Even if you've read How To Bring Greensboro Out of Poverty: Part 1, I recommend you read it again as I've edited the post to include more rules. As a matter of fact: This entire series is to be considered an evolving plan and any post is subject to be edited with feedback from readers or as I gleen more information from other sources. After all, any economic plan so set in stone that it cannot change to reflect changes in markets and current economic conditions is doomed to failure from the onset.
And no, I'll not argue as to what the plan was previously as that is no longer the plan. This is in-fact a draft, a starting place for others to consider and amend as necessary.
Any economic plan needs to take into account what you have in terms of assets, what you have to work with that others might not have in abundance. What does Greensboro have plenty of?
*Unskilled labor.
*Empty commercial and industrial buildings.
*Infill properties.
*Water and sewer infrastructure.
*Excess water, aka 53% of the water from the Randleman Dam which is more water than Greensboro uses.
*Railroads.
*North Carolina A&T University
*Guilford Technical Community College
*Leaves
*Waste wood
*Duckweed
*$272 Million Dollars in secret funding the City of Greensboro doesn't want you to know they have. Yes, I did say no incentives in Part 1 and I'm sticking to that rule. I'll explain more later.
Can you think of more? What kinds of businesses can be built around those kinds of assets? I can think of plenty, can you?
The beauty is: with the exception of the funding, all those things are in greatest supply in Greensboro's poorest neighborhoods. All the infrastructure is already in place, nothing new has to be built except businesses. Will the current infrastructure someday need to be expanded? That's the kind of problem City Councils should want to half to solve.
Please continue reading Part 3.
