News-Record.com

The following is a Counterpoint column.

By Tom Phillips

Your recent editorial, "A need for leadership" (Dec. 31), misses the point. Yes, we do need "great clarity of vision" and we need to decide "What it is we want to do?" But we shouldn't blame the failure of some of the bond proposals on a lack of leadership.

Frankly, many of the bonds deserved to fail. I believe that our citizens are telling us that they want Greensboro to be a city that lives within its means. They want a government that will focus on needs rather than wants.

The War Memorial Auditorium bond was one that was specifically mentioned as failing because of a lack of commitment.

I personally supported the bond because the facility desperately needs renovation, but I also knew that this would be a hard sell. Most of our citizens view this as a special facility that they do not use.

Other cities that have similar facilities rely on full or partial funding from private sources. Greenville, S.C., Charlotte and the new Schermerhorn Symphony Center in Nashville are good examples.

I would point out that when the public voted to renovate the coliseum, the so-called "leadership" in the community was opposed to it after they had failed not once but twice to get it passed.
During the past 20 years, while we have supposedly "just sort of got the lights on each day," we have seen a lot of changes that have had an impact on what we can do.

Gone are the days of federal revenue sharing, and state funds have been cut while state and federally mandated programs have grown.
During the same time, we have lost several major corporations that not only provided jobs and tax base butalso provided support for community "wants."

While we need to decide what we want to be, we can't continue to try to be all things to all people. Bill Cosby said, "I don't know the key to success, but the key to failure is trying to please everybody." Sometimes leadership requires saying "no."

The writer is a member of the City Council.