(TREBIC.org)
While yesterday's News & Record spoke poetically in favor of tonight's Protest Petition vote (along with a positive comment by Allen Johnson today), TREBIC's Marlene Sanford (pictured) spoke out against it.
A disclaimer...Marlene and I had a lot of interaction while I was on staff with the High Point Enterprise. But on this I respectfully disagree. I think property owners, who have invested a great deal in their property despite the Triad's recession, have the right to have a say as to what comes into their neighborhoods that will affect their property values.
Marlene says:
Protest petitions are a bad idea that gets worse the more you think about it.
Their purpose is to make it harder to rezone property. In this recession, the last thing Greensboro needs is to signal that we don't want development and job growth.
But even more troubling is that protest petitions are just plain undemocratic.
No, Marlene...what's troubling is that you want to limit a neighbor's say...that's undemocratic. And no one is talking about limiting job growth...our so-called economic developers are doing a very good job of that right now by not properly diversifying our local economy. It seems our crack-pot economic development staff downtown still think we can keep a sustainable economy on $7-$8-$9/hour service jobs while calling this area relevant.
So since real job growth isn't taking place right now in Greensboro (and hasn't taken place for months now), have an open mind this evening.
And I hope our City Council will have an open mind also.
Allen Johnson is right...anyone thinking about running for Mayor (or even City Council this year) that opposes this measure will be remembered this Fall.
E.C. :)
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2 comments:
I am amazed at what these people are willing to say to support what they want. They are I would assume intelligent people so how can they do it and not feel like the fools they show themselves to be?
And do you think with Carroll speaking against the protest Petition and being one of Robbie Perkins biggest clients is sufficient evidence that Perkins has a conflict of interest in the vote outcome and should fold on this one? BB
From a statistical point of view given the direction the economy is headed, many of the TREBIC members are going lose their shirts in the next year or two. From the looks of it several local developers are not going to get the sales/projects they need to keep afloat. That's why this Cornwallis fight is so important to the parties involved. When this one falls through there won't be another one for quite some time.
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