Greensboro Mayor Marikay Abuzuaiter celebrated a series of economic and sports wins during this week’s State of the City address. She also shared a 10-year vision for the Gate City.
After thanking councilmembers, Abuzuaiter began by touting recent sports tourism successes: a professional women’s basketball team, Big 12 swimming championships at the Aqua Center, the Norwegian men's national soccer team’s residency and the Men’s ACC Basketball Tournament will return to Greensboro in 2027.
On the economic front, Allegacy Federal Credit Union and Hoffman & Hoffman expanded their operations, and Lumentum, a global leader in cloud and networking applications, committed to building a new manufacturing facility.
Abuzulaiter also paid tribute to small businesses.
"So many have opened recently," she said. "Let it Glow, a candle bar, Dear Dad's downtown, and so many others that are opening, and we need to embrace them and support them."
With growth and investment dollars, Abuzuaiter said the city is poised to capitalize on this moment in its history. To do so, she presented Vision 36, which she described as a 10-year strategic framework based on talent retention, geographic equity, staff readiness and more. She said after months of conversations with a wide range of community stakeholders, the framework was developed to answer one basic question:
"Does this make Greensboro stronger?" she asked. "And that's how decisions will get made by understanding how initiatives align with where we're going, how it opens the doors for people who have been locked out, how it grows or keeps talent, and how it strengthens our unique identity and makes Greensboro distinctly Greensboro."
Abuzuaiter concluded the address with a discussion on education with leaders from Guilford College, North Carolina A&T State University and Greensboro College. The main topic: talent retention.