Davis Garage will not be moving —-at least in the near future.

Harvey Davis has withdrawn his request to rezone property at the corner of Jonestown and Stratford so he can move his business from the site coveted by the City of Winston-Salem for its proposed transportation hub.

I can’t help but notice that Dan Besse is the council’s point man on this issue. Remember Besse was the loudest voice for eminent domain back in September when the council more or less gave the nod for the takeover.

What can you say —Besse is a so-called ‘rail advocate.’ Perhaps he should read JLF president John Hood’s column, where the notion that job creation through rail funding is debunked.


Finally, and most foolishly, passenger-rail advocates have resorted to false claims of job creation. Forget faux patriotism. Job-creation claims have now become the last refuge of the scoundrel. To say that spending $461 million on rail improvements would create 4,800 jobs is not to say that it would create a net of 4,800 jobs. You have to compare the jobs associated with what you see – the new tracks and bridges – with the jobs lost from what you don’t see – the goods or services that would have been purchased with the money had it not been diverted to slightly-higher-speed rail. The real effect on employment is likely to be negative, given the job-killing effects of excessive federal borrowing.