New downtown buildings are good...sustainable economies of scale are better

(via PreservationGreensboro)

The above is a rendering of a proposed five-story mid-rise building planned for the 300-block of South Elm Street downtown (coverage from the News & Record, PreservationGreensboro and A Little Urbanity). And while another addition to the downtown skyline is long overdue and quite welcome, it will do nothing if our citizens do not have jobs. It might as well be just another empty building, another dot on the landscape.

Our local economy cannot be sustained on $9/hour service jobs. Because it is those types of jobs that are left in Greensboro...today. Manufacturing is gone. Furniture is gone. Tobacco is gone. Textiles are gone. Distribution, transportation, higher education...and service jobs are all that's left.

I work a $9/hour service job...at night. I substitute teach and tutor during the day to supplement my income.

I blog and strategize about local city and county politics and communication projects...in my spare time...for free.

I have a communications/journalism background, previously taught in the public schools, previously worked in Washington and Las Vegas...and I work a $9/hour service job. I work there because my family has to eat. And right now, there are no other professional opportunities in this area. It is sad because I'm here to make a better life for my daughter...to give her the opportunity like I had growing up to be raised in a neighborhood, where she can ride her bike and socialize with her friends from school, etc.

And yet I worry because if she decides to matriculate through school here, she may not have a job waiting for her here; she may do like all of our other young professionals...and leave. It is sad.

This is very typical of many many households across our city, our county, our area...even our state.

One final note...when I covered Rockingham County back in 2000 for the former publication known as Triad Business News, I interviewed many of their local economic development pros. One of them was very proud that they were touting an industrial site and a spec building off U.S. 29 for "call center usage." Rockingham County's savior at the time were call centers.

Not exactly thinking large...and now, even our call centers are laying off, from Aetna to American Express to iQor.

We have an explosive unemployment rate...and the silence among our elected body downtown is haunting.

E.C. :)

No new taxes, sayeth Johnson

GSO Mayor Yvonne Johnson wants to hold the line on city taxes for next year.

Smart.

Today's News & Record:

Citing the tough financial times, Mayor Yvonne Johnson said she doesn’t want to increase taxes next year.

At the City Council meeting Tuesday night, Johnson asked the city manager to develop the 2009-10 budget with no additional taxes.

If the request is formally adopted by the City Council, this would be the second year in a row that the council did not increase taxes.

Last year, the City Council had to cut $7 million to approve a hold-the-line budget.

This year, the city will host meetings for residents to talk about what their budget priorities are for the coming year.

“We’re in this together,” Mayor Johnson said. “It is going to take all of us.”

*************************

But keep in mind that this council and this mayor need to urgently urgently come up with some sort of local jobs stimulus plan for our city. Our economic development heads clearly are not getting the job done.

Case in point...while reading this past Sunday's News & Record's Life section, reporter Robert Lopez discussed his experience of his wife moving here and unable to seek employment following Lopez's joining the paper last year:

We in the newspaper industry certainly haven't been immune to the belt-tightening. I moved to Greensboro last February to take a job as a features reporter at the News & Record. I had previously worked for two years at a newspaper in Beaumont, Texas.

My job here has treated me well, my paycheck having grown a little fatter when I made the move. But my wife, Lana, and I still took a financial hit, mainly because I'm the only breadwinner in the house -- well, apartment, as we're still trying to save for a down payment and waiting for the housing market to bottom out.

Lana joined me in Greensboro in March and has been looking for a job since. She's tried applying at schools, government offices, call centers, stores, restaurants and staffing agencies, the last of which I wouldn't recommend for anyone unless they enjoy jumping through hoops for a chance at a mediocre-paying job. She's received a few callbacks, but thus far no wages.

Greensboro cannot become an unwelcoming community where jobs are not plentiful and we shut the door on those wanting to move here and to make a better life. We already have a severe brain-drain problem.

Simple equation...we're losing our revenues because we have no more sustaining jobs to enhance those previously-plentiful revenues.

And I have yet to hear from anyone on council, or our mayor talk about jobs...to the level where something will have to be done, and fast.

E.C. :)

Mayor concerned about lawsuit price tag

GSO Mayor Yvonne Johnson had some things to say in an interview with CBS-2's Julia Bass during last night's City Council meeting. Johnson is concerned about the number of lawsuits (David Wray, et. al.) plaguing the city and the growing price tag. She said the city has already spent over $100,000, but more importantly, she said how concerned she is getting about "the open wound" on the city and how it is dividing the city.

Click here to see the interview on CBS-2.

E.C. :)

Zack's 'had it' with bloggers

Might as well start out this blog...hard-core.

Is it me, or is Greensboro City Councilman Zack Matheny (Dist. 3) a little pompous?

I'm reading my friend Guarino's interpretation of Matheny's recent comments at the last City Council meeting following the broad-daylight, unsolved shooting death of a Brinks Armored Truck guard at Friendly Center, and I must say, Matheny sounds rather arrogant. Matheny says he's "had it" with those "bashing" City Council, the City Manager and the Police Department.

Zack, let's give credit where credit is due, and let's criticize where criticism is due. The rank and file who wear the badge and the uniform daily are to be respected. My father worse the badge and uniform everyday when I grew up in Chicago. They are to be revered.

But when there's a crime problem that is out of control and you and your other cronies on City Council aren't doing a damn thing about it, something is wrong. This is not about locking our car doors and closing our garages...this is about employees who work at our banks and worry about getting robbed at gunpoint...which happens frequently in this city, Zack. This is about long-time convenience store owners who are robbed at gunpoint frequently, Zack. This is about citizens just simply getting money out of an ATM at night and are robbed...sometimes kidnapped at gunpoint, Zack. This is about your inability to do your job, Zack.

This is not about Greensboro bloggers, sir.

E.C. :)

A more desirable Greensboro prompts GreensboroMetro

The idea for GreensboroMetro was very simple.

Taking notice of things that are wrong in the city. Having a strong desire to see what could be right with this city. Taking notice of the politicians and the movers and shakers that have something to do with how this city works (and more importantly, how it doesn't work)...and how it can be fixed to work again.

An excerpt from a recent guest column I wrote for local activist and blogger Keith Brown says it all:

You see, maybe it's me, but we have a lot of problems in our town and none of them are being addressed properly by our so-called elected leadership.

They're not being addressed. From the lack of jobs, to record unemployment and underemployment, from an out-of-control crime problem, to arrogant politicians who work as though they're above the fray (and above the law), it's time to strike back and get involved.

GreensboroMetro will focus on the come-what-may, and what needs to be fixed around town. GM will keep an eye on the politricksters and will watch out for you, the citizen. I invite you to participate and comment on the issues of the day related to what's happening in and around town.

There are a lot of Greensboro blogs out there. I hope this one will carve out its niche pretty early. After all, Guilford County has one of the most active blogging communities out there.

Settle in, and welcome.

E.C. :)