Race project update
Back in September, we reported about a "community relations project" being launched by Mayor Keith Holliday. Holliday gave an update to council members in the form of a memo (posted here) that sums up the progress of pairing folks for the seminars and updates the financing.
Holliday said that after council member Tom Phillips raised questions about the city contributing $30,000 for the project, he decided to ask private donors to bear the entire cost of hiring the Rochester, N.Y. consultant to facilitate the program. So far, Holliday said $194,000 of the $319,000 cost had been raised.
But he defended the usefulness of the program, dubbed the "Greensboro Bicentennial Mosaic Partnership Project."
"There were some initial concerns by a few people regarding duplications of efforts but when the concept and details were more fully explained, I believe most people concerned realized the value of reaching individuals within our community that probably would not be exposed to race relationship building as a matter of course in their daily lives."
Project co-director Pat Boswell said a committee has almost finished inviting the 180 folks to be a part of the program, and the first orientation meeting will be Nov. 18.
Inside Scoop will post a listing of the participants as soon as it is finalized.
Full disclosure: My boss, Editor John Robinson, has been invited (he blogs about it here), and his boss, Publisher Robin Saul, is on the project's advisory committee. Neither have any involvement in our writing about the program.
Comments (2)
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All we need is another project like this. I am so glad that the mayor feels that we need to be "educated" again.
In the meantime, the middle class keeps getting socked with tax and fee increases, and the city is preparing to close an award-winning landfill and replace it with a literal money pit in West Greensboro. I guess part of this new project will be helping to "educate" people on why putting a transfer station in West Greensboro is best for the community.
Thank goodness somebody on the council recognized this project for the waste of tax money it would have been and spoke up. Hopefully when tax money for the program is inevitably asked for down the road, he will show the same wherewithal.
Posted on November 6, 2004 10:38 AM
Maybe I should walk across the street and propose to Pat we need my wife Machiko on this list? As a token libertarian she could protect the taxpayers in this program.
I'd nominate myself as well if that would fly.
Posted on November 6, 2004 12:38 PM