KenAA, it’s clear where you political allegiances are but you appear to keep trying to rationalize in some way that HB2 and voter ID are non-issues. At the least, you appear to be trying to minimize their detrimental impact (along with others since 2010) to Raleigh and North Carolina’s economic growth. I would strongly encourage you to reach out to some folks on NC’s economic development commission, have a cup of coffee with them and ask them directly how big the impact has been…and continues to be a concern, especially with progressive mined technology companies LIKE Amazon, Apple, etc.
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Texas really really wanted to try a bathroom bill of its own. Indiana, SC, and Georgia were also watching closely. Probably if it hadn’t been such a disaster for NC, every red state and swing state with a gerrymandered republican legislature would’ve passed their own version of the bathroom bill by now.
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For what it’s worth, I believe the midwest is going to overtake both coasts in 50 years (east coast being both NE and SE here) because of cost of living. Pittsburgh, Kansas City, Nashville, Cincinnati…that whole arc is coming back. All the bones are there. Sure lots needs repaired, and rebuilt, but they have airports, interstates, railroads and New Orleans to port out of. Austin and Denver obviously have led the midwest charge, but the spill over from those two will be the bleed to the other places.
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Talk about beating a dead horse.
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Challenge accepted.
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Firstly, New Orleans has to stay above sea level.
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Yes I am sure these companies are making a decision on the bathroom rules, that really brings in the dollars. It’s about money, money, money, and lastly, money!
Raleigh does not have the money, infrastructure, transportation, work force and we just are not meeting the needs, yet!
But who cares, we are not going to change our lives for Google, Amazon or any other company.
Come if you want, or don’t, someone else will.
If all industry was created equally, that would be fine. However, that’s not the case.
Raleigh is sitting on a buttload of highly educated and talented people, and is pumping out more of them every year from local universities. In order to retain this talent, the city needs to be strong in job creation for them. Without the right types of jobs, the talent moves on.
That all said, I think that the best path forward right now is to incubate start-ups to build and strengthen the city’s cred from a foundational perspective while we wait for the fallout over recent legislation to get resolved over time.
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Yes I am sure these companies are making a decision on the bathroom rules, that really brings in the dollars. It’s about money, money, money, and lastly, money!
There is money to be made in cynically fostering an image of faux-“wokeness”. Lots of companies do it.
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Where ever the Mississippi/Gulf port ends up being, the midwest will heavily utilize and be able to grow and benefit from it. Poor Nawlins…
Good read. Wake County and North Carolina seem to be doing okay…
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“The increase in North Carolina tops demand across the U.S. where openings climbed some 27 percent to more than 878,000.”
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So TBJ has a headline that the RTP land that was purchased a month or so ago was indeed Apple.
https://www.bizjournals.com/triangle/news/2019/02/22/cover-storyso-its-apples-land-now-what.html
But it’s behind the paywall so not sure if the article actually gives any new information.
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Here is a quote from behind the pay wall…
“Apple – at least right now – has no immediate plans to build on the 281-acre site, and is instead watching North Carolina’s political landscape as it expands in Texas, insiders say.”
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‘watching North Carolina’s political landscape…’ I believe every time I raised the concern of our legislature as being a huge problem for Raleigh, the number of spin doctors that showed up was a bit baffling. I’ve been stating for a long time that our legislature IS huge problem for us these days. I have spoken directly with some of these ‘insiders’ and know firsthand that the GOP IS a real problem and has been holding Raleigh back for major technology job announcements. HB2 and the stupid ass and unneeded Voter ID bills have hurt the City and the region tremendously.
When Texas is considered more ‘progressive’ than North Carolina, we are in trouble. This is NOT ‘all about incentives’ as some of you want to claim. The kinds of companies that Raleigh and the RTP area want to lure are MUCH more progressive than, say a bank and they have enough money to choose NOT to come to a state with backwards ass politicians. NC has lead the way in that category for the last few years.
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Well said.
(must have 20 characters)
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Seems a stretch to me to buy nearly half a square mile of land, with no plans at all for it. But I could see them buying land in places they might want to grow someday as a hedge against higher future real estate prices, if they especially if they’re in growing areas where the land is very unlikely to depreciate in value if they don’t do anything with it. I mean Apple has a quarter of a trillion dollars cash on hand–in the absence of other better investment opportunities, it must be burning a hole in their pockets.
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Gerrymandering has poisoned the well. Every other state that is gerrymandered at least has some mechanism to fight it. NC does not, since it bans vetoes on district maps and popular referendums that bypass the legislature. The only way to fight the maps in this state is through the courts. As long as there’s a conservative majority on the Supreme Court (seemingly for the rest of my life, from the looks of it) that will kneecap efforts to ban partisan gerrymandering.
Companies may not want to move to a state run by a dictatorship.
LOL most states would love to be in our position.
Like the title of this thread - the Triangle is a top expansion site without mega projects from Tech companies fleeing high taxation in their liberal home states. Again, TX and TN have all GOP governors and senators. And voter/photo ID. Yet Big Tech (Amazon, Apple) are moving there.
NC has been voting Democrat for President (2008) and Governor (2016) and has higher taxation and regulation that either TX or TN (i.e. more progressive by many measures). Certain tech company’s actions (moving to conservative states) speak louder than their words (we’re watching the political climate). Ya sure they are. TX passes a strict voter ID bill for 2018, and Apple expands their campus there with another 5000 head project. So much for politics.
The good thing is that the Triangle region also ‘grows it local’. SAS Institute (new 10 story office tower in Cary) and RedHat ($34 Billion buyout) are leading examples.
I also think the surge in new office towers, some of it on spec, will open opportunity for ‘move in ready’ space for Tech companies that want to tap into the excellent community that the Triangle has always had.
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I completely agree with you. And besides the most job growth comes from small and midsize businesses. And they often don’t come with tax incentives and whatnot just to get them to move their business here. I think there was plenty of opposition to Apple and/or Amazon moving here anyway (I was not one of those).
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