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David Hoggard keeps telling me I'll never hear back from bloggers if I ask for their input. So far, he's been right. Twice I've asked for responses on this blog, and twice I've heard nothing but the chirping of crickets.

But because I live in a world ruled by Margaret-logic, I'm going to give this one more try. Then I promise - no more begging.

We've been struggling to find people who oppose any of the 11 bond items that will be on the November ballot. No one spoke against these issues at last night's public hearing. On Sunday, we'll begin an 11-week series on the bond items and would love to have some of those voices (if they exist) in our stories.

So if you're opposed to one of the bond items - or you know someone who is - then I'm your gal.

And David, if you're still reading ... my apologies.

As a service to you, dear reader, I present ....

The cost of each bond item (for the owner of a $200,000 house):
• $36 million War Memorial Auditorium Bonds: $18.72
• $24.5 million Fire Station Bonds: $12.74
• $10 million Economic Development Bonds: $5.20
• $9 million Swimming Center Bonds: $4.68
• $8.6 million Library Facilities Bonds: $4.47
• $5.5 million War Memorial Baseball Stadium Bonds: $2.86
• $5.3 million Greensboro Historical Museum Bonds: $2.76
• $5.2 million Public Building Renovation Bonds: $2.70
• $5 million Parks and Recreational Facilities Bonds: $2.60
• $5 million International Civil Rights Museum Bonds: $2.60
• $850,000 Neighborhood Redevelopment Bonds: 44 cents

Total cost: $59.77

Some of you might remember the Rev. Belvin Jessup, who was a member of Greensboro City Council from 2001 to 2003. He beat longtime Councilman Earl Jones, then was defeated two years later by Dianne Bellamy-Small.

Anyway, if someone ever puts together a baseball team made up of former city leaders, this guy can be the ringer.

I watched Jessup play Saturday, during a reunion of members from the Woodyside community (between Guilford College and I-40). At 73, he hit a pop-up, tried to steal third base and got caught in a run-down. All in 88-degree heat - without breaking much of a sweat. He didn't even mess up his "Grand Marshal" sash, which he was still wearing from the parade a few hours earlier.

About that Woodyside community gathering: We'll have a story and some nice pictures by photographer Jerry Wolford in the paper tomorrow.

We here at Inside Scoop are all about solutions. And I think I have one:

On Sunday morning, I was riding by the Greensboro Historical Museum, thinking about the proposed $5.3 million bond referendum to renovate and beef up the exhibits, wondering how they would use the money if it passes.

Then it hit me: Why can't we just put News & Record reporter Jim Schlosser behind glass? Visitors could ask him questions about Greensboro history, and he would provide them with fascinating answers. And he wouldn't charge $5.3 million. I happen to know the man thinks 12 bucks is a mind-blowing amount of money.

Just a thought.

Interim Guilford County Manager David McNeill says he'll decide "in the next few days" whether or not to apply for the permanent job.

McNeill would be considered a leading candidate to run Guilford's $525 million government, especially since some Republican commissioners want to stop the nationwide search for a new manager and simply give McNeill the post if he wants it.

Other commissioners aren't as warm toward their top executive. A couple weeks ago, Democrat Melvin "Skip" Alston promised to be tough on McNeill if he was made manager.

Alston and fellow Democrat Bruce Davis were the only two commissioners to vote against McNeill's appointment to the interim post after the board fired Willie Best June 29.

"Whoever gets the job will be working for the entire board," McNeill said of Alston's comments. "I don’t dwell on things like that."

Update, 9:20 a.m. Thursday: Commissioners' chairwoman Carolyn Coleman has extended the cutoff date for applications from Aug. 18 to Sept. 1, so McNeill has some more time. When asked Wednesday if he would make up his mind this week, he said, "I doubt it, now."

Also, as of Thursday morning, the county had received 17 applications for the position, according to human resources director Sharisse Fuller. The county started advertising for the position around July 25.

The last time the county looked for a new manager, in 2003, 73 people applied, Fuller said.

"It may not get to that point, but I certainly think it could get close," Coleman said of the number of applications. "Again, it's vacation season and some people just didn't know about it."

Guilford County commissioner Melvin "Skip" Alston says he received something strange in the mail recently.

It was an envelope addressed to county school board member Amos Quick that had been labeled "return to sender" by the post office (the address for Quick was incorrect). In the space for the return address were Alston's name and home address.

When he opened the envelope, he found some really odd stuff, especially if you know anything about Alston, an active member of the NAACP who says racism played a big part in the firing of Guilford's first black county manager on June 29.

Inside were copies of these two letters to the editor criticizing recent statements by black leaders. Also inside was an unsigned missive (using some language not fit for this family blog), that basically accuses blacks of hypocrisy on racial matters.

It ends with a question: "Why is it that only whites can be racists?"

City Councilwoman Sandy Carmany offers some more details about the $10 million economic development bond that will appear on the November ballot.

Our article on this bond - part of a series I like to call Meet Your Bond - is scheduled to run in late September.

While you're over at Sandy's, check out pics of the new grandbaby.

After meeting with consultants and business leaders today, Guilford County commissioners appear ready to lift their moratorium on economic incentives. We'll have a story in tomorrow's paper.

Incentives are always a hot-button issue, so we'll ask you. Should the county lift the moratorium? Or should commissioners keep it in place as they review their guidelines for doling out taxpayer money to companies?

May is a busy month at the Greensboro Coliseum, what with local colleges and universities hosting commencement exercises there.

The ceremonies, in addition to being fun for the whole family, also are profitable. It also shows the subtle impact that higher education has on our city:

A&T: $13,964
UNCG: $8,663
UNCG School of Business and Economics: $3,789
GTCC: $8,130
Bennett College: $3,505
Total: $38,051

Speaking of the coliseum and its finances, we requested today a copy of the year-end numbers, which we hope to report to you ASAP.

My first attempt at live blogging from a Greensboro City Council meeting ...

The disabled people who ride the SCAT buses continue to complain to council members over losing their $35 unlimited monthly ride pass (about $1.03 per ride). The pass now costs $72 for 60 rides, which doesn't all have to be used up during the course of a month ($1.20 per ride.) The service costs the city $25-30 per ride.

Several people told council members that the price hike has priced them out of using the service.

And they promised to come back to future council meetings until they get their $35 unlimited monthly pass back.

"We're not going to go away," said Debra K. Harris, a SCAT rider who is visually impaired. "So somebody might as well do some research, do some digging, to come with another alternative than the $72 pass."

Scoop doesn't usually chronicle the weekend activities of our local politicos, but it's worth noting that four county commissioners hung out in the North Carolina mountains Saturday.

Don't have too many details, but the roster was Democrats Carolyn Coleman and Kirk Perkins and Republicans Linda Shaw and Steve Arnold, along with some family members. Arnold helped host the get-together at a northwestern N.C. home that Coleman described as "palatial" during Tuesday's agenda-setting meeting.

Coleman said the commissioners didn't talk much about politics, though she added that Arnold brought up reducing the board's size from 11 to 7 (there were fewer commissioners when he joined the board in 1990.)

And then there was this note from Arnold: "I even got Linda Shaw on a four-wheeler."

Shaw said the gathering gave commissioners the opportunity to relax and get to know each other a little better outside the rough-and-tumble world of county government.

Among the commissioners not at the gathering was Melvin "Skip" Alston, the liberal Democrat who is often at odds with the conservative Arnold. If Arnold hosts another mountain get-together, don't expect Alston to show up.

"I would have at least liked to get the invitation," Alston said, "so I could turn it down."

(A note: A gathering of six of the 11 commissioners constitutes a quorum under the open meetings law.)

Local political junkies may be interested in this post over at Capital Beat, concerning IMPAC.

We're reporting today that preliminary figures show the Greensboro Coliseum Complex had a better than expected year in 2005-06, losing $500,000 less than budgeted.

The coliseum lost about $1.3 million last year, compared to the $1.8 million it expected to lose.

Coliseum Director Matt Brown credits part of the success on the contract with Centerplate, the private company that handles concessions. He also points out the coliseum hosted many high-profile events, including the men's and women's ACC basketball tournaments, NCAA first- and second-round games and the Southern Baptist Convention.

Sandy Carmany posted a entry last night about the coliseum numbers. This is an e-mail she and other members of the War Memorial Commission received yesterday from the coliseum staff:

"The City Manager has approved a request from the N&R to release our final year end numbers for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2006. They are great so we are not hesitant to give them out either. Our final year end deficit as of now and pending a final audit by the City is $1,334,689 or $533,249 or 29% lower than budgeted. Obviously a great year for our City with the economic impact we generated from the three Tournaments and the three large conventions among the 800+ events, but to have a positive impact on our bottom line was equally rewarding for our staff ..."

Now about that part I put in bold: Wow. That's a splash of cold water in the face. Here I was thinking that Matt Brown and the coliseum staff gave me those numbers without much hesitation because 1) the law requires it; 2) they deeply, deeply respect the work I do here; 3) they believe the public has a right to know the goings-on in city government.

What a shocking development. Am I to assume that he would have been hesitant to give me those numbers had they not looked so favorable? I am a simple country girl from Wilkes County, but surely that's not the way government works.

Our story is here.

I've been tracking down campaign Web sites for the Guilford County races I'll be covering this fall.

If you're not sure which district you live in, here's a map. I've noted incumbents and each candidate's party affiliation.

County commissioner

District 3
Ray Riffe (D) – rayriffeforcommissioner.org
Linda Shaw (R - I) – Has no plans to create a site. "I’m afraid if I start it that I won’t be able to keep it up," she said. "Everybody knows they can call me."

District 6
Kay Cashion (D - I) – kaycashion.com
Lonnie Albright (R) – No Web site, and doesn't plan to build one. He has a personal/professional site up at lonniealbright.com.

District 9
Carolyn Coleman (D - I) – Might create a Web site but hasn't decided yet. Of her opponent's site, she said, "If I can’t do any better, I don’t want one."
Vernon Ward (R) – vernonward.com

Sheriff

BJ Barnes (R - I) – bjbarnes.com
Berkley Blanks (D) - blanksforsheriff.com

(Commissioners Steve Arnold and Bruce Davis also face re-election this fall, but both are running unopposed.)

Back in the day (you know, two or three years ago) when I was still running about Greensboro on more regular basis than I do now, I heard a lot about Richard Florida and his idea that if you foster the creative class your community will thrive, etc... As I recall, the man himself spoke here a few times and some of Action Greensboro’s work at the time was organized around some of his ideas.

So when I got my copy of South Now in the mail this morning, I was struck by a story that contained this passage:

While a more detailed description of our findings for the U.S. South will be presented in a future issue of SouthNow, preliminary results do suggest a strong, positive relationship between economic growth and the more traditional measures of human capital, innovation and industrial diversification. (Ed note: emphasis mine. The author is talking about Florida’s theory in this next graph.) In contrast, creative population indicators demonstrate little or no additional growth effects. In fact, in the case of one measure, the melting-pot index, per capita income levels decline as the share of foreign-born in U.S. cities rises.

Here’s a link direct to the PDF file. (Go to page 10 once it’s open.)

Basically, the argument from this article seems to be that the things Florida argues are most important are things that come along after more basic bits of the economy are nailed down.

I believe our crack business team is delving into this further.