James “Lynn” Singleton Comes To Greensboro

On Wednesday, April 25, 2015, James “Lynn” Singleton will be having lunch with Matt Brown, our Mayor, City Council and the folks working to build the Tanger Performing Arts Center. I'm told the Coliseum staff paid for his hotel room at the Sheraton.

So who is this James “Lynn” Singleton you ask? You can read all about him in the Providence, Rhode Island story, INVESTIGATION: PPAC Bosses Make Millions from Secret Companies.

Then ask yourself what he's doing here? And why would local non profits want to give him their money when almost 25% of Greensboro's population lives below the poverty line.

On Theater of Theater and Theater of Mega-sites

Economist Thomas Sowell has observed that ninety eight percent of political propositions are notional. That is, rather than the proposition being based upon empirical evidence the proposition is based on the world view of the politico sponsors of such proposition.

Further, Sowell observes that the notional proposition is sold by the sponsoring politicos on its first stage economic consequence whereas the n’th stage economic consequence of such proposition, in the main and upon normal occasion, suffers from cascading negative economic consequences. The first stage economic consequence in many cases is positive. If one spends plenty of resources on notional proposition X, surely something positive in the very short-run will occur. Or in the words of Michael Farr regarding the “stimulus package” of The Great Recession followed by the not so great expansion: “If you throw three trillion dollars at a dead race horse even that horse will get up and do a couple laps around the track for you”.

Going one step further, Sowell observes that when n’th stage cascading negative economic consequences occur, the original sponsoring politicos pay no price for being wrong (other than non-reelection for those few still in office) as most are either dead or retired from politics. The price for being wrong falls on the taxpayers alive at the time the price comes due e.g. Social Security and Medicare which are unfunded entitlements sucking away nearly 99% of federal revenue by 2027. (1) (2) (3) (4)

But you say nay, nay! The sponsors have “economic impact studies” explaining great and wonderful things are just over the horizon if the resources will be allocated to the notional proposition. Maybe not so much. How so? Economic impact studies, where those engaged in econometrics enjoy humoring themselves, are notorious for confirmation bias. Moreover, the economic impact study fails an important test of economics: Compared to what? One would have to prepare an economic impact study regarding every alternate possibility (every opportunity cost) to see if those alternatives created greater or lesser results than the economic impact study cited by the sponsors. (5) (6) (7)

Which brings one to F.A. Hayek and “mal-investment”. Albeit mal-investment is many times associated with central banking authorities and artificial interest rates related to credit, one can argue mal-investment is a political creation as well. As hard as it is for politicos to understand, spontaneous/emergent order is the market place. Hence free people in a free market making decisions based on their particular time and particular circumstance, the summation thereof, creates the market and what one sees being demanded and supplied. Central planning, creating a supply of what the few demand (theaters and mega-sites) does not match what the many demand through the emergent order of the market place. Hence resources are diverted to a supply that creates sub-standard results and hence mal-investment. (8) (9)

If one looks at the economic results of Greensboro and Guilford County 1990 to present, one sees an economic laggard. If one looks at the last twenty five years one might conclude a series of politico lead mal-investment has occurred, the accumulation thereof, creating abysmal economic results.

Maybe, just maybe, political answers to economic questions and the plans of the few vs. the plans of the many really do cause n’th stage negative cascading economic consequences. But why change course? Why not a theater and mega-site? “Government is the only enterprise on earth that when it fails it merely does the same thing over again, just bigger”. -Don Luskin, TrendMacro

Notes:

(1) https://www.amazon.com/Vision-Anointed-Self-Congratulation-Social-Policy/dp/046508995X/ref=sr_1_sc_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1489838089&sr=1-1-spell&keywords=the+vision+of+the+annoited

(2) https://www.amazon.com/Conflict-Visions-Ideological-Political-Struggles/dp/0465002056/ref=sr_1_sc_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1489838089&sr=1-3-spell&keywords=the+vision+of+the+annoited

(3) https://www.amazon.com/Intellectuals-Society-Expanded-Thomas-Sowell/dp/0465025226/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1489838205&sr=1-1&keywords=intellectuals+and+society

(4) https://economics21.org/html/entitlements-driving-washington-trillion-dollar-deficits-2235.html

(5) https://www.nytimes.com/video/opinion/100000001183275/the-umbrella-man.html

(6) https://shift.newco.co/what-do-economists-know-199bf5793ae6?gi=16ef2fa4b16a#.skb2hs99s

(7) https://fee.org/articles/impact-evaluations-are-no-substitute-for-profit-signals/

(8) http://www.econlib.org/library/Enc/bios/Hayek.html

(9) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malinvestment

City of Greensboro Performing Arts Center Fund Status as of April 30, 2016; Item 58 for 6/21/2016; Ordinance in the Amount of $11,658,785 Amending the Performing Arts Center Project Fund 5

https://greensboro.legistar.com/Calendar.aspx

ORDINANCE IN THE AMOUNT OF $11,683,590 AMENDING THE PERFORMING ARTS CENTER PROJECT FUND

Premium Parking - At Former Coliseum Auditorium Site

Budget; $669,000.00

Actual; $0.00

Donations & Contributions - For Design (CFGG)

Budget; $5,000,000.00

Actual; $1,508,971.87

The Community Foundation of Greater Greensboro (CFGG)

was supposed to put up the first $5,000,000 and didn't

No one knows how much the private money has actually been collected

No one knows how much the privately raised money is currently invested in

No one knows how much the money is being skimmed by CFGG in fees

No one knows if all the money needed has been raised

White elephant

Misrepresentation

Purposeful fraud upon Greensboro's taxpayers 

if Council and CFGG don't come up with the promised money

which appears to not have happened if CFGG hasn't come up with the initial $500,000,000 

as promised

A 2nd Greensboro Performing Arts Center?

Low and behold the surprises never end. Construction of the Steven Tanger Center for the Performing Arts has hardly started and already we learn the State of North Carolina has appropriated funding to build another state of the art performing arts center less than one mile away.

Could the Greensboro City Council have screwed up any worse? How could they have not known? Or is it that Greensboro's rich white elites simply don't dare step foot on the traditionally African-American campus of North Carolina A&T State University?

As shown above as #5 on this map from page 7 of the  A&T PREEMINENCE 2020 plan for which the State of North Carolina approved $200,000 to be used for planning the new PAC in 2007. When did we first hear of Greensboro's PAC, 2011?

Why were we not told another PAC was being planned so close to Downtown?

The first $98 million in bonds went on sale in November of 2015 and have an A+ rating. Has the City of Greensboro sold any bonds yet? And how will a second PAC so close by effect the bond rating of bonds issued by the City of Greensboro for a competitive project?

NC A&T has the State's approval to sell up to a half $Billion Dollars in non voter approved bonds.

Now some may say this venue is only for NC A&T students but look at who performs at Carolina Performing Arts on the campus of UNC-Chapel Hill.

And look at who performs roughly a mile west of the  Steven Tanger Center for the Performing Arts at UNCG's Aycock Auditorium.

Not to mention Greensboro's other theater venues.

It's not too late to stop nor is it too late to prosecute the fraud should our elected leaders continue their current course. Which will it be?

In other news, Greensboro Mayor Nancy Barakat "Grasshopper" Vaughan has left her husband Attorney Donald Vaughan and has taken up residence at a home her mother, Florence Barakat, purchased in December of 2015 located at 1617 Wilton Drive. Say howdy for me when you visit.

$27 Million Dollar Hole In PAC Budget!

Joe Killian of the Greensboro News & Fishwrap reported that the Stephen Tanger Center for the Performing Arts was facing a $5.7 million shortfall after Mayor Nancy Barakat "Grasshopper" Vaughan made the claim "that only users of the center will pay for its construction and the general tax paying public will not be on the hook." but as it turns out the actual budget shortfall is closer to $27 Million Dollars and you're damned straight taxpayers are going to pay for the shortfall.

But hey, don't take my word for it, read About that hole in Performing Arts Center Budget by Roch Smith jr and decide for yourself.

Performing Arts Centers And The Carolina Theater

When it was first proposed to build a downtown performing arts center in Greensboro there were many concerns that Greensboro's existing venues might suffer. Of particular concern was Greensboro's historic Carolina Theater. Nay, nay, we were told, Durham has the Durham Performing Arts Center and their Carolina Theater-- the sister to our own-- is doing fine.

Well as JoeyG points out that isn't exactly the case. Seems everyone thought Durham's Carolina Theater was doing just fine until the State of North Carolina started questioning why the taxes weren't being paid. And then despite the fact that City of Durham pays Carolina Theatre of Durham $654,000 a year to run the city-owned complex, the Raleigh News and Observer announced yesterday:

"The head of the nonprofit that runs the historic Carolina Theatre resigned Friday, one month after announcing the organization was more than $1 million in debt."

Now they are blaming falty accounting for not knowing they were loosing money:


"In a joint interview last month, Nocek and Harmon announced the nonprofit had run up an additional $800,000 in debt since July 2013, during a time when the board thought the theater was making a profit.

Previous information released by the nonprofit had indicated it ended the 2013 and 2014 fiscal years with small surpluses and cut its long-term debt to $224,909.

The leaders blamed the additional deficit on faulty accounting"

Faulty accounting explains the fact that no one seemed to know they were loosing money but does faulty accounting explain why they were loosing money? No it doesn't.

Could it be they were loosing money because they just couldn't compete with DPAC and no one knew it? Could it be someone was pocketing the cash? Is the faulty accounting actually fraudulent accounting?

I don't know. I can't answer those questions and so far the folks in Durham haven't been able or are unwilling to answer them either. And until they do this will loom heavy over Greensboro's various venues just as it looms over Durham now. The success of Downtown Durham since the opening of DPAC has been trumped every time the subject of a downtown performing arts center for Greensboro has ever been discussed publicly but if Durham's success isn't what we were lead to believe it was...

Perhaps Mayor Nancy Barakat "Grasshopper" Vaughan would like to finish that last paragraph. You see, I made the bus trip to DPAC sitting right across from Judge Henry Frye and Walker Sanders along with the GPAC supporters and I listened to Durham's politicians tooting their own horns just like politicians everywhere toot their own horns... Just like all the politicians and elites on the bus tooted their own horns while Sarah served the wine.

But me, I'm not allowed alcohol because it interferes with my heart medications. So I just listened to the horns.

Update: Fec weighs in with DPAC the Destroyer

Read more here: http://www.newsobserver.com/news/local/community/durham-news/article56088720.html#storylink=cpy

Read more here: http://www.newsobserver.com/news/local/community/durham-news/article56088720.html#storylink=cpy

Read more here: http://www.newsobserver.com/news/local/community/durham-news/article56088720.html#storylink=cpy

But What If No One Wants To Come?

What if no one wants or can afford to come? That's the one question Greensboro Mayor Nancy Barakat "Grasshopper" Vaughan will never willingly answer in front of the cameras.



Please continue reading But What If No One Wants To Come? Part Two

What They're Not Telling You About TPAC

I had a nice conversation with Marikay Abuzuaiter the other day concerning the most recent TPAC update posted to the City of Greensboro website.

Now please allow me to be clear that I'm not picking on Marikay as she voted against the downtown performing arts center every single time. As a matter of fact, if I were to bet I'd guess she's not in the loop when it comes to the real goings on.

For example. Marikay admits that the one thing she voted in favor of was the hiring of a contractor who would guarantee to bring the project in at or under bid. And while seemingly a smart move (I would have voted the same way) therein lies the problem:

I'm betting they'll be back for more as they voted to hire a contractor who will guarantee to come in at or under bid and no contractor in his right mind is going to take on such a job unless there's a lot of fat built in.

I'm guessing they'll be back for about ten more million before it's all over and the TPAC will be downsized once again.

I still think we'd all be better off if we used the property to grow vegetables to feed Greensboro's poor.

The Economy Is Dead So What Happens To TPAC?

In 2008 when the so called recession hit I was working as the general manager of a metal recycling company in Greensboro that bought scrap metals from the general public as well as companies. Prior to the crash were were paying upwards of .15 cents per pound to the general public for scrap steel. Our competitors all paid competitive prices, sometimes higher and sometimes lower.

When the so-called "recession" hit prices fell to .08 to .10 cents per pound.

I was cleaning up the shop over the weekend and loaded some scrap on my pick-up. Had I had place to keep it I would have waited but as it is in our way I loaded it up. Today I tossed it off the back of my truck at the metal recycler. It brought .02 cents per pound.

Prices locally are actually more than twice as high as some other places as shown by this screen grab I took from Rockaway Recycling in Rockaway, New Jersey:

Prices are subject to change at any given moment so the prices you see on their website may not be the same as the screen grab.

Scrap steel is currently trading at the lowest prices of the last 50 years. And other metals aren't faring much better.

Economic experts have long considered scrap metals to be a reliable indicator of the condition of the economy. If metals prices are down then manufacturers and builders aren't buying metal to build new things. It means people aren't buying. Even copper which is in short supply as copper mines world wide are being mined out is half the price it was in 2008.

Now the problem for the Greensboro City Council and the supporters of the Steven Tanger Center of the Performing Arts-- the thing the News & Record never tells you-- is that the money raised to build the TPAC isn't actually in their greedy little hands.

The fact is: that money is only pledged to support the project and currently that $30 Million or so is invested in stocks, bonds and the futures market. The City nor the TPAC supports have their hands on that money yet. And what is among the things that are very heavily traded on the futures markets? If you guess scrap metals you'd be right.

I'm thinking at a time when the global recession is now without a doubt a global depression and Greensboro remains the heart of the #1 hungriest metropolitan statistical area in the United States, we the people might be better served if City Council put off any decision on funding TPAC and planted vegetables on the land intended for the Steven Tanger Performing Arts Center. You could even call it the Steven Tanger Downtown Greensboro Community Gardens.

And folks, please share.

And They Called Us Crazy

Myself and others wrote and spoke many times that the plans to build the Steven Tanger Performing Arts Center in downtown Greensboro were simply undoable but Greensboro's entitled elites pushed on, accused us of being crazy and said we had an agenda they were never able to spell out.

Well it was true that we had an agenda: We were hoping to prevent them from making a tragic mistake they'd not be able to undo and as today's News & Record article shows, despite claims 2 years ago that enough funds had been raised the TPAC remains at least $10 Million Dollars short on cash.

And by the time they raise that they'll probably need $10 Million more... You see, the funds they already have are invested in shrinking money market accounts in ever contracting markets.

Counting your chickens before they hatch.

Andrew Carnegie On Why the Downtown Greensboro Performing Arts Center Will Ultimatly Fail

As explained by  Scottish-American businessman and philanthropist Andrew Carnegie in his Carnegie formula as was used to build a total of 2,509 Carnegie libraries built between 1883 and 1929 including 2 in Greensboro, one on the corner of West Market and Eugene and the other in a building still standing on the campus of Bennett College.

While reading the Carnegie formula below simply substitute performing arts center every time you see the word library and you will see how TPAC is destined to fail.

"Nearly all of Carnegie's libraries were built according to "the Carnegie Formula," which required financial commitments from the town that received the donation. Carnegie required public support rather than making endowments because "an endowed institution is liable to become the prey of a clique. The public ceases to take interest in it, or, rather, never acquires interest in it. The rule has been violated which requires the recipients to help themselves. Everything has been done for the community instead of its being only helped to help itself."^[14]
Carnegie required the elected officials-the local government-to:

• demonstrate the need for a public library;
• provide the building site;
• pay to staff and maintain the library;
• draw from public funds to run the library-not use only private donations;
• annually provide ten percent of the cost of the library's construction to support its operation; and,
• provide free service to all.

Carnegie assigned the decisions to his assistant James Bertram. He created a "Schedule of Questions." The schedule included: Name, status and population of town, Does it have a library? Where is it located and is it public or private? How many books? Is a town-owned site available? Estimation of the community's population was done on the honor system, and Bertram later commented if the population counts he received were truly accurate, "the nation's population had mysteriously doubled".^[15]

One of the requirements was the willingness of people and government to raise taxes to support the library. Money was not given all at once but disbursed gradually as the project went on. Records were kept on a "Daily Register of Donations." The 1908 Daily register of donations, for example, has 10–20 entries each day.^{[citation needed]} Every day that year, money was disbursed for libraries and church organs in the US and Britain.

The amount of money donated to most communities was based on U.S. Census figures and averaged approximately $2 per person.^{[citation needed]} Many communities were eager for the chance to build public institutions. James Bertram, Carnegie's personal secretary who ran the program, was never without requests.

The impact of Carnegie's library philanthropy was maximized by his timing. His offers came at a peak of town development and library expansion in the US.^{[citation needed]} By 1890, many states had begun to take an active role in organizing public libraries, and the new buildings filled a tremendous need. Interest in libraries was also heightened at a crucial time in their early development by Carnegie's high profile and his genuine belief in their importance.^[16]

In Canada in 1901 Carnegie offered more than $2.5 million to build 125 libraries. Most cities at first turned him down—then relented and took the money."

As seen, Greensboro's leaders have violated nearly every rule of the successful Carnegie formula which built Greensboro's first 2 public libraries at a time when the economy of these united states was the best it has ever been and our city was growing its fastest ever.

Merry Christmas Mayor Perkins

As some readers may remember, without any authorization from the City of Greensboro, Walker Sanders of the Community Foundation hired commercial realtor David Hagan to buy properties for the Greensboro Performing Arts Center-- why? Mr Sanders had no authority to buy property on behalf of the City of Greensboro. At the time the City Council had not yet voted to build the performing arts center. City Council questioned it but under the direction of then Mayor Perkins it was allowed to slide.

The city already had licensed commercial real estate people on payroll who work without commissions-- why not use them instead? Why not save the City of Greensboro Hagan's commission fees to the tune of $586,000? That's the questions lots of people asked but no one ever answered.

My guess always was that Mayor Perkins needed someone who would pay him a cut on the deals he had already worked out in advance. Robbie has personal and business connections with all the property owners or at least most of them. Robbie was bankrupt, desperate for money, facing incarceration for non support-- suddenly he's rich again. How?

I believed that Robbie used his position as Mayor for personal gain by getting David Hagan to buy the properties and split the commissions with Robbie. What other illegal deals might Robbie Perkins done as Mayor of Greensboro?



But alas, I never had the first shred of evidence... until now.

It appears Robbie thinks he's been cheated by David Hagan. He tried to use the County GIS system but it isn't working so he submits PIRT # 4139 to Donna Gray not realizing Sarah Healey will enter it into the system for all to see: http://www.greensboro-nc.gov/index.aspx?page=3765 Go read the PIRT for yourself.

"From: Robbie Perkins [mailto:RPerkins@naipt.com]
Sent: Monday, December 15, 2014 5:53 PM
To: Gray, Donna
Subject: Tanger Performing Arts Center Acquisition Costs

Donna,

Hope all is well.

Can I get a summary of the acquisition costs of the land required for the Steven Tanger Performing Arts Center?  I need the amounts paid for each of the individual parcels and the date of the purchase.  For some reason, the County GIS information on these sales is either incorrect or not accessable.

Thank you.

Robbie Perkins, CCIM
President
rperkins@naipt.com

 
NAI Piedmont Triad
500- D State Street
Greensboro NC 27405

www.naipt.com

Direct +1 336 358 3219
Main +1 336 373 0995
Fax +1 336 373 0260
LinkedIn   |  Vcard"

Now why would Robbie Perkins need to know such information if not to check to see if David Hagan had given him his "fair share" of an illegal transaction in which Walker Sanders is an accessory? I would love to hear the 3 of them explain that one away.

We now have evidence of felonies having been committed to the tune of Millions of Dollars-- get it? Do we have enough evidence for a conviction? Not yet but that's why investigations are done, right?

It's time GPD started leaning hard on some people. The Greensboro Police Department must now investigate Perkins, Sanders and Hagan no matter how much they don't want to or risk looking like a corrupt police department in front of the entire state. I don't care that David Hagan's sister-in-law is former United States Senator Kay Hagan, if Chief Holder is scared then she should be the one contacting the SBI and FBI before this blows up in her face and her retirement and the respect she spent her life earning.

Oh, and Robbie, you misspelled  accessible.

Merry Christmas, Mayor Perkins, may this be your last one for a few years.

As always, share this post with everyone you know and demand City Council give us answers. Demand a criminal investigation begin right away. Give Robbie Perkins the Christmas present he deserves. And perhaps Walker and David can share a cell with him.

Why Are They Painting Burton's Pharmacy?

I was in downtown Greensboro today and as I drove down Lindsay Street I noticed something rather odd. A man was painting the front exterior of Burton's Pharmacy.

What's so strange about a man painting a building, you ask?

Well it just so happens that Burton's Pharmacy located at 120 E Lindsay St is one of the buildings that was bought by the City of Greensboro in 2013 to be torn down to make room for the downtown Greensboro Performing Arts Center, aka the Steven Tanger Center for the Performing Arts.

But why paint a building if you're going to tear it down? Well I guess that question is answered in the map I snagged from the Tanger Center website. It's not going to be torn down.

Click on the map to view full size.

Does LeBauer Park appear a whole lot bigger than was originally proposed? And who is planning on building a Carousel on the corner of Church and Friendly? And with who's money?

So from looking at the map it appears the City of Greensboro bought a building they didn't intend to tear down-- why and what does the City intend to do with it?

Was Steven Tanger Perpetuating A Hoax?

Remember Steven Tanger's promise to donate what was it, $10 Million Dollars to the Downtown Greensboro Performing Arts Center in exchange for naming the joint the Steven Tanger Center For The Performing Arts? It was $10 Million Dollars over 10 years, right? Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong.

Well according to the National Center for Charitable Stastics that's going to be very hard to do considering that their latest data shows that Mr Tanger's foundation only has $171,536 in total assets. Don't take my word for it, click on the link, then go to the second page and read it for yourself.

I mean, I don't know, can Steven Tanger turn $171 thousand into $10 Million in 10 years? Maybe he can. Or maybe he and Walker Sanders worked out a plan to dump the costs of the project into the laps of Greensboro taxpayers after the Steven Tanger Center For The Performing Arts is built and the bills come due?

You decide?

I know I'd never sign a $10 Million Dollar contract with a man who couldn't actually show me the money, would you? And being that we now have more evidence that Sanders lied about his taxpayer funded trip to Bermuda in 2012... Well, you just can't trust that guy.

On the Closing Of Bell House

What, our many local non profit foundations flush with cash left over after donating $Millions to build a downtown performing arts center couldn’t afford to step in and save Bell House? But I thought this city was rolling in money.

Yes, it's sad, people will suffer, people will die but I learned a very long time ago what happens when you put all your eggs in one rotting, flimsy basket-- the bottom falls out. Yes, the media points to cuts at other levels of government but there was no where else to fall back on with all the local $Millions having been spent on 76 Trombones. Expect many more such announcements before the first concert is performed downtown and give thanks to Mayor Nancy Barakat Vaughan for having the foresight to make it all happen so very quickly.

The Mayor claims she has thick skin-- is it thick enough to live with the fact that she has sentenced innocent people to their deaths?

GPAC's First Casualty

The Greensboro News & Record is reporting today that the non profit North Carolina Shakespeare Festival and it's various offerings including Charles Dickins' “A Christmas Carol” youth summer camps and more will be no more.

“Unfortunately, the prospects of funding programming for the upcoming 2014-15 season, and for future long-term sustainability as a standalone organization, did not materialize sufficiently to commit to continued operations,” Hedgecock said.

She said the board doesn’t know what will become of the Spirit Center, its 53,000-square-foot performing-arts campus at West Ward Avenue and Green Drive in downtown High Point."

Being that all of Guilford County's major foundations have promised most all of their money to build Greensboro's downtown performing arts center over the course of the next 10 years don't be surprised if this is the first of many who fail.

And who was it that worked hardest to push this through? Nancy Vaughan, Mike Barber, Yvonne Johnson, Nancy Hoffmann and Zack Matheny.

Why A Performing Arts Center Won't Save Greensboro

"There's no shame for me in surviving these last few weeks up till graduate school, becoming a part of less privileged. I'm poor and I'm quite humble about all of it, though there is some sort of statement to be made about a recent UNCG graduate with honors and a double minor, not being able to find a summer job in Greensboro.

Shannon, who is also an UNCG student recently participated in a round-table discussion on why local students do not remain in Greensboro after graduation this past spring. The result of these inquiries was that there are no jobs for college graduates. While attending UNCG it was commonly known, and repeated by the entire student body, that "you go to school in Greensboro, and work somewhere else". I have a degree in International Global Studies in Affairs and Development, exactly where would I work in Greensboro and make a livable wage? 17K a year working for a proselytizing ministry is not my idea of a rewarding career or a livable wage.

Considering my background, I found it interesting as I stood in line for 3-4 hours in the baking sun that the demographic of people with me was mostly minorities. I was one of about ten white people out of 200 waiting. I felt saddened by this, my gut ached, and my head confused how inequality runs rampant in Greensboro (it may have been the heat). The unemployment rate for the area is 9.4% (as of June 2013, down from a recent 12%), the homeless rate is  14% (student homelessness is up 48%) [via The State of Homelessness in America] . If you don't keep track of these indicators on a regular basis, let me assure you, that these numbers are high, very high. Despite these numbers, I can assure you that you need to only stand in one of these massively long lines for food to realize how bad the problem is." Please continue reading...

Performing Arts Center Donations Fall Short By $25 Million

There's no way they can twist the story to deny the truth. When you're forced to borrow $25 Million Dollars that means you're $25 Million Dollars short of your goal. Plus interest. From the Business Journal: because the News & Record now limits me to 20 articles a month. Morons.

"The $65 million project will be backed by $30 million in city commitments and $35 million from the Community Foundation of Greater Greensboro. The Community Foundation funding is split between a $25 million loan from the Bank of North Carolina and $10 million in donations."

How will the City pay its part?

"For the city’s part, it has already financed $11.5 million to acquire downtown sites along North Elm and Lindsay streets where the Performing Arts Center will be located. It will provide an additional $18.5 million to fund construction via a two-year limited obligation bond anticipation note with PNC Bank."

Bond anticipation note? Translation: They plan to float a bond in 2 years after telling us they wouldn't float a bond and wouldn't make taxpayers foot the bill. Mayor Vaughan lied again.

And this is very important:

"The city will own and operate the center. Meanwhile, the group overseeing operations and governance of the Performing Arts Center will be called the Greensboro Performing Arts Foundation Inc. That group filed for incorporation this June and is awaiting its 501(c)3 status, as well as the finalization of its bylaws and appointment of a 13-member board."

And when the Greensboro Performing Arts Foundation Inc. can't come up with all the money necessary to pay off the $25 Million Dollar loan? Back to the City Council they go.

So far, everything about this project has turned out exactly the way myself and a few others predicted over 2 years ago.

Is Professional Football Coming To Greensboro?

From Time Magazine:

"If you watch football this weekend, recognize that most of the drama and meaning is taking place off the field. The way the college and pro games are built on subsidies and giveaways neatly encapsulates crony capitalism at its worst – and helps to explain why taxes go up even as it seems there’s never enough money for basic government functions."

And from Reason.com's interview with Charlotte native, J.C. Bradbury, PhD, Economics, Department Chair and Professor, Department of Exercise Science and Sport Management, Kennesaw State University and contributor to the Freakonomics Blog and author of The Baseball Economist, The Real Game Exposed.

"...even though there is zero reason to believe that publicly funded sports facilities ever pay back their costs by increasing overall economic activity or putting more tax revenue in government coffers."

And this:

"One of the things we often find about these stadiums," explains Kennesaw State University economist J.C. Bradbury, is that "[politicians and supporters] always underestimate the costs and overestimate the benefits."

Indeed, as Bradbury points out, every independent analysis of subsidies for sports teams and stadiums shows that they suck money out of the local economy. Yet time and again, politicians and team owners succeed in handing the taxpayer a bill. Why is that?

"People see money going into stadiums, people spending their dollars at the stadiums, going to the games," says Bradbury, who writes widely on the economics of sports. "Really, this is just a transfer from locals. Instead of spending their money on movies or going out to eat, they're going to a sports game, and so it looks like it's generating a lot of money."

Now consider as local economist W.E. Heasley says to me in his latest e-mail:

"Try this exercise. Remove "publicly funded sport facility" in the essay and interview above and replace it with "publicly funded performing arts center"'

You see, despite whatever they might have told you about the Steven Tanger Center for the Performing Arts being privately funded, the City of Greensboro and the Community Foundation were supposed to show us the private money in March in the form of a plan. It's now the middle of July and they've yet to show us a anything.

Could that be because they're planning on replacing the private with public to cover up for their mistakes?

Is professional football coming to Greensboro? As far as I know there are no plans to bring it here and you had all better hope it stays that way.

GPAC Has Broke The Bank

When the subject of the Greensboro Performing Arts Center first came up many of us objected. One of our concerns was that the project was simply more expensive that our city could afford but no, we didn't know what we were talking about, we were all just a bunch of naysayers and trolls who didn't want change.

Well guess what? Now members of the Greensboro City Council including Yvonne Johnson who voted in favor of building the downtown performing arts center are crying Greensboro has run out of money:

"But the foundations can't commit to everything right now, said Johnson, who runs the nonprofit One Step Further.

"I am out here begging for money for my nonprofit. They are exchausted," Johnson said. "They have exhausted themselves will several different things, one being our performing arts center."

"It is hurting people like us. The commitment that they made to that definitely hurt their ability to give," Johnson said."

You don't say? And you couldn't see that coming? Then why are you sitting on the Greensboro City Council in charge of taxpayers' money?

You know, being that Yvonne runs a non profit that depends on such funding to stay alive you would have thought her smarter than to vote away her own cash cow. Was Robbie Perkins blackmailing her with what I recently made public or is there more to learn?