I know a lot of people are thinking the battle to stop the Downtown Greensboro Performing Arts Center is over. That and apathy are the reasons no one showed up for the anti-GPAC planning meeting last night. Well here's a few facts to consider:
To date the City of Greensboro has invested over $500,000 into GPAC. (How much was the purchase and demolition of the YWCA?)
The Community Foundation has invested $200,000 into GPAC.
GPAC supporters have invested unknown tens of thousands into GPAC.
DGI, Action Greensboro, the Greensboro Partnership and other non profits have invested untold amounts of time, energy and money into GPAC.
TREBIC members spent well over $100,000 to put Council Members on City Council for the sole purpose of supporting GPAC and will support their reelection campaigns next year based on their pro GPAC votes. TREBIC contractors will be the recipients of the $60 plus Million cost of building GPAC.
I'm guessing, and this is just a guess, that all in all,well over a $Million Dollars has been spent to date to build GPAC. Those kind of people are pretty damned sure they're going to get a damned good return on their investments and rarely are they wrong. And while most of Greensboro is against GPAC there are probably only just about a dozen or so people who are actively getting off their asses and fighting it. No wonder Mayor Perkins gets away with saying no one opposes it.
Several council members stand to earn what you and I would consider fortunes should GPAC pass. Robbie Perkins alone will make more than a $Million Dollars from the downtown properties his company represents. And the last words out of the Mayor's mouth 2 weeks ago was a reminder that anyone that voted yes to giving citizens the right to vote has the right to renig on their vote and take your right to vote away from you.
You know what, I live in Greensboro but I don't own a home here. My business interests are in Burlington. I think the combined City and County property tax I paid on my '91 Toyota came to around $8.oo last year and with depreciation it will go down next year even if your tax bill goes up. Am I concerned personally about what GPAC will or will not do for Greensboro? Hell no! I fought this battle for Greensboro and you can't even get off your asses and do for yourself.
Well guess what? You deserve everything Robbie Perkins and Greensboro's elites ram down your throats for the rest of your lives.This was never about me, there's nothing in it for me. As a matter of fact: it's taking up time I could be spending to improve my own life but I chose to spend the last year helping you only to be abandoned because you're too lazy to get off your collective asses.
It wasn't about political aspirations either. I don't want to be a leader. I had hoped to see new leaders emerge, a new generation with new ideas and an attitude that puts people before profits but me lead? I'm more the type to ride off into the sunset or pen a story about a talking motorcycle, I don't lead. This last year has been torture for me, I want to create, not destroy.
My youngest brother, his wife and daughter were recently served eviction papers on their home in High Point because my brother was forced to choose between house payments and Insulin. It was a house or die situation, I think all of us would have done the same. The three of them will be living here and taking care of my mother soon. Greensboro can find someone else to fight its battles. Either you organize to fight GPAC, and I mean organize now, or get ready to live in a bankrupt city. Me, I can write anywhere.
