The Greensboro City Council spent two full days last week with an out-of-state facilitator at its annual retreat.
The work product from that retreat was a new “city vision” statement and a new list of priorities.
The old vision statement and list of priorities was from 2021 and was created by the City Council working with a different city manager and a different facilitator.
Evidently vision statements and priorities don’t have much of a shelf life.
The old, worn out city vision statement was, “Building on our history as a diverse and forward-thinking city, Greensboro is a community with endless economic opportunity and an exceptional quality of life.”
Why quality of life is in bold is unknown.
The new vision statement, the result of the City Council spending two days with the city manager, four assistant city managers, other senior city staff and the facilitator is: “Greensboro will be a community with endless economic opportunities and an exceptional quality of life.”
In the new vision statement, Greensboro loses its history, is no longer diverse or forward thinking but it does still have endless economic opportunities and exceptional quality of life, but quality of life is no longer considered bold.
The old priorities according to a report from the assistant to the city manager April Albritton were:
- Affordable housing
- Public safety
- Public transportation
- Equitable investment
- Trash removal
- Homelessness assistance
- Job opportunities
- Sustainability
The new priorities were finished up on Friday afternoon, Feb. 3, as the penultimate item on the schedule. The final item was for councilmembers to explain the artwork they had done on Thursday, Feb. 2.
The new priorities are:
- Safest city
- Most skilled workforce (in targeted industries)
- Youth sports capital in the SE
- Easiest place to do business
- Most connected city
- Entertainment and recreation hub (amenitized)
- Adequate supply of attainable housing options
So public transportation, trash removal, sustainability and equitable investment are no longer key priorities for the City Council.
However, youth sports, entertainment and recreation and being the easiest place to do business are.
Lol…how much did this pitiful exercise cost the taxpayers?
Give ‘em a break, John. Even the recent Sheriff of Nottingham style tax increase can’t be expected to cover every frivolous activity, such as Trash Removal or Traffic Enforcement.
They seem to already be working on dumping trash removal, starting with the leaf pick-up service as many streets are still lined with leaves from last Fall which is why they must have taken that item off their list. As far as Traffic Enforcement I believe they had decided to let civilians take care of most of the traffic violations in the future to free the police up to deal with real crimes, so there’s no reason to leave that pesky detail on their list either. I figure someone was being realistic and realized none of this is sustainable or equitable, perhaps it was Matheny, but it may have been a surprise participant. Were these goals included in their lovely art murals?
Interesting that Hightower is playing video games on her cell phone versus being part of the discussions. Then again, people in her district are responsible.
Two full days last week with an out-of-state facilitator creating a paragraph of virtue signalling mumbo jumbo that will be turned over to an affirmative action manager, who will file it away and do his own thing.
Hmmm. “Safest City”. This one is too easy. How about the GPD? Pay them enough to bring them at full strength, leave them alone so they can do their job.
All this grandstanding and virtue signaling accomplishes ZERO. Throwing our money accomplishes nothing but buying votes for the faithful.
You get what you vote for.
I have to wonder if anyone on the Greensboro city council read this site, and the comments of its “constituents”. I guess they don’t –too few for them to care about.
They do read it. It is a primer for their future actions. In most cases, they don’t have a valid reply.