"NC Blue Cross announces rate increase of 24.3 percent for ACA marketplace plans"

"Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina has announced it will increase premiums for Affordable Care Act plans on the individual market by an average 24.3 percent for 2017. Some consumers will pay more and some will pay less.

That is higher than the company’s original rate request filed in May for an 18.8 percent increase. The rate was approved by the state Department of Insurance

It's silly to say that the ACA is "mathematically unsustainable."

ACA is quite sustainable.

The ACA will (slightly) reduce the federal deficit

because "how we pay for it" has already been nailed down in the law.

Dr. Andrew Brod

...Blue Cross received an average 32.5 percent rate increase for 2016 – one of the highest in the country.

...According to the Blue Cross blog, the bigger rate increase was necessary because UnitedHealthcare and Aetna both are withdrawing from the state’s ACA marketplace for 2017.

The ACA as a whole, including Medicaid expansion, 

will slightly reduce the deficit during the next 10 years, 

precisely because it includes various taxes and fees. 

Expanding Medicaid might mean bigger government, 

but not a bigger deficit.

Andrew Brod

March 28, 2014

Like its competitors, Blue Cross also has reported losses on its ACA business – $405 million in 2014 and 2015.

Most Democrats are just as guilty as many Republicans 

for allowing our health care system 

to become what appears to be a Ponzi like skimming operation.

...Premiums without the subsidy will be a “significant challenge for many people” who buy plans through the ACA marketplace, Blue Cross said. “The 24.3 percent average rate increase for 2017, on top of a 32 percent rate that took effect this year, is evidence that rising costs are not sustainable for the long term.”

http://www.charlotteobserver.com/living/health-family/karen-garloch/article108764207.html#storylink=cpy

It's silly to say that the ACA is "mathematically unsustainable."

ACA is quite sustainable.

The ACA will (slightly) reduce the federal deficit

because "how we pay for it" has already been nailed down in the law.

Dr. Andrew Brod

Thanks Andrew Brod and Ed Cone; "Obamacare premiums are skyrocketing out of sight"

http://greensboroperformingarts.blogspot.com/2016/10/thanks-andrew-brod-and-ed-cone.html

Our local and state governments get pressure and lots of money

from companies who overcharge for prescriptions in North Carolina

to let Big Pharma continue to rip off taxpayers and patients

"...the most fabulously overpriced health care system in the world delivers notably poor life expectancy outcomes"...

http://greensboroperformingarts.blogspot.com/2016/08/the-most-fabulously-overpriced-health.html

Both sides in North Carolina get the same campaign checks 

from health care industry lobbyists to maintain the pilfering of our citizens

Ed Cone and Andrew Brod's Legacy, part 13; Aetna out of North Carolina ACA

http://greensboroperformingarts.blogspot.com/2016/08/ed-cone-and-andrew-brods-legacy-part-13.html

A good chunk of Greensboro's health care industry is comprised of thieves

supported and condoned by the 'government'

How about Ed Cone and Andrew Brod explain why North Carolina's 20.6% Obamacare premium growth

http://greensboroperformingarts.blogspot.com/2016/08/how-about-ed-cone-and-andrew-brod.html

Local physicians and providers who play dumb about skyrocketing costs 

are backed by apologists like Andrew Brod and Ed Cone

Dear Ed Cone and Andrew Brod

http://greensboroperformingarts.blogspot.com/2016/08/dear-ed-cone-and-andrew-brod.html

How many families did Cone Health force into bankruptcy last year Ed?

How much did you and Andrew lie about the ACA Ed?

Ed Cone on Cone Health's success at stealing from patients and bankrupting families within our local overpriced healthcare monopoly

http://greensboroperformingarts.blogspot.com/2016/08/ed-cone-on-cone-healths-success-at.html

Our healthcare system is a legal theft racket

What Warren Buffett's outlets won't report; "Colombia Fears U.S. May Reject Peace Plan To Protect Pharma Profits", and what Ed Cone and Andrew Brod don't want to talk about

http://greensboroperformingarts.blogspot.com/2016/05/what-warren-buffetts-outlets-wont.html

Andrew Brod's Legacy; "Blue Cross projects $400M loss in NC on ACA in just 2 years"

http://greensboroperformingarts.blogspot.com/2016/02/andrew-brods-legacy-blue-cross-projects.html

ACA premiums in NC to rise sharply in 2016; Thanks Andrew Brod

http://greensboroperformingarts.blogspot.com/2015/11/aca-premiums-in-nc-to-rise-sharply-in.html

Thanks for letting the healthcare industry rape even more consumers

and destroy the financial lives of thousands in our community

Dear Greensboro's Andrew Brod, On the Affordable Care Act (ACA) (Obamacare) and Deficit Projections, of which Dr. Brod was Incorrect

http://hartzman.blogspot.com/2014/06/dear-greensboros-andrew-brod-on.html

Dr. Andrew Brod, my deadline for this article is Monday morning at 10am.

http://hartzman.blogspot.com/2014/03/dr-andrew-brod-my-deadline-for-this.html

Thanks Andrew Brod and Ed Cone; "Obamacare premiums are skyrocketing out of sight"

“The reason the premiums are where they are is that the people we are covering have serious conditions and they’re using a lot of medical services because of their chronic illnesses. That’s clear. And there’s not enough young, healthy people to balance out those costs.”

...The danger for insurers and supporters of the law now is that high prices and limited choices further deter low-risk people from signing up, and that the increases continue and become irreversible.

Approved Hikes;

Approved Hikes Just Under 20%: Colorado, Florida and Idaho

Approved Hikes 20% to 29%: Connecticut, Georgia, Indiana, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland

Approved Hikes 30% to 49%: Alabama, Delaware, Hawaii, Kansas, Mississippi, Texas

Approved Hikes 50% to 92%: Arizona, Illinois, Montana, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Tennessee

Approved hikes 93%: New Mexico

...The reality is the Affordable Care Act is no longer affordable for increasing numbers of people,”...

This just a week after former President Bill Clinton blasted ObamaCare as “the craziest thing in the world,” adding that “it doesn’t make sense.”

An S&P Global Ratings forecast warns that, for the first time since ObamaCare got rolling, participation in the program will actually shrink by up to 8 percent.

...ObamaCare is collapsing. Its utter failures become more obvious by the day.

We all remember the promises of ObamaCare, chief among them that the “Affordable Care Act” would lower health care costs. The opposite has occurred.

...In his 2008 campaign for president, then-candidate Sen. Barack Obama repeatedly promised to cut annual health insurance premiums by $2,500. When he took office in 2009, annual family premiums for employer-provided coverage, the most common of private insurance coverage, cost $13,375 according to Kaiser. In 2016, those premiums are $18,142. That’s an increase of $4,767.

...there are 50 percent more enrollees at a cost of 50 percent more per person than originally projected.

...Additional dishonorable mentions include the president’s illegal bailouts of big health insurance companies, as well as a finding by the Government Accountability Office that 100 percent of their investigators with fake documents were able to fraudulently enroll in ObamaCare.

You can’t make this stuff up."

https://mishtalk.com/2016/10/20/obamacare-premiums-up-30-in-tx-ms-ks-50-in-il-az-pa-93-in-nm-when-does-the-death-spiral-blow-up/

Misleading Richard M. Barron on why Greensboro's job market sucks in Greensboro's News and Record

"we’re losing the kinds of jobs that support a middle class lifestyle — manufacturing, skilled trades and services...

Because 'free trade' agreements supported by Warren Buffett and friends

sent our best jobs oversees for the benefit of our elite 

who control the political establishment 

They continue to decline as the economy shifts away from one that makes things in vast factories to one that makes advanced goods and provides services.

Supported in part by the News and Record's editorial board

The most educated service providers, professionals, information technology workers and managers, are in the minority while thousands of less-educated workers are trapped in low-wage and often part-time service jobs.

Most of Greensboro's working poor

...“The largest growth in jobs we’ve seen have come from the lowest wage occupations,” ...

“On the other end we have also seen significant growth in high-wage occupations. It’s a lot harder to break into those occupations. You need a lot of education and that education costs a lot of money that those low-wage workers just don’t have. So, too many workers will be locked into low-wage occupations.”

...In the Greensboro-High Point metro, which includes Guilford, Rockingham and Randolph counties, health care occupations grew by 18 percent, adding 5,900 jobs, from early 2007 through July, without a pause for the recession.

High paying health care occupations are government subsidized 

via taxpayer wealth transfer through theft

for the benefit of the parasitic credentialed class

Goods-producing jobs, by comparison, dropped by 21 percent, or 11,200 jobs.

While the even higher profits from the lower waged outsourced jobs remained with those who own the companies who shafted American workers

and made more money than they were making before,

like Warren Buffett who owns the News and Record

Doctors, the best-paid nurses and other personnel are at the top of the health care industry, but thousands of people who might have worked middle-class jobs a generation ago in manufacturing face lower-wage, often part-time work in many health care jobs.

So the highest paid employees in the health care industry 

ran up prices so high, hundreds of local families at the bottom went bankrupt 

by not being able to pay government sponsored, artificially high costs

On a broader level, Greensboro-High Point’s number of employed people..., has recovered since the worst months of the recession, but remains lower by 10,000 jobs, from 370,000 jobs to about 360,000 jobs from July 2007 until this July.

How are 10,000 fewer jobs nine years later a recovery Richard,

if there are more people living here since then?

A different survey of people who say they are working or looking for work was almost the same in July as it was in July 2007, at about 370,000 people.

Population estimates, July 1, 2015; 517,600

Population estimates base, April 1, 2010; 488,406

http://www.census.gov/quickfacts/table/PST045215/37081

By comparison, the Research Triangle city of Raleigh saw total employment grow from 514,400 in July 2007 to 600,000 this July, a rate of 17 percent.

That means Greensboro’s economy is essentially stagnant compared with Raleigh’s education and tech economy...

Contact Richard M. Barron at (336) 373-7371, and follow @BarronBizNR on Twitter.

http://www.greensboro.com/business/local-recovery-follows-trend-of-more-jobs-for-lower-pay/article_a5b02c3c-64c5-57a1-88c1-5ebe1c0ba076.html
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517,600 - 488,406 = 29,124 more people with 10,000 fewer 'looking' for jobs
between 2010 and 2015, 
meaning Richard Barron is a propagandist at best
and is definitely a shitty journalist who doesn't mind lying to his readers
who ignores simple math

https://www.google.com/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&ion=1&espv=2&ie=UTF-8#q=guilford+county+nc+population+2007

517,600 - 464,924 = 52,676 more people with 10,000 fewer jobs
between 2007 and 2015

Our population grew by 11%, while actual jobs fell 10,000,
which is terrible, but they won't tell anyone the actual facts
to keep most in line and supporting the status quo

Who does bullshit information like this help?

Our elected officials and their cronies who skim off the rents of the poor

while bribes, kickbacks and 'contributions' flow to the public overseers

of this economic catastrophe

Let's build a Performing Arts Center!

The more distracted and stupid most are, the longer they rule as oligarchy,

and the News and Record and most other local media are in on it

Binge watch some tv and forget about it
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Professor Andrew Brod Steals George Hartzman's Ideas

http://greensboroperformingarts.blogspot.com/2013/02/professor-andrew-brod-steals-george.html

The Greensboro Car: Greensboro's Next Big Thing?

http://greensboroperformingarts.blogspot.com/2012/08/the-greensboro-car-greensboros-next-big.html

A Better Idea For Greensboro Bonds

http://greensboroperformingarts.blogspot.com/2012/08/a-better-idea-for-greensboro-bonds.html

Why not design and build cars on the Piedmont Triad's 1,000 acres around the airport?

http://hartzman.blogspot.com/2014/02/why-not-design-and-build-cars-on.html

Trojan Horse Scam, the Aquatic and Performing Arts Centers?

http://hartzman.blogspot.com/2012/01/trojan-horse-scam-aquatic-and.html

Winning...

EpiPen

"The EpiPen isn’t new; it has been in use since 1977. Research and development costs were recouped long ago. Nine years ago, it was bought by the pharmaceutical company Mylan, which then began to sell the device. When Mylan bought it, EpiPens cost about $57 each.

Few competitors existed, and for various reasons, that has remained the case. The device actually worked and saved lives. People needed it. Mylan raised the price. It also began to raise awareness.

"Raise the price" is sure a decent description... 

if you consider a 500% increase a "raise"...

Why?

No competition.

Or is there?

...You can buy these over the counter virtually anywhere in Europe for about $20 each.  You can buy insulin over the counter in France for about the same price for a month's worth of supply.

And yet if you bring just one of either back over said border with you then you are breaking the law.

Many/most or our elected officials are complicit

...note very carefully that absent government force it is blatantly illegal under 15 USC, with a ten year per count felony prison term, to attempt to monopolize, restrain trade or price-fix.  Therefore it is only because of the explicit, intentional and outrageous conduct of your own government that you are getting raped like this on a literal daily basis, and this issue, as I've repeatedly pointed out is not limited to EpiPens -- in fact, Mylan has raised prices on dozens of off-patent, generic medications by about the same 500% in the last few years and the only reason they get away with any of it is the above use of government force.

...That is exactly where they, and all of Congress, damn well ought to be facing right here, right now.

If you want to know why medical care is so expensive and you need the fraud called "insurance", if you want to know why Obamacare was "sold" to people and is now going to collapse, if you want to know why Medicare and Medicaid were sold as "necessary" and yet continue to bankrupt the nation the answer is right here.

You are paying roughly five times what virtually everything ought to cost when it comes to medicine, and the reason you are paying it is because every firm and person in the business either is wantonly violating the law (and nobody ever gets indicted or goes to prison despite doing so) or even worse they've conspired with the government so they can enforce what is an otherwise-illegal act of restraint of trade under penalty of throwing your ass in jail instead of theirs and yet the're still quite-arguably violating the law themselves!.."

http://market-ticker.org/akcs-www?post=231480

"...the most fabulously overpriced health care system in the world delivers notably poor life expectancy outcomes"...

"...the driver of the high cost of end of life care often amounts to “Insert tube, extract rents” of sheer looting.

The press will occasionally feature stories about how an aged parent goes into a hospital or other institutional setting, and despite the relatives having a medical power of attorney plus clear, legally well documented instructions that the patient does not want high cost interventions with limited life extension potential, that the medical professionals come close to or actually do threaten the family with litigation if they attempt to remove the patient or restrict care.

Another issue for patients is the way that they’ve been conditioned to believe that Something Can Be Done when they have a condition that is pretty much a permanent impairment. This is particularly common with orthopedic procedures [who've] been over-treated for no or negative benefit.

"...the US spends far more on health than any other country, yet the life expectancy of the American population is not longer but actually shorter than in other countries that spend far less..

The graph shows the relationship between what a country spends on health per person and life expectancy in that country between 1970 and 2014 for a number of rich countries.

...the US stands out as the the country is following a much flatter trajectory; gains in life expectancy from additional health spending in the U.S. were much smaller than in the other high-income countries, particularly since the mid-1980s.

...In the US health spending per capita is often more than three-times higher than in other rich countries, yet the populations of countries with much lower health spending than the US enjoy considerably longer lives. In the most extreme case we see that Americans spend 5-times more than Chileans, but the population of Chile actually lives longer than Americans.;

http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2016/08/the-link-between-health-spending-and-life-expectancy-the-us-is-an-outlier.html

...administrative costs in the health sector are higher in the US than in other countries;

...One of the reasons for the underachievement of the US is the large inequality in health spending. The chart above showed that average per capita spending on health is exceptionally high, but the average does not tell you about how much each individual in the US receives. The US healthcare system is characterized by little access to care for some and very high expenditure on health by others.

The following graph shows this inequality. The top 5% of spenders accounts for almost half of all health care spending in the US.

...The data corresponds to ‘personal healthcare services’, in the sense that they exclude administrative costs, research, capital investments and many other public and private programs such as school health and worksite wellness.

Ed Cone and Andrew Brod's Legacy, part 13; Aetna out of North Carolina ACA

http://greensboroperformingarts.blogspot.com/2016/08/ed-cone-and-andrew-brods-legacy-part-13.html

"Senior Obama administration officials" "no legal basis" "illegal" "unlawful" "contrived" 2013 "unappropriated" $7 billion payments to Obamacare insurers

http://greensboroperformingarts.blogspot.com/2016/07/senior-obama-administration-officials.html

Textbooks, Tuition, Child and Health Care is Theft

http://greensboroperformingarts.blogspot.com/2016/08/textbooks-tuition-child-and-health-care.html

The Healthcare Industry is a legal racket

http://greensboroperformingarts.blogspot.com/2016/08/the-healthcare-industry-is-legal-racket.html

How about Ed Cone and Andrew Brod explain why North Carolina's 20.6% Obamacare premium growth

http://greensboroperformingarts.blogspot.com/2016/08/how-about-ed-cone-and-andrew-brod.html

Ed Cone on Cone Health's success at stealing from patients and bankrupting families within our local overpriced healthcare monopoly

http://greensboroperformingarts.blogspot.com/2016/08/ed-cone-on-cone-healths-success-at.html

"Break the medical monopolies"

http://greensboroperformingarts.blogspot.com/2016/05/break-medical-monopolies.html

UnitedHealth won't sell individual ACA plans for 2017 in North Carolina

Doctors need to make less

Medical device makers need to make less

Hospitals

Big Pharma

The legalized theft by the above needs to stop

They are bankrupting America's middle class to line their pockets with the help of all the politicians they bought

If you didn't make any money on it, you have been robbed

http://greensboroperformingarts.blogspot.com/2016/04/unitedhealth-wont-sell-individual-aca.html

"Blue Cross projects $400M loss in NC on ACA in just 2 years"

http://greensboroperformingarts.blogspot.com/2016/02/andrew-brods-legacy-blue-cross-projects.html

ACA premiums in NC to rise sharply in 2016; Thanks Andrew Brod

http://greensboroperformingarts.blogspot.com/2015/11/aca-premiums-in-nc-to-rise-sharply-in.html

Textbooks, Tuition, Child and Health Care is Theft

Ed Cone and Andrew Brod's Legacy, part 13; Aetna out of North Carolina ACA

"...Aetna announced Monday it will stop selling individual plans through the ACA next year in 11 of the 15 states where it had been participating, including North Carolina and South Carolina.

...Aetna, which sold individual health insurance coverage in 39 North Carolina counties, has said it expects to lose $300 million on plans sold through the ACA. Aetna will continue to sell individual health insurance in North Carolina, but not through the ACA marketplace.

While health insurance premiums increase almost every year, losing Aetna and United will leave consumers with few choices in 2017, insurance brokers and agents said.

...Aetna’s decision is the latest blow to President Barack Obama’s signature domestic policy. While the ACA has brought coverage to millions – and reduced the number of uninsured North Carolinians by nearly a half million, the new markets have proven volatile for some of the largest insurers.

UnitedHealthcare, the nation’s largest insurer, announced this spring that it would shrink its ACA participation in 2017 to only a few states because it expects losses from that business nationwide to total more than $1 billion for 2015 and 2016.

Blue Cross, the state’s biggest insurer, has lost about $1 billion on ACA plans in the past two years, but the losses were reduced to $405 million after compensation from federally-created assistance programs...

"Senior Obama administration officials" "no legal basis"

 "illegal" "unlawful" "contrived" 2013 "unappropriated" 

$7 billion payments to Obamacare insurers

...[North Carolina's] insurance department approved a 32.5 percent rate increase for Blue Cross for 2016 as the company reeled from expenses incurred by sicker and older customers on ACA policies.

Earlier this year, [NC] warned federal health officials that the ACA has destabilized the state’s insurance market...

...the law is driving up insurance costs, reducing consumer options and generating unsustainable financial losses for the insurers...

Next year will be the fourth year for the Affordable Care Act markets that officials touted as a way to provide affordable options for individuals who aren’t covered by employer-sponsored plans...

“People coming in with expiring Aetna plans (will be) getting a depressing sticker-shock price increase when Blue Cross is the only offering,”...

...about 95 percent of the policies he sold through the ACA were with Aetna because Aetna’s least expensive plans were $300 to $400 a month cheaper than the least expensive Blue Cross plans.

...agents said they won’t be surprised if Blue Cross drops out of the individual health insurance market too.

...some ...will have to choose whether to pay the premium or pay the fine for not having insurance. For tax year 2017, the fine is 2.5 percent of total household adjusted gross income, or $695 per adult and $347.50 per child, to a maximum of $2,085.

...a policy with a premium of $1,200 per month, but after the subsidy, the customer paid $52 a month. The policy had a $5,000 deductible, so each time the customer went to the doctor, until he met the high deductible, he would have had to pay the full price.

“He said, ‘I’ve got to pay $52 a month and I still can’t go to the doctor?’ And we the taxpayers were fortunate enough to pay $1,150 a month (the subsidy) for a man to get insurance but he couldn’t even go to the doctor.…That is ridiculous,”...

http://www.greensboro.com/ap/business/aetna-s-move-to-drop-n-c-insurance-market-will/article_8d59a1d3-7362-5c35-a6ee-66e155e6ee70.html
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How about Ed Cone and Andrew Brod explain why North Carolina's 20.6% Obamacare premium growth

http://greensboroperformingarts.blogspot.com/2016/08/how-about-ed-cone-and-andrew-brod.html

Ed Cone on Cone Health's success at stealing from patients and bankrupting families within our local overpriced healthcare monopoly

http://greensboroperformingarts.blogspot.com/2016/08/ed-cone-on-cone-healths-success-at.html

"Break the medical monopolies"

http://greensboroperformingarts.blogspot.com/2016/05/break-medical-monopolies.html

UnitedHealth won't sell individual ACA plans for 2017 in North Carolina

Doctors need to make less

Medical device makers need to make less

Hospitals

Big Pharma

The legalized theft by the above needs to stop

They are bankrupting America's middle class to line their pockets with the help of all the politicians they bought

If you didn't make any money on it, you have been robbed

http://greensboroperformingarts.blogspot.com/2016/04/unitedhealth-wont-sell-individual-aca.html

"Blue Cross projects $400M loss in NC on ACA in just 2 years"

http://greensboroperformingarts.blogspot.com/2016/02/andrew-brods-legacy-blue-cross-projects.html

ACA premiums in NC to rise sharply in 2016; Thanks Andrew Brod

http://greensboroperformingarts.blogspot.com/2015/11/aca-premiums-in-nc-to-rise-sharply-in.html

Ed Cone on Cone Health's success at stealing from patients and bankrupting families within our local overpriced healthcare monopoly

http://edcone.typepad.com/wordup/2016/08/rating-cone-health-1.html

The medical industry is chock full of thieves,

which includes local physicians and providers

who play dumb about skyrocketing costs backed by apologists like Andrew Brod and Ed Cone

Monday, July 18, 2016; "Senior Obama administration officials" "no legal basis" "illegal" "unlawful" "contrived" 2013 "unappropriated" $7 billion payments to Obamacare insurers

http://greensboroperformingarts.blogspot.com/2016/07/senior-obama-administration-officials.html

How many families did Cone Health force into bankruptcy last year Ed?

Friday, November 6, 2015; ACA premiums in NC to rise sharply in 2016; Thanks Andrew Brod

http://greensboroperformingarts.blogspot.com/2015/11/aca-premiums-in-nc-to-rise-sharply-in.html

What's the average take home pay of a Cone Health Physician?

Dear Greensboro's Andrew Brod, On the Affordable Care Act (ACA) (Obamacare) and Deficit Projections, of which Dr. Brod was Incorrect

http://hartzman.blogspot.com/2014/06/dear-greensboros-andrew-brod-on.html

How much did you and Andrew lie about the ACA Ed?

Dr. Andrew Brod, my deadline for this article is Monday morning at 10am.

http://hartzman.blogspot.com/2014/03/dr-andrew-brod-my-deadline-for-this.html

Our healthcare system is a legal theft racket

Dear Andrew Brod; JOHN NASH HATED KEYNESIANS

https://www.dollarvigilante.com/blog/2015/06/01/john-nash-hated-keynesians.html

How about those pharmaceutical prices?

How about my $3,500 deductable?

Thanks for less than nothing.

Thanks for letting the healthcare industry rape even more consumers

Why It Matters, Really?

This morning Triad City Beat publishes Fresh Eyes: Why Warnersville matters
 by Ed Cone. While I'm waiting for my comment to be removed from moderation there I thought I'd copy and past it here so that readers would get a chance to see it.

Not to take anything away from Warnersville but it went on in communities all over Greensboro such as East Market St: http://www.greensboro-nc.gov/index.aspx?page=1749

"From the turn of the century to the late 1950s, the East Market Street Corridor flourished. It was the shopping and social center for many of Greensboro's African Americans, who owned businesses on the street and provided services to those shut out by segregation practices in other Greensboro neighborhoods.

This lively community began to wind down in the late 1950s and 1960s when, under the guise of "urban renewal," thousands of people and more than 80 businesses (many minority-owned) were displaced. Most of those businesses never reestablished."

And it has yet to be reestablished today: http://greensboroperformingarts.blogspot.com/2013/09/the-positive-economic-impacts-of.html 

""Hello Mr. Jones,

 We apologize that your request has taken so long to complete.  We have requested several departments to review your request to see if they had any information pertaining to your request.  Unfortunately, the City has not measured the economic impact directly attributable to the East Market Street streetscape project.

 Sincerely,

 Public Information Desk

City of Greensboro"

And it continues in communities like Heritage House, Glenwood and even other Greensboro communities where the poor, black, white, Hispanic, Asian and Native American are all pushed out to make way for the rich and Ed Cone says nothing: http://marc.ridgillrant.com/2015/09/leadership-and-agendas.html

" The rumors are that the city is attempting to get Smith and Ray Warren homes sold to UNC-G and A&T Universities and converted into much more curb appealing student housing.  Both of those properties are within close eye view of two major roads leading into the Council's precious downtown projects.  Those folks would be relocated to the Hicone Road location to the tune of about 220 units.  In this location there is no library, no recreation center, no bus service and only one grocery store.  The schools in this area have already been taxed and the Reedy Fork development is only 700 houses into a 3500 house project. "

Now Ed, Eric and Brian can claim they did not know but now they do know. What course of action will they take?"

Why don't you e-mail Brian at brian@triad-city-beat.com so that he can forward this post to Eric Ginsburg and get that lame ass, shit for brains reporter to do some real journalism for a change. Or call their office at 336-256-9320.

What Was Billy Jones' And Ed Cone's Involvement With Heritage House?

In the interest of full disclosure and to demonstrate how utterly clumsy Ben Holder has been in covering his tracks I'd like to explain the rolls Ed Cone and I previously played in the Heritage House Saga. While bit parts they are parts just the same and lots of tiny clues eventually add up to a story.

Sometime in late 2012 a woman e-mailed me saying she had learned from my blog that I was an admirer of Ben Holder's previous works and needed to get in touch with Ben badly.

Then, like now, I had no e-mail address that Ben responds to so I put her in touch with Ed Cone who I thought would know how to get in touch with Ben. She was very nervous that I included Ed in the chain.

Ben's very next post was his first post about the conditions at Heritage House.

Coincidence? I'm keeping the woman's name in confidence now just as I was then so you'll just have to wonder. But rest assured she never signed the petition to secure the warrant to search Heritage House.

Was Ed able to contact Ben or did Ed forward my message to someone else who then contacted Ben? Only Ed can answer that question. Or the person Ed might have forwarded the message to.

Ed, care to comment? True, 2012 was a long time ago, how long does my gmail keep old messages?

Ed Cone Shows His Hypocrisy

Proving once again he is only as liberal as his wallet, Ed Cone writes in reference to the Guilded Age:

"Political power is not the only power to be feared, and sometimes it's a necessary bulwark against corporate power. This is a deeply American idea --Jefferson understood it -- from which we've veered in a radical direction."

My reply:

"You mean like the Developer lead monopolies that dominate Greensboro government and enslaves local taxpayers to build downtown performing arts centers we neither need nor can afford? Again, your liberalness only extends so far and you've proved it so very well over the course of the last few years.

You only need look in the mirror to see you and your status quo friends are little more than what you point your crooked fingers at.

And remember: that's coming from a dyed in the wool Liberal."

Remember: This Edward Cone is one of the men responsible for Fecund Stench, aka Jeff Martin. He also has a seat on the board of directors of Cone Hospital and the Sternberger Foundation and has long chosen to be a tool for Greensboro's political elites.

One might think that with an Ivy League education Eddie might be bright enough not to leave such a tarnished legacy of himself online for those like myself to copy and paste.

An Open Letter To David Craft Of Greensboro's Craft Insurance Center

It has come to my attention that David Craft of Craft Insurance Center in Greensboro is saying that all those charges listed in the documents found at my post Jeff Martin's Criminal Record are not for the correct Jeff Martin. In the Facebook group, Greater Greensboro Politics, Jeff Martin's enabler David Craft wrote:

"Or don't. Mr. Jones ran a report on "Jeff Martin" in NC and not specifically Jeffrey R. Martin of Greensboro. We need to give this a rest."

Tell that bozo David Craft that I posted Jeff Martin's current and past addresses along with the 2 dates of birth being used by Jeff Martin and that if David Craft is too stupid to figure it out for himself then he is a complete and utter moron and even far more stupid than even I ever believed him to be. As a matter of fact: I began my post by stating:

"Granted, not every Jeff Martin on this list is the infamous Jeffery Ray Martin, Aka Fecund Stench, age 52, date of birth May 3, 1960, current address, 5119 Cheviot Rd, Greensboro, previous addresses, 3107 Twin Brooks Dr. Greensboro, 2405 #5 Battleground Ave and 135 Po Box 654, Liberty, NC, 135 West Lewis St. Liberty and 405 East Frazier Ave but as you can well see, Jeffery Ray Martin, while long claiming to be a non violent individual, has a long history of violence."

Even now, despite overwhelming evidence, Greensboro's elitist cliques attempt to save face for their long running support of this psychopath. The second paragraph of my post read:

"This next report indicates that our Jeff Martin's criminal record may be even more extensive than first thought for while the previous record lists Jeff Martin's address as 5119 Cheviot Rd, Greensboro and his date of birth as  May 3, 1960, when I googled the telephone number listed under personal information for a Jeffery Ray Martin born September 6, 1960, the address also came up as  5119 Cheviot Rd.,   http://www.merchantcircle.com/business/Martin.J.R.336-547-0797  Jeff Martin's current home."

Everything a reader of average intelligence needed to separate our Jeff Martin from other Jeff Martin's was included in the text I posted but David Craft, aka Collards, decided it better  to decimate lies in order to cover for his own part in the creation of the monster Fecund Stench.

Now David Craft's days and nights of masturbating to virtual voyeuristic orgies are over and David Craft, like so many others who will be named soon, are now cast in the midst of the public affray, the subjects of public opinion, public dismay. Have no doubt that while the monster Fecund Stench remains in hiding he waits for those who put him where he is today and took advantage of his desire to be something he could never be no matter how successful he might become.

David Craft worked to craft Jeff Martin into the monster he became over beers in downtown Greensboro establishments such as Natty Greene's as Mr Craft led Mr Martin on, feeding him alcohol and tips to embarrass politicians that stood in the way of the plans of David and his brother Daniel, John Lomax and others. Then a drunken Mr Martin would go home and blog what Mr Craft had told him while David Craft commented using the moniker, Collards, to hide his true identity. Like Ed Cone and others, David Craft created the monster Fecund Stench because they recognized Jeff Martin's burning desire to become something he could never be and played it to the hilt.

Remember when David Craft forced George Hartzman to cease campaigning for Mayor of Greensboro at the Greensboro Farmers Curb Market but allowed every other candidate for every office imaginable to campaign there on multiple occasions? Like the rest of Greensboro's elites, David Craft knows no bounds and will stop at nothing to have his way even if it means breaking State and Federal elections laws. And the city attorney who ruled in Mr Craft's favor? He's since been fired. Turns out his legal opinions were getting the City of Greensboro into some expensive holes. One decision alone cost $750,000.

And today, David Craft wishes for you to ignore Jeff Martin's criminal record when everything you need to know to separate our Jeff Martin from other Jeff Martins is in the text of the post. There can only be one reason David Craft wants you to ignore it-- David Craft doesn't want you to know he and Jeff Martin hung out together and that David Craft played a part in the actions of Jeff Martin.

And bet that Fec is ROTFLHAO as he reads these words knowing I'm the one man they cannot corrupt and cannot take down-- the Greensboro Tyrannicide.

 Update:  How quickly the guilty go into hiding. Just 17 minutes after I posted a link to this post to Real Progress for Greensboro, David B Craft blocked me on Facebook. Moron just made himself look even more guilty. But then, that's what they always do.

I don't know but I'm guessing David is the younger of the Craft brothers. You know, the stupid one who made his older brother's life miserable and was constantly being bailed out of jams by their father. Perhaps he still is.

The Monster Fecund Stench Starring Ed Cone As Dr Frankenstein

The general consensus among many is that Ed Cone helped to create the monster, Fec, aka Jeff Martin, using him to the means of the elites, ignoring his anti-Zionist, anti-Semitic and racist comments as necessary to greater causes of profits for Greensboro's Elites and it is true there was no cry from the Elites when Jeff Martin crossed those lines.

Problem was, Jeffery Ray Martin was an uncontrollable monster and just like Dr Frankenstein, Ed Cone and the rest of Greensboro's elites eventually found that Fecund Stench knew no master, no bounds in his attacks and would victimize anyone, change positions without reason or notice and devour his handlers even when they came arms filled with tasty morsels of the Fec's favorite flavors.



After all, Jeff Martin's criminal record was no secret. And Edward did make every effort to portray Dr Mary Johnson-- one of Jeff Martin's victims-- as insane. Worked for a while. Sick bastard even fooled me.

What say you Edward, my place or yours? Your days of virtual voyeuristic orgies are over, you are now cast in the midst of the public affray, the subject, along with others who will be named soon. Surely, despite Jeff Martin's hatred for me he is laughing at you now and it cannot be undone for despite your own efforts to lay low and hide behind the antics of others less skilled in the art of online debate, in which you have trained me well these many years, myself and many others about town know the truth all too well.

And while you willingly played a game to serve the ends of those who wield power in our little berg, your family name, one of the greatest names Greensboro has ever known, will soon be blackened as those who pull your strings cut them off leaving you to fall without a trace back to them for even though you served them well when this is over and done Greensboro's Elites-- themselves monsters in their own right-- will consider you just a far distant relative of a once great but now fallen family no longer of consequence.

Then the coveted appointments and lavish checks for hobby jobs will no longer come. I wouldn't be surprised if they change the name of the hospital and several foundations before all this is over with. (Hyperbole? Hey, I'm a poet, remember? I didn't choose to do this, it chose me.)

Tyrannicide is such an ugly business but someone must do it-- might as well be me. And I hate that nice guys like Edward F Cone must fall but Ed chooses to stand between myself and my targets. I once asked him politely to get out of the way-- he refused. Who knows, perhaps I'll let Fec loose again, he's really pissed off now.

And while Jeff Martin hides his blogs from public view, this blog ain't going nowhere. Ask the gangster Rocco Scarfone, he'll confirm.

Come on out and play Eddie. I confessed, your turn.

Hey Ed Cone, It's Time You Talked About Jeff Martin

Ed Cone wrote:

"Be not a witness against your neighbor without cause, and do not deceive with your lips."

You posted these words recently, George, but I'm not sure you understand them"

But you can bet I understand them and I am not without cause-- damned good cause. My reply on Ed's blog:

"George Hartzman can sometimes be reckless in his commenting, of that I cannot deny, but have little doubt Ed Cone would quickly use George's comments as part of a deliberate effort to steer the conversation in a direction in which Ed would rather it go-- a direction that covers up Ed's long standing and deliberate support for a Jeff Martin we (Ed and I) knew to be a monster that served Ed well for a time.

Ed, would you prefer to keep it about Jeff Martin or shall I elaborate both here and at my own blog?

Attempts or threats to ban me will only make you look to be Martin's co-conspirator."

Previously, Bob Grenier, who according to Greensboro police records was also threaded by Jeff Martin, writes at the Facebook group Real Progress For Greensboro:

"Here's what I posted at Ed Cone's blog, in response to a comment Billy made there:

"I've told you for years he was a psyco-- you decide."

"Nothing new there, Billy. We've known about him for a long time.

Indeed, we've known about the personality disorders of many of the Usual Suspects for many years, despite the penchant of one of them to delete comments in an attempt to deflect attention away from their own culpabilities.

BTW, this comment gets crossposted in several other places."

The last sentence refers to Cone's penchant for eliminating selective comments strictly on the basis of being offended.

As a matter of fact, Cone (and several others) bear a certain amount responsiblity for Marin's behavior, but that's another subject for discussion."

Perhaps Ed Cone would like to take the reins and lead that discussion? Online, without moderation and in public. Or Eddie, would you prefer I do it? Either way you're fucked, the difference is I'm giving you the chance to say yes-- the chance to admit your mistakes before the online community beats them out of you.

They say confession is good for the soul-- I made my confessions here, on Ed Cone's blog and numerous other places online and offline-- your turn. Who knows, perhaps even Jeffrey Ray Martin himself might chime in and tell us how he was made use of by Ed Cone and Greensboro's elites for all those years.

You too David Craft. And no Andrew, I'm not angry, not angry at all. I'm having the time of my life watching the evil tyrants fall to the Tyrannicide. Are you angry?

Full disclosure: Andrew Brod's wife is my attorney.

Calling Out Ed Cone For What He Is-- Skum

Ed Cone Posted the following about me:

"This incorrect analysis has been parroted already by at least one local blogger, so it would be good to shut it down quickly. Hartzman makes much of his skill at reading financal documents, but any such abilities are not on display here."

My reply posted on his blog:

"When I was made aware of it I corrected it and noted doing so. You, on the other hand, continue to ignore evidence that proves Barber has not been straight up with the voters including his promise to:

"When a complete and comprehensive report is provided to Council and the public, and then it is tabled for 2 weeks to further vet, question and discuss the details. All reasonable questions should have an answer, and the final product should be clearly defined. This should be council policy."

He never even brought it up, not one word but who gave his "non profit" $100,000? That would be Wyndham. As usual, you continue to parrot what the status quo wants you to parrot."

While Ed was the first person to publicly admit I was correct in saying that East Greensboro has been treated unfairly, Ed lost all credibility when he supported Robbie Perkins and efforts to build the Greensboro Performing Arts Center while saying there was also need for change in East Greensboro for he knew just as I knew that a PAC would only push back any efforts at helping the least fortunate among us. City Council has passed a resolution to build the PAC and a new park next door but no one has even proposed solutions for East Greensboro.


Oh, and Ed, who writes and edits for a business publication, misspelled financial.

Update: In the comments to the same post Ed wrote:

"George on the other hand, according to Barber's email linked above, is cozy enough with him to receive special treatment for behavior that might have landed another person in jail. Clearly a conspiracy!"

My reply:

"You left out 3 very important points: 1. Your e-mail was wasn't sent to several other bloggers as was mine (Was it?) (Barber was responding to my e-mail under the assumption that Hartzman was spearheading the effort-- he wasn't) and 2 your e-mail didn't generate a blog post by the editor of a weekly print publication (did it?) and 3. Barber replied to no less than 6 bloggers in what was an obvious attempt to defame George Hartzman.

So while you waste your time trying to take down George I remain standing with even more dirt on Barber I've yet to disclose. My game, my rules, I suggest you go back to the sandbox."

Ed Cone likes to spin stories on behalf of the local status quo. Problem is: to spin a story you have to actually know the story. Ed Cone doesn't know the story but tried to spin anyway. Big mistake.

Update 2: Another comment I posted to Ed's blog:

Ed Cone is also in the habit of cherry picking mistakes as a means of attempting the defame those with which he disagrees. For example: while Ed writes of George's "lies" in the post Ed linked to and complains that George didn't note his eventual corrections, Eddie boy fails to note or take on the fact that Mike Barber's "charity" pays less that 7% of what it takes in towards the actual "cause.

Typical Ed Cone establishment practices. Ed?"

Ed used to do that to me, now I do it to Ed Cone. What, you thought I wouldn't learn from your repeated thrashings? Keep wasting your time on George, I'll ruin you from behind. Or take me on face to face and fall like a man. Either way, I don't care.

Update 3: Ed Cone responds:

"RTFP, Billy. Thanks."

I never learned text messaging but I believe that means, read the fine print. My reply:

"Ed, I assume you're referring to this:

"It does look like our local chapter of The First Tee spends an awfully high percentage of the money it raises on salaries. Maybe the value the organization delivers justfies the expense ratio; Barber says as much here."

I had that e-mail 24 hours before you saw it, I've had plenty of time to read it repeatedly. Neither Barber nor yourself have addressed the 7% issue in any way shape or form.

But keep fetching his water and perhaps he'll return your e-mails someday."

Ed appears to be reading things into Mike's e-mail that simply aren't there. Or perhaps Ed is hoping you and I will read things that aren't there. My belief has always been that Ed stopped blogging last year because I proved his credibility to be non existent and that he only returned to blogging because Greensboro's elites have been unable to find anyone else fool enough to stick their necks out on their behalf. And being that Ed Cone lacks any credibility anyway, why not him?

But hey, that's just my opinion, you can believe anything you wish including Ed's story about having other things to do that no one ever saw him doing.

Update 4: Tuesday, April 8, 2014 UNCG Professor Andrew Brod takes on the question Ed fears to take:

"I'll address it, at the risk of being accused again of defending someone in whose success I have no actual stake.

I don't think you're reading the 990 correctly. The expense breakdown notes that a total of $308,179 was spent in 2012, and $168,579 of that was for programs. That looks like 55%, not 7%, and the fact that most of that went to salaries doesn't change anything.

However, I do get that you really, really don't like it."

As usual, Professor Brod brings a knife to a gun fight. Brave man but not very wise. My reply:

"Actually Andrew, you're not defending anyone. In fact you just helped to make my case. For you see, Mike Barber's salary is twice that of the previous director so most of that 55% goes straight into Mike's pockets.

As always, Thanks for your help."

One should always know all the facts before one attempts to spin a story. After all, I have been known to bait a few traps.

Ed Cone Proves Billy Jones Right Again

Ed Cone on what entrepreneurs look for in cities:

"GSO seems like a contender based on these criteria. We've got some real QOL strengths and are working hard on that kind of stuff. Talent pool may be more of an issue, and we're part of a million+ metro region as defined in certain not-entirely-realistic ways.

So, maybe our whale-catching econ dev strategy should be supplemented by more nurturing of local growth companies and our own version of the Mittelstand.

Unfortunately, we've already torpedoed our own ship on another important front: "

I recommend you read the links on Ed's blog to learn what real economic development look like. My reply as they have a habit of disappearing from Ed's blog:

"What? What? What? Billy Jones was right again? How is this going to look on all those resumes, a Bessemer boy with a fake high school diploma from the worst high school in Greensboro proven the brightest light in the room....

Seriously, this is only common sense. With literally hundreds of cities around the nation failing at using the exact same developer driven approach to economic development that Greensboro has long used it only makes sense to look a different direction. After all, it was Albert Einstein who defined insanity as doing the same thing over and over again while expecting different results.

Selling our city to the business as usual crowd, be they cable TV/ISP, developers or whatever is always a mistake that locks out entrepreneurs and places undue burdens on the public stifling economic growth as a whole and the well being of the social structure that holds society together.

Greensboro is long overdue for a change beginning with the abandonment of any city funded efforts to build the Greensboro Performing Arts Center as a good faith gesture to Greensboro's working class who are the second hungriest in the nation, live in over 21% poverty and the highest unemployment in the State of North Carolina for comparable cities."

Funny, the very kinds of ideas I've talked about for my entire life are now in vogue and Greensboro will without a doubt be too slow to change.

Update: Saturday Ed Replies:

"There's a case to be made that the performing arts center will contribute to the quality of life that the report I linked cites as critical to homegrown economic development.

The real capitulation to the cable industry happened at the state level, but it was disappointing that Greensboro (aside from an OK effort to land Google fiber) didn't do much to establish itself as a digital city. I don't recall seeing our econ dev poohbahs active in the Google campaign, certainly not as drivers. In retrospect, it seems clear that the support from City leaders was motivated almost entirely by the shiny object named Google and not by any deeper understanding of why the project itself was so valuable."

Ed is leaving out the fact that the Greensboro City Council led by then Councilman Danny Thompson lobbied the state legislature to make municipally owned cable systems illegal even though Ed bemoans the loss on his very own blog.

I call him on his dimwitted reply as he's obviously forgotten you need to prevent me with evidence:

"The Greensboro City Council voted to support the state effort to make municipal owned cable systems illegal. Trying to put the blame on the state is simply your MO of covering for local elected officials... Same ol' Ed Cone.

I'll be back to debunk your other point after breakfast when I've more time.

And I will be back... That is, if you're not scared of letting facts get in the way."

As promised, I returned after breakfast:

"I'll begin by asking a question: who's quality of life are we talking about? The quality of life of a select few connected individuals or the quality of life of Greensboro as a whole? As it stands, the Greensboro Coliseum has become detrimental to many of Greensboro's small business. How is that improving the quality of life for Greensboro as a whole and will GPAC not be more of the same?

This is back up by research by none other that former Greensboro Mayor Bill Knight

But again, lets not let the facts stand in the way, Ed hides behind 1 study but I'll be back with more..."

I continue my seige:

"Greensboro can't even fill the Carolina Theatre , how will we fill the GPAC?

Through the use of  Orwellian Math  you promote lies while the real truth lies in the fact that for Greensboro's working class, Greensboro remains the center of the 2nd hungriest metropolitan statistical area in the nation with poverty rates above 21% and the highest unemployment of any compareable North Carolina city.

Knowing thos things, how can even the great Ed Cone have the audacity to claim even when linking to some study that points to life in New Irving Park how great the quality of life is in Greensboro that Greensboro shares a great or even good quality of life.

Like those who wrote the study, you confuse the amenities available to the well-to-do with actually being a measure of quality of life.

Two Americas, two Greensboros."

I keep shooting:

"You want studies? According to Doug Clark, Greensboro is ranked bottom 10 in the Harvard study.

""Poor kids in Greensboro have a lousy chance -- one of the worst in the country -- of working their way up to prosperity, according to a  huge new study from Harvard University."

Is that not a reflection of the quality of life here in Greensboro both now and decades into the future?"

Ed Cone fires his pea shooter:

"Got it, Billy. You're still against the performing arts center that is about to be built downtown. And you liked the study linked in the post, which includes a focus on qol for business owners and entrepreneurs (not for me), until you didn't.

Fine to disagree, but let's stick to the subject. Thanks."

As usual, Eddie has avoided the issues at hand, I go for the kill:

" "...qol for business owners and entrepreneurs"

So you agree, two Americas, two Greensboros?"

Will he take the bait or cower in the corner? I wait and see. Wait? hell, I can't wait, I shoot first and ask questions later:

" "Fine to disagree, but let's stick to the subject."

But of course Ed, let's do stick to the subject. Let's stick to the subject that if Greensboro's "leaders" would put first tings first and deal with issues like " beginning with the abandonment of any city funded efforts to build the Greensboro Performing Arts Center as a good faith gesture to Greensboro's working class who are the second hungriest in the nation, live in over 21% poverty and suffer the highest unemployment in the State of North Carolina for comparable cities" it would go a very long ways towards resolving the issues of "Talent pool" that you wrote of.

But no, Greensboro has to put the cart in front of the horse every single time.

Was that really over your head? I was on subject all along, just providing background for the rest of your readers. Or would you prefer I cite a few more studies? I can do that as well."

Seriously, this new blogger, Ed Cone, needs to get a clue, but I give Ed the last line, as usual, a cop out:

 "Do I continue in my long-held and often-stated belief that inequality of opportunity and income are serious problems, nationally and locally? Of course. Do I see either a study citing quality of life as something important to entrepreneurs, or the downtown performing arts center, as examples or multipliers of that inequality? Nope."

The title of Ed's post was Homegrown and yet he advocates for doing whatever it takes to attract people from outside to come and join with the elites while continuing to do nothing for the people who are already here. Same as it ever was, same as it ever was.

So Who's Responsible For The $300 Million Fed Ex Fiasco?

Being that Roch pointed out last week that the promised 1500 Fed Ex jobs never came, I thought perhaps it was time we look into who is running for Greensboro City Council today. While the $300 Million Dollar airport expansion was supposed to bring 1500 new jobs, Fed Ex currently employes 250 workers locally-- roughly the same number of workers as 15 years ago.

They talk about transportation hubs... for what? Empty trailers?

Of course we all know where Robbie Perkins stood on Fed Ex. If it involves a bulldozer he's all for it and Perkins was behind expansion of Piedmont Triad International Airport then just as he continues to pitch PTI expansion today. But where do the others stand?

Nancy Baracat Vaughan: In 2003 the Business Journal reported:

     "Newly appointed members Dr. Earl Barbour, a High Point chiropractor, and Nancy Vaughan, a former Greensboro City Council member, take their seats in May and promise, however slightly, to alter the character of the authority to fit their priorities.

    Both say they don't oppose the planned $300 million Federal Express air cargo hub; in fact, Vaughan was among the first elected officials back in 1998 to publicly support the controversial project."

Nancy Baracat Vaughan isn't talking much about Fed Ex these days.

Mike Barber: From the December 4, 2001 Guilford County Commissioners meeting minutes:

"Commissioner (Mike) Barber said the proposed FedEx hub means the direction the county will be taking will be positive. He said the company locating in Guilford County will continue to make the county progressive and not stagnant."

Guess what Mike? The county is stagnant. Last in the State of North Carolina in job creation. I asked Mike about Fed Ex in a Facebook thread last week. Mike isn't talking either.

Yvonne Johnson: From then Greensboro Mayor Yvonne J Johnson's August 27th, 2008 State of the Community speech:

"A long time ago, the City got its nickname the Gate City because of the large number of railway ties that led from Greensboro to all points. Today we are a gateway in many ways. Through our
colleges and universities and research centers, we are the gateway to education. Through
our highways, airport, FedEx Hub, and Honda Jet facility, we are the gateway to
commerce...


...All of these developments are signposts that tell us that Greensboro is continuing its
growth. FedEx is set to begin operations in the Summer of 2009...

...FedEx, Honda Jet and Mack Truck Corp. should stimulate even more interest in our area
so that we may continue to strengthen our local tax base..."

Yvonne really laid it on thick, didn't she? Too bad she was wrong. She was even wrong when she said,

"We have been the Gate City for 200 years."

Greensboro became known as the Gate City sometime after the groundbreaking of the North Carolina Railroad in Greensboro in 1851. Apparently Yvonne has problems with mathematics-- especially when it comes to spending $300 Million Dollars.


It should be noted that Roch Smith jr's 2001 platform when he ran for Mayor of Greensboro, included opposition to the Fed Ex Hub that has now cost Greensboro and Guilford County taxpayers $300 Million Dollars for 1500 jobs that never came. 


We live in a city that is currently dead last in North Carolina in new job creation, some of that $300 Million could have gone towards supporting the establishment of new locally owned businesses and expanding existing locally owned businesses instead of putting the entire $300 Million in 1 pathetic pie.

We live in a city that ranks 97 out of 100 and falling in household earnings, people could use a tax break now more than ever!

We live in a city that ranks ranks 100th out of 102 markets in economic vitality-- that $300 Million could have been better spent.

We live in a city that ranks 95th out of the largest 100 cities in terms of citizens' ability towards upward mobility. That means fewer and fewer people have the chance to raise themselves up and we've our leaders to thank.

And it didn't end with Fed Ex. Unfulfilled and speculative airport expansion plans have continued ever since, some built, some not. Heart of the Triad, Aerotropolis, the march continues unabated every day, never living up to the hype draining precious resources from our communities and creating blue collar ghettos to the east and ever expanding airport noise cones in the west over Greensboro's more affluent communities.

We could have sure used some of that $300 Million to go towards solving some of those problems instead of building runways for multinational corporations who never delivered the jobs they promised and never intended to do so in the first place. I don't care if you call yourself a liberal or a conservative, if these politicians aren't corrupt then they simply haven't the common sense and judgement necessary to run a city-- any city. And the proof is in their $300 Million Dollar blunders that all of them are now scared to talk about. Just as they were scared to talk about the truth at the time it was going on.


On August 13th 2007, Ed Cone wrote:

"Planning for the impact of our local FedEx hub -- due to open in 2009 -- is suddenly in vogue.
Some of us tried to have this conversation before the hub was under construction. We got rolled."

Ed was right. We got rolled big time. To the tune of $300 Million Dollars! They knew it was all a lie before it ever started and they did it anyway. Ed Cone has the evidence on the pages of his blog!


It's time to vote the incumbents out of office-- all of them before they break the bank entirely. Please e-mail this post to everyone you know so that they know that Robbie Perkins, Nancy Baracat Vaughan, Mike Barber, Yvonne Johnson and yes, even T. Dianne Bellamy-Small all sold us out with their support for the $300 Million Dollar Fed Ex hub and the 1500 jobs that never came.

Ed Cone On Renaming High Point Road

"Changing the name without fixing the problems is lipstick on a pig, and fixing the problems means there's no need to change the historic name."

I got to hand it to Ed, despite our disagreements, sometimes he's just plain right.

Robbie Perkins On Greensboro's Tax Problems

Earlier today, Mayor Robbie Perkins chimed in on a discussion at Ed Cone's blog:

"We need to find the $6,500,000 to close the gap between projected revenue and projected expenses for 2013-2014 budget before we decide to cut the tax rate. Also, citizens need to look at the total cost of local government in order to make an apples to apples comparison. There are many ways for local government(cities and counties) to raise revenue, one of which is the property tax rate. Another way to lower the tax rate is to grow the tax base, especially with commercial properties that do not require as many services from local government."

So if we need to find a way to close the gap, why is the Mayor not pitching the idea of taking the downtown performing arts center off the table altogether? Otherwise the problem just comes back to bite us again.

Of course, what the Mayor is really trying to do here is pitch more industrial and commercial parks. Problem is: He hasn't sold the others we paid to build. They're still empty waiting on that imaginary corporate giant to come to the city with the highest taxes of all its peers  and hire us all when the businesses surveyed here said,

 “I think we have a 19th century government structure in a 21st century world.”

And

"Both the City of Greensboro and Guilford County ranked 2.73 and 2.70 respectively in business climate rankings from all respondents that weren’t part of the government focus group (on a 1 to 5 scale with 5 being the best), clearly noting that no one should accept that it is business as usual or that the status quo is acceptable."

Those 2 quotes are from a study the Mayor and the Greensboro Partnership have tried to keep secret.
Oh yeah, we'll grow that tax base alright. You just keep pitching that nonsense Robme and I'll keep catching you at your lies.