Amanda Lehmert writes a few notes from the at large ladies on City Council last week. I've little doubt our current at large councilpersons are among the best we have on council today.
"Councilwoman Marikay Abuzuaiter said it has been really scary to watch the layoff notices come into the council offices. She suggested that the city focus on using empty commercial buildings within the city for new businesses and bolstering companies that are already here.
"We might not get the 5,000 job plant. We need to step back and start from the ground up," she said."
Here's some ideas. I'm currently beginning a backyard fish farming experiment to raise Tilapia in three 375 gallon food grade plastic shipping containers not with intentions of selling fish but with intentions of feeding family, friends and neighbors. Worldwide there is an ever increasing shortage of fish that are safe to eat and I'm not going to go hungry or eat poison fish. A converted big box retail store could raise enough fish to feed a city while employing dozens of workers. And I happen to know a certain wholesale fish buyer who would rather buy his Tilapia grown in Greensboro than anywhere else in the world. All that's required is a loan to get someone started and a zoning change to allow it to happen. The fish smell is easily controlled in the same way sewer smells have been controlled for over 100 years. Other breeds of fish could be raised as well.
The City of Greensboro pays out of town contractors to haul away old electronics and then sell the valuable gold, platinum, silver, copper, aluminum, stainless steel and other metals contained inside these televisions, computers, phones, gaming consoles and other items. A zoning change would make it possible to do the job right here in Greensboro and give us shopping center drop off locations that are always open so that there is no reason to toss these items on the streets where they are picked through by scrap peddlers and scattered all over the neighborhood. Did I mention the easiest and most cost effective way to remove the platinum is via solar power or that doing so will mean more jobs for Greensboro's trolls. I use electrolysis in my shop as a means of cleaning motorcycle parts and removing old plating. I do it at home, it's not rocket science. I did mention a zoning change, right?
What about that motorcycle plant or the Greensboro car? Manufacturing like that would start out small enough to begin in former big box retail stores or the hundreds of thousands of square feet of empty industrial buildings that already populate our city. Jobs for trolls! Jobs for trolls!
Mushroom farm perhaps? Winery? Microbrewery? Farmers markets? Used auto parts businesses? I've known these guys since they moved to North Carolina 20 years ago. First Durham and then Greensboro. Their business is currently booming and I'm betting they would jump at the chance to put stores indoors. I also know they're considering other locations.
Add skylights and turn them into year 'round herb gardens? I grow herbs in my front yard. Next time you're at the grocery store, check the prices on the dried herbs in the little bottles-- the small print where the price per pound can be found. Dried chives are over $500 per pound. My chives grow year 'round in the yard, require no fertilizer and only the occasional watering. Parsley, Rosemary, Sage, Thyme and countless other herbs grow effortlessly in my yard. I collect 100% of the water for all my gardens from the rain. All you need to harvest them is scissors. Just don't run.
