My own open letter to Greensboro City Council member Danny Thompson:
Please read this Business Week article on the ‘high cost of wooing Google.’ While today’s N&R article does mention Google’s data center in Lenoir, it conveniently fails to mention it came with a $200-plus million economic incentives deal.
I realize this isn’t the same thing, but those talking about how high-speed broadband would enhance the Triad’s status as a “logistics hub,” an “aeotropolis” —whatever you want to call it —- need to remember that a $15 million federal grant designed to underwrite that goal evidently has disappeared into thin air while the region still struggles with double-digit unemployment.
Please be wise to the fact that Google’s “intense, competitive and highly technical application process” is just another way of playing desperate cities off one another, just like they did with the Lenoir data center. Nothing’s free, councilman, so warn city staff and fellow council members to proceed with caution. Above all, remember what happened the last time the City Council approved an “application” under deadline stress.
