The other day I accused the N&R editorial page of marching in lockstep on the issue of whether or not the state should apologize for codoning slavery.
Today, however, there’s a difference of opinion on the corporate stewardship of Starmount Co., which announced earlier in the week it was shifting focus from commercial to residential development:
The N&R lead editorial says:
while Starmount developed a reputation as a hard-nosed operation over the years, it also has been a good neighbor to surrounding communities. That has not gone unnoticed by people like Pam Dalton, a Starmount Forest resident who wonders if an investor without local ties “might push development along Friendly. I guess we’ve been protected for 50 years,” she told the News & Record.
It’s Starmount’s longtime role in shaping northwest Greensboro’s development while building trust that merits the comparison some have made between its sale of the Friendly properties and Lincoln Financial’s 2006 purchase of city landmark Jefferson-Pilot.
Interestingly enough, Greensboro residents True and Walker Campbell don’t hold Starmount in such high esteem:
When Starmount Co. began its newest development, we were promised that Friendly Avenue would be lined with trees to obscure buildings and pavement. Instead, restaurants and stores are in clear view and Starmount is now constructing a three-story bank building that looms over the Friendly Avenue-West Avondale Drive intersection.
Why a new bank building in place of irreplaceable old oak trees?
Our neighborhood is adjacent to Friendly Shopping Center. We have been informed Starmount Corp. intends to develop 2.5 to three acres of land on the residential side of Friendly Avenue, very near the dangerously congested Green Valley/Friendly intersection. It does not make good sense unless you are Starmount and looking at the bottom line.
What can I say? Friendly’s been my shopping destination pretty much since I’ve lived here, and though I keep swearing off the Harris Teeter at the Shops because the place is too narrow and cramped, I find myself gravitating there time and again. Old habits are hard to break.
