Friendly Coalition Fights Developers At West Friendly Avenue And Hobbs Road

Honestly, it won't cause me any concerns here in the Bessemer Community in East Greensboro if developers build their planned  53,000-square-foot shopping center to be filled with traffic coming and going from 6 a.m. to midnight. I mean why should I care, I live over 10 miles away, the traffic certainly won't bother me and odds are good the plastic bags that blow across the parking lot will never reach my yard. Why should I give a damn?

Why? Because I need the members of the Friendly Coalition and neighborhoods like them to support the efforts I've been fighting for to restore East Greensboro and the Bessemer Community to what it one was.

You see, it was corrupt developers and politicians who operated against the will of the citizens of Greensboro who 2 years after the annexation of the Bessemer Community, bulldozed the most economically viable community in the entire Piedmont Triad in the hopes of driving more business to downtown Greensboro and proved as Keith Holiday said:

“They find any little strategy to hang their hat on,” Holliday said. “If you give them that open window, they’ll take it. Don’t back off one inch.”

From the City of Greensboro website concerning the destruction of my neighborhood:

"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."

The City goes on to say:

"Decline and disinvestment took a toll on the neighborhood -- and its residents. When the City designated the East Market Street Corridor for revitalization in 1998, it had to win the trust of residents. The City worked to involve as many residents as possible in the planning process to give people a voice and a role in their neighborhood's future. The City authorized the East Market Street Development Corporation (EMSDC) to serve as "lead agent" in implementing improvement ideas in the neighborhood. Before StreetscapeEMSCD, the City's planning team, and the community worked together to create a development plan for East Market Street. The City adopted the East Market Street Redevelopment Plan in June 1998 and earmarked $1 million for improvements in the neighborhood. Since then, the East Market Street Corridor has seen more than $150 million in new private and public investment."

They're lying. The vast majority of that "$150 million in new private and public investment" was on the part of NC A&T University and was planned to be done with or without the City's efforts. On top of that I asked the City of Greensboro to give me evidence-- any evidence-- that their efforts had provided positive economic benefits. After months of waiting, the City's answer:

"Hello Mr. Jones,

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

 Sincerely,

 Public Information Desk

City of Greensboro"

I'll stand with the Friendly Coalition in the hope that you'll stand with my neighbors and I to end this corruption that has been destroying this city for 50 plus years. I'm giving you the chance to turn the Friendly Coalition into a Greensboro Coalition and end this once and for all. Otherwise you'll just be doing the same thing all over again in 2 more years.

Will you join me?

Former Greensboro Mayor Keith Holiday Speaks out Against Curfew

From someone who actually has a clue about how to run a city.

“It was a very concerted effort for years — especially from about 2006 to 2009 — to make downtown a happening place,” he said. “And now it is. We’ve had success. So we should be managing that success, not banning certain people from downtown at a certain time.”

Link via Dang.

How The Greensboro City Council Really Works

Eric Ginsburg at YES! Weekly writes, City gathers feedback on Human Relations Department and it's quite a mouth full. Here's the meat.

"Several people, including District 1 Councilwoman Dianne Bellamy-Small, acknowledged that council has pressured the commission or the department head not to take up certain issues, with Bellamy-Small naming the truth and reconciliation process on the Klan- Nazi shootings and the White Street landfill as two examples.

“Do you want the truth?” said Bellamy-Small, when asked by Neerman to weigh in on the discussion. “In my time on the council there have been points in time that the director was given issues by the city council not to touch.”

She said there was “serious political backlash” after she pushed for a report from the department about the truth and reconciliation process which Bellamy-Small said former Mayor Keith Holliday had tried to put off indefinitely. Part of the problem, she said, was that all of the funding comes from the city, and “he who has the gold makes the rules.”

There goes your plans to run for Mayor next year, Keith. After all, we can't have a human relations department that actually accomplishes things can we? Why that would be like having a working inspections department under Mayor Robbie Perkins.

"A number of attendees who had served on the human relations commission said they remember feeling that pressure.

“The [department] head was under a lot of pressure to keep certain things under the rug,” said Gary Palmer, a former commissioner. “You knew there were certain things [or people] saying, ‘Don’t go in that direction.’” Several people focused on ways the department could bolster existing activity, such as putting employment issues on par with housing, granting subpoena power to the complaint review committee to review claims against police and increasing outreach, specifically to non-English-speaking immigrant and refugee communities.

“Without real legal status like subpoena power… they can’t necessarily get all the information,” retired Guilford College professor Claire Morse said. Her husband Larry, a retired NC A&T University professor, said there are business interests that oppose giving more employment powers to the department."

And so it is, as it has always been, Greensboro in a nut shell.