🧵 In Today’s Edition
1. A Historic Election on the Greensboro City Council
2. The Agenda
3. What We’re Reading
Changing of the Guard
When Greensboro residents cast their votes for a new city council last week, it was more than another election: it was a true sea change.
Voters chose to return just three incumbents to the nine-member council—Marikay Abuzuaiter, who was elected mayor; Hugh Holston, a popular at-large member; and Tammi Thurm, who retained her seat in District 5.
The new council will be very different in age, race, and experience. That could change not just how the council looks but what it looks at—altering city government’s priorities and direction in a way that worries some in the city and energizes others.
Read the full story here.
— Joe Killian
Thanks for reading The Thread, a 3x week newsletter written by Greensboro editor Joe Killian and reporters Sayaka Matsuoka and Gale Melcher. Reach us with tips or ideas at greensboro@theassemblync.com.
The Agenda
Miss having a council meeting last week due to the municipal election? Fret not—they’ll be back tonight! The new mayor and council won’t be sworn in until Dec. 2, according to the mayor’s office. The Guilford County Board of Education is also holding its legislative committee meeting. Read on to find out what’s on their agendas.
City of Greensboro
City Council bimonthly meeting
Monday, Nov. 10, at 5:30 p.m. @ Melvin Municipal Office Building in the Katie Dorsett Council Chambers, 300 W. Washington St.
This meeting will include the monthly public comment period. To make a comment during that time or speak on a specific agenda item, sign up here.
Here’s what’s on the docket:
- On a bittersweet note, the council will rename Barber Park Event Center in honor of the late Yvonne Johnson, the veteran council member and former mayor who died last December.
- Amending city law related to the powers and duties of the city’s Minimum Housing Standards Commission, which will take away the commission’s authority to inspect homes with the inspector, as well as a provision that references their ability to study rental rates. Currently, the law reads that the MHSC can “study rental rates, the need for reconditioning or condemnation, and other housing conditions within the city, and to make recommendations to the council concerning such matter” and “inspect houses and living quarters in the city, and shall have the right to enter with the inspector for that purpose in accordance with applicable law.” According to the city, the provision “currently includes duties that are outdated and no longer consistent with current city practice.”
This measure comes after a July 2024 letter from the MHSC’s chairman, Franklin Scott, notifying the city council that the commission had passed a resolution supporting N.C. Governor Josh Stein’s lawsuit against RealPage, a revenue management software company that has been accused of illegally raising rents across the country. In August 2024, the U.S. Department of Justice filed a lawsuit stating that the company’s pricing algorithm violates antitrust laws. Since then, multiple property management companies that have used RealPage have shelled out millions to settle legal battles.
As outlined by the North Carolina Department of Justice, RealPage sells its software to property managers across the country, who share detailed, nonpublic, competitively sensitive data with the company, including information about units coming on the market and their rental rates. Then, RealPage suggests a price that property managers should charge for their apartments to make more money. “…RealPage uses a range of strategies to induce its clients to automatically accept those recommendations,” according to the NCDOJ, “When they do, prices for comparable apartments become artificially inflated, and renters aren’t able to find a better deal by shopping around.”
In 2022, rent for a one-bedroom in Greensboro jumped up by 74 percent. According to Apartments.com, rent has increased by 0.8 percent in the last year, more modestly in comparison to 2022. “We should not allow landlords to collude with one another using technology that takes away the competitiveness of the marketplace,” Scott wrote, adding, “If RealPage is a contributor to the rental increases in our city, we must do something to stop them. It’s already happening in Charlotte. They must not be allowed to operate in Greensboro unchecked.”
- Approving the city’s Water Resource Department’s request for a $2.2 million three-year contract with Blue Arbor, Inc. for temporary labor services.
Guilford County
Board of Education Legislative Committee meeting
Monday, Nov. 10, at 9:30 a.m. (starts in half an hour!) @ The Community Education Center in room 114 at 2703 E. Florida St.
The board will be discussing its legislative priorities and planning its calendar.
Links to local board meetings and agendas:
Guilford County – Board of Commissioners
Guilford County – Board of Education
— Gale Melcher
What We’re Reading
Going to the Tape: The Greensboro Police Department is asking a judge to release body camera video of a Nov. 3 arrest in which an officer struck a Black man seven times. A video of the arrest from a bystander went viral online and received national attention. The News & Record has more.
Bring a Magazine: Piedmont Triad International Airport isn’t yet cancelling flights, but the Federal Aviation Administration is slowing air traffic as a result of the continued federal government shutdown. That’s likely to lead to slowdowns and flights in and out being cancelled at the larger hubs, reports the Triad Business Journal.
Turning Point: Greensboro has concluded its Emergency Rental Assistant Program. The city has spent over $19 million in federal funds to support more than 3,000 households since the program began in 2021, according to WFDD.
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