviews with community residents and leaders, and a health profile. The final goal, planning health programs with the community, occurs after the first four are complete and goes beyond the scope of this assignment.

Primary data collection, or data collected first-hand, is used to find out what the community thinks about their health status, needs, and resources (CHA Guide Book, 2011). It is important that community health assessments represent the voice of the community and provide more specific insight than secondary data. In North Carolina, there are two types of primary data that are required to be collected in community health assessments: an inventory of health resources and community opinion collected through a health opinion survey or small group discussions (CHA Guide Book, 2011). In this report, the inventory of health resources can be found in the windshield tour. Community health opinion was collected in the form of ethnographic interviews (key informant interviews) conducted with residents and community leaders in Arlington Park.

Secondary data, or data initially collected by someone else, is used in the form of statistics. North Carolina community health assessments are required to contain discussions of population demographics, socioeconomic factors, environmental factors, health indicators, health care facilities and provides, parks and recreational facilities, and smoke-free facilities (CHA Guide Book, 2011). In this report, the socio-demographic profile addresses the population demographics and socioeconomic factors using U.S. Census data. The health profile contains information about health indicators by using U.S. Census and State Center for Health Statistics data.

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NEIGHBORHOOD

Arlington Park is a residential development located in Greensboro, North Carolina.  It is located southeast of downtown Greensboro and is a part of the larger Southside/Asheboro Park neighborhood. Martin Luther King Jr. Drive marks the eastern boundary of the community, Andrew Street marks the northern boundary, Florida Street marks the southern boundary, and Vance, Burtner, and Arlington Streets make up the western boundary. The neighborhood is mostly residential homes, but there are six churches throughout the neighborhood, a Guilford County Child Development Center site directly bordering the northwest corner, and the Gillespie Golf Course to the south.  

The neighborhood is largely residential, consisting of single family homes, a few duplexes, and two apartment complexes.  Many of the homes date back to the late 1800’s and early 1900’s. The neighborhood was a desirable place to live in the 1920’s and 1930’s, but as desegregation occurred in Greensboro during the mid-1900’s, white residents moved to other parts of town (City of Greensboro: Arlington Park, 2014).  Many white residents had put a lot of money into the houses in the neighborhood, but most moved out within three years once black residents started moving into the neighborhood. Today, black residents make up over 90% of the neighborhood (U.S. Census Bureau. U.S. Department of Commerce, 2010)

Today, Arlington Park is one of the City of Greensboro’s redevelopment projects. The Greensboro Housing Development Partnership Inc. (GHDP) and the Arlington Park Neighborhood Association have been working to make improvements throughout the neighborhood (City of Greensboro: Arlington Park, 2014). Part of this involved the creation of ‘The Village at Arlington Park,’ a newer development of homes on the south end of the neighborhood (City of Greensboro: Arlington Park, 2014). There have also been many projects to remove dilapidated housing units, install new sidewalks, and renovate homes (including removing lead paint), and amend neighborhood zoning) (City of Greensboro: Arlington Park, 2014).

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MAP & GEOGRAPHIC BOUNDARIES

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MAP & GEOGRAPHIC BOUNDARIES – MAP LEGEND

Condemned Homes 401 Andrew Street 208 Burtner Street 1409 Plymouth Street

Violation of City Ordinances 1220 Randolph Avenue 1468 Martin Luther King Jr Drive 503 Burtner Street

Neighborhood Businesses Quik Save   

1205 Martin Luther King Jr. Drive Washington Group  

1700 Martin Luther King Jr. Drive O’Neal Steel  

105 West Florida Street Nussbaum Center for Entrepreneurship   

1451 South Elm-Eugene Street

Churches Rock Hill Sovereign Grace Baptist

Church   1216 Bellevue Street

God’s House of Deliverance 1212 Randolph Avenue

Grace & Truth Christian Fellow1237 Randolph Avenue

Freewill Pentecostal Church 1606 Martin Luther King Jr

Drive St Matthews United Methodist Church

600 East Florida Street New Missionary Zion Baptist Church   

1310 Martin Luther King Jr Drive

Wheelchair Accessible Homes 609 Glover Street 1404 Caldwell Street 1410 Caldwell Street 1424 Caldwell Street

Vacant Lot 430 Burtner Street 1401 Randolph Avenue 1607 Randolph Avenue

Public School/County Service Gillespie Park School  

1900 Martin Luther King Jr. Drive Guilford Child Development Center  

1200 Arlington Street GTCC Small Business Center

        1451 South Elm-Eugene Street Suite 1201

Public Park Arlington Park Basketball Courts  

1400 Bellevue Street Arlington Park Playground

1201 West Bellevue Street Gillespie Park and Golf Course  

306 East Florida Street

Power Station 305 East Florida Street

Public Safety Concern 1699 Randolph Avenue

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WINDSHIELD TOUR A T A G L A N C E

The neighborhood of Arlington Park is located in south Greensboro in the 27406 zip code and

Census Tract 113.

Arlington Park has made many improvements as far as street lighting and sidewalks, but this depends

on the street; more needs to be done to improve accessibility and clear pathways.

There is one designated park in the community, as well as a basketball court and a city-owned golf

course that borders the neighborhoods.

Only one of the schools (Gillespie Park Elementary) the neighborhood is districted for is within

walking distance (less than a mile outside of the neighborhood).

There are five churches located within the community and 1 directly bordering the southeast corner.

All general practitioner and dental offices are located at least a mile away from the neighborhood.

Arlington Park is located in a ‘food desert;’ there are no farmers markets close to the neighborhood

and the closest grocery stores that carry fresh fruits and vegetables are at least a mile outside the

neighborhood.

There are three business enterprises directly bordering the western boundary of the neighborhood.

One of these is an entrepreneurship center that hosts new business ventures.

Safety is a concern in the neighborhood; there are condemned homes and vacated lots that have been

closed off. There are also issues with not enough sidewalks aligning some streets and cars speeding

down the neighborhood streets.

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Windshield and Walking Tour

Team Members: Heather Cover, Gabrielle Evans, Brandon Mendenhall, Iza Reyes, Laura Rolke, and Chelsea Whitfield

Observations Dates: 1. Wednesday September 10, 2014 at 6:30-8:30 pm

Heather Cover, Gabrielle Evans, Brandon Mendenhall, Iza Reyes, Laura Rolke, and Chelsea Whitfield drove around the neighborhood to identify the boundaries and visit all the streets.  A basic inventory of resources and landmarks was created.

2. Sunday September 14, 2014 at 1:30-3:30 pm Heather Cover, Gabrielle Evans, Brandon Mendenhall, Iza Reyes, Laura Rolke, and Chelsea Whitfield walked around neighborhood as a group to get a more in-depth view of the neighborhood’s streets, sidewalks, homes, and resources. The inventory was updated with more precise information.

General Neighborhood Information

1. Name of Neighborhood: Arlington Park, Greensboro NC2. Congressional District: NC-123. Location (zip code): 274064. Census Tract: 113 5. Boundaries:

North: Andrew Street South: Florida Street East: Martin Luther King Jr. Drive West: Vance Street and North West Arlington Street

Neighborhood design for physical activity

6. Sidewalks: There are sidewalks are throughout most of the community. The quality of the sidewalks

vary with their location in the neighborhood. Some of least maintained sidewalks are along Harrington, North Vance, Arlington, Burtner and Andrew Streets.  These sidewalks are more likely to be obstructed by timber, overgrown trees, trash, and debris. They are also more likely to have cracks or grass and weeds growing through the concrete. Some of the sidewalks, like one on Randolph Street, have electrical poles in the middle of the sidewalk that make walking difficult.

The south and some areas of the east side of the neighborhood have well maintained sidewalks. On South Vance Street there are sidewalks on each side of the road and wheel chair accessible ramps at the sidewalk end. This continued a third of the way up Caldwell Street until

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Mary Black Street.  There is also a planter strip separating the sidewalk from the street on South Vance, which does not exist anywhere else in the neighborhood.

Martin Luther King Jr. Drive had mostly a brick side walk on one side and a regular concrete sidewalk on the other. There appeared to be ongoing construction with water pipes that lay beside the sidewalk in the road. On Martin Luther King Drive, just past New Zion Baptist Church, there was a wire from a power line was hanging down that obstructed the sidewalk.    

A few of the side streets, such as Ward Street, do not have sidewalks.  The streets without sidewalks are typically smaller, connection streets between the streets with more traffic in the neighborhood.

All in all, with the exception of the sidewalks that lined the perimeter of the neighborhood and the sidewalks on the southern end of Vance and Caldwell Streets, the sidewalks are poorly maintained, obstructed, uneven and have large or non-existent curb cuts from the sidewalk to the street.

7. Bike trails or routes:  Biking trails are absent from Arlington Park. Two individuals were observed riding bikes

in the neighborhood and both were riding in the roadway.

8. ADA Accessibility:  Walking and biking routes are accessible to people with disabilities 1and in compliance with Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) requirements:

Most sidewalks stopped without easy access for bikes or disabled individuals, and roads were hilly and narrow in the Northwest area. The sidewalk routes have many large dips and inclines.  Since most of the sidewalks are narrow, there are many dips and inclines created to cut through driveways that have been lowered for road access.  Most of the sidewalks are made with rocky concrete and many of them are poorly maintained, so there are a number of breaks between cracks in the sidewalk.  A few of the sidewalk transitions, such as the ramp at the corner of Caldwell and Vance Street, has a smooth transition from sidewalk to street.  Most of the curb cuts, such as the curb cut at the crosswalk between Randolph and Burtner Street, have a large dip from the sidewalk to the street.  The sidewalk at this crosswalk also lacks a curb extension to allow pedestrians to see around parked cars when crossing the street. The sidewalk construction and maintenance make it difficult for people with disabilities to use them.

Most of the neighborhood have mailboxes at the door and not on the street.  There are a few sidewalks with low hanging branches from trees that make navigating through them impossible.  Randolph street has a few power poles in the sidewalk with no room in the sidewalk to navigate a wheelchair around them.  Some of the residents placed their trash and recycling receptacles directly on the sidewalk, which makes the sidewalks difficult to use.

9. Neighborhood Parks There are several public park areas within walking and biking distance of the

neighborhood. There are no sidewalks or green-ways connecting the park areas to each other.

Arlington Park Arlington Park is located at the northern edge of the neighborhood between a split

in Bellevue Street and across Burtner Street.  The park has benches, a shelter, a playground, a swing set, a basketball court, and small grass areas, along with a working

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water fountain and a locked water pump. Arlington Park has a plastic playground within a mulched area that is bordered by plastic beams.  The play structure has cat walks, slides, and a climbing wall. Beside the play structure is a metal swing set that has three swings high off the ground and two baby seats.  The swing set shows signs of age, with rust and chipped paint.

There are no parking lots bordering the area. There is a shelter at Arlington Park along with a water fountain and water pump.  Accessing the park from the south requires crossing a wide street with no crosswalks.  The park is in a valley between a split in Bellevue street with large grassy inclines on all sides.  These make wheelchair access nearly impossible.  There is a curb cut that appears to allow wheelchair access to the park, but the curb cut goes directly to a steep, grassy decline. Local Hispanic residents consisting of two adults and two children were observed utilizing the Arlington Park play structure on Wednesday, September 10th.

Basketball Court & Open Area There is a basketball court and open field are located on Bellevue Street before

you get to Burtner Street coming from the south. There two basketball goals on one court with a big open area of grass to the side (about half an acre).  Children were observed playing here, both on Wednesday evening and Sunday afternoon. On Wednesday evening, a large group of children were playing football in the open area. There is nothing designating the area as a field for a certain sport though, as it is just an open area.

Gillespie Golf Course Gillespie Golf Course is located on Florida Street on the border of the community.

It is owned and operated by the City of Greensboro and features 18-holes of golf for any level of golfer. The hours for the golf course appear to only be in the spring and summer months of the year.

Neighborhood offers many destinations (e.g., parks, playgrounds, stores, community centers, and libraries) within easy walking distance (1/2 mile) from homes or public transportation stops.

Arlington Park and playground is located in the northern part of the community and would be in walking distance for most in the community. However, the far south east side might have to walk more than a half mile to reach the park. There is a Quik Save/Exxon gas station and convenience store located in the Northeast corner of the community on Martin Luther King Jr. Drive. It has a little bit of everything from snacks, drinks, canned goods and produce to flip flops, purses, clothes, jewelry, light bulbs and hardware. This store is in easy walking distance from the Greensboro transit authority bus stop at the corner of Martin Luther King Jr. Drive and Florida Street. However, for residents in the southwest side of the neighborhood the journey to the store may take a little more than half a mile.

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Other Neighborhood Assets

8.   Schools:

Guilford Child Development 1200 Arlington St Greensboro, NC 2740

Gillespie Park Elementary School  1900 Martin Luther King Jr. Drive Greensboro NC, 27406 (approx .7 miles away)

Guilford Technical Community College Small Business Center   1451 S. Elm-Eugene Street Greensboro NC, 27406 (approx .8 miles away)

Kiser Middle School 716 Benjamin Pkwy Greensboro, NC 27408 (approx 4.5 miles away)  

Grimsley High School 801 Westover Terrace Greensboro, NC 27408 (approx 4.1 miles away)

The only educational facility directly bordering the neighborhood is the Guilford Child Development Center. The Guilford Child Development Center has a mission ‘to help young children and families reach their full potential’ through five programs: Head Start/Early Head Start, Regional Child Care Resources and Referral, Catering for Kids, Nurse-Family Partnership, and Learning Together Family Literacy.

There are no Guilford County Public Schools or private schools directly in the community. Students in the neighborhood attend Gillespie Park Elementary school, which is located less than a mile away.  The neighborhood is districted to Kiser Middle and Grimsley High school despite there being other middle schools (Bennett, Lincoln, and Jackson) and high school (Dudley) that are closer.

Gillespie Park Elementary and the Guilford Child Development Center are the only schools for youth located within walking distance (less than a mile). However, accessibility to these resources depend on where the residents live in the neighborhood because it may be more than a mile. There are crosswalks around the Guilford Child Development Center to make walking there safer. Gillespie Park Elementary is farther away and the best route via sidewalks are unknown at this time; there are no Safe Routes to School projects in the area to ensure a safe passage to school.

We did not observe any school buses or children walking home from school during the two observation times that our group went out in the community because the times were not near typical school times.  

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9. Churches, clubs, and membership organizations:

Freewill Pentecostal Church(336) 273-21591606 Martin Luther King Jr Dr Greensboro, NC 27406

God’s House of Deliverance   (336) 373-39971212 Randolph AveGreensboro, NC 27406

Grace & Truth Christian Fellow1237 Randolph Ave Greensboro, NC 27406

New Missionary Zion Baptist Church (336) 272-84411310 Martin Luther King Jr Dr Greensboro, NC 27406

Rock Hill Sovereign Grace Baptist Church    (336) 274-45561216 Bellevue StreetGreensboro NC 27406

St Matthews United Methodist Church(336) 272-4505600 E Florida StGreensboro, NC 27406

There are five churches located within the geographic confines of the neighborhood and one directly bordering the neighborhood (St Matthews United Methodist Church).  Outside of the churches in the neighborhood, there do not appear to be any other clubs or membership organizations.

10.   Places where people like to linger or hang out:Black residents on Wednesday evening were hanging out on front porches with friends or

family members in chairs, on the steps or standing up. Black children were playing at the basketball courts and open grassy area beside the courts. A Hispanic family were utilizing the Arlington Park with the children playing on the play ground and the adults sitting on the nearby benches. We noticed one white woman sitting in a chair in a front yard next to a black man. Chelsea spoke to a black man named Sammy Davis who was in a chair seated in front of a house on Randolph Avenue and he said that most people hang out in their yards or walk the neighborhood.

On Sunday some black churchgoers were in the God’s House of Deliverance Church parking lot lingering around their vehicles talking. A black man and woman were sitting on a bench on Martin Luther King Drive listening to music on a hand held radio. A group of black women were sitting in chairs in front of their home on Randolph street talking and braiding each others hair. There were not as many individuals out during this time of day compared to earlier in the week.   

11.   Community organizations, associations, and health and social service agencies: The Guilford Child Development Center located at 1200 Arlington Street in the

northwest corner of the community at the intersection of Arlington and Andrew Street may be the closest facility to a community center in the neighborhood. There was a big blue trimmed white sign with black letters beside the front entrance that stated the programs that are offered at the center along with their hours of operation which are Monday through Friday from 8am-5pm. The center provides programs such as head start (mentioned previously), resources and referrals to child care, a catering for kids program, a nurse-family partnership program, and learning together family literacy programs.

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12.   Health care providers:

Triad Adult & Pediatric Medicine

336. 355-99201002 S Eugene Street Greensboro, NC 27406 (approx 1 mile away)

Kindred Hospital Greensboro 336. 271- 2800

2401 S Side Boulevard  Greensboro, NC 27406 (approx 1.4 miles away)

Sharen Long-Strokes DDS

336. 290-6098

106 Murrow Boulevard, #100 Greensboro, NC 27406 (approx 1.7 miles away)  

The closest health care providers are at least a mile outside of the neighborhood. Triad Adult & Pediatric Medicine has general practitioners for general health and wellness. They accept private insurance, Medicaid and Medicare.  Kindred Hospital Greensboro is a transitional care and inpatient rehabilitation hospital. The nearest dentist is located 1.7 miles from the neighborhood.

13. Block by block description of types of housing: Andrew Street

o Single family, one story homes mostly and one abandoned home boarded up with condemn signs. Other homes had faded, chipped or loss of paint on exterior potentially due to negligence and old age.    

Arlington Street o Single family, one story homes with small yards. One home, closest to the corner of

Arlington and Andrew, is for rent and their mailbox laying down on the pole in their grassy front yard.

Bellevue Street o Bellevue Street is made up mostly of single family, one story homes with small yards.

Most had dirt, mold and/or mildew on the exterior of siding. A few of the homes between Lucerne and Burtner Street on Bellevue had bars on their doors. One home closest to the basketball courts had a broken front glass window.

Burtner Street o Single family, one story homes with small yards. Most had dirt, mold and/or mildew on

the exterior of siding. Some homes had no trespassing signs in yard. Caldwell Street

o A lot of single family, one story homes with no trespassing signs in front yard at least in northern two thirds of street. In this same section, there is a house for rent.  Most houses appear to be in need of repairs (molding shingles, buckling vinyl, unkempt lawn, etc) and one was condemned house with boards on door and window. One home located at 1307 had a front porch with a shooting range target hung above their house number. Homes on this street are of different colors. Southern portion of Caldwell Street past Mary E. Black Street were newer homes, some two story and one was a duplex. Most of these homes in

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this location had all there shutters, had all the paint on the houses, and appeared to be better kept, bigger yards.   

Dale Street o Dale Street is a small street that connects Martin Luther King Jr Drive and Randolph

Avenue. There are a couple of small one-story single family homes facing the road. Florida Street

o The only housing in the neighborhood on Florida Street was brick group housing. These units had some windows without window screens and no grass in front with mostly graveled parking. There was also a large power transfer/distribution station along the road.

Glover Street o Glover Street features a mix of brick block group housing and single family homes. Most

of the houses are single-story brick homes. 609 Glover Street has wheelchair access ramp to the front door.

Harrington Street o Harrington Street is a small private road that borders New Zion Baptist Church. There are

only 2 housing lots facing the road, as it mostly serves for access into the church parking lot.

Lucerne Street o West Lucerne has single family, one story homes with a few for rent. One home had torn

up interior blinds seen through glass window.o East Lucerne Street has single family, one story homes.

Mary E Black Street o Houses on Mary E Black Street have attached garages and most are two story.  These

houses appear to much nicer and bigger than majority of the other homes in the neighborhood.  There are larger yards that are well kept and trimmed and little to no debris in the street.

Martin Luther King Jr Drive o Martin Luther King Jr Drive features a mix of larger single family homes and lots with

smaller ones more typical of the neighborhood. Several of the larger homes had a Victorian style with two stories. Some yards were landscaped, others in varying levels of disrepair. Only one house on the street had a city notice for upkeep (1468). Many of the homes had no trespassing signs.

Plymouth Street o Plymouth features mostly one-story single family homes. 1409 Plymouth Street is

condemned and missing part of its roof; the windows are boarded and it was clear the glass in the upstairs windows were broken at one point. Another home on the street is currently listed for rent.

Randolph Avenue o Randolph Avenue is mostly made of single family, one story homes on small lots. On the

north end of the street is Randolph Village, which are one-story brick housing complexes. The street was well lit at night, with most of the streetlights working. There were several houses that had handicap access and ramps leading up to the homes. Towards the south end there were several empty lots owned by the City of Greensboro that appeared to have once been single family homes that were removed. At the south end of the street there is a large power transfer/distribution station.

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Vance Street o South Vance Street has at least one duplex house, but other houses on the street are two

stories and a few with attached garages. As you travel north on Vance Street the houses change to single family, one story homes with no new renovation and varying degrees of exterior neglect.  

Ward Street o Ward Street features older one-story single family homes on the west side and four lots

with newer construction homes on the east side. The newer homes are distinguishable because of the clean, simplistic design, new vinyl, and new sidewalks/driveways that lead up to the homes.

14. Food stores:Quik Save Convenience store 1205 Martin Luther King Jr Dr Greensboro, NC 27406  

Fairway One Stop 1301 S Eugene St Greensboro, NC 27406 (approx .9 miles away)  

Food Lion 120 W Meadowview Rd Greensboro, NC 27406 (approx 1.5 miles away)  

Family Dollar 122 W Meadowview RdGreensboro, NC 27406 (approx 1.6 miles away)

Walmart SuperCenter 121 W Elmsley StGreensboro, NC 27406(approx 4.3 miles away)

The closest store that sells food is the Quik Save convenience store that is combined with the Exxon gas station. It offered onions and potatoes near the counter; however most of the other food was mostly prepackaged carbohydrates. Not only did the store offer prepackaged foods, but there was also a wide variety of artificial nails, hair products, cleaning supplies, toys, shoes, clothing, purses, book bags and lottery tickets.

15. Farmers’ markets:

There are no farmers’ markets within the neighborhood.  There was a small garden located in a resident’s yard, but it did not appear to be a public/community garden. The closest farmers market appears to be the Greensboro Farmers Curb Market, which is open year round on Saturday’s 7am-12pm and is approximately 2.2 miles away.

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16. Commercial enterprises:

O’Neal Steel(336) 691-1106105 W Florida StreetGreensboro, NC 27406

Nussbaum Center for Entrepreneurship (336) 379-50011451 S Elm-Eugene StGreensboro, NC 27406

VF Jeanswear (336) 332-35771421 S Elm-Eugene StGreensboro, NC

There are no commercial enterprises within the confines of the neighborhood. However, there are three commercial businesses directly bordering the neighborhood, just west of the train tracks on the western border. O’Neal Steel is a large warehouse-like building that sells carbon and alloy steel, aluminum and stainless steel products. Nussbaum Center for Entrepreneurship is a non-profit organization that works to advise and house start-up and early-stage growth entrepreneurs. The Center offers a modestly priced office and light manufacturing space along with shared support services such as business counseling and general office management for entrepreneurs. VF Jeanswear has a secondary office in Greensboro for their Jeanswear division. The operation is housed in a large brick warehouse with a fence.

Safety

18.   Sidewalks, parks, and parking areas are well lit to enhance safety at night.Some areas of the west side of the community had a few street lights that came on while

other areas were completely in the dark. On the east side of the neighborhood there were some light poles beside the streets that helped with visibility at night. Caldwell Street had about fifty percent of the street lights on and working; this could be a safety concern. However, Randolph, the other main north-south road through the neighborhood had nearly every light on and functioning. The park did not have lights because the signs clearly states that the park closes at dusk.

19.   Motor vehicle drivers obey the speed limit and yield for pedestrians to cross the street.The speed limit in the community was posted as 25 mph. Most drivers that we observed

were exceeding that speed limit and not paying attention to pedestrians or cars that were parked on side of the streets.

20.   Law enforcement officers at local parks.There were no law enforcement officers at the local park on either day of our

observations in the Arlington Park community. On Wednesday the only law enforcement that was visible was an older black man wearing a black suit with a gold badge that looked similar to a security officer outfit at the front door of the Guilford County Child Development Center on the corner of Andrew and Arlington Street. The black officer was leaning against the stair railing

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at the entrance to the building watching cars and pedestrians go by. On Sunday, two police cars drove down Martin Luther King Jr Drive at separate times; there was some police presence, but it did not appear police came into the neighborhood.

21.   People who walk and bike during the day can feel free from traffic hazards or threats to personal safety.

The community did have stop signs at the end of every street and a multitude of various age walkers and bike riders all throughout the area. Although there were sidewalks on some streets and other streets did not have any, it appeared that no matter the location in the neighborhood there were individuals riding their bikes on the street but most walkers were on the sidewalk. Chelsea and Gabby spoke to two different black individuals (Sammy Davis who was in a chair seated in front of a house on Randolph Avenue and Mike who had just started walking down Bellevue Street from Andrew Street) to gain more insight about the safety of the area. Both men explained that you have to look out for yourself and your own safety because people in the community do not look out for you. Mike was walking down Bellevue Street when we asked him how he felt about his safety as a pedestrian. He stated that most drivers are texting on their phones and not paying attention to who might be walking or riding their bikes on the streets.    

22. Locations of abandoned or vacant buildings, empty lots, etc.  Do these pose a threat to safety? Safety in the neighborhood varies by the lots. Some trash, discarded materials, and

overgrown lawns were apparent in some empty lots, while others were clear from any items in the yard and the lawn was maintained. None of the condemned homes looked as though they were broken into or appeared to have squatters, which could post a threat to safety. The important thing is that the houses that were vacant seemed to be the condemned ones, which means they were boarded up and added to the cities list of homes to demolish.

Andrew Street: o 401 Andrew Street is condemned house; there are boards on the front door and first story

windows. The upper left window has been broken. Arlington Street:

o Vacant house for rent across from Guilford Child Development Center and close to corner of Andrew Street (1205 Arlington Street).

Vance Street: o All homes seemingly occupied

Bellevue Street: o Across from the park appears to be a white abandoned house.

Caldwell Street: o Condemned homeo House for rento Abandoned home

Burtner Street: o Abandoned and condemned house with notice at 208 Burtner Street. The yellow house

has boards on all of its first story windows and doors with a notice posted that it was a vacant structure that was closed October 2013.

o Corner of Burtner and Caldwell is a vacant lot with a no trespassing sign located in the yard stating it has been placed there from the City of Greensboro

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Randolph Avenue:o Corner of Randolph and Harrington Street is an abandoned lot with a brick chimney still

standing. o Another abandoned lot is located on this street near Lucerne Street with no trespassing

signs located in the yard stating it has been placed there from the City of Greensboro. o 1220 Randolph Street home is empty and appears to be in the process of renovation.

Previous pictures of the home show it was boarded, but notice posted did not say it was condemned.

o 1699 Randolph Street had personal belonging covering the front porch- appeared to be a safety hazard.

Glover Street:o Some vacancies noted at the block housing unit, but all structures occupied.

Ward Street:o All homes and lots occupied

Plymouth Street:o Corner of this street and Harrington Street is a condemned home

Harrington Street:o The two lots on this street were occupied

Dale Street: o The house on the corner of Randolph & Dale was previously mentioned and that is the

only unoccupied home. Martin Luther King Jr. Drive:

o 1468 Martin Luther King Jr Drive had a notice on it and looked to be in disrepair, however it was unclear if anyone was living in the house.

Florida Street:o Some vacancies in the multi-family brick housing units on Florida Street, but all the

buildings appeared to have occupants.

23. Geographic barriers, natural and man-made, such as major thoroughfares, waterways, etc.

West of Vance Street is the Southern Railroad tracks. Although this man-made barrier is not located directly in the community it can be heard in the area when the train passes by. There is also a small stream that runs just east of the railroad tracks. Another man-made barrier is that of a fenced in power transfer/distribution station at the corner of Randolph and Florida Street. This power source takes up the entire corner lot and is surrounded by trees on two sides.

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Arlington Park

HEATHER’S WINDSHIELD TOUR (UNREVISED) The layout of Arlington Park mostly consists of residential homes. In the northwestern side of

the community one story single family white painted homes dominate the area with this type of home

also sprinkled throughout the rest of the neighborhood. Most of these homes had faded, chipped or loss

of paint on their wooden exterior and others had mold and vines growing up the side which looks as

though it may be potentially due to negligence and/or old age. Three homes had a wheelchair accessible

ramp, while other homes had a metal or wooden rail leading up the concrete stairs. A small selection of

the homes had a brick exterior with the sporadic broken or missing shutters. The majority of homes had

brick or concrete underpinning and foundations. The yards are small, a few with overgrown grass and

bushes with the occasional fence surrounding the lawns. Two story homes with garages can be found in

the southern part of Arlington Park along with two duplex houses. These homes consist of vinyl siding,

painted front porch wooden rails, brick underpinning, and manicured landscapes with a few homes

having hanging plants on their front porch. Security protection signs can be found in the front yards of

these colorful exterior siding homes with concrete walkways that go directly from the driveway to the

house. Randolph Village apartments, a u-shaped one story brick building, are located on N. Randolph

Street. Florida and Glover Street had four brick u-shaped government housing units. Random homes on

some of the streets were condemned with plywood boards on the windows and doors. Most had broken

glass in the windows with overgrown lawns. Industrial and commercial areas were absent from the

neighborhood. The southwestern part of town appears to be newer or recently renovated, maybe a

couple years old, where the rest gave the impression that they may be sixty plus years due to the lack of

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updated features of the homes. Spider webbed cracked pavement across the road was consistent

throughout and a small number of streets had new asphalt in specific spots. A sidewalk could be found

on at least one side of the road in the southern half of the community, while on the lower end of Vance

Street sidewalks were present on both sides. There are no sidewalks the rest of the way up Vance, on

Bellevue, Arlington, Ward or W. Lucerne Street. Debris on sidewalks such as cut wood logs and twigs,

broken concrete and glass overgrown tree branches and trash and overgrown grass between the cracks of

the sidewalk made it hard to utilize. On Martin Luther King Jr Drive the sidewalks were wider with red

brick laid on the outer edge near the road, concrete in the middle and street lights along the inner edge

every few feet. Traffic in the neighborhood was light but from observing the various patterns on

different streets, it looked as though no one was concerned about the posted 25 mph speed limit. At the

end of Martin Luther King Jr Drive closest to Florida Street was the only visible Greensboro Transit

Authority sign for bus transportation.

Religious institutions such as Rock Hill Sovereign Grace Baptist Church a brick white structure

located at 1216 Bellevue Street, God’s House of Deliverance an older brick building found at 1212

Randolph Ave, Grace & Truth Christian Fellow a brick building with stained glass windows at 1237

Randolph Ave, Freewill Pentecostal Church a brick building with stone work directly above white

double doors in the front at 1606 Martin Luther King Jr Drive, St Matthews United Methodist Church at

600 E Florida St is a light brick exterior with red double doors at the front with a well maintained

landscape, and New Missionary Zion Baptist Church a three story brick building with steps leading up

to three archways at the entrance of 1310 Martin Luther King Jr Drive are all scattered among

residential homes. The Quik Save/Exxon gas station business is located at 1205 Martin Luther King Jr

Drive. It has a red roof top with gray siding and is in the corner of the community away from most of the

residential homes. Arlington Park, found in between the Bellevue split, is located near residential homes

in the northwestern part of the community. There is a playground that includes a slide, swing and

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Arlington Park

climbing areas for children along with a water fountain and shelter. The concrete basketball court with

two hoops is in the same vicinity located on S. Bellevue Street before the intersection of Burtner Street.

Gillespie Golf Course is located on Florida Street on the border of the community away from most of

the residential homes.

        During my observations I felt this is a rundown area of Greensboro. Houses are not maintained

by regular upkeep such as proper window coverings (glass, shutters or blinds), new paint, lawns cut, or

even trash free from the premises. To me it felt like a community that either (a) gave up on caring about

the appearance of their homes, (b) never had the desire to do so in the first place, or (c) lacked the

resources or finances to enjoy such luxuries as new paint. On Caldwell Street I saw a bullet target

hanging on someone’s front porch and it made me want to lock the doors of the vehicle and drive away.

However, when we all walked the community everyone was friendly and curious about our presence but

not in a manner in which I was worried about my safety. Something can be said about actually going out

into a community and seeing with your own eyes what it is like, nothing that the yellow pages or a

database can provide. You can feel the tone of the neighborhood when you are there compared to

looking on the internet through statistics. In a way I still feel the same way about the neighborhood as

my earlier impressions of the tour but I know it’s not fair of me to make assumptions about a community

that I have only been to twice. Homes in the area were not homogeneous. There was a contrast between

the northern part of the community having not experienced any renovations and the northern part having

the access to a more luxurious way of life with less litter on the sidewalks, bigger homes with fresh paint

or vinyl siding and the affordability to maintain their yard. Most of the residents that I observed in the

neighborhood were black. I only noticed two older women in the area that were white but did happen to

notice black girls no older than maybe 15 walking a dog, playing basketball and talking to boys that

were about the same age in the street. The boys in the area were also playing basketball and talking to

the girls. Some of the adult black men were riding their bikes, walking the streets or sitting on front

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porches watching cars go by. I noticed on the first day we went out in the afternoon there were a lot

more interaction with individuals outside in their neighbors front yards talking to one another and in

groups on front porches.

GABRIELLE’S WINDSHIELD TOUR (REVISED)

The neighborhood that my group members and I were assigned was Arlington Park located in

congressional district “NC-12” in Greensboro, North Carolina. The boundaries for this neighborhood

are as follows – North: Andrew Street, South: Florida Street, East: Martin Luther King Jr. Drive, and

West: Vance Street and North West Arlington Street. My group members and I observed our

neighborhood on two different occasions – Wednesday, September 10th, 2014 with a driving tour and on

Sunday, September 14th, 2014 for a walking tour.

In the beginning stages of our windshield tour, I was under the impression that the neighborhood

that we were assigned was an “average” neighborhood for Greensboro, especially since it was

surrounding The University of North Carolina at Greensboro. I was expecting to see a low-income

community with a few houses for rent and maybe one park. Most of the homes in Arlington park are

very old and need renovations and/or multiple repairs due to negligence – overgrown grass, mold on the

exterior of the homes, and missing/damaged vinyl siding. In addition to there being neglected homes,

there were also homes that had been condemned by the City of Greensboro, ones that had been

foreclosed, and others with ordinances for violation of upkeep. There were also a few homes in the

neighborhood that were well-maintained with trimmed yards, and a pleasing appearance.

The streets of Arlington Park vary from street to street in a sense that only some had sidewalks

or street lights. The streets that did have sidewalks were overgrown with grass and/or came to an abrupt

stop and while some streets had street lights, not all of the street lights worked and quite a few had loose

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Arlington Park

wires hanging from them. Once we started the first tour, I was a little concerned because everyone who

drove through the neighborhood was exceeding the speed limit and there were numerous times that I

thought my car would get hit on the side of the road. After being in the neighborhood for a while, my

group members and I got adjusted and were even comfortable with having conversations with

community members. From speaking with these community members, we learned many things that we

would not have learned by just looking through a database or the yellow pages. We learned that there

isn’t much within the neighborhood for community members to do so they have to go on the outskirts

(South Elm-Eugene Road) for employment, educational classes, grocery shopping, etc. We also learned

that it is not as safe as it should be for pedestrians and cyclists because drivers like to speed through the

neighborhood.

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Arlington Park

BRANDON’S WINDSHIELD TOUR (REVISED)

Arlington Park is a small neighborhood located just south of downtown Greensboro. Bordered

by major streets Martin Luther King Drive to the West and Florida Street to the South, as well as Vance

Street to the East and Andrew Street to the North, the neighborhood is laid out in a mostly grid fashion.

Two parallel streets, Caldwell and Randolph, cut through the neighborhood entirely from north to south.

The neighborhood is majority residential area, mostly consisting of single-family homes,

duplexes, and a few apartment rentals. Single-family homes were roughly the same size and age and

grouped close together, creating limited yard space. The homes showed signs of age or possibly

negligence, with paint faded and chipped away, and mold growing on the exteriors. However, there was

a great disparity among homes in the southern tip of the neighborhood. These homes appeared newer

and larger than the homes in the rest of the neighborhood and were more spread out with larger yards

and home security system warning signs placed in front. These homes were also far off the street unlike

the homes in the rest of the neighborhood. Randolph Village Apartment homes were brick buildings

arranged in a u-shape and had extensive roofing and window damage, molded exterior and overgrown

lawns.

Arlington Park is free of many commercial and industrial areas. A large transfer station sits in

the south-eastern corner of the neighborhood. O’Neal Manufacturing and Carolina Steel are a few of the

industrial sites that sit just outside the neighborhood to the southwestern corner. The only real 25

Arlington Park

commercial unit in the neighborhood is a Citgo gas station with a “Quik Save” convenience store joined

to it. The convenience store was the closest food store to the neighborhood and consisted mostly of

drinks, pre-packaged snack foods, canned foods and soups, and a few potatoes and onions. Apart from

food, the store also had toys, toiletries and some clothing.

A network of sidewalks ran through the neighborhood and were mostly on larger, more traveled

streets such as Caldwell and Randolph. A few of the side streets, such as Lucerne and Glover Street had

either one sidewalk or no sidewalk at all and also had less pedestrian traffic. The sidewalks were

generally in poor condition with cracks and broken spots, a sharp curb at the Caldwell/Burtner Street

intersection, obstructed by tree limbs or garbage on Randolph Street, and were disappearing under

erosion. The exception to the norm was the southern area with newer homes. These sidewalks were not

cracked and had a small planter strip separating the sidewalk from the road. The streets were also in

poor condition with paint fading or nonexistent and cracks and potholes. The traffic on the streets and

sidewalks were not heavy.

The resources in Arlington Park were mostly churches. The neighborhood had six churches

located within the bounds of the neighborhood, and one sitting just out of bounds. All of the churches

appeared aged from the outside, with faded paint, cracked bricks, and signs with decaying wood. New

Zion Missionary Baptist was by far the largest church in the neighborhood on MLK Drive, with the rest

of the churches only slightly larger than most homes. Guilford Child Development Center, located in

the northwest corner on Arlington Street, was a resource for not only Arlington Park, but much of

Guilford County as well. According to the sign outside the door, the Center has a head start preschool

program, a child nutrition program, childcare counseling and advice, and tutoring for English and GED.

A small park sat in the northern part of the neighborhood. Also called Arlington Park, the area was a

mostly grass area with a picnic shelter, park benches, a play structure and swing set and a two goal

basketball court. The park was a popular spot for children and teenagers on both observation days.

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As I walked through the neighborhood, I was struck by a number of observations I would have

been unable to make by simply looking up the neighborhood online or in a phone book. Unfortunately,

it is impossible to look at any neighborhood objectively, as I will always look at an area through the lens

of my own upbringing. For instance, one of the greatest resources the neighborhood seemed to have, the

GCD, had a large steel fence surrounding the majority of the building, with a heavy locked gate and a

barbed-wire fenced parking lot. The whole area gave off an imposing and unwelcoming appearance to

me. I am not used to seeing such heavy security, except around the prison. Some of the other resources,

such as the churches, appeared underutilized, especially for an early Sunday afternoon when I observed.

I am used to seeing church parking lots full well into Sunday afternoon.

After doing a little online research, I was expecting the size and quality of homes in the area, as

well as the condition of the sidewalk and streets, because the demographics were similar to the Atlanta

neighborhood my brother has lived in for 6 years. However, I was not expecting the complete shift in

appearance from simply crossing Mary E. Black Street in the southern part of the neighborhood. The

two areas were so starkly different, the sight of them in the same neighborhood was astonishing. I fear

this is a gentrification project that could drive out poorer residents, if property values and rent rises.

As I walked through the neighborhood, I came across many friendly people walking down the

streets, sitting in their yard or porch, or at the park. Many residents were curious about what we were

doing in the neighborhood, but were never combative or confrontational about our presence. However,

people in power likely overlook Arlington Park. The condition of the streets, sidewalks and homes

made me think that this community likely doesn’t get a lot of attention in governmental decisions. Other

than the small pocket in the southern tip of the neighborhood, the area seems mostly homogenous with

minority families living in single-family homes. Arlington Park to me looks like a neighborhood with

many areas in need of physical improvement and a bigger presence in the community from its resources.

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Arlington Park

IZA’S WINDSHIELD TOUR (UNREVISED)

For our windshield tour, we surveyed the redevelopment area of Arlington Park. While alternate

sources defined the neighborhood of Arlington Park as a larger area that includes several blocks north of

Andrews street, we chose the redevelopment area because it was the area defined by the city of

Greensboro. To be perfectly honest, I was rather relieved to cover only the redevelopment area. When

driving to our neighborhood, it seemed like there were more condemned houses north of Andrews

Street, making the area feel more run down and less safe. The area defined by Andrews St., Martin

Luther King Jr. Dr., E. Florida St., and Vance St. felt more well-defined in as much as the nebulous

borders of a neighborhood can be set.

This area was comprised of residential homes with a park on the north end of Bellevue Street.

There appeared to be a gradient in the condition and age of homes starting with the southernmost homes

on Caldwell St. and Vance St. It was not lost on me that these homes were within walking distance of the

Gillespie Golf Course, a sport noted for its upper-class associations. These recently built homes

continued until Bellevue Ave, where the construction of homes returned to their Cape Cod circa 1950s

structures. Each of the new homes, which appeared constructed within the last 10-15 years, had an alarm

system sign posted visibly on the front of each house. These signs and the conditions of the homes faded

the further north one went in the neighborhood. The condition of the houses, I felt, told a greater story of

the income disparities within the neighborhood. One house might have the paint peeling off of it, so

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badly was it in need of maintenance, while another house might have beautifully landscaped roses

bordering its well-maintained lawn.

Despite these disparities, I felt that the residents felt fairly safe in their neighborhood, because

quite a few families spent a pleasant evening after work out on their porches. When we drove through

the neighborhood for our first visit, it seemed like every third or fourth house had a family sitting out on

the front porch. Actually, the children were a bit of a concern to me as I was driving. In the interior of

the neighborhood, there are not sidewalks on every street, so children and adults regularly walked in the

streets with vehicle traffic. Only the outside streets like MLK Jr Dr. had regular sidewalks. I was worried

that some child might chase their basketball or football out in front of my car. I did not feel like I was in

the majority of cars worried about pedestrian safety, because I would regularly turn down a street to let a

faster car go past me.

When our group went out to walk the neighborhood, we followed the example set by the

residents and walked in the streets. The sidewalks were not in good repair, obscured by large items such

as large trash items awaiting pickup. In other places, they were overgrown and not level. This did not

feel like the neighborhood was very wheelchair accessible, even though there were at least 5 homes that

had wheelchair ramps. Almost all the resources of the neighborhood were on the outside borders of the

neighborhood. All the bus stops are located on MLK JR Dr. All the businesses were located on the

outside the neighborhood. All the schools and public services are outside the neighborhood. Only the

churches were located within the neighborhood, and these were all located on the north and north-east

blocks of the neighborhood. The location of the neighborhood’s resources do not make them easily

accessible to those requiring wheelchair access. It felt as though the neighborhood’s resources were only

easily accessible by car, which can limit access. The Quick Save looked like the only grocery-like store

within walking distance of the neighborhood. I say grocery-like, since the store sold a little bit of

everything including potatoes to cigarettes. I was not particularly impressed with their healthy food

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Arlington Park

options, as the only fresh food available was a crate of onions and a crate of potatoes. I noticed residents

would be walking around with a white plastic bag, likely from the Quick Save.

Our neighborhood appeared predominantly black with some white and Hispanic families. A

Hispanic family was the only one we noticed at the playground, whereas there were black families

playing on the basketball court both times we went to conduct the windshield tours. They all appeared to

observe the dusk curfew set for the parks, although we didn’t stay much past 9 o’clock to find out how

law-abiding the residents really were. No one felt really safe staying in the neighborhood after dark. The

parking lot by the Guilford Child Development had cleared out by 8:30 pm. I would never have been

able to make these observations without visiting the neighborhood. I would have missed out noticing

how the amount of trash and empty alcohol containers appeared to increase around empty lots. Because

of this, nobody was interested in exploring the undeveloped land. We never observed anyone loitering in

empty spaces or abandoned lots, so I can only assume the littering occurs after dark.

It was interesting to observe people taking care of their homes to the best of their abilities. One man was

replacing the windows in his home when we walked through the neighborhood. Another family was

completely engaged in household chores. It looked like the father and oldest son were mowing and

maintain the lawn, while four children washed the cars in the driveway. While there were abandoned

lots, they had been cleared. There are still several houses that are condemned in the neighborhood, but

the signs posted on them had dates in 2014. I get the impression people care about their neighborhood

and keeping it maintained. I will be curious to see what their concerns are, and what the limitations are.

For example, since I was worried about speeding increasing the risk of pedestrian accidents, I would

want speed bumps on Caldwell and Randolph to discourage speeding. This may not be a concern for the

residents. I suspect some of the concerns and limitations are financial and bureaucratic, and hopefully

our health assessment will inform us about the true concerns of the neighborhood.

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Arlington Park

LAURA’S WINDSHIELD TOUR (REVISED)

The neighborhood of Arlington Park is just southeast of downtown Greensboro; it’s within

walking distance, but completely separate of the downtown atmosphere.  My first impression of the

neighborhood on a Wednesday night was that everything was subdued; there seemed to be a lot going

on, but not out on the streets at dusk.  A lot of residents sit on their front porches in the evenings,

engrossed in conversation with their friends, family, and people who walk by. Sunday was even quieter,

with most of the activity occurring around the many of the six churches in the neighborhood. The overall

image so far is that the residents are friendly, but inquisitive of the college students walking through

their neighborhood (not necessarily a bad thing).

The homes that make up the neighborhood are mostly older- many built in the early 1900’s and

in badly need of repair.  Many of the homes show signs of neglect, like vinyl siding buckling, mold on

the vinyl, paint chipping on exterior walls & porches, and roofs with missing shingles.  Most houses are

one-story, single family homes with small yards, but there are a couple of duplexes and apartment

complexes scattered throughout the neighborhood. Yards vary in upkeep as well, some well-maintained

with mowed lawns and planted flowers, while others have grass over a foot tall. Overall, there seem to

be a lot more homes in need of a few fixes than ones without any issues.  There are approximately four

homes right now that are marked as condemned and three have city notices for lack of upkeep; there

have been seven homes in the past two years that have been foreclosed and gone to auction.  This is 31

Arlington Park

quite a lot considering there are only about 300 homes in the neighborhood.  The condemned homes are

concerning because there could possibly be other homes with similar serious issues that could raise

environmental health concerns. From what we can see about home upkeep on the outside, there could be

serious health concerns like mold, lead, asbestos, radon, pesticides/chemicals, and pests inside the

homes.

The streets of the neighborhood vary by which street you’re on; some have every streetlight on at

night with sidewalks on both sides. Others have maybe half the street lights working and no sidewalks.

The streets that lacked sidewalks seemed to be the ones that cars were going over the speed limit on, but

that may have been our raised perception because we were at higher risk of being hit by a car on the

road. Most people in the neighborhood seem to own cars, but there are several bus stops on the roads

bordering the neighborhood. We also saw several people walking and biking through the neighborhood.

Overall, our group learned a lot about the neighborhood from the windshield tour because it

allowed us to interact with residents and observe some of their routines. There was one incident in which

I was questioned for taking a picture of a man’s ‘No trespassing’ sign, but once we explained what we

were doing, he was happy to talk to us. We were also stopped by a car while walking down Martin

Luther King Jr. Drive so they could find out what we were doing.

Access to food seems to be an issues in the neighborhood. From walking through the

neighborhood, it seems like the Quik Save convenience store is the neighborhood’s closest resource for

on-the-go food options. Many people were seen walking out with two-liter soda bottles and prepackaged

snacks; this could be a health concern if that is a common ritual for residents. There aren’t many food

options in close proximity to the neighborhood.  There is a Fairway One Stop just west of the

neighborhood and a Food Lion a mile and a half away. There are options for healthier foods at these

locations, but access to fresh fruits and vegetables may still be an issue.

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There are dental and family practice locations within two miles of the neighborhood, but access

to health and wellness services is a concern. There were many handicap accessible homes in the

neighborhood, which suggests there are several people struggling with health problems.

The religious institutions are abundant in the neighborhood- there are five churches in the

neighborhood and one directly adjacent. The churches in the neighborhood were mostly empty on

Wednesday evening (despite signs saying they had Wednesday services), but several had people there

Sunday afternoon. The churches in the neighborhood seem to be an important resource for residents in

the neighborhood because of the events and fundraisers they do. The churches also seem to bring a lot of

people into the neighborhood, but it is unknown how many of these people have personal ties to the

community.

There are a couple of businesses located on the western border of the neighborhood. Both

O’Neal Steel and VF Jeanswear seem like more industrial locations, whereas Nussbaum hosts small

entrepreneurship businesses. At this time, it is not known if any of these businesses provide jobs for

people in the neighborhood.

The neighborhood has a Guilford Child Development Center in it; this location provides Head

Start/ Early Head Start programs for children, as well as catering for kids, nurse family partnership,

regional child care resources and referral, and learning together family literacy. The neighborhood is

districted to Gillespie Park Elementary, which is less than a mile away from the neighborhood.  The

neighborhood is districted to Kiser Middle and Grimsley High school despite there being other middle

schools (Bennett, Lincoln, and Jackson) and high school (Dudley) that are closer. There is likely a

reason why the neighborhood is districted to a school that is farther away and it would be interesting to

know how this impacts students in the neighborhood.

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Arlington Park

CHELSEA’S WINDSHIELD TOUR (REVISED)Arlington Park is a residential neighborhood located in Greensboro, NC.  There are differences

in the layout of the neighborhood in the northwestern portion and southwestern portions.  The northwestern portion of Arlington Park was comprised of small unkempt single-family homes and the southwestern portion comprised of much larger single family and renovated homes.  We entered the community by driving along Martin Luther King Jr. Drive.  There were accessible sidewalks on both sides of the street one was made of brick and the other side of regular concrete.  Although some parts of the street were under construction, there were bike lanes on both sides along with streetlights.  I noticed a change in the scenery coming into the neighborhood entering from Martin Luther King Drive.  Some of the noticeable changes were that there were no sidewalks or the sidewalks were not accessible due to overgrown grass and other debris, therefore, many people were walking along the side of the streets.  Also, I did not notice any bike lanes or crosswalks throughout the neighborhood.  The industrial or commercial areas were along the perimeter of the community, such as O’Neal Steel and VF Jeanswear, but none located inside the neighborhood.  There was an Exxon gas station and convenience store located on Martin Luther King Jr. Drive, which is the nearest location of a food source for the neighborhood. 

Describing the conditions of the houses in the northwestern side, the streets of Caldwell and Lucerne consisted of many houses were abandoned or for rent.  The houses that were for rent were very small and some of the yards were overgrown.  The paint on the houses looked old and it was chipped.  Some of the homes in this area had screens on the windows or the windows were missing and some houses had doors and windows boarded.  Entering the southhwestern part of the neighborhood, the quality of the houses improved near Mary E. Black Street and Vance Street.  Some of these houses looked newly renovated and there were paved driveways and large yards.  Most of these houses had

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garages and a few of the houses had flower gardens.  The renovated houses had complete paint jobs and no missing windows or condemned houses.

The conditions of the streets throughout the neighborhood of Arlington Park were fair.  None of the streets had many potholes and also lacked clear traffic direction markings.  There were not stop signs at the ends of every street.  The streets in the northwestern side of the neighborhood where there were houses for rent were small in width and the sides of the streets were cluttered with trash and grass debris.  On the opposite side of the neighborhood, there were smaller amounts of trash in the streets with the larger single-family homes.  Also, streets such as Randolph Avenue were widely lit at night compared to Andrew Street with little lighting and abandoned homes.

The speed limit in the community was 25 mph.  Most cars seemed to be going much faster than the speed limit.  I noticed a transportation bus stop along the main streets that surrounded the community on Martin Luther King Jr. Ave, but I did not see any other bus stops inside the community.  There were not any benches next to the bus stop or a sheltered area for riders to stand.

There were about 6 churches throughout the community.  The largest church was New Missionary Zion Baptist Church on Martin Luther King Drive.  Guilford Child Development Center was located within the community on Arlington Street.  This was the closest resemblance to a school-like facility in the area.  This facility offers head start, childcare resources/referrals, and has family literacy programs.  There were 2 parks within the neighborhood.  Arlington Park, with a playground for children, and another smaller park with a large grassy area and a basketball court.  There were not designated areas for parking at either of these sites.  All of these resources are within close proximity so depending on the resident’s location, they could walk if they choose to.

I feel that this community has a lot of potential and that it is in a process of change.  Walking through the community and talking with community residents gave me a better feel and impression on the people who live there.  I liked that I was able to see the neighborhood for myself and draw my own observations and thoughts.  The largest challenge that I feel is that I do not get a sense of common cohesiveness in the community.  I think this is due to the way that the neighborhood seems to change in the northwestern side to the southwestern side.  I was really surprised at the drastic changes of the conditions of the houses from being abandoned and no sidewalk access to large colorfully renovated homes on Mary E. Black Street.  I cannot decipher whether the community has gradually been declining or whether they are beginning to restore it.  For such a small community, it seems that there would be more cohesiveness in appearance and in communication.  As for the residents, I felt at ease when speaking with them.  This could be because this community somewhat reminds me of my hometown.  My hometown is divided between East and West Kinston and there is that same drastic change in the appearance after crossing into the western section of town.  In the section of the neighborhood where the

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houses were in worse condition, the people seemed to be friendlier and spoke to us as we went along.  In the section of the neighborhood where the houses and yards were larger and well kept, these residents seemed more reserved.  This made me feel like there may be a slight divide within the neighborhood.  When we spoke with a couple (white female, black male) they agreed that Arlington Park was a good neighborhood to live in and everyone looks out for one another.  On the next block when we spoke to a black male who was walking home from work.   He said that you have to be careful wherever you are in the neighborhood and lookout for yourself.  These 2 informal interviews helped me see that there are some vast differences in the neighborhood and thoughts and opinions do vary by section.  If there is an actual division in Arlington Park, I am interested to know what the differences are in areas such as education and financial stability between the two sections of the neighborhood.

SOCIO-DEMOGRAPHIC PROFILEA T A G L A N C E

Age

Arlington Park, Census Tract 113 has a higher percentage of 15 to 24 year olds (17.3%) than Forsyth

County, Guilford County and North Carolina. This indicates that there is a greater amount of people

who are in the working age population living in this area and need for employment could be higher in

this area.

Race & Ethnicity

Total population of 2,862 people

Higher rate of Blacks or African Americans than North Carolina, Guilford County, and Forsyth

County as a whole

Education

Younger residents (<25) are less likely to have a college or high school diploma than Guilford

County and North Carolina.

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Arlington Park All residents have a low college graduation rate comparatively, but some age groups (25-34 and 35-

44) have a higher high school graduation rate than the county and North Carolina comparisons.

Income/Poverty Status

The median family income in Arlington Park at $38,000/year is nearly a third less than Guilford

County, Forsyth County, and North Carolina.

Almost 20% of families in Arlington Park have income below the federal poverty level.

Home ownership vs. renter-ship, density, home value

65.5% of homes in Census Tract 113 are less than $100,000.

70.7% of residents are paying over 35% of their income on rent.

Employment/disability

Census Tract 113 has a higher percentage of those unemployed without a disability (14.8) and has a

lower number of those who are employed without a disability (54) out of Guilford County, Forsyth

County and North Carolina.

Information suggests that there may be a greater need for employment opportunities for individuals

with and without a disability in Census Tract 113.

Arlington Park

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Arlington Park

AGE Table 1. Age Distribution  

Census Tract 113 (Arlington Park)

Guilford County Forsyth County North Carolina

Estimated Population

3074 489,576 351,368 9,544,249

Age Est. Percentage Est. Percentage Est. Percentage Est. Percentage

14 years & under 14.1% 19.3% 20.4% 19.9%

15 to 24 years 17.3% 15.6% 14% 13.9%

25 to 44 years 23% 27% 26.3% 26.9%

45 to 54 years 13.5% 14.1% 14.4% 14.2%

55 to 64 years 16.9% 11.5% 11.8% 11.9%

65 to 84 years 12.3% 11% 12.3% 11.6%

85 years + 2.9% 1.5% 1.8% 1.5%

Source: U.S. Census Bureau, 2008-2012 American Community Survey (ACS) 5-Year Estimates

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Arlington Park

According to the American Community Survey 5-year Estimates, Census Tract 113 (Arlington

Park) has a greater population of 15 to 24 year olds (17.3%) than Guilford County (15.6%), Forsyth

County (14%), and North Carolina (13.9%) respectively.  There is also a larger population of 55 to 64

year olds (16.9%) in Census Tract 113 compared to Guilford (11.5%), Forsyth County (11.8%), and

North Carolina (11.9%).  The Census Bureau states that focusing on population’s age and sex

composition is one of the most basic ways to understand population change over time. By studying the

population’s age, it can reflect past and present social and economic changes or challenges.  Census

Tract 113 has a higher percentage of 15 to 24 year olds than Forsyth County, which indicates that there

is a greater amount of people who are in the working age population living in this area and need for

employment could be higher in this area.  Census Tract 113 has a larger population that is 65 and older

(15.2) compared to Guilford County.  Since 65 years is beyond the normal working age, this may

indicate that there is a greater need for senior services in this area compared to Guilford County as a

whole.

RACE AND ETHNICITY

Table 2: Race and EthnicityCensus Tract 113(Arlington Park

Guilford County Forsyth County North Carolina

Total Population 2,862 488,406 350,670 9,535,483Total Percent Total Percent Total Percent Total Percent

White 132 4.6 278,525 57 218,517 62.3 6,528,483 68.5Black or African American

2,692 90.7 158,899 32.5 91,227 26.0 2,048,628 21.5

American Indian or Alaska Native

7 0.2 2,584 0.5 1,457 0.4 122,110 1.3

Asian 5 0.2 19,176 3.9 6,495 1.9 208,928 2.2Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander

0 0 235 0 223 0.1 6,604 0.1

Othre 67 2.3 17,675 3.6 25,167 7.2 414,030 4.3

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Arlington Park

  Source: factfinder2.census.gov; U.S. Census Bureau, 2010 American Community Survey

Health is an important issue in the Arlington Park community and race and ethnicity could be an

indicator of the potential health issues that are occurring within the community.  Some races and ethnicities

are more susceptible to certain health issues, such as heart disease and high blood pressure, which makes it

more important to look further into the racial and ethnic demographics.  Census Tract 113 (Arlington Park)

has a total population of 2,862 people.  According to the 2010 United States Census, Census Tract 113

(Arlington Park) has a higher population of Blacks or African Americans (90.7%) than North Carolina,

Guilford County, and Forsyth County as a whole (List a gross number or percentage for

NC/Guilford/Forsyth).   Since there is such a huge African American population, there may be a greater need

for health interventions for this group based on health equity and health disparities.  

EDUCATION Table 3. Educational Attainment across Population Age Subgroups

Census Tract 113

(Arlington Park)

Guilford County

Forsyth County

North Carolina

Total Population 2,511 375,173 266,092 7,269,311

18-24 years old 402 56,617 35,231 945,192

Less than high school 33.1% 13.4% 19.1% 17.5%

High school graduate 34.3% 25.7% 31.2% 29.2%

Some college or Associates 32.6% 51.3% 39% 44.9%

Bachelor’s degree or higher 0% 9.7% 10.7% 8.4%

25-34 years old 335 64,876 45,100 1,246,313

High school graduate or higher

91.3% 87.8% 84.3% 85.3%

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Arlington Park

Bachelor’s degree or higher 22.1% 34.9% 32.8% 29.8%

35-44 years old 372 67,417 47,409 1,329,005

High school graduate or higher

97% 89% 88.6% 87.6%

Bachelor’s degree or higher 16.7% 36.5% 34.6% 30.4%

45-64 years old 936 125,296 92,428 2,500,832

High school graduate or higher

75.9% 90.8% 91% 87.6%

Bachelor’s degree or higher 18.7% 34.2% 33.8% 30.4%

65 years old + 466 60,967 45,924 1,247,969

High school graduate or higher

67.6% 78.6% 80/9% 74.5%

Bachelor’s degree or higher 22.5% 24.8% 23% 19.9%

Source:  U.S. Census Bureau, 2008-2012 American Community Survey (ACS) 5-Year Estimates

According to the 2008-2012 American Community 5-Year Estimates Survey, Arlington Park and

Census Tract 113 are falling behind Guilford County, Forsyth County, and North Carolina in education

attainment. In the 18-24 year old age group, 33.1% of the residents in Census Tract 113 did not obtain a high

school diploma; this is high compared to Guilford County (13.4%) and North Carolina (17.5%).  However,

that age group has a higher rate of high school graduates than the county or state levels, but this is because

there are fewer residents attending college and graduating college than at the higher levels. Census Tract 113

consistently has much lower Bachelor’s degree numbers across each age group compared to Guilford

County, Forsyth County, and North Carolina. In the 18-24 year old age group, Arlington Park has 0 residents

who have obtained a Bachelor’s degree or higher. Also, the older populations (45 years old and up) in the

census tract have much lower high school graduation and college graduation numbers than their county and

state counterparts. The 25-34 and 35-44 age groups have a greater high school graduation rate compared to

the county and state numbers, but have a very low college graduation rate. Education has an impact on

income, which has a direct effect on health and access to proper health. 41

Arlington Park

INCOME & POVERTY STATUS Table 4. Family Income Statistics from American Community Survey

Census Tract 113, (Arlington Park)

Guilford County

Forsyth County North Carolina

Median family income $38,152 $59,244 $60,094 $57,146Mean family income $47,519 $78,517 $78,780 $74,684Number of Families 686 122,204 88,497 2,464,763

Percent Est. Percent Est. Percent Est. Percent Est. Less than $10,000 5.4% 5.3% 5.5% 5.4% $10,000 to $14,999 9.6% 3.7% 3.5% 3.7% $15,000 to $24,999 12.0% 8.6% 9.3% 9.5% $25,000 to $34,999 20.0% 10.3% 10.4% 10.6% $35,000 to $49,999 18.4% 14.4% 12.9% 14.5% $50,000 to $74,999 17.6% 19.2% 19.8% 20.0% $75,000 to $99,999 8.2% 13.7% 13.8% 13.9% $100,000 to $149,999 7.6% 14.4% 14.8% 13.6% $150,000 to $199,999 1.3% 5.6% 4.7% 4.6% $200,000 or more 0.0% 4.8% 5.1% 4.2%

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Arlington Park

Source: U.S. Census Bureau, 2008-2012 American Community Survey (ACS) 5-Year Estimates

Table 5. Percent of families with income below the federal poverty level in the past 12 months

Source: U.S. Census Bureau, 2008-2012 American Community Survey (ACS) 5-Year EstimatesFamily income was selected for comparison to enable us to analyze the federal poverty levels which

the guidelines are based off of family income. As defined by the U.S. Census Bureau (2013), a family is any

group of 2 people or more who live together and are related by blood, adoption, or are married. Based off the

data from the American Community Survey, families in Census Tract 113, which contains Arlington Park,

make significantly less income compared to Guilford County, Forsyth County, and North Carolina residents.

At only $38,000, the median family income of Arlington Park households is almost one third less than the

median family income of the other groups. Almost one third of Arlington Park families make less than

$25,000 a year. Up to 20% of all families in Arlington Park have income below the poverty line. The

estimates of income below the poverty line in Arlington Park have too wide margins of error to accurately

predict income for different family types. For example, the estimate of income for female household with no

husband present has a margin of error at 100%, which means that the ACS did not have enough data to

estimate the percentage of those households below the poverty line.  The significance of this is that with this

margin of error we are not able to make a prediction about vulnerable populations, such as maternal health.

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Arlington Park

HOMEOWNERSHIPTable 6.  Housing Characteristics across Geographical Area

Census Tract 113 (Arlington

Park)

Guilford County

Forsyth County

North Carolina

Occupied housing units 1,276 193,890 139,033 3,693,221

Home Value Percent Est. Percent Est. Percent Est. Percent Est.

Less than $50,000 1.8% 3.9% 5.3% 9.7%

$50,000-$99,999 63.7% 18.3% 15.6% 18.1%

$100,000-$149,999 21.9% 25.3% 27.1% 20.6%

$150,000-$199-999 6.8% 18.9% 22.6% 17.4%

$200,000 or more 5.8% 33.6% 28.3% 34.1%

Housing Tenure

Owner-Occupied 55.7% 62.5% 64.7% 67.1%

Renter-Occupied 44.3% 37.5% 35.3% 32.9%

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Arlington Park

Gross Rent as a Percentage of Household Income (GRAPI)

Less than 25% 11.6% 37.8% 36.3% 38.3%

25-34.9% 17.7% 21.3% 20.7% 19.9%

35% or more 70.7% 40.9% 43.0% 41.8%

Source:  U.S. Census Bureau, 2008-2012 American Community Survey (ACS) 5-Year Estimates

  The table of housing characteristics shows housing disparities between Arlington Park (Census

Tract 113), Guilford County, Forsyth County, and North Carolina.  Home values in Arlington Park show

little variance, with the majority (63.7%) of homes falling in the $50,000-$99,999 range.  Compared to only

18.3 % of homes in Guilford County, 15.6% of homes in Forsyth County, and 18.1% of homes in the entire

state of North Carolina that fall into this range, home value in Arlington Park is significantly lower.  This

becomes even more pronounced when looking at the data for both homes in the $150,000-$199,999 range

and homes in the $200,000 or more range.  Adding up these percentages for each geographic area show that

Arlington Park has only 12.6% of the homes valued above $150,000 while every other geographic region in

the table have over half the homes in their area valued at over $150,000.  These values, along with the

comparatively high percentage of rented homes in Arlington Park (44.7% compared to 37.5%, 35.3% and

32.9% in Guilford, Forsyth, and North Carolina respectively) and the GRAPI of the area (70.7% of Arlington

Park residents are spending over 35% of their income on rent, compared to 40.9%, 43.0% and 41.8% of

Guilford, Forsyth and North Carolina respectively) show that residents of Arlington Park are paying

significantly more of their monthly income on cheaper homes.  With so many residents spending money on

housing, this leaves less income for other resources.  Any interventions that are explored should provide

minimal to no economic burdens on residents that have to put this much income into housing.

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Arlington Park

EMPLOYMENT & DISABILITY Table 7. Employment and Disability

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Arlington Park

Based on the definition set forth by the U.S. Census Bureau (2012), the labor force expressed in the

employment and disability data provided in the above table is defined as individuals 18 to 64 years of age.

The population of those with a disability and their employment status is a vital indicator of a geographical

area’s health. However, it is also important to mention the impact that health has on employment. A healthy

workforce contributes to economic success and helps to increase efficiency and productivity (Doyle,

Kavanagh, Metcalfe, & Lavin). The table provided above offers some insight into how Census Tract 113

(Arlington Park) compares to the county in which it is located, Guilford County; a neighboring county,

Forsyth County; and with the state of North Carolina. The row titled total in the table above describes the

estimated number of individuals in each given area in regards to employment and disability status.

Percentages were calculated by dividing the total estimated number of individuals in a given area found in

the columns (such as Arlington Park) by the specific population in the rows (such as unemployed) and then

multiplied by 100. This data shows that while Census Tract 113 (76.7) and Guilford County (78.3) have

close percentages of individuals in the labor force, Census Tract 113 has the highest percentage of all

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Arlington Park geographic areas of individuals employed (4.8) and unemployed (3.1) with a disability. Forsyth County has

the lowest percentage of individuals in the labor force who are employed with a disability (2.5).When

looking at Guilford County, Forsyth County, and North Carolina percentages of individuals unemployed

without a disability (7.4, 6.8 and 7), these percentages are a small fraction of the percentage of individuals

who are employed without a disability (67.3, 66.4, and 64.9). However, Census Tract 113 has a higher

percentage of those unemployed without a disability (14.8) and has a lower number of those who are

employed without a disability (54) out of all the geographical areas. This information suggests that there may

be a greater need for employment opportunities for individuals with and without a disability in Census Tract

113.

ETHNOGRAPHIC INTERVIEWS A T A G L A N C E

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Arlington Park Education

Community leaders realize the importance of education and strive to encourage residents to as well.

“Both parents and children need to value education for mutual success.” -Mr. Britt, Executive

Director at Guilford Child Development Center.

Teen Pregnancy

“27% of teen births are second births.” -Mr. Britt, Executive Director at Guilford Child Development

Center.

Role models

“The high school dropout rate can be partly attributed to the lack of role models in the

neighborhood.” -Reverend Wright, pastor at New Zion Missionary Baptist Church.

“The community needs more strong black male role models to lead the youth, showing them how to

be fathers and men.” -Robert Caple, Vice President of the Neighborhood Association.

Neighborhood Improvements

Residents of Arlington Park understand their individual responsibilities when it comes to improving

the neighborhood, such as reporting broken street lights or maintaining their homes in accordance

with HOA guidelines.

However, it is more difficult for residents to understand how city regulations, such as zoning,

improve the neighborhood. The point of changing zoning is to increase employment opportunities

within Arlington Park, but the different zoning plans confused residents.

Perception

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Arlington Park “There are housing projects in the area and that is sometimes associated with low income individuals

with crime. Ignorance of people has created this problem and we are here trying to change this

perception of the area by operating here.” -Clay Howard, Vice President Nussbaum Center for

Entrepreneurship.

“Arlington Park is a community in need but I believe there is still pride in Arlington Park through the

Neighborhood Association, separate from Ole Asheboro Square.”-Mr. Barrett, Executive Director

Guilford Child Development Center.

Access to Quality Food

“The neighborhood is in a food desert and residents lack access to nutritious and fresh foods.”-Robert

Caple, Vice President of the Neighborhood Association.

Both Reverend Wright of New Zion Missionary Baptist Church and Mr. Britt of Guilford Child

Development are working to create sustainable programs to combat some of the hunger issues in the

neighborhood.

Employment

METHODS

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Arlington Park

After gaining knowledge about Arlington Park by walking throughout the community and

conducting a windshield tour, the group discovered that there were six churches, signs for a community

watch association, the Guilford Child Development Center and a few companies within or bordering the

neighborhood that may have an impact on the residents of the area. We used these established

organizations to identify community leaders and residents to interview within the community. After the

interview candidates were contacted and agreed an interview, one group member met with the

interviewee to ask them the interview questions while another group member attended to take field

notes. Iza and Heather were the exceptions, as they conducted the interviews and took the field notes

alone.  

Officer Campbell recommended Robert Caple as a key informant after Laura contacted the

Greensboro Police Department, via phone, about the community watch program. Mr. Caple is the vice

president of the Arlington Park Neighborhood Association. As a group, we felt that he would be

knowledgeable about the challenges and improvements that the community is currently making. This

interview occurred after an Olde Asheboro neighborhood association meeting in the basement of the

Nettie Coade Apartment Complex on Martin Luther King Jr. Drive, which was attended by Laura,

Brandon, Iza, and Heather.

To see what presence churches have in the community and how ministers serve as community

leaders, Brandon interviewed Reverend William Wright. He is the lead pastor at one of the largest

churches in the community, New Zion Missionary Baptist Church, and has been there for over three

decades.

The Guilford Child Development Center, in the northwest corner of the community at the

intersection of Arlington and Andrew Street, was the closest facility to a community center that we

found in the neighborhood and felt it was a viable resource that directly serves the community. Gabrielle

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Arlington Park

wanted to speak to someone at the center and looked up the staff members information on their website.

She found Robin Britt as the executive director of the Guilford Child Development Center and contacted

him via email.

Iza interviewed Russell Barrett who works with the Washington Group, a real estate inspection

service company located on Martin Luther King Jr. Drive. Mr. Barrett was referred to Iza due to his

knowledge about the history of Arlington Park after she spoke to an attorney at the Washington Group.

This interview was formally conducted on the phone.

With most companies laying outside of the community’s borders, as a group we felt it was

important to discover the impact at least one of these industries may have on the residents. Sam

Funchess is the president and CEO of the Nussbaum Center for Entrepreneurship located on S. Elm-

Eugene Street and was contacted via email to set up an appointment for an interview by Heather.

INTERVIEW QUESTIONS

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Arlington Park

Defining the Community (Resident) Interview questions:

1. How would you describe this community?2. What types of people live here?3. Do you belong to any groups or clubs?4. What do people who live here do to meet basic needs such as

● get money● find a job● get food● find housing● recreation● protection● education● make friends● transportation● health care● religion

5. What are some of the best things about living here?6. What are some things the community could do to make this a better place to live?7. What do you and others do to stay healthy?8. What health problems have you and your family had to deal with?9. What are some of the major concerns about living here? What are the causes for these problems?

10. Are there problems that the community is currently trying to address? Who are important people helping to solve those problems? What are the solutions they are trying?

11. How has the community changed since you have been a resident in the neighborhood?

Community Leaders Interview Questions:

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Arlington Park

1. How long have you lived in the community? Why did you choose to move to the area?2. Have most people lived here a long time or are there a lot of people moving in and out?3. When did you develop a role with the (insert company name or association group)? Why did you

get involved?4. How would you describe this community? (try to see what important characteristics people use

to describe the community without suggesting which characteristics the researcher might feel are important)

5. What has changed the most over the time period that you’ve lived here? Can you give us a brief history?

6. Who are the leaders within the community that are most concerned about the following issues: health; housing; employment; education; children; recreation; crime; physical conditions; etc. (probe for other areas).

7. Tell us a little about the residents● Where do they work? Close or far away? Are there issues with employment?● Where do they get food?● What do they do for recreation?● Do residents mostly attend the churches in the area?● What do they do for healthcare?● Main modes of transportation?● Education? Are there many young residents in schools? Have there been any issues with

schools?● What do residents do for protection?

8. What are some of the best things about this community?9. What are some of the major problems that this community has? What are the causes for these

problems?10. What are some things the community could do to make this a better place to live?11. What are some things that you would like to see change in the next 5 years?

RESULTS/THEMES

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Arlington Park

Before we set up any interviews, the group discussed what themes we wanted to analyze

regarding Arlington Park.  The group decided we should let the interviewees reveal the themes by letting

them talk about what they thought was important.  To accomplish this, interview questions were

intentionally broad and open-ended, such as, “what would you change about the community?” and,

“what do you like best about your community?” so the interviewees had the opportunity to discuss

whatever they thought was most important.  As a group, we reviewed the wide variety of subjects our

interviews covered. By discussing the subjects with each other, we found our interviews had certain

issues that multiple interviewees thought were important, and many subjects were repeated in multiple

interviews. Once we agreed upon the common concerns expressed by our interviewees, we decided they

were important themes because they were discussed by multiple community leaders and residents. The

themes that we found are education, teen pregnancy, role models, neighborhood improvements, outside

perception of the neighborhood, and access to quality foods

EDUCATIONEducation is an issue in the Arlington Park neighborhood. Residents and local leaders feel that

the kids in the neighborhood don’t see the value in an education- they think about what is going on in

their life right now and not in the future. Robert Caple talked about how kids in the neighborhood don’t

see the value of staying out of trouble and working towards college or a job. Reverend Wright

mentioned that many kids don’t think it’s cool to be smart and they drop out of school; they don’t have

role models or family that see the value of an education and encourage them to stay in school. He also

said that the young men and women of the area value the hip-hop lifestyle instead (drugs, cars, money,

etc) and he’s had to bury too many of these kids who have gotten into trouble. Robin Britt talked about

how it is critical to invest in the early years of a child’s life so they can be ready for school and succeed.

Mr. Britt works at the Guilford Child Development Center, which starts educating parents before the

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Arlington Park

child is even born to provide high-quality early education for the child and job training for the parents.

This program is working to engage the parent so that both the parent and the child value education for

mutual success.

ROLE MODELS The Arlington Park youth suffer from a lack of quality role models. Many of the interviewees

spoke of how children in the neighborhood deal with drugs, dropping out of school and teen pregnancy

on a daily basis. According to the interviews, the lack of role models in the community keep the youth

from seeing a way outside of the cycle of these issues. Robert Caple mentioned the significant number

of single parent homes in the neighborhood where youth do not have strong mentorship. He continued to

state that this is one of the reasons he feels there is high dropout rate of high school teenagers in the

neighborhood. He said that the neighborhood youth, “think it’s normal for men to go to jail and for

teenage girls to have babies.” Reverend William Wright blames some of the neighborhood issues on the

hip-hop culture that the youth has grown up with. Glorification of drugs, women and violence in hip-hop

music has caused many of the children to idealize the things they hear in the music. The youth lack

quality role models, and look up to the drug dealers on the street, which have been in and out of prison.

Reverend Wright also mentioned how kids, “don’t think being smart is cool,” so many of them drop-out

to join the many of their peers that get caught in the cycle of drug-dealing and crime. He agreed with

Mr. Caple that there is a sense of complacency in the neighborhood with many of the issues they face,

that unfortunately this is the norm.  He believes the youth, most specifically black males, need better

role models that have an education and are being active fathers to their children to show them how to be

a man. Mr. Britt has worked to remedy the lack of role models by providing families with a family

advocate. These advocates work with the families and children to improve the condition and quality of

family life through mentorship.

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Arlington Park

PREGNANCYBased on the interviews with community leaders and residents, we were informed that teen

pregnancy is a prominent issue in the Arlington Park community. Mr. Caple, from the neighborhood

association stated, “It’s great to produce a child, but it’s not good if you’re not able to support that child.

A baby is a blessing, but you need to be able to support your child.”  Mr. Caple also addressed the fact

that the children of the teen mothers see this cycle as normal so the cycle continues to happen. When

asked his thoughts on teen pregnancy, Reverend Wright stated, “We have babies raising babies.”  He

went further on to discuss how people are not thinking of possible outcomes when they give into their

needs. Mr. Robin Britt shared some statistics on teen pregnancy with us. He informed us that 27% of

teen births are 2nd births - which means that there are teens under the age of 19 years old with two

children. He also informed us of how costly childcare can be; childcare for two children under the age of

five years old may be about $1,500 a month. The Guilford Child Development Center works with people

who are in a crisis situation (earning less than $100/week) with their scholarship program funded by

United Way.  

NEIGHBORHOOD IMPROVEMENTSNeighborhood improvements within the community were a concern for both residential members

and community leaders alike, although specific duties were less clear as they progressed from

individuals to organizations. Mr. Barrett explained that residents of Arlington Park are responsible for

keeping their home in accordance with neighborhood code. While Mr. Caple mentioned that residents

would work together to report sidewalks or light posts that needed repair to Neighborhood Association

members or the City of Greensboro. This information offers insight about what community members

may want to see improvements on in their neighborhood and about how much they want to contribute

with the efforts to make Arlington Park a better place. Reverend Wright is working to build a

community center aimed to provide resources to the neighborhood. Their goal is for community 57

Arlington Park

involvement and inclusion so they can bring people together and help residents; but, the community has

not supported all of the goals of the church. For example, Reverend Wright wanted to build a shelter for

battered women and prostitutes in the neighborhood, since prostitution was a problem for the area. The

idea was stopped because community leaders didn’t consider those women residents of the

neighborhood. In addition, there are still some thing that may hinder improvement in the short term.

According to Mr. Britt, unemployment became an issue for the neighborhood when Burlington

Industries went out of business and large corporations left the area. Without more employment

opportunities, residents will not have the financial means to contribute towards continuing neighborhood

improvement.

When it came to organizational improvements, residents did not appear to understand the process

very well. Many questions were repeated at the neighborhood association meeting, as residents tried to

understand the differences between mixed use, vertical use, commercial, and residential zoning. The city

representative explained the importance of the two zoning projects. One zoning project was slated for

mixed use, so that a large business like Family Dollar could operate within the Arlington Park and Old

Asheboro neighborhoods in the hopes of increasing employment opportunities within the neighborhood.

The other zoning project was for a large residential area to support an apartment complex with on-site

management to attract a commercial rental property to the area. The goal of having a large rental

property was to keep rent affordable for residents and avoid gentrification. Residents at the meeting

repeated questions about the differences between zoning projects, demonstrating a lack of understanding

about how the projects worked and what responsibilities the neighborhood association had with city

council in order to move the projects forward. The lack of understanding was concerning since the

projects were designed to benefit the neighborhood by increasing employment and housing

opportunities.

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Arlington Park

PERCEPTIONPerception of how Arlington Park is viewed by individuals not from the community was a topic

expressed by both community residents and leaders. Sam Funchess and his vice president Clay Howard

want to change individual’s perception on the neighborhood. Clay stated that businesses that they work

with on occasions have referred to their location as ‘that neighborhood’ and they consistently ask them

why they moved there. Sam and his colleague want people to realize that this is a safe area. One way

they are helping to change the perception of the area is being seen doing more activities such as

community events, hosting events, and helping others start events. They are contributing to changing the

fear associated with the area which both men agreed that may be associated with the housing projects in

the area and that is sometimes considered to be low income individuals that may contribute to criminal

acts. Ignorance of people has created this problem and Sam says they are there trying to change this

perception of the area by operating their business in the community. Mr. Britt from the Guilford

Childhood Development Center mentioned crime in the neighborhood as something others notice before

entering the community. Years ago one of his employees got shot in the parking lot outside the facility, a

drug dealer used to live across the street from the building and at one point in time ‘street walkers’

roamed the area. He continues to say that he knows Arlington Park is a community in need. Other

members of the community such as Reverend Wright was quoted saying that “The community hasn’t

lost sight of itself” and Mr. Barrett believes there is still pride in Arlington Park through the

Neighborhood Association, separate from Ole Asheboro Square.

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ACCESS TO QUALITY FOOD ‘Most of the grocery stores in the area are not in walking distance and there’s only one fast food

option, Church’s Chicken, in the community. Arlington Park is a food desert,” admitted Robert Caple.

Although he knows a new Walmart and the promise of a new Family Dollar store will increase the food

options, finding nutritious and fresh foods is an issue. Reverend Wright hopes to fix some of the food

access issues in the neighborhood by providing nutrition education and possibly a farmers market when

New Zion Baptist Church builds its Family Life Center just outside of the neighborhood boundaries.

Right now the church helps provide families with food when they need it, but he would like to create

something more sustainable that will empower people to help themselves. Nutrition and food access also

came up in Robin Britt’s interview; he is noted as saying a lot of families in the neighborhood go hungry

and there is a lack of quality food. The Guilford Child Development Center is trying to help with the

access to food by providing a food pantry open to the public every Thursday and a backpack program

that gives kids food for the weekend every Friday to combat some of the hunger issues.

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EMPLOYMENT The need for employment was a large concern presented during my interview with Mr. Doe.  He

stated that he had been out of work for several years after being laid off from a construction site.

Because his mother was sick for several years prior to her passing, being unemployed was not such a

large issue because his priority was to care for her.  Now that she is no longer living, he said that he has

more time on his hands but he has been unsuccessful in finding work.  During the interview, he

mentioned that he dropped out of high school.  Therefore, education may be a variable in being

unsuccessful at finding employment.  Mr. Doe also mentioned how the dynamics of the neighborhood

have changed and are different from when he was growing up.  He felt that there are more “babies

having babies” and people in the neighborhood are not striving to their full potential.  He said that the

youth of the community can become better but they do not seem like a tight knit group the way that

young people were when he was growing up.

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HEALTH PROFILE A T A G L A N C E

Mortality Rates

2/3 of all deaths were due to chronic diseases, including all cancers, diseases of the heart, and chronic

respiratory disease

Guilford County had a higher homicide rate (6.3 per 100,000)between 2008-2012 than both Forsyth

County (5.0 per 100,000) and North Carolina (6.0 per 100,000)

Access to Healthcare

In 2012, Guilford County had 8.46 primary care physicians per 10,000 residents and Forsyth County

had 12.21 per 10,000 residents.

Approximately 16.4% of Guilford County residents don’t have health insurance. This is higher than

Forsyth (15.9%) and North Carolina (16.2%).

Tobacco

County Health Rankings and Roadmaps organization rank Guilford County at 17% for adult tobacco

smoking.  This is lower than the 20% average for Forsyth County, and the state of North Carolina.

Environmental Quality

The air quality of Guilford County was consistently higher than both North Carolina and the United

States.

In 2010, Guilford County had a rate of 128.6 per 100,000 discharges for children 0-14 with the

primary diagnosis of asthma.

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Arlington Park Maternal, Infant and Child Health

Total of 6,169 live births in Guilford County and 4,522 in Forsyth County in 2013.

Minorities and women with low income are more prone to have babies with low birth weights.

9.42% of live births in Guilford County are below normal birth weight.

Social Determinants

Education and low income served as leading health indicators in Arlington Park for poor health

outcomes.

High school education levels occurred jointly with low health insurance levels.

Obesity and Physical Activity

From 2010-2014 there was a minute decrease in adult obesity in Guilford County at 27%, down one

percentage from 28%.

Currently, Guilford County has 1 in 4 residents who are physically inactive, while Forsyth County

has approximately 1 in 5.

When it comes to limited access to healthy foods and food insecurity Forsyth County is the worst at

6.3 on the food environment index compared to Guilford County at 6.5 and North Carolina at 6.9

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LEADING CAUSES OF MORTALITY Chart 1. Leading Causes of Mortality 2009-2012

All Cancers

Diseases of the Heart

Chronic Lower Respiratory Disease

Non-motor unintentional injuries

Diabetes mellitus

Suicide

Homicide

0 20 40 60 80 100 120 140 160 180 200166.6

154.1

38.1

29.3

15.6

9.9

6.3

181.7

146.4

50

28.1

19.7

11.5

5

175.9

174.4

46.6

29.4

21.8

12.1

6

Leading Causes of Mortality 2008-2012 (in rates per 100,000 people)

NC Forsyth Co Guilford CoSource: North Carolina Center for Health Statistics, 2012Data is age-adjusted to the 2000 US Census

Between 2008 and 2012, cancer (any type) and heart disease were the leading causes of death in

Guilford County, Forsyth County, and North Carolina.

About two-thirds of all deaths were due to chronic diseases, including cancers, heart disease, stroke,

Alzheimer’s disease, chronic lower respiratory disease and diabetes.

The mortality rates for diseases of the heart are much lower in Forsyth County (146.6 per 100,000)

and Guilford County (154.1 per 100,000) than North Carolina as a whole (184.4 per 100,000).  

Guilford County had a higher homicide rate (6.3 per 100,000) between 2008 to 2012 than both

Forsyth County (5.0 per 100,000) and North Carolina (6.0 per 100,000).

Guilford County had the lowest overall mortality rate of the three between 2008 and 2012 with

19,034 deaths and an age-adjusted rate of 757.3 per 100,000. Forsyth followed with 14,766 deaths

and an age-adjusted rate of 789.4 per 100,000. North Carolina was the highest with 394,087 deaths

and an age-adjusted rate of 826.2 per 100,000.

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BIRTH STATISTICS

Table 1. NC Resident Infant (< year) Death Rates per 1,000 Live Births, 2008-2012

Guilford County Forsyth County North Carolina

Total Infant Deaths 278 238 4,675

Total Infant Death Rate per 1,000 live births

9.0 10.0 7.5

White Infant Death Rate

5.5 7.0 5.6

African American Infant Death Rate

13.6 19.1 14.0

Hispanic Infant Death Rate

8.9 5.5 5.3

Non-Hispanic Infant Death Rate

4.4 4.9 5.9

Source: North Carolina State Center for Health Statistics, 2014

According to the Guilford County Department of Public Health Community Assessment,

“Preterm births and low birth weight births tend to be concentrated in [Southeast] and East

Greensboro… areas with lower average incomes and higher proportions of minority residents” (Health

concern: Poor birth outcomes, 2013). Therefore, minorities and women with low income are more prone

to having babies that are at a low birth weight (500-2,499 grams/3 pounds 5 ounces – 5 pounds 8

ounces).  There are 9.42% of live births are below the normal birth weight (2,500 – 3,999 grams) and

most of these births occur with women whose age ranges from 25 – 34 years old ("Guilford County

Resident Births for 2013 By Age of Mother and Birth Weight in Grams For All Women", 2014).

Maternal age, in addition to socioeconomic status, are the main determinants of low birth weight (The

Future of Children, 2013).

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According to the North Carolina State Center for Health Statistics, there were 30,747 live births

from 2008-2012 in North Carolina.  Out of these 30,747 live births, there were 278 infant deaths in

Guilford County and 238 infant deaths in Forsyth County.  Table 1 goes into detail with the total infant

deaths of North Carolina residents by county and state, as well as infant death rates per 1,000 and per

100,000 live births. ("SCHS - 2014 County Health Data Book", 2013)

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ACCESS TO HEALTHCARE

Chronic diseases are the leading causes of death and disability in the United States (Chronic

Diseases and Health Promotion).  Chronic disease prevention and management is crucial to preventing

death in North Carolina, but access to healthcare and these services makes this possible.  In 2012,

Guilford County had 8.46 primary care physicians per 10,000 residents and Forsyth County has 12.21

per 10,000 residents (North Carolina Health Professions 2012 Data Book).  Research has shown that an

increase of one primary care physician per 10,000 people results in an average all-cause mortality

reduction of 5.3%, or 49 per 100,000 people (Macinko 2007). Access to effective and timely primary

care is critical for preventing, identifying, and treating chronic diseases that lead to a high mortality rate,

but people without health insurance are less likely to have access to this care and are more likely to be

diagnosed at a later stage, receive less treatment, and have a higher mortality rate than people with

health insurance (Guilford County Department of Public Health).

There were 79,688 people without health insurance in Guilford County (approximately 16.4% of

the population) from 2008-2012 (US Census Bureau). The percentage of the population that is uninsured

in Guilford County is higher than both Forsyth County (55,346 people uninsured, 15.9% of the

population) and North Carolina (1,511,700 people uninsured, 16.2% of the population) for the same time

period (US Census Bureau). However, Census Tract 113 (Asheboro Park and Arlington Park) has 31.7%

of residents living without health insurance (US Census Bureau). The number of primary care doctors

has a positive impact on the overall mortality rate in an area, but without health insurance residents are

less likely to receive the medical care they need for that to have an effect.

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TOBACCO USE

According to NC State Center for Health Statistics in 2012, there were 263 deaths in Guilford

County due to cancer of the trachea, bronchus, and lungs.  County Health Rankings and Roadmaps

organization ranks Guilford County at 17% for adult tobacco smoking.  This is lower than the 20%

average for Forsyth County and the state of North Carolina.  Smoking contributes for 10% towards the

category ranking of health factors, in which Guilford county rates number 17 for overall health

behaviors, compared to Forsyth County at number 26.  Cigarette smoking is identified as a cause of

various cancers, cardiovascular disease, and respiratory conditions, as well as low birth weight and other

adverse health outcomes.  With the exception of a slight increase in 2012 (21.8%), North Carolina has

remained at fairly low smoking percentages over the years.  

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ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY

Chart 2. Chart 3.

Source:  Environmental Protection Agency, 2009 Source:  Guilford County DPH, 2012 

Environmental quality directly affects one’s health status and quality of life (U.S. Department of

Health and Human Services [USDHHS], 2014).  The three leading causes of death in Guilford County,

cancer, heart disease, and chronic lower respiratory disease, can be linked to poor air quality.  According

to Chart 2 (reference in Appendix A), the air quality of Guilford County was consistently poorer than

both North Carolina and the United States from 1999 to 2009.  Environmental factors affect those

already at risk the most, such as asthma, which is triggered and exacerbated by environmental factors

(USDHHS, 2014).  In 2010, Guilford County had a rate of 128.6 per 100,000 hospital discharges for

children aged 0-14 according to Chart 3 (reference in Appendix A), which is higher than Forsyth County

(81.5 per 100,000), but lower than Wake County (199.8 per 100,000) and North Carolina as a whole

(166 per 100,000).

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SOCIAL DETERMINANTS OF HEALTHSocial Determinants (Iza)

Chart 4. Health Insurance Coverage by Age and Education

Source: Factfinder; U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey, 2008-2012

With  28.1% of households in census tract 113 below the poverty line, this indicates Arlington

Park is statistically more likely to have a poor health outcome according to the data in Table 2 of

Appendix C. In addition, 31.2% of households in the Arlington Park neighborhood receive food stamps.

These percentages are over twice as high as Guilford County and Forsyth County and North Carolina.

According to the World Health Organization, lower socioeconomic status, such as lower income, is

associated with poor health outcomes (2014). Poor health outcomes can mean more days sick, younger

onset of chronic illness, or a higher rate of chronic illness in a population. Having sufficient income is

just one leading indicator if a household is able to afford health care. Access to health care is a second

leading indicator of health outcomes especially as it relates closely to education levels. Lack of

insurance often results in lack of  access, as most doctors cannot afford to see patients who do not have

insurance in the United States. This becomes an issue within Arlington Park, when a majority of

residents with a high school education or less have no health insurance according to data from the ACS

2008-2012 survey. Even if a college education was made affordable and readily available to residents of

Arlington Park, this would decrease the percent of residents with no health insurance by almost 20%.

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Arlington Park

However, of the adults between 25 and 65 years old with some college education, 35.43% of Arlington

Park residents still have no health insurance. This is more than double the percentage for Guilford

County and North Carolina. A lack of health insurance coverage, education, and  income levels indicate

that Arlington Park is an area at risk for poorer health outcomes in Guilford County. Having health

insurance coverage is the critical first step to increasing the number of primary care physicians for

residents in Arlington Park as was discussed in access to health care.

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Arlington Park

OBESITY AND PHYSICAL ACTIVITYChart 5. Adult Obesity                  Chart 6. Physical Inactivity         Chart 7. Food Environment Index

Source: County Health Rankings, 2014

        Statewide, close to 30% of adults have a body mass index score greater than 30, categorizing

them as obese (Guilford County Department of Public Health, 2013). Table 9 (reference in Appendix C)

shows from 2010-2014 a minute decrease in adult obesity in Guilford County at 27%, down one

percentage from 28%. In Forsyth County adult obesity slightly increased from 25% in 2010 to 26% in

2014. While these percentages are holding close to the state average factors such as physical inactivity,

limited access to healthy foods and food insecurity can play a role in the health indicators of a

geographical area. Table 10 (reference in Appendix C) provides data for physical inactivity from 2012-

2014. During this time the state of North Carolina has been consistent with an overall average at 25% of

residents not engaging in physical activity. Currently, Guilford County is inching behind the statewide

average with 24% of the residents being physically inactive, while Forsyth County is only at 22%.

Although an increase from previous years, Forsyth County is the lowest in comparison to Guilford

County and the state of North Carolina. Data from 2014 found in Table 11 (reference in Appendix C)

shows that when it comes to limited access to healthy foods and food insecurity Forsyth County is the

worst at 6.3 compared to Guilford County at 6.5 and North Carolina at 6.9. According to County Health

Rankings (2014), there is strong evidence that residing in a food desert and the lack of constant access to

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Arlington Park

food is correlated to negative health outcomes such as poor nutrition, poor cardiovascular health, weight

gain, obesity, and premature death.

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