From the News & Record:
"Leaders of the groups synerG Young Professionals, Greensboro Jaycees, the Future Fund, Face to Face and the young lawyers section of the Greensboro Bar Association presented the City Council on Tuesday with a white paper on the changes they would like to see downtown."
Might I remind you that most of those groups are a part ofAuction Action Greensboro and the Greensboro Partnership and receive their funding from the same. In other words: who do you really think will be calling the shots? That's right, the same old white men who have been calling the shots all along.
"Mayor Robbie Perkins said he would create a council committee to work with young professionals on downtown issues."
Again, behind closed doors. More delay, obfuscation and manipulation.
“We felt we wanted to have a seat at the table,” said Tim Tsujii, a co-chairman of synerG.
Group members are worried that Greensboro trails other cities in wages and high-paying jobs and in having such urban amenities as diverse retail or unique entertainment.
“This, paired with organizational obstinacy for changes and innovative/creative solutions, creates significant obstacles and impediments to the improvement of our downtown,” according to the white paper.
But representatives said their concerns are bigger than the issues with one organization. "
They're right, but they won't be in control of anything.
"They also asked the council to focus on “large transformation projects” such as the proposed performing arts center and to invest in a center city small business incubator."
In that last quote you'll find the real agenda, “large transformation projects” that tax our working class neighborhoods and take jobs away from where we need them most. That being where the vast majority of Greensboro's residents live. Why are 2000 residents Downtown getting all the amenities while almost 270,000 residents throughout the rest of the city do without? Because Downtown is where Greensboro's elite decided to invest their personal fortunes. And if it's a business incubator you want, here's a proven method and it should be city wide and not just downtown.
"Other news from the Greensboro City Council meeting....
Council members agreed to sell about 7 acres south of Lee Street to the South Elm Development Group for $428,000 an acre. The development is expected to be worth at least $50 million.
The development group will act as a master developer on the site, working with other companies that want to build or own specific buildings in the redevelopment.
It’s unclear what will be built on the property. The developers would like to see a proposed downtown university district there. It likely will be a year or so before any construction begins."
So it's still unclear what will be built on the City owned property but it gets approval anyway. Could you or I build anything in Greensboro without first telling the City what it was we were going to build. Don't give me that crap about how it fits the Redevelopment Plan. As I pointed out last week, South Elm Street Redevelopment isn't even a legal entity in North Carolina. Oh wait, I'm wrong, like most things Greensboro they have 2 names: South Elm Development Group is a Durham company.
"The city provided the nonprofit with the loan to help it move to a new building. Nonprofit leaders said it does not yet have enough new tenants and may have to lay off staff if it must start repaying the loan.
Council members Nancy Vaughan, Marikay Abuzuaiter and Tony Wilkins voted against the decision. Vaughan questioned the center’s decision to rent space to a U.S. division of an Italian furniture company. She said the center should be rented to start-up companies."
I'd like to personally thank councilmembers Vaughan, Abuzuaiter and Wilkins for standing up against corporate welfare to foreign corporations. This is in-fact exactly what happens when non profits rent space designed for local start-ups to foreign competitors. The Nussbalm Center proved themselves incapable of managing their own business and were forced to violate their own rules and return to the taxpayers' well just like all of Greensboro's connected "non profits" too often do. This is another reason why we really don't want the powers that be to be in charge of yet another business incubator.
" The council removed from its agenda a possible contract to hire the Triad Real Estate and Building Industry Coalition to lobby on behalf of the city.
The council made no comment about why it made the decision. City Manager Denise Turner Roth later said the city still may consider hiring a lobbyist but it won’t be TREBIC."
I think I know why they didn't approve the plan. I think my previous blog posts and e-mails concerning the subject might have alerted them. (Not that I was the only one.) Again, this was/is no more than an another attempt at corporate welfare. Let TREBIC fight and fund it's own battles. The City of Greensboro already has plenty of favorable representation at the State level concerning the Jordan Lake Rules which, by the way, the City saw coming since the 1960s and never addressed. Sometimes we are forced to pay for our mistakes like it or not. I commend the Council on putting it off and recommend you not hire any lobbyist to bend the Jordan Lake Rules. After all, it was Greensboro that created the problem in the first place, trying to legislate our way out of it only proves Greensboro to be as sinister and low as Billy Jones (that would be me) is constantly making it out to be.
"Leaders of the groups synerG Young Professionals, Greensboro Jaycees, the Future Fund, Face to Face and the young lawyers section of the Greensboro Bar Association presented the City Council on Tuesday with a white paper on the changes they would like to see downtown."
Might I remind you that most of those groups are a part of
"Mayor Robbie Perkins said he would create a council committee to work with young professionals on downtown issues."
Again, behind closed doors. More delay, obfuscation and manipulation.
“We felt we wanted to have a seat at the table,” said Tim Tsujii, a co-chairman of synerG.
Group members are worried that Greensboro trails other cities in wages and high-paying jobs and in having such urban amenities as diverse retail or unique entertainment.
“This, paired with organizational obstinacy for changes and innovative/creative solutions, creates significant obstacles and impediments to the improvement of our downtown,” according to the white paper.
But representatives said their concerns are bigger than the issues with one organization. "
They're right, but they won't be in control of anything.
"They also asked the council to focus on “large transformation projects” such as the proposed performing arts center and to invest in a center city small business incubator."
In that last quote you'll find the real agenda, “large transformation projects” that tax our working class neighborhoods and take jobs away from where we need them most. That being where the vast majority of Greensboro's residents live. Why are 2000 residents Downtown getting all the amenities while almost 270,000 residents throughout the rest of the city do without? Because Downtown is where Greensboro's elite decided to invest their personal fortunes. And if it's a business incubator you want, here's a proven method and it should be city wide and not just downtown.
"Other news from the Greensboro City Council meeting....
Council members agreed to sell about 7 acres south of Lee Street to the South Elm Development Group for $428,000 an acre. The development is expected to be worth at least $50 million.
The development group will act as a master developer on the site, working with other companies that want to build or own specific buildings in the redevelopment.
It’s unclear what will be built on the property. The developers would like to see a proposed downtown university district there. It likely will be a year or so before any construction begins."
So it's still unclear what will be built on the City owned property but it gets approval anyway. Could you or I build anything in Greensboro without first telling the City what it was we were going to build. Don't give me that crap about how it fits the Redevelopment Plan. As I pointed out last week, South Elm Street Redevelopment isn't even a legal entity in North Carolina. Oh wait, I'm wrong, like most things Greensboro they have 2 names: South Elm Development Group is a Durham company.
"The city provided the nonprofit with the loan to help it move to a new building. Nonprofit leaders said it does not yet have enough new tenants and may have to lay off staff if it must start repaying the loan.
Council members Nancy Vaughan, Marikay Abuzuaiter and Tony Wilkins voted against the decision. Vaughan questioned the center’s decision to rent space to a U.S. division of an Italian furniture company. She said the center should be rented to start-up companies."
I'd like to personally thank councilmembers Vaughan, Abuzuaiter and Wilkins for standing up against corporate welfare to foreign corporations. This is in-fact exactly what happens when non profits rent space designed for local start-ups to foreign competitors. The Nussbalm Center proved themselves incapable of managing their own business and were forced to violate their own rules and return to the taxpayers' well just like all of Greensboro's connected "non profits" too often do. This is another reason why we really don't want the powers that be to be in charge of yet another business incubator.
" The council removed from its agenda a possible contract to hire the Triad Real Estate and Building Industry Coalition to lobby on behalf of the city.
The council made no comment about why it made the decision. City Manager Denise Turner Roth later said the city still may consider hiring a lobbyist but it won’t be TREBIC."
I think I know why they didn't approve the plan. I think my previous blog posts and e-mails concerning the subject might have alerted them. (Not that I was the only one.) Again, this was/is no more than an another attempt at corporate welfare. Let TREBIC fight and fund it's own battles. The City of Greensboro already has plenty of favorable representation at the State level concerning the Jordan Lake Rules which, by the way, the City saw coming since the 1960s and never addressed. Sometimes we are forced to pay for our mistakes like it or not. I commend the Council on putting it off and recommend you not hire any lobbyist to bend the Jordan Lake Rules. After all, it was Greensboro that created the problem in the first place, trying to legislate our way out of it only proves Greensboro to be as sinister and low as Billy Jones (that would be me) is constantly making it out to be.
