Cecile's Story

I'm Cecile “CC” Crawford, and I am running to be your District 2 Greensboro City Councilperson.  I grew up on Pearson Street, in Greensboro’s Douglas Park in a home with my mom and grandparents. They each instilled in me the values of integrity, compassion, education, and hard work.

I earned a BA from NC A&T and a second BA from UNCG. I have two wonderful grown daughters, and I work as a sales support manager at a national marketing tech firm with an office in Greensboro.  I have been a party precinct officer, and was a Bernie Sanders delegate to the Democratic Party National Convention in 2020.

As a young woman I was faced with the challenges of single parenthood and the obstacles of serious illnesses.  These hardships made it very difficult to find affordable housing free from toxins and pests, healthcare I could pay for, reliable childcare, fully funded schools, transportation to and from work, and wages that allowed me to provide for my family. Like me, too many of us in Greensboro are just one serious illness, injury, or financial emergency away from debilitating debt.

During our 2022 campaign for Greensboro City Council District 2, we came so close to a win- 121 votes, but what we built together was so much bigger than one election. It was a vision. It was a movement rooted in care, courage, and community. And I want you to know: I haven’t stopped building.

Since that race, I’ve stayed grounded in the work:

• I became the Program Director for the American Friends Service Committee of the Carolinas, where I helped shift our focus from immigration justice to economic and housing justice.
  As part of that role, we launched the Keep Gate City Housed coalition, bringing together tenants, grassroots groups, and allies to fight for eviction prevention. Together, we moved both the City and County to invest hundreds of thousands of dollars into programs that provide free legal representation and rental assistance for those facing eviction.
• I completed the City Academy Cohort, gaining insight into the city’s departments and building relationships with staff still working to serve our communities.
• I’ve served on the Parks and Recreation Commission, where we supported the $40 million full remediation plan for Bingham Park and cautioned against the reopening of the White Street Landfill.
• I’ve co-led community meetings with Lisa McMillan through Turning Everything Around’s “What’s In Your Hands” initiative, listening deeply to neighbors and organizing around shared solutions.
• I’ve supported my mother’s small business, Ma’s Secret Ingredient, every Saturday at the Greensboro Farmers Market.
• I served a full term on the Guilford for All Steering Committee and represented us as a delegate to the last state convention, pushing for bold, progressive leadership.
• I currently serve as Precinct Chair for G70 in the Democratic Party, helping strengthen grassroots political organizing across the district.
• As former Chair of Labor and Industry for the Greensboro NAACP, I stood with city workers demanding fair pay and respect on the job.

In short: I’ve stayed rooted in this work. I’ve listened. I’ve organized. I’ve shown up — and I’m ready to step forward again

Issues

As your representative on the Greensboro City Council, I will work every-single-day to make your ideas and concerns a top priority for city leadership. I am committed to fighting for the following issues:

Economic Justice & Community Wealth

Access to jobs with livable wages and equitable support for small businesses.

• Implement Community Benefit Agreements (CBAs) with corporations to provide childcare options, grocery stores, and parks/recreation centers
• Invest in a Parks and Recreation deferred maintenance fund and much-needed improvements to recreation centers to provide more opportunities and programs for our youth
• Fund youth employment opportunities, invest in more trade training (electricians, plumbers, carpenters, machinists), and entrepreneurship training
• Fight for living wages, $22/hr, in all city-supported jobs, ensure city workers are compensated for their years of service, experience, and gained skills
• Encourage city contracts and development funds to Black-owned and local businesses
• Support small business creation, as well as helping established small businesses grow and thrive. We have to recognize that a trickle down economy doesn’t work. We must build our economy with local businesses that have ties to, and roots in the community.
• Must guarantee that our ex-felons are truly allowed a second chance, and remove barriers from employment, or business ownership
• We must address the need for employer sponsored child care. The city must aid and support employers that offer their employees access to gold star infant care to Pre-K. Incentivized companies could offer employees tuition discounts and priority slots at nearby child care centers. Could also offer backup care and flexible hours for working parents.
• With the Greensboro 2040 plan for housing, we need to offer Black and Brown women trade school opportunities in construction, trucking, and as supply chain vendors
  

I remember there was a time when I was struggling with affordable childcare. I was working at night to pay the daycare, so I could go to school. I was paying a babysitter, so I could work the night job, and pay the daycare. I finally received a childcare voucher, but if I worked any extra hours to help pay more of my living expenses, I ran the risk of losing my voucher. I was also spending so many hours away from my children, I was noticing some behavioral issues. I had to make a decision. I chose to delay further education for myself and took a job at a rehabilitative daycare. That way I could work and spend time with my children. Childcare is one of the many barriers that women face when trying to increase education and reenter the workforce.

We need to ensure that everyone makes an equal and livable wage, paid well for their skills and experience, allowed access to funding for business creation, and has access to training or education for upward mobility.

Homes We Can Afford

Offering increased opportunities to home ownership. Protecting mobile home parks. Renting comfortable homes we can afford.

• Expand rental assistance and eviction prevention programs like UNCG’s TEAM project (Tenant Education Advocacy Mediation); Legal Aid, etc.
• Accountability for non compliant corporate landlords and slumlords who neglect or exploit tenants by refusing to hold units to minimum housing standards
• Implement anti-displacement protections and rent stabilization near the Greenway and other gentrifying areas
• Support community land trusts, housing co-ops, and affordable homeownership for long-term stability
• Fully fund legal eviction defense fund and Right to Counsel
• Implement options for First Right of Refusal, Land Trusts, and Apartment coop ownership
• Address the need for RUCO (rental unit occupancy certificates)
• Protections against voucher rental discrimination
• Support second chance housing for those with evictions, or criminal records
• Reimagine the Receivership program
  

As a cancer survivor, I have been in the awful position of struggling to survive and restore my health in the midst of a forced move. I know how it feels to be worried you and your children may be homeless, and not knowing how you will afford to move or pay higher rent. Thankfully, my community, my coworkers and family joined together to offer us assistance with moving costs and housing.

Your elected officials have an obligation and an opportunity to continue forward momentum on creating affordable housing, while working to preserve, restore and augment current cost-effective housing. I'm running to represent my district on city council because I plan to fight for every Greensboro resident’s right to permanent, secure housing from childhood to the geriatric years that is free from toxins, mold, or pests.

Development Without Displacement

• Invest in infrastructure by and for District 2 residents—including sidewalks, transportation, toxic park remediation, green spaces and safety
• Ensure and support strategic and equitable planning and zoning practices
• Protect historic Black neighborhoods like Old L Richardson … from speculative development. Speculative and aggressive development refers to when developers buy land or properties not to meet community needs, but to make a profit by quickly flipping, redeveloping, or dramatically raising rents, often in low-income or historically Black neighborhoods

  This kind of development can lead to:

• Displacement of longtime residents who can’t afford rising rents or property taxes.
• Loss of culture and history, especially in historically Black neighborhoods.
• Gentrification, where new developments cater to wealthier outsiders instead of investing in betterment of existing communities.

  Ways we can address this:

• Deep affordability requirements (not just 80% AMI)
• Property tax freezes for legacy homeowners
• Inclusionary zoning with teeth
• Community-led oversight board

Community Safety, Not Over-Policing

Exceptional public safety and a secure environment for everyone in Greensboro.

• Expand and fully fund violence interruption and restorative justice programs—like BHRT or CAHOOTS (a mental health program that takes mental health crisis calls and routes them to an outside provider), so they operate at a scale that works. These programs only succeed when we pay staff a living wage, making the roles sustainable and attracting the skilled people we need to keep our communities safe
• Resolve to support immigrant rights and not engage in harmful ICE practices
• Redirect funds from surveillance and militarized policing to mental health responders, housing-first solutions, and youth programs
• End discriminatory enforcement like safety frisks
• Public funding for after school care options in an effort to help children receive tutoring, intro to STEM, Home Economics, and Intro to Local Government

Climate Resilience and Environmental Justice

• Invest in green infrastructure and community gardens (like PDY&F) in food-insecure neighborhoods. In times like these, community gardens are more than just food sources—they are hubs of mutual aid, healing, and community power. Expanding them means turning vacant lots and community plots into vibrant spaces for growing food, building relationships, and teaching the next generation how to nourish and sustain their communities
• Fund climate job pathways for youth in tree planting, transit, and urban farming
• Work to reduce harmful chemicals in our city water and hold industrial polluters like Shamrock Environmental accountable through stronger regulations, regular testing, public reporting, fines, and legal action when necessary
• Keep water affordable and managed by the city, not private companies
• Plan for better response to natural disasters caused by climate change, and impending climate refugees

Caring for Our Communities and Cultures

• Partner with faith and community groups to turn underused buildings into resilience hubs with cooling stations, power access, and social/case workers
• Expand and revamp the summer youth employment program by partnering with city, county, businesses, and nonprofits to offer paid internships. Hire teens during the summer to reduce violence and increase exposure to new skills, industries, and career opportunities
• Support artist-led healing, public art, and Black cultural preservation in our neighborhoods
• Work to ensure that Greensboro policies continue to uphold rights of LGBTQ+ community members
• Expand city support for childcare cooperatives and caregivers. We must address the need for employer-sponsored child care. The city must encourage and support employers in offering their employees access to gold star infant care to Pre-K. Incentivized companies could offer employees tuition discounts and priority slots at nearby child care centers. Could also offer backup care and flexible hours for working parents

  We can fully fund our city Parks and Recreation dept by...

• Increasing the Parks and Rec budget to raise staff pay, because the people who keep our parks running and our kids safe deserve to earn a living wage.
• Creating and using a deferred maintenance fund to repair and upgrade parks, playgrounds, and rec centers: improving safety, accessibility, and quality of life for residents.
• Putting more money into teen programs that offer tutoring, mentors, mental health support, art, sports, and job training. When teens have safe places to go and real opportunities, they’re less likely to get caught up in violence and more likely to thrive.

My Promise

As an elected official, I will continue to push our state electeds to expand Medicaid and take seriously the tremendous cost that insufficient healthcare brings both to our city, and the most vulnerable in our communities. I will also ensure that all levels of government that affect our community, prioritize affordable and accessible public transportation.

As your City Councilmember, I know — without doubt — that the people closest to the problems have the best solutions. It is through working together, that I believe we will achieve the best results.

As an amazing mentor once told me when I questioned him on how we affect change for working people, “Put People First! Lift up the people, and the people will lift up the entire city.” Let’s build the city we deserve together.

Join Us

Volunteer

• Join Our Weekly Neighborhood Canvass
• Join Our Weekly Phonebank
• Volunteer at the Polls (And More Opportunities)

Get a Yard Sign 🪧

• Request a sign using this form

2022 Events

Dinner in the Park June 17

Join us at Woodmere Park at 2100 Autumn Drive Greensboro, NC 27405 for free food and fellowship on Friday, June 17th at 6:30pm. We look forward to meeting you and hearing about your vision for our community. Former District 2 candidate, Portia Shipman, will be joining as our special guest speaker!

CC's Cookout on Mar. 26

Join us on 3/26 for a community cookout to meet & greet Cecile "CC" Crawford. She's looking forward to getting to know her District 2 community on a deeper level and wants to hear your hopes and concerns for Greensboro. Meet us in the field near the South Village Community Clubhouse at 4302 Reedy Fork Parkway, Greensboro, NC 27405. A special thank-you to our host: Felicia Angus!

Community Gathering on Feb. 25

Please join us from 7-8:30pm on February 25th to meet Cecile and learn more about her vision for Greensboro and District 2. The event will be at the Community Theater of Greensboro (CTG) at 520 South Elm St., Greensboro, NC 27406. There will be a complimentary catered dinner and cash bar. Masks are required at the event.

Vote for Cecile

District Map

Find your city council district here. This map is provided by the City of Greensboro, and is searchable by address. Anyone living in Council District 2 can vote for Cecile in the upcoming election.

Register to Vote

Find out your voter registration status and information on how to register or update your voter registration by visiting the NC State Board of Elections site here.