Textile Community Fun Day

Since my mother and the Rogers family have both retired from managing our community affairs, Linda Bennett has stepped up and has done a fantastic job. More than fantastic. She has single handedly secured grants that were used to rebuild Textile Drive Park, install playground equipment, manages National Nights Out and so much more including helping to make our neighborhood safe again. The world could use a lot more Linda Bennetts.

This morning Linda sends me a flyer announcing Textile Community Fun Day for all Greensboro Neighborhoods coming up on October 11, 2014 from 10 AM until 2 PM where neighbors can meet, greet and get to know one another. Sadly I'll be working that day but someone from the family will be in attendance. Click on the link above for more info and stay tuned to EzGreensboro.com-- the voice of East Greensboro.

Got community news? Send it to RecycleBill@gmail.com We'll spread the word.

Lorillard Water Quality Tests

Lorillard Tobacco has been in the news for months now but there is another issue I wish the City of Greensboro would address.

There exists a full time unnamed stream that originates from underground on Lorillard property and flows north across Bessemer Ave, Wendover Avenue, Textile Drive, Phillips Avenue and eventually into Reedy Fork Creek and the Haw River. It passes through 2 city owned parks and several housing developments where children play. Woodmere Park is one of those neighborhoods. Coming out of the ground it should be the purest water in all of Greensboro but is it pure when it leaves Lorillard Tobacco Company?

I played in that creek all the years I was growing up. I've wondered since I was a child why there are no fish in that creek. Many smaller creeks and streams are teaming with fish but none live there-- why? Could it be the water?

A few months ago I submitted a public information request to the City of Greensboro asking for results as to any water quality tests that might have been done on the creek. I know the State is in charge of doing such tests but being that the city owns most of the land including public parks and would be at least somewhat liable if children playing in the creek were to get sick I thought the city would at least have some records.

The City of Greensboro had no such records available. Isn't it about time we learned?

Greensboro Mistakenly Plans To Cut Bus Services

I'll be perfectly honest, there is little I like about GTA buses. I don't enjoy riding them, I hate getting stuck behind them when I'm driving and I wish the people who ride the GTA bus that stops in front of my house would stop throwing their trash on the ground... It pisses me off every morning to have to pick it up! And as you've noticed, I stay pissed off all day!

It's 6:00 in the morning and I'm already pissed off watching the GTA bus drive away!

That said, if you're going to have poor people in cities like Greensboro, where all the poor live across town from the only available jobs then no matter what your views of mass transit, urban sprawl or global warming, city buses are a necessary evil. From the News & Fishwrap:

"The Greensboro Transit Authority will consider the most extensive service cuts in the 23-year history of its bus system in an effort to address a $2 million budget shortfall.

The city staff has recommended a full slate of changes, including scaling back night-time bus service across Greensboro and increasing bus fare $1.50 to $2 by 2016.

These are changes that the city staff said would render the bus system less effective, and possibly less popular, with its ever-growing number of riders.

And these cuts would fall about $600,000 short of closing that budget gap."

In the meantime, Greensboro remains the center of the 2nd hungriest Metropolitan Statistical Area in the US, has a 21% poverty rate, highest unemployment in the state, can afford to spend $30 plus Million on a Performing Arts Center and has $272 Million Dollars in the city savings account.

This isn't about budget shortfalls, it's about misplaced priorities and "leaders" who don't care about the working class. From the same article:

"About $390,000 of the $2 million budget deficit comes from the City Council shifting a portion of property-tax revenue to a new economic development fund."

 You can't have economic development without getting the workers to and from work. It's called robbing Peter to pay Paul.

You think there's not a revolution brewing here in east Greensboro? Just wait until all those GTA passengers can no longer make their 2 hour bus rides to Greensboro's few jobs on the west side of down and remember downtown is within walking distance when you're angry enough.

City Replies To Greensboro Urban Farm Questions

I got answers to some of my questions about the Urban Farm that is to be built on Phillips Ave at Lombardy Street. You may view my questions and the City of Greensboro's answers here.

I also have City cost estimates and e-mails here.

I still find it strange that any farming operation would start out with plans to buy over 300,000 gallons of water a year at a cost of $1,949.29 when there's a creek that free-flows millions of gallons of water each year flowing through the middle of the project. Unless of course, the plan is for state taxpayers to but Greensboro City Water.

Now is this for restrooms and water fountains--that makes sense. But then in reading through the list of responses to my questions I figured it out... The folks with the City of Greensboro, Eastern Development Growth Enterprise and NC A&T University... as smart as they may be they'll just never get it. After all, they're just not farmers, they haven't a clue.

But I'll give you a little tip: A real farmer could build a drip irrigation system that pulled water from the creek for the cost of 1 year's water bill-- seriously. All one needs is a slightly elevated tank, a pump, float valve, wires, pump and hoses.

I learned a lesson today: people aren't always as crooked as I suspect them to be-- they're just not as smart as I give them credit for. Maybe next year they'll wise up and draw the water from the creek instead.

What's Up With The Community Gardens?

For quite some time now we've been hearing of plans to build community gardens off of Phillips Ave here in Northeast Greensboro and as my peas, lettuce and a few other crops are already sprouting I thought I'd ask the City of Greensboro for an update on the project. The following is the PIRT (Public Information Request) I sent them yesterday:

"What is the status of the community garden project that is to be built on Phillips Ave and Lombardy Street?

I noticed today that city surveyors were again surveying the property (3rd time) and again driving the survey stakes into the exact same places as before. I walked along behind them watching as they worked. 

How much has the city spent to date on this project?

How much does the city intend to spend on this project?

Is Gayland A. Oliver still in charge of this project? (Follow the link for background on Mr Oliver: http://greensboroperformingarts.blogspot.com/search/label/Gayland%20Anthony%20Oliver )

Does Mr Oliver have any previous experience growing crops?

I ask that because it has taken me a lifetime to become proficient as a gardener and I still can't hold a candle to my mother.

Is A&T University still planning to provide $40,000 for this project?

Do you have blueprints for the project? I'd like to see them.

Has the proposed water service been installed yet? 

How will water be moved across the creek that flows through the middle of the project?

The creek has flowed water 365 days a year for the last 57 years that I'm aware of-- why was the creek not considered as a water source for watering vegetables as any real farming operation would have done? 

I've relied 100% on rainwater storage for the last decade to water my garden and found it produces healthier plants at considerably less expense than city water. Could the taxpayers not benefit from reducing the cost of growing vegetables? I'm all for the idea of community gardens but a poorly planned first try will ruin any chance of expanding the program. 

Are toxins from Lorillard Tobacco Company where the creek originates, making the water unsafe for watering vegetables?

Has the creek been tested for water quality?

Does the City have the results of those tests? 

It was my understanding that this project was to be in operation before now. I've already started planting my 2014 garden and my peas are already popping through the ground just as they do every February, when will this project be finished? 

There are also concerns with what is in the ground at the site chosen. That site was at one time a rock quarry. As a matter of fact: most all of the stone and gravel used to build the original downtown Greensboro, Fisher Park, Aycock, Irving Park, College Hill and most of Greensboro's historic neighborhoods was mined there. 

Like so many rock quarries, it eventually became a deep and very dangerous lake. I used to play there as a child and get a whipping every time my parents found out. Several children and adults drowned there when I was growing up. Criminals used it as a place to hide their get-away cars and guns used in crimes. Companies dumped toxic chemicals there. Construct contractors still use the property to this day to dump construction waste (C&D) that the city cleans up from time to time. Nothing was ever retrieved. As of my visit today there were several old television picture tubes (Haz-mat) on the grounds there. 

Of course, depending on how the gardens are designed that isn't necessarily a problem but it needs to be kept in mind.

Previously I suggested to Denise Turner Roth that 1207 Willard St, another city owned property is available. This property is almost completely flat and already has water and sewer hookups. It can also be more easily monitored by neighbors and it is only 1 block away from the Lombardy St site. Previously there were not 1 but 3 houses on that site. Ms Roth never replied to my e-mail. 

Of course the 1207 Willard St site has no creek but if properly constructed rainwater could be collected to provide most if not all of the water needs. My e-mail to her included cheap sources for materials and fencing as well. I still have it and could forward it if you like. And 1207 Willard was one part of the Pinnix family farm, and not a toxic waste dump. 

Thanks -Billy"

I honestly believe that community gardens are a necessary part of our long term survival. Not everyone is as fortunate as myself to have grown up with parents who were raised on the farm and believed it imperative that children learn how to work the soil. The working class cannot afford imported food nor is it healthy. Community gardens will serve not only as a place to grow food but more importantly as a place to learn to grow food so that others can take what they learn and return home to do what my family has done on this east Greensboro lot for the last 57 years. This community garden will never be able to feed an entire neighborhood but if done right it has the potential to feed enough knowledge into the neighborhood so that the neighborhood can someday feed itself.

That's why it is imperative that we get it right the first time and not let the usual suspects destroy it before it has a chance to grow and set fruit.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I've got seeds to sow as I garden 12 months a year.

Update: Thursday, March 6, 2014: This morning I sent the following e-mail to Judi Mackey of Lazard who has been hired by RJ Reynolds to oversee the proposed buyout of Lorillard Tobacco. Maybe she can get answers the City of Greensboro seems slow to respond to:

"Would a merger/buyout between your customer, RJ Reynolds and Lorillard Tobacco mean that environmental concerns with the creek that originates on Lorillard's East Market St factory property in Greensboro, North Carolina,  finally be cleared up? http://greensboroperformingarts.blogspot.com/2014/02/whats-up-with-community-gardens.html
Thank you -Billy Jones"

 We'll see if the power of multi-billion dollar multi-nationals puts a little spring in the step of the City of Greensboro.

Please continue reading Update On The Urban Farm Project 

 Previously: Did The illegal Greensboro Inn, Bessemer Shopping Center Swap Kill The Phillips Avenue Community Garden?

Greensboro Fails Another Test

In the recent Tale of 2000 Cities just released by the Demand Institute, Greensboro, North Carolina was listed as a Transitional City while other cities are expected to see rises in home values Greensboro property values are expected to be only 98% of what they are currently-- still far below what they were several years ago with 12% of Greensboro mortgages seriously under water--and population falling to 94% of what it is today.


Proving once again, Greensboro's leaders have failed to make the cut and that real estate development as economic development just doesn't work. Add one to the ever growing list of reasons CEOs and the people who work for them don't want to come here.

 Update:  Same day the News & Record is reporting that:

"Buyers paying cash accounted for 56.3 percent of purchases of homes during January in the Greensboro-High Point area, according to a report by RealtyTrac timed for release today.

That's up from 50.1 percent in December and 16.9 percent in January 2013."

The report continues:

"RealtyTrac spokeswoman Ginny Walker said the categories are not “mutually exclusive,” such as there is overlap between cash and institutional investor purchases.

“Many of the institutional investors are paying cash,” Walker said. “Our data shows 84 percent of the institutional investor purchases in January were all-cash nationwide.”

The median sales price for homes not in the foreclosure pipeline was $112,000, up 3 percent year over year, but down 2 percent compared with December. For distressed homes, the median sales price was $70,000, or a 38 percent discount.

By comparison, the Winston-Salem Regional Association of Realtors said that the average sales price of existing homes rose 2.5 percent to $169,000 from December 2012 to December 2013. The average sales price was up 10.6 percent from $152,812 in November."

That's right, Winston-Salem, Raleigh, Cary, Charlotte, they all placed better... as usual.

Related:
Attention CEOs: Why You Don't Want To Bring Your Company And Your Family To Greensboro, North Carolina, AKA: Greensboro Sucks

More Reasons CEOs Will Want To Avoid Greensboro 

Two More Reasons CEOs Will Want To Avoid Greensboro

33% Of Greensboro Urban Population Lives In Food Desert

When my family moved to this community there was no less than 3 grocery stores within 1/2 of a mile of my home. Two were located on Phillips Avenue before the Winn Dixie was built. Now there are none. 

And the lists of reasons why CEOs would not want to bring their companies to Greensboro continues to grow with:

Attention CEOs: Why You Don't Want To Bring Your Company And Your Family To Greensboro, North Carolina, AKA: Greensboro Sucks.

More Reasons CEOs Will Want To Avoid Greensboro

Two More Reasons CEOs Will Want To Avoid Greensboro


And for you bright people who move out of the city and into the country: one of the reasons people tolerate living in cities is to have amenities like grocery stores close by so don't give me that BS about how you drive 10 miles to the grocery store because that is your choice.

Nancy Hoffman Kicked Off Friendly West Board

From an anonymous commenter on my previous post, Chaney and Hoffman: Vultures Circling Over Downtown Greensboro: 

"Nancy Hoffman has been fucking Greensboro residents and her own neighbors for a long time.

Calculated, unimaginative,evil and angry, best describe her. The old fart has not had an original idea in years, she is only able to steal from people and now from the citizens of Greensboro.

But there is hope because she is not invincible !
From FRIENDLY WEST TOWNHOUSE ASSOCIATION
MINUTES OF ANNUAL HOMEOWNERS MEETING
MAY 9, 2011 In a call for other business, Dave Andrew moved to remove Nancy Hoffmann as a Board member and as President. The motion was seconded by George Humble.
Bill Robinette moved that the vote be cast by secret ballot, and seconded by Mary Summers. Upon voice vote, the motion was approved by a majority vote.
The motion to remove Nancy Hoffmann as a Board member and as President was approved in the
vote by ballot as follows: 30 yes; 14 no.

Watch out honey, your Depends are showing"

It would appear the Vulture may soon be prey.

Greensboro First Big Box Retailer

Clarks Department Store located on Burlington Road in the Bessemer Community next door to what is now the Guilford County Agricultural Extension Service compliments of Bessemer resident, Mike Riddle. Click on the photo to enlarge.

Prior to annexation, Bessemer was the most economically viable community in the entire Piedmont Triad until the Greensboro City Council voted to bulldoze 3 miles of East Market St from Murrow Blvd to Burlington Rd to destroy the community and drive Bessemer's business downtown just 2 years after annexation. From the City of Greensboro website:

"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."

That was the beginning of the first of 3 rounds of downtown rejuvenation over the course of my lifetime with the end result of each round being the need for yet another round of downtown rejuvenation. The building of the downtown Greensboro performing arts center represents the beginning of round 4.

This time we knock them out!

Tony Wilkins Starts Riot, Breaks Windows In Downtown Greensboro

Greensboro City Councilman Tony Wilkins was identified by Greensboro Police earlier today as the man who broke the windows out of the new Steven Tanger Performing Arts Center and brought the building crashing to the ground:

"How absurd is it for us to reach into the pockets of the poor, the elderly, the hungry…and transfer it to the elite? Robin Hood in reverse. Which is exactly what we would be doing if we use property tax dollars to fund construction overruns and operating deficits. And they would be open ended, as we have no clue what those figures might be."

It's us or them, Mayor Vaughan: Who will you side with?

"Two million of us are classified by the federal government as hungry – over 20 percent, the nation’s fifth-highest rate. Nearly 622,000 of our kids don’t get enough to eat. Greensboro is the country’s second-hungriest city..."

That's country as in nation, not county. Want to see riots on the streets of Greensboro? Real riots, not just a few teenage boys getting into fights? East Greensboro has reached it's boiling point as has much of the rest of the city, build the GPAC and they will come. Will I be rioting? No, but I'll help with collecting bail for the rioters so they can more quickly get back into the fray. See how easy it is.

Economic Development At The White Street Landfill: Part 12: Waste 2 Energy

You know the saddest part about my series, Economic Development At The White Street Landfill isn't that Greensboro will never do these things. In time, economics will force Greensboro to do all these things and more but like so many things the early adopters gain the most and the last adopters pay the most. Now should say, El Paso, Texas be the first city to adopt these ideas then it won't make much difference to Greensboro, North Carolina but should say High Point or Eden, North Carolina... Well just imagine if Eden which is surrounded with all that undeveloped, rural land making up the vast majority of Rockingham County decided to become the early adopter? And Eden has a river... (Inside joke for long time locals.)

On Sunday, Dec 29, 2013, the News & Record editorial board wrote:

"Work on the city’s trash problem ... now.

We know, we know ... the old song promises that “The sun’ll come out tomorrow.” But the city of Greensboro needs to think seriously about its long-term solid-waste problems today.

Better rates for garbage hauling and an increased emphasis on recycling are healthy developments. But a regional solution that factors in advances such as waste-to-energy technology is a decades-long proposition that needs attention right now."

Funny, I was saying the exact same thing before the Greensboro City Council closed the White Street Landfill to MSW (Municipal Solid Waste.) Among other things I am certified by the State of North Carolina as a Waste Transfer Station Operator. I know a little bit about these things.

For starters, we are currently paying to haul Greensboro garbage to a landfill 70 miles away plus paying upwards of $35 a ton in tipping fees for the landfill to accept that garbage. And despite what you might have heard, there will be no landfill in Asheboro so when the landfill Greensboro is currently using is filled then we will be hauling our garbage even farther away-- possibly even out of state. All the while the price goes up. Forget regional solutions, make them come to us.

Now let's get one thing straight: this in not incineration. Getting energy from incineration is the equivalent of heating water on top of a wood stove. Incineration works but it is very dirty and even less efficient.

The mistake Council has made in the past when looking at Waste-to-energy is in expecting systems to handle 100% of Greensboro's MSW right from the start. The cost to build such a thing is enormous and folks are right to be skeptical, how do we know it will work?

Now there's lots of different kinds of Waste-to-energy systems with the most promising being Gasification, Thermal depolymerization, Pyrolysis and Plasma arc gasification. Gasification produces combustible gases, hydrogen and synthetic fuels. Thermal depolymerization produces a synthetic crude oil which can be further refined. A Thermal depolymerization plant in Carthage, Missouri was reported in Discover Magazine on April 2, 2006 as producing 500 barrels of synthetic crude oil per day. It's said to be a high value crude oil containing light and heavy naphthas, kerosene, and gas oil fractions, and essentially no heavy fuel oils, tars, asphaltenes or waxes. I think that's the good stuff.

Of course, much of what we throw away is unsuitable for oil production but who knows?

Pyrolysis produces combustible tar/biooil and chars. But it requires a lot of tires and waste plastics in the waste stream. As far as I'm concerned, Plasma arc gasification is the future and the future is now. Plasma arc gasification or plasma gasification process (PGP) produces rich syngas including hydrogen and carbon monoxide usable for fuel cells or generating electricity to drive the plasma arch, usable vitrified silicate and metal ingots, salt and sulphur. If you've ever used a Plasma cutter to cut metal then you'll quickly grasp the concept. Just imagine sealing yourself in an air tight chamber and using a pump to siphon off the gases produced from the burning of the materials with your plasma arc. A little simplified and not that anyone with a brain would want to try it but you get the picture.

As for the rest of you, video:




I've used plasma torches, I wish I had one of my own. Plasma cutters were developed in the 1940s by the US Military to cut stainless steel for airplanes and weapons which is virtually impossible to cut using conventional cutting tools. Some plasma torches use water for fuel. This next video explains a coal plasma gasification process that also uses municipal solid waste:



As I wrote above, "The mistake Council has made in the past when looking at Waste-to-energy is in expecting systems to handle 100% of Greensboro's MSW right from the start." That's probably not going to happen. A better option would be to build a smaller Waste-to-energy plant on some portion of that never before used 500 acres adjacent to the White Street Landfill and belonging to the City of Greensboro. Try it out on some of Greensboro's municipal solid waste.

Better yet, design a modular system that begins with one small plant and expands one small plant at a time as the bugs are worked out and things are made to work better. With a modular system you never have the complete plant break down all at once leaving us with no place to get rid of our garbage. And when we finally grow big enough to get rid of all our garbage, if the numbers crunch the right way, we can expand the system with more modules and start charging High Point and Eden to take their garbage when they run out of space.

And all the while we're bringing high tech, high paying jobs to east Greensboro and solving Greensboro's biggest problems one module at a time.

Folks, please share this post with everyone you know for even if Greensboro isn't the early adopter I want the Greensboro City Council to know that I gave them every opportunity to make Greensboro the first.

Proactive Policing Reduces Greensboro Crime Rate

Myself and others throughout the local blogosphere have for years insisted that the solution to Greensboro's crime issues could be answered in part by proactive policing on the part of the Greensboro Police Department but a City Council long interested in glitter like downtown performing arts centers and padding the pockets of local elite developers on the taxpayers' dime have long ignored proactive policing as a means to reducing crime in Greensboro. In today's News & Record we have GPD evidence that shows that increased police presence reduces crime overall:

"Increased traffic patrols this year on Wendover Avenue led to fewer accident injuries, police say, but the increase also resulted in a decrease in serious nontraffic crimes, such as robbery, assault and auto theft.

Police say their analysis of data for the two-month Wendover Avenue Initiative shows the benefits of their movement toward “problem-oriented policing.”

Imagine that, Billy Jones was right again. And this:

"• Certain crimes reported along that section of Wendover fell from 362 in the same period last year to 301 this year — a 16.9 percent decline. The crimes tracked were murder, sexual assault, robbery, aggravated assault, burglary, larceny and auto theft.

• The reduction in reported serious crimes continued, falling 10.2 percent in the eight weeks after the initiative ended.

“Because we were so highly visible for such a long time, I wanted to see our effect on crime,” police Capt. John Wolfe said. “A highly visible presence will deter crime.”

You don't say? How could it be that I could have been so right back in 2005 and 2007 and it's just now coming to light? For those who weren't readers then, I ran for Greensboro mayor on an anti-crime platform in 2007. The article goes on to say:

"Police will take lessons learned on Wendover and apply them to the next area the department chooses for the traffic safety program, police spokeswoman Susan Danielsen said.

Officers have pointed to High Point Road, Market Street, Battleground Avenue and Spring Garden Street as possible new locations for an initiative."

Great idea but it begs the question: since we know it works so well, why is the Greensboro City Council not talking about hiring and training enough GPD officers to make this program full time all over town? I guess Council would rather spend taxpayers' money on glitter like downtown performing arts centers and padding the pockets of local elite developers

Give it some thought people: every Greensboro resident that is hired and trained to become a Greensboro Police Officer is an investment in local economic development. They buy homes here, shop here, start part time businesses here, retire here to run their businesses full time and raise families here. Those big time developers and non profit high rollers, they spend your tax dollars on trips to Bermuda. 

Economic Development At The White Street Landfill: Part 10

I began my series, Economic Development At The White Street Landfill with ideas most folks have never heard of and few will believe could work but today's idea is already a proven winner in over 200 communities across the United States. From National Public Radio:

"When you picture a housing development in the suburbs, you might imagine golf courses, swimming pools, rows of identical houses.

But now, there's a new model springing up across the country that taps into the local food movement: Farms — complete with livestock, vegetables and fruit trees — are serving as the latest suburban amenity.

It's called development-supported agriculture, a more intimate version of community-supported agriculture — a farm-share program commonly known as CSA. In planning a new neighborhood, a developer includes some form of food production — a farm, community garden, orchard, livestock operation, edible park — that is meant to draw in new buyers, increase values and stitch neighbors together.

"These projects are becoming more and more mainstream," says , a fellow with the Urban Land Institute. He estimates that more than 200 developments with an agricultural twist already exist nationwide.

"Golf courses cost millions to build and maintain, and we're kind of overbuilt on golf courses already," he says. "If you put in a farm where we can grow things and make money from the farm, it becomes an even better deal."

The White Street Landfill property includes 500 acres of never before used property that could be used for anything. The City of Greensboro's plan is to extend East Cone Blvd through the property and sell it off to developers for conventional housing projects and shopping centers just as has always been done in Greensboro-- just as was done right up until the housing bubble burst and the economy tanked in 2007 plunging us into the Great Recession we are still living in today.

Am I the only one who sees a problem with continuing to do what got us in trouble in the first place?

Community Supported Agriculture could be managed as a neighborhood co-op and a local supplier to markets like Deep Roots Co-op and the soon to be built Renaissance Community Coop to be located less than 1/2 mile from White Street.

A CSA community could incorporate many of the other ideas from my series, Economic Development At The White Street Landfill while feeding thousands of people and helping to employ hundreds of Greensboro residents.

And if you'd like to know more about what a CSA looks like, here's the link to the one they talked about in the NPR article I quoted: Greensboro's developers should be chomping at the bit to ride the Bucking Horse. Too bad none of them are that smart.

Please continue reading Economic Development At The White Street Landfill: Part 11

Proof: Greensboro Performing Arts Center Will Increase Unemployment?

I know, it sounds crazy, right? Everyone is thinking that a downtown performing arts center, hotels and restaurants will bring more jobs to Greensboro but in reality, nothing could be farther from the truth. From the North Carolina Justice Center:  

"MEDIA RELEASE: Boom in low-wage jobs driving drop in metro unemployment

RALEIGH (October 2, 2013) — A boom in low-wage jobs is the leading factor contributing to the drop in unemployment across most of the state’s metros, according to today’s jobs report from the N.C. Division of Employment Security.
Although unemployment has dropped in all 14 of North Carolina’s metro areas over the last year, most of these job growth has occurred in the lowest wage sector—Leisure & Hospitality. Unfortunately, this industry pays $8.30 an hour, more than $12 below the statewide average—suggesting that most metros are seeing the biggest growth opportunities in ultra-low wage jobs.
Over the last year, Leisure & Hospitality was either the fastest or second fastest growing industry in 10 metro areas. These metros include:

• Asheville—5.7% growth
• Burlington—4.2% growth
• Charlotte—9.5% growth
• Durham—9.3% growth
• Greensboro—7.6%
• Greenville—5.8%
• Hickory—5.1%
• Rocky Mount—7.4%
• Wilmington—8.4%
• Winston-Salem—7.4%

“While it is certainly good news that unemployment is declining, the bad news is that the majority of all job creation is occurring in industries that don’t pay a living wage,” said Allan Freyer, Public Policy Analyst with the Budget & Tax Center, a project of the North Carolina Justice Center. “It’s hard to see how our metro areas can continue to see long-term economic improvement if the majority of available jobs pay $8 an hour below the state average. And without significant income growth, it looks like a bumpy road ahead for consumer spending and local businesses.”

FOR MORE INFORMATION, CONTACT: Allan Freyer, allan@ncjustice.org, 919.856.2151; Jeff Shaw, jeff@ncjustice.org, 503.551.3615 (cell)."


You see, it works like that. High wage jobs drive high wage jobs. Henry Ford understood it in 1914 when he took the unprecedented move of voluntarily paying factory workers 3 times the average wage of an American factory worker to manufacture Model T Ford automobiles. And while the Model T was far from being the best car of its time it took less than 2 years for Henry Ford to become the most successful automaker in the world.

And as I've mentioned before, Ford Motor Company didn't become unionized until 1941. It worked for Ford because the people who worked at Ford could afford to buy Ford cars and spend lots of money everywhere they went.

If Greensboro is to be successful then Greensboro must invest in high paying jobs here in Greensboro in the neighborhoods that need them most. Not in some megasite in another county. 2 hour bus rides to and from work in Randolph County is not an acceptable solution. Why? Because as soon as those workers save up enough cash they will use said cash to move to Randolph County leaving only the poor behind just as has been going on in Greensboro for decades.

And we'll be left with low wage service sector jobs like those jobs Robbie Perkins and Nancy Vaughn voted to give us thus far.

We need a new city council. All of them, gone.

Link via Doug Clark of the News & Record who wrote,

"Sadly, that's not hard to believe. And it explains why the amount of money circulating isn't rising as much as it should, even with a slowly declining unemployment rate.

Service jobs are often the best thing for young workers or those without higher-level skills. A service industry is certainly important here as part of our economy is built on hosting big events, whether the furniture market in High Point or sports tournaments in Greensboro, as well as dining, entertainment, shopping and other amenities.

At the same time, we really need to attract and develop more jobs in advanced manufacturing, R&D, health care, financial services and higher education. While we're making progress, it's not enough to produce a significantly wealthier community yet. On the contrary, we persist with a poverty rate around 20 percent.

Does anyone have the formula for getting us squarely on the right track? I don't think our political leaders do, as most seem more concerned with advancing partisan agenda and fighting for power."

How To Trade Food Stamps For Wine And Beer In Greensboro

If you live in Greensboro, North Carolina there are no less than 3 ways to get beer and wine with your food stamps. Now never mind that doing so is illegal, here in Greensboro it goes on every day of the week. I'll explain.

The first way to do it is to walk into any one of a number of convenience stores located in east and south Greensboro-- the ones that take food stamps-- pick up a bottle of wine or beer and walk to the counter with your food stamp card in hand, prepared to be grossly overcharged and loving it. Of course, with this or any of the other ways, if you're not a regular or don't smell like a 3 day drunk you'll probably be turned away by a frightened store clerk with a foreign accent.

Another way it's commonly done is by buying food with your food stamps then returning the groceries to the store for a cash refund. Expect to get back about half as much as you paid for the groceries. Then buy your wine or beer with what you have left. No matter which method you choose, the going rate is $100 in beer and wine for $200 in food stamps.

Some guys go to the grocery store, buy groceries then sell the groceries to the convenience store. But not for long as that's a privilege reserved for people who own cars and this kind of customer doesn't keep a car for very long.

Still another way is to loan your food stamp card and PIN number to the clerk who checks it via the internet to verify the amount then returns it to you in a couple of days when you've drank up everything that was on your card. In the meantime, he and his friends went shopping for inventory to stock the convenience store.

How did I learn about this? I have several neighbors here in east Greensboro who sit on their porches drinking wine and beer every day while talking loudly about all the ways they manage to get their wine and beer. Me, I just work quietly in my yard and gardens getting them ready for next year's vegetable crops and listening as Greensboro's working class communities slowly die.

The Price Of Silence

A few thoughts from a friend and neighbor living here in east Greensboro:

"I’ve watched The Unfaithful City during its current term. For those of you who are not aware, should you have a question or concern that you’d like addressed, there is no better time to find resolve for your issue than when there is a meeting. That is not the case here. For the first year and a half some of the most pressing questions from our neighbors were met with total silence. By my observation, The Unfaithful felt very comfortable allowing people to walk away without providing an answer. Year after year, they use transparency as a means to get elected or re-elected but never honoring it. " Please continue reading...

What Happened To East Greensboro?

According to the City of Greensboro, I shit you not, exactly as I have been saying for years:

"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."

This lead to the eventual destruction of the entire Bessemer community, the largest community in the City of Greensboro, where most of those business owners, black and white, resided. And like the destruction of the Warnersville commercial district during that same era, it was done to increase business in downtown Greensboro by giving residents fewer options. They no longer use bulldozers but it still goes on today through the transfer of taxes away from our neighborhoods to subsidize downtown and beginning on September 25th when the Greensboro Free Press appears on news stands all over Greensboro this city will see its past, present and future laid bare in a way it has never before experienced.


So if anything should happen to me between now and the 25th, you'll know why.

Hey Greensboro, Still Want To Be Like Greenville?

Remember how Mayor Robbie Perkins wanted to emulate Greenville, South Carolina and kept pointing to Greenville's many downtown performing arts venues  as such a great success story? Well how about this? Greenville's  Woodside neighborhood  is the 18th most dangerous in America, "70% of the neighborhood children live in poverty and there are more single mothers in this section than there are in 98.1% of the entire country." 

Update: the link above no longer works because Greenville's Woodside has risen from 18th most dangerous to 15th most dangerous.

Is this what we want Greensboro neighborhoods to become? This is what happens in cities that invest their resources in only the high rent neighborhoods. This is what Robbie Perkins, Walker Sanders and a Downtown Greensboro Performing Arts Center will do for Greensboro.

Oh yeah, Hell Day spilled over into Tuesday......

City Of Greensboro IFYI:

Don't forget, because of National Night Out this coming Tuesday night, this week's City Council meeting will be on Monday night. Also, the residents of Northeast Greensboro have invited Greensboro Mayoral Candidate, George Hartzman to attend Greensboro's oldest night out gathering which predates National Night Out and Mr Hartzman has agreed to attend. The event is located in Textile Drive Park located at 2300 Textile Drive.

In case you are wondering, my mother founded Greensboro's first night out events and hosted them in our family's front yard for many years until the crowds began spilling into the streets before moving the event to the park. The event actually predates National Night Out and began as part of a very successful effort to drive crack dealers from the neighborhood when the Greensboro Police and Greensboro City Council refused any help. The neighborhood knows my mother as Ms Betty and Ms Betty, like myself, is fed up with the status quo. The neighbors actually manage the event now and when I mentioned I knew Mr Hartzman they extended the invitation.

In this weeks IFYI, get your shovel ready there's a lot of BS to bury.

East Market Street Development Corporation Properties

Click on the link to see what the City Of Greensboro says are properties purchased by the East Market Street Development Corporation.

Of course, what that list isn't telling you is what Mac Sims has done with the profits from the properties he has sold and/or rented.