City Of Greensboro Fails To Provide Evidence Streetscaping Provides Positive Economic Impacts

Being the City is about to spend $Millions upon $Millions of taxpayer dollars to streetscape Lee Street and High Point Road, I asked the City of Greensboro to provide evidence of The Positive Economic Impacts Of Streetscaping Greensboro from previous streetscaping projects such as the $150 Million East Market Street redevelopment project. The City's reply:

"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"

Click here to read the entire story. And remember that Robbie Perkins,  Yvonne Johnson, Dianne Bellamy-Small and Zack Matheny all helped waste your money then just as they're planning to waste it now.

East Market Street Development Corporation: Selling Out Those It Serves

From the EMSDC website:

"EMSDC is assisting in the completion of a Master Design Plan project with the goal of creating a mixed use, 13-acre property. This site will potentially serve University students and employees, neighborhood residents, and downtown gentry."

That's right, EMSDC is pushing for gentrification and pushing the poor people out with no place to go.

And Mac Sims, before you go trying to hide your web pages again... we've saved all your web pages for you. All of them.

And in case you're wondering about that copyright. As a government funded non profit, EMSDC, like governments, has no legal claims to copyrights. The only way EMSDC can enforce a copyright is to pay back all government funding. And we all know that ain't never going to happen, don't we Mr "It ain't what you know, it's what you can prove," Sims.

Did Greensboro Kill The Livable Communities Act?

In 2009 Senator Christopher Dodd introduced the Livable Communities Act. As part of the effort to push the bill through the United States Senate, BRUCE KNIGHT, Planning Director for the City of CHAMPAIGN, ILLINOIS and PRESIDENT, AMERICAN PLANNING ASSOCIATION spoke on behalf of the Livable Communities Act before the U.S. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES COMMITTEE ON FINANCIAL SERVICES on September 23, 2010.

Mr Knight cited the lack of "shovel ready" projects as being a major challenge to cities everywhere. He spoke of the importance of regional cooperation. He spoke of creating jobs, eliminating waste and promoting greater government efficiency while also allowing people to craft a vision for new development and growth based on local values. Mr Knight spoke of opportunities to build a more sustainable, livable future.

Mr Knight cited Greensboro, North Carolina, the very first project undertaken by the APA, the East Market Street Development Corporation, as an example of the success of the efforts of the American Planning Association.

The Livable Communities Act failed to pass the United States Senate. Did Greensboro reflect so poorly on the United States Senate that Washington found it impossible to believe Bruce Knight and the experts at the American Planning Association?

Of course, Mac Sims of the East Market Street Development Corporation would never tell you that.

East Market Street Development Corporation: Gabrielle Nicole Foriest

Hell came early... I couldn't wait any longer for Monday to come...

Gabrielle Nicole Foriest Housing Director at East Market Street Development Corp, Advisory Board,  Greensboro Beautiful.

Founder Building Triad Youth, Inc 1017 Glendale Drive # 35. That's strange, GuideStar shows the address as PO Box 142726 % Gabrielle Foriest Fayette, GA 30214  but the NC Secretary of State believes it to be located at 1017 Glendale Drive # 35  here in Greensboro, North Carolina.

In case your interested, 1017 Glendale Drive #35 just happens to be Ms Foriest's apartment where she also operates the women's "non profit" Elizabeth House, Inc. Could it be she chose the name Elizabeth House in the hope that potential doners might confuse her with the many other Elizabeth House women's charities  across the nation?

Previously, Gabrielle Nicole Foriest  was convicted of embezzlement.  It appears she's at it again.

It's has long been said we are judged by the company we keep. Considering what we now know about Gabrielle Nicole Foriest, Housing Director at East Market Street Development Corp and Phillip B Barnhill, Director of Operations at East Market Street Development Corp, I think we have a pretty good idea of what kind of guy Mac Sims really is and the roll he played in trading the shopping center on the corner of Phillips Avenue and Elwell Avenue for the selected site of the downtown Greensboro Performing Arts Center and the new private park planned by Walker Sanders and the Community Foundation of Greater Greensboro.

That's right, Greensboro's leaders, including East Greensboro's "leaders" robbed my neighborhood to build the Greensboro Performing Arts Center. Not seeing the connection yet? You will before this day is over if you stay tuned to this website. Before today is over, the elite will look for tall buildings from which to jump and members of Greensboro City Council will tender their resignations lest they face the wrath of an entire city tomorrow night.

And the best, or worst, is yet to come.

PS. Ms Foriest, Remember that Youtube video? The one you took down? Somebody saved it and sent it to me. You have been a very bad girl. I can't post it here but it could end up om YouTube again.

East Market Street Development Corporation: Mac Sims

There are only 2 reasons to keep off-limits personal files in your office at work: One might be that you're trying to hide credit card receipts and bank statements from your wife. The other might be that you're trying to hide credit card receipts and bank statements from the taxpayers. Which is it, Mac?

For those who might not have heard of the East Market Street Development Corporation, it is East Greensboro's version of Downtown Greensboro Incorporated without the BID tax and they've been coming up on my radar a lot lately. They'd like to tell you about all they've accomplished to help the economic development of East Greensboro and the East Market Street Corridor but it appears they spend most of their time and money involved in local politics padding the pockets of the local "community organizers" with their biggest claims to economic development being replacing an old shopping center with a new shopping center and an empty lot where a post office used to stand. Key word: "downtown gentry."

13 acres, most of it under sound roof and behind solid brick walls with loading docks that handled dozens of tractor-trailers a day for many years. I know, I bumped those docks many times when I hauled mail. We had jobs in East Greensboro then, now they tear down the jobs to make room for the downtown gentry. Downtown gentry who never came and probably never will. Had they not been such dumbasses cared about the working class instead of the downtown gentry they could have partnered with NC A&T across the street and converted the old post office to do this:



I'm already building such an operation in my East Greensboro back yard, albeit only 3 such tanks... But instead we got this:


View Larger Map

Already East Greensboro could be exporting food and providing much needed jobs right here in East Greensboro. Instead, we've has an empty lot for 5 years with no potential buyers and no money to build anything. Sure, we could build a new building there to do the same. At a cost of about $60 Million when the old building was just fine. Thank you very much, Mac Sims. Thank you very much, Goldie Wells. Thank you very much, Milton Kern.

You see, like the rest of Greensboro's "leaders" Mac Sims and the rest of the East Market Street Development Corporation really don't give a damn about economic development unless there's something in it for them.

Funny, Greensboro's developers want to develop but they're so behind the times. While in Greensboro, developers talk of building performing arts centers, in Singapore, developers build downtown vertical farms that grow year 'round fresh produce at 1/4 the cost of conventionally grown produce. Imagine building a building that could make you money hand over fist for the rest of your life selling something everyone has to have to live at a cost so low no one else can compete with you while never dealing with problem tenants, RUCO inspections, negotiating payoffs commissions to Mayors who are also your commercial realtor...

Who am I kidding, there's no developers in Greensboro smart enough to figure that out. But don't worry folks, as someone said to me last night, they are all about to have their minsky moment.

As an aside, no fault of DH Griffin as he submitted the low bid for the demolition of the post office and won the contract fair and square. But Mr Griffin himself happened to come by my office back in 2010 and we discussed the post office and other buildings he was tearing town. He informed me that had he known it was for sale, he could have bought the building, torn it down, sold the steel, hauled everything away and turned a profit while being left with an empty lot to sell at some point in the future. As a matter of fact: he does that on a regular basis. The fact that the steel in such an old building is so valuable reinforces the idea that no new building is greener than a sound old building. And it reinforces the fact that Greensboro's developers have long been leading us down the road to ruin.

What The Media And The City Aren't Telling You About The Renaissance Community Co-op Part 8

Here we are at number 8 in a series of articles about the ongoing attempt to steal a community owned grocery store co-op from the hands of the poor working class community trying to build it and give it away, no strings attached, to groups of wealthy powerful developers who bring nothing to the table but more debt to taxpayers and money taken out of a community that is already suffering. I should know as I've lived here for over 50 years. If you'd like to begin with Part 1...

From a city of Greensboro public information request in which I asked how much did the City of Greensboro spend for the rehabilitation of the unit of the Bessemer Shopping Center occupied by the Family Dollar Store.

"Per your public information request on how much did the rehabilitation of the Family Dollar space in the strip mall cost; Family Dollar was required to invest 100K in order to extend their lease.  They provided their construction budget as verification but the City did not do a cost certification.  The City spent approximating 24K to clean up, repair and repaint the façade."

So it only cost the City of Greensboro $24,000 to fix up the facade for the Family Dollar Store but with private developers fixing the facade for the remainder of the shopping center the cost is said to run somewhere close to $3 Million. Folks, this is a tiny shopping center. Yeah, I know there's talk of some things being added but why add anything as long as there are empty shops remaining? And right now, with the exception of one, all the shops are empty.

You see, for the last 14 years the Family Dollar was the only store in the Bessemer Shopping Center that had been bought in a corporate bailout a few years before from wealthy real estate developer, Katherine Stern Weaver of the Weaver Foundation, known for its philanthropy in support of a wealthy art collection while poor children just 5 miles away in East Greensboro do without. That's right, while Katherine Stern Weaver gets tax breaks for her art collection the City of Greensboro saves her business from letting one tiny strip mall go back to the bank.

Ever wondered about the definition of philanthropy. It means "love of humanity" and yet we use it to describe anyone who gets a tax break or forms a non profit. I'm a poet, novelist, writer of short stories and songs. I love art but in the scheme of things adding to the tax burdens of poor families to save your precious art collections because your business went south hardly seems like philanthropy. It seems like greed.

Then there is the question of where the money came from to buy the Bessemer Shopping Center in the first place. Most readers will be surprised to read that Mac Sims of the East Market Street Development Corporation-- yet another Greensboro "non profit" that only recently popped up on my RADAR-- diverted roughly half a million Dollars from a $5 Million Dollar East Greensboro economic development bond previously approved by Greensboro voters whom I'm sure were not voting to bail out wealthy real estate developers with private art collections worth hundreds of $Millions.

Now how does giving money to a wealthy developer aid in the economic development of East Greensboro? Did she will us her art collection so we could sell it off and invest that money in our community? I think everyone reading knows the answer. I think Mac Sims, EMSDC and the Greensboro City Council enguaged in a good old fashioned case of misappropriation of funds.

And just who sits on the Board of Directors of the  East Market Street Development Corporation? Why none other than Uncle Milton Kern and a few more you just might know.

So for those of you who blame all of East Greensboro's problems on those of us who live in East Greensboro: Now you know who the real shop lifters have been all along. The same ones who have had their fingers in every other pie in town.

As I wrote in parts 1-7, other elite developers now want the shopping center but only after the community around the shopping center took it on our own to try and bring it back to life. And only after it looked as if we might become successful. Talk about a slap in the face. We go from being ripped off by a wealthy art collector/real estate developer to trying to be ripped off by a slumlord developer George Carr and our own 20 year district county commissioner and former North Carolina NAACP President turned swindler, Skip Alston.

And did I mention that Mr Alston's partners were foreign investors? Yes, several times, I'm sure.

I also asked the city to tell me who to contact if myself or someone else might be interested in renting the empty shops. You see, until now the City of Greensboro has made no effort to rent any of the empty spaces. No where at the Bessemer Shopping Center can you find contact information or even who owns the property. It's as if the City of Greensboro wanted the property to remain vacant forever or at least long enough to have the excuse that the City could no longer afford to lose money on the property and would be better off the give it away to a wealthy developer.

My guess is the second is closer to the truth.

Continue reading What The Media And The City Aren't Telling You About The Renaissance Community Co-op Part 9