Lots of reaction in the blogosphere to Greensboro City Council member Zack Matheny’s plan to make downtown safer in the wake of recent gunplay.
Guarino was on a break, but this was too good to pass up, and he has the best roundup of local reaction, which is skeptical. The good doctor minces no words, calling Matheny’s press conference “an admixture of self-promotion, political ambition, opportunism, grandstanding, self-aggrandizement and megalomania.”
I agree that crime is an inevitable byproduct of what Guarino describes as the “downtown idoltry” municipal governments are worshiping these days; it’s simply inevitable that someone is going to offend someone else in such high-density situations.
Of course the call is to simply hire more police; however, when you have other Greensboro city council members talking about “developing” the city’s landfill and providing considerable financial support to rehabilitate a rundown area because —you guessed it —-it’s overrun with crime —- you know that funding to hire extra police is going to be problematic.
This is what happens when government strays from its core functions. Then when a situation becomes critical, politicians step in to show they “care,” and come up with ideas such as curfews and $5 fees for downtown parking.
