In this N&R letter to the editor, Greensboro resident Michael John Slane echoes my feelings on proposed incentives for Honda Aircraft:
I have read several News & Record articles telling us how much the president of Honda Aircraft just loves Greensboro. It’s easy to love when you’re getting unnecessary handouts from the city, county and state taxpayers.
…..The latest request is simply a form of extortion. They are going to expand here anyway because it just makes good business sense to do the final stage of manufacturing here on land they already own adjacent to their headquarters.
But note the rest of the letters on today’s LTE page lean left. Most interesting is Greensboro resident Spencer Andrews’ letter stating the ‘hippies were right,’proving his point by calling out “local elected officials are willing to ignore cries of injustice so they can dump garbage inside our own city for the benefit of a local company.”
Andrews of course is referring to the ongoing controversy surrounding the White Street landfill. Technically he’s right; one local company would benefit from the landfill reopening. But in my humble opinion —right or wrong—-that’s not why conservative City Council members want to reopen the landfill.
In expressing his disappointment at the council’s latest baby step to reopen the landfill, Ed Cone notes that Mayor Bill Knight and council member Danny Thompson “were elected to serve the entire city, and it’s abundantly clear that they are not doing any such thing.”
Which is exactly the point —– as stated by former council member Mike Barber when he raised the issue three years ago—-Knight and Thompson indeed serve all taxpayers, including the vast majority who are paying for the city to transfer trash to another county when G’boro already has a landfill with many years capacity.
