Did The illegal Greensboro Inn, Bessemer Shopping Center Swap Kill The Phillips Avenue Community Garden?

Last winter the City of Greensboro and NC A&T University began circulating e-mails asking for suitable locations for a community garden on City Owned property on Phillips Avenue. I e-mailed Greensboro City Manager, Denise Turner Roth using my e-mail address recyclebill@gmail.com and suggested the unused and unpaved portion of the Bessemer Shopping Center. I even told her where I could get chain link fencing and many supplies for free.

I never got a reply from the City Manager. Rude bitch! If I offered to get you a free chain link fence wouldn't you at least say thank you? If memory serves me right I might have also suggested low cost water storage tanks like the ones I use in my garden.

Shortly thereafter, a professor from NC A&T University came to speak at one the early Renaissance Community Co-op meetings to tell us of his plans to bring community gardens to Phillips Avenue.

It's June now and I'm harvesting sweet red tomatoes from my own garden but when I ride my own 150 mile per gallon prototype Wackemall moped up and down Phillips Avenue from one end to the other I can find nothing that looks like a community garden.

Last Thursday, June 13th, I sent what I thought was a simple public information request to the City asking for the location of the Phillips Avenue community garden. Honestly, at that point, as one who grows vegetables and herbs in surplus US Army rocket launchers in my front yard, has backyard chickens and has devoted half my backyard to a vegetable garden since before I was old enough to pull the starter cord on the garden tiller, I honestly wanted to see a community garden, perhaps even help.

But a week later and still no reply from the City of Greensboro-- why?

Then a few minutes ago after making a joke with someone over at NC A&T about my making the City Staff paranoid it hit me: What if the only available site for a community garden on all of Phillips Avenue was in fact the very site I had suggested?

I started doing some online searches and came up with 4 NC A&T community garden projects. Problem is: None of them are in Greensboro.  As a matter of fact, the closest to Greensboro is an hour away in Durham. And the closest community garden in the state directory is Kernersville.

So did the illegal Greensboro Inn, Bessemer Shopping Center swap kill the Phillips Avenue Community Garden? I don't know but one would have thought the City would have replied by now if there really is a Phillips Avenue Community Garden? And if there isn't a Phillips Avenue Community Garden then we've just one more example of how Downtown and filling the pockets of Greensboro's elites take president in the minds of Greensboro's "leaders" over the needs of Greensboro's poor and working class. The very food from our children's mouths! Is there nothing they won't steal from us? Nothing?

 Update: It just doesn't add up. I got a reply today (below) after posting above but if the City already had all of those properties then why did they send out e-mails last winter asking the community where available properties might be located?

Here's a little info on Mr Gayland A Oliver you might find interesting.

The True Story Of Charles Cherry's Removal From The City Council Meeting Last Night

Mayor Robbie Perkins lied. Charles Cherry said nothing about Robbie Perkins' daughter. Charles Cherry said the mayor's daughter deserves a better father. Captain Cherry made no reference towards the Mayor's daughter.  Click on the City Council Meeting Video http://greensboro.granicus.com/MediaPlayer.php?view_id=15&clip_id=1729 then scroll down the index below to 7a. PUBLIC COMMENT PERIOD or go to 39:57.

Charles Cherry said, "Emma Lee Perkins deserves a better daddy."

Charles Cherry was not speaking about the Mayor's daughter, he was talking about the mayor. The Mayor lied and the media lied to cover for the Mayor.

Greensboro Motels Are Unsafe For Visitors, Rent Rooms Elsewhere

A Greensboro Police Department Press Release:

Robbery from Person

Greensboro, NC (18 June 2013)


On June 18, 2013 at 4:27 pm, Officers were dispatched to the Microtel located at 4304 Big Tree Way in regard to a robbery of individual.

Officers were advised that a tenant, later identified as Edwin Colon, was robbed at gun point.  The victim was approached by a subject who displayed a hand gun and demanded money.  The suspect then fled the scene in a red Toyota.  Mr. Colon followed the subject onto I40.  Mr. Colon was able to “flag down” a Guilford County Sherriff’s Deputy who followed the suspect to a parking area at Piedmont Triad Airport.  The suspect was apprehended at the airport parking lot without incident.

The suspect’s proper identification has not been confirmed although he is in custody. Official charges are pending at this time.

Western Patrol, CID, and CSI responded.

Anyone with any information is asked to call Crime stoppers at 336.373.1000.

Sent Authority: Lieutenant MG Terry, Watch Commander 

Looks Like I Was Right About The Greensboro Inn Swap For The Bessemer Shopping Center

It costs a lot of money to hire professionals to do the kinds of art work demanded by folks like Mayor Robbie Perkins, Walker Sanders and the Community Foundation Of Greater Greensboro. That's why I believe the links you're about to view is probably the real deal. To the top of the picture is labeled New Construction Mixed Use. That's where the Greensboro Inn stands today.

https://docs.google.com/file/d/1oh7_dYing22gWAyRFL-DsOvNO5YOrslcDaznJ3WcAPZ1d-WVDtxdPk3P-AS-/edit?usp=sharing

 https://docs.google.com/file/d/1ZcV6Y1-vSAh3rsZeNoSsVSxXk3RZJJKAF7Nrt130x71hY3uiA6BjSJ4kui5H/edit?usp=sharing

Now read my original post, Tit For Tat: The Greensboro Inn Comes Back  and tell me if you believe I am wrong in saying that Northeast Greensboro, the Renaissance Community Coop and the City of Greensboro as a whole has not been sold out in backroom dealings to benefit developers and key supporters of the Greensboro Performing Arts Center?

Nancy Baracat Vaughn: this is your water, drink!

The Business Journal Joins The Dark Side

From Amy Dominello Braun in Firm looks to build downtown Greensboro headquarters http://www.bizjournals.com/triad/blog/morning-edition/2013/06/firm-looks-to-build-downtown.html

Amy wrote: "Charles Aris is requesting $200,000 from the city in the form of repayable grants and loans to aid with the cost of construction,".
To which I replied:

"Love how you TWIST the words there kid. Charles Aris Inc aka: Allen M Oakley of Oakley Capital, LLC. is asking for a $100,000 GRANT plus a $100,000 FORGIVABLE LOAN: http://www.greensboro-nc.gov/modules/showdocument.aspx?documentid=20488
Are you auditioning for the News & Record? You can do better than Allen Johnson you know?

I guess you media types are still under the assumption you're the only ones with access to this sort of information. There's also an issue with Mr Oakley's campaign contributions to Zack Matheny you missed. Hey, Marikay Abuzuaiter Tony Wilkins Nancy Barakat Vaughan George Hartzman Ed Catalano Bob Grenier Dan Bayer Eric Robert, you're all going to want to see this nonsense.

You know, Amy, had you presented it for what it was... maybe. But when business writers see the need to twist the words and FORGIVABLE loans become REPAYABLE loans the public sees right through you and the plan. You're crossing the line from journalism to PR and the dark side will take your very soul."

It's just sad there is no longer a credible source of journalism in Greensboro.

Allen Johnson: Lies Of Omission

From Allen Johnson, East Greensboro is Ohio in 2013 on economic development in East Greensboro and the idea that my neighborhood should think bigger than  a strip shopping center and a grocery on Phillips Avenue.

"Such an idea has been broached but needs to be seriously pursued. The city is good for coming up with plans."

If our leaders were really interested in economic development, if they really cared: http://greensboroperformingarts.blogspot.com/search/label/If%20They%20Cared
50 ideas for real economic development that don't involve bulldozers and carry less risk.

To date: the ONLY plan presented by the city ( http://www.slideshare.net/EmsDC/strategic-plan-for-east-greensboro ) has been "strip shopping centers" (plural) and grocery stores. Apparently the city isn't as good at coming up with plans as Allen Johnson would like to make them out to be.

As a matter of fact: the plan proposed by the city and Mayor Robbie Perkins is a very bad plan for East Greensboro because it will bring ONLY minimum wage jobs and take the profits out of East Greensboro and out of the City of Greensboro as a whole.

You can bet it will make Robme Perkins and his developer buddies a mint. But let's not let the truth get in the way, shall we, Allen? After all, these are the same guys who traded the Greensboro Inn for the Bessemer Shopping Center and sold out East Greensboro as part of the deal: http://greensboroperformingarts.blogspot.com/2013/06/tit-for-tat-greensboro-inn-comes-back.html
with imaginary appraisals http://greensboroperformingarts.blogspot.com/2013/06/imaginary-bessemer-shopping-center.html of which you, Allen Johnson, are fully aware of because you, like myself, are included in George Hartzman's e-mail threads along with dozens of others including journalists, bloggers, city officials, city legal staff and the entirety of City Council.

Your lies of omission are being heard, Allen. Loud and clear.

And of course Allen leaves out the long term goals of the Renaissance Community Coop http://renaissancecoop.com/ that include expanding the model to include not only all of East Greensboro but the City as a whole. It's easy to see where the News & Record stands. But let's not let the truth get in the way of our pay checks, shall we Allen Johnson, childhood resident of the Phillips Avenue community who has now turned his back on his own people-- the people he left behind so he could rub shoulders with Greensboro's elite.

Imaginary Bessemer Shopping Center Apprasial

George Hartzman contends the sale of the Bessemer Shopping Center by the City of Greensboro was illegal because NC GS 160a-457(4) requires public hearings and no less than 3 appraisals from state licensed real estate appraisers.



As a response to PIRT #2547 (Public Information Request) the City of Greensboro sent Mr Hartzman a copy of the following linked. appraisal.

Notice the first line reads:

Then we have the e-mail conversation between Mr Hartzman and Greensboro City Attourny S. Mujeeb Shah-Khan in which Mr Kahn claims the Greensboro City Council never voted to sell the property. I kid you not.




Seriously? Did hundreds if not thousands of Greensboro citizens not watch the June 4, 2013 City Council Meeting in which the Council voted 5-4 to sell the shopping center to the Kahn investment group for $490,000 plus give the group a $2 Million dollar "forgivable" loan we all know the cons Kahns will never pay back.

And yet the deal makers forge ahead, determined to undermine all that is  right, oblivious to the truth, never answering our questions and explaining it all away just as I heard Goldie Wells say last night, "Those bloggers will write anything." As if that explains it all away.

Yes Goldie, as long as you and yours continue to keep secrets we will continue to write. Funny, a few straight answers and I'd have nothing to do but go back to writing poetry.

A Hidden Bid In The Bessemer Shopping Center Rennovation?

How come no mention was ever made public of J S Mention Corporation? Yes, their bid was higher but what were they offering? Did the public not have a right to know? Assistant City Manager Andy Scott knew.

Will Nancy Hoffmann Recuse Herself?

Nancy Hoffman is buying three buildings in located between two large nightclubs while at the same time the Greensboro City Council meets to address the Downtown noise ordinance. Can you say corruption?

Council is addressing this issue while most of Downtown's regular club users are away on vacation but we'll still be here to remind them of what happened come election day.

We now return you to Hell Day here at East Greensboro Performing Arts Center.

The Results Of Giving Our Assets Away

So what's so wrong with allowing developers and investors-- many of them from out of town-- to seize control of the shopping centers, grocery stores, convenience stores and community markets in our neighborhoods? I mean, they still provide all the same services the locals provided, right? Right?

Well it just so happens it comes at a huge cost. And for Greensboro that cost is the fact that the Greensboro-High Point Metropolitan Statistical Area ranks the 3rd worst in the nation in food hardship. That's right, more people are going hungry here than anywhere else in the nation with the exception of Bakersfield and New Orleans.

All Greensboro got washed away by was an inept and corrupt City Council. At least New Orleans has a hurricane, flood and one of the world's largest oil spills to blame their woes on.

And what about Mayor Perkins' efforts to provide economic development to East Greensboro by building more shopping centers to house more out of town retailers-- how is that any different than what we already have? The answer: they still take our money out of town, they just run a different direction with our assets.

Look folks, I happen to know a little bit about Carrots on Sticks. It's out of print now but I wrote the book.