And this one:
Never mind that an Economics Professor pointed out:
"As Keith Debbage pointed out in a recent opinion column in the News & Record, affordable housing is as critical to a city’s infrastructure as roads and bridges. A professor of geography at UNC-Greensboro, Debbage wrote a report on this subject for the Community Foundation of Greater Greensboro."
Mike Barber, the typical pompous-ass lawyer, knows everything about everything. Councilman Barber thinks we should do it the "good, old fashioned, conservative way" and let the Federal Government solve our problems:
“My first thought is public sector versus private sector,” Barber said. “I believe a lot of housing challenges and issues can be addressed by the private sector. But if you look to the public sector, that’s more of a federal and state responsibility.”
But there was a time when cities and towns didn't wait on State and Federal Governments to solve their problems. There was a time when the conservative way meant taking care of the very least among you. Take for instance the town of Tarboro, North Carolina, which, in 1918, when faced with outbreaks of typhoid fever, dysentery, and colitis causing lots of children to die, decided it was high time their children had pasteurized milk and established the Tarboro Municipal Milk Plant at taxpayers expense.
You see, Councilman Barber, it wasn't that pasteurization didn't already exist. French scientist Louis Pasteur discovered pasteurization in 1864 but Barber's beloved private sector didn't step up to the plate until the first state laws were adopted in 1947 and Federal laws in 1973. What if Tarboro had waited for the state or Federal government to help them? Would there be a Tarboro today?
But as Susan Ladd noted in her article, Councilman Barber had no trouble finding lots of money to give to private sector developers to spend in Downtown Greensboro.
The conservative way is to take care of your own. The time has come when Greensboro's conservatives can no longer deny that Greensboro's poor and minorities are Greensboro's own and whatever happens to them happens to your families as well. Don't allow men like Mike Barber to divide us as a means to his own wealth and personal gain. Make Greensboro the beacon the world will want to follow and tell Mike Barber to get off the golf course and get a job.
