Greensboro: The Stunted City

It started with the location of the North Carolina Railroad. It was only Governor John Motley Morehead’s political pull that landed the railroad in Greensboro rather than Asheboro. Had the railroad gone through the centrally located city, it’s very likely that this state would have many more people because Asheboro would've been better suited to compete with the Triangle and Charlotte. 

Instead, as these pictures indicate, various cities played hot potato with the top four spots after the Wilmington coup of 1898. 

(Note: The population figures are from the October 15, 2006 edition of the News & Record)

Then, there's this tidbit:

Then, in 1923, High Point surprised Greensboro by an annexation that expanded its population to 21,000 and made it the state's sixth largest city. Greensboro was number eight, and its backers immediately submitted a new charter to the General Assembly, increasing its limits from four to nearly 18 square miles. Its population more than doubled to more than 45,000. "Greater Greensboro," as it was known, became NC’s third largest city overnight, a rank it holds today.

The annexation tit for tat within Guilford Country alone is partly why the Triad has never been a viable threat to its neighbors down I-40 & I-85.

Another thing that surprised me was that it wasn't until the last decade that the Triangle surpassed the Triad in population. One only has to wonder how the region to the east was able to stick to its vision like Research Triangle Park while the much less spread out Piedmont Triad struggled to even recognize itself as a region.

Durham and Winston-Salem traded the #4 and #5 positions between 2007 and 2012 before the Bull City pulled away from the Twin City. Given the stagnant growth around the Gate City, it's plausible that Winston could leapfrog it for #3 or rather Greensboro falls to #5 some time around the 2020 Census or afterwards. Now, if Forsyth County ends up with more people than Guilford County, look out because somebody may want to pull the plug on the whole Triad concept then.

The various regional partnerships have done nothing for this area. While Winston has rebranded itself as the City of Arts and Innovation, Greensboro has developed a tremendous inferiority complex (High Point has become a glorified university town, which is a different set of circumstances altogether). Said complex has also spread over to the arts/entertainment/nightlife scene. The reason why the Tanger Performing Arts Center is even being built is due to Greensboro leaders being so envious of a similar venue in Durham. The city's "leaders"never bothered to evaluate the possible negatives, only the need to keep up with the Joneses. The truth is that the TPAC will actually have a negative impact on the arts as the big money donors will show up to the venue while shunning more organic projects that actually touch more people's lives.