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@gold15 is living up to his username and posting nothing but pure Gold in here … Wowza.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Aspe4
Greensboro seems to still be a blue-collar town and I think that's probably what has caused the stagnant growth. People will move halfway across the country for a tech job at Google or Apple, or for a financial services job at Bank of America; I don't know if I see too many people relocating that far for a manufacturing job at Toyota or at Boom Supersonic. It seems those companies will simply poach from the existing manufacturing workforce in The Triad.
Fair post. I really like the blue collar characterization because at Greensboro’s core, that’s what it still is.
@BullCitytoJeanCity
There are some things you posted I definitely think you’re viewing through rose colored spectacles but I will say the park system here is pretty nice.
I will also say that the LACK of gentrification in GSO is refreshing. But I know that’s not by design lol
Not sure how long that will last either but I’m hoping for really strong reinvestment efforts and no displacement in the city’s more blighted areas.
Greensboro has a reputation from both local and non-local developers (Roy Carroll as one example) as a difficult place to do business, compared to other peer cities in North Carolina. It’s had that reputation for years, yet nothing has been done to correct the problem. It means that the city leaders either don’t know about the problem, or don’t care enough to address it. Not good. Raleigh once had that problem, and the citizens voted to replace the anti-developer, slow-growth tree huggers with a much more business-friendly city council. Greensboro needs to do the same. It’s not that hard to do.
Greensboro needs fresh leadership in order to shake things up. Stop chasing “mega sites” and start building “innovation districts” like Durham and Winston-Salem did. Blue collar manufacturing & grocery distribution (Toyota, Boom, Publix) will not create an inflow of educated, affluent white collar job seekers. It will not keep the thousands of local students graduating each year in the city; they all want to work in tech, life sciences or finance.
As per my username, I (voluntarily) moved from Durham to Greensboro last year and I have met more than a few others like me (moving here from Charlotte, Asheville or Durham/Raleigh). While I think it's true that the cross-country migration will continue to come in to the Triangle and Charlotte due to the job markets there, I think the vast majority of intrastate migration will be from Charlotte/Triangle to places like Greensboro and the other "mid tier" cities, especially as work from home becomes more and more the norm.
I don't want to paint with too broad a brush from my own personal experience, but I do know many people who are very turned off by the incredibly fast growth in Durham and the other cities mentioned above, and the high COL and unaffordable housing markets that all the tech jobs have brought with them.
Greensboro is an incredible opportunity for someone like me, who loves NC and can get everything I love about NC in Greensboro (friendly people, great outdoor spaces, moderate pace of life, close to mountains and the beach), only without the traffic, high costs, and political extremes of Durham (I say this as a lifelong D voter, and it doesn't apply to Raleigh/Charlotte so much obviously). I do think GSO could do well with more of a tech/education presence and it has opportunities to do that, but I am glad it isn't entirely overrun with that sector like Durham has become.
I admire Greensboro and you can nitpick it a thousand different ways, which is true of every city. People will complain about local government, but it's just as bad elsewhere, if not oftentimes much worse. The Greensboro public park system is truly world class in my opinion, it's roads are well maintained and capable of handling growth, the city is well laid out and planned, and while it may be growing slowly, it is growing sustainably in a way that some other cities are not. It is a great town to be "middle class", which is not true of many of the faster growing cities in NC, where it is very much Upper and Lower class and not much in the middle.
Greensboro has a reputation from both local and non-local developers (Roy Carroll as one example) as a difficult place to do business, compared to other peer cities in North Carolina. It’s had that reputation for years, yet nothing has been done to correct the problem. It means that the city leaders either don’t know about the problem, or don’t care enough to address it. Not good. Raleigh once had that problem, and the citizens voted to replace the anti-developer, slow-growth tree huggers with a much more business-friendly city council. Greensboro needs to do the same. It’s not that hard to do.
Greensboro needs fresh leadership in order to shake things up. Stop chasing “mega sites” and start building “innovation districts” like Durham and Winston-Salem did. Blue collar manufacturing & grocery distribution (Toyota, Boom, Publix) will not create an inflow of educated, affluent white collar job seekers. It will not keep the thousands of local students graduating each year in the city; they all want to work in tech, life sciences or finance.
I think the more that people are physically untethered to their jobs, the better it is for Greensboro, and the world is obviously moving much faster in that direction in recent years.
GSO already has a great market for jobs that require physical presence (manufacturing, blue collar, etc) and hence employees will not be leaving and it creates a stable "floor". White collar jobs are flooding CLT and the Triangle with people from big coastal cities, but as those jobs become more and more remote friendly those people (like myself) will question why they are living in a very high cost of living town when they can have their cake and eat it too an hour or so across I-40. That creates a high growth ceiling IMO. High floor + high ceiling = Good things ahead.
Add that to the fact that GSO could easily create its own tech hub/innovation district and has a lot of educational institutions being underutilized, and I for one see a very bright future here.
Can GSO do more to facilitate progress? Yes, of course. To claim the city leaders are terrible and GSO citizens are DELUSIONAL about the city's future feels pretty disingenuous and agenda driven.
I think the more that people are physically untethered to their jobs, the better it is for Greensboro, and the world is obviously moving much faster in that direction in recent years.
GSO already has a great market for jobs that require physical presence (manufacturing, blue collar, etc) and hence employees will not be leaving and it creates a stable "floor". White collar jobs are flooding CLT and the Triangle with people from big coastal cities, but as those jobs become more and more remote friendly those people (like myself) will question why they are living in a very high cost of living town when they can have their cake and eat it too an hour or so across I-40. That creates a high growth ceiling IMO. High floor + high ceiling = Good things ahead.
Add that to the fact that GSO could easily create its own tech hub/innovation district and has a lot of educational institutions being underutilized, and I for one see a very bright future here.
Can GSO do more to facilitate progress? Yes, of course. To claim the city leaders are terrible and GSO citizens are DELUSIONAL about the city's future feels pretty disingenuous and agenda driven.
No, no. Not so much about its future. But its current state, what has led up to this point, and the fact that change is needed to thwart a future that could likely be more of the same.
And if CLT and Raleigh/Durham have to be feeder cities for white collar entrants, then I’m all for it. Go CLT! Go Raleigh! Go Durham! Go Triangle!
Hopefully those folks will be community minded and really seek to invest in the city, lending ideas, positive, growth-mindset energy and resources to get things moving more.
I think the more that people are physically untethered to their jobs, the better it is for Greensboro, and the world is obviously moving much faster in that direction in recent years.
GSO already has a great market for jobs that require physical presence (manufacturing, blue collar, etc) and hence employees will not be leaving and it creates a stable "floor". White collar jobs are flooding CLT and the Triangle with people from big coastal cities, but as those jobs become more and more remote friendly those people (like myself) will question why they are living in a very high cost of living town when they can have their cake and eat it too an hour or so across I-40. That creates a high growth ceiling IMO. High floor + high ceiling = Good things ahead.
Add that to the fact that GSO could easily create its own tech hub/innovation district and has a lot of educational institutions being underutilized, and I for one see a very bright future here.
Can GSO do more to facilitate progress? Yes, of course. To claim the city leaders are terrible and GSO citizens are DELUSIONAL about the city's future feels pretty disingenuous and agenda driven.
About being physically untethered to jobs, I agree. Forward-thinking leadership would not experience this shift and sit idly by thinking, "well let's see how this plays out." They would meet, huddle, ideate, and ask themselves, "how can Greensboro with all of its great (insert assets here) proactively capitalize on this change in how people work?" Perhaps even develop a marketing campaign behind it. Those are the things that do NOT happen.
I'm kind of over the "innovation district" thing. Not because they aren't relevant, but because whenever Greensboro decides to pursue higher-earning, white collar, next generation sectors and talent, it doesn't need to be the same way so many other cities have done it. Dare to be different. The words "innovation district" sound cute --- but what is the meat behind it? It's almost seems like chasing the great concepts from a cycle ago, which are in another state of maturity at this point.
In other states with numerous large cities (Ohio, for example), it is not uncommon for one city to play more of a white-collar "back office" for the more public-facing entities.
Greensboro had an opportunity to be the insurance backbone for banks and tech in CLT and RDU respectively, and perhaps to bigger thinkers, across the southeast. There was a stint of time where the nickname "Hartford of the South" was around. Jefferson-Standard and Pilot Life, now Jefferson-Pilot (your "twin towers" downtown) was a really big deal. The book A Southern Lawyer: Fifty Years at the Bar (Brooks, 2015) dedicates an entire chapter entitled 'The Hartford of the South' to this topic from an early historical perspective.
Create insurance/risk-based business and law programs at the universities, insurance/risk-based career paths, create the innovation district --- if you must, around something specific --- insurance technology, automated risk assessment, rating, and underwriting, automated appraisals and claims adjustments, etc., etc., etc. Pursue industry conventions and independent agent training/convention opportunities. Drop a huge Insurance Research & Development Institute of America on that old N&R property (I know it's not that simple, but you gotta throw the dreamy ideas on the table too). Allow all of our "big brother" companies in CLT and RDU to say "our insurance backbone is in Greensboro."
That's just one idea that made sense to ponder at one point in time because a few variables I mentioned.
I just think some gentrefication has to happen in the blighted aeras such as Gate City and Summit. You have to change the reputaion of those aeras or no business will desire those locations which the commuinty coukd benefit from in return.. i really wish A&T would invest some in Summit Ave and the aeras that surround the campus..
I really enjoy Greensboro. For a city I feel crime isn't terrible. Any city has hand and.shooting violence. Be great if they raised the pay of cops here. Added more substations and community police projects. Built upon a mental health unit.
Traffic wise have no issue with traffic. Infrastructure is great. As far as public transport I think it be exciting to see a BRT built in Guilford County with parts having it's own lane. Connecting downtown to the airport, colleges, parks, museums/science center, ballpark, and hospitals is key. Being a hub of train transportation with not commuters, at this time, but for long term train travel.
Making downtown walkable. Having a no vehicle access street and no sidewalks. Working to have less vacant commercial real estate downtown.
High end hotels and apartments.
Add 1 more parking garage.
Increase affordable housing and apartment options.
Tax apartments and multifamily units at land value tax.
Reform zoning laws to allow more apartments and multifamily homes.
Improve education. Remodel schools and build new schools as needed. Work towards a 15 to 1 ratio.
Have bike lanes and greenways interconnecting through the city.
Work towards turning the mall into an indoor outlet mall. That connects to the hotel. Two floors of outlets and third floor convert to restaurants.
Have a boxcar shopping area.
Build a banquet hall/small convention centerd.
Work to get more commercial flights into Greensboro.
Create districts throughout the City.
Expand upon the art museum and tap into the local art scene in the area.
Increase sales and property taxes.
Feel this should be something the City and County consider as goals for the area.
About being physically untethered to jobs, I agree. Forward-thinking leadership would not experience this shift and sit idly by thinking, "well let's see how this plays out." They would meet, huddle, ideate, and ask themselves, "how can Greensboro with all of its great (insert assets here) proactively capitalize on this change in how people work?" Perhaps even develop a marketing campaign behind it. Those are the things that do NOT happen.
I'm kind of over the "innovation district" thing. Not because they aren't relevant, but because whenever Greensboro decides to pursue higher-earning, white collar, next generation sectors and talent, it doesn't need to be the same way so many other cities have done it. Dare to be different. The words "innovation district" sound cute --- but what is the meat behind it? It's almost seems like chasing the great concepts from a cycle ago, which are in another state of maturity at this point.
In other states with numerous large cities (Ohio, for example), it is not uncommon for one city to play more of a white-collar "back office" for the more public-facing entities.
Greensboro had an opportunity to be the insurance backbone for banks and tech in CLT and RDU respectively, and perhaps to bigger thinkers, across the southeast. There was a stint of time where the nickname "Hartford of the South" was around. Jefferson-Standard and Pilot Life, now Jefferson-Pilot (your "twin towers" downtown) was a really big deal. The book A Southern Lawyer: Fifty Years at the Bar (Brooks, 2015) dedicates an entire chapter entitled 'The Hartford of the South' to this topic from an early historical perspective.
Create insurance/risk-based business and law programs at the universities, insurance/risk-based career paths, create the innovation district --- if you must, around something specific --- insurance technology, automated risk assessment, rating, and underwriting, automated appraisals and claims adjustments, etc., etc., etc. Pursue industry conventions and independent agent training/convention opportunities. Drop a huge Insurance Research & Development Institute of America on that old N&R property (I know it's not that simple, but you gotta throw the dreamy ideas on the table too). Allow all of our "big brother" companies in CLT and RDU to say "our insurance backbone is in Greensboro."
That's just one idea that made sense to ponder at one point in time because a few variables I mentioned.
Wow. Another really, really profound post. Serious question… are you involved in any sort of civic initiatives/coalitions at all? Public and/or private? If not, please consider …your voice is sorely needed. Have you spoken at any council meetings? Planning board meetings?
Don’t limit yourself to a message board.
Quote:
Originally Posted by chadfromnc_2000
I just think some gentrefication has to happen in the blighted aeras such as Gate City and Summit. You have to change the reputaion of those aeras or no business will desire those locations which the commuinty coukd benefit from in return.. i really wish A&T would invest some in Summit Ave and the aeras that surround the campus..
Don’t you dare say the G word! Don’t you dare!
While I will again say, I’m pleasantly surprised by the lack of gentrification in Greensboro’s city core, the optics do look bad and hardscrabble. But it also adds a certain layer of grit and character to the city that I like. Stark contrast to say … Raleigh, which aside from southeast (an area that will soon be completely gentrified) has one of the cleanest downtowns and city cores I’ve seen, and it’s also getting really cookie cutter there. CLT’s core is pretty glossy and soulless, too. So I’d like to avoid that and have some character preservation.
But the number of low income housing per capita in the Greensboro’s core by far exceeds any other city in the state, which is amazing considering the gentrification wave that the country is on.
I could give you a driving course that would wind you through 8-12 public housing/section 8/low income complexes from the Greenway to A&T. Simply amazing!
With that said, the residents in and around the immediate periphery of the city core are the heart and soul of Greensboro and they should not — and will not — be displaced. Greensboro can not go the route of the other cities its size and follow suit with gentrification.
We need reinvestment, renewal, and revitalization strategies ideated and executed. Far too many structures in disrepair (even on the DT borders, fortunately the city has now started to ramp up its demolition and razing efforts… finally)
And trust me… the representatives of District 1 and District 2 WILL NOT let their constituents get displaced. They may not do much else regarding renewal but will fight tooth and nail to stave off any attempts at gentrification.
And I agree with you about A&T. Seems like it has either dropped the ball or just not interested in partnering with the city to uplift the areas surrounding it.
Things just seem fragmented among the stakeholders in GSO. It’s like they’re all operating in their own silos. Better coordination is needed.
RunD, if the city builds one more friggin parking deck we’re gonna make you foot the bill for it! Lolololol
Trust me GSO is good on parking decks. I know it’s for “future” developments that might arise, but, I think there’s prob a feasibility study that’s needed before more money is dumped into yet another parking deck lol
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