High Point Mayor Jefferson [Part 2]

[Part 2] Scotty and Hannah talk to Mayor Jefferson about the 10 Year Plan for High Point.

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Welcome back to Carolina Cares. I'mHannah Tyler, joined today with Zach Davis
and the mayor of high Point,Cyril Jefferson now mayor. Before we went
to break, we were talking abouteducation. Yeah, and I want to
shout out our superintendent here in GoodfordCounty, doctor Whitney Oakley. She often
is quoted saying we should not bethe number one state for business while also

(00:21):
simultaneously being the very last state interms of teacher pay. Wow, worse
than my host state of Florida.Huh, that's crazy. And it didn't
used to be that way. No, it did it, It did it.
It only happened in the last Yeah, I could name names, but
it's only happened in the last eightto ten years. Yeah. Yeah,
And so I think there's more workto do, obviously, And being someone

(00:43):
who worked in education, I knowthat those are the professionals who go in
every single day with a mission sohard, dude, the best they can
sometimes with very limited resources, timean opportunity, and it's no longer just
oh, come in and teach kids. It's it's Karen figure to them,
and you're watching after a coach.You're a mentor, you're I mean,

(01:03):
you're a lot of things. You'rethree sixty to those kids and sometimes the
only bright spot of the whole day. Yeah, no, I agree,
I do, because this is theperfect time to bring this up, talking
about youth and then revitalization. Iknow a lot of people when they hear
what's happening in high Point, theythink of downtown, what's going on with
the ballfield. But Washington Street wassuch a huge part of historic high Point
and they're trying to bring it backnow and make it what it once was.

(01:26):
I believe it was known as BlackwallStreet. Yep, yeah, yep.
So there's this program called Shop onWashington and it is something being driven
and sponsored by Business high Point Chamberof Commerce through a very special initiative they
have called Thrive high Point. SoThrive high Point was actually created a few
years ago. It started a conversationmyself, doctor Cubine. I remember a
few other members of our city councilwere there in a room with us.

(01:48):
We're having this lunch meeting, andit was the summer after George Floyd was
murdered, and at that time,recall there were a lot of conversations where
people asking questions and saying what needsbe done, what can we do right?
And I've always been someone who's notabout doing measures that are performative,
doing it just because just checking abox, right, as far as been
someone that's saying, how do youreally move the needle? And so,
as we said in that conversation,what I pitched to the room was,

(02:13):
look, I think if we wantto continue to improve, where we see
crime go down, where we seehealth get better, where we see homelessness
go down, where we see youknow, so many thriving and prosperous communities,
I think it starts with the economics. And I think you look at
the history of our country obviously,and what's happened to support businesses over the

(02:34):
years. You know, there's justsome businesses who had certain opportunities that other
business did not have. You goback sixty seventy years when it comes to
bank loans and financing, certain bankswould lend to some businesses and when it
lend to other businesses. Right,And so just knowing that history, what
does it mean for the current stateof our small business and entrepreneurs now?
And so Dot Cubine agreed wholeheartedly andactually put out a challenge gift to the

(02:59):
community is the university is gonna throwin a half million dollars, and we
challenged the rest of the community raisedanother half million to create this initiative.
He tasked me and my team withkind of creating the form around this.
We went and partnered with the Chamberof Commerce, We partnered with the High
Point Community Foundation, We partnered withour count of commissioners, We partnered with
a number of folks, the Minister'sconference, I mean, so on and

(03:21):
so forth. Everyone came around thattable to finish raising money, to design
what this program could be and thenlaunch it into our community. And you
know, as I said, HPUgave half a million, the goal was
to raise another half million, sothat way we had one million total exceed
raising a total of two million dollars. And this program was designed where a
business. Hope Point Chamber of Commercehas now almost for the past three years

(03:45):
successfully ran a minority and women entrepreneurshipinitiative that is fully invested in these businesses.
And so as as that work wasgoing, I mean, they've already
engaged over six hundred plus entrepreneurs,They've gotten access to capital, new business
relationships, established new con tracks thatthey've gotten, they've grown in terms of
their earning potential. Right, allthe things we put us key performance indicators

(04:05):
in this work. And then oneof the things that we learned through a
survey with this group was what arethe things on the horizon that your business
is looking towards? What are thechallenges that are still there? And basically
from that survey result, we're learningthat folks said, you know, part
of scaling of businesses when it's appropriateand when it's time, having some kind

(04:26):
of physical space to be in,and folks indicated that there's immense challenges with
that. You look at rising interestrates and what it costs to go get
a loan now to try to updoa space. You look at what it
is coming out of the pandemic whereyou're still struggling with some downtowns don't see
enough people coming back yet. Socan you even be in that space long
enough to bring in the kind offoot traffic and revenue to be able to

(04:48):
pay back loans and so many otherthings? I mean, there are real
impediments to it. And so welooked at what that opportunity was based on
what we were hearing from businesses basedon what the demand is and also known
this history of Washing Street, asyou said, Hannah, which is that
it was the black wall Street ofhigh Point. And without going to a
long sort of die tribe about wherewhere Wash Street was and how it became

(05:10):
what it is, basically what wesaw is an opportunity. These businesses are
looking to get into physical brick andborder spaces. Washington Street has the inventory,
but that inventory needs some TLC,some tender love and care and some
investment. And so BUSINIPO and chairingof Commerce has basically worked with the community
down there, Wash Street Community Association, the neighborhood down there, because what

(05:30):
they didn't want to do is comein and say here's what we're going to
do. It was really like,how do we work together? And for
the past year plus the group's beenworking together to figure out what this looks
like. I'm excited because they're completingassessments to know what the call star for
upfitting a lot of those buildings,to know what it is going to be
so that way we'll know a totalfundraising amount. And we've got a number

(05:51):
of partners potential donors at the tablesaying once you know that number, let
us know, because we want tocommit to an amount. We want to
see Washing Street be revitalized because it'sactually, if you look at it,
not more than a mile from thestadium district where the Betrod buildings going.
And so what we feel is ifyou activate that corridor, it can be
a part of the synergy and foottraffic that's really taking place also not too

(06:14):
far from that catalyst district. Herekids run mile mile length from the stadium
to Washington Street just saying started outthere. They're like, if you did
like a three K or a fiveK or whatever something like that, get
all that synergy going. My lastquestion for you, mister mayor, is
are we going to get new digson a city hall and high point.
I've been hearing that. I mean, he has a rumor, he has

(06:39):
a look, he's he's like heknows something he can't tell. Now,
this is a great question. Zachand Hannah, thank you both. So
so we as we did the researchon what it takes to build a great
downtown, you find that in somany communities either they build it around their
existing city hall where they relocate theircity hall, and where our current city

(07:00):
Hall is placed, is right inthe middle of the furniture market district.
We have a lot of showrooms andit's really untenable to try to activate that
and that that's another long story.So twice a year, there you go,
there you go. And so lookingat what we're doing with downtown,
we said, you know, ourexisting city Hall, we already knew we
were busting at the seams of Yougo back several city managers ago before the

(07:24):
one we have now, before theone that was there when I got on
council, several city managers ago,and they were doing studies then saying,
man, we're a busting at theseams. What can we do? So
the thought was, either you buildon your current spot, which is going
to cost tens of millions still becauseit's an older building and structure, you
get so much you have to do, take it ada accessible and a bunch
of stuff. Or as we lookedat it, we said, could we

(07:46):
find a comparable pricing structure to gobuild new in downtown where the stadium and
everything's going to be at, becausewe know if we do it, you're
going to bring hundreds of office jobsdown there that can support those businesses.
Hundreds, if not thousands of visitorsevery single week who would then be in
downtown. Support that. But Ithink what's most interesting, and I was
in a meeting Yestera where folks didn'tknow this. I wanted to break it

(08:07):
down to them. This won't justbe a city hall. Imagine a pretty
sizable building where only several of thefloors are your actual city administration floors,
where the city hall and council chambers, all those things will be. The
rest of the building will be devotedto other uses that we feel would contribute
to the growth of downtown. So, for example, your bottom floor could

(08:28):
be some kind of retailer. Itcould be a grocery store. It could
be a bank, it could beall those things. Because it's every day
I was gonna say we need frompeople will say we need a grocery store
in downtown. So perhaps this presentsthat opportunity. The second floor we could
devote to something else and another businessthat they say, hey, we want

(08:48):
to move into this building too.They could be there, right. We
could put housing on the same place. So it's it's really set to be
a mixed use, multipurpose development.We've got a consultant right now, helping
us look at what those different usescould be, who we could attract,
and also not just doing it ina way that activates that building, but

(09:09):
also keeps the costs as low aspossible by bringing in some other contributors who
can invest in that project with us. That's fantastic. I think I speak
for both of us when I couldsay we could talk to you for hours.
Yes, you brought up two otherthings I want to mention on.
Unfortunately we don't have time today.Mister mayor, Cirl Jefferson, thank you
so much for coming in. Thankyou, mister mar I appreciate you.
Zach and Hannah, iHeartMedia. Thankyou all so much. Looking forward to

(09:31):
keeping in touch. Also, whenyou guys move downtown, can we get
a key to your office just tocome hang out with you sometimes we're going
to be right across the street.Did you say he's got to go