GPAC Opposition Gains Traction
From John Hammer at The Rhino Times:
The Greensboro Performing Arts Center Task Force was scheduled to get another $213,000 at the Greensboro City Council meeting on Monday, August 6, but the vote was delayed to the meeting on Tuesday, August 21.
No reason was given for the delay, but since the item was added as an addendum, which means it doesn’t get the scrutiny of a regular agenda item, the speculation was that the votes were not there to pass it.
Congratulations to the city council for being responsive to the desires of their constituents. Coliseum manager, Matt Brown, Mayor Perkins and the Community Foundation have handled this process miserably. They failed to establish a bond referendum in November and pushed it back to a special election in the Spring, with huge expense. And now they may not have the votes to approve more preparatory spending.
The moderates among us recognize the need to replace War Memorial Auditorium. Many of us agree that the new venue should be downtown. Some of us have problems with the initial site and would prefer city-owned land beside the Carolina Theatre, which should also be upgraded.
However, the hamfisted approach taken by Perkins and Brown was politically autistic. It might have been better to hire consultants for the roll out, because these two had no clue as to how to go about it. Indeed, their impatient actions at the outset may very well have doomed a process which might have been very well along. But this is the kind of thing which happens when you hatch a plan from your Center Pointe condo overlooking City Center Park. And then you look out the back to the ball park as evidence of what your predecessor and his cronies achieved.
