Mayoral Forum 2007

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Hey Doug,
I was a bit disappointed in some of the answers during the LWVPT Mayoral Forum Tuesday.

Yvonne Johnson said that one of the reason we need economic incentives is to prepare sites for immediate occupancy by industries.
Greensboro has had several opportunities to use abandoned industrial sites within the city limits for new companies. They chose to rezone them for retail. One of the selling points made by the people who pushed the economic bond issue was that retail did not bring in the real estate taxes as well as industry.

Milton Kern talked about all the help given women business owners in the downtown central business district. I would like to know who those women are. Many of the small daytime businesses opened downtown in the past several years are gone. The primary push in the downtown has been for bars and restaurants that operate primarily at night and for residential units, some of which were build by a former City Council member and by Mr. Kern, himself.

Yvonne Johnson's answer to the question about a noise ordinance was questionable. She is in favor of having a citizen committee to investigate complains about excessive noise and report it. Citizens in District 5 have complained about noise and rowdy behavior at some venues along High Point Road for years, to no avail. People in District 1 and 2 have complained about the same places over and over; one on Lee Street and some on Phillips Ave. and others in Glenwood. What has been done? Who would Ms. Johnson assign to this committee. Would the committee include people in the neighborhood watches and neighborhood associations who are aware of the problems? And do we have the manpower to enforce the law?

And there are others. I just hit the high spots.

Watch Video at Channel 14

I would like to see some practical questions asked AND ANSWERED ! ! !