After a quarter of a century, $54 million and a whole lot of planning, fundraising, land acquisition, construction and public art efforts, Greensboro’s Downtown Greenway is now officially a city responsibility.
The City of Greensboro announced on Monday, June 29, that management and oversight of the completed four-mile Downtown Greenway loop has transitioned from Action Greensboro to the city.
That means the Greensboro Parks and Recreation Department will now handle day-to-day management, operations, maintenance, programming and future planning for the greenway, with help from other city departments including Transportation, Water Resources and Engineering & Inspections.
The transition was part of the plan from the start of the public-private partnership that created the Downtown Greenway. Greensboro’s downtown has had various problems in recent years such as homelessness, business closures, a lack of good parking and other issues, but city leaders hope the completed Greenway will be a big draw.
The announcement comes after the final segment of the four-mile loop was completed in May, bringing an end to one of Greensboro’s longest-running civic improvement projects.
The Downtown Greenway was first conceived as part of the Center City Master Plan in 2001. It was later adopted as the signature project of Greensboro’s Bicentennial Commission and promoted as a way to connect downtown neighborhoods, encourage private investment, create public gathering spaces and add public art around the center city.
The Downtown Greenway ended up costing far more than early estimates. An early project profile listed the estimated cost of completion at about $26 million, with funding expected from federal and state grants, local foundations, transportation bond money and private donations. By 2019, when the city announced the final steps needed to complete the project, the estimated cost had grown to about $43 million — including roughly $13 million in private donations and $30 million in public funds.
By the time the greenway was completed this year, city officials and Action Greensboro were calling it a $54 million public-private investment — more than double the project’s original estimated cost.
Supporters of the project say the greenway has already paid dividends: Action Greensboro and city officials have credited the project with helping spur more than $612 million in completed and planned development along the corridor.
The project has also become known for its public art, neighborhood connections and unusual design. Rather than simply serving as a trail, the Downtown Greenway was designed as a loop around downtown with gathering spaces, public art installations, landscaping, stormwater features and connections to other trails and neighborhoods.
Downtown Greenway Project Manager Dabney Sanders of Action Greensboro will end her service with the project on Tuesday, June 30, after she worked nearly two decades leading the effort.
“Completing the Greensboro Downtown Greenway is both a professional milestone and a deeply personal one,” Sanders said in the city’s announcement. “Since 2007, I have had the privilege of working alongside visionary community leaders, dedicated staff, elected officials, generous donors, and countless residents who believed in this project from the very beginning.”
Cecelia Thompson, executive director of Action Greensboro, said Sanders’ effort was central to the project.
“Dabney’s leadership, persistence, and commitment have been instrumental in transforming a community vision into reality,” Thompson said.
Greensboro Parks and Recreation Director Phil Fleischmann said the city is now responsible for making sure the greenway remains a long-term community asset.
“The Downtown Greenway has become an important part of Greensboro’s identity and quality of life,” Fleischmann said. “Greensboro Parks and Recreation is honored to continue serving as a steward of this remarkable community asset and looks forward to ensuring it remains a vibrant, welcoming, and well-maintained destination for future generations to enjoy.”
The Downtown Greenway connects eight neighborhoods around downtown and ties into a larger trail network, including regional and national trail systems.
With the capital project finished, the job now shifts from building the greenway to maintaining it.
The city said maintenance, community programming, events, volunteer opportunities and public engagement will continue under the Parks and Recreation Department.
Action Greensboro is also encouraging people who want to support the greenway to contribute toward free community programming or the maintenance endowment.
Some of the paved trail is cracking badly. I guess the city will need another 5 cents next year to fix it.
Can’t wait to see future inflated tax cost for maintaince on this 8th wonder of the world.
One more thing for officials to pay with our taxes. Scott, do you know how many miles the greenway is? Let’s see what $54 million got we the taxpayers per mile and what the upkeep burden costs . I’m 77 and will never utilize this project.
I think it is four miles.
Name something our govt does well.
Taking your money.
Yup. Something positive?
4 miles at a cost of $54 million that took 25 years with cracks in pavement already showing !!!
And these people are celebrating??? The standards of success have eroded to a point of idiocracy in Greensboro. And businesses continue to leave downtown as the homeless and parking concerns continue to mount!!! I think “leadership” has cracked its mind!!!
We can do better than this
By the time the greenway was completed this year, city officials and Action Greensboro were calling it a $54 million public-private investment — more than double the project’s original estimated cost.
Another waste of taxpayer money. Does anyone live close enough to this trail to take a walk on it without driving to it, looking for a place to park, making sure that you have some form of protection on you, and for what.
i do. now that it is finished many URBANITES are using it sans REDNECKS
So, you are saying there are no REDNECKS among the URBANITES? Do you believe that URBANITES only paid for the Greenway? Grants came from state and federal funds, meaning that people living in the mountains of NC to the Outer Banks contributed to the cost of building the Greenway and the US citizens living in Iowa or any other state contributed to the cost of the Greenway. The Greenway is not an urban thing; it is a public thing.
I am a huge fan of nature. Tax money spent preserving nature and connecting humans to nature is a good thing.
i’m defining ‘redneck’ those who can’t/don’t venture far from their MV & won’t be found walking the greenway ? i can tolerate urban only because i live in a single family structure with plenty of ‘elbow’ room. i don’t see how the people across the street from me in ~120 new ‘units’ can stand their concrete/asphalt 90* angled habitat baking in the sun. if they lose electricity it will be uninhabitable
A redneck is defined as a provincial, conservative, often with a bigoted attitude. No matter how you spin your “redneck” comment, the term does not fit your explanation. Sorry.
our urban public greenway is a half block from where i live & i use it efficiently almost every day on foot & bike. COG & GUILFORD CO has PRIMO parks,lakes trails pools libraries events, venues – people travel from miles around for our good stuff. go COG 4th of july fireworks 2 blocks from my house sans travel
Ok Markl, I gotta ask. How do you define a Redneck, and what problems do they cause you
i apologize using ‘redneck’; it is pejorative. did i use the semicolon correctly, austin ? there r few country people using the greenway because they cannot find parking for their monster PU trucks or garbage cans big enough for all the trash they create.
Markl, I live in the county so I don’t need a
54 million dollar path to walk on, I don’t own a large truck, I practice recycling and take care of my own trash so as far as I’m concerned you can bounce up on your ball and kiss my behind. You obviously don’t have a clue about what you consider a Redneck is.
You do realize that the 4 mile greenway cost over 13 million per mile. How do you justify that as a good use of taxpayer dollars
i can’t – it’s totally unnecessary & can only b justified by wut happens NEXT around it . . . but, i just encountered a ‘running club’ of ~50 scantily clad . . . people . . . half block from my home . . . & i’m shopping 4 running shoes
I live close enough to the Greenway to walk on it without driving on it. In fact I watch a number of people walking on it everyday from my window in an area that used to be saturated with homeless encampments. The private-public partnership that led to the completion of the Greenway has been featured in Forbes magazine and other national publications and has brought a lot of positive attention to GSO. As an infrastructure project it is a major uplift for the neighborhoods it spans. This is the kind of amenity I don’t mind paying for, along with public safety and other essential services. Hopefully the Greenway will stay safe for citizens who use it, which has recently been an issue on the more remote Bicentennial Greenway near High Point, where two women were assaulted by a masked deviant with a gun. Things have been a little weird in terms of crime in Downtown lately, with the “Mission Impossible” style break-in through the roof of Crafted Art of the Taco. One thing you can say about DTGSO, it’s never boring on any level! As Zack used to say, “Come see for yourself! Discover what’s REAL!”
my yesterday greenway walk past turd with paper on the ASSphalt 20′ from w market st. another ~year ago IN the pergola on greenway smith @ prescott. let’s bring back that big irish cop with nightstick !
Krave Kava Bar is a half a block from the police headquarters and their patio area is a favorite place to deposit human excrement freely and frequently literally “under the nose” of the cops. Businesses Downtown find feces in their doorways many mornings as a wild gift from the homeless souls who wander S. Elm. Some argue that public bathrooms should be added Downtown. They most certainly would be popular as the Parks people will tell you about the long line that forms when the bathrooms open in City Center Park each morning. Trip Brown of Brown investments, who was a person that was instrumental in establishing the Greenway from the early days told a story in his speech at the ribbon cutting for the completion of the Greenway that he planned to propose to his current spouse at the Meeting Place on the Greenway but when they got there a person was sitting there who wouldn’t leave, which was most likely a polite reference to the homeless who inhabit Downtown public spaces. There are already spots of graffiti popping up on the new section of the Greenway, which is heartbreaking to see. I’d actually rather see a turd than that kind of vandalism. At least the rain will wash the s#*t away.
Are you seriously quoting Zack? Go walk south of Gate City Boulevard and see how you like it.
U paid in SPADES. I could have been completed in much less time, at much lower cost. That’s the point.
‘protection’ ‘for what’ A condom ? no one lives downtown ? WHAT R U BLATHERING ABOUT !
Compare this to the 100 or so miles of natural walking trails through and around Greensboro that cost a fraction of this to build and maintain, which are very cool and popular.
Prime example of how the “public/private” partnership works. A group that decides wouldn’t it be nice to have a walk/bike trail around the downtown? Sure. Don’t we all enjoy walking along the edge of town (or the “edgier side of town?). Groups raise money, build a trail most people have no interest in walking, pay for “art” and then give it to the city. Great – another thing to maintain, with tax dollars. Sorry, with Battleground Park, the trails along the lakes and other places to walk – I have no interest driving to downtown to walk around the city.
are u ‘sorry’ the trails etc u enjoy are ‘another thing to maintain, with tax dollars’ ?
Don’t believe the trail counter numbers. I watch a section of the loop routinely and rarely see anyone using it through the week. I can’t speak to the weekend usage. But either way, the cost vs usage numbers are insane. Who approved this and who kept approving the overages? So dumb.
Don, trail counting numbers are like political polls, they can be made to fit whatever agenda you want
That’s right. They don’t filter out the homeless highway numbers
Even then. I know they are fibbing. It’s basically a ghost town through the week.
scott – please delete any comment i make using the words: ‘nubile’ ‘libido’ ‘primate’ or ‘redneck’. thnx