Ward 1 candidates Jeffrey Golden (left) and Bernita SimsCandidates for High Point City Council ward seats discussed community policing, empty industrial properties, neighborhood-level governance and where they would live if they had to leave High Point. Candidates' responses indicated a critical perspective on policing and revealed a perception of disparate treatment. They offered a range of ideas on what to do with the empty manufacturing facilities that dot the core city. Most but not all supported the concept of a neighborhood congress. An incumbent took a stand against privatization of the state's liquor monopoly, and a newcomer argued for a small business incubator modeled after Greensboro's Nussbaum Center. Candidates gave entertaining responses to a question about their second favorite city in North Carolina.
Ward 4 candidate AB Henley, Ward 5 candidate Geoff Shull and Ward 6 candidate Gerald Grubb did not participate.
Moderator Al Heggins asked candidates how they would rate the High Point Police Department’s effectiveness in the practice of community policing on a scale of 1 to 5.
Bernita Sims, Ward 1 candidate: “Speaking only about community policing, I would probably have to rate them at a two and a half. And the reason for that is I believe that overall our police department probably does well. I believe that there’s a desire on the part of the leadership team that’s in place in the police department to do well. But I believe there is a lack of some transparency in the department as it relates to how do officers deal with some very specific issues that occur in wards 1 and 2. I believe there are some things that indicate that we could do a little bit better in how we treat those citizens in those wards. We could do a little bit better with how we communicate with those citizens in those wards. We could do better with creating a relationship with the individuals who live there, with those that have neighborhood associations and try to foster a situation where there’s not this fear of police and we could create a basic understanding of what the police department does and how it functions. Could they be better? Absolutely, yes. Overall, the performance of the police department somewhat overshadows this issue when you talk about community policing. And I think there needs to be some changes made.”
Jeffrey Golden, Ward 1 candidate: “I just go by life experiences to support my answer. What I see from living in this community is you tend to have slower responses in some communities, especially the poorest ones. You tend to have a different kind of treatment in your dealings with police officers, primarily wards 1 and 2. But when you look at the overall picture, you would think that the High Point police is doing a very good job because crime is down – and the numbers say it’s down. Do I give the police credit for all that? No. I give a lot of credit to the neighborhood associations. I give a lot of credit to groups like [Community Against Violence.”
Foster Douglas, Ward 2 candidate: “I also believe that in Ward 1 as well as Ward 2 there is a lack of sensitivity. I don’t think the police department has the sensitivity when they approach different citizens, whatever the call may be. Although I think the department as a whole means well, but I think that until they are able to relate to different circumstances in different communities – I also think that being in the community more often, knowing people within the community, on the streets, knowing their names, knowing the people in the third house over on Chestnut Street, knowing what their names are, I think that would be a good way to improve the communication with the police department.”
Jill Harwood, Ward 2 candidate: “In Ward 2, my husband and I have visited the various homes, they had that same feeling that [the police] weren’t respectful to the person living in that home…. A person is not the color of their skin. A person is a person that has feelings, has a home and don’t want it robbed , and don’t want to be disrespected. I wasn’t there when those things happened, but I feel we need better communication with the police force. I feel that the people of the neighborhood, just because you’re one neighbor don’t mean you can’t treat you like some other neighbor.”
Chris Williams, Ward 2 candidate: “I would give them probably about a three and a half — probably closer to a 4, a 3.8 or something. For me, the reason for that is the changes I’ve seen since I was a teenager, the amount of crime that was around in my neighborhood. Then, when I saw more police and community involvement, I saw it go down dramatically. I always try to tell people: ‘Police are people, too.’ They’re going to have good days. They’re going to have bad days.”
Bob Fowler, Ward 4 candidate: “It’s a difficult question to answer if you haven’t been directly involved in incidents dealing with the officers on a personal basis. Personally, I have not had that opportunity to do that…. It’s just going to take the quality of training that the officers receive, the quality of involvement of the community, different groups working with them…. Overall, I think they’re doing a fairly good job. There’s always room for improvement. I think I would give them a three and a half.”
Chris Whitley, Ward 5 candidate: “Community has changed since the years I’ve been on council. There was times on weekends when there was one officer north of the tracks, literally. Two police chiefs later things have improved. High Point CAV — they have been involved with creating the community policing concept that is now recognized nationwide and has actually received awards from the National League of Cities. In that context, they’re doing a good job, particularly in a bad economy…. I would agree that there is a concept that police treat different areas — I think as far as the number of officers, I think we’ve done a fairly good job of equalizing the number of officers around town. Overall, I would have to say I give them a 4 for the effort that they have done and for the policies that they have put in place. But is there improvements? There are definitely improvements needed. There may be some additional sensitivity, whether it’s the way they look, or they drive, how that individual reacts to them, just depends on the officer’s personality. Things can go different.”
Rodney Joslin, Ward 5 candidate: “I had one instance in which the police did come. We had a car stolen out of our garage. Based on that, I would give [the police] a 3. We were treated like — I guess they didn’t realize we were Ward 5. It was almost like we were involved with the theft. We weren’t very happy with that, [and] didn’t feel like we were treated in the best manner, and so in that instance we weren’t happy. But, a couple years later we have a tornado come through town, and they did a fantastic job. Four and a half. I give them a four and a half for what they did. It was unbelievable.”
Jim Corey, Ward 6 candidate: “Community policing is when policemen walk the beat and get to know their neighborhoods and people that live in neighborhoods. And if my understanding of the concept of community policing is correct, we don’t do much community policing in this community or most other communities. Today, policemen ride around in cars. And basically, that might be someone’s concept of community policing, but it’s not the traditional concept of community policing where policemen are actually in communities walking the beat. So, since very rarely is this do anymore in America, I can’t use that criteria to, if you will, judge the High Point Police Department. I would probably give them about a 3. I think that probably violent crime and other things would cloud my judgment in giving them a three because if I were using my criteria it would be about a 1. But I do think, riding in their car, they’ve reduced crime and other indices, so I’ll give them a 3.”
Jason Ewing, Ward 6 candidate: “I would give our police department a 4. Now, granted I don’t have any experience in wards 1 and 2, so I can only speak to what I’ve experienced in the north part of High Point. I’ve done police ride-longs, so I do know what kind of calls and what their technology is. And they have some excellent technology to ensure the public safety of our citizens and the safety of the police officers. And the community groups, the Community Against Violence has done a great job with reducing the violent crime and some of the crime with violent offenders. I wish I could rate it better on the whole as a whole city by having experience in the other parts of the city that probably – that might be more neglected or at least feel like they’re more neglected that other folks are.”
What should be done to reuse empty industrial and commercial buildings in High Point?
Sims, Ward 1: “I think that perhaps we need to look at some nontraditional uses. There are dollars available through the state for historic tax credits, mill tax credits, all types of tax credits. I think to go in and look at revitalizing those or rehabilitating those buildings for housing needs — we talk about affordable housing — maybe that’s an opportunity to make that happen with some mixed use going on as well. Some retail mixed with some housing mixed with some other things that could sort of think outside the box or throw away the box in how we do it. We talk about the 12-foot ceilings and how difficult it is to go back in and have traditional businesses relocate in there, or let’s say manufacturing relocate. And I would say were doing very well north of town in the green fields. There are jobs that are being developed out there. There are things that are happening. And whether or not we’ll ever get back to that industrial base or manufacturing base that we’ve always had I don’t know. I do know that in other communities they have gone into old, abandoned warehouses and things of that nature and they’ve gone in and actually built housing. They’ve built apartments and other nontraditional things that provide a place for people to stay. And I think that in this community we do have a shortage of what I call low-to-moderate income housing and affordable housing. So I think that we need to look at other ways and other opportunities that might be available to us, and not just think in traditional terms of how do we get businesses to relocate to those areas. Let’s start thinking creatively about other things that we can do, even to the point of arts and cultural uses. What other things can we generate and bring to this community that would afford those kind of things that Mr. Golden has talked about of entertainment and all of those things. That’s an opportunity that is there, that we should take advantage of it.”
Douglas, Ward 2: “I think we would have to retrofit the buildings and so forth to get them to accommodate any company that would be willing to move to High Point to utilize those buildings.”
Fowler, Ward 4: “The biggest problem we have with a lot of our older buildings is lower ceilings for manufacturing. No one today wants a 12-foot ceiling. They want 18 feet, 24 feet, 28 feet in height if you’re doing any kind of storage, delivery, that kind of thing. They want to maximize their footage in height and width. That kind of narrows the field, if you will, of the type of occupants you could get into some of the older existing buildings with some of the lower ceilings. You would have to get some kind of either research [activities that don’t require as high a ceiling height].”
Whitley, Ward 5: “Retrofitting is far more expensive than new development, which is the exact reason why new development is going on in north High Point or in other areas, in some parts of south High Point because they’re looking for areas to make it a lot cheaper to build. Another option would be to get developers involved…. We have the option of a $900 million loan pool. This money could be used to turn around and help developers redevelop these same properties once everything’s gone through, the concept’s great. At that point you decide whether you’re going to put residential, retail, manufacturing.”
Joslin, Ward 5: “I don’t know how to comment on that other than the fact that other cities have been successful with doing things with their older buildings, so we know that it’s possible to do. You can look at their success and try to copy that. For instance, I think Winston has condos going into some of their older buildings. Greensboro also has.”
Corey, Ward 6: “Convert some of them into this small-business incubator. I visited the Nussbaum Center for Entrepreneurship in Greensboro, and they are housed in an old Cone mill, very similar to some of our factories that are no longer in operation. And it’s a beautiful building that’s divided up and is functioning now, it houses about 96 businesses. So this is what can be done with abandoned buildings. Another concept for abandoned buildings is basically to divide it into three floors. On the bottom floor you have retail stores. In the middle floor you have offices. And on the top floor you have residences. So you have like a little niche community all in one building. You could convert many buildings to this mini-community model.”
Ewing, Ward 6: “The cost of retrofitting our current buildings to adapt to whatever industry we want to bring in is going to be far greater than the cost of demolishing the building and rebuilding something that would suit them exactly. That would be one option. Another option: Some of the manufacturing buildings and factories have manufacturing villages around them and utilizing some ideas I’ve heard to try to really build up those villages again and then utilize the factories as mini-shopping centers. Another option that goes along with regionalism would be utilizing some of those old vacant factories and some of the land to help build an inland port. We’re sitting on top of five major interstates. We have rail. We have three airports within a very small area, and High Point could be a fantastic area, really a center point of the Triad for us to try to bring in an inland port to try to attract more business and industry.”
One of the more entertaining sets was the candidates’ responses to a question about where they would choose to live if they were forced to leave High Point. Ward 2 candidates Jill Harwood and Foster Douglas refused to answer the question, with Douglas saying he would stay in the High Point neighborhood of Macedonia. Ward 6 candidate Jason Ewing used his time to make an appeal for regionalism by saying he would stay in the Triad and relocate to Winston-Salem. Ward 1 candidate Bernita Sims, who currently serves as mayor pro tem, easily gave the cleverest reply.
“If I were being forced to live in a different city in North Carolina, I think like Mr. Ewing, but I wouldn’t go to Winston; I’d go to Greensboro with the intent to go over there and straighten those people out," Sims said. "They could benefit greatly from my experience, skill level and the fact that I’m not afraid to say what’s on my mind. So if I were being forced to move — and again, I know that would be under duress — all of that anger and frustration I would take out on the city of Greensboro.”
Ward 2 candidates Foster Douglas (left), Jill Harwood and Chris Williams
Ward 4 candidate Bob Fowler
Ward 6 candidates Jim Corey (left) and Jason Ewing
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