A News and Record article today discusses business closures, purse snatching and excrement on sidewalks in downtown Greensboro.
Over a period of nearly 25 years, we have seen enormous investment of taxpayer dollars in downtown Greensboro to prop up the interests of the owners of downtown commercial real estate.
The question is whether this was a wise use of taxpayer money. The city’s political culture prohibits dealing decisively with the homeless problem downtown. In addition, downtown is directly adjacent to high crime areas.
George Hartzman describes an “economic and social mismatch” between all the aspirations for economic development and that which surrounds downtown. He points out that remote work since Covid has undermined the need for office space downtown.
Greensboro’s slow decline as a livable city is attributable to its increasing majority/minority demographics and its socialist political class combined with many previous residents fleeing to outlying areas. Perhaps it was a mistake to presume that the downtown experiment could have succeeded.
We have not gone to the area for an evening event (the Carolina Theater was a favorite) since the BLM riots and Covid shutdowns years back, and the only time we visited there in the day, we felt quite uneasy at creepy bums hanging around the Nattie Green restaurant. Did not have the treat of seeing poop on the sidewalk or having my wife’s purse grabbed. Heaven help the Grasshoppers — we used to love going to their games and have meant to return for some time. Maybe not, if things are getting that bad. Why do Democrats always have to destroy what they gain control of?
Thanks, W.E., for the comments. We have had the same types of experience you describe going downtown during recent years, and mostly do not go there except under very special circumstances. Fortunately, there are places to park around the ballpark that don’t attract as much of the type of mess you describe.
With regard to your question, I would respond that this obviously can be fixed, but the socialists in control don’t want to make the choice to do so because they don’t believe in proactive policing. They also don’t want to create the appearance of controlling where the homeless can loiter because they view it as a civil rights issue. So yes, they are content to destroy the jurisdictions they control, including but not limited to downtown Greensboro.