Video: Greensboro's great, but board should shape up
On Tuesday Guilford County Commissioners met with big-time community advocates from Action Greensboro for a meal, washed it down with local beer, wine and tea, and watched a video together.
Their mission: increase wages in the area, build community pride, attract young professionals and advocate for the community.
The video outlines some of the town's strengths such as the well-attended baseball park, a rise in downtown living, shops and entertainment and the big jobs such as the HondaJet plant.
And then, citing a study that Action Greensboro had done in 2007, the video outlined a few problems: we need higher-paying jobs, we have a high number of manufacturing jobs still and we need greater tax base growth.
"Things are not as rosy as appearances would have us believe," the video's narrator said.
It goes on to say that the public believes there's infighting on the governing bodies in the community and strained relations with local media.
After the meal, commissioners worked through several issues on how to make Guilford County and Greensboro a better place through education, raising revenue to the county and finding some way to attract more young folks.
And then the infighting:
"This film touched on a touchy subject," Commissioner Bruce Davis said, "What is it, from your perspective, that are we to do if we don't respect the views of our constituents?"
Richard Moore, head of the Weaver Foundation summed up the issue in his view.
"Everybody fights to the death for every district on every issue," he said, suggesting that commissioners should pick their battles, not fight every fight.
Susan Shultz, director of the CEMALA Foundation, added to that point.
"We may not agree on everything, but we need to find something to build upon," she said.
Sitting in that room at the Community Foundation of Greater Greensboro, the commissioners seemed open to criticism.
"I think it would be great to come back," Commissioner John Parks said, considering another similar meeting in a few months.
Commissioner Kay Cashion agreed.
"If we're going to achieve the goals, then we need to have more meetings like this," she said.
Davis said that not only do they need similar meetings, but they could stand to be a little more spirited.
"We're holding back. And we need more meetings like this, with more wine and beer," he said, "We need to get it all out on the table."
The only commissioners not present Tuesday were Billy Yow, Linda Shaw and Steve Arnold.