I will work to start recall campaigns against any council member who votes for GPAC tomorrow night should it pass. If nothing else that should wipe out the money Zack Matheny saved from his last city council campaign with intentions of applying it to his bid for Congress. Should I be successful we will change the direction in which Greensboro is headed, push the elites from power and start working on the real issues that haunt our city. Issues like:
Remaining the hub of the 2nd hungriest MSA (Metropolitan Statical Area) in these united states.
Having a poverty rate of over 21%.
The highest unemployment of any comparable city in North Carolina
33% of Greensboro's urban population lives in food deserts. (And as for you morons living in out in the country shouting, "I drive 20 miles to drive to the grocery store!" The reason people live in cities, pay city taxes and put up with all this crap is to be close to things like grocery stores. Otherwise we'd move in next door to you, Shit-for brains! Besides, what business is it of yours, you neither live, vote nor pay personal property taxes in Greensboro.)
Greensboro's young people are leaving at alarming rates. The future of our city demands we figure out how to get them to stay. How is it with so many colleges and universities in Greensboro, our percentage of young residents remains so low? The answer: There's nothing to keep them here past graduation, no reason to stay. Instead of training young graduates for Greensboro, Greensboro trains young graduates for the rest of the world and Greensboro looses out.
And a the new privately owned, city funded, downtown Greensboro Union Square UNC Campus will solve this how? I'm betting no one on the Greensboro City Council has even considered that question. I'm also betting that privately owned part is why the University of North Carolina has yet to sign on the dotted line. How many UNC campuses are privately owned and forced to pay rent to connected developers doing sweetheart deals?
Greensboro isn't a Walk Friendly Community. America's young people like to live in walk friendly communities. Greensboro's walk score is a 28 and bike score a 40. Both are failing grades. As a matter of fact: since July 12, 2013, Greensboro's Walk score dropped from 39 to its current 28.
Greensboro investors export more venture capital than Greensboro imports. Those who have the money to invest in Greensboro apparently see little reason to invest in the very city in which they live-- why? Those are the kinds of issues a Mayor and City Council should be taking on if they are in-fact interested in the economic development of an entire city but instead we're talking about building performing arts centers to attract outside investment. Did it ever occur to them to find out why those who live here are investing elsewhere yet remain residents of Greensboro? The lack of a downtown performing arts center fails to explain that for if that were the issue I think these people of means would surely move.
East and Northeast Greensboro had 11.11 to 17.63% housing vacancies as of the year 2000-- 7-8 years before the housing crisis began and yet the Greensboro City Council's priority remains on downtown and a performing arts center where vacancy rates have always been and still remain lower-- why?
I could go on but I'll save many more for later. State law allows recall efforts to begin as early as May of this year. Come Tuesday night we'll know which city council members will need to start raising campaign funds in order to remain in office for the rest of their terms. In the meantime, forward this post to everyone you know as they prepare to spend $58 Million Dollars of your money at a time when Greensboro is facing the worst economic times in almost a century and they appear willing to do nothing about it.
