Well I just don't know what to make of it all. The stairs at St. James Homes are receiving more N&R press than any construction project since the new baseball stadium. Now I know the reason for it - Skip Alston being a lightening-conducting public official and all... but still, if feels like piling on.
I can certainly understand how Alston could develop a touch of animosity toward the N&R with all of the recent articles involving him. They are bird-dogging his management (or lack of) of St. James Homes with what seems like a vengence. Today, both Margaret Moffett-Banks and Lorraine Ahearn kept the story of Skip's steps in the news by filing separate reports. And there's a spectre of more to come.
Part of today's (unposted) Ahearn column was published to set the record straight. In previous reports on the most famous stairs in Greensboro, Alston claimed that tenant Jessica Poteat never talked to any news reporter about getting hurt on the collapsed stairs. He also callously claimed that the reason for the collapse was because Poteat was overweight (come to find out, she probably weighs less than the Commissioner). Today, via Ahearn, Poteat refuted both of Alston's claims.
Moffett-Banks tells us that the stairs at St. James are going to need more permanent repairs than Alston first claimed - but then, in an intriguing - and non-sequed - conclusion to the article, she perhaps hinted at more bird-dogging to come... this time having to do with Alston's management expenditures at St. James as compared to the property's maintenance expenditures...
"Documents filed with the Internal Revenue Service show that St. James Baptist Church has spent more than twice as much on administrative overhead than on maintenance..."
My guess is that there will be a follow-up N&R article soon. The subject will likely be a city-wide comparison of the expenditures of publicly supported property management companies such as the one Alston is involved with.
Do I smell Project Homestead in the distance? If so, no penalty will be called for piling on. If not, let's step off the yardage and move on.
******************
Sue has more on Skip's stairs and the Commissioner's "Believability Quotient"
8:19:21 AM 
|
