A poor neighborhood located in a food desert wanted a grocery story and decided to do something about it. They formed a grocery store co-op. At first they were ignored but when it began to look as if the might succeed, local developers and local government teamed up to ensure the co-op's downfall with the help of the local media. This is the sixth in a series of text, documents, videos and now photographs of what the City and the local media never told us. Why?
In the presentation at last week's Greensboro City Council meeting we saw artists' renderings of shiny things the developers are proposing all of Greensboro's taxpayers pick up the tab to cover in the "redevelopment" of the old Bessemer Shopping Center. That's not surprising when every photograph the media shows you of the shopping center is of the east end of the center.
But why not take a look at the west end where the Family Dollar Store is located. The end the City of Greensboro paid to renovate just 3 years ago. It's amazing what a little paint can do. Why is it the City is considering renovations on a 3 year old renovation anyway?
Did they tell you what Greensboro Mayoral Candidate George Hartzman had to say?
"The most likely sustainable tenants for the property look to be those who can end up owning it, so they wouldn't have to pay rent after x years, and just pay the property tax.
Setting up a developer with taxpayer money to extract rent from a co-op on what is now taxpayer owned property seems like cronyism.
Having Skip Alston involved makes it look crooked from the outset.
We can do the same stuff, and things will remain the same, or we can stake out new ground, and start doing what’s in the best interests of those in that neighborhood.
I believe what’s in the best interests of that neighborhood is the lowest cost retail space for what seems like will be relatively low margin consumer services type businesses.
A co-op could thrive there if it doesn’t have an entrenched crony squeezing rents/profits garnered from everyone else’s tax money and guarantees."
Did they ever bother to show you the beautiful nursery next door? Did they tell you there are no less than 6 nurseries within 0.3 tenths of a mile of the shopping center?
Did they tell you what Marnie Thompson had to say,
"Here’s the thing that puzzles me: Again and again, I heard several Council members say in support of the idea of selling the Renaissance Center to a private development group: “In this economy, we can’t afford to turn our back on private investment!” I wanted to jump up out of my seat and yell, “Wait a minute! That’s exactly what you’ll be doing, if you sell the Center to a private developer. Because that’s endangering the $700,000 loan from Self Help, which is explicitly tied to the City retaining ownership of the shopping center or selling it to the community!”
Council members, for the most part, seemed oblivious to the idea that the coop was itself bringing a significant amount of money to the table. Instead, many seemed to be treating the coop as a very worthy, popular, “charitable” enterprise. This was puzzling to me: In the RCC’s presentations to Council and in all the information we had circulated to Council members in face-to-face meetings, we had carefully spelled out our plans for raising the $2 million we needed to open the grocery store. Yes, we are asking for a $100,000 grant and a $600,000 loan from the City. Lots of businesses have asked for and received economic development support of this kind from the City. More importantly, the RCC is also bringing $1.3 million of our own money to the table. That $1.3 million is what any banker would call “private investment.”
Did anyone bother to show you the community center or the tennis courts across the street from the shopping center? Empty at a time of day when there are lines at other city tennis courts. Or the fact that there are at my last count over 40 empty houses at bargain basement prices within 0.3 tenths of a mile of that very shopping center? Yes, you would have to hear my rooster crow but he's not as loud as a dog and you do get used to it.
And a recreation center with not 1 but 2 public swimming pools directly across the street from the shopping center-- did they tell you about that? And yet developers would rather bulldoze the community than save it beginning with redeveloping a shopping center that needs little more than a paint job.
Did the media tell you what Dave Reed had to say,
"Ridding communities of food deserts so that the people have access to healthy and affordable food is a cornerstone piece of redeveloping our neighborhoods to be sustainable. Community-owned businesses can play a critical role in this work. Reinvesting money directly back into those communities through democratic processes is equally important. The Renaissance Community Coop is building just such a business and, in the process, re-imagining their community as one that is democratic, just and sustainable."
Call me crazy but we all know Dave's voice would have never been heard if not for my insane rants. Nor would the 100 people who showed up in support of the co-op at last week's Greensboro City Council meeting. Folks, this was one of the largest crowds to ever address the Greensboro City Council and the local media never even mentioned them being in the room.
The City of Greensboro, media and developers have presented this shopping center as a building that should be almost demolished but that simply isn't the truth. The laundromat needs news washing machines and a paint job. The dryers are still intact. At least 2 of the shops only need minor repairs to be ready to be used as retail establishments. How many shopping centers have one of the city's finest libraries?
Has all this talk of investment in East Greensboro really been about building things to make the neighborhood ready for when they push the working class out of our own neighborhoods? The way they've handled the Co-op deal would certainly make the community assume so. You know what else they're not going to tell you? Private investment in the form of loans from citizens has gone up over $13,000 in the last week alone. And how many shopping centers have several beautiful 100 year old shade trees under which customers could have a picnic lunch?
Fields of grass and room to grow included in the property?
Seriously folks, if you haven't read What The Media And The City Aren't Telling You About The Renaissance Community Co-op Part 1 I highly recommend you begin there. No one in my Northeast Greensboro neighborhood was asking the City of Greensboro and Greensboro taxpayers for anything other than the right to control what was already ours and yours. Then local developers and politicians got involved and saw a chance to pad their own pockets by presenting the story to you as if we were begging for truckloads of free fish when all we wanted as a few poles and the keys to the gate that locks us out of our own pond.
Oh, and just so you know, when I was growing up I used to fish in a pond where the shopping center is located today.
Wonder why no one from the City of Greensboro ever bothered to respond to my e-mails and the questions I raised in this series? Do they really not care about the questions and concerns of several of the largest and most powerful voting blocs in all of Greensboro? Or are they just blind to reality? Shall I continue to Part 7 and bury a few more elected leaders, developers and City officials? Tyrannicide is a dirty, thankless job but somebody's gotta do it, might as well be me.
Continue reading What The Media And The City Aren't Telling You About The Renaissance Community Co-op Part 7
