Quite a bit of reaction to N&R ed-page editor Allen Johnson’s column on Greensboro’s version of Karl Rove, former City Council member Bill Burckley.
My gut reaction is to wonder whether or not we don’t need more guys like Burckley here in Greensboro playing smashmouth politics. Granted a couple of recent elections, notably the 2007 City Council race, have been interesting. But we still seem so afraid of politics entering local issues around here when the nonpartisan system we have (for the most part) sure isn’t producing much satisfaction.
I certainly remembered that Burckley was an opponent of Greensboro’s downtown baseball stadium, and while he acknowledges that the stadium itself has been a success, he’s right when he says that it so far has failed to spur surrounding development, a fact that has eluded city leaders in Winston-Salem as they pushed for their taxpayer-funded downtown stadium.
Burckley also adds to another voice to the growing chorus questioning the proposed downtown greenway:
Burckley on other issues:
The planned downtown greenÂway: “A misuse of taxpayer money. The citizens of Greensboro are going to pay for that for a long, long time. … We’re going to get stuck with huge, huge maintenance costs.”
On that note, I can’t help but notice that some people around here seem surprised that questions are being asked about the greenway, the implication being that those questions are being asked without knowing all the facts. I honestly have no doubt that Action Greensboro will be as open about the greenway as it possibly can be. That doesn’t change the fact that, as with many quality-of-life projects like these that involve local government, shit just seems to happen.
