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Doug,

as several fortune tellers have been predicting HP is going down. Dont think that I happy about it but city council the SB plus the N&R / Emoneywood selfish influence and backward policies are taking effect.

I feel sorry for us all!

That makes no sense whatsoever.

Believe it or not, school board policies have nothing to do with the furniture market.

Doug,
did you hear about the gang fights close to your neighborhood yesterday (Central HS)? WHat do you think?

Hey Doug, word on the street is that your days as a columnist at the N&R may be numbered in light of employment opportunities following the opening of the Heidi Fleiss Stud Farm- Nevada's first brothel catering to women of taste, as announced yesterday. Apparently Heidi is looking for "a few good men". Any comment?

ps I think you should ask Allen to go along too.

Doug:

Way back (five years ago) when I was the furniture reporter for the paper and then the city hall reporter, I had this same frustration. It is a frustration shared by anyone who has every covered the market in even a semi-serious way.

There has always been a solution: The IHFC, the big grand-daddy building that is still a heavy-weight, issues the most coveted and universally accepted pass to the market. To boot, the IHFC has been around so long it has decades of data.

And it won't share because it's a private business. MMPI, the Chicago outfit that owns the second-most showroom space, probably has comparible figures for the shorter times they've been around. Good luck getting them to share.

Were I still covering that beat, my question for Judy (who is a super-nice lady in a tough job) would be if you know that market attendance has dropped by 8-10 percent, really know, that must mean the Market Authority has some real data on hand. The Market Authority was created subject to the provisions of the open meetings and records laws of the state by the High Point City Council. If that data is on hand, it is a public record and should be shared with the public as such. If she's not able to provide it, then I would take the 8-10 percent figure to be second-hand information.

Doug,

I heard a rumour that you might be on parade tomorrow..

Is it true?

Are you a festive kind of guy or a little bit of a Scrooge?

Although this only relates to the HIGH POINT market tangentially, once again today's editorial, no matter which particular coward authored it, again urges the schoolboard to reject neighborhood schools and thus, by implication to keep the "Choice Plan". Again, not enough balls to suggest a Grimsley to Smith or Page to Dudley "choice plan" lottery or re-districted busing, but a clinging to the farce of raffling-off kids from only one out of thirteen highschools in the county, accomplished only by the fact that this school has no schoolboard representation, as the N&R's sacrifice at the alter of liberal progressive political correctness? If you believe in the load of B.S. get out there and advocate it for the whole county and do it!!!!Rather than hide behind this cowardly persecution of a small part of the county. Bloody cowards!!!!!

Doug,

A few weeks ago, you said that the names of the authors of editorials would be revealed if readers requested them; that they are not kept purposley covert. Well, we'd like to know now, by name, who has stated the company's editorial policy rejecting neighborhood schools. Do you and the other members of the editorial board have the courage to identify yourselves or will you all hide bneath your desks?

Doug,

If school board policies have nothing to do with the market, then how do you explain the results of the recent Workforce Preparedness report? It clearly stated that the schoHigh Point schools weren't producing acceptable workers for High Point businesses. Do you think that has any effect upon the market that they can't get enough qualified workers? As you may know, a business' fortunes often rise and fall on the shoulders of their employees. If the workers can't carry the day, the business will fail, so yes, an incompetent school board and their policies can and will affect the prepardness of employees available to employers in the area, and that can and does have an effect upon the business itself.

BLOODY

Your story and response to some of the blogments, specially the one on education, is most insular and balkanized.

The state of education within any jurisdiction
has to do with the state of everything within
that jurisdiction.

You were a stalwart defender of the City Hall
administration during the recent campaign...calling this the most important election in HP's history?

Well, your folks won for the most part. They were in charge before and after the election.
The City Council appoints members to the
Market Authority...your favorite mayor sits on
the Board?

Seems so easy for you to rail against Raleigh
and Jim Black and the Dems down there, but
you seem to suffer from a bit if nearsightedness
here closer to home when your political favorites
are cooking the numbers.

It seems the emporer journalist has no clothes,
well, credibility anyhow on this matter.

On the Market Authority leadership question.
Did the outgoing CEO jump or was she pushed?
Your benevolent analysis was a bit strained,
completely uninformed, or simply clueless.
Methinks you were covering something.

Some say the
incumbent mayor has wanted her gone for some time
and sacrificed her old friend during the election cycle by pushing for her 'resignation' during the
campaign to give impression of a shake-up
to thwart the Vegas threat...during a campaign.

The disingenuity of saying someone was 'open with the media' but won't give numbers? What's up with that? Not only do they defy the open records laws, but you support this group staying in power!!

Most folks believe the numbers are far worse
than you are willing to admit, disclose, or find. Maybe there is a parallel track here on the
Iraq quagmire.

For media types to lament the lack of openness
on the part of a public board and then praise that leadership? Sounds a bit disjointed to me.
You have the resources at your disposal. Why not
ask one of your buddy judges you helped get elected to force them to open the books?

To satisfy the anonymous blogger questioning whether our edit board has the courage to reveal specific authors of editorials: yes, we have no problem with that, as long as you understand that editorials are indeed the product of a collective point of view. That said, I wrote the edit on neighborhood schools published this morning. It made no mention of the High Point choice plan but stated a general principle that we hope the school board would apply countywide. We are not in favor of defacto racial and economic segregation for the reasons stated in the edit.

The schools really don't have anything to do with the furniture market. It doesn't require a highly educated local workforce to put on the market, i.e. to run hotels and restaurants, set up showrooms, move furniture from trucks into showrooms, drive buses and so on. Las Vegas is not an attractive convention location because it has a highly educated workforce.

I have no reason to believe Judy Mendenhall was pushed out of the market position. It's a tough job, she did it for four years, she's been thinking about retiring for at least a year -- she mentioned that to me about a year ago -- and she has other things she wants to do. Anyone who thinks otherwise should identify himself and spell out whatever information he has. I don't expect that will happen here.

The remarks by "fairandbalanced" are nothing of the sort. Becky Smothers in no way during her campaign pushed for Mendenhall's ouster, and such a move would have made no difference in the election anyway. This theory sounds like something dreamed up by a losing candidate.

By the way, what is "this group staying in power" that I support? The market authority board? High Point City Council doesn't appoint its members. Representatives of the major showroom buildings are guaranteed seats. They can't be voted out of office. They are the people for whom the market authority president works.

By the way, according to Mrs. Mendenhall, the board's attorney holds the opinion that the market authority is NOT subject to the provisions of the state's open meetings and open records laws. That issue probably does need to be clarified in court. I think it should considered a public agency or at least quasi-public on account of its public funding, although it is not a branch of High Point city government and the market itself is unquestionably a private business event.

Doug,

I appreciate your willingness to admit that you wrote today's editorial, but I seriously question your rationale in its content. Busing of kids to achieve integration didn't work 30 years ago, and it still won't work. It's not what parents of any race want for their kids. But, now that you have come out for it, I expect that you'll call for it to be countywide. If not, then your defense of the choice plan lottery brings to question your fairness on this matter.

Stormy, I hate to have to repeat myself: We stated a general principle that we hope the school board will apply countywide.

The HP choice plan is not a "principle." The principle is that it's better to have racial and economic balance at schools than to have racial and economic isolation, We believe the school board should not adopt a blanket neighborhood schools plan but should look for opportunities to improve racial and economic balance as much as possible and practical.

Doug, if you want the "choice plan to be county-wide you should have said that in the editorial. BUT YOU DIDN'T!!! You're being coy when you came out against neighborhood schools in the editorial knowing full well the only counterpoint to neighborhood schools in existence at the present time is the HPCP!!!! I challenge you right now, come out with a followup editorial that demands county-wide choice plans. Come out and say Grimsley to Smith and Page to Dudley. Grow some rocks!!!!!

You know darn well the "choice plan" was done with the full aquiescence of many powerful people in High Point, many of them involved in the furnmiture industry and city government. The whole thing was made possible by a political legacy that dictated government for Emerywood by Emerywood. It was born of arrogance and sense of entitlement and willingsnes to treat other citizens as nothing more than vassals to provide white flesh for the old alma mater. It assigned different relative intrinsic values to students of different races and socio-economic status. It involved back room political deals between the NAACP and one of the schoolboard members running for re-election as detailed at the Penn Griffin hearing by a member of the NAACP. It's a disgusting, shameful chapter of the town's history and it has to end.

Doug,

OK, if your purpose is to encourage the school board to apply the principle that you stated, that's fair. But, what is not fair is to "look for opportunities" to apply the principle in a selective and predujicial manner. If this principle is valid then the only answer is to apply it throughout the county on an equal manner. No school should be left untouched. This is the primary problem with the choice plan that now exists. It is applied selectively and predujudically to one school, and one school only.

If you really have the courage of your convictions and believe in the principle, then you should call upon the school board to apply it evenly and fairly throughout the district. Let no one have a neighborhood school, if a few can not. As John Gehris said, let's start with Dudley and Northwest, followed closely by the other schools.

Also, the schol board should allow the public to see the maps that Anita Sharpe requested. why are they being held secret? We can handle the truth, but can they? What are they afraid of that the maps will show?

Doug - whoever the attorney is that said that is wrong. Part of the bargain that was struck for this non-profit agency to receive large gobs of public money was that they would conduct themselves subject to open meetings/records rules. The language creating the market authority passed by the city council was identical in many respects to the ordinance that created Loren Hill's economic development group...except the Market Authority doesn't have all the economic development exceptions to hide their records behind.

What goes around eventually comes around. The City of HP did not treat its children fairly. Then came Fantasia with the TRUTH. Then the "task force" when they were backed against the wall to tell them what they already knew before Fantasia. All things have a cause and effect. You don't hear of any bad publicity coming out of Las Vegas about their schools or their city being the "City of the Dead".

The market will continue to go down, down, down long after the effects of Katrina have past. I think a psychiatrist would say they are in DENIAL.

As Stormy said if the City has nothing to do with the schools, why all of a sudden are they having a "task force"? If everyone keeps leaving the area because of the schools, who will be left to work the market? People moving to an area do their homework. You will not attract new business if they feel the schools are unsafe and failing to educate our children.

Thanks, Mark. That makes sense. I hope it won't be necessary to go to court to enforce that.

Annelle, I have to say I get a little weary hearing from people who seem to think the Las Vegas market threat sprang up for the purpose of punishing High Point for the school board's actions. Why would we hear any publicity, good or bad, about Las Vegas schools? Yes, High Point's downtown is pretty dead most of the time -- just like the World Market Center complex in Vegas is dead when there isn't a market going on. Forturnately for Vegas, it does have a few other activities over on the Strip. You know what? New York, Chicago, Paris and London also are bustling. Making comparisons between those cities and High Point wouldn't exactly be fair, either. The school issues simply have no impact on the furniture market in High Point. I'm not impressed by the line that the schools are driving everyone out of High Point, particularly when some of the same people also complain about too much growth in north High Point.

Doug,
You are a big erection. NO JOKE. I saw it with my own eyes. Take a ride on the SW School Road, if you dare go over to that part of town. Careful though, it gets a little squirrely.

Doug, sign zee confession papers!!!

Thanks for those last two comments. They really raise the level of discussion here.

Doug,

I personnally believe that this market has lost out to Las Vegas and the venue that it provides for most people. Easy parking, unlimited hotel space for rooms priced reasonably, and the entertainment possibilities, need I say more.

For example, Holiday Inn Express for two people was quoting 170+ a night several years ago when I inquired about accomodations for some visitors. I read somewhere an attendee to this most recent Vegas show was paying 85 per night within walking distance of the market and didn't need to rent a car.

In all fairness, most cities would have a difficult time competing with Las Vegas and High Point is no different. The entertainment aspect of Las Vegas is awesome and the only entertainment phenom HP had, packed up and moved to Charlotte and then wrote a book about the dysfunctionality of High Point.

Doug,

if you look at the current assigning zones for HS schools ( the maps decided in 99 ) you can see the attempt to do what you want. FOr instance the Ragsdale zone goes right down into High Point. For Central it goes right up into some middle class neighborhoods quite close to SW.
Nobody was shouting and screaming about that. The point was that if you bought your house there then you knew where you children would go to school.

It was a shame that this was not enough for Dotty and Susie. They wanted even more of the SW area in their favourite school.

If the High Point alumni didn't feel the need to attract people and business to downtown High Point and "their" school why did they have to import children from the burbs? It seems to many like they want to be the little "Grimsley" of High Point.

People have complained about UNPLANNED, IRRESPONSIBLE GROWTH in North High Point. Where is Mayor Becky's Master Growth Plan for the City like other cities have? Where are the impact fees to builders who contribute to the ever growing traffic and the overcrowded schools? People in North High Point are becoming aware of what their tax money is used for.

If you think people aren't leaving, talk to Deb M on the CB and others and see how many families have moved to Northwest schools. Ask some of the locals across from SW schools how long the houses now stay on the market. This was not the case before the forced lottery.

Fantasia spoke the truth. It is truly an embarrassment to the city of HP. It just so happened to come out around market time. You think that was just a coincidence?

Annelle-

Regarding your question about impact fees, the reason why there are none is because the realtors/builders/developers lobby is alive and well in this area. Sadly our elected "representatives" are looking out for thier interests rather than ours.

But speaking of the realtors lobby, I'm wondering why they did not come out against this plan. Homes in HP cannot be moving very quickly because of this IT plan. Who wants to buy a house in an area where you have no idea of where your kids are going to school?

Sorry I'm off topic, Doug, but I just wanted to put my two cents in.