Indeed, the city's shaky grip on its future has been at issue for some 20 years. Greensboro Visions was just the most prescient of several, basic responses by city leaders hoping to get the community moving again. Time and again, leaders pursued the same strategies as they struggled to pave the way for a viable 21st Century economy, whether the specific challenge was consolidating school systems, rebuilding a dying downtown or streamlining economic development. So far, nothing has produced a cohesive vision of where the city is headed and how it should get there. Evidence suggests the community needs to stay with the process this time and get it right.
Experts say residents can easily lose heart.
A number of communities have been through programs and didn't see significant change. Meanwhile, business leaders are frustrated by Greensboro's seeming inability to rally around a clearly articulated plan. They began with the Greensboro One Task Force in 1984 and continued through Forecast 2015, a countywide planning effort of the 1990s. Now the six foundations behind the most recent study have started a new committee, Action Greensboro. Each initiative seems to have taken place in a vacuum.