Source: Dr Stephen Sills, Professor UNCG
And that, my friends, underscores and proves what I have been saying for the last 2 years, Greensboro's current economic development programs simply aren't working. If Greensboro's leadership cannot understand that 32% of any family's income is too high a price to pay then allow me to explain it to you in another way: That's more than is recommended you spend to buy a home. At least it was in my day when bankers warned you should never spend more than 25% of your income on your home.
The majority of that 32% does not stay in Greensboro. A local convenience store usually keeps less than 5 cents on every gallon of gasoline they sell. The vast majority of the cost of a new car goes to automakers in Detroit, Japan, Korea and elsewhere. Almost every expense involving transportation is a huge moneymaker for someone a long ways away from Greensboro and in an era when we are finally beginning to understand how important it is to buy local it simply does not make sense that the average family is forced to spend 32% of its income on transportation.
So what are the solutions? Exactly what I've been saying for the last 2 years: put the jobs where the people live now. Invest in the White Street Landfill Do what you must do to get manufacturers back into those old manufacturing locations in East Greensboro. Invest in Aquaponics in east and west Greensboro. Invest in where we live, not in projects out on the county lines.
Or, you can keep funding developers to build projects far away from where we live and watch our city die as an ever increasing percentage of what we earn is wasted on transportation.
