The Legacy of the Landfill Vote
Ed Cone posted this morning on yet another Letter to the Editor in the N&R about the prospect of a Trader Joe’s coming to Greensboro. Here is my comment:
I found Regency’s argument compelling. Sam Hieb’s comment noting that these NIMBY’s were also in favor of re-opening the landfill, as evidenced by the Bill Knight for Mayor signs, also had an effect on my opinion.
I consider it a foregone conclusion that TJs will never come to a place such as Golden Gate. So, if the solution is having a new shopping center to secure a TJs, then I’m for it.
Here’s the post at Piedmont Publiass to which I was referring, but it contains no such statement. Indeed, it contains quite the opposite:
I’m not knocking their ideas, but it’s clear the developer wants to build on this particular piece of property, period. Thus local gov’t —- most definitely this will go before the liberal NIMBY Greensboro City Council—- will be forced to choose between the developer and the nearby neighborhood. It will be an interesting decision.
Later, someone suggested to me that it is not in the interest of the John Locke Foundation to diss the old mayor or his supporters. So I conducted an exhaustive search of the places I might have read it, especially among the comments at the two N&R articles linked to in Hieb‘s post, to no avail. And I remain pretty sure that’s where I read what I commented at Ed’s. If I am right, then Art Pope’s Stooge was forced to edit his post to convey an idea completely contrary to what was originally written. If that is the case, I find it hilarious. In any event, I didn’t make it up and Roch Smith, Jr. immediately backed up my comment:
The irony is not found just in the anecdotal yard sign observations, but in the election results as well where proponents of re-opening the landfill received strong support from the precincts encompassing and abutting this proposed development. (Mayor, at-large, district)
It appears we have a neighborhood fighting a new shopping center which previously supported defeated Mayor Bill Knight. And apparently this matter must at some point come before the new council. The casual observer might think that the more these residents object to the shopping center, the more likely they are to get it. Again, I find this hilarious.
The attempt by the old council to reopen the White Street Landfill is apparently the gift which keeps on giving. There has never been any kind of apology to the residents of east Greensboro for the travesty which was attempted. And now those very residents are represented by a majority on council. Payback is indeed Hell. At this point, it appears likely that the shopping center at the corner of Friendly and Hobbs will at least get the approval of council and probably be built. Whether or not a Trader Joe’s is secured remains a matter of conjecture. Given that the proposed location will not have loading docks, TJs may just as well move to the old Harris-Teeter location at Golden Gate. Additionally, since Deep Roots Market will never be able to afford the lease downtown, TJs may go there.
Whatever happens, so long as the new shopping center at Friendly and Hobbs is built, my schadenfreude will be sated, and I look forward to shopping at TJs, no matter where it is located.
