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City Council and mayoral candidates gathered at New Hope Missionary Baptist Church for a public forum hosted by the Black and Brown Women’s Voting Initiative in partnership with Beloved Community Center of Greensboro, Inc., on Monday night, giving residents the opportunity to hear how candidates plan to address the most pressing issues in East Greensboro, from environmental justice to affordable housing and gun violence.
One of the central themes of the evening was environmental racism, with specific focus on two critical local sites: Bingham Park and the White Street Landfill. Candidates were asked about their plans for the remediation of Bingham Park, a site impacted by industrial pollution and neglect, and the complete closure of the White Street Landfill.
Community members prefaced the discussion with expressing concerns about the landfill’s continuous impact on surrounding neighborhoods, citing long-standing health and environmental risks.
“We’re talking about the lives of people and communities for a quarter of a century,” said resident Damian Williams.
Mayoral candidate Marikay Abuzuaiter expressed a strong commitment to fully remediate Bingham Park, estimating a need for up to $52 million. During council talks earlier this year, she was one of seven councilmembers who voted ‘yes’ to using White Street Landfill as a dumping site for contaminated soil from Bingham Park.
“I want to fully remediate, and I mean fully,” she said. “The vote that evening was to cap and make sure that we could at least cap before the $10 million was gone. Because I guarantee you one thing. If we don’t use the state money, the $10 million, and the funds that we have, we will never get another dime from the state. We absolutely need to use that money now. Because it’s going to go away.”
Former Mayor Robbie Perkins clarified he wasn’t on council during the Bingham Park vote, but noted his previous opposition to reopening the White Street Landfill.
“I fought tooth and nail against the reopening of that landfill,” he said.
In response to questions about deploying the National Guard during protests, this time, both mayoral candidates voiced opposition. However, during a primary election forum hosted by Citadel Church and the organization Justice 4 The Next Generation, Perkins, along with at-large candidate Carla Franklin and two out of three District 4 candidates Nicky Smith and Steve Ignac abstained from answering the National Guard deployment question. The other candidates in attendance said “no” regarding National Guard deployment in Greensboro.
During Tuesday’s forum, Perkins said, “Whenever possible, we should rely on our resources at home. The Guard should defer to those who know our local needs best.”
Abuzuaiter, highlighted the leadership of local law enforcement and said, “We don’t need the National Guard coming here who knows nothing about the history of our city.”
On housing, both mayoral candidates acknowledged the urgency of addressing Greensboro’s growing unhoused population.
“It’s an abomination and a shame,” said Abuzuaiter, pointing to pallet shelters and collaborations with faith communities to support emergency and affordable housing. “I don’t want anyone to be unhoused. Greensboro is making some strides.”
Perkins criticized what he called financial mismanagement, referencing a failed $3.5 million housing deal.
“We fumbled the ball,” he said. “We’re going to sell it for $350,000. What can you do with $3.15 million on the east side if you spend it wisely? Sixty units is great, but we need ten times that. This council hasn’t done anything with it.”
Gun violence and community engagement drew passionate responses.
Abuzuaiter described her on-the-ground involvement.
“I walk with mothers standing against gun violence. We knock on doors in every neighborhood where there’s been a homicide,” she said. “Every single person in Greensboro should feel safe.”
Perkins spoke about his work with violence interrupters through the One Step Further program founded by the late at-large city council person Yvonne Johnson.
“Those programs make a difference, but it’s one person at a time,” he said, also calling out a need for equity in policing.
“I’ll have zero tolerance for racial profiling. Policing in our city is a tale of two sides. One side of town wants more enforcement. The other side wants to be safe but not profiled. We’ve got to figure this out together,” said Perkins.
Of the six at-large candidates, four participated in the forum: Irving Allen, Jamila Pinder, Hugh Holston, and Richard Beard. Candidates Denise Turner Roth and T. Dianne Bellamy-Small were not present at the forum.
Allen, who is transitioning from renter to homeowner, shared his own housing experience, emphasizing the need for accessible housing programs and better outreach.
“We have those programs in Greensboro, but they’re not getting to the right places,” he added. “We can’t just put it on the city’s website and expect people to find it. Everyone doesn’t have the connectivity or savviness to navigate those things. So, we need folks to not only knock on doors when things go wrong, but also knock on doors year-round with opportunities.
He voiced strong support for environmental cleanup.
“I’ve raised my children in these communities. I’ve seen the results of environmental racism,” Allen said. “We don’t need to pass that down to another generation.”
He also addressed programs and safe places for youth.
“I started out organizing with young people. I’ll tell you that you have to have relationships to be able to impact their lives. We have to build relationships and programming. But it can’t just be a program. They have to be involved with creating those programs so that we can connect them to the futures that they want to see in our city.”
Beard focused on holding corporate landlords accountable.
“Rents are through the roof,” he said. “And I’m not happy with the lack of accountability from our city staff.”
While Beard stopped short of fully endorsing Bingham Park remediation, he noted, “I want to learn more about it, but I want our parks to be clean and safe.”
Holston, an incumbent, discussed the city’s rising construction costs and expanding down payment assistance programs.
“To build a 1,200-square-foot home with no garage costs between $250,000 and $280,000,” he said. “That’s where down payment assistance programs work.”
He also took aim at large corporate investors, noting that 70 percent of homes in East Greensboro purchased for $100,000–$200,000 were bought with cash, likely by outside entities. He reaffirmed his vote for Bingham Park remediation.
“In 2022, council made a bad decision,” Holston said. “I was one of the two who voted to fully remediate.”
Pinder, a first-time homeowner after 20 years of renting, stressed the link between income and housing access.
“The average home needs a $75,000 income to afford, but the city’s average is $50,000,” she said. “If we don’t talk about workforce development, we’re just spinning our wheels.”
She said she supports solutions like community land trusts as a steppingstone to ownership.
“It gives people a chance who don’t yet have the income,” she said.
In District 1, incumbent Sharon Hightower and challenger Crystal Black both agreed that many Greensboro residents, particularly in East Greensboro, are not receiving the city services their tax dollars are meant to fund.
“I think some residents are getting what they pay for,” said Black. “But in communities that look like this, we’re historically underserved –from parks to housing. That has to change.”
She pointed to disparities in park maintenance between Bryan Park and Country Park as one example of uneven service.
“It’s reflected as we travel from one end of East Greensboro to the other,” she added.
Hightower echoed those concerns and called for internal change within city departments.
“When you look at street maintenance, it’s clear the same level of care isn’t happening here as it is across town,” she said. “Until staff has a cultural mindset shift and commit to truly serving underserved areas, this will continue to be a fight.”
She also addressed a previously discussed food tax proposal, making it clear she would only support it if the revenue went directly to underserved neighborhoods.
“If I was able to support one, you would have to give 20 percent of that revenue to East Greensboro,” said Hightower. “We’re talking 20 percent of $20 million, and actually it should be 50 percent over here, because that’s the dollars that it’s going to take to advance in areas that have been underserved for years.”
In the race for Greensboro’s District 2 City Council seat, candidates Cecile Crawford and Monica Walker will face off in November. Both were asked to share their experience in building coalitions, a key skill for effective leadership.
Crawford cited her role with the American Friends Service Committee, where she helped launch Keep Gate City Housed, a coalition of homeowners, landlords, and tenants working to protect renters from displacement. The group’s initial focus was on supporting residents of Cottage Gardens. She and the group successfully lobbied the City Council to invest $1.47 million into a rental assistance fund for tenants impacted by job loss or illness.
“We started a court watch to begin educating our communities on how tenants are being affected. Not just by evictions, but by terrible landlords,” Crawford said.
Walker, a longtime racial equity advocate, emphasized her experience leading neighborhood and citywide coalitions. She currently serves as president of the Gorrell Street Neighborhood Association and played a key role in establishing the Unified Neighborhood Association of Southeast Greensboro, which brings together multiple communities under one voice.
“I’ve done that all over the United States. Building coalitions from one end of the country to the other,” Walker said. “Power is in numbers. When you’ve got numbers, you make a difference.”
The District 3 race will feature incumbent Zack Matheny and challenger April Parker in the November election. Matheny did not attend the recent public forum, but Parker used the opportunity to outline a bold and inclusive vision for Greensboro’s future.
“What I hope to do is build a bridge,” Parker said. “We haven’t just concentrated poverty in the city, we’ve concentrated the problems.”
Parker called for a deeper, more honest conversation about systemic racism in Greensboro, emphasizing that equity must be more than a line in a report.
“It can’t be a flippant, simple sentence in a plan,” she said. “We need to scrutinize and examine, collectively, what justice can look like in this lifetime.”
She reminded the audience that District 3 encompasses more than just downtown and stressed that her campaign centers on equity and inclusion.
“I’m bringing the inclusion because y’all are coming with me,” she said.
In the District 4 race, Adam Marshall is set to face Nicky Smith in the November election. Smith did not attend the recent candidate forum, but Marshall shared his vision for revitalizing the UNCG and Greensboro Coliseum areas, both of which he said have been overlooked in city planning.
“I think one of the things that’s been lacking in the city, including around this area, is planning. Planning for retail, for housing, and for the maintenance of the Coliseum,” said Marshall.
He stressed the importance of long-term investment in the city-owned venue.
“We’ve got to figure out how we’re going to pay for the maintenance on that facility. If the Coliseum and the surrounding areas aren’t maintained properly, it brings down the rest of the community.”
The District 5 City Council race will feature incumbent Tammi Thurm and challenger Jeanette Davidson-Meyers. Both candidates were asked how they would ensure their district’s needs are met while also advocating for equitable investment across Greensboro.
Davidson-Meyers emphasized the importance of representing the entire city, not just one area.
“I want to make sure that the whole city is represented,” she said. “It’s not about one section of the city over another. It never should have been, and I don’t see it being that way going forward.”
Thurm, now in her second term, acknowledged District 5’s history of underinvestment.
“If you look at the numbers, District 5 has had less investment from the city in infrastructure, parks and recreation, and more than any other district in the past 20 years,” she said. “So yes, I will stand up for my district, but not at the expense of others.”
She proposed a strategy to create more equitable, affordable housing by linking city support for water and sewer infrastructure to development commitments.
“If a developer agrees to include 20 or 25 percent affordable housing, then the city would support that same percentage of the infrastructure costs,” Thurm explained. “That would help distribute affordable housing across all districts, rather than concentrating it in Districts 1, 2, and the southern part of District 5, as is currently the case.”
Early voting for the November 4, 2025 Municipal General Election in Greensboro runs from Thursday, October 16, through Saturday, November 1. Election Day is Tuesday, November 4.
