Make sense to you? Me neither.
This, my friends, is the sad state of our Greensboro leaders, the same leaders who have named 5 downtown sites for Greensboro's $72 Million Dollar performing arts center without even considering any locations that aren't downtown much less in the little green circle in northeast Greensboro where altogether the City of Greensboro owns almost 2000 acres of unused and under used properties that cost all of Greensboro's taxpayers.
From the Greensboro News & Record:
"Task force member Betty Cone cautioned about focusing on sites too early in the process.
“I think it would be unproductive to pick a site and then try to wedge something on it,” Cone said. “It is more productive to figure out what you want to build and then figure out the best place for it.”
Problem is: while Betty Cone appears to be the only sane voice in the room, the News & Record and the other downtown property owners who are really calling the shots, all have downtown properties they're dying to sell to the City of Greensboro.
The N&R continues:
"Coliseum Managing Director Matt Brown, who has proposed a 3,600-seat venue, worries that most of the downtown sites aren’t large enough.
Brown said the building he envisions — a fan-shaped, single-balcony, multi-use theater — would require five to six acres.
“That’s ideal,” Brown said. “It’s possible, with the final footprint, you might be able to squeeze it onto four-and-a-half acres.”
Brown is right, none of the proposed downtown locations are large enough but remember that Brown desperately wants Greensboro's performing arts center to be built as part of the Greensboro Coliseum Complex but there's more empty city owned property in the little green circle than even the Coliseum Complex can offer without tearing down the coliseum. And when it comes to potential future development acreage, nothing in downtown Greensboro can compare to the little green circle.
Nothing.
Tell downtown developers and the Greensboro City Council to build Greensboro's performing inside the little green circle or be prepared to be run out of town once and for all. Call them at 336-373-2002 or e-mail them by clicking here. Tell the folks at the Greensboro News & Record by calling them at 1-800-553-6880.
Continue to article #53. DPAC, Durham Performing Arts Center Rated #9.
