One of the proposals put forth by developers for the shopping center included government housing for elderly people. Now I know elderly people need a place to live and I might well end up in government subsidized housing for the elderly someday but I found this part of the proposal very troubling for several reasons.
1. At my last count there was over 40 empty single family homes surrounding the shopping center. Plus apartments. Why build new homes when we can't fill up the vacant homes we have now? Won't those vacant homes drive down the market value of the new homes?
2. In the 1960s the City of Greensboro built Claremont Courts-- a city housing project. It caused the neighborhood so many problems the City promised to never build another housing project in the area. In the 1970s the City built Patio Place apartments next door.
3. Now we have a developer trying to prod the City into breaking their promise a 3rd time.
4. Okay, so it's elderly people, they'll not cause the problems the other problems cause. True, they're more likely to be victimized. You see, the shopping center is almost next door to the existing projects. And while crime from the projects is not nearly as bad as it once was it remains the sore spot of the neighborhood 40 years later.
5. What it really comes down to is spending someone else's money.
From the Renaissance Community Co-op blog:
" At one point RCG investors were asked if they had done a market study of their proposed stores and they said that they had not. They also did not supply a list of the exact businesses that they would like to put into the Center."
What, no market studies? What kind of business invests over a Million Dollars without a market study or any idea what kinds of businesses they plan to run? Unless, of course, their plan is to take the City's money and run. In which case no market studies or business plans would be needed.
This is the group represented by Skip Alston and his nationwide investors. I first thought these were all foreign investors but at least one, Shehzad Quamar, has United States citizenship. That said, the profits will be going to Illinois, Florida and beyond. How far beyond I don't yet know because the City of Greensboro will not tell us who all the investors (his partners) are. Mr Quamar also said they intended to own and operate all the stores they would be bringing into the shopping center. And their intended shopping center monopoly is already gripping the entire city. They own stores all over Greensboro. These are national and possibly international investors passing themselves off as local investors. The proof is in the links. So much for keeping our money in our community. These so-called local investors are nationwide and taking thousands if not Millions of Dollars out of our community.
George Carr and his partner, Vernon Powell, who I don't think I have mentioned before, are getting cold feet. They've decided that instead of robbing us for the ownership of the entire shopping center they just want to rip us off for the construction. When asked at a February (March?) meeting of the Renaissance Community Co-op at the Presbyterian Church on Phillips Avenue as to why the RCC needed them, Carr and Powell replied, "We really don't know."
Now if Carr and Powell don't know why we need them then why would we want them to be involved in the first place? Why would Greensboro want them? Why would the Greensboro City Council want them?
You see, Mr Carr and Mr Powell, I was seated on the second row directly in front of you right behind Councilwoman Marikay Abuzuaiter and Councilwoman Nancy Barakat Vaughan as you spoke. We're used to panhandlers here on the east side of town, they even go door to door. We know they're lying when they tell us why they need money but at least their stories are cheap entertainment. You clowns weren't even funny. Not in the least. Now go back to clown school and try again.
Then there's the $20K Carr and Powell are promising the co-op if they get the contract. They're getting the money from the City of Greensboro so that just means they padded their bid by at least $20,000 so that they could buy support for their deal. See how the status quo is used to doing business in Greensboro. Take money from the taxpayers to give to the community to make yourself look good.
As a Diest I'm not a religious man but I know well the origins and the meaning of the expression, "Robbing Peter to pay Paul" and Carr and Powell are proposing right in front of our faces we allow them to do just that.
So while City Councilwoman Nancy Barakat Vaughan told the entire audience at the May 7th City Council meeting that the deal put together by the Renaissance Community Co-op was in-fact the best put together deal ever brought before the Greensboro City Council and even though she and other City Council members shot the two developer deals so full of holes a screen door would be envious, they still didn't pick the RCC deal over the others. Why?
There can only be one reason. Crony capitalism. The Greensboro City council is more concerned about where their kickbacks will come from than they are about how the citizens of Greensboro-- all of Greensboro-- will be voting come November. Both groups of developers should have been sent home with "no" votes as it was obvious to all involved their plans were half baked but instead both were given another chance.
Remember folks: This isn't just about East Greensboro. This is about striking a blow against the crony capitalism that has pushed up taxes, held us down, squashed economic development, destroyed race relations and dragged our city through the mud in an idiotic fetish to keep up with Charlotte for the last 50 plus years. Let them see Greensboro is no longer a soft target and soon they'll go away.
Want to see what the Renaissance Community Co-op proposed to the City of Greensboro? Unlike the developers, the RCC put their proposals online for everyone in Greensboro to see in 3 documents collectively titled, Renaissance Community Coop proposal and draft pro forma.
After reading this series and the Renaissance Community Coop proposal and draft pro forma, if the Greensboro City Council fails to pick the RCC then we'll all know the whole procedure was rigged from the beginning. Just as it always is.
Isn't it funny how the Greensboro News & Record had thousands of hours to put into promoting a downtown performing arts center so filled with secrets that in the end turned out to be a proven scam but not a single hour to report the actual details proposed by the Renaissance Community Coop who put everything out in the open for journalists and politicians to see? No, it's not funny, it's indicative of the sad state of bought and paid for local journalism today.
For the longest time I thought I was fighting this battle alone until yesterday when a young black woman I had never before seen walked up to me from on the street and hugged me saying, "You're Billy Jones, you just keep doing exactly what you're doing. You are not alone."
I'm not a reporter nor am I a trained journalist. My high school diploma was faked by school administration officials and I still type by hunting and pecking keys. I work mostly from memory, copy and paste and make tons of mistakes. This series has been riddled with mistakes. But I make corrections where necessary and write the truth as best as I can find the truth despite the fact that Greensboro government fights mine and others' every efforts to learn the truth and has continued to do so for many years. So if you find something in this series that is incomplete or wrong, please remember, had the media and the City of Greensboro told us the truth in the first place I could have been spending my time riding and wrenching on motorcycles.
Continue reading What The Media And The City Aren't Telling You About The Renaissance Community Co-op Part 10
