I have been a downtown advocate for some time nowan independent, fully invested downtown advocate.

I agree that Downtown Greensboro is good but I firmly believe it could be better if properly stewarded as Downtown Greensboro and not as a Greenville wannabe. Downtown Greensboro is neither a mall nor a suburban condo it is an urban center which belongs to all of Greensboros citizens, and, as such, must be representative of the overall Greensboro population, ethnically, socially and aspirationally. To evolve, Downtown Greensboro must value the cultural contributions as much as the financial ones Downtown must embrace urban diversity and accept that it takes all kindsYoung and old, rich and poor, black, brown and whiteDowntown must be vibrant, inviting and exciting for all it must embrace the notion of public citizenship rooted in safety with respectful, responsible and accountable neighbors and patrons. As a downtown property owner, I am a reluctant contributor to dgi, aka downtown Greensboro Inc aka, downtown Greensboro foundation aka downtown improvement corporation: a 501c3, a 501c4 and a501c6 I thought I was forced to support one irrelevant organization and as it turns out I am forced to support threeI would willingly and happily support one competent one. My narrative is about a small town acting smaller, a small town where a few influential wealthy individuals seem to have full access to our coffers and complete influence over our local government. We are indeed a small town where foundations, government and non profits all intersect uncomfortably almost indecently. Ed Wolverton op-ed piece on Sunday would have been better placed in the comic or fiction section and reflects the dangerous and irresponsible behavior often demonstrated by DGI where numbers are misreported only to mask the organizations incompetence and mediocre civic contribution. I am still a little puzzled by the reported $60,000,000 new investment in downtown for 2011 and the astonishing 10.8 million downtown visitors for 2012. I certainly aspire to such success for our center city but I am certain that DGI, as is, is not the entity to get us there. DGI has repeatedly failed to fulfill its contractual obligations it not only failed to represent some of us in dispute arising between downtown entities, in some case it created the conflicts on behalf of a few. All while pocketing $284,000 in additional management fees including a $27,000 management fee out of Private Center city Park Pass through funds. DGI currently manages three separate contracts in addition to the Bid fund, DGI is awarded the various programs management by defaultwith no competition, no term limits, no oversight, no accountability and no consequences Somehow, the terms visionary approach and working collaboratively seem highly inappropriate when

describing DGI civic contribution. We can do better!

Eric Robert