What can I say, the contrast jumped out at me. The Greensboro City Council had just approved $600,000 in incentives for HondaJet. Mayor Keith Holliday told everyone how proud they would make HondaJet if they chose Greensboro as their home. Then, during the public hearing on the proposed South Elm Street redevelopment, Chris Dwiggins stood before the council and wondered where the extra cash to help move his business would come from.
So here have the city government giving away money to a large corporation while an established local businessman, 15 years in the business, is getting the boot so the city can form the perfect neighborhood. I don’t get it.
Why not build around Dwiggins Automotive Connection? That way those who will live and work on the new South Elm Street (including the low-income families who will get to live in a “spiffy new neighborhood,” as the N&R writes) will have an auto shop in the ‘hood. That way, they won’t have to (God forbid) get on Wendover to drop the car off at the dealership and have the shuttle run them back downtown. It would be a win-win relationship that hopefully would carry on for years. Besides, what makes an auto shop less mixed-use than say, a grocery store?
Government planners and officials continue to strive for the perfect neighborhood. That’s certainly the case in the HOT proposal, which promises nirvana of living, working and playing in a manner that will in no way damage the bigger world around it. That sounds a little too utopian, if you ask me.
