RFP Staff
♦ Only in the “City of Make Believe” would Mark Lewis receive the Lifetime Achievement Award for singlehandedly decimating Salisbury and its flat-lined downtown. Glaring reasons exist why Lewis was voted off of Salisbury’s city council. Shall we count them?
• Mark Lewis was the main mover and shaker behind the push for the Fibrant debacle. He steadfastly promoted the costly municipal fiber optic fiasco in the face of repeated warnings by N.Y. investment analysts and the John Locke Society. They recognized this municipal “build it and they will come” network faced certain failure and would be crushed in a crowded field of private broadband providers. The result of Lewis’s inability to heed warnings led to the meltdown Salisbury’s ability to provide city services much beyond “8 block”. Salisbury, N.C. became the laughing stock of North Carolina with its “vibrant” Downtown and mounting violence. Yes the unthinkable happened. Lumberton passed Salisbury by and our working class began to exit the dying burg. Kudos to Mark!
• Mark engineered 7 banks being put on the hook to buy the Empire Hotel, a rotten, bat-infested, toxic flop house mercifully closed to the public since 1963 and in dire need of toxic abatement. Before this decrepit hotel topples onto Main Street, it should be bulldozed in the name of public safety. Hurry! Give Mark the award before it turns to lead.
• Mark boldly promoted the toxic gas lands at 329 S. Main for the Central Office even though it posed a vapor intrusion threat to future administrators who would be sardined into its postage stamp-sized office with no visible parking. Creator of the brilliant idea that the Central Office would magically attract investment to the Empire Hotel and the banks would be taken off the hook, Mark knew a gem in the rough. Alas 329 S. Main rests inertly on its plume of petroleum residue at South Main and Horah, waiting for the day it becomes a safely paved over parking lot. Thumbs up for Downtown Mark!
• Mark’s Downtown Salisbury Inc.’s great success is mirrored in Downtown Salisbury’s fabulous array of vacant buildings and empty sidewalks. We knew you could do it!
• Lest we forget! Because of the Downtown Salisbury Inc. entanglements with the Empire Hotel, the long-suffering downtown merchants are forced to pay the highest downtown taxes in the state of North Carolina. Oh those little municipal taxy waxies. Good Job.
Only in the fabulous “City of Make Believe” where if you believe it–you can achieve it!”
