Dozens of business owners, residents, city leaders, and staff packed into the lobby of the Pyrle downtown last week. They were brought together—and divided—by their visions for Greensboro’s urban center.
People across the city have been hotly debating the state of downtown for months, since a spate of restaurant closures near the beginning of the year. In the weeks that followed, newly elected city councilmembers like District 3’s April Parker initiated downtown walks to get feedback from residents and businesses. Restaurant owners also came together and formed a boxed meal subscription that’s still going strong.
But concerns remain, with opinions divided over parking, the unhoused community, and frequent street closures.
“I don’t think that downtown’s issue is parking or safety,” said Eric Robert, who owns the building housing the Bearded Goat and Lee | Wrangler at the corner of Elm and Lewis Streets. “It’s a combination of things. Downtown Greensboro has never been as divided as it is now.”
The problems aren’t unique to Greensboro, experts say. Many midsize urban centers are undergoing shifts in identity, particularly in a post-pandemic landscape and economic uncertainty.
David Downey is president and CEO of the International Downtown Association, which is made up of more than 600 downtowns from across the world.
“Urban centers and downtowns have found themselves in a position of needing to reimagine, reestablish themselves as mixed-use city centers,” Downey said. “Our members are finding they need to reexamine their purpose.”
Last year, Greensboro unveiled its GSO35 plan, which envisions what downtown could look like in a decade. But not everyone can agree on where downtown Greensboro is, and where it is heading.
Growing Pains
Walking down the street with Kim Ritchy is an exercise in paying close attention. As a textile designer, she is constantly looking at things with intense focus. She points out traffic cones left out from the previous weekend’s block party. She notes signs promoting events that are out of date. She points to black smudges caused by discarded gum on the sidewalk. Nothing escapes her gaze.
While Ritchy doesn’t technically own or operate a business downtown, her family owns the building that formerly housed McCoul’s Public House, which closed in January. She’s one of the most vocal critics of the state of the center city, often sending lengthy emails copied to every business owner she knows, members of the city council, and Downtown Greensboro Inc., the city-funded non-profit that promotes downtown.
She knows she can come across as relentless. But as someone who has the time to advocate for things, Ritchy views it as her mission to push for change.
“I feel like I’m a high-level city employee that’s actually doing stuff,” she said.
In the past few months, Ritchy has called the city out for what she calls inconsistent parking signs, a lack of clean trash cans, graffiti, and more.
Many of these issues were addressed during last week’s meeting at The Pyrle.
When Parker, who led the downtown meeting, opened the floor for questions or comments from the audience, she immediately looked to Ritchy.
“Come on, Kim,” she said jokingly.
Many signs have been updated to show parking is now paid on weekdays until 5 p.m., city staff said. Visitors should pay using the ParkMobile app, which many in attendance agreed was easy to use. The city is also working to get the word out via social media. Signs are still being updated so they’re all uniform, they said.
One of the biggest concerns is parking for employees who work downtown. Parker and other staff said they are currently drafting a pilot program so workers can easily find and use available parking downtown. The program is expected to launch later this summer or early in the fall.
Some also complained about the city blocking off South Elm Street for events on Fridays and Saturdays, saying it hurts store sales.
Becky Causey, who said she has owned The View on Elm for more than 20 years, said recent events featuring sumo wrestling and dog diving hurt business. Other business owners pushed back, saying the events helped to increase foot traffic on those days.
Parker said she would urge the city to come up with numbers to track foot traffic to see if the Saturday Strolls, which the city started this year, were working.
According to the GSO35 report, downtown gets approximately 9.2 million annual visits with an average stay of 2.5 hours.
“Things do change over time,” Parker told Causey, emphasizing that downtown and its priorities can and do shift over the years.
‘A Wake Up Call’
Downey, with the International Downtown Association, said these tensions are something every downtown is facing right now.
“Downtowns across the board, from small, medium to large cities, had an overreliance on office and office workers to drive the downtown economy,” he said. “But in recent years, coming out of the pandemic, we know that downtown traffic for the 10 years prior has been driven 60 percent by visitors from outside of downtown. It’s a wake-up call that city centers need to be serving the visitor economy.”
That means creating a sense of a destination downtown, said Rob Overman, interim executive director of Downtown Greensboro Inc.
Initiatives like the Social District, the Hopper Trolley, the newly opened Downtown Greenway, and Boro Bucks gift cards for downtown businesses are all efforts to keep people coming downtown, Overman said.
“We talk a lot about the downtown ecosystem,” Overman said. “There are inherent challenges to downtown, and we wanted to recognize and address that.”
But some business owners say there needs to be more imagination.
“We forgot to promote downtown as a destination,” Robert said. “It’s uncool, it’s unimagined.”
Robert, who ran for mayor in 2022, has long been a critic of DGI and its former executive director, Zack Matheny, who was also on city council for years. During Matheny’s tenure, Robert has long said, the organization spent more money and attention on itself and business interests connected to its leadership than on direct aid to downtown’s small businesses.
“It’s because of who used to be in charge,” Robert said about DGI. “It used to have flavor. Now it’s dumbed down to the lowest common denominator.”
Robert, who was once on DGI’s board himself, said he’d like to see it entirely made up of downtown residents or business and property owners.
“People with actual skin in the game,” he said.
But there is a sense among other business owners that DGI is trying.
“I think the people who are with DGI have really good ideas,” said Alexis Chandler, owner of Chandler’s. “I think they’re really awesome. We just had a change of city council. We have to give things some time. I don’t think you snap your fingers and everything happens … I think there’s a lot of messes they have to clean up.”
One recent DGI initiative is a revitalization fund that business owners can apply for to help pay to cover up graffiti. Owners can receive up to $2,000 per year.
While no business has taken advantage of the program yet, Overman said he hopes it helps small businesses cover costs that can be a huge burden for them.
One of the biggest challenges brought up by several business owners continues to be homelessness. During Thursday’s meeting, the owner of Krave Kava Bar said she and her employees have to pick up feces when unhoused people use the bathroom in the alley near her store.
“I don’t know what to do about it,” she said.
It’s a social problem with which most downtowns are now struggling, experts say.
‘Give Them Something Dignified’
“There is the reality of increasing homelessness in cities over the last decade,” Downey said.
In fact, Downey said, the impact of increased homelessness is the number one challenge faced by all of the members of the International Downtown Association.
Ritchy, who has spent countless hours downtown, said she feels for those who are unhoused.
“They need to get the unhoused people housing,” she said. “They have mental-health issues. They need to put them in supportive housing.”
She personally has helped at least three unhoused people get housing, she said, even accompanying one woman to multiple doctors’ appointments.
Both she and Robert said the addition of public restrooms would go a long way to helping.
“That’s like low-hanging fruit,” Robert said. “Why do you keep refusing to give them an alternative place to go? Give them something dignified.”
A lot of the decisions made by DGI and the city stem from fear, Robert said.
“Everything we do is god forbid the homeless might interact with it,” he said. “We’re depriving a lot of classes of people out of very basic things.”
One thing that is working when it comes to the unhoused, Ritchy said, is the city’s Behavioral Health Response Team. He says the city will soon expand the BHRT program, Parker said at last week’s meeting.
Hector Sanchez, co-owner of Essential Hemp, also lauded the downtown’s ambassador program, a DGI team that helps with everything from offering directions to connecting those in need with first responders or social services. The entire room clapped in agreement.
“That’s the one thing that we all agree on,” Overman said.
He hopes to expand the program to include more cleaning of downtown.
Many of IDA’s members have a similar program, Downey said, where people are paid to walk around downtown, assist visitors, clean up, and do other small tasks. Several programs have expanded to include interacting with the unhoused population to get them the help they need, he said.
There is no need to be afraid of unhoused people, Chandler said.
“I bet I have three unhoused people sitting in Chandler’s downstairs right now,” she said. “They’re there all the time. If you treat them like humans and you respect them, they respect you. I think a lot of the public doesn’t give people the time of day.”
Greensboro is a growing city, she said. There are certain things that come with that growth.
“Go to any city that’s growing,” she said. “They have unhoused people.”
Downtown is more activated now than it was 20 years ago, Chandler said. What she would like to see is for people to focus less on the negativity and to lift up downtown instead.
“We’re struggling together, and we’re pointing fingers,” she said. “So what if we came together to try and work together?”
‘Downtown Is What You Make It’
Kathryn Hubert of Chez Genèse has been busy. On top of running her French-inspired restaurant, for the last few months, she’s been heading an effort to highlight downtown restaurants by launching a subscription meal box of offerings from downtown businesses called Too Many Cooks in the Kitchen.
“I didn’t see this on my 2026 bingo card,” she said. “I wasn’t planning on stepping into any particular role.”
But she has. Since the beginning of the year, Hubert has become part of the ongoing downtown conversation about what is and isn’t working. For her, the collaborative nature of the center city is its strength.
“I think the downtown neighborhood feel is really unique to Greensboro,” Hubert said. “The fact that Too Many Cooks got launched and there were that many restaurants that wanted to get together is really unique.”
The resilience of downtown businesses is something Robert sees as a strength.
“That we’re still hopeful and we still want it to work,” he said.
While there has been a lot of concern about business closures, more than a dozen businesses have opened recently downtown, Overman said.
“We need to pay attention to who is closing and why,” he said. “But we should also celebrate businesses that are opening.”
For all of her complaints about downtown, Ritchy pointed to many wins, too. The city hosting World Cup events at LeBauer Park, the Marshall Muse Gallery opening, and the Pyrle have all added energy to the area, she said.
Haras Sajjad, a co-owner and operating partner of Dear Dad’s, sees downtown’s potential. After the overwhelming success of their first location on North Battleground Avenue, they could have gone anywhere in the city to open a second. They chose Elm Street, he said, where weekend events create a lot of foot traffic and have helped their business.
“Downtown fits into our theme of being in Greensboro,” Sajjad said. “It has been a blessing for us. We’ve broken sales records we set up for ourselves.”
Daniel Leonard, the co-owner of The Bodega and The Bodega Soda, said he wants people to focus on what downtown has to offer.
“Businesses close,” he said. “That’s just the cycle of business. Everyone shouldn’t focus on the bad and instead should focus on the things that are still there.”
Leonard also encouraged people to come downtown and see the area for themselves.
“Downtown is what you make it,” Leonard said. “I think downtown is working on becoming more appealing.”
A look at the GSO35 plan shows Greensboro is on track with many of its stated goals, including becoming more pedestrian-friendly, celebrating local talent through events, and promoting green spaces. One of the stated goals is to add 5,000 residents by 2035 and at least 100 new ground-floor businesses.
“Downtown is something we need to keep thriving,” said Mayor Marikay Abuzuaiter. “We need to keep lifting it up. Sometimes all of the criticisms take over all of the good things being done.”
It’s important to embrace downtowns because they are the heart and soul of any community, Downey said.
“It’s where we will go to celebrate, like with the Knicks in New York, and where we go to protest and disagree,” he said. “We would argue that a strong downtown makes for a strong city, which makes for a strong region.”
As Greensboro and its residents continue to push for their shifting visions of downtown, they need to ask themselves one thing, Sajjad said.
“Greensboro is at a turning point right now,” he said. “Do you believe in downtown or not?”
