Sticking with today’s theme, the N&R editorializes on the Greensboro City Council’s vote to kill the proposed coliseum amphitheater, calling it ‘penny wise and pound foolish.’ (Funny, that’s how John Hammer describes the city’s ’10-’11 budget negotiations.)
The editorial notes Mayor Bill Knight’s comment that financing the amphitheater would “would thrust the city deeper into what is ‘not a proper city business’ — as in entertainment,” countering that the city’s been in the entertainment business since the coliseum opened in 1959.
The editorial also notes the site work that’s already taken place, lamenting that the “big, empty bowl of red clay and grass on the grounds of the Greensboro Coliseum will remain a big, empty bowl for the foreseeable future.” The key word is ‘foreseeable,’ as no doubt director Matt Brown and his allies on the council, namely Robbie Perkins and Zack Matheny, will argue that the site work that’s already taken place negates any other use.
However, Brown can just throw some some seed over the red clay at little further expense. I argued last week that it’s better the project was never started. By the same token, I understand the point that Brown was charged with developing the former Canada Dry bottling plant when the city purchased it. Probably better that move was never made, because I don’t know what the city thought they could do with the site that private developers couldn’t do.
