Former Greensboro City Councilman Zack Matheny is settling into his new role as president and CEO of Downtown Greensboro Inc. The non-profit organization is dedicated to promoting investment and activity in the downtown area.
WFDD's Neal Charnoff spoke with Matheny about his plans for DGI and recent political developments in Greensboro.
"The broad vision is for DGI to add value to the city of Greensboro to bring a sense of coolness back to Greensboro," says Matheny. "Greensboro has tremendous assets that we're growing. Over $330 million dollars of investment is going to happen over the next few years."
As a member of the City Council, Matheny had been a vocal critic of DGI's effectiveness. He says the organization in the past did not listen closely enough to the business community.
"The thing that the organization needs is to be out in front," says Matheny. "We need to out on the street. We need to be talking with folks on the sidewalks, in the restaurants, the business owners and say 'what can we do to help this?' and probably one of my critiques is that we didn't do that enough."
Matheny is concerned that a recent bill redistricting the city has been divisive. In fact, the city has filed a lawsuit over HB 263, which restructured city government. But Matheny says right now he is more worried about HB 97. The bill sponsored by Sen. Trudy Wade would make it easier for municipalities to abolish certain local self-imposed taxes.
"Senator Wade and I had a conversation on my first day on the job at DGI. She was very nice and she said she's pulling for me and she can't wait to work with me to help downtown Greensboro," says Matheny.
He adds his response was also polite and respectful:
"Then please don't take my budget away."
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