Fragile

From today’s N&R editorial:

Most noticeably, several high-profile projects have slowed to a standstill because of the tight credit market, says Downtown Greensboro Inc. President and CEO Ed Wolverton…

Meanwhile, retail shops have had a hard time gaining a foothold downtown and now face both a recession and competition for the consumers’ attention from suburban shopping centers and malls.

Even downtown’s strongest suit — its restaurants and nightclubs — are seeing traffic wane as a cautious public chooses to spend less on dining and entertainment.

“Downtown has come so far since when I moved here,” says Richard Whittington, managing director of Triad Stage, the seven-year-old regional professional theater on South Elm Street.

“But the problem is, it is so fragile.”

You got that right, pal. The sun don’t shine on the same dog every day.
So you’re inconvenienced by a credit deflation free fall. And some say commercial property is the next shoe to drop.

Meanwhile, we’ve got GSO’s homeless advocate, blogger and superhero succumbing to the poison of professional-speak with her Hopes for 2009:

“I’d like us to get a better sense of what community really is. It’s not just the people who look like us and think like us and live like us.

“Community is about the collective, about including and appreciating the other, and not trying to change or dilute that. And community doesn’t just happen by default. Community is built and nurtured — intentionally.

“Community is beautiful and necessary and messy and real, and the need and longing for it is built into the very core of each of us. My hope for this community in which we live is that we would create and be and live authentic community in 2009 — and beyond.”

Michele Forrest

You’re right: We’ve been a dead artificial diaspora for far too long. I know you spend most of your time trying to keep folks from literally going down the drain, but let’s work on really having something to say. Otherwise, just quote something from the Bible.

Don’t miss Deep Root’s Joel Landau’s weak fart.

I know about the whats. What interests me are the hows.

The greenest Limey hotel in GSO got mobbed by erecyclers, yesterday:

On Tuesday, they wound up in piles, ready to be dismantled, during a special holiday electronic waste recycling event at the Proximity Hotel.

The sheer volume of goods surprised recycling officials, who had to adjust the setup of the site on the fly after waiting cars began lining up on Green Valley Road…

The city and county jointly run an electronic waste drop-off site on Patterson Street, but many who came Tuesday weren’t aware of it, Heim said…

Their ultimate fate? Trucked to Madison and dismantled.

So, instead of sending our estuff to China where workers grow sick and die living in toxic waste, we’re doing it to Eastern Alamance Southern Rockingham County.

Viacom’s pulling the plug on Time Warner at midnight:

The battle brewing over carriage fees paid to television networks by cable providers picked up steam Wednesday with Viacom Inc. (VIA) saying its popular networks such as Comedy Central, MTV and Nickelodeon will go dark on Time Warner Cable Inc. (TWC) after midnight unless the two sides reach an agreement.

Under pressure to boost its revenue amid an advertising slump and threats to its business model posed by the rise of the Internet, Viacom is seeking fee increases of between 22% and 36% per channel from Time Warner Cable, which is the fourth-largest video distributor in the U.S. after Comcast Corp. (CMCSA), DirecTV Group Inc. (DTV) and DISH Network Corp. (DISH).

It’s simple. Time Warner, save for the pretty darn good Channel 14, is not a content provider. It’s not Viacom’s fault Time Warner is already bending its customers over:

“As advertising dollars continue to shift to the Web and DVR viewing increases, both broadcasters and cable network owners need the contractual flow of affiliate fee revenues to be an increasing contributor to the business model, ” said Sanford C. Bernstein analyst Michael Nathanson. “Viacom’s cable networks are materially underpriced relative to their peers, which we believe represents an opportunity for Viacom in the future.”…

“[Viacom is] asking for huge increases, and we don’t know how we are supposed to sell this to our customers in this economy,” said Alex Dudley, a spokesman for Time Warner Cable. “Their content is no more valuable on the first of January than it is today, especially because they are putting most of their top- rated content on the Web for free.”

Word: We don’t even have to know about it. Pay the man and stop whining. Pass on the cost and well cancel your service.

Nathanson estimates that Time Warner Cable is paying Viacom about $300 million in annual license fees, which equals roughly 2% of Viacom’s total revenue. The license fee represents 2.8% of video revenue for Time Warner Cable, or 1.7% of total revenue.

I’m not the one who decided to shoot the moon trying to drive out the telcos. Keep it up and we’ll bust your ass as a monopoly just like AT&T.