I was a little surprised to the ultra-liberal Yes!Weekly quote Michael Sanera from the “conservative” John Locke Foundation in its big cover story on Winston-Salem’s taxpayer-funded downtown baseball stadium:
“At the very beginning, there are national and international studies that show these projects are grossly underestimated and then you get into this bind,” Sanera said. Projects like the downtown ballpark do not attract new money into the area and those who benefit represent a small group of property owners, he added.
“Our position is the people that benefit should be the people that pay,” Sanera said. “You’re taking money from the many and funneling it into the pockets of the few. You see all this activity around the ballpark, but what you don’t see is this is not new money.”
The article explores Mayor Allen Joines influence as president of the Winston-Salem Alliance in helping secure property for the stadium is as bothersome as —-oh, I don’t know —- Greensboro Mayor Yvonne Johnson hopping a plane owned by a high powered developer and Community Foundation board member to Washington to secure federal funding for a mixed-use development on the corner of Lee and South Elm streets that would be anchored by a new Guilford County Schools headquarters.
And guess how the developer wants to finance the proposed $75 million hotel that would add to the development —-federal redevelopment bonds.
The blogosphere is understandbly concerned about Roy Carroll’s involvement in the junket up to Washington. Carroll insists he won’t be involved in the project as a developer, but I can imagine a scenario where the project —if it gets outs of the gates — stalls and Carroll steps in to rescue it.
Amazing how we here in Greensboro are watching the debacle in Winston-Salem and our leaders are doing eveything they can to dive in head-first themselves.
Bonus observation: Just got off the phone with a fellow blogger and he thinks some sort of land-swap deal will be involved with the news GCS headquarters. The old HQ has been targeted for development for some time now, but —- as we all know ——- the market’s not good right now. Fisher Parkers, however, won’t stand for a vacant building sitting there for years.
