A letter from Rhino Times reader Nicky Smith
Greensboro stands at a critical crossroads. With 15,000 to 25,000 new jobs coming to our city, we have an unprecedented opportunity for growth and prosperity. Yet our inability to build housing fast enough threatens to derail this economic boom.
The numbers tell a sobering story that demands real leadership. A single-family housing community in the City of Greensboro takes two full years to get approved, two years before a single shovel hits the ground. Starter homes now cost $400,000, and excessive regulations are adding $25,000 to each new home. We’re pricing out the very families we claim to want to help.
This is where my leadership makes the difference. Having spent decades in business streamlining operations and eliminating inefficiencies, I know exactly what’s broken and how to fix it. The Planning and Zoning Commission and city staff have become bottlenecks preventing us from achieving the 10,000 new homes our community desperately needs.
My leadership will implement proven solutions immediately:
- 45-day “shot clock” permitting timelines that give builders certainty
- Third-party inspections for larger projects to reduce municipal burden
- Block permits for multifamily developments to eliminate redundant reviews
- AI-enhanced plan reviews to accelerate approvals
I’ve led teams through complex operational challenges before.When other cities embrace efficient processes while Greensboro remains trapped by red tape, that’s a leadership failure. The government’s role should be facilitating quality development, not obstructing it.
Every month we delay, we add thousands to housing costs. When unnecessary requirements add $500,000 to a 50-unit project, families pay the price through higher rents and home prices.
My business experience has taught me that accountability drives results. The Planning and Zoning Commission and city staff work for the citizens of Greensboro, not the other way around. I’ll demand performance standards, implement efficiency metrics, and hold our city systems accountable for delivering results.
Leadership means making tough decisions. While others talk about housing challenges, I’m ready to challenge entrenched interests and implement the systemic changes our city needs. We can continue with business as usual and watch potential residents flee to neighboring counties, or we can embrace proven reforms that work.
I know how to build consensus while driving change. My leadership approach combines the urgency of private sector accountability with the collaborative spirit needed to bring stakeholders together. Whether it’s working with developers, addressing neighborhood concerns, or pushing staff to perform, effective leadership means getting results while building relationships.
Greensboro’s future prosperity depends on our ability to house the workforce, which will drive our economic expansion. We have the opportunity, we have the demand, and we have proven solutions. What we need now is leadership willing to implement them.
The choice is clear: we can remain trapped by yesterday’s limitations or build tomorrow’s Greensboro. I’m ready to lead that transformation.
I bring proven business leadership and operational expertise to make Greensboro’s government work efficiently for its citizens.
Candidate for Greensboro City Council District 4
Housing crisis is a result of a double shock of increasing purchase/build costs and increasing mortgage rates. Assuming the price increase for existing homes was driven up by demand from as a result of recent growth in the area and increasing cost of materials and labor for new home construction, I don’t think the changes you suggest will have a material effect.
Due to the size of our current national debt and softening demand for US Treasuries, most economists don’t see interests returning to pre-covid levels in any foreseeable future. This means we will need a significant market correction to make homes more affordable. Not building codes or requirements.
Just my 2 cents.
I think it’s OK to have both.
*
I remember watching a glowing puff piece on NBC Nightly News a few years ago. The “journalist” was singing the praises of a new California Law that required new houses to be built with solar panels. Oh, it was all so lovely – and at the very end it was mentioned that it would add “only about $15,000 to the cost of a new home”.
– And these same Leftists complain about the lack of affordable housing, and blame the free market.
Regulations, restrictions, requirements, rules, and red tape… they have made the construction of clean, modest, low cost homes impossible.
And then the Leftists blame Capitalism!
I completely agree. Let’s call them the 5 Rs that hold back the free market.
*
Sorry Mr Smith, but I just learned that you believe “our public school teachers are underpaid”.
No, they’re overpaid, and I suspect you’re pandering for votes.
Well, you just lost mine.
I’ll have to disagree with you on this one. I was married to a schoolteacher for 20-odd years. The amount of political & classroom crap that have to put up with is astonishing. I have first-hand info not only from her, but other teachers, cafeteria workers, and bus drivers. I could really fill you in on Concord city and county school cafeterias; totally unruly little s^*Ts, and astounding waste of (mostly junk) food.
Considering the indoctrination of our children in public (govt) schools, there are few good teachers left, they get out ASAP. Those remaining are generally OK with the job, as long as they get a paycheck. Most are govt baby-sitters I would liken it to a jail with cells unlocked. You have to see it to believe it.
I agree with what you’re saying, Miller. I believe you’re speaking the truth.
Government Schools are an open sewer of incompetence and indifference, and much worse.
This de facto monopoly needs to be broken up completely, and some kind of voucher system introduced.
The current system certainly does NOT need even more money thrown at it. It’s a financial black hole.
It’s not the teachers. . . it’s the “administrative” overhead and pet project employees who are taking more of the budget. I mean, how many employees do we need to manage the “administrative” overhead of schools? My guess is there are more deputy supts, deputy project team managers, etc., many with teaching degrees, and they are hiring them because of incompetence at the higher levels. It’s called adding more payers of government so they can’t talk to the school supt.
Why not trim the excess admin staff and have one superintendent and no deputy supts. Also, have one principal, and not asst principals, etc. Put the money where it is needed. . . in the classroom, not the bloated overhead in the school board.
You’re right Joe, but it’s not surprising when you understand that all government programs exist not to benefit the declared beneficiaries, but rather to benefit the army of parasites involved in providing whatever meagre assistance is eventually provided.
The Government Schools don’t exist for the children; they exist to support millions of people in easy, well paid jobs. This is the raison d’etre of all programs, in the expectation that such people will invariably vote Democrat.
And that expectation is largely correct.
Once you realise this, you understand why the Parasitic Sector is so indifferent to the needs of citizens and consumers, from the DMV to the VA. We are just the pretext they use to justify their sinecures.
“Growth and prosperity”. I’ve heard those two words used together around here forever. Seems to me the only thing growth has done for this city is increase its population, increase crime, make everything more expensive, make services harder to get, and increase property values so we can pay the county more every year for “rent” on the homes we own.
The “prosperity” must be going somewhere else.
Good teachers are underpaid. Poor teachers should not be near our classrooms.
As previously stated, there are so many consultants/supervisors/supervisors’ supervisors/etc., creating top-heavy, ineffective schools. So many places our tax dollars could be misdirected. The memo of the Federal mandate wiping DEI out of schools has not reached GCS yet.
Leave the housing problem to the open market. It will fix itself in due time
UNLOCK THE GATE
Greensboro stands where futures meet,
With bustling roads and growing streets.
Fifteen thousand jobs or more—
A flood of hope at every door.
Yet housing lags, permits delay,
Two full years to clear the way.
Families priced out, dreams on hold,
While red tape weaves its silent mold.
But Nicky Smith steps in, unbowed,
Not swayed by silence or the crowd.
A builder’s mind, a leader’s will,
With plans to cut the wait and bill.
A “shot clock” set at forty-five,
To keep our builders’ hopes alive.
Third-party eyes to clear the queue,
So families find a place that’s new.
Block permits fast, review once more—
No looped approvals like before.
And AI tools to scan each plan,
To speed the work and lift the ban.
This isn’t talk—it’s boots and ground,
Where business sense and grit are found.
Efficiency with heart aligned,
To serve the people, not just time.
The staff must answer to the town—
It’s not their job to slow things down.
Nicky calls for bold reform,
Where fairness meets a faster norm.
She knows the cost of each delay,
The price that renters have to pay.
Each stalled decision, each review,
Adds thousands more to someone’s due.
Some talk of change with safe pretense,
But Nicky speaks with consequence.
She builds the bridge, she clears the road,
She lifts the weight of this old load.
So here’s to homes that rise with speed,
To policies that serve real need.
To leaders brave enough to fight
For what is urgent, just, and right.
Let’s break the bottleneck at last—
The future comes, and it moves fast.
Greensboro’s promise must not stall—
Nicky Smith will answer the call.
Sounds like someone is looking for a job.
I am not sure why teachers salaries was introduced to this conversation. The letter was about housing and the city council has no control over the school system. It’s very important to remember what each of these elected positions do and do not control when considering a candidate. Of course he’s looking for a job. Is that wrong?
————–
I introduced the subject of teacher pay when, in researching Nicky Smith, I came across him saying that our public school teachers are underpaid. A lot of local political wannabes spout the same thing, knowing that there are thousands of schoolteachers and they all approve of a pay raise for themselves! So it’s pandering, pure and simple.
As a reality check for this candidate, I wanted him to know that this kind of political prostitution can cost votes as well as win them.
I would definitely be for increasing teacher pay if it is offset by eliminating the overly bloated administrative positions. As long as it is largely a zero sum game, pay them as much as they deserve. Unfortunately, money that should be for teachers teaching students is wasted on people who never impact the classroom in a positive way at all.
The whole system is failed and self-serving. US education is an international joke. Fundamental reform is needed.
The housing problem in this area is caused by the city and county politicians pushing for “growth” of businesses using bribes of our tax dollars, while not anticipating the ability of construction businesses to meet the demand of workers who move into our area, or the increased cost of housing as the demand for homes is higher than the supply. The city and county have created the issue; then, they expect citizens to feel guilty and responsible for paying for a solution, which means more tax dollars. It’s stupid.
The cost of construction is based on many factors, and changes could be made to regulations, shortened time frames, lower fees, and such. But constantly attempting to attract new mega-businesses when housing and infrastructure are already critical issues makes absolutely no sense. It’s stupid. These new businesses aren’t helping our area or taxpayers.
One solution to housing could be using ALL the empty buildings in the city and county for housing. All those empty warehouses, schools, stores, malls, strip malls, and individual abandoned stores should be turned into condos, apartments, dorms, and tiny houses. Every one of them. NO NEW BUILDING should be built until ALL EMPTY BUILDINGS have been repurposed for housing. Period.
And stop using our tax money to bribe businesses to come here. We don’t need more people. There’s no more room to put them.
So growth is a bad thing now? Weird
*
No, what Deborah’s saying is just common sense.
The insatiable craving for “growth” is driven by the greed of the public sector, since it’s addicted to ever increasing torrents of tax revenue.
But we don’t all want to live in an Atlanta, or a Mumbai or Mexico City, for that matter.
*
And there’s nothing intrinsically good about “growth”. In 1981 London’s population was about 6.5 million, and I remember a bustling city of culture, opportunity, and civility. Now London’s population is about 9 million. House prices are exorbitant, the streets are filthy, crime is out of control, the Tube is full of smelly homeless people, and the British working class has had to move out. The bus drivers and bin men used to live in the city with their families, albeit in modest homes, and enjoyed a British education and a safe community. Now they’re forced to inhale the pungent smell of cooking curries 24/7 and endure the sirens of Moslem Calls To Prayer five times a day. Or move out of the city. They’ve moved out.
Can you blame them?
If that’s “growth” you can keep it.