News-Record.com

Something’s not right with this picture: The city of Greensboro is about to annex the Cardinal and other areas — and take on the responsibility of providing services for them — yet it is planning to stop repaving streets for a year because it lacks the money.

Maybe the city should get its priorities in order. With engineers having determined that one-fifth of the city’s streets need to be paved immediately, repaving should be a priority.

The one-year moratorium idea came about as a way to avoid raising taxes. City Council member Robbie Perkins rightly calls the move penny-wise and pound-foolish.

Raleigh, where such a stunt was pulled a few years ago, still feels the effects of delayed maintenance. In a year, small road problems can grow to be bigger and more costly.

But delaying repaving now — when the costs of asphalt and other petroleum products are skyrocketing and aren’t likely to decline — is especially ill-advised.

The price for a ton of asphalt in Greensboro has doubled in the last five years, from $30 to about $60. And let’s not forget the fuel required to run the repaving vehicles.

Greensboro isn’t a rust-belt city like Youngstown, Ohio, that is so strapped for cash it has been forced to abandon parts of its city. Delayed maintenance isn’t their problem. There, they’re bulldozing houses and pulling up streets, as blocks become abandoned.

Still what Youngstown is doing is more principled than what’s been proposed for Greensboro.
It would even be worse if the idea behind the moratorium was that it would spur city voters to pass the transportation bond package that will be on the November ballot. It likely will contain about $15 million for maintenance over 10 years. There is no guarantee that package will pass — and even if it does, the annual $2 million of repaving still would have been delayed.
Some see Greensboro’s future as being in transportation. The way it looks now, it’s going to be a bumpy ride.