Where to start?  The N&R's editorial department chief, Allen Johnson's Sunday column is chock full of junping on points.  Rather than tackle the whole thing in one fell swoop, I think I'll just take my time and blog about it all day.  Look for updates as your Sunday progresses.

First off, though, I'm unsure if Johnson's reference to excusing grammar and spelling where aimed at my writing or his.  I admit that I play fast and loose with both for two reasons: I don't have an editor, and my blog software doesn't provide spellcheck.  However, the N&R has both.  Following Councilwoman Burroughs-White's reality based opinion of my snowball's chances of winning a seat in my (her) home district, Johnson still came up with this statement that I agree with, but is a bit flawed in its(edited) structure. 

"District 2 is majority black; Hoggard is white. But White may be selling her district and Hoggard short. And race should not be nearly as the quality of the representation. "

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Update 1:00p:  What's up with this rumor about Barber and Rakestraw?

I have suggested to Mary many times that she should actually run for mayor, mainly because I wouldn't relish the prospect of running against my friend for an at-large seat.  Her better bet is to run for Florence Gatton's soon-to-be-vacated seat though - that is if her goal is to win and not just run for fun.  Since Bob Skenes just about put political campaign guru Gatton out of commission in a first time run in 2003 - that district seems to be keen for change.

I'm glad Mike Barber is on the record as sitting this one out.  If Barber had decided to throw his hat in to the at-large race I would be pissed, not to mention the fact that I am counting on both him and Rakestraw to have major roles in my campaign should things work out.  Wouldn't you like to attend those campaign meetings?

"Aren't the incumbents close to unbeatable? "

Johnson opines, "maybe not", and he got it right.  If the incumbents think that the public has forgotten about Project Homestead and their possible roles in creating and facilitating the whole mess, I promise to refresh everyone's memory over and over and over and over and over again, regardless of if I decide to run or not  Questionable hockey deals will just be the icing to be spread on that politically vulnerable and culpable cake.

But, I have to agree with the comments below.   I truly hope that Greensboro will actually consider ideas, vision and transparency as vote deserving attributes of their elected leaders this time around.

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Update 9:30p:  First let me set the tone here.  I am quite gratified to have been included in Allen Johnson's discussion of who might, or might not, end up being a candidate for Greensboro's City Council.  I am a great fan of Johnson's opinions because he and I are of a similar mind on many issues. His inclusion of my prospects for getting elected is clear evidence of his crystal clear good judgement on such matters.  (Excuse me, but I just checked my nose and it is still free of any smelly brown substances)  Anyway...

'(Mayor) Keith Holliday needs to go'. So says the ever polite Florence Gatton and I agree.  It's just time.

Can Hoggard win?  Johnson thinks I can, and so do I.  But he's right about the outcome being largely dependent upon what the incumbents decide to do. "Don't run and expect to win if there is not an open seat." goes the common wisdom. 

But if I do, there's those "business leaders" to contend with who may have considered my opposition to abandoning War Memorial Stadium as being akin to a sacrilege in the church of downtown redevelopment.   Johnson says some of those "...business leaders don't care for him because he opposed the new downtown ballpark in 2003." I say to them, "If my forwarding of an alternative idea is your main objection to my serving on the City Council, you are too closed-minded and petty to be considered a true 'leader' in this community... get out of the way". 

Even more to the point about how we might regard some of Greensboro's "business leaders" can be found later in Johnson's column in the part about the screwed-up hockey team subsidy approved by our Council.  Johnson bemoans "... a group of businessmen who had pledged to help defray the losses has yet to ante up one penny." So much for the community minded benevolence of some of our "business leaders".

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OK, I screwed up.

I reposted this entry and wiped out all of the 14 comments that it had received so far.  I was able to retrieve them though and have made them available here: 14 comments to this post before 11:00p 1/16/05

After reading them please make additional comments in the normal manner below.

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Multi-millionaire Bill Agapion lives in Irving Park splendor but from what I've discerned, his house was built largely on the backs of Greensboro's poor.  His slums have been long been recognized by everyone who is paying attention as an oozing pox on Greensboro's housing stock and I almost puke whenever I hear his name mentioned - by all accounts he is just not a very nice man.

Agapion has been playing cat-and-mouse with the City's inpections department for decades and it seems he manages to slither out of every governmental effort to get some of his crap fixed up or closed down.  I guess I understand how he has avoided accountability for his cavalier attitudes and slum building in-action for all of these years... slime is very slippery.

But in today's N&R, columnist Lorraine Ahearn points out that Agapion's avoidance games, which he has been playing for-frigging-ever, might have hurt a child. 

Enough.

If Agapion is found to be responsible for that little girl's problems, I hope he is prosecuted with a vengeance.  If found guilty of anything that is deservant of any kind of a sentence, I further hope that he finds himself in front of a judge who also requires Pepto-Bismol when he hears Agapion's name mentioned.

If guilty of wrong-doing, as punishment, Bill Agapion should be forced to live in the squalor that he has been pimping to the poorest among us all these years.  Judges elsewhere (here and here ) have dealt with habitually slimey slumlords in just such a manner and I don't think Greensboro's most notorious slumlord deserves anything less.

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Update: Billy Jones has some additional information some personal experience with Agapion's brand of community building.

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Could someone, on the inside, or out, of the N&R, please provide a link to this morning's column by Allen Johnson?  It carries this headline: "City Council campaign might become unusually, gulp, compelling"? 

Update 10:17a:  Thanks Ed, why are Allen's links not more readily available though?  Update 12:03: Thanks Patrick, now I know where to look in the future.

Until then, the "many business leaders" who "don't care for him (that'd be me) because he opposed" that damn baseball stadium should just get over themselves.  If those "many business leaders" want only 'yes men/women' on the City Council, they will have plenty of choices in the upcoming election.

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