Politics Topics on this Forum?

It might be interesting to list specific policies that we think are helpful for downtown Raleigh development and those that are harmful. That way we might be able to debate specific issues and not political parties. For example, I think almost every company that locates in downtown Raleigh states that the educated work force is their number one reason to locate here. So, what are some policies that promote our educated work force and what are policies that hinder the development of an educated work force? How can we boost our public education system and public universities to meet the demands of companies that might relocate here?

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Would you like a list of all the things private dollars did prior to 2010? I have been living in and around downtown Raleigh since 1992. There was an initial push downtown from about 1996 to 2001 or so when the dot com crash snuffed out things. Paramount, 1001 Hillsborough and such all came about in this period. Person Pointe got built in 2002 but lowered prices dramatically in response to this crash. Then again things got built from about 2003 to 2008 when the mortgage backed securities bubble popped. West at North and RBC Plaza capped that push. Bloomsbury was completed in 2009 but sold nothing until it was liquidated in bankruptcy. The Hue converted to apartments in response to the crash. 712 Tucker had been flirting with being condos but went apartments in 2010. Devon followed closely on their heels. From this point all things switched from condos to apartments on the housing front until very recently. Then things got hot in the cheaply built ‘luxury’ apartment market once it was evident how quickly 712 rented up. Now finally, we have renewed office space interest.

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The City’s restrictions on billboards, and yes business signs, which I believe went into effect around 1990. The Wake Forest Rd within the Beltline was a valley of giant billboards, and then they were gone! Amazing Interstates without billboards. My friends from Indy wanted to know where the city is. In the forest.

Okay, so here’s something political to chew on perhaps … In January 2017 Amazon won the contract to supply U.S. Communities, a 55,000 member cooperative of governmental and non-profit agencies, with goods and services at discounted prices. Sounds great on the surface … government agencies ban together to negotiate better prices but what does this approach mean for our local economy?

This very detailed article from the Institute of Local Reliance examines the issue.

And here’s an opinion piece on the matter

For curiosity’s sake I came across a resource showing U.S. Community members. I thumbed through the results of a North Carolina search over lunch and came up with the following local organizations (the list likely isn’t complete). I have no way of knowing how much money these organizations are sending Amazon’s way but wouldn’t it make more sense to use our local tax dollars to support our local economy instead of sending away to a corporate behemoth?

Campbell University
Chatham County
Chatham County Schools
City of Durham
City of Raleigh
Durham Academy
Durham County
Durham Housing Authority
Durham Tech
Duke University
Environmental Protection Agency
Meredith College
NCCU
NCSU
Orange County
OWASA
RDU Airport
Wake County
Wake County Public School System
Wake Technical Community College
Orange County Board of Education
Orange County Schools
Raleigh Housing Authority
Shaw University
Town of Apex
Town of Carrboro
Town of Cary
Town of Chapel Hill
Town of Fuqua Varina
Town of Garner
Town of Hillsborough
Town of Knightdale
Town of Morrisville
Town of Pittsboro
Town of Wake Forest
Town of Wendell
University of NC at Chapel Hill

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Here is another good Amazon one. Landing Amazon HQ2 Isn’t the Right Way for a City to Create Jobs. Here’s What Works Instead

Let’s see how this goes.

https://community.dtraleigh.com/c/politics

You must be a trust level 2 in order to create topics and post replies in the politics category. I’m hoping this prevents the one-off outsiders coming in and taking the conversations into the gutter. See more about trust levels here.

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A post was merged into an existing topic: Raleigh Elections 2019