We won’t forget Glenwood South’s scene, an inspiring coach and a perfect dish in 2023
Part 2 of a five-part package revisiting the 2023 stories that The News & Observer’s staff members will remember long after the year is over.
The circle of life along Glenwood South
It’s easy to form a quick opinion about Raleigh’s Glenwood South based on the area’s rowdy reputation in the late night and early morning hours.
But it’s sometimes harder to square that emotional hot take with all that Glenwood South actually offers.
In August, we sent our reporters and photojournalists to to document it all — the senior citizens strolling outside their longtime high-rise, the construction workers building the latest project, the customers in the trendy shops and the escape rooms, the bar crowd spilling onto the streets after last call, the busy tow trucks overnight.
An image that sticks with me — a resident of the Glenwood Towers senior community soaking up the morning sun near a city “biohazard specialist” cleaning a sidewalk of the liquid remnants from an over-exuberant celebrant the night before. And another day begins.
Thad Ogburn is the managing editor.
The greatest current story in college sports
This is not the proudest time for major college athletics. Never much of a pure enterprise, it has become especially craven in recent years, what with the destruction of the Pac-12 and the constant greed-fueled realignment.
Enter Erin Matson, North Carolina’s first-year field hockey coach. No, Matson didn’t save college sports. She did, though, remind us of what college athletics can be. What they should be.
Matson became the most decorated athlete in UNC history during her years as a field hockey player. Then she became the youngest coach of any NCAA Division I team in the country.
I’ve covered a lot of games. Final Fours. National championships. The UNC field hockey team’s national championship victory against Northwestern — which came in a penalty shootout, after two scoreless overtimes — was as memorable as any. The Tar Heels prevailed, in the most dramatic of circumstances, and delivered the storybook ending.
At 23, Matson had another national title. This time as the coach of her old team. It was the best story in college sports, and the one I’ll most remember from 2023.
Andrew Carter is a sports and enterprise reporter.
Lottie represents some of those Raleigh most needs to help
It’s not always the story that stays with me, but a person. There’s a list of people who creep back into my mind no matter how long ago I wrote about them.
Lottie Shelton is the newest one.
She’s the grandmother of 10 I met on a hot June morning at Wake Inn, one of Raleigh’s low-cost hotels. Crime at such hotels have been a problem for years, but they are often an alternative to living on the street or in your car.
These hotels encapsulate the issues Raleigh faces and that I cover: the lack of affordable housing, the need for more support for people with substance use addictions and a rise in crime.
I called Lottie once after the story was posted. But the call didn’t go through. I hope she’s doing all right.
Anna Johnson is the Raleigh and Wake County government reporter.
Chopped pork, red slaw, red sauce and happiness
I ventured to hog-crazed Lexington this fall for a deep dive into North Carolina’s most distinctive style of barbecue. Some call it Piedmont style, some call it Western (even though it’s just barely west of Greensboro). But most know it as Lexington style, the barbecue with the red slaw and the red sauce.
And on a bar stool in Lexington I had one of my favorite meals of 2023. Sitting at Lexington Barbecue between a family from Charlotte and a gentleman from South Carolina, each making the special trip for a plate of pork, I ate a tray of chopped barbecue with extra outside brown, the smoky outer bits of the pork shoulder — a delicacy in Lexington — and the infamous red slaw, seasoning with a ketchup based barbecue sauce.
I can’t choose sides in the great Lexington versus Eastern-style barbecue debate. The best of both can be among the greatest barbecue you’ll come across. And this plate at Lexington Barbecue — subtle with the smoke, while balancing the salt and tang of the pork and the slaw — is perfection on a paper plate.
Drew Jackson is the food and dining reporter.
From NC State’s campus to a Salvadoran prison for gang members
I’ll tell anybody that the Triangle is an international region. What happens in other countries affects us.
This summer I learned that Raleigh had a connection to one of the biggest news stories out of Latin America in 2023: the authoritarian crackdown on gang violence in El Salvador.
In August, I reported the story of Nelson Hernández, a Raleigh rapper who filmed music videos at N.C. State’s free expression tunnel on campus. A U.S. citizen, he was visiting El Salvador when he was profiled by police, arrested and thrown into a prison for gang members.
It was shocking to see a Raleigh resident caught up in an internationally controversial decree by a Latin American president. Some 70,000 people have been imprisoned in less than a year without trial, accused of gang ties.
Hernández’s family in Cary cries for his return home.
Aaron Sánchez-Guerra is a breaking news and public safety reporter.
Fun and video games with the Carolina Hurricanes
When the Carolina Hurricanes had training camp before the upcoming season, they had to have a way to pass their downtime. So, they played Fortnite. I love the way reporter Chip Alexander took this topic and ran with it.
I was never a Fortnite player, but many of my friends played in college, since that’s when it was most popular. So the game brings back memories of sitting around with my friends, talking and laughing.
And I love being reminded that athletes, while being athletically and physically gifted, are, at their core, just people.
To think that Sebastian Aho could basically be one of my friends is a cool thought to have.
Drew Hill is an audience growth producer.
Fishing by day, karaoke by night — what more do you need?
The idea of a karaoke bar operating out of a bait shop was so appealing that I drove 141 miles to see it, pulling into the tiny town of Vandemere at dusk on a Saturday in July — just as the first Tanya Tucker song floated out of the jukebox.
Over a can of Budweiser, I learned that Russ and Debbie Hudson grew up within sight of Squidders, the tackle store they own on the Pamlico County waterfront.
And every Saturday when the weather’s warm, friends and neighbors from a town of 240 people belt out their favorite songs inside the same store that sells mud minnows.
Reviewer’s verdict: well-worth the drive.
“It’s crazy fantastic,” said Jamey Thomas after singing “Blue Bayou.” “I don’t even care about the tackle.”
Josh Shaffer is a columnist and general assignment reporter.
A death in police custody and a swirl of emotions
I remember my heart racing early one January morning when I received a news release about a man who died in Raleigh police custody. At that point, no one knew anything about the man — later identified as 32-year-old Darryl “Tyree” Williams — or why he was dead.
What followed was a whirlwind of information from painful interviews with his friends and family, calls to action from local leaders and a three-page report of what police said happened.
All of it brought on emotions about the unfairness of life and how hard it is to write about young victims.
No reporter gets used to covering death, but stories like this reaffirm how vital this work is and how important it is to be someone our community can count on to tell the truth.
Kristen Johnson covers Cary and Western Wake County.
No one forgets about Randy Lewis after his encounter with a bull
Sitting outside his Alamance County farmhouse, Randy Lewis said he was surprised how many people offered help after a bull attacked him in May.
The bull put him in UNC Hospitals for 26 days with two punctured lungs, broken bones in his face and chest, and five broken ribs. It was hard to let other people take the reins from him, he said.
His stories reminded me of farmers I met as a child, riding in my grandpa’s Chevy pickup to buy seed or visit with men using fire and sticks to cook sorghum cane into sweet molasses while swapping stories of bootstraps and good times.
Like Lewis, they were “pretty good at shooting the breeze,” and they would agree, “it’s nice not to be forgot about.”
Tammy Grubb covers Chapel Hill and Orange County.
The haunting toll of pedestrians killed on Raleigh’s streets
When I set out to write about the record number of pedestrians hit and killed on Raleigh streets in a year, I wanted to name all 29 and describe, as best I could, the circumstances.
It wasn’t easy.
Police and the DMV no longer release personal information about accident victims. So N&O researcher David Raynor and I had to compare redacted crash reports with public death records and other sources.
The details of each crash varied. But speed and a lack of sidewalks and streetlights were common factors (a large majority were killed after dark or in twilight). And it was also clear that many of these people did not have access to a car in a city that’s built for them.
Richard Stradling covers transportation.
The tears and fears of a family with a transgender child
Those of us who saw the fallout from HB2 couldn’t help but contrast the pandemonium about that law — attacked and mocked nationally as the “bathroom bill” — with the response to this year’s new North Carolina laws on transgender children.
There’s little to no corporate backlash or nationwide activism focused on the 2023 laws, in part because a number of other states are following the same playbook.
But that doesn’t mean they won’t inspire passionate opinions or affect people in profound ways. Which is why I’ll remember our coverage of a family bracing themselves for the impact.
The Dumas family told their story to my colleague Jodie Valade, opening up about their parenting struggles and their medical bills, their fears and their tears.
What struck me was how they urgently wanted people to know more about their lives — hoping that more information would lead to more understanding.
Jordan Schrader is the politics editor.
Read the rest of the series: Part 1 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5
