"To reduce flooding in downtown areas we are upsizing from a 36 inch pipe to a 54," says Melinda King, a construction engineer with the city."
Anyone remember a flood in downtown Greensboro? Ever?
Yes, much of Downtown was built on a swamp but when have we witnessed a flood? Ever?
The same article quotes Downtown Greensboro Incorporated President, Zack Matheny:
"Growing is good," says Zack Matheny, President and CEO of Downtown Greensboro, Inc. "Because if you're not growing, you're not growing which means folks aren't going to come see you."
John Hill isn't happy. Already access to his business, Auto Trends was cut off by the permanent closing of Lindsey St for the building of Roy Carroll's monument to himself next door and now customers can't make their way to John's Triumph Motorcycle Dealership.
If you've ever come to know John Hill you know him as an honest, tough, down to earth, hard working, blue collar business man who started out and still gets his hands dirty turning wrenches and doing the hard jobs that no one else can do. His reputation is solid and his customers keep coming back.
Acropolis Restaurant has been in business since before I was born over 60 years ago, watched well over a hundred downtown restaurants come and go, serving great food all the while.
Notice WFMY neither mentioned the previous restrictions to access to these same businesses nor did WFMY mention any real history of flooding downtown. From the article:
" The pipe construction is expected to be completed the first week of July."
But will it be completed by then? Then what? Repaving the streets? New brick sidewalks? Don't forget, Roy Carroll has already announced another new project diagonally across the corner on Eugene at Lindsey. How long will Greensboro close streets for that?
There was no mention of flooding downtown because there has never been ant flooding downtown. Don't believe me? Google "Downtown Greensboro Flooding" Or Better yet, use the North Carolina Flood Risk Information System.
No mention of when construction actually started, of when the City of Greensboro closed Lindsey St and began their attack in the businesses in that area. After all, It's only been 3 years now that the businesses in that block have been suffering.
How many years can these small business owners be expected to survive these constant attacks by Billionaires and the City of Greensboro?
And sources are telling me the plan is to force these long time, small businesses, out of business.
There is another possibility. Perhaps the pipe isn't a storm drain at all. Perhaps the flooding concerns are inside downtown buildings as people begin to flush. The addition of hundreds of bathrooms, restrooms, and kitchens in Roy Carroll's new construction is bound to add a great deal of effluent to the downtown waste flow.
And this wouldn't be the first time Roy Carroll managed to get the City of Greensboro to secretly install free water and sewer into one of his projects.
City Council Give Away; June 16, 2015; $188,280.87 of water and sewer for Roy Carroll hidden in item 9 of the consent agenda for Greensboro's City Council meeting
That's right, City of Greensboro Construction Engineer, Melinda King, lied on behalf of Roy Carroll and WFMY let her get away with it.
Update: A reader whose memory is far better than my own points to old reports on the Spag Report and the News & Fishwrap of downtown flooding. My bad.
But as noted in the March 17, 2017 Yes Weekly article by Robert Lopez Upcoming Eugene Street closure concerns affected businesses in which Mr Lopez talks with none other than Kristine Williams, assistant director for the City of Greensboro’s water resources department he writes,
"Hill said he doesn’t object to the development taking place downtown, but does question the timing of the streetwork, noting that a project by local developer Roy Carroll is going up on that stretch right now.
The $60 million Carroll on Bellemeade development, currently under construction, will include about 300 apartments, and a 110-room Hyatt Place hotel.
“And I had asked the city about that, if this was a problem all those years ago, why did you wait until all this development,” he said. “Could you have done something prior to that to avoid shutting down the street?”
Williams said the Eugene Street project has been on the city’s capital improvements projects list for some time, and that Carroll’s development was not a factor in the timing.
“It was just a matter of trying to do this around the same time as the (Downtown) Greenway, so that we don’t go back and pave all these roads that were torn up and then turn around and redig them up for construction,” she said.
Carroll’s project is expected to be completed early next year. In response to a question about whether the improvements on Eugene Street had any connection to the development, Carroll’s office, in an email, stated simply “not to our knowledge.”
So if this project has nothing to do with Roy Carroll does that mean that John Hill and the other business owners can expect yet another street closing between July and early next year when Carroll's project is expected to open?
Come on folks, have you lied so long you no longer know the truth when it bites you in your asses? You were asked no less that 5 times if the project had anything to do with Roy Carroll and each time you denied it.
