In today’s lead editorial, the Greensboro News & Record acknowledges it had previously supported the city’s plan for a $30 million parking deck on Elm and Davie Streets but now says the proverbial ‘deck is stacked’ against the next-door club owners who are challenging the deck in court:
The city of Greensboro has bungled a proposed new $30 million downtown parking deck on Davie Street so monumentally that it seems to be trying to screw up.
…You treat a neighbor of the project, the Cone Denim Entertainment Center, like a gnat that needs swatting. The entertainment venue says it would lose critical backstage access for buses and trucks if you build the deck as planned, but you don’t seem to care. You’ve chosen instead to seize that alley by using your power of eminent domain. Seriously? Do you realize how bad this looks? (Yes, we know. You’ve offered to make space for an 18-foot-wide alley to address that issue, but Cone Denim’s owners say that still isn’t enough room to allow vehicles to turn around and exit safely. So they’ve taken you to court.)
Now while she is not necessarily the key figure in this whole drama, Kathy Manning –wife of one of the hotel developers–is still an interesting figure because she is running for the 13th District Congressional seat as a Democrat. Manning’s campaign issued a statement to Triad City Beat in response to being named as a‘scheme participant’ in Cone Denim’s lawsuit against the city:
“The wild, fact-free, false allegations concerning Kathy are motivated by politics and the plaintiffs’ desire to get cash,” said Tori Taylor, Manning’s campaign manager. “These folks have already been offered compromises and compensation but just want more. We encourage the plaintiffs to stick to the truth and seek a remedy that works for the public good instead of playing politics just to get a payday for themselves.”
Interesting statement–Manning’s campaign says she’s not involved in the deal yet that does not stop them from taking a shot at the plaintiffs. All I can say is a Ted Budd-Kathy Manning Congressional race would be awesome— a wealthy candidate with ties to a hotel development running (in effect) against a wealthy president who has built and developed hotels around the world. Fun stuff.