46 Business View Magazine - April 2016
But good times never last forever, and the present cen-
tury brought another round of hard times to the city of
Hickory. “Trade agreements cost us a lot of jobs,” says
Wright. “For example, at one time in the 1990s, our job
base was 56 percent manufacturing. Today it’s about
27 percent. And then, the recession hit, so we were
hurt. But in this region, and particularly in Hickory, we
already were hit hard.”
But as they have done in the past, the citizens of Hick-
ory decided to pull together, showing that they were
just as strong and tough as the very wood that gave
the town its name. Once again, they decided to look
ahead. “So we embarked on a mission to identify what
we needed to do to ensure that our economy thrives
and grows, and doesn’t get stagnant or decline,”
Wright explains. “Our number one need was to put a
new face on our city and our objective is to attract to
our city the young people – professionals and workers
– and the companies that employ them.”
In 2012, the city of 40,000+, voted in favor of a refer-
endum to issue bonds totaling $40 million to create
spaces in the city “that would emulate some things
