Downtown Greensboro Inc. responds to City Council accusation that they’ve let downtown grow stale:
Past DGI Chairwoman Susan Schwartz defended the nonprofit’s record Thursday, but said DGI alone cannot accomplish the goals for downtown. She pointed to planned, yet unfinished projects such as the Downtown Greenway and the South Elm Street redevelopment as evidence that the city has fallen short on its part of the effort.
“I feel like the vision is there,” she said. “What is lacking is the partnership or the commitment to get the things done that are in the plan.”
I’d love to hear how DGI thinks the city has fallen short on the greenway. DGI president Ed Wolverton told the N&R the biggest story downtown right now was increased housing, and yesterday’s post on developer Jim Jones moving across Smith Street might bear that out.
But Jones has owned that property long before DGI, and developing the former North State Chevrolet property has been a drawn-out years-long process in spite of the property’s prime location. Just goes to show these things don’t happen overnight, DGI or not.
As you can probably imagine,the Rhino’s John Hammer says this is good news for downtown, suggesting the city take DGI’s $700k and have free parking downtown.
