More Problems For Tanger Performing Arts Center?

In a post titled Tanger Center for the Performing Arts site work grinds to a halt, someone called Gate City Pundit writes:

"A fee dispute has brought years of planning and engineering work on the proposed Tanger Center for the Performing Arts to a standstill.

City of Greensboro officials notified council members Friday that negotiations for a guaranteed maximum price for site preparation have broken down with Skanska Rentenbach, the construction firm selected in 2014 to serve as the project’s construction manager at risk.

Greensboro’s City Council voted in late April to split work on the delayed project into two phases. Phase I work was approved by council in April and was to include site preparation for a fee not to exceed $2.5 million.

Greensboro Coliseum Director Matt Brown notified council on Friday that the contract negotiations had broken off because Skanska Rentenbach is unwilling to remove two sets of fees from their Phase I proposal."

Oh, and like myself, this guy provided actual links to documents.

My predictions: After being sold at a huge loss to taxpayers, that big empty lot in the middle of Downtown Greensboro is going to make a great location for that trendy grocery store on the first floor of a mixed use building just as soon as Kotis and Carroll put their personal differences aside, team up together and decide to become long awaited saviors of Downtown Greensboro.

With incentives, of course.

Perhaps they can even talk Steven Tanger into putting one of his outlet malls on one floor.

I look forward to seeing more from Gate City Pundit and added the site to the aggregator to the left bar here at EzGreensboro.com

Remember: In the Beginning I Was In Favor Of GPAC

Most people think Billy Jones has always been against the Greensboro Performing Arts Center but that simply isn't true. In the beginning I was in favor of building a Greensboro Performing Arts Center. I just thought Greensboro's leaders had chosen the wrong spot in which to place such an investment.

 They claimed GPAC was about economic development so I said, fine, put it in the part of town that most needs economic development-- East Greensboro.

In my January 27, 2012, article, Why Not East Greensboro? the first article I ever posted to this blog, I wrote:

"But there are those among us who think that East Greensboro, in particular, the City owned, abandoned Bessemer Shopping Center located at the intersection of Phillips Avenue and Elwell Avenue as shown on the map below, would be a much better location for the Greensboro Performing Arts Center."

Some thought me joking. Others thought me crazy. Greensboro's elites were afraid I might actually pull it off. Especially after I was the one who was interviewed on National Public Radio's local affiliates.

They went on to have meetings about how downtown was more convenient so I posted Location, Location, Location with travel times from all the major thoroughfares and Interstates to the location I had picked in comparison to downtown. The downtown crowd stopped talking about the convenience of downtown.

Somebody claimed there was too much crime in east Greensboro. In But What About Crime In East Greensboro? I wrote:

"If that is indeed true, then a local gem like a multimillion dollar performing arts center would require the City of Greensboro to step-up the pace and do something to protect their/our investment. Building a performing arts center outside of downtown would require the City of Greensboro to become as vested in the rest of the city as they are vested in downtown Greensboro-- something many Greensboro residents have long complained the City does not do.

Build it and they will come? No, build it and they will stay-- vested."

It was later learned that violent crime in downtown Greensboro is higher than in East Greensboro.

As my series continued I wrote Greensboro Performing Arts: Public Or Private, and agreed that GPAC should be a public-private partnership but in the end what we got was a privately owned, publicly funded performing arts center.

Seems like nothing is as we were told it was to be.

In Woah! Not So Fast! I pointed out how other supporters were beginning to have concerns:

"Allen Johnson of the Greensboro News & Record has some concerns that the City of Greensboro is moving too fast in their effort to build a Greensboro Performing Arts Center. I think he's right.

For starters: the Greensboro City Council isn't even considering an East Greensboro location. Never mind that the City already owns the property or that there's lots of available property already for sale in the immediate area around surrounding the abandoned, Bessemer Shopping Center. Never mind that boarded and empty houses are all over the neighborhood. Never mind that land in East Greensboro can be bought for 1/10 the cost of downtown properties. Never mind that for most people, the East Greensboro location is more convenient and easier for heavy trucks and buses to access. Never mind anything that makes sense, Mayor Perkins has spoken and $72 Million Dollars is about to be spent like it or not.

Link via Ed Cone who also agrees it's time to apply the brakes."

Scary stuff! But not nearly as scary as what I wrote about in But The Rich Elite Won't Come To East Greensboro:

"That's an argument I've heard several times when pitching my idea for an East Greensboro Performing Arts Center on Phillips Ave. Is it true? Are Greensboro's well-to-do so classist and possibly racist, they would not attend shows at a performing arts center located anywhere other than Matt Brown's fiefdom, the Greensboro Coliseum Complex or the Mayor's anointed downtown location?

I would like to say that Greensboro's richest families are long past such behaviors but honestly, I cannot speak for what is in the hearts and minds of others. But if Greensboro's better-off population is so snobbish, classist and racist as to refuse to patronize an East Greensboro Performing Arts Center then none of Greensboro deserves to have a performing arts center no matter where they ultimately decide to locate it."

Can you imagine liberal patrons of the arts as to snobbish to travel to a state of the art performing arts center simply because it is located in a mostly minority, working class neighborhood? Before being told such things the thought never crossed my mind.

My next article, Let's Learn About The Area, pointed out all the available land in the area-- cheap land that could easily be developed, reducing the costs to taxpayers by 10s of Millions of Dollars. But no one seemed to care how much it would cost.

"All the streets in the area are wide, even by Greensboro's standards, with ample room for metered parking. Parking meters are among the highest sources of revenue for any well run city. Now if we only had a reason for people to park there. Sykes Ave, Elwell Ave and English St further to the west all lead directly to Wendover Avenue."

And this:

"I completed my survey of the area today. On Patio Place there is 1 empty house. I didn't attempt to count empty apartments. There was 1 empty house on Lancer ct, 2 more on Westhampton Dr. another on Textile Drive and 2 more on Sykes Ave bringing the total number of empty houses within 0.3 of a mile to 40 empty houses. Most of the empty homes are either abandoned or are substandard rental properties and several have been condemned by the City of Greensboro."

Obviously no one cared.

I continued that series with Performing Arts As Economic Stimulus in which I wrote:

"That's the excuse being pitched by proponents of a downtown Greensboro Performing Arts Center-- that spending taxpayers' dollars on building another building in downtown Greensboro will attract visitors to the city and stimulate the downtown economy.

But what about the rest of Greensboro, shouldn't we share in the "wealth" too?"

  I e-mailed every single post in this series to the entire Greensboro City Council and none of them cared about your neighborhoods enough to talk about the points I was making. A couple of them voted against GPAC but not one person on the Greensboro City Council voted to spend your tax dollars where they would do the most good.

I thought it should be named The Randall Jarrell Performing Arts Center after UNC-Greensboro professor, poet, literary critic, children's author, essayist, novelist, and Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress Randall Jarrell but they decided to build a monument to Steven Tanger who never even lived in Greensboro.

I've since been told I'm mistaken about Randall Jarrell being a man of color.

In Who Said Anything About A Subsidy? I pointed out how then Mayor Robbie Perkins claimed it could all be put together in just 9 months. Look here folks, it took them longer than 9 months to do this:

But I was still in favor of GPAC, still a supporter. I just wanted it put where it would do the most good.

In the 11th chapter, Aesthetics And Architecture, I wrote:

"The great thing about locating the East Greensboro Performing Arts Center in the location I've chosen is that it can and will be the focal point of the entire area and everything else can be designed around it.

Within the green circle are two filled lakes that could be dug back out if that's what the people want. And while they're not rivers there are 2 full time streams that have continued to flow through every summer drought in memory. Downtown certainly can't offer that. And should a high rise hotel be built nearby the view will encompass the many wooded acres of the 3 nearby neighborhood parks that already exist there.

Because the chosen site is not downtown the aesthetics won't need to comply with what is already built-- a bunch of drab brick and concrete boxes. Then, local businesses can come in to create a second downtown Greensboro built around the theme chosen for the East Greensboro Performing Arts Center."

Downtown couldn't touch that. No matter how beautiful the Steven Tanger Center for the Performing Arts may be, in the location chosen, it will simply be another big building when it could have been the proud focal point of an entire community.

You see folks, back in my school days, structural engineering and architecture were my chosen fields of study. The site I'd picked was a designer's dream.

In Task Force To Weigh Benefits Of New Greensboro Performing Arts Center, reality began to set in when I wrote:

"Again, no mention of East Greensboro or any other Greensboro neighborhood. How about the econonomic impact to East Greensboro-- should that not also be considered? Only the Greensboro Colliseum Complex and Downtown Greensboro are being considered. How can you possibly justify spending $72 Million Dollars of other people's money without first asking those people what they think? How can you call that being open and candid when the rest of the city isn't even mentioned?

What kind of private investors would want to do business with people who so carelessly throw other people's money around?"

The entire city had been shut out of the conversation and it had taken them less that 2 months to do it. Yes, they would continue to have public meetings but everything beyond that point was nothing more than a show.

In What Kind Of Fool? I had my first of many scoops when I exposed the News & Record's attempt to sell their property to GPAC.

My series didn't end with Esse Quam Videri  but my hopes were dashed. I continued to try for a while longer but I know there would be no East Greensboro Performing Arts Center and I also know that everything we were being told was all lies.

And the lies continue until this day.

The costs now exceed $80 Million. What began in the last days of 2011 is now about to spill over into 2017. We still haven't actually seen any money from private doners and the City of Greensboro is under contract to cover any shortfalls for a performing arts center that will be owned not by the City of Greensboro but by a private company managed by Walker Sanders and the Community Foundation of Greater Greensboro.

Build It And They Will Come... Someday

Watch this video of the biggest city that never was:



Now let's apply what you learned from the video to projects going on locally, say our Downtown Performing Arts Center and the Greensboro-Randolph Megasite.


From Wikipedia:

"California City has one landowners' resort, one PGA golf course, one prison, and one municipal airport. Much of the workforce of Edwards Air Force Base, which is located just to the south of the city, is made up of city residents. Other major sources of employment include California City Correctional Center (California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation); Mojave Air and Space Port and its flight test operations; the Hyundai/Kia Proving Grounds located in the rural southwestern part of the city; and nearby cities, such as Tehachapi, Ridgecrest, Boron, Palmdale, and Lancaster."

Now think about that for just a minute. Should any one of the Edwards Air Force Base, the Mojave Air and Space Port, California Correctional Center or the Hyundai/Kia Proving Grounds close their doors, California City goes bankrupt as people leave town in search of jobs.

Don't believe me? Also from Wikipedia:

"Only 807 workers lived and worked in California City in 2006. This was 24.3% of the city's population. 31% of the male population were public administrators in 2006. Public administration is the most common job in California City. *City-Data.com

807 workers in 2006 in a city with a population of 8,385 as of the year 2000? Where did they all go?

"According to the census^[13] of 2000, there were 8,385 people, 3,067 households, and 2,257 families residing in the city. As of 2006 the city's population grew 8.9% from 12,106 to 13,219. California City outpaced rivals Palmdale and Lancaster, making the city the 12th fastest growing city in California."

And they're calling this place a success?

Sure, like the video said, California City was a success for the developer who sold every lot but was it a success for all those people who bought into his plans and were able to sell the properties they bought? Was it a success for all those people who picked up and left between 2000 and 2006? Are speculators who bought up downtown Greensboro properties about to loose their asses? Are taxpayers going to make sure they don't?

And what about that megasite? As Mayor Vaughan is quick to tell us, there are no investors in the megasite-- the bills are being footed by the taxpayers. But commercial real estate agents will sell the properties and commercial real estate developers will develop the properties... All at taxpayers expense.

And even if it takes a hundred years to fill it up they will always call it a success. Just like they still tell us that the $120 Million Dollar Fed Ex project that promised 1,500 human workers and delivered only robots was a success.

There needs to be a new measure of success in America and that measure needs to be sustainability. When I'm elected Mayor of Greensboro I will make sustainability our measure of success.

HB2, The Good, The Bad and the Ugly

For starters, HB2 (Link to actual law as passed)  is a Civil Law and not Criminal Law. What that means is that if you catch someone breaking the law and you are in-fact the injured party then you have the legal right to sue that person. If you know that person's name. What you cannot do is take out criminal charges against the violator of HB2 and have him or her put in jail. You can call the cops but there is a very good chance the police will tell you that since it is a civil matter the problem is out of their hands. And even if the police do come the most they can legally do is tell the person to leave the restroom. Which the person probably planned on doing soon anyway.

This is a classic case of what Conservatives have long complained of passing new laws when what was really needed is better enforcement of the laws that are already on the books. After all, it's already against the law to be a sexual predator.

Here's another thing they didn't tell you about HB2: While it is true that Private Clubs are not subject to HB2, businesses with restrooms that are open to the public such as restaurants, bars and retail establishments, are subject to HB2. So even if you own a restaurant that is LGBT friendly the law still applies to you.

"Whereas, the General Assembly finds that laws and obligations consistent statewide for all businesses, organizations, and employers doing business in the State benefit the businesses,organizations, and employers seeking to do business in the State and attracts new businesses,"

In other words, North Carolina voters have again been tricked by those persons they elected to office. Now that's ugly.

HB2 prohibits Cities and Counties from establishing their own minimum wage levels. Some of my readers will think that good, others bad.

Of course you've already heard the stories of the many companies who say they will no longer do business in or with North Carolina. That's bad. If they really follow through on it things will get ugly for our state's economy which is bad to begin with.

Then there's Angel Carey who was suing her employer on claims of disability and age discrimination until she found out Thursday that HB2 means discrimination lawsuits like hers can no longer go to state court. Now she must start all over again and go through Federal Court, a lengthier and more expensive process. That's bad.

“It remains the public policy on the books that North Carolina prohibits discrimination in the workplace,” said Laura Noble, her employment attorney. “But now we have no enforcement mechanism in our state.”

Going through the federal process extends the suit, perhaps by years, plus the plaintiff can’t recover damages for pain and suffering, Noble said."

And last but not least, the good news that HB2 brought us. From Carolina Under Siege: It appears that  Broadway composer Stephen Schwartz, best known his hit musicals such as “Godspell,” “Pippin” and “Wicked.” has decided that none of his creations will be allowed to play anywhere in North Carolina including the soon to be constructed Steven Tanger Center for the Performing Arts. Or as Fec prefers to call it, the I've Got Mine Fuck You Performing Arts Center:

 "How deliciously delightful.  First, we were mocked by a NYC architect and now we are shamed.  This will, of course, be a terrible shock for the sycophantic whores in our arts community, who cling to their corrupt patrons like starving orphans, rather than accuse, mock and shame them as has been properly done by their betters."

I guess it's really true, every cloud does have it's silver lining. That's good! That is, unless you happen to be Greensboro Mayor Nancy Barakat "Grasshopper" Vaughan and the Greensboro City Council who voted to build the il fated performing arts center under the guise that it would be great for economic development for our entire city despite the fact that every measurable metric indicated otherwise. In that case I guess HB2 is still ugly.

You see, folks, no matter which side of the issue you stand on it's really about truth and who you get in bed with. And as long as you are willing to get in bed you are going to get screwed like it or not. And when you get in bed with a political party you end up having an orgy.

It's time you learned to make better choices before you end up catching something for which there is no cure.

Sam Hieb; "The city will serve as project manager and approve all construction and professional service contracts, funding the first $18.5 million in construction and equipment costs."

"City will assume new bond debt to close projected $10 million funding gap"

...The original cost estimate for the Tanger Center was $65 million, with the city contributing $30 million in bond debt and the remaining $35 million coming from private donations..."

Incorrect, as multiple earlier estimates were lower

Doesn't mention the interest on the debt, 

or the anticipated ongoing losses, 

or the lies told to make it happen

"The city will serve as project manager and approve all construction and professional service contracts, funding the first $18.5 million in construction and equipment costs."

Weren't they going to hire a "manager at risk"?

"City leaders believe the Tanger Center will continue Greensboro’s downtown revitalization on the northern end of Elm Street. That belief was legitimized in the eyes of many when high-powered developer Roy Carroll announced plans to build a hotel and a mixed use development just a couple of blocks away, across the street from New Bridge Bank Park."

Nice sell out Sam, 

no different than Tony Wilkins

"a good chunk of funding to close the budget will come from ticket fees."

"Those funds are now being “repurposed,” which would raise $3.75 million."

Per year Sam?

Where is the math Sam?

So you agree with the estimates Sam?

"another $2.1 million from boosting the number of VIP parking spaces"

How did you come to those figures Sam?

How many of the extra VIP spaces

 are going to sell for each event Sam?

“I don’t think you can ever say we’ve eliminated taxpayer exposure, but we’ve minimized it,” said Mayor Nancy Vaughan. “We have a phenomenal opportunity to do this with very little risk.”

Sam A. Hieb is a contributor to Carolina Journal.

http://www.carolinajournal.com/exclusives/display_exclusive.html?id=12671

Did Sam Hieb sell out to Roy Carroll,

or did Carolina Journal, or both?

I guess I expected more

from some supposed fiscal conservatives

who supposedly understand basic arithmatic

What did Tony and Marikay say about the bogus math?

Nothing, along with Sam Hieb and Carolina Journal.

Who's the manager at risk Tony, Sam and Marikay?

WTF?