The Rhino covered the recent ‘urgent special called meeting’ to try to figure out what’s wrong with High Point.
I’d sum it up as a total lack of charm, but ‘private providers’ hired HP-based McNeill Communications Group to get some specifics. The leading indicator that something’s wrong is executives working for High Point-based companies apparently choose to live in G’boro or surrounding smaller communities:
McNeill Communications grilled the execs on what research they had done before moving to Guilford County, where they got their information on the county, and what their impressions were of High Point before moving.
Of the 31 people interviewed, seven had no general impression of High Point, five knew of it only through the furniture market, three (seriously) answered, “furniture, furniture, furniture,” two were familiar with the area and two considered it a pretty small town that was dead between the spring and fall furniture markets.
…Other weaknesses included a lack of shops, restaurants and entertainment, an “unacceptable” main street and “unappealing” front and back doors to the city (US 311 north and south). McNeill projected on a screen comparative photographs of Main Street in High Point and main streets in other cities, and the contrast hardly needed comment.
High Point lingers in a sort of municipal no-man’s land —-it does not have the amenities of nearby larger cities like G’boro or Winston-Salem; nor does it have the charm of nearby smaller cities like Lexington or Thomasville. City leaders are doing the best they can to effect change with efforts like the Core City plan, but —as is the case with most gov’t central planning —— expectations are often higher than actual results.
