While the Mayor is talking about solving problems all she's really doing is just talking: From Fox8:
"Greensboro city staff said a second poverty summit will take place before the end of the year."
You know, so Nancy can talk some more without getting anything done. In the meantime I'm going to present a plan over the course of the next week that we could already be working on beginning with some ground rules:
1. Zero incentives. Believe it or not there are means by which the City of Greensboro can and does invest in businesses that does not require incentives and rather than costing taxpayers money the means I'm planning on using already returns a profit to the City of Greensboro as well as the majority of cities across these united states.
2. Put the jobs where the poor people live. At best, putting jobs in areas far from where jobs are most needed only encourages people and their money to leave already depressed areas. This is by design as it provided the developers with constant cheap properties to develop. It is in-fact their solution to the old real estate adage, "They ain't making no more new land." Problem is: Rich developers' profits are the working classes losses.
3. Forget megasites, we need the farms. North Carolina already has 18 empty megasites. Nationwide there exists 180 empty megasites. The idea that spending $20 to $100 Million Dollars of State and local tax dollars to build 1 megasite to attract an automaker to North Carolina is ludicrous. Megasites are just another form of corporate welfare. States and cities buy the land, give it to developers, let the taxpayers foot the entire bill and the developers walk away with $Millions in profits even if not 1 job is ever produced. Megasites are simply another form of incentives to real estate developers.
4. Keep it local. Outside the corporate city limits of Greensboro is too far. Piedmont Triad International Airport is outside the Greensboro City limits and pays no taxes to the City of Greensboro-- think about it. My plan won't compete with other cities but instead will show them a better way to aspire to. For that reason we've no need for time and money wasting summits that drag on while never accomplishing anything. Funding other communities is simply not acceptable at a time when we cannot sustain ourselves.
5. Start a hard line process of culling the non profit development agencies from City funding beginning with the Greensboro Partnership, Action Greensboro and Downtown Greensboro Inc. Non profits simply drain money from the system. The argument that private corporations can do it more cheaply than government only really applies to for profit corporations and only in certain instances. By law the City of Greensboro cannot shut down any non profit company but there is no law that forces the City of Greensboro to give them money. All funding to non humanitarian non profits should be very closely scrutinized and most of these duties should be assumed by the City of Greensboro as reducing an entire level of upper management will no doubt lower costs. That is: if they're found to be needed at all.
6. Give preference to locally owned co-ops as co-ops generally pay higher wages, return more to the community and stay in the community.
7. Stop doing what everyone else is doing. No one ever became a leader by playing follow the leader.
8. Employ the long time unemployed first. Providing new jobs to people who already have jobs really doesn't do much to help unemployment and reduce poverty and tends to recruit workers who commute from out of town. Those workers contribute little to our local economy.
Please continue reading Part 2.
