The following is the plan I hope to present at the Mayor's East Greensboro Summit, aka, The Gathering of the Trolls on October 29th 6-8 PM. That is, if the powers that be will allow me to do so. No, it won't solve everything but its a start and it's more than any of out elected leaders or "movers and shakers" have given us in the past 50 years.
Correction: The Co-op mentioned below will not require a non profit be established.
It begins with a grocery story, a former Winn-Dixie in a shopping center located in Northeast Greensboro on the corners of Elwell and Phillips Avenues and owned in its entirety by the City of Greensboro. While others have talked of giving incentives to lure a chain there or forming yet another non profit to put a coop there I had a bigger idea: Use the grocery store as the corner stone of an economic development project.
Start by giving the grocery store to the Interactive Resource Center, an existing downtown non profit currently funded by the City of Greensboro to feed and clothe the poor, help with job training, housing for the homeless and other services to Greensboro's poor. Allow the IRC to operate the independent grocery story as a service to my neighborhood and put the grocery store profits into helping all of Greensboro's poor. Help the IRC expand their services and help Greensboro at the same time.
In terms of economic development, the grocery store could hire clients from the IRC as well as from the existing neighborhood which has one of the highest unemployment rates in the city. The grocery store would also serve as an anchor for the shopping center to attract other businesses there. And for those of you who think crime is a problem, this neighborhood now has a crime rate on par with New Irving Park. But don't take my word for it, ask the Greensboro Police Department from which I got the stats.
But let's not end there. Within 3 tenths of a mile of that shopping center are at last count, 40 empty houses not counting empty apartments, duplexes and empty lots. Some are in foreclosure, several are owned by the City of Greensboro. Add one more tenth of a mile and the number doubles. Allow the IRC to buy and sell these houses with low interest loans to families who have just gone back to work and would not otherwise qualify for a home loan. That is, after they have helped in the restoration of some of those homes. These are good homes, mostly 900 to 1200 square feet with oak floors and some with hardwood framing. They are better built than most high end homes built today.
Now we've added a grocery store, funded a non profit, produced jobs, put homeless people in houses, restored a dying neighborhood, raised property values and increased the city's tax base. Seems pretty pie in the sky, doesn't it? Well before you stop reading or go straight to the comment feature to tell me how stupid I was to think this idea would ever fly, please read the rest.
You see, it doesn't have to end in my neighborhood. The City of Greensboro has lots of properties like this all over town. And when those developers start defaulting on those loans the City Council gave them to fix up those empty big box retail stores the City of Greensboro will own lots more commercial properties-- some of them in some pretty good neighborhoods.
So why not think of my plan as a model that can be repeated all over town. Next up, the Mental Health Association of Greensboro, a tiny downtown non profit that is grossly underfunded and services hundreds of Greensboro citizens each and every year with peer support, classes in well being, anger management, managing depression, bipolar disorder and other mental illnesses, recovery action planning and a myriad of things I can't remember off the top of my head.
Then I'll let someone else pick non profit number 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11..........
Of course, you're asking, how are we going to pay for all this nice liberal goodness and as a long time fiscal conservative I'll tell you. But the question isn't how we're going to pay but what are we going to pay for?
Recently the City of Greensboro got $1 Million Dollars from the Federal Government to be used on economic development provided the City of Greensboro matches it with another quarter million. That's $1.25 Million Dollars total for seed money for my plan. Normally I wouldn't be too keen on this type of spending but Mayor Robme Perkins already has the money and is making plans to spend it to develop industrial parks way out on the county lines where we already know it will require $5 Million Dollars for water and sewer alone as that's what the City just gave Roy Carroll to put water and sewer into his own industrial park. Which, by the way, has zero buyers.
So you see, being that the money is as good as gone anyway, I was thinking we might as well spend it where it would do Greensboro the most good. The Mayor has designed a contest to see how this money will be spent but has also made known his intentions not to put this money into Greensboro neighborhoods preferring instead to spend it near the airport or on more empty industrial parks in a process that will require 2 years when in fact: if Council were to act we could be putting people to work and contributing to Greensboro's economic development today.
Yes, there are still things to be worked out with my plan and nothing is set in stone. That's why I've made it public for everyone to see and contribute to-- open, honest, above board and debated in the public the way democracy is supposed to work.
And the real beauty of my plan: not one new building, not one new industrial park, not one new $5 Million Dollar sewer line needs be run. Not one new non profit needs to be formed to charge us to spend our money. It's all already in place and was inspected and cleaned by the City of Greensboro just 2 weeks ago.
Continue to Part 2
