The Greensboro City Council is holding a virtual work session at 3 p.m. on Tuesday, Oct. 6 to discuss the long-term strategic goals it set in February.

The City Council spent two days in February with a consultant discussing and reaching agreement on its strategic goals. Having goals was supposed to give the City Council more focus and a rationale for making decisions.

Since February, those long-term goals have taken a backseat to the events of 2020, which included having the economy of the state shutdown because of COVID-19 and riots downtown in the end of May.

But the strategic goals are still there on the books supposedly providing guidance for City Council actions.

The strategic long-term goals of the City Council are:

  • Economic development (Megasite)
  • Sustainability and recycling (LEED)
  • Public safety
  • Raise per capital household income by 20 percent
  • Affordable housing
  • Start up businesses
  • Diversity on boards and commissions
  • Build fund balance
  • 1000 new jobs paying $15 per hour or more
  • Reduce violent crime
  • Lower vehicle use

Those goals in the course of discussion were further defined and given completion dates.

  • Reduce violent crime by 20 percent by 2022
  • Raise per capita median household income by 15 percent by 2025
  • Bring the fund balance to 15 percent of the annual budget by 2023
  • Increase by 20 percent the number of people that can reach their place of employment without the use of their personal vehicle by 2023
  • Implement a long-term plan for recycling by 2023
  • Form partnerships to increase committed affordable housing 0-30 percent of the Area Medium Income (AMI), and 30-60 percent of AMI by 1,000 units by 2022
  • Implement a plan to receive the Gold LEED award for cities by 2023

That last goal the city has made a good deal of progress on being named a Silver LEED city for 2020.

But some of the others are much farther away than they were in February, such as reduce violent crime by 20 percent by 2022. Greensboro is on course to set a new record in the number of homicides in 2020 and violent crime overall is up, not down.

The goal of increasing by 20 percent the number of people who can get to work without driving has been met and exceeded in 2020. With people working from home during the COVID-19 shutdown, vehicle use this year is way down. The number of people who now reach their place of employment by walking out of their bedroom and down the hall has certainly increased by more than 20 percent.

 

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