In yesterday’s N&R, community columnist Sue Polinsky says economic incentives aren’t enough any more. Greensboro city leaders “extend its financial toe in the public side of private development waters to move this community where we must go.”
Sue goes on:
We need elected officials, a City Council and mayor who relish public/private partnerships instead of lurking in the business-as-usual, old-century approach that brought us to the dire warnings of the 2001 McKinsey study and our third-place ranking in comparison to similar cities in the state.
It’s time for our leadership to dangle more than just a public/private toe in the development waters.
In other words, more taxpayers’ money, as if local governments don’t hand out economic incentives left and right. I find ironic that Sue’s column appears in the same Ideas section as a lead editorial stating that the $500k the city had to cook the books to find for the Greensboro Police Department might actually be having an effect on crime:
Chief Tim Bellamy credits the progress to a lot more than good fortune. He credits dedicated new units that have targeted robberies and youth gangs. He also says an additional $500,000 in city money has funded overtime shifts for more patrols and more time for detectives to work cases. “We have those guys out there seven days a week,” he says.
Assistant Chief Dwight Crotts cites collaboration with other agencies, including the High Point Police Department, the FBI and the Guilford County Sheriff’s Office, as crucial factors.
Finally, Bellamy noted that increased staffing among SBI analysts has speeded the processing of key ballistics and DNA evidence. Of course, the $500,000 is only a temporary fix. Longer term, the City Council will need to find permanent funding for additional personnel.
I’m starting to think, however, that the mess surrounding the police department, both the Wray affair and other probes into alleged police misconduct might be the best thing to happen to this city. Maybe people will realize that local government can’t be everything to everybody, that its role as economic developer is way overstated, that the “utopia” people envision for the city just doesn’t exist, that the best thing a city can do is what’s supposed to do, which is provide services and, yes, control crime.
Update: This same “public-private partnership” logic, greenway included, is going on up in Asheville.
