Swinging for the Fences is a community conversation about High Point’s hope for change, amid the gamble of downtown renewal, led by the arrival of BB&T Point stadium and the Rockers. It’s a series of narratives and visuals documenting the catalyst project, as well as the role of baseball in the city’s historic fabric.
Rental apartments, bars, restaurants and weekend baseball games are all new frontiers – an effort to make Main Street a place to live, work and play. These kinds of urban attractions transformed other North Carolina cities – Winston-Salem, Greensboro and Durham. With the uniqueness of the furniture industry in the background, High Point’s chapter explores how local voices, native and non-native, see the effort. Swinging for the Fences is (and isn’t) about baseball.
Chris Gentilviso is a Roy H. Park Fellow at the UNC School of Media and Journalism. Before his M.A. in Chapel Hill, Gentilviso worked for Time.com, the Huffington Post, and WRAL.com, among other publications. He is an avid minor league baseball fan.