Hopefully they are actively preparing for this and establishing supply chain efficiencies to be a valuable piece of the transit/rideshare/self driving vehicle new B2B maintenance industry
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Personally, I don’t see self-driving cars making as big of an impact as some people think. Also, personal vehicle ownership in most places is not going to disappear, especially in places like Raleigh who’s transit solution is a half-assed 10 year plan bus plan.
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Or at least, not in the foreseeable future…imho
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I think the politics was not the factor. Clearly TX is a more conservative state and will stay GOP longer than NC will. Yet they have been picking up some marque gigs.
Heck, even Nashville got the 5,000 Amazon East Coast Ops Center (~$100,000 average jobs). And it’s even more conservative. But, like Texas, it’s a great place to do business. And that happened right after the voters there trounced the Public Transit bill to expand the commuter rail.
The silver lining of being ‘2nd place’ is that at least the Triangle is in the running. So what’s next?
I’d like to see improvements in the infrastructure - especially in some of these RTP locations like where Apple would have gone. That area still needs build-out to for better connections to local roads and I40/I-540.
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You raise and interesting point! Could you please offer your thoughts as to what YOU personally mean by this quote? My thoughts are that we have decent incentives and lower taxes. But maybe you could expand on this?
Wow…!!! 
…After Looking at all the comments here on this Topic, I will and can Only say this……Keep it Moving, Guys, Raleigh loss any chances of Amazon/Apple coming to NC let along DTR. Raleigh is a great town, But the City can do WAY…Better. Let’s try to focus on what Raleigh needs to Start doing and get moving. And I pray that this topic comes to a end. 
I don’t think the rise of self-driving cars would bring down AAP by itself… but instead, it’s how newer manufacturers are trying to make everything in-house (i.e. you have to get Tesla tings fixed by Tesla).
from @evan.j.bost:
Hopefully they are actively preparing for this and establishing supply chain efficiencies to be a valuable piece of the transit/rideshare/self driving vehicle new B2B maintenance industry
It’s not exactly my impression of the industry that that’s the trajectory they’re on… it’s almost as if the autonomous car industry took a few too many pages out of Apple’s playbook.
I visited Austin a few months back and there is so much more to do there. Raleigh isn’t even close! The only problem with Austin is actually being able to do any of the many great things that potentially could be done. Your calculus for any event must factor in traffic gridlock and huge crowds. You’d better plan to arrive early or miss out due to the hordes of people who will arrive before you.
Several locals told me that the best time to live in Austin was like 10-15 years ago. In a word is Austin a victim of its own success? Hell Yes! Sorry, that’s two words.
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I too am disappointed that Apple isn’t coming here, but I can’t say that I fancied the idea of another huge suburban campus in RTP. Just think . . . more jobs, more people, and more traffic in an area that already is a transit desert. That’s just not what we should be encouraging. If Apple had planned to invest in Downtown, I’d be more saddened, because that would have been the loss of more density and urbanity. But by all accounts that wasn’t their plan. As great as it would have been to win all the new jobs promised by the expansion, if they’re going into a suburban “campus,” I’ll gladly let Austin take it.
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I’ve been thinking about this a lot actually. I’d love the idea of Amazon and Apple and MLS all coming downtown and shooting us up into a real major downtown kind of city. But that’s not how this was going to play out. I work on the Morrisville side of the RTP area and live off Wade Ave in W Raleigh. The traffic is awful from like 3-7pm now, and I feel like it has gotten so much worse in the last 2 years. I am a huge proponent of growth for our area and the opportunities it brings, but the thought of having another 50k people working in RTP and using I-40/NC-54 would make me consider moving in another few years.
At the end of the day, the things that attracted me to this area remain and are only getting stronger in many cases: good biotech jobs, ability to buy a nice house, warm weather, nice restaurants, great alcohol scene, and a manageable size where I feel invested in each new building or business.
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I keep trying to say this but the tech bros aren’t having it. Perhaps they can autopilot on highways but general driving, awkward maneuvering, anything off road…just too many variables to program for. “Car, pull up just far enough so I can stand on the roof and reach my gutters”. In 10 years I predict less than 1% self driving cars.
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And Raleigh will be too of it isn’t careful.
Ultimately, economic incentives aside, I think Raleigh lost out because the city itself just isn’t quite ready. We have a lot of great ideas and concepts that are on the drawing board, but at least as of now are only ideas and concepts. Once the bus rapid transit is up and running, once commuter rail is operational, once projects such as the southern gateway move from renderings to being shovel-ready, then we will stand out from these other cities. Yes, it stings that we lost out on Amazon and Apple and the Army, but for now we should be satisfied that we have attracted the likes of Advance Auto and Pendo and continue to work hard to attract more companies in the future.
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Nashville and Austin have an identifiable brand, a cachet about them that is enticing to the current generation of young workers. Raleigh is missing that key attribute. For all of Raleigh’s objective qualities and superior resume, it doesn’t excite people. That’s what’s missing. If Raleigh had the strong brand identity, it could overcome the negatives that come with regressive politics at the state level.
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I once heard somewhere that “perception is reality.”
But I don’t need to explain that to someone with an Allen West AVI, right?
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Before people complain about how we need to stop bringing in new things, incentives, or the General Assembly again, I want to deflect your annoyance to something productive. See this thinkpiece from the N&O:
https://www.newsobserver.com/news/business/article223039920.html
Like @Spero said, perception is reality -or at least, it becomes reality. If the Triangle remains a good place to work but doesn’t have the cultural capital to go above and beyond, there’s no incentive for it to do that -and society runs on autopilot. It’s a self-fulfilling destiny, a positive feedback loop of not moving radically upwards.
Sure, the article lists tons of good things that this state has accomplished. And that’s definitely a testament to how Wake County does a fairly good job; it makes a livable place with plenty of work, cheap(er) housing (than some places), good food, and even new development every once in a while. It’s a good place to be, to feel content, satisfied, and stable; it gets the job done.
That’s all you need if you want to survive, AND if everyone is equally fine with mediocrity. That’s fine, except that the United States likes diversity, freedom, and ass-kicking (none of which play nice with being “meh”). As a part of that kind of culture, we owe our neighbors the opportunity to do that, no matter where you stand personally.
And I think that’s where we dropped the ball. We, the people and stakeholders of Raleigh and the Triangle, failed to make the best opportunities that could be offered in our area possible.
I agree, John; we need a culture and heritage that we can be proud of. I’ve talked about this before several times (e.g. here and here), but if you care about Raleigh being the best it can be, this matters.
It’s not just a marketing ploy or an ego boost, but it (and the infrastructure like transit or education that directly contribute to it) shapes what opportunities are available. It shapes how people see you when you go outside of NC. It shapes what residents are capable of doing, which shapes what the city, county, and state can do.
Frequent public art contests can give more life to vibrant social/non-academic intellectual communities in Raleigh. Using Dix Park to solidify the Triangle’s food options can give Flavortown a run for its money. Chapel Hill is piloting a civic engagement program that could be a model of 21st-century democracy. There’s so many things we could do…
From the article:
“North Carolina is going to have its day,” [a business site selection consultant] said. “For states that have good assets, [the Army, Amazon, and Apple] losses, if they are used properly, you can make a pretty sharp spear point with it."
…so I have a question for everyone: how do we make that spear point? and can we do something as a community/website to get started?
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and the source is Vox. Always evaluate your sources. There is much to be learned from even the most slanted ones if you recognize their leanings or mission.
"House redistricting chief Rep. David Lewis attempted to justify the criteria by saying “I think electing Republicans is better than electing Democrats. So I drew this map to help foster what I think is better for the country.”
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That’s an incredibly arrogant response/justification by Rep. Lewis.
Damage done…
I want a thorough postmortem on the Apple decision not to expand in Raleigh so that we can assess the city’s next steps. I suspect that this might be on the list.
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WRAL reporting the Apple project is “absolutely not dead” in this area. However, the interview with Rick Smith, WRAL Techwire Editor seemed sort of confusing to me.