"It's time Greensboro rethought economic development. At a time when our city is the 2nd hungriest in the nation with rising homelessness and a poverty rate of over 21% we cannot afford the incentives gamble any longer.
And looking to the State and Federal governments to solve our woes is tantamount to playing the lottery-- the bigger the prize the more competition we face, the less likely we are to win.
Greensboro wasn't built on incentives. The once thriving cotton and tobacco industries got no incentives and yet our city grew. It's time to look at how to grow business from the bottom up.
One way to do that is by investing Greensboro's $272 Million Dollar "rainy day fund" in a mutual fund that lends to local businesses and provides capital to take local companies public. Already the City of Greensboro is investing this same money in Wall St. why not invest it locally?"
Could it be my plan, How To Bring Greensboro Out Of Poverty intimidates Greensboro's leaders so much they would have me censored? The plan has been vetted by lawyers, is legal and is being considered by other North Carolina cities but not the city that needs it most-- why?
And herein lies the worst mistake on the part of those who would stand in the way of these ideas: A mutual fund based on the City of Greensboro's $272 Million Dollar Rainy Day Fund could be added to by other Piedmont Triad cities thereby increasing the overall reach and strength of the fund.
It could also spin off a Piedmont Triad Stock Exchange that competes with the bigger exchanges offering trading in ways that are more trusted by mom and pop investors thereby bringing an entire new financial industry to Greensboro. No, it wouldn't do the volume the New York Stock Exchange does but then it doesn't have to.
But alas, Greensboro's leaders and economic development "gurus" are only interested in construction and real estate development-- real economic development completely escapes them.
