Greensboro Performing Arts Center: Who Controls The Agenda?

Yesterday, I attended the first 2 Greensboro Performing Arts Center public forums and I learned some interesting things and relearned some I already knew. Ross Harris, campaign manager for Mayor Robbie Perkins, manages the GPAC2012 Twitter feed established on February 14, 2012, and has recently modified the feed to control the message. No longer will tagging your Twitter posts, #GPAC2012 cause your posts to automatically display on the Latest Tweets widget on the GPAC2012 website Only Ross Harris' twits will display now.

Sorry Ross, you've been outed. So much for your planned social media campaign. But seriously, does anyone believe the process is really open and candid? Anyway, to help keep things honest I added a Twitter widget to the right column of every page on this website that will display all posts tagged #GPAC2012 even if I don't agree with you.

From today's News & Record:

"The task force said it will hold an "open, candid" discussion about the center, although Thursday's lunchtime public forum was a carefully controlled opportunity for residents to give their opinions."

And it started with the first question asked of the participants of yesterday's forum:

"1 Do you think Greensboro should have a new downtown performing arts center? Why or why not?"

In an open and candid discussion the first question would have been: Do you think Greensboro needs a performing arts center? Because if we don't need it then why are we rushing full steam ahead to build it? Am I the only person who has been hearing the song, 76 Trombones playing in my head for the last 3 months?

"Question 2: How could a downtown performing arts center benefit downtown and the Greensboro community?"

In an open and honest discussion, question 2 would have been: Can Greensboro afford a performing arts center?

"Question 3: What type of programming would you like to see on a downtown performing arts center?"

Should have been: Where should a performing arts center be placed? Question 3 should have been question 4 but instead:

"Question 4 How could you help spread the word and get the community engaged in this process?"

Question 4 is really a no brainer-- you take it into the neighborhoods. But sadly, the task force members privately admit they can't answer the questions that Greensboro communities are asking-- questions like hard numbers, who stands to profit and what makes downtown more worthy of a performing arts center than the neighborhood in the little green circle in Northeast Greensboro or other Greensboro communities other than downtown.


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