My friend, election committee member and left-of-center advisor Roch Smith Jr.receives some well deserved praise and credit from Ed Cone for advancing his ideas on cleaning up the South Elm/Lee St. brownfield site over a year ago.  Thankfully Roch does not even recognize that there was ever a box that he was supposed to think within.

Roch designed my website and sends me several emails a day outlining new ideas for everything related to making Greensboro a better place to live and how I can run a more effective campaign..  His knowledge, energy and input have been, and will continue to be, invaluable.

10:38:23 AM     comments to the above post so far, join in.   Trackbacks

A realtor friend of mine called last night to relate something that happened to her.  She has a new client that is relocating to Greensboro.  The couple is into historic districts.

They browsed the MLS book then went to see two Fisher Park properties they were interested in.   Noticing all of the stadium yard signs, they asked what all the hubbub was about.  In the interest of disclosure, the realtor explained about the upcoming referendum and the current plans for the Bellemeade area.

They decided to look in another neighborhood.

10:17:14 AM     comments to the above post so far, join in.   Trackbacks

The City Attorney and interviewed City Council members agree: Claiming governmental immunity from all liability is wrong.

Even though the City is appealing the $1.5M verdict in the recent damages lawsuit as reported this morning in the News & Record there seems to be concensus that the policy must be changed. 

From the article:  "...Tom Phillips and Florence Gatten said Tuesday the case underscores the need to enact a tort reform law for cities and towns that would allow Greensboro to do away with governmental immunity.  And from City Attorney Linda Miles:  "We've been talking to the League of Municipalities about this for three years now, hoping to get that because it would be a compromise that would do away with the concept of governmental immunity"

I know Officer Tom Branson very well, he has been the Resource Officer at Aycock Middle for many years and is certainly one of Greensboro's finest.  I cannot imagine him being "grossly negligent" in anything he does, but the jury saw it diffently in this case.

Also, I have friends on Park Avenue whose parked cars were totaled when an off duty police officer ran a stop sign in her city owned cruiser and slammed into them.  The City paid them nothing and their insurance only covered a small amount of the damage.  They paid thousands out-of-pocket for an accident that was clearly no their fault.

Governmental immunity is bad law.  Limiting the amount of damages to some reasonable amount will protect the City's interests but still provide for just compensation in future occurances like this.

8:50:46 AM     comments to the above post so far, join in.   Trackbacks