"In addition to the work in 2012, we have confirmed that the City of Greensboro has approved two additional significant projects, the $60 million, 3,000 seat, Greensboro Performing Arts Center and the Downtown University Campus site."
You see, the Greensboro Performing Arts Center wasn't approved until January 2014 and plans for the Downtown University Campus have yet to be finalized, much less approved.
As noted in Part 3 I sent the following questions to the Greensboro City Council"
"1. How is it possible that an out of town, independent 3rd party, in this case HVS Global Hospitality http://www.hvs.com/ is able to ascertain the outcome of City Council votes that have yet to take place?
2. Being that the Downtown University Campus site has yet to be approved does that not invalidate the feasibility study?
3. With the feasibility study invalidated is the Greensboro City Council not forced to call an emergency session to vote to invalidate the $1.975 Million Dollar Incentive Grant because it was based on a flawed study?"
Last Friday, one week ago, I posted the City of Greensboro's official reply in Part 4:
"Your questions below have been shared with all of Council, per your request. As you are aware, the City of Greensboro was not responsible for the preparation of the feasibility study outlined in your questions. That study was proposed by representatives of the Wyndham Hotel. My suggestion is that you follow up directly with folks at HVS or the study principle (Michael E. Brophy) and pose these questions to them. If those answers result in the need for a request for additional records from the City, let us know and we will provide those records."
As per City Council's instructions I e-mailed Michael E. Brophy of HVS Global Hospitality with the following questions:
"1. How is it possible that an out of town, independent 3rd party, in this case HVS Global Hospitality http://www.hvs.com/ is able to ascertain the outcome of City Council votes that have yet to take place?
2. Being that the Downtown University Campus site has yet to be approved does that not invalidate the feasibility study?
3. Who provided you, Michael E. Brophy and HVS Global Hospitality with information that the Greensboro Performing Arts Center and the downtown University Square Campus had already been approved by Greensboro City Council when in fact they had not?"
It has been 7 days and I have yet to hear a reply from Mr Brophy or his firm, HVS Global Hospitality concerning the fraudulent downtown Wyndham hotel study.
And the Greensboro City Council has yet to answer:
"3. With the feasibility study invalidated is the Greensboro City Council not forced to call an emergency session to vote to invalidate the $1.975 Million Dollar Incentive Grant because it was based on a flawed study?"
They are hoping it will all just quietly go away. And the fact is: if I'm left alone to pound this point into the ground all by myself it will go quietly away just as everything else goes quietly away. Like buttons on Facebook are meaningless, you must share these posts with your friends then contact city council and local media and demand change. You have to scare these people into thinking they're loosing control to get them to do anything. This is $1.975 Million Dollars that could be going towards helping the poor, helping Greensboro overall, but is instead being used to line the pockets of millionaires.
We all know the truth, just as with the Partnership, they pick and choose the studies they want to use while ignoring the elephant in the middle of the room. Folks, we now have proof of malfeasance, misfeasance and violation of oath of office. It's time for a change.
Greensboro is the center of the 2nd hungriest Metropolitan Statical Area in the United States, has a poverty rate over 21%, the highest unemployment of any comparable city in North Carolina and is #4 in the nation in the number of commercial properties under construction for MSAs between 200,000 and 1 Million population.
That, my friends, pretty much says everything Collins, Lomax and Melvin and the rest of Greensboro's economic development "gurus" are pushing for is bullshit designed to keep them rich and you poor.
And proof that real estate development is not the key to Greensboro's future.
In the linked article, Collins mentions how developers are looking to cities like Nashville. Well it just so happens I have the March 17 copy of Time Magazine on my desk and in it is a feature article entitled Red Hot Town that tells us all about the boom that is going on in Nashville today. It's said to be the best place in the country to invest. The same article also goes on to say,
"Over 72% of students in metropolitan Nashville's public schools are economically disadvantaged."
This is the kind of Greensboro Melvin, Collins, Lomax and Greensboro's "gurus" dream of building.
Haven't you had enough already?
"The plans differ; the planners are all alike..." --Frédéric Bastiat, French economist, 1850Update 3:30 PM I sent the following e-mail to the Greensboro City Council and others today:
"It has been a week and I have received no reply from Michael E. Brophy or HVS Global Hospitality. Does the Greensboro City Council really want me bringing up these questions in front of the television cameras at City Council meetings for months to come?It's time we got answers.
I will also go to the district attorney and out of town media outlets just as I did to spread the story about Robbie Perkins.
-Billy Jones"
