So the Rhino is dead... There's more than one way to skin a city. In case you don't know, this is the Mayor's Million Dollar Prize Forum. Join me, will you? I'm sure we'll have to play very nice but play we can.
It even links back to Facebook and Twitter. Remember the Rhino!
The Mayor's new toy wants to lead you to the answers to mayor wants with questions designed to solicit the answers he needs but as you can see from my examples below it doesn't have to go his way.
What is your idea for a project that could change the City's economy?
"Trickle Up
Greensboro's leaders need a dose of reality. Greensboro's working class cannot afford to support Downtown until investments are made in Greensboro's disadvantaged neighborhoods that will raise the standards of living in those neighborhoods, thereby allowing the working class to have more money to spend downtown.
Albert Einstein defined insanity as doing the same thing over and over again expecting different results. I've watched Greensboro do the same thing over and over in the name of economic development for 50 plus years with the end result always being the need to do it again. That, my friends is a failure.
If Greensboro is to thrive our focus must be on putting jobs including manufacturing jobs in our working class communities and not in Downtowns or in industrial and office parks 10 to 30 miles away.
I realize the ideas of manufacturing and jobs in our neighborhoods goes against everything the people in charge of this forum are promoting but those people are the ones who"
What transportation improvements can help Greensboro's economy?
"Put The Jobs Where The People Are
This is really a no brainer. Instead of building roads we can't afford to force people to travel to jobs burning fuels they can't afford to buy, why not put the jobs where the people live now instead of investing and losing $Billions in infrastructure and energy costs that constantly needs to be repaired, upgraded and replaced?
What transportation improvements can help Greensboro's economy? The least we can possibly do and still get to where we need to go in a reasonable amount of time.
Seriously folks, it's really that simple."
How can Downtown Greensboro help strengthen the city's overall economy?
"Learn To Stand On Its Own Foundations
Over the course of my lifetime I have witnessed 3 multi-million Dollar Downtown Greensboro revitalizations at the expense of Greensboro's less fortunate neighborhoods with the end result of each revitalization being the need for yet another revitalization.
In each instance, Greensboro's communities never recovered. This is not sustainable and weakens Greensboro's overall economy.
The only way Downtown Greensboro can help strengthen the city's overall economy is by learning to stand on its on foundation without relying on Greensboro's weakest communities to prop it up. Anything else is economic ."
You can be sure I'm not done yet.
