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Morning, gang.
This week we caught up with Greensboro City Council Member Nancy Hoffmann, who is stepping down this year after 14 years representing District 4. She’s not alone.
Mayor Nancy Vaughan and Goldie Wells (District 2) are also stepping down. Yvonne Johnson, a long-time at-large member and mayor pro tempore, planned to retire before her unexpected death late last year. Current Mayor Pro Tem Marikay Abuzuaiter is considering a run for mayor. Should she run and lose, it will make for a turnover of at least four seats on the nine-member council.
Though filing won’t officially begin until this summer, Hoffmann’s district has already drawn two serious candidates and may well see more. We talked to her about her time on council, how she knew it was time to leave, and what she hopes to see from a council that will look very different next year.
Let’s get into it.
– Joe Killian
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Nancy Hoffmann Looks to the Future
When Nancy Hoffmann first ran for Greensboro City Council in District 4, she was 69 years old.
“So you do the math on that,” Hoffmann said with a laugh this week.
After fourteen years on council, Hoffmann is part of a mass exodus of long-serving members that will make for a very different city council next year. She won’t be running for further office in Greensboro, she said, but plans to stay engaged locally in her retirement.
“I have tried to be very supportive of young professionals in this city and put them on boards and commissions when they want to get involved,” Hoffmann said. “I think it’s time to lower the age a little bit on city council. Physically and mentally I think I could do it again. But I think it’s time for another generation of leadership.”
Hoffmann’s coming exit has already drawn two very different hopefuls in her district.
Nicky Smith, a conservative businessman who recently sought to finish the late Yvonne Johnson’s term as an at-large representative, has had targeted social media ads running for months now.
Though city council races are technically non-partisan, District 4 tends to lean Democratic. Hoffmann has won handily there since her first race, only running unopposed once. Smith said he knows that history but feels things may be shifting. He considers himself “right but not hard right,” and a supporter of President Donald Trump who has for weeks been suggesting the city and its police department aren’t cooperating enough with ICE.
Hoffmann calls Smith “as MAGA as it gets.” Though she’s not yet endorsing anyone, she had some critical words for Smith during his unsuccessful bid to finish Johnson’s term, questioning him about various political positions he’s staked out through his campaign website and YouTube videos as well. She also took him to task for voting in only two of the last five city elections.
Smith called that an “unwarranted political smear,” pointing out that the candidate ultimately appointed to Johnson’s seat, Jamilla Pinder, had voted in just one city election.
The appointment was an example of the council’s hypocrisy, Smith said, and aversion to voices from outside the political establishment.
“I think it’s time to get rid of some of these career politicians on city council,” Smith said.
Pinder’s civic commitment is apparent in other ways, Hoffmann said, including service with the Greensboro Transit Advisory Council, Safer City Greensboro, Concerned Citizens of Northeast Greensboro as well as the Women’s Resource Center and the United Way of Greater Greensboro.
That’s also true of Adam Marshall, Hoffmann said, the only other declared candidate in District 4. An attorney, Marshall has served on the Greensboro Criminal Justice Advisory Commission and the Greensboro Zoning Commission, including terms as chair of each. He has also served on the Greensboro Human Relations Commission, Board of Adjustment, and the city’s Alcohol Beverage Control Board.
“These are really the citizens’ way to contribute, service on some of these boards and commissions,” Marshall said. “You talk about being in ‘the room where it happens’—I’ve been there and seen a lot of how things work. So I think I can hit the ground running without a lot of catch-up. My opponent may not think that experience is valuable, but I do.”
A Democrat, Marshall said he believes he’s closer to where voters are in District 4.
Readers will have a clear choice in District 4, Hoffmann said—and at an important time.
“I think we’ve had a good decade on council,” Hoffmann said. “It’s time now for some new people to come in. In politics, timing is everything. So now is the time for us to hand this off to new leadership.”
– Joe Killian
Read this newsletter online or contact The Thread team with tips and feedback at greensboro@theassemblync.com.
She Shall Not Be Moved (But Her Show Will)
Last week Greensboro’s own Rhiannon Giddens became the latest artist to pull out of a performance at The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.
The Grammy and Pulitzer Prize winner, also a McArthur “genius” grant recipient, said she will move her May 11 show to a new venue, The Anthem in Washington, D.C.
The move comes in the wake of President Donald Trump purging board members of the national cultural center and appointing new ones who elected him chairman. Trump has insulted the center, its choice of performers, and promised to cancel shows that don’t align with his political views.
“The Kennedy Center show was booked long before the current administration decided to take over this previously bipartisan institution,” Giddens wrote in a social media statement.
Giddens is part of a wave of other artists making the same decision, including Winston-Salem native Ben Folds. Folds resigned as artistic advisor to the National Symphony Orchestra last month.
The new board also fired Deborah Rutter, who served as the center’s president since 2014.
“The goal of the Kennedy Center has been to live up to our namesake, serving as a beacon for the world and ensuring our work reflects America,” Rutter said in a public statement. “I depart my position proud of all we accomplished to meet that ambition. From the art on our stages to the students we have impacted in classrooms across America, everything we have done at the Kennedy Center has been about uplifting the human spirit in service of strengthening the culture of our great nation.”
— Joe Killian
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What We’re Reading
Eastern Music Festival Canceled for 2025: Last week the board of directors of the Eastern Music Festival canceled this year’s events, having failed to resolve a labor dispute with unionized faculty members. The festival was to be held on the campus of Guilford College from June 28 to August 2. A group of patrons had pledged $360,000 to raise pay if the board accepted faculty conditions and gave the patrons seats on the board. They told the News & Record they were disappointed that the board instead decided to cancel, saying they hope to relaunch next year.
No Ways Tired: We continue to hear from readers about our story on the death of Rev. Nelson Johnson last month. Many said they were unaware of the details of Johnson’s activism after the Greensboro Massacre, including a push in the ‘90s to unionize a Kmart distribution center here in the city. For more on that, we suggest frequent Assembly contributor Barry Yeoman’s great 1996 piece from Southern Exposure, which you can read here.
Around the State
Neighborly Dispute Over Vultures Puts Wildlife Feeding in the Spotlight
One couple says the birds came with their house. Their neighbors say the duo won’t stop feeding the scavengers, and the town has weighed in.
Thom Tillis Is Already Navigating a Delicate Balance for Reelection
Asked what he makes of primary threats, Sen. Thom Tillis was wry. “They’re cute,” he said.
UNC Men’s Basketball is Having a Kodak Moment–and Not in a Good Way
Kodak was among the most valuable brands in the world before its insular culture contributed to its demise. UNC men’s basketball could be making the same mistake.
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