Someone suggested to me yesterday that a monopoly owned grocery store (almost every store in northeast Greensboro is owned by the Kahn investment group) would be better for the Phillips Avenue community than no grocery store at all. Perhaps better but not best. And when did it become acceptable to set our sights as Americans to settle for less than the best?
And when did monopolizing entire communities and entire cities become an acceptable business practice in Greensboro or anywhere else in America? The News & Record reported that the Kahn group fronted by Shahzad Akbar, Shehzad Quamar, Dr. Manish Shukla, and Choudry Buttar will now be given an entire shopping center where they have already announced plans to operate every store in the shopping center.
Perhaps you've wondered why Skip Alston, Shahzad Akbar and Shehzad Quamar balked when they first learned they might have to share the shopping center with the Renaissance Community Co-op? http://renaissancecoop.com/ They balked because they thought trading the Greensboro Inn for the Bessemer Shopping Center was a done deal.
Perhaps you wondered why Skip Alston, Shahzad Akbar and Shehzad Quamar balked when speakers from the floor and city council members questioned why they had not yet formed an LLC with the NC Secretary of State? And perhaps you wondered why Nancy Vaughan, Mayor Robbie Perkins and the rest of the Greensboro City Council allowed the process to continue without requiring Alston's group to disclose who all their investors are? The answer: If someone learned of Mr Kahn's involvement that someone might figure out the Greensboro City Council had not acted in the best interest of the citizens of Northeast Greensboro or the rest of Greensboro.
Two weeks ago the largest crowd in the history of Greensboro appeared before City Council in support of the Renaissance Community Co-op. Tomorrow night, the best thing that could ever happen to Greensboro would be 100 times that amount of people turning out to demand the resignations of the entire Greensboro City Council effective immediately.
