The Greensboro City Council got blasted at the meeting on Tuesday, March 7 for failing miserably at achieving one of the priorities set at the council retreat.
Two Chris Smiths, son and father, spoke about how impossible it was to do business in Greensboro.
The Smiths are from Carolina Signs and Lighting in King, NC. They said they did business all over the state and that Greensboro was the most difficult place to work.
The priority set by the City Council at the retreat in early February was “Easiest place to do business.”
According to the Smiths, Greensboro has a long way to go to accomplish that goal because right now Greensboro is just about the worst place in the state to do business.
City Councilmember Zack Matheny said after the meeting, “It wasn’t anything we hadn’t heard before.”
People have been complaining “off the record” about how hard it is to do business in Greensboro for decades. The difference is that it has gotten to the point that some contractors are willing to go public. There is a huge incentive for contractors not to complain publicly about the inspectors and various other city bureaucrats they have to deal with because, as bad as it may be, those are the same people who could make it much worse.
Smith, the younger, said that in Winston-Salem a permit costs $75 and takes two weeks to get approved, but in Greensboro it cost $150, takes three or four months and then you get turned down.
He said that he regularly tells people not to bring their business to Greensboro because it is so difficult to get anything approved by the city.
Smith, the elder, said, “Everyone in my industry is sick of Greensboro. Nobody wants to fight and go through the process of getting permits.”
Matheny said, “The majority of council agrees with the Smiths and that is what we relayed to the city manager.”
After the Smiths spoke, City Councilmember Yvonne Johnson said, “Mr. Manager I am particularly concerned about what I just heard.”
Councilmember Tammi Thurm noted that the council had discussed this issue at length at the retreat and said to the manager, “We need to hear back and we need to get updates.”
Councilmember Sharon Hightower said, “This ain’t the first time I’ve heard this. It’s not and we’ve got to do better.”
Ya think? Hey council, talk is cheap. This story has not changed in decades. Hey folks you voted them in so enjoy the clown show.
Only unfriendly to businesses that don’t meet their “minority” qualification.
They don’t need to do better, they need to actually do something!
Citizens hear this all the time and now City Council wants to push it off on the City Manager, who had nothing to do with current permitting efforts.
Typical County and City politicians.
And remember, you voted for them!
Well well ms. hightower what’s more unfriendly than having to put up with the
mwbe bull crap that the city and county put everyone through this bull crap as well as permit cost and the wait to get permits is absolutely not business friendly
Good example: Now at three years + to replace a small two lane bridge on Ballinger Rd. Went to Thrum several times on this and she just followed what was feed her from city officials… supply chain issues, pandemic and other excuses. A good council member would have pressed for better answers. Found out later that a contract was not let for the work for over a year and that a fed grant were involved. Never heard this from Thrum. This council is just a bunch of sheep, the city staff run the council not the other way around. BTW – Ballinger Rd is a major cut through from the businesses surrounding the airport to New Garden rd plus a city rec center/ polling place has been cut off now for over three years. This council is only concerned with Woke Socialist fleecing of the tax payer.
I’ve lived all over the U.S. and have helped start businesses in several cities, so I know the process. Greensboro is definitely the most business unfriendly place I’ve ever lived. I’ve been here for over 16 years and have noticed that quite a few businesses have taken an extremely long time to open. Some have abandoned their dreams because they ran out of money before they earned a single penny.
I have friends who have encountered unreasonable inspectors for their home projects. Fortunately, I have not, but some of the contractors I’ve used, have been extremely afraid to go up against inspectors who wanted things done “their way” so had to redo items that were OK in the first place.
Thank you to the Smith’s for telling the truth. It’s so refreshing to see them standing up for themselves and others who are treated the same way. Ok, City Manager, Mayor, City Council and County Commissioners, wake up or leave !! No more excuses !!
As a Commercial R.E. Broker I assure this is so so very very true. As you stated, people dont speak up because it would likle be worse. Since the city supposedly considers Commercial Brokers as the “Ambassadors” of progress, I suggest they consider looking up definitions to the words used in the complaints. Personnel and their comprehension of making a decision or not being able to make any decisions, the various Dept Heads and how they work with their systems. Slow is the usual first word I hear in a sentence from a new business to our area. It would not matter if they hired someone to do it for them, it is bottom line the system. One might refer to it as “The Pig in the Python” even.
Sounds like the city manager is the problem. This has been going on for decades is not good. City council can’t keep it covered up anymore and are trying to find the scapegoat But they are all complicit. I bet taxes go up because of it, somehow someway the council of idiots will figure a way.
City manager has been here a year. These problems have gone on for years. A relative used to own a business downtown. It was always a s?!$ show trying to get anything with the city done.
The city council is the boss of the city manager. The council needs to assign the manager a task to get the process speeded up and follow up on his assignment to get it completed. The council meeting should be scheduled place to follow up In public view.
If the council doesn’t do this it is their fault.
Not really the council’s fault, the fault belongs to the voters who have voted the incompetent, liberal brain farts back into office not once, or twice but multiple times. People who vote need to get informed about who they are voting for. Or better still get off your lazy arse and VOTE
The bureaucracy of this city is reminiscent of the USSR – and then they hire a Marxist from Africa as City Manager to confirm it!
Gorbachev himself couldn’t have said it any better!
Welcome to Communist Greensboro. This is the town where talk is the only thing that gets done. Just once, I’d like to hear of some actual accomplishments. As for the permits, I think it’s time to bypass the entire process and just work. If you get a penalty, just don’t pay it. Chalk it up to karma.
Council, “We don’t like this problem.”
The rest of Greensboro, “You created this problem!”
So, this anti-business behavior by Greensboro has been going on for years prompting Sharon Hightower to state that “This ain’t the first time I’ve heard this. It’s not and we’ve got to do better.”? Was it not Sharon Hightower who recommended a large pay increase for the City Manager, and was then voted unanimously by City Council? There is a real disconnect between City Council members connecting the dots of a large picture and addressing one question at a time. When the City Manager’s job performance was under review, did anyone ask him about the business climate in Greensboro? Did Sharon Hightower ask the City Manager about hearing rumors that businesses are having problems working in Greensboro BEFORE she recommended a huge increase in the City Manger’s salary? Or did the rumors involve White business owners and not MWBE?
I wonder if all these other comments are from the same guy? I for one want good inspections. If you fail inspections only in Greensboro, maybe your inspections SHOULD HAVE failed elsewhere but Greensboro just hs higher standards? Just thinking here. Obviously the lengthy permits wait isn’t cool, and needs to be addressed. And I feel for contractors, because even if they own a business, they’re essentially working class. Small business owners have way more in common with day workers than the billionaires who run this country, and people forget that
I hope Sharon Hightower is listening. The constant barrage of “not enough black contractors on city work”…yadda…yadda might well have been explained right here. After 30 years in commercial contracting, I can confirm that the City Of Greensboro is, and has been for years, a terrible customer to work for. The process is slow, pay is slow, the paperwork and rules are never-ending, and the goalposts are on floating footers that are shifting constantly. Now ask yourself this question: If you are a small black-owned business with limited administration staff (like most small contractors), and have private work to do or bid on that has hardly any of these problems……why would you even entertain working for the city ?? Perhaps it’s not that there are no minority bidders, it’s just that there are no minority bidders that are hungry enough or need work bad enough, to bid work with the city, and deal with all the issues that it will entail.
Thank you for this article Mr. Hammer. I was going along fat dumb and happy with Greensboro, never realizing that we had a business problem. Nancy Vaughn and the City Council are ultimately responsible for this and they need to find solutions, today. It sounds like it’s time to clean house in the City Manageement department and get this crew rolling on the same page as the citizens and business entrepreneurs of our city. Greensboro is not some backwater city of hicks and nor is it staffed by crooked bureaucrats (let us hope). Lets get moving!
“we got to do better”. No s&*t.
Pandering 101
Nancy
Have owned 2 small businesses in Greensboro for 50 years
The city has a very unconcerned attitude toward small business We are the backbone of any city.
The council should get its act together!
Well done, Nancy!
I had a nascent and successful small business in the UK before it was killed by a 20% sales tax (no typo, twenty per cent). The rules, restrictions, requirements and regulations in Britain are just as bad as the taxes – and the US is going down the same road.
I emigrated, but now I’m too old to re-emigrate!
This city council knows how to raise taxes and spend money foolishly but as for the people of Greensboro love them they keep getting voted back in so it will always be business as usual.