Written By Andrew Aronson
August 25, 2025
Why do people in District 4 need to pay attention to the upcoming City Council Election? Some people run to enhance their resume and hopefully their reputation. Some run because they believe it will be beneficial for their income. Others run because they see a broken system rigged against the interests of the people living in a neighborhood. Nicky Smith is a person of integrity who witnessed firsthand the corruption of poor governance and the damage it can cause a neighborhood. The damage is both visual and economic to the people affected in the neighborhood. It is, however, a boom to the developer(s) and perhaps those who may do business with them in the future.
District 4, as many of you may recall, banded together to fight a developer from outside of the district. Over 1,500 individuals signed a petition to stop the type of development the current City Council allowed to go through. Drive down Friendly Avenue, the gateway to downtown Greensboro, and you can’t miss the scar on the land. However, it was Nicky Smith, not the City Council, who was instrumental in consolidating the neighborhood in District 4. Nicky Smith was in the heart of the battle to keep the zoning R3. Nicky Smith was on the front lines in the Zoning and in the Neighborhood Conservation Overlay fight, trying to protect the neighborhood and the people living in District 4.
Interestingly, there was NOT another person running for the City Council seat for District 4 involved in protecting our neighborhood. In fact, Nicky Smith is the only candidate who had the courage to sign the petition that around 1,500 others also signed. There were only three choices when it came to protecting the character of our neighborhood. One could be for what we were doing, neutral, or against. We have three candidates running for this open seat. Nicky Smith is the only person running who was willing to do the heavy lifting of protecting what we treasure.
Albert Einstein said, “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over, expecting a different result.” Suppose you are tired of a City Council that is so pro-development that they are willing to sacrifice the integrity of a historic neighborhood against the will of the majority. Electing different people with the same old orientation will not bring the change we need. To achieve a change in attitude, we must get behind an agent of change. A change agent is someone not ideologically locked into a position, who listens, weighs the facts, and uses logic & common sense to make decisions. Only one person is running who has proven to do this: Nicky Smith. Nicky is not only a successful businessman in his own right, but an accomplished and disciplined individual who creates success. Ask yourself what each candidate running for this seat has demonstrated to District 4 that benefits the entire community. Not what they say they intend to do, but look at what they have contributed. Define them by their actions, not their words.
Only Nicky Smith is bold enough to put himself out there. Those who do not know him say he is a Republican and therefore a MAGA supporter. The truth is, Nicky Smith is not a MAGA individual, and he has refused to take money for his election campaign from the Republican Party. Have the other candidates refused similar overtures from their political parties? Nicky Smith is a thoughtful, logical, sensitive, and caring centrist with a slight conservative lean and a lot of common sense. The point is, City Council is not about Republican Vs. Democrat. It is about values, equity, and creatively reaching goals without hurting others. Nicky Smith’s values mirror those of most people in District 4. It is not a zero-sum game; it is about moving everyone forward. To do that, District 4 needs Nicky Smith.
