A few years ago, while working as the general manager of a local metals recycler located here in east Greensboro I decided it would be a green idea to establish a used bicycle parts yard. My boss was a bit skeptical but not against trying new ideas so he allowed me to dedicate an area about 20' wide and 30' in length to storing the used bicycles that were ordinarily crushed for scrap metal, to be parted out and resold.
Of course, there wasn't much money to be made in run of the mill Chinese made bicycles sold by big box retailers so mostly what we set aside was the older American made bicycles and the few higher end bicycles that came in piled on the back of pick-up trucks.
Then I put 1 ad on Craigslist.
In just a few days business started to pick up, quality parts were selling as fast as we could get them in. People were even asking for parts for the cheapo Chinese made bikes. And it wasn't just people fixing their own bicycles, owners of bicycle shops from all across the Piedmont Triad were coming by with tool boxes ready to remove and buy parts. Those guys taught me far more about bicycles than I already knew, left me with lists of what was most needed and even if I didn't have what they wanted they almost always bought something because we could afford to sell the parts at a low enough price that they felt they could afford to hold them as long as necessary to sell them.
And to add icing to the cake, they were happy to sell us their old parts that were beyond use rather than sell them to our competition as they'd done for years.
My boss and I decided we should consider expanding the operation, look for a bigger location and start selling online, shipping Greensboro's used bicycle parts nationwide but 2 months into the operation inspectors from the city that prides itself in being a green city told us that operating a yard reselling bicycle parts to be used to repair bicycles was not legal in the City of Greensboro and ordered we send our entire inventory to the crusher to be melted down or risk loosing the right to do business.
And a green business that might have someday have employed dozens of workers in East Greensboro, the part of the city with the highest unemployment in the entire State, was never allowed to happen.
I've probably had a hundred or more experiences like this one with Greensboro city government. Greensboro crushes innovation every time it comes around. And people wonder why this city pisses me off.
