Greensboro 2025 Postmortem

The word that I'll use is cautious because I didn't see that coming. The City Council will shift from progressives being shut out to progressives only being at a 4-5 disadvantage. Irving Allen rallied to claim the third and final at-large seat from Richard Beard. Crystal Black retires Sharon Hightower after 12 years in District 1. CC Crawford won the vacant District 2 seat comfortably. April Parker bested Zack Matheny in District 3 after 11th hour allegations against the challenger backfired. 

Meanwhile, the temporary fill-in to permanent councilmember streak is no more as Jamila Pinder slipped from fourth to fifth. Perhaps, this ends that charade moving forward.

The partisan shift could be bad news for anybody who truly runs outside of the two-party duopoly--especially if they challenge the Greensboro power structure from the left as socialists.

In closing, I can say that the National Guard question right before the primary officially did a couple of things:

1. It marked the fifth time in less than a decade that the public paid attention to the election--primary turnout was in the teens while turnout exceeded 20 percent yesterday. It was all due to yet another national issue that became localized.
2. The candidates that replied abstain to the moderator's question eventually lost. Ex-mayor Robbie Perkins went from a seven-point gap in Round One to a shellacking in Round Two. Richard Beard was in prime position to win the final at-large seat but ended up choking it away to Irving Allen, who was all the way in fifth place. Carla Franklin fell 52 votes short of advancing to the general election and actually lost a vote during the recount against Dianne Bellamy-Small. Nicky Smith never stood a chance in District 4.

Greensboro General Election Endorsements

Mayor: No endorsement

At-Large: Allen

District 1: Black

District 2: Crawford

District 3: Parker

District 4: No endorsement

District 5: No endorsement

Greensboro General Election-Mayor

Marikay Abuzuaiter vs Robbie Perkins

No matter who wins, Greensboro is slated for a downward spiral. Both remaining candidates are proven lapdogs for the establishment. Both stood against the racial justice protests five years ago. Both use the homelessness crisis to attack the symptoms instead of addressing the root causes. A hard pass for the second straight general election and the third public nonendorsement counting the 2017 mayoral primary.

Greensboro General Election-At-Large Race

Hugh Holston vs Jamilla Pinder vs Denise Roth vs Richard Beard vs Irving Allen vs T. Dianne Bellamy-Small

The first four are all reliable establishment tools--it's just to which varying degrees. Holston was called out by Crystal Black earlier this year for sitting on the report on brown water in Southeast Greensboro. Besides that, he has been pretty uninspiring in the four years since he was selected to replace Michelle Kennedy.

As a principle, I cannot pick Pinder due to how the oligarchs have now determined that pre-election appointments are their preferred method. I mean, Roy Carroll spent the summer offering her prime billboard space at the Battleground/Wendover intersection.

Please refer to my primary election post on the case against Roth.

Then, there's Beard. George Hartzman uncovered that Beard may be unaffiliated in name only as a way of winning votes.

At least one of these four will be on the next City Council. That's the bad news. 

The good news is that voting for Allen will at a minimum prevent an establishment sweep. If one is inclined, casting a vote for Bellamy-Small would make things a bit more uncomfortable for the oligarchs.

Greensboro General Election-District Races

District 1

Sharon Hightower vs Crystal Black

Hightower has been in office for 12 years and has served East Greensboro's Black Misleadership Class and the downtown establishment very well. It's time for a change. Black was the one who sounded the alarm on the water scandal--eight months before local press started to cover it.

District 2

Cecile (CC) Crawford vs Monica Walker

Crawford has the better track record over Walker.

District 3

Zack Matheny vs April Parker

It's an embattled incumbent who's under SBI investigation vs a breath of fresh air. North Greensboro voters will have eggs on their faces if they send Zack back--only for the investigation to take him down. Therefore, Parker is the only option.

Meanwhile, voters in Northwest and West Greensboro are on their own as all four remaining candidates range from bad to hideously terrible.

District 4

Adam Marshall vs Nicky Smith

Both of these guys have managed to lower the already low bar that the retiring Nancy Hoffmann is leaving behind. 

The latter is a right-wing nutjob who's spent half the campaign trying to distance himself from Trump--who may as well be persona non grata in the Gate City.

The former is an attorney who represents real estate interests and is a light copy of the lame duck.

District 5

Tammi Thurm vs Jeannette Davidson-Mayer

Neither candidate offers much. I've already aired out my grievances on why I no longer support the incumbent.

Meanwhile, the challenger's extreme back the blue agenda is enough to disqualify her from further consideration.

Greensboro Mayor

Candidates: Robbie Perkins, Marikay Abuzuaiter, Mark Cummings, Akir Khan

Nancy Vaughan is retiring after 12 years in office--and not a moment too soon because her tenure has mostly been horrible. The list is long: Losing the ACC headquarters, Greensboro being the hungriest city in the nation, backing boondoggles like the Tanger Center, police violence/settlements.

The problem is that many of the people aiming to succeed her aren't any better. Let's start off with Vaughan's predecessor, Perkins. This guy was a certified jerk during his two years at the top. He only got elected in 2011 because the previous conservative coalition overreached by reopening the controversial White Street Landfill. Perkins was run out of office due to bankruptcy and a nasty divorce in which his ex-wife openly via billboards urged voters to back Vaughan. Greensboro's food problems started under Perkins when the city was the fourth hungriest in America, and then the second hungriest the following year before the 2015 bombshell. And what did Robbie do? He was too busy pushing for the Tanger Center and also insisted on it being built downtown while he and other leaders let the War Memorial Auditorium wither away. If the voters want to accelerate Greensboro's decline, then please send Robbie back to the mayor's office.

Abuzuaiter's past as a police informant during the early 2010s continues sticking out like a sore thumb. Besides her stance as the Blue Lives Matter Democrat, it seems like she's using this run developer Milton Kern did in '07: As a capstone on her bland legacy. Given her 14 years in office, a promotion for Marikay would be four more years of Nancy Vaughan but with lots more copaganda.

Cummings is running for mayor for the second straight cycle because of a 2019 deal that bars him from ever running for a judge again. The lack of support for him says it all.

Khan previously applied for the vacant at-large seat (alongside Allem and Smith). He's at odds with his own party as state and national leaders engage in open fascism. He's right about challenging the business as usual status quo given he's the only one in this race who is a breath of fresh air. Khan would have been much better off changing his affiliation to independent given how toxic being a Republican in Greensboro has become. His party affiliation makes this more of a begrudging endorsement than an enthusiastic one. 

Greensboro At-Large

Incumbent: Hugh Holston

Seat Holder: Jamilla Pinder

Challengers: Richard Beard, Carla Franklin, Latoya B. Gathers, T. Dianne Bellamy-Small, Denise Roth, Michael McKinney, Irving Allen, Samuel L. Hawkins

Marikay Abuzuaiter is running for mayor.

Holston is another generic establishment shill. 

Pinder replaced the late Yvonne Johnson last winter and is the fifth straight fill-in to run for a full term. 

Beard is a jack of all trades among the elite--Greensboro Sports Foundation CEO, pickleball enthusiast, real estate consultant.

Franklin is a charter school advocate and works for Amazon. Morte recently, she has come under fire for being associated with Moms For Liberty.

Roth was the City Manager in the early '10s and got a job with the Obama Administration just before news broke about a potential scandal that eventually resulted in the city attorney being scapegoated--that's a long way of saying that the former city manager does not deserve to become a councilwoman.

Gathers ran in District 2 in 2022 and was described back then by Triad City Beat (RIP) as a left-leaning Republican. While Gathers is to the left of Franklin, her viewpoints still put her firmly on par with corporate Democrats.

Even though Bellamy-Small has been unfairly smeared by the establishment press in the past simply because she wouldn't play ball with them, I stand by what I previously said about her needing to decide which office is better suited for her and stick to it.

McKinney has worked in the finance sector and is also backed by real estate interests.

Allen ran for this seat eight years ago and is still the best option for City Council. Hawkins is the only other one worth an endorsement.

Greensboro District 2

Candidates: Jim Kee, Monica Walker, Cecile (CC) Crawford, Anthony Wesley, Irish Good

Goldie Wells is retiring after being on the Council for 12 of the last 16 years.

Kee represented the district from 2009 to 2013, and he was known as being the go-to guy for the developers back then. After avoiding a recount against C.J. Brinson by one vote (the margin had to be within a point--and it was by 1.03 points), he threw the 2017 election by switching parties. Last year, Kee not only failed to make the runoff for the Republican nomination for State Auditor but he finished third in Guilford County enroute to a last place finish statewide.

Good already works for the city and would be the continuation of the status quo.

Wesley's comments on the Interactive Resource Center are a turnoff.

While Walker has some good ideas, she cannot outmatch Crawford, who was at Center City Park to back those who were feeding the hungry and provide essential services to the homeless.

Greensboro District 3

Incumbent: Zack Matheny

Challengers: April Parker, Mr. Mohamed Bashir

Matheny is one of the gatekeepers of the local arts scene due to his position as DGI Chairman, and it's that position that makes him worse than Nancy Hoffmann or Tony Wilkins. 

Hoffmann was born the same year as the late Yvonne Johnson and ex-POTUS Joe Biden, so when Millennials yelled those "OK, Boomer" quips six years ago, that meant that she was too old to even be a Baby Boomer (when people said she was generationally challenged to relate to the youth, this is what they meant). 

As for Wilkins, he was open with his hostility towards creatives during his five-year span on City Council. Zack, on the other hand, is basically helping to mold artists to be more establishment friendly.

His arrogance aside, Matheny is now under SBI investigation, so we may be dealing with an actual crook in office. I mean, there are so many reasons why he needs to go.

Mr. Bashir seems to be doing little than occupying space.

Parker is the only viable candidate to end "business as usual." She has proven chops running the Juneteenth Food Truck Festival and Elsewhere Museum before that.

Greensboro District 4

Candidates: Nicky Smith, Adam Marshall, Steve Ignac

Nancy Hoffmann is retiring after 14 years.

Smith talks about a "more business-friendly council" which reminds me of Roy Carroll saying the same thing a decade ago, and Smith's alignment with the controversial David Wray tells me all I need to know about his positions on policing--making it a hard pass in terms of an endorsement.

Marshall represents all of the worst aspects of being an establishment Democrat--HOA attorney, backed by the lame duck, endorsed by the Greensboro Police Officers Association. 

Ignac is a vehicle technology specialist at Honda and would be much better than either frontrunner.

The REAL State of the Gate City

Synopsis

Things are worse than you think. While there will be some turnover on City Council at a rate not seen since 2009, there are just as many rethreads running.

Greensboro's movers and shakers are busy trying to turn downtown into a gated community, and they also contain gatekeepers who have infiltrated the arts scene. By infiltrate, I mean that they determine which artists get to shine and which artists are shut out.

The city responded to the homeless crisis by attempting to outlaw mutual aid and vastly restrict WHOA from feeding the homeless downtown.

An Inattentive Public

Bloggers and writers alike have pointed out how most of Greensboro’s population pays little attention to City elections. I can count on one hand how many times residents have cared about local issues:

1. The 2018 gun show fiasco that propelled Mark Robinson to national prominence
2. The George Floyd protests, which had some input from local artists
3. The entire Marcus Smith saga
4. Dueling sides at City Hall in June 2023 after a firefighter was fired for bigoted Facebook comments

Half of these involve the ex-lieutenant governor—and arguably, all of them have national inclinations. Even other significant local issues since the GPD scandals of the late 2000s have only gotten the public’s attention if there’s some kind of a link to a state or national issue.

At a recent candidate forum, the moderator brought up a hypothetical scenario of Trump sending troops to the city. On one hand, it came out of nowhere to the point of being irrelevant. On the other hand, the idea of D.C. interfering in everyday Greensboro life being a possible motivator for voters in a year that most candidates represent various shades of the status quo says a lot about the batch of people running in the first place--which is to say, negatively.

A potential scandal in Greensboro no leaders are talking about--at least not yet

Well, what do we have here? Looks like another Flint is happening at our footsteps. If it smells like environmental racism, that because it is.

Is that supposed to be the price for a stinking megasite that is 20-25 miles southeast of Greensboro? Oh, and politicians being unresponsive to their constituents' needs. Where have I heard that story before? Do you all get what I said over three years ago about Greensboro being a model oligarchy now?

As far as the news media go, lower your expectations, folks. Triad City Beat is on its way out, so they won't even have the resources to cover this story after the 28th. Yes Weekly is the only possible remaining outlet that would be in the certain column. Maybe the public radio outlets but if certain people in D.C. get their way, those budgets could be slashed significantly. The establishment news outlets? Only if there's enough outrage. The official paper of record is a zombie outlet at this point. Which leaves the Rhino. Even though there has been a change in ownership, that publication does not have Southeast Greensboro as a primary demographic. 

 

Some sanity in Greensboro--for the time being

Nepotism did not prevail after all despite the best efforts of the Clerk of Court, Skip Alston and Marikay Abuzauiater. The big question now is whether Ms. Pinder will follow the previous four fill-ins or not run for anything at all in the fall.

Raleigh elections recap

Raleigh voters are completely fine with gentrification continuing. The swing was the establishment picking up District A while Janet Cowell becomes mayor to no one's surprise. Regarding the former race, incumbent Mary Black finished at the bottom--behind cop Whitney Hill. 

With Cowell and Mitch Silver (re)entering City Hall on Monday, idealists have to now come to the realization that Raleigh is more establishment than any kind of progressive haven that anyone thinks of--and that's before we get to the cretins on Jones Street.

2024 Raleigh Endorsements

North Carolina's capital city has continued gentrifying to the point that it's officially become the fourth least affordable city nationally for singles, which might as well apply to various other demographics. Other key issues have involved the relocation of the Red Hat Ampitheater and overhauling the City Council. 

On the latter, vested interests like Eric Braun (hat tip ex-City Council candidate Kristen Havlik) made the recommendation to stagger the terms of the Raleigh City Council and to expand said terms from two to four years. The problem? This was done without any public input, and the working group Braun was a part of also nixed a proposal that would have added three district seats. These vested interests (which are not unlike the various political factions in Greensboro) have help made Raleigh unaffordable to anyone who isn't a part of the professional managerial class--different from my days as an NC State student.

As for the former, the amphitheater is being forced to relocate because the convention center is being expanded. This caused a lot of consternation throughout the summer and early fall as threats to take live music out of Raleigh were mentioned. I just don't see the need for the convention center to take up two blocks when Red Hat could have been converted to a downtown arena at its current site.

Mayor

Mary-Ann Baldwin is stepping down after two terms due to simultaneous cancer diagnoses to her and her husband. She's largely responsible for the gentrification. Five candidates are running to replace her. 

Paul Fitts is an automatic no-go. In addition to his Republican affiliation, his extreme pro-police stance disqualifies him from consideration for any contest. He's the reason why ex-Mayor Nancy McFarlane was forced into a runoff seven years ago.

James Shaughnessy IV has ties to pro-Ukrainian groups, which would have made him a good fit on the previous City Council. No thanks.

Janet Cowell is the undisputed frontrunner in this race. As a major note, I voted for her as a student when she ran for the At-Large seat twice and years later during her successful runs for State Treasurer. Why the change? She was the progressive in the early 2000s but after her simultaneous promotions to the NC Senate and NC Treasurer, Cowell is now a face of the Democratic establishment in NC with Roy Cooper term-limited and likely focused on 2028 or 2032 and Josh Stein likely the next governor. Both ex-Mayors Charles Meeker and McFarlane have already backed her.

In the end it's Eugene Myrick over Terrance Ruth for me.

District A

Whitney Hill, like Fitts, is extremely pro-cop and Republican.

Mitchell Silver is the city's former planning director and has firm establishment support lined up behind him. 

This makes reelecting Mary Black a very easy choice.

District B

I empathically support Megan Patton for reelection in Northeast Raleigh.

District C

Corey Branch was forced back into defending his seat after it became clear that various groups in Southeast Raleigh were going to back Cowell in the mayor's race and that there was very little to no confidence in any of the six people aiming to replace him. Given that he's a status quo face on the current City Council, he's a no-go for this blog.

Tomara DeCosta pretty much disqualified herself the moment she said that she was a conservative Republican.

Tolulope Omokaiye has the official Wake County Democratic Party endorsement, making her the establishment's pick (sorta).

Out of the other four, Daniel Grant-King gets the nod over Portia Rochelle, Daquanta Copeland and Jared Ollison.

District D

Jane Harrison is running unopposed, but the fact that she supported the failed ceasefire resolution is a green light for me.

District E

Christina Jones deserves another term even though NC State alum and 9/11 hero John Cerqueira is also in this race.

At-Large

Stormie Foote and Jonathan Melton do not deserve to be reelected--and I'll leave it at that.

James Bledsoe is aligned with Andrew Yang's Forward Party.

Robert Steele, Jr. lost his fiancée in the October 2022 mass shooting in East Raleigh's Hedingham neighborhood.

Reeves Peeler is endorsed by the NC Triangle DSA, but there's one major problem that prevented me from endorsing him: The Red Hat Ampitheater. On September 24, Peeler was one of the five votes on the Planning Commission that went against the City Council's decision to close South Street between Dawson and McDowell Streets. Ultimately, the Planning Commission's decision didn't matter but if it did, Peeler would have been blamed for Downtown Raleigh being less lively.

As a true socialist and the only Green Party member running in the capital city, Joshua Bradley is the only choice for this contest.

In a shock to no one

The four members of the Raleigh City Council who voted for the ceasefire resolution were the four I endorsed while the other four voted to kill it. Of course, the latter four were the same ones endorsing Ukrainian Nazis and lighting up Downtown Raleigh yellow and light blue just a couple of years ago as part of the previous City Council. 

Raleigh--just like Greensboro--endorses genocide.

Downtown Greensboro news

Triad City Beat | EDITOR’S NOTEBOOK: The Assembly, and collaboration (triad-city-beat.com)

Let's hope that this new collaborative effort isn't going to suck up to the political clans that run the city and have gentrified downtown. Hope to REAL journalism since the daily is a zombie publication and the others have pretty much given up any type of investigative work.

Triad City Beat | Greensboro’s Mayor Nancy Vaughan will not seek re-election in 2025 (triad-city-beat.com)

First up, good riddance. Second, now is the time the groups that I previously mentioned to put up or shut up. Either they come together to start fielding a real antiestablishment slate, or they'll forever give up that shot as the city is forever stuck in a loop between establishment hacks and right wing nutjobs because 2029 will be too late.

NC Rants

• Greensboro's lack of a food hall is a new low for an area already known for being a national laggard and the fact that ROAR was converted to an event space four months ago shows that the Triad is moving in the opposite direction as the number of food halls is once again reduced to one
• What's happening to Triad Stage speaks for itself--namely, that Greensboro is taking yet another step to conceding the arts to Winston-Salem
• Meanwhile, a couple of hours to the east, the Raleigh City Council is making even more bonehead decisions as it decided table a proposal to add three seats while also introducing staggered four-year terms in 2026 without even putting it on the ballot like Greensboro did in 2015
• Speaking of Raleigh, the previous City Council reduced the hours of hot dog carts from 3 am to 1:15 am while doing nothing to curtail gentrification. In the two decades since I left the city, Downtown Raleigh has gone from a ghost town when I graduated to a place that has become unaffordable
• The election to replace Mary-Ann Baldwin is not looking too promising

Trouble in the Ballpark District

At the beginning of the year, the City of High Point decided to split ways with Elliott Sidewalk Communities. Out of the four parcels, only Parcel C was developed (into the food hall). Parcel A is still a parking lot while the other two never got developed.

I will not blame this on the city as yet another example of it being resistant to change. This is all on Elliott Sidewalk. They had six years and only developed 25 percent of the land given to them so if the Ballpark District ends up undercooked, it's all ESC's fault.

Source 1

Source 2

Cardiac Pack 2.0

I'm forever grateful that the Wolfpack men's basketball team turned it around when it was almost a certainty that a coaching change was inevitable prior to the start of the ACC Tournament in D.C. While I treated the Final Four run as an extremely pleasant surprise, I'm hoping that this is the beginning of a new era of success.

A pattern of the team's three ACC Championships in the multi-bid era (from 1975 on):

Every postseason game that the Original Cardiac Pack played in except the Sweet 16 against 10-seed Utah was a nail-biter.

The previous team to win an ACC title won every game in that tournament by single digits.

Most of this year's ACCT games as well as a couple of NCAAT games were close too.

Meanwhile, notice a glaring difference between the '24 team against the other two championship teams:

Can anyone say unprecedented?

No one gave this year's team much love whereas the '83 team was hampered by Dereck Whittenburg's injury before Cardiac Pack 1.0 went on that Cinderella run once he returned from his injury. The '87 team started the season as an NCAA Tournament caliber team before it fell off in the middle of the season and had to rally in Metro D.C. just to get into the Big Dance.