..Which we all know is the model city for New Urbanists here in the South, a cool $133 million in fed stimulus money going toward —imagine this— renovation of the Edith Green-Wendell Wyatt Federal Building.
Renovation plans include “‘vegetated fins’ that will grow more than 200 feet high on the western facade of the main federal building… a vertical garden that changes with the seasons and nurtures plants that yield energy savings.” Yet to be determined is how the veggie fins will be pruned and maintained.
As for Greensboro’s taxpayer financed downtown hotel, Jamestown resident Steele Smith writes in an N&R op-ed:
I read Allen Johnson’s piece in the Sunday, Jan. 31, paper on the current downtown hotel debate with great appreciation.
Frankly, as a Triad resident, I’m sick and tired of what seems to me to be a lack of strong leadership among our elected figures, especially in Guilford County and Greensboro. The hotel debate has highlighted two of the most egregious examples of this vacuum….
….Oh, and by the way, Mr. Johnson, in your piece you stated that the federal stimulus bond financing poses no cost to local taxpayers, not the first time I’ve read this statement in the paper.
Let me remind us all that no government makes money, any money any government spends comes directly from the taxpayers through some channel or other. In this case it’s true that every taxpayer in the country is helping with this financing, it’s not solely dependent on local taxpayers.
Thank you, Mr. Smith.
