The area they are speaking of is immediately adjacent to Downtown Greensboro, beginning at the railroad tracks. Notice the City of Greensboro admits:
"under the guise of "urban renewal"
There is no denying this to be fact. But Amy Murphy would have you believe that it will be done differently this time. Does Amy Murphy control the money flow here in Greensboro? Way back when, when the poor people, crime, smallpox, venereal disease, and blighted buildings were pushed out of sight and into east and south Greensboro the people who ran our city forgot all about it.
But my parents didn't forget, and growing up here in east Greensboro since 1958-- the year the City annexed east Greensboro-- I got to witness the long term effects.
And about all that so-called public and private investment in the East Market Street Corridor that has supposedly taken place since 1998? Show us all that economic development. Where is it?
Well folks, that's an issue I've tackled before.
For starters. that $150 Million Dollars they speak of?
How about the 1997 NC A&T University 10-Year Capital Plan totaling $364.1 Million Dollars.
How's that working out?
Here's $90 Million the State of North Carolina pitched in to build the new Engineering Research and Innovation Complex at NC A&T University just last year.
You see, neither the City of Greensboro nor the East Market Street Development Corporation has ever been able to show us that supposed $150 Million Dollars in public and private development because the vast majority of the money they are claiming has been State dollars spent on the campus of NC A&T University.
Show us the economic development they speak of. Show us the development dollars that were spent?
And while a growing university is good for Greensboro, taking credit for things you've never done is simply a lie-- another way of keeping things out of sight and out of mind in the hopes that no one notices.
Speaking of out of sight and out of mind, back in 2013 I decided to do some research on The Positive Economic Impacts Of Streetscaping Greensboro.
There's a lot to read there but I think my point can be made in the City of Greensboro's reply to my public information request
I want you to think about that statement made by the City of Greensboro in 2013 and apply it to the decisions Mayor Nancy Vaughan and the Greensboro City Council has since made at the behest of Greensboro elitist developers:
"Unfortunately, the City has not measured the economic impact directly attributable to the East Market Street streetscape project."
And you can see that I was working to do something about it long before anyone else was.
They don't know what works. They don't know what works because they don't care and they never took the time to find out before plunging head long into the Gate City Boulevard Streetscaping Project. And unless they are held accountable now they will never know if that works.
But they are always happy to pave over something "under the guise of "urban renewal" (the City of Greensboro's words, not mine.)
And folks, don't look for anything from the East Market Street Development Corporation. Have you tried to find their real website lately? The money is all gone and no one is home. Seems EMSDC has gone into the real estate business buying homes as far away as 1512 KINDLEY ST off of West Meadowview and Freeman Mill Road, a very long ways from East Market Street.
Say you want proof of that? How about the Guilford County Register of Deeds?
How is that for proof?
Greensboro must not repeat the same mistakes that got us to where we are today. To bring progress to our future we must recognize the failures of our past. Even if I am not your choice for Mayor of Greensboro everyone needs to know the failed history of our past or we are doomed to repeat it again and again.
Greensboro's poor and homeless deserve better. None of the other candidates for mayor have done their homework, none of them have presented you with the facts. Amy Murphy probably is a very nice person but she is woefully ignorant of the history and politics of Greensboro, and therefore misguided in her opinions. Don't allow well meaning people to lead you down the road to hell.
