When my son was a little boy I took him to the store to get candy explaining that he could have one of anything he liked but only one. Jason was a smart child and understood the concept of just one as well as any adult but when he walked to the cash register he was carrying so much candy that he had to carry it by pulling up the front of his t-shirt and using it as a bag. Thinking back all those years I'd be surprised if there were less than 100 pieces of candy in his shirt.
Over the objections of his mother I made him put every piece back where it belonged. Exactly where it belonged. "But he's just a little boy," she complained, "why must you be so mean to him?" She always confused sound parenting with being mean so I wasn't surprised.
"For starters," I replied, "unless you want him to go into a diabetic coma and die, he doesn't need that much candy. Besides, as a child he has to learn to make good decisions so that he can carry the process into adulthood."
Now let's take a look at our current "city leaders" and their best friends, the local development lobby. Take Mayor Perkins for example. I can't speak to what it was like for the Mayor growing up but since Robbie Perkins first landed here in Greensboro circa 1974, every thing he has ever wanted has come his way due at least in-part to his various positions on the Board of Guilford County Commissioners, Greensboro City Council and most recently as Mayor of Greensboro. Robbie has managed to get himself elected to whichever board or council it was that held sway over the properties he was and is pushing for development. And if that wasn't enough candy, Robbie even dumped his wife for a younger woman.
Then there's Roy Carroll. Roy grew up in Greensboro, the son of a well to do developer who no doubt gave Roy everything he needed to get all the candy he ever wanted. By the time Roy was old enough to take a trip down the candy isle, Roy Sr was already introducing little Roy to all the local candy men like Jim Melvin, Ed Kitchen and the like.
You see, men like Robbie and Roy get used to not having to choose. They're used to having it all and when the economy was good that might have been okay but now that we're in a down economy they still can't decide between a downtown performing arts center, thousands of acres of unnecessary development along the Alamance County line, thousands of acres of unnecessary development along the Forsyth County line and anything else they can dream up as long as we-the-taxpayers are footing the bills.
Roy and Robbie are men of wealth and privilege who are used to getting anything and anything they want when they want it. They still want it all. It's time they learned to decide.
Continue to article #92. GPAC Visits DPAC.
