Front-page news in today’s N&R—- Greensboro Mayor Robbie Perkins has a torn tendon in his ankle that will require surgery.
The angle here is Perkins was once a world-class runner who still burns a pace at age 56. As a runner who once burned a just-over seven-minute-mile, I salute Perkins’ speedy finishes in recent local races. Following surgery, however, Perkins will be off the road for 9-10 months concedes he “will need to settle and do a little more of a pedestrian running pace.”
But earlier this week Perkins lost considerable momentum in another race —the one to get a bond for a downtown performing arts center on the November ballot:
The delay has to be seen as a big defeat for Perkins. He launched the quest for the performing arts center and even had his former campaign manager, Ross Harris, hired on to manage the task force. He has also repeatedly pushed for the bond to be put on the ballot in November, which was the reason for the current schedule.
….In the end, the votes were not there to put the bond on the ballot, so the spring is an obvious fallback position. But by spring Perkins may have another way to save the world that has to be done immediately.
That last sentence seems to reinforce my prediction earlier this week that this is going to die a quiet death. As I noted at the time, we could be living in a whole new world come spring. At I least I hope.
