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HIGH POINT — Ward 6 has seen tremendous growth in the past few years with new investment, office parks and neighborhoods making it the epitome of what some residents call “new High Point.”

But when Ward 6 Councilwoman Lisa Stahlmann announced in June that she wouldn’t run for another term, the choice for who would represent the booming ward became one of the 2008 election’s most interesting races. The challenge for the next councilman: making north High Point jell with the core city and helping a city built on manufacturing benefit from new residents and businesses.

In some ways, candidates Jim Corey and John Faircloth seem very different — one is a well-known college professor running for office for the first time; the other is a former High Point police chief who has served as an at-large council member since 2003. But both agree that High Point’s future lies in diversifying its economy and that Ward 6 will be vital in the city’s evolution.

Jim Corey

It’s not every man who decides to run for office for the first time at 70.

But after a career in the Navy and as a political science professor at Harvard, the University of Miami and High Point University, Jim Corey says he wants to represent Ward 6 to bring his hometown into the new century.

Anyone doubting a 70-year-old man’s credentials for modernizing the city need only look at Corey’s Web site — he’s one of the only High Point candidates who has one.

Voters can read about his ideas, such as pushing for investment in the manufacture of green technology in High Point.

Corey says there’s no reason a city built on manufacturing furniture can’t change to one manufacturing solar panels.

“We’re stuck in the past,” Corey says. “It’s 'What can we do for the furniture market?’ That’s the old economy, and we’ve put too many eggs in that basket. We need to be thinking about the new economy, the new century. The work force we have is perfect for helping to create green technologies like solar. We can do that here.”

Corey says that for a city that spent millions in economic incentives to lure businesses last year, High Point isn’t doing nearly enough for small businesses.

“I think that we can use this money to invest in businesses that will stay in High Point,” Corey said. “And that will create jobs that will stay in High Point.”

John Faircloth

John Faircloth says he has seen the division in High Point since he came to the city in 1976. He was police chief then, and north High Point’s growth hadn’t yet exploded — but even then, he says, he remembers hearing about “Old High Point” and “New High Point.”

“It’s about the social structure of the city and the identity of the people who live here,” Faircloth says. “We have people who live in High Point, but they have a Jamestown mailing address and they shop and socialize there. Or people who realize they live as close to Greensboro as downtown High Point. It makes it hard to create our own shopping, nightlife, our own identity.”

Faircloth, 69, says the division comes in part because so much of the old city — what the council calls the “Core City” in its revitalization plans — was built on manufacturing. Many of the people have lived there for decades.

Many of the newcomers have jobs in office parks and scientific research; integrating them into the city is as big a challenge as getting residents of the core city into the new economy.

But Faircloth says he’s ready for that challenge. He wants to use economic incentives to lure companies that will use the existing work force and help them transition into the new economy. That means education and retraining, but Faircloth says High Point residents are up to the job.

“We have these workers who want to work, who have been trained in another industry,” Faircloth says. “But if we bring in the right kind of companies and we help them get training to become part of the new economy, they can make that transition. And then 'Old High Point’ and 'New High Point’ come together.”

Contact Joe Killian at 883-4422, Ext. 228, or joe.killian@news-record.com