I'm sorry. I'm sorry this has taken so long. The distractions of Heritage House and UNCG have gotten in the way of progress and this series, How To Bring Greensboro Out Of Poverty. For that you have my apology but as any builder or farmer knows the old must go before the new can be built or grown lest the weeds and corruption take away everything you've worked hard to build.
To figure out why Greensboro and UNCG are failing we only need look at why other cities are succeeding. As I've written before, you don't become a leader by following you become a leader by leading the way. Take a look at Chicago, Illinois for example:
There are no automobile plants in Chicago-- none. Amazingly, just across Lake Michigan, Detroit, is filled with auto plants. Detroit is dying and Greensboro's leaders are pushing to spend hundreds of $Millions to build auto plants in megasites that if successful (and that's a very big IF) will ultimately draw population and jobs outside of the city.
Unemployment is falling in Chicago while Greensboro continues to have the highest unemployment rate in the State of North Carolina, a poverty rate of over 21% and rising homelessness. Greensboro's sollutions to these problems include a downtown performing arts center, UNCG's Glenwood recreation center, downtown hotels based on fabricated feasability studies (the documents are there, folks) and transportation hubs designed to park empty trailers.
UNCG spends their money the same way the City of Greensboro does, development first, putting the cart before the horse. Real estate development is an economic indicator not an economic driver. A successful city, just like a successful university, will always be short of parking, buildings and infrastructure of every kind. But isn't that a better problem than to have all those things and not be able to pay for them? Who needs empty dorms and parking garages? Who needs empty suburbs? Don't believe me? Ask Detroit.
I'm not saying we do what Chicago does-- that would be following-- but there is plenty to be learned and plenty of other things that can be manufactured. Besides the ideas I've already suggested in this series there's plenty of ideas in my series Economic Development At The White Street Landfill.
And in Part 6 I'll tell you about an exciting energy producing crop that can be grown in your own back yards that produces more fuel than corn, switchgrass or any other crop currently being pitched to date. As a matter of fact I'm already growing it in my back yard. It's capable of 100% growth in 24-36 hours, native to North Carolina, has more protein than soybeans and tastes good too.
The ideas are endless, folks, the means is laid out in the series, all we need is the political will and the support of the people to make it happen. And what's our Mayor and City Council doing? They're still talking about having talks about it. It's all they'll ever do unless you force them to do more.
Please continue reading Part 6
