By Amanda Raymond

amanda.raymond@salisburypost.com

City-county relations, Fibrant and five institutions of higher learning are some of the things Salisbury can be proud of. Some things the city needs to work on? Improving education and stifling racism.

The Salisbury City Council and city staff discussed the strengths and weaknesses of Salisbury during the first day of their 31^st Annual Future Directions and Goal Setting Retreat on Wednesday.

The theme of the retreat was “Our Legacy: Trailblazing a Vision.”

The meeting started with Tom Westall, the meeting’s facilitator, stating the desired outcomes of the retreat, which were to review the current state of the organization, establish a shared vision for the city, develop goals to support the vision and build a foundation for collaboration and teamwork going forward.

Before setting goals for the future, Westall said it was important to identify and analyze Salisbury’s strengths, weakness, opportunities and threats through a S.W.O.T. analysis. The council and other city staff only had time to discuss the strengths and weaknesses.

“You’ve got to take and look at them systematically before you start saying, ‘What should our priorities be?’” Westall said.

The good

After taking a couple minutes to write some strengths and weaknesses down on a provided sheet of paper, the council members and city employees shared their ideas.

One of the strengths shouted out was  that the city has a positive attitude and commitment to progress.

Mayor Karen Alexander commended the city’s 10-gigabit broadband utility.

“That represents a huge technological strength that we definitely have to brag about,” Westall said.

Alexander also listed the art community as one of Salisbury’s strengths.

“We’re actually the Paris of the Piedmont,” she said. “I tell that to everyone. I live in the Paris of the Piedmont.”

Mayor Pro-tem Maggie Blackwell talked about the improved relationship between the City Council and the Rowan County Board of Commissioners. She described the difference between the past relationship and the current one as “night and day.”

She also commented on the new leadership of different organizations that she believes will do great things.

“There’s a lot of positive energy ready to just explode,” she said.

There were also comments made about the solid local financial support the city has, the high number of higher learning institutions and the strength of the banking community.

The bad

As far as the city’s weaknesses, the council members listed poverty and the crime rate as two of the biggest ones.

Councilman Brian Miller said that although he supports and appreciates all of the work the school system is doing to improve, educational outcomes are also a weakness.

“There are some citizens who do well through our school system and there are others who are getting left behind,” he said.

Councilman David Post said that the school system has re-segregated itself because of private and charter schools.

Post said that the private schools in the city are predominately made up of Caucasian students who then go into advanced placement classes when they transfer to public schools.

“You have all the white kids in the AP program who get all the scholarships and the good grades … and then you have the kids who don’t have the resources who are the other half of the high school,” Post said. “It’s almost like you have two high schools in one.”

Another weakness that Blackwell pointed out was a lack of diversity in the arts and racism in general.

“Our arts and culture is definitely a positive, but our arts and culture is also very white,” she said. “There’s a severe lack of diversity in our arts.”

When asked by Blackwell if the council thought there was a “schism of the races” in the city, Miller said he thought it was more about socioeconomics.

“I do believe that there are, to a large extent, folks that care for one another in this community regardless of color and regardless of race,” he said, while also acknowledging that he does have “blind spots.”

Councilman Kenny Hardin disagreed and said he thought Salisbury did have a race problem.

“What I and a lot of people that I’ve talked to feel is that this city is viewed through one prism, through one lens, and it doesn’t include the interests, the concerns, the thoughts, opinions of the black and brown community,” he said.

The council members agreed that increased inclusion and diversity had to be one of their goals.

The retreat will continue today with sessions on topics like the city’s major initiatives, working collaboratively with community partners and establishing a shared vision.

Contact reporter Amanda Raymond at 704-797-4222.