For me, that's not necessarily as bad thing. You see, my business partners and I are preparing to open a small green business in Burlington and could use the economic impact.
But what about those of you who are being left behind-- don't you deserve economic development as well?
Oh sure, Mayor Perkins will point to things like a downtown performing arts center as economic development for Greensboro but I'm beginning to sense a pattern here. Perhaps you are too? Mayor Perkins represents a small group of elites who own property downtown and along the fringes of the county and now he and they plan to spend the majority of Greensboro's economic development funds to increase the value of their own investments at the expense of Northeast Greensboro and every other Greensboro community, under the guise of economic development using a myth known around the world as "shovel ready." Which, by the way, doesn't Mayor Perkins own a number of as yet, unsold, "shovel ready" sites along North Elm street that we-the-taxpayers incentivized several years ago and have yet to reap any tangible economic development from? And doesn't Roy Carroll own at least 1 empty housing development outside the city limits that we paid to pipe?
From Wikipedia:
"A project is considered shovel ready if it has advanced to the stage that laborers may immediately be employed to start work. The term is used in reference to projects which are candidates for economic stimulus spending: money put into a shovel ready project will have a more immediate impact on the economy than money spent on a project on which a great deal of time must elapse for architecture, zoning, legal considerations or other such factors before labor can be deployed on it."
Roy Carroll's project has no tenants, no architecture and no contracts from buyers. In other words, Roy Carroll's 104 acre industrial park is and will remain anything but shovel ready. But we plan to invest over $5 Million Dollars anyway? What's up with that?
And need I mention Roy's planned increase in Greensboro's urban sprawl issues?
On the downtown noise issue, the Greensboro News & Record wrote:
"In any event, Carroll shouldn’t receive any greater consideration than any other taxpayer with a complaint."
Shouldn't the same be true when it comes to spending $Millions in Greensboro taxpayers dollars? And shouldn't the same be true when deciding where to place performing arts centers and other forms of economic development?
There have been too many broken promises for far too long (Anyone remember War Memorial Stadium?) our homes, history and legacy are being destroyed at the hands of a wealthy few and the Greensboro City Council.
And finally, who is buying the A&T Farm and what do they plan to do with it?
Update: Jeff Martin on the War Memorial Stadium:
"If city leaders have any notion of building a $50M Performing Arts Center, it is mandatory that they also fund this."
Continue reading article #89. Maybe The Task Force Has The Wrong Charge?.
