LOCAL ACTIVIST USES INTERNET TO DEMAND RESULTS

GREENSBORO -- His name is linked to high-profile efforts over the
past five years to rid Greensboro of blight.

Consider the list:

The South Gate Motor Inn? Check.

Massage parlors? Check.

Crack stem pipes? Check.

Critics say he craves undeserved recognition for plans already under
way by city employees. His supporters counter that without his
presence, it is possible nothing would have been accomplished.

Yet everyone agrees that Ben Holder, a Gate City native who runs a
Web log dubbed "The Greensboro Troublemaker," uses the Internet to
feed a passion for challenging the local status quo.

And it's almost impossible to stem his antagonism if he feels ignored.

"(City leaders) want to tell me how they're fixing everything," said
Holder, a former Greensboro code enforcement officer and former
freelance reporter now living in Winston-Salem. "I want to tell them
how they're not."

Holder started the Troublemaker blog in June to publicize issues he
feels are important to the community's welfare. His latest target of
guerrilla journalism is Guilford County commissioner Melvin "Skip" Alston.

Alston, who manages St. James Homes near downtown Greensboro, accused
city building officials last month of overreacting to Holder's blog
rants when they sent inspectors to visit the apartment complex.

By doing so at an Oct. 19 press conference to deflect criticism, the
former head of the state NAACP legitimized Holder as a rabble-rouser,
the mosquito that won't go away.

Nevermind that a stairwell had collapsed in September, injuring four
residents, or that city firefighters had contacted the building
office within days of discovering the problem.

The reason for the all-out inspections?

"(It was) to appease this guy called the Greensboro Troublemaker,"
Alston said at the press conference. He has since declined to comment further.

To understand Alston's frustration is to understand how 34-year-old
Holder works. The outspoken activist wields the state Public
Information Act like a baseball bat to the kneecaps of city workers.

In some of Holder's recent e-mails to city employees, he belittles
workers and, in one instance, accuses the city attorney of "hiding
public info for political reasons." Another e-mail to an assistant
police chief reads "when the city does my stuff without consulting me
it always ends up a fiasco."

Confrontations and antagonism describe his modus operandi. Critics
say his need for recognition can send him into a rage when denied.

Holder has been making his way toward downtown from Randleman Road
after delving into largely successful "Project 2400" cleanup efforts
two years ago. The project targeted drugs and prostitution along the highway.

Holder has also been a vocal advocate of addressing a gas station and
convenience mart along South Eugene Street that had been the site of
several drug busts -- and even a fatal shooting -- over the summer.

When Holder read about the stair collapse in the News & Record, he
demanded copies of city inspection records for St. James to hold them
accountable.

St. James, he says, was the next stop on his way north. The complex,
which is owned by St. James Baptist Church, is on South Eugene Street
near Greensboro Urban Ministry.

Holder submitted a petition in early October to have the city inspect
every unit in the complex. The city's top building official says his
office was already on the case as Holder collected the five
signatures needed for it to be considered.

"If Ben wants credit, give him credit, I don't care," said Walter
"Butch" Simmons, the man who heads the building office. "My job is to
keep people safe."

Credit is something Holder appears to feel he deserves. His profile
on the Troublemaker lists all the projects for which he claims a
significant role:

"The Notches on my Belt include the following.... 12 Asian Massage
Parlors (remember them?). Randleman Road improvements (I am the
reason you cannot buy a crack pipe on Randleman Road.)

"South Gate Motor Inn is being demolished as well. Spring Valley
Shopping Center face lift... well... it would not have happened if
Project 2400 did not happen. ..."

It's an understatement to say Holder hasn't always endeared himself
to city leaders. But he does have one key ally.

"Ben makes a lot of people uncomfortable, but you've got to look at
what he is trying to do," said Councilman Tom Phillips. "He's looking
out for people who otherwise might not get the attention they
deserve. I'd say he deserves a lot of credit. And he doesn't get that credit."

Holder, the youngest of four children, grew up off West Market Street
near Our Lady of Grace Catholic Church. He graduated from Grimsley
High School, took courses at GTCC and UNCG, then coached football for
several years at area schools. He moved for a period to Louisiana,
where he worked with the homeless.

Upon his return, he managed local restaurants and met his wife,
Donna. They moved to Winston-Salem, where she worked at Salem College.

Holder then started writing for the Carolina Peacemaker, a weekly
Greensboro newspaper marketed largely to the black community.

His articles tackled subjects like squelching Asian massage parlors,
crack cocaine and the sale of stem pipes.

"Sometimes you need trouble-making in a community like Greensboro,
which is marked by its civility," said Joya Wesley, a spokeswoman for
the Truth and Reconciliation Commission and the former editor of the
Peacemaker. "You can't always be worried about whether someone's
sensitivities are offended. We have a tendency in this community to
err on the side of silence and politeness."

Holder was soon offered a job with the city, which he claims was a
way for his targets in city government to keep a lid on his
criticisms. He stayed with the code enforcement office for a year and
left after his wife died of cancer in September 2004.

Holder still lives in Winston-Salem with his 5-year-old son and
2-year-old daughter because it is the city where his wife wanted to
raise the kids.

Holder also has sources in the Greensboro Police Department that feed
him information not typically released to the public. He posts it on
his blog, much to the displeasure of some police officials.

And his activism includes testimony to the Greensboro Truth and
Reconciliation Commission, a panel investigating the 1979 Klan-Nazi shootings.

The reporter-turned-activist chided City Council for its refusal to
support the commission's work.

"To ignore it is foolish," he said, firing out his words in staccato.
"To be a leader and ignore it is irresponsible."

One of his self-proclaimed successes -- cleaning up the now
half-demolished South Gate Motor Inn along Interstate 40 --
demonstrates how his actions can needle even those who might benefit
from more low-key contributions.

The South Gate was one of the police department's most notorious
spots for crime until an all-out effort was launched in the spring of
2003. Project 2400 combined efforts of the city fire, police and code
enforcement offices to clean up that block of Randleman Road
generating the most police visits.

Wayne Willard and Ronn Wilson, who both helped lead the Randleman
Road Area Business Association, bristle at Holder's notion that he
was responsible for Project 2400.

They assert that efforts were under way to clean up Randleman Road
before he came to the council and argued for such an effort. They
said he never contacted them for information on the problem and
offered no hint that he was about to lobby on behalf of an initiative
they were drafting.

Within months, the effort was in full swing.

"Give the devil his due. He probably helped expedite the project,"
Willard said. "But we were already working on it before he went to
City Council."

Holder held the property owner and the city to the letter of the law
even as work crews started demolishing the motel. When he found no
one had applied for an asbestos permit, he contacted the state -- and
the cleanup was stalled for some time.

In March, Holder told the News & Record that more than a year after
Project 2400's active enforcement campaign ended, the area had
reverted back to crime. Willard and Wilson strongly disagree, arguing
"80 to 90" percent of the drugs and prostitution once affiliated with
the area have vanished.

"We've got problems, we admit it, and we try to do something about
it," Willard said. "But don't come up with things that aren't true
about the problems we do have."

Randleman Road is in Holder's rear-view mirror nowadays.

The activist and blogger says he will soon turn his attention to
problems plaguing South Eugene Street in Greensboro and to problems
in Winston-Salem he's had some experience combating: crack stem pipes.

"The leadership in Greensboro is nuts. And that certainly isn't a
news flash," Holder said. "I'm not done with what happened at St. James."

Staff writer Margaret Moffett Banks contributed to this report.