Tone deaf

GREENSBORO, NC -- Look, I don't consider local developer Roy Carroll a villain—good for him for being a successful entrepreneur, it's not easy—but he is not very adept at reading the social and political landscapes or his place among them when he chalks up the friction he encounters as simply the "1 percent thing."

Mr. Carroll is seemingly too self-absorbed and unaware to recognize the irony of saying, "I don’t expect to be treated any differently from anybody else," after he has received millions in tax breaks from the city of Greensboro to contribute to his business success. To be among the 1 percent and not recognize the special treatment he received is pretty amazing; and more than a little galling.

Mr. Carroll also seems unaware of the incongruity of his complaining about a 75 dB noise limit downtown being too high for him to live peacefully while building homes for people at the end of the airport runways where noise levels regularly exceed 85 dB (map below, Carroll's apartments starred). 

None of this is to say that Mr. Carroll doesn't deserve his success or a liveable home (as do we all, ahem), but Mr. Carroll is wrong to think that his frustrations are merely because he is unjustly scorned as a symbolic target for the vague dissatisfaction of the hoi poloi. Mr. Carroll is playing the role of entitled rich guy better than he realizes.