"Incentives for the company include $190,000 in grant money from the Virginia Tobacco Commission, $200,000 from the Governor’s Commonwealth Opportunity Fund and $200,000 from the state’s Agriculture and Forestry Industries Development Fund."
""Think Tanglewood on steroids," CEO Glenn Dobrogosz said of the $1.6 million investment.
The plan is for the attraction to last 40 days as a way to boost the tourism economy during slow months, the organization said."
There is no way in HELL that $1.6 Million Dollars spent on flashing lights can even begin the compare to $42 Million and 92 long term jobs growing local food that won't be sprayed with sewage waste that causes diseases like the produce that comes from California, Mexico, and no telling where else. And Greensboro is spending over 3 times as much while claiming it is for economic development.
"as a way to boost the tourism economy during slow months"
But these are the people that you chose to run our community.
"While SKT did raise guidance, there's still little indication that they've escaped the worst of it. The continued deterioration in long-term leases is worrisome, and they will need to continue to direct all excess free cash flow towards paying down debt indefinitely as long as cash flows continue to decline. I rate shares a sell."
There's no Tanger Factory Outlet Center in Greensboro so why should the citizens of Greensboro be concerned that the stock prices are falling unless perhaps you own shares in Tanger?
Well there is that matter of the naming rights. You see, according to the Steven Tanger Center for the Performing Arts website Steven Tanger committed $7.5 million and named the Steven Tanger Center for the Performing Arts on September 9, 2019 but there is no mention anywhere on said website that Mr Tanger has actually paid that $7.5 million.
Many of Mr Tanger's customers have been going out of business, will Steven Tanger live up to his obligations or are we to add $7.5 Million more to the run away cost taxpayers have been forced to bear under the guise of economic development.
"No date has been announced for the completion of this project."
Yesterday, while having lunch with a TV journalist I was asked why it is that Greensboro has been unable to attract businesses to come here and my answer was, "You don't attract businesses, you build businesses from the ground up."
Retailers open new locations based on demographics. If enough of the kind of customers you think will buy your products are located there you go there. And it really doesn't matter that your biggest competitors might already be there. As a matter of fact: in retail, competition is good for business.
But manufacturing is something altogether different. A large manufacturer wants to be close to the resources they need to make their products and they don't want to get caught up in bidding wars to buy those products. Notice there are no large sawmills in the Piedmont Triad. We simply don't have enough trees to support a large sawmill.
Brick used to be a major export in this area. When I was young I hauled many a load of brick out of the Piedmont to cities all over the Southland. Until developers built houses, roads, and various other structures on top of all the available clay. The demand for brick never dropped off but these days most of our bricks are shale brick trucked in from Tennessee. I hauled shale brick in my later years.
Of course we all know how cotton and tobacco used to be the backbone of our local economy but the TV journalist who bought my lunch yesterday isn't from here and couldn't understand why cities everywhere have recovered and Greensboro hasn't. It was then I gave him a history lesson about television from before his time.
Every evening on all 3 networks the national news used to begin with an anchor man saying that housing starts were rising or falling and by how much. You see, throughout the '50s, '60s, and '70s housing starts were considered a major economic indicator. Then something changed.
What changed was that developers and builders figured out they could get loans and incentives from governments to go into speculative building. No longer did they have to be worried that the house might not sell as often they were turning a profit as soon as they started construction. All they had to do was build and put some of their new found fortunes into the pockets of politicians.
And suddenly, housing starts began to be considered an economic driver instead of an economic indicator.
Amazingly TV news anchors stopped talking about housing starts at just about the same time this change took place. Then developers started getting tax dollars to build all kinds of speculative ventures like malls, student dorms, shopping centers, stadiums, airports, and yes, even performing arts centers.
And for over 40 years every Mayor and City Council member elected to represent Greensboro signed on to every one of those ideas. And then some.
So it is, now the only resources Greensboro has left are located in the long neglected east side of town. I can show you 3,000 to 4,000 acres zoned commercial to heavy industrial all located in east Greensboro with some plots almost 1,000 acres on their own. The City of Greensboro owns 1,000 acres. Guilford County has extensive holdings in east Greensboro as well. Is it going to be business as usual for the east side just as it has been for the rest of the city or will residents of the east side finally get our share?
Pavement alone does not produce economic development. People are our #1 resource. If Greensboro is to grow we must invest in our people instead of concentrating on a few connected developers.
The fact is: attracting big businesses to any city is a fallacy. At
least, the kinds of big businesses that don't simply pull up stakes and
move every few years or keep demanding ransom in the form of incentives.
So attracting big businesses is off the table, a total waste of time
and money.
A fiscal conservative policy would be to help create
the kinds of small businesses that have the potential to someday become
big businesses.
For example: Look at Proctor and Gamble. Sure,
P&G has plants in Greensboro but every few years P&G demands
new incentives to stay. But P&G never threatens to leave their home
town in Cincinnati, Ohio. Rarely does a business leave home even if it
becomes world wide.
General Electric still maintains a plant in Schenectady, New York, where it was founded despite moving its headquarters to NYC.
The best thing we can do is keep out of town big businesses away and
change our focus to help grow small businesses that will someday become
industry giants.
But those kinds of businesses won't be downtown,
they won't be restaurants, microbreweries, real estate development,
night clubs, hotels, or any of the BS our current morons downtown
continue to fund.
Learn it, know it, and spread the word if you plan to change our city.
Someone call Mayor Nancy Vaughan and tell her Greensboro needs a track so we can watch all of Greensboro horses asses... ah, I mean politicians and their cronies race around. Leave a comment, like or share if you'd pay to see that!
Go ahead, google greensboro economic development and then google winston salem economic development and see how the two stack up. In Winston-Salem they are beginning to wake up and understand that real estate development and economic development are not one in the same. But not here in Greensboro. Here in Greensboro our City Council still believe that lipstick on a pig will somehow transform that pig into something beautiful.
Retired Greensboro Police Officer Marc Ridgill has been posting about the upcoming election at his blog Ridgill Rant. As part of his candidate survey he asked me what I would do about our rising crime rates, police-community relations, living wages and what I believe is Greensboro's most pressing issues. Here is how I replied to Marc:
"Greensboro's most pressing issue, living wages, and police-community relations are in reality, one in the same issue.
Greensboro's recent crime spike, the fact that most of this crime is in lower income neighborhoods, and the fact that most of the issues between police and citizens occur in these same low income neighborhoods are not circumstantial.They are in-fact intertwined.
History has shown us that poor communities generally have more crime. And because these poor neighborhoods have more crime, police departments must become more aggressive to maintain law and order. But more aggressive policing-- even if and when justified-- always leads to more resentment in the communities most effected by crime. It's a never ending spiral that neither police nor citizens can control.
The solution, at least in-part, is more jobs and higher wages. This is the job of elected leaders at every level. And already myself and others are putting together a plan. Myself and the rest of the board of directors at the Piedmont Center for Sustainability have come up with the following plan.
We are current researching the hardest hit areas of Greensboro to determine what kinds are businesses will most benefit the community-- what kinds of businesses will bring the highest economic return to the community. Then we weigh in what assets are available and put off those ideas that are far beyond our means in the hopes that we might get back to them in the future.
Once the venture is up and running we will spin it off as a for profit corporation that will be owned by the Piedmont Center for Sustainability. As much of the profits as the law allows from the for profit venture will be donated back to the Piedmont Center for Sustainability so that we may start the next local venture. The rest of the profits will be paid to employees as bonuses taking into account money to grow the business.
We intend to locate in and hire from the hardest hit areas. We intend to concentrate on the long term unemployed. Each business we create will be bound by its corporate charter to forever remain in Greensboro. As more jobs are created wages will rise across every sector city wide.
Now just in case people are wondering about the legality of this model you need look no farther than actor Paul Newman, Newman's Own Salad Dressings, and the Newman Foundation. Our attorney has signed off, we've dotted our Ts and crossed our eyes and will be beginning fund raising soon. ☺
Oh, and we will not be accepting funding from the City of Greensboro because should I lose the election the politicians would surely screw the whole thing up. You take the City's money, you wear the city's noose."
Did I mention I've been endorsed by none other than retired Greensboro Police Chief Anita Holder? If you believe my ideas are best then share this message with everyone you know. Tell them to read my platform, write-in Billy Jones for Mayor of Greensboro and demand the local media cover my campaign, and not just pay lip service. And remember: my ideas are your ideas, the more you share with me the more ideas I have to make Greensboro that city where everyone wants to live their lives.
Remember when former Greensboro City Councilman Zack Matheny, now head of the taxpayer funded, "non profit" Downtown Greensboro Incorporated, remarked at a City Council meeting that he was unaware that businesses were not locating in Greensboro because of the City's unfriendly attitude towards businesses? You know, something about taxes and all?
Well it seems the Triad Business Journal now thinks Zack Matheny was lying through his teeth.
"The Greensboro metro has lost 5,700 private-sector jobs during the past 10 years, lagging behind the growth rates of many of the nation’s major markets, according to a federal report issued Wednesday."
And "Greensboro is 65th in the national rankings. The local metro declined 1.8 percent from 325,000 private-sector jobs in July 2007 to 319,300 last month."
Well, you know, times have been hard, we've been through a recession. But haven't Raleigh and Charlotte seen the recession as well"
"This 10-year comparison is an effective indicator of the extent to which any given market has bounced back from the Great Recession, which officially extended from December 2007 to June 2009.
Each of the top five metros, including Raleigh, logged 10-year growth rates that exceed 21 percent. The five major markets at the bottom of the list — including Greensboro — are the only areas that now have fewer private-sector jobs now than a decade ago.
Charlotte ranked 16th with 14.8 percent growth."
Raleigh and Charlotte see double digit gains while Greensboro sees losses.This, my friends, is the result of years of bad leadership and crony capitalism on the part of the current Greensboro City Council. Seems Mr Matheny, like the rest of his Council Cronies, has been "unaware" of a lot of things.
Share this post with everyone you know and vote the incumbents out of office.
“The buzz word is experiential retail,” Slusher said, responding to a question from Planning Commission member Gregory Baka about the special exception needed for raising the roof higher than the 45 feet permitted in B-3 zoning.
“We are trying to create a new experience and bring people in, to attract them to the Regency experience,” Slusher said. “What that means is we need theaters and craft breweries and restaurants and trampoline parks and laser tag — things that people can experience in real life to compete with the internet. That’s becoming our big competitor now — the web. We want to give people real life experiences.”
Of course, should any mall or shopping center around do the same thing, with their ease of access and perceived parking excesses, Downtown Greensboro will still be screwed.
Have you ever thought perhaps our status quo is leading us on a race to the bottom? First one there looses.
But wait a minute... Isn't experiential retail what is going on downtown already? Sure, we don't have laser tag or trampoline parks but the craft breweries and restaurants are there. And the performing arts theatre is on the way. And what about those cool downtown parks people come to experience before going back to the suburbs to catch dinner and a movie? Pizzas are only $5.99 at the drive thru at Little Cesar's on East Market St. (You know, in the same building with Great Stops.) Did you know that building is owned by Phil and Charisse Kleinman who own the largest home in the Triad located in Irving Park.
But wait. developers like Marty Kotis are doing the same things at Midtown where Irving Park residents like the Kleinmans can park in front of the door. And what if the Koury Corporation decides trampolines and laser tag might be a good fit for Four Seasons Mall? Wow! There goes the rest of the working class dollars.
Maybe Kotis Properties will put such things in the shopping center he's building on East Wendover at the bypass-- you know, to give him a better chance of drawing that mega anchor tenant.
Yep, Downtown Greensboro is screwed just as it has been since 1960.
Maybe Zack did think of it. Sounds like something he would do.
Even before then I was already ranting about development based economic development as a sure fire means to destroy Greensboro's economy.
There were many other articles but on Tuesday, January 3, 2017, I published, Will Retail Be The Death Of The Piedmont Triad? in which I pointed out that Greensboro currently has 6 times the national average of retail space per person.
I also shared the following figures:
Retail Space Per Person Greensboro 142 square feet US National Average 23.5 square feet Canada 16.4 square feet Australia 11.1 square feet Europe 2,5 square feet
Today a reader shared the following article with me from the Foundation for Economic Education, which I copied in its entirety:
Last week, the discount shoe retailer Payless ShoeSource filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy and announced it will close 400 brick-and-mortar stores throughout the United States and Puerto Rico. The announcement comes on the heels of a seemingly unending parade of bad news from traditional retailers in recent months. So far this year, Macy’s, J.C. Penney, and BCBG, among others, have all announced significant store closures.
What Happened?
Analysts who study the retail sector are pretty much unanimous in their assessment of what’s ailing traditional retailers: There are just too many big-box stores and hulking suburban malls in the U.S., especially given the growing dominance of online retailers like Amazon. Here’s what Richard Hayne, the CEO of Urban Outfitters, told analysts on a conference call last month:
"Retail square feet per capita in the United States is more than six times that of Europe or Japan. And this doesn’t count digital commerce. Our industry, not unlike the housing industry, saw too much square footage capacity added in the 1990s and early 2000s. Thousands of new doors opened and rents soared. This created a bubble, and, like housing, that bubble has now burst. We are seeing the results: doors shuttering and rents retreating. This trend will continue for the foreseeable future and may even accelerate."
Not surprisingly, these store closures have been accompanied by another kind of economic pain: layoffs. Challenger, Gray & Christmas, a job placement firm, calculates that traditional retailers have announced over 200,000 layoffs over the last four years — and 38,000 already in 2017. In fact, according to the March jobs report, which was released last Friday, the number of retail jobs in the U.S. declined by 30,000 last month (after a similar decline in February).
And while Amazonannouncedearlier this year that it would hire 100,000 new employees in 2017 and the first half of 2018, is the growth in e-commerce enough to make up for the destruction of traditional retail jobs?
Some argue it’s not. “The number of jobs we are losing in retail outpaces the number being created in the sectors that are taking their place,” Andrew Challenger, the vice president of a job placement firm,toldtheNew York Timesback in January.
More Than a Bubble
But the data tells a more nuanced story. Employment in the entire retail industry (including both traditional and online retailers) is now well above pre-Recession levels. The chart below, from the Bureau of Labor Statistics shows employment (in thousands) in the retail sector: That aggregate measure, however, obscures the radically different experiences of specific retail industries. Here, for example, is what happened to employment at electronic and appliance stores (one of the hardest-hit retail categories):
And here’s employment at “clothing and clothing accessories” stores, another retail category that’s been struggling of late: E-Commerce Is Up, Up, Up
By contrast, here’s what happened to employment at “non-store” (i.e. online) retailers: A paper published last month by the Progressive Policy Institute, a center-left think tank, attempts to definitively answer the question of whether e-commerce has destroyed more jobs than it has created.
.
The paper’s author, economist Michael Mandel, compares job losses in the general retail sector with job gains in the online shopping and “general warehousing” industries. As the chart to the left shows, he found that “the e-commerce sector added 355,000 jobs from 2007 to 2016 — more than enough to compensate for the 51,000 jobs lost in the general retail sector.”
What’s more, as the chart above (also from Mandel’s paper) illustrates, jobs in e-commerce tend to pay better than traditional retail jobs, even among non-supervisory employees. Even Amazon’s now infamous fulfillment centers pay 30 percent more than traditional retail jobs (according to the company).
This seems to be true even when comparing workers across similar professions. E-commerce workers in the “office and administrative support” category, for example, earn 28 percent more than traditional retail workers in the same category.
Clutching at Stores
There’s little doubt that e-commerce companies have dramatically changed the retail industry, and delivered enormous gains in efficiency and productivity. Yes, there would be more traditional retail jobs in this country if Amazon didn’t exist. Companies like Amazon are able to produce the same amount of economic activity as traditional retailers, with many fewer man hours of work. That doesn’t mean we should cling to traditional retail jobs any more than we should have clung to buggies or horse-drawn plows in the 1900s.
But, in general, those kinds of productivity increases are considered a good thing; it’s virtually impossible for the economy to grow in a meaningful way without such leaps in productivity. And while there might be more traditional retail jobs in an Amazon-less world, there would likely be fewer better-paying software developer jobs.
But there is one enormous caveat to this rosy view of e-commerce: the workers being laid off by Macy’s and J.C. Penney stores in economically distressed exurbs aren’t necessarily the same workers getting jobs at Amazon. That doesn’t mean we should cling to traditional retail jobs – which are frequently characterized by low wages, high turnover, on-demand scheduling, and skimpy benefits – any more than we should have clung to buggies or horse-drawn plows in the 1900s. But it does mean we should do more to both prepare future generations for a different kind of economy, and to help the retail workers who have already been or likely will be displaced by the relentless march of technology.
While Greensboro leaders have spend Millions upon Millions of taxpayer dollars in attempts to bring more aviation jobs to Greensboro and the Piedmont Triad, one local Triad aviation firm says the jobs are going south of the border as North State Aviation closes its doors laying off 345 people.
"Gary Smith, CEO of North State Aviation since last year, did not immediately return a reporter's phone call. Charlie Creech, president of North State Aviation, also did not return a call this morning. Smith recently served as a panelist on the TBJ's Business of Aviation event held March 9. As of 2015, North State was operating six production maintenance lines for United Airlines and had amassed a client list that includes other major aviation customers. Smith said recently that the firm had been seeing increased competition from maintenance repair and overhaul in areas south of the U.S. border."
Looks like Greensboro's elected leaders and hired gun economic development gurus screwed up again.
But remember: Here at EzGreensboro.com we've been warning you for years. And considering Greensboro's overbuilt retail sector, the economic disaster brought on by HB 2, the loss of a full time ACC tournament, and massive overspending by the Greensboro City Council on projects like the downtown performing arts center....
Well, you don't need me to tell you twice in the same day, read it here.
I had a chance encounter and pleasant conversation with Chatham County Sheriff Mike Robinson while picking up the best cheeseburgers you've ever tasted at Johnson's in Siler City on Saturday. With our shop being west of Ramseur, Siler City is as close as anywhere to pick up a burger, and in this case, a 220 VAC outlet to wire in a new machine.
His answer. None. Not one company has located there despite claims by the Chatham County Economic Development Commission that,
"Choose CAM for access
The site has direct access to a mile of Norfolk Southern Railway. Its strategic location is less than 50 miles from two international airports and within a five hour drive of four major East Coast port terminals. The site's proximity to Greensboro and Raleigh - including the globally-renowned Research Triangle - puts metro amenities and services close at hand. Traffic engineers are engaged in the planning and preliminary design for a proposed interchange on four-lane, divided US 421 north of Siler City, as well as a new 1.1 mile connector road from the site to the interchange. On its southern border, the site is adjacent to US 64, a four-lane, divided highway.
Choose CAM for infrastructure
High-capacity utilities offer customer choice power, water, and wastewater to site signed and permitted, fiber available within 90 days of request.
Choose CAM for readiness
This is the top megasite in the southeast, and it's ready for your business. The State of North Carolina certified the site through its stringent NC Certified Sites program, guaranteeing necessary infrastructure and engineering in place to be construction-ready in a year. McCallum Sweeney Consulting assessed the site through the Duke Energy Site Readiness Program and found it a potential good fit for automotive manufacturing."
Of course, Sheriff Roberson didn't comment on the actions of the Chatham County Economic Development Commission. he simply answered my question and confirmed the megasite remains empty. I'd never put words in the sheriff's mouth as I'm often in his county.
And the worst part? These two, 2,000 acre megasites are only 8 miles apart. Are we going to be able to attract not one, but 2 automobile manufacturers to sites only 8 miles from each other. And are we willing to risk $200 Million or more in State, County, and City tax dollars from throughout the Piedmont Triad that could be put to more pressing needs to compete with a project that is just 8 miles away and already built but still empty?
Lots of parts for Boeing's 737 and 777 aircraft are currently made by Purolator Facet located on Triad Drive here in Greensboro, but actuation systems that extend and retract an aircraft’s wing flaps in flight will not be among them. Nor will those parts be among the parts made in the proposed Greensboro-Randolph Megasite for which the City of Greensboro is currently lobbying the State of North Carolina to spend in excess of $120 Million Dollars.
Who remembers the old steam powered kiddy train that used to run every weekend at Greensboro Country Park on Lawndale Drive a half a century ago? I just might know where it's at. After years of being warehoused, the City of Greensboro auctioned off locomotive, cars, track and all to a local expert on steam engines and boilers who fully restored the entire train and stored it in his own warehouse. Is it still there? It's been a few years so I can't say for sure.
I bring this up after talking this week with a 30 something friend who along with her husband and their 2 daughters, just went on their first family vacation to a children's theme park in Pennsylvania. She said the family thoroughly enjoyed the vacation and it was great that even her 3 year old could ride all the rides but because of the cost of hotels and travel it will be at least 5 years before her family can afford another such vacation.
And this is coming from a college educated, advanced degree, Greensboro business owner whose husband is also a Greensboro business owner.
Burlington has a bigger gasoline powered kiddy train but it pails in comparison to the tiny cast iron locomotive and cars Greensboro foolishly gave up on all those years ago with the tracks along the lake and a trestle crossing part of the lake. And yet the children wait in line every weekend to buy tickets to ride Burlington's train.
And folks, if you've ever been to Tweetsie Railroad then you already know there is nothing that compares to a real steam train-- even a tiny one.
Wouldn't it be nice if Greensboro had a steam powered train? Don't like the smoke? We can replace the coal with clean burning natural gas and still have the steam.
Even better yet, think how great it would be for economic development if Greensboro had a real children's theme park?
Think of all the 30 something families that would travel here with their children. Think of all the 30 something families that would stay in Greensboro to vacation with their children? Think of all the money that would stay right here in Greensboro?
So how do we build it?
Simple really. You know that big empty lot downtown, the lot that is designated for a performing arts center? Forget the performing arts center, they can't raise the money anyway. Build it there, downtown will benefit more than it ever would from a performing arts center.
"But Billy," you complain, "that site isn't big enough for a theme park."
You're right, but then I am one to see problems as opportunities.
Build multiple campuses beginning in the areas of town that most need jobs and economic development and run shuttles between the campuses. Run a shuttle to the Siquarium on Lawndale Drive-- make it easy for families to see and do it all from any one campus.
Then hotels would spring up all over town.
I don't know about the entire city but I can show you multiple properties on the east side with easy access and already zoned for what we need. And yes, they are for sale-- some for decades. And as always, I want nothing out of this.
Use our assets, tie the theme parks into our universities, the A&T Farm, the Nano Center, UNCG, etc, etc, and make it a learning and teaching experience for students as they grow beyond rides and games. Make our city a center of art, science and culture built around a series of children's theme parks that will bring people to Greensboro as small children and keep them coming back here their entire lives.
Or you can continue with that same failed plan that hasn't worked since they built the Greensboro Coliseum in 1958.
And folks, if you believe this could work then please share the idea.
Update: October 18, 2016, I just learned that the City also operated a train in Latham Park prior to the building of Wendover Avenue. It had 2 trestles and was modeled after what would have been, at that time, a modern diesel locomotive.
Our local economic development "gurus" and elected "leaders" will be
quick to give you all kinds of excuses as to what has gone wrong in
Greensboro. Some will say it is the loss of tobacco, textiles,
furniture.... you name it, whatever we used to do here that is no longer
done here.
But when you look at total employment since January
2008 as shown in this graph by local economist Andrew Brod, it becomes
apparent that our part of North Carolina lags behind not only the rest
of the nation but the rest of the state as well.
So what happened locally? To figure that out we must first ask ourselves what happened nationally.
"The Depression and World War II defined that generation’s collective
identity. Our national heroes were the millions of workers, soldiers,
families and communities who sacrificed. We owed a national debt to
those who had saved Democracy and restored prosperity. The New Deal
policies reflected that national purpose, honoring a social safety net,
increasing bargaining power for workers and bringing public interest
into balance with corporate power. In that period, the prevailing social contract said, “We all do better when we all do better.”
My prosperity depends on your well-being. In that period of history,
you were my co-worker, neighbor or customer. Opportunity and fairness
drove the upward spiral (with some glaring exceptions). Work had
dignity. Workers earned a share of the wealth they created. We built Detroit (for instance) by hard work and productivity. Our popular media father-figures were Walter Cronkite, Chet Huntley,
David Brinkley, and others, liberal and conservative, who were devoted
to an America of opportunity and fair play. The sudden change in the mid-70’s was not economic. First it was moral, then social, then political, ….. then economic.
In the mid-70’s, we traded in our post-World War II social contract
for a new one, where “greed is good.” In the new moral narrative I can
succeed at your expense. I will take a bigger piece of a smaller pie.
Our new heroes are billionaires, hedge fund managers, and CEO’s."
Mr Sorscher goes on to write with a couple of well done graphics of his own:
"In this narrative, they deserve more wealth
so they can create more jobs, even as they lay off workers, close
factories and invest new capital in low-wage countries. Their values and
their interests come first in education, retirement security, and
certainly in labor law.
We express these same distorted moral, social and political priorities in our trade policies. As bad as these priorities are for our domestic policies, they are worse if they define the way we manage globalization. The key to the treasure buried in Figure 1 is power relationships. To understand what happened, ask, “Who has the power to take 93% of all new wealth
and how did they get that power? The new moral and social values give
legitimacy to policies that favor those at the top of our economy. We give more bargaining power and influence to the wealthy, who
already have plenty of both, while reducing bargaining power for
workers. In this new narrative, workers and unions destroyed Detroit
(for instance) by not lowering our living standards fast enough. In the new moral view, anyone making “poor choices” is responsible for his or her own ruin. The unfortunate are seen as unworthy moochers and parasites. We disparage teachers, government workers, the long-term unemployed, and immigrants.
In this era, popular media figures are spiteful and divisive."
He also writes:
"Our policies have made all workers feel contingent, at risk, and
powerless. Millions of part-time workers must please their employer to
get hours. Millions more in the gig economy work without benefits and
have no job security at all. Recent college graduates carry so much debt
that they cannot invest, take risk on a new career, or rock the boat.
Millions of undocumented workers are completely powerless in the labor
market, and subject to wage theft. They have negative power in the labor
market!
We are creating a new American aristocracy, with less opportunity – less social mobility and weaker social cohesion than any other advanced country. We are falling behind in many measures of well-being."
So what happened to Greensboro? We just got a bigger dose of the illness Mr Sorscher describes than the rest of the country did. Our local elites are more entrenched and have greater control than in most other parts of the country and therefore push us farther down as shown by the graph supplied by Andrew Brod.
And finally, Mr Sorscher closes with:
"X marks the spot. In this case, “X” is our choice of national values.
We abandoned traditional American values that built a great and
prosperous nation. Our power relationships are sour.
We can start rebuilding our social cohesion when we say all work has
dignity. Workers earn a share of the wealth we create. We all do better,
when we all do better. My prosperity depends on a prosperous community
with opportunity and fairness."
From the reader who sent me the link to the following article I stole in its entirety from the Wall Street Journal to explain to you why the Greensboro-Randolph Megasite will never attract an automaker-- not even a large sized manufacturer of OEM automotive parts:
"From this morning's Wall Street Journal.....I used to be in automotive
finance, for 20 years actually....had lunch last week with a former
coworker and boss....the business is slowing, delinquent loan rates are
rising....and child support doesn't pay well but it is a growth business
and I never worry about a layoff....The car plant ain't coming.....but
they just haven't figured it out yet...."
Interestingly enough, before I show you the WSJ article I'd like to point out that EzGreensboro's own Abner Doon has previous posted dozens of articles to this website confirming what the WSJ has to say. Only Abner beet them by months-- again.
Ford Motor Co. last week jolted the U.S. auto industry, saying industry sales have peaked following six straight years of growth. It projected lower sales industrywide through the second half of the year and said 2017 would be even tougher for it and its rivals.
The warning reverberated across the market. Ford’s stock slid 8%, its worst one-day drop in five years. General Motors Co. and Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV fell in sympathy.
Yet data out Tuesday might look benign. Analysts at Edmunds expect that U.S. car sales totaled 1.52 million units in July. That would mark a 0.8% increase from a year earlier and the best July since 2005.
Kelley Blue Book analysts are also optimistic for July, projecting sales at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 17.5 million, matching last year’s rate. But they are more cautious for the remainder of the year. They say the new-car market is close to peaking.
But it is one thing to look at relatively healthy numbers and another to question what lies behind them. The cyclical nature of the auto business suggests this period of strength, fueled in part by cheap credit and low gas prices, is getting strained. Easy lending conditions might have pulled future demand forward, proving beneficial in the short term but problematic over the long run.
There are structural concerns, too. More new vehicles were leased in the first six months of 2016 than during the first half of any other year, according to Edmunds. The number of vehicles leased has doubled in the past five years. Off-lease vehicles compete with new ones about three years after delivery.
That explains why auto-maker stocks appear to be so cheap. Ford fetches six times projected earnings 12 months out. GM trades at five times forward earnings. Both valuations were about twice as high a few years ago.
The question now is how much bad news is actually priced in. Downside might be limited, particularly for Ford which has lost a quarter of its value in two years. But a peaking auto market means it will be tough to find a catalyst that gets these stocks back into high gear.
Write to Steven Russolillo at steven.russolillo@wsj.com "
As a matter of fact, jobs have been growing all across North Carolina for several years. Again, just not in Greensboro.
And to date Mayor Vaughan and the Greensboro City Council have done nothing to stop the bleeding, preferring instead to handcuff us and leave us laying on the streets.
What's more important, the man or the message he brings. Jesus, Mohamed, Moses, Gautama Buddha and the leaders of all the other great religions have left us in the physical sense, but the messages they brought with them live on.
I think the answer is plain, the message is more important than the man.
And while it is true that the message I'm bringing you in If I Were Mayor of Greensboro pales in comparison to the messages those great men gave you thousands of years ago I am bringing you the message that if taken seriously, will make Greensboro, North Carolina the city the rest of the world hopes to become.
But it can't be put in 30 second commercials. It requires you do your part and learn the truth.
The following short film demonstrates the way Greensboro's status-quo have been fixing Greensboro for decades.
I don't know about you but I'm getting pretty tired of this kind of love for our city.
Something that has bothered me for a long time is the fact that City of Greensboro employees are, from time to time, forced to lie to cover up for the mistakes and crimes of their bosses.
Hell, I know I'm an asshole, reactive, hard to get along with and
even abusive at times but never will any employee of the City of
Greensboro be forced to lie to cover my ass or the asses of anyone
working under me.
People who do their jobs make mistakes.
We yell, we scream, we get over it and go back to work. We don't fire
productive people for simple mistakes and we don't lie to cover them up.
When I am elected Mayor of Greensboro our employees will no longer have to fear losing their jobs for telling the truth. On that you have my word.
In case you are wondering, the State of North Carolina requires that candidates designate a recipient for any left over or excess funds collected by a political campaign. Most candidates simply roll their funding over from one election to the next and never pay anything to anyone, always figuring out excuses to spend every dime. State Senator Donald Vaughan donated his excess campaign funds to Mayor Nancy Vaughan's campaign for mayor as part of a dark money trail, but when this election is over, win or lose, I will donate all my excess funds to the Interactive Resource Center which works year 'round to help the homeless and others in need.
You see, my campaign is about helping Greensboro's poor and working class. And seriously folks, the roughly $22,500 a year the Mayor of Greensboro is paid is about as much as I ever made working. Having lived on so little for so long there's simply not much I need nor want for myself.
If you watched the short film above you understand you can't fix something by simply cutting it apart. You must also know how to put it back together again so that the wounds made by the surgery can heal. And often the cure is seemingly harder than the disease.
Greensboro and the Community Foundation of Greater Greensboro is currently spending over $65 Million Dollars of taxpayers' money to build a downtown performing arts center. Now allow me to ask you a question: If you lived in a place where every road for 100 miles in every direction was a gravel road would you buy a $300,000 Ferrari?
I think you all know the answer to that-- our current leaders bought a $300,000 Ferrari to drive round on gravel roads and will ultimately find themselves stuck in a ditch with their dream car beat all to pieces.
Some more of my ideas:
* A regional stock exchange headquartered in Greensboro. Why didn't Jim "Bobblehead" Melvin think of that? And being I suggested it in March of 2015, why haven't Greensboro's bought and paid for economic development "gurus" latched on to the idea?
* In 2013, a Mr Steve Niu of Triangle Accounting approached the City of Greensboro on behalf of Mr Hua Cheng Zhu of Super Granger Group, wanting a $50,000 grant from the City to begin shipping Greensboro's leaves to Japan. Basically the $50,000 was to cover the cost of the pellet machine that would be needed to reduce the volume of the leaves so that he could actually squeeze 25 tons of leaves into each container.
I suggested the City of Greensboro do it themselves. Pellets made from leaves can be used for compost, mulch, fuel and in some countries, fish and animal feed.
Starting such an enterprise would have been the perfect excuse for Marty Kotis to open a container yard on that 20 acre heavy industrial zoned site he owns between the North Carolina Railroad and East Wendover Avenue (US70) just a quarter mile west of Mount Hope Church Road. The NCRR has no Greensboro location and the Port of North Carolina inland facility located in Greensboro is connected to the railroad tracks leading to Tidewater, Virginia, 2 hours farther away than the North Carolina ports.
I suggested to Marty he open a small rail facility there buy Marty seems to prefer spending his time out drinking with Mayor Vaughan, and generating PR materials to seduce the media into making us believe a few more Midtown restaurants and bars will turn our city around while making most of his money building fast food restaurants for others, rather than building things Greensboro actually needs. Yes, I do still have the e-mails between us.
By the way, Marty, when I was a kid I used to fish those ponds and play on the farms out there next to Meadowlane Circle and the NCRR. My cousins lived out there. The pond was full of crappie and we used to catch snakes and lizards in the fields and woods.
Greensboro could then spin off the operation by selling stock on that local stock exchange I mentioned. Would the business leave someday? Not as long as Greensboro still has leaves.
And Councilman Wilkins, part of the profits could be used to offset that $Million Dollars a year the City spends picking up leaves-- a figure that is only going to go up. You might have thought of that yourself if you weren't spending all your time sitting around Marty's restaurants getting drunk and stuffing your face with tacos.
Greensboro could start a lot of businesses that way and we wouldn't be competing with the private sector. Instead we'd be investing in the private sector in ways that pay returns. And Greensboro shoppers would buy the products these Greensboro businesses make because instead of wasting millions of dollars a year having our PR department try to advertise and brand this hollow shell of a city our PR department would start spending their every waking moment getting Greensboro's residents to buy Made in Greensboro. Even if we have to send them door to door hawking products.
Name calling, accusations without any evidence... Mr Wood has a problem. Mr Wood is a very powerful man here in Greensboro with lots of power over the lives of thousands of people. But Mr Joe Woods is unable to accept the fact that the Greensboro he has spent his life building is a failed city. One only needs read Billy's Big List of Documented Reasons to know Greensboro is a failed city.
So Mr Joe Wood, rather than accept the fact that his life's work, as successful as it might seem in terms of personal property and money in his own bank accounts, has woefully failed Greensboro's working classes.
And so rather than criticizing the message, Mr Joe Wood criticizes the man. Why? Because Joe Wood wants the poor and working classes to stay down. Because if we are right then everything Joe Wood has ever done was wrong just like all the others who stand in our way.
Thank you Mr Wood, we've been waiting for someone of your "status" to make this mistake. Do you want to talk trash or do you want to talk about the issues? We can ruin a former County Commissioner as fast as anyone.
This is why the Greensboro-Randolph Megasite will never bring an automobile manufacturer to our area.
You see, despite what our current leaders would like you to think, no one locally has the skills necessary to do these jobs and none of our schools are teaching them.
But it might be we could get an auto factory the same way the small German town of Neckarsulm (current population 27,296) got their first auto factory in 1905. You see, they began producing bicycles in 1886, motorcycles in 1901 and by 1905 NSU became one of the car companies that through a series of mergers and acquisitions is called Audi today. Audi still produces cars in Neckarsulm in 2016 employing 15,900 workers
And you can bet they didn't build a megasite to do it.
The vast majority of communities with auto manufacturers never built a megasite in order to get an auto factory and to date no megasite has been the deciding factor in any car company choosing any particular location anywhere in the world.
After all, why would they want to pay a bunch of commercial real estate middle men
In Chattanooga, Tennessee, when Volkswagen opened their plant there in 2011 it was in an old ammunition plant, not a new megasite. And did I mention that unlike Greensboro and Randolph County, Chattanooga actually has a port where freight including new cars, can be shipped across oceans? But more importantly, Chatanooga has numerous nearby steel mills. Greensboro, Guilford County and Randolph County have no nearby steel mills.
Let's see you sail a ship or a barge loaded with steel up Climax Creek to the Greensboro-Randolph Megasite.
The auto industry began as a baby and the cities where it was born grew up with it. If Greensboro wants an automobile manufacturer or any other large manufacturer that can employ thousands then we must first birth that baby rather than trying to steal some other mother's child.
Maybe it's cars, maybe it's something else, but we won't "attract" it to come here. Not with every other city in America doing the same thing and many of them with much fatter wallets. But if we put our heads together we just might be able to birth a healthy child of our own.
Statewide there are already 12 to 18 empty megasites (depending on who is counting) finished and competing for that one auto plant. Nationwide there are known to be at least 180 empty megasites all waiting on the next automobile factory. And in many of those states they are willing and able to pay far more in incentives than North Carolina can afford to pay.
If I am elected Mayor of Greensboro I will make every effort to see to it that child is born. As a matter of fact I'm already bouncing around a few ideas of my own and would love to hear yours. What is it that Greensboro needs to start making right here at home? What will people buy? I'm leaning towards the first American Made mopeds since the 1980s but you might be more inclined to make spatulas. Whatever it is, we must birth that industry here, care for it, raise it, and see to it that it grows up big and strong.
After all, that's how Greensboro was built the first time 'round and so far nothing else that has been tried has worked.
Did I mention that when I'm elected I plan to move the Mayor's
office? I'm going to put it out there in that area of the Melvin
Municipal Building where all the plants are located. Oh, don't worry,
we'll keep most of the plants, I just believe a Mayor needs to be as
accessible as possible. I don't need walls, guards and people separating
me from the public. And there will be no closed door business meetings.
On
other days I might have meetings under the 100 year old oak trees in my
front yard and serve sweet iced tea. Sorry, my doctors have me on
several medications that don't mix well with alcohol so I'll not be
drinking with you even though I've nothing against responsible drinkers.
I'm
also supposed to avoid long exposure to direct sunlight because of my
medications. I miss the beach more than I miss alcohol. Growing older
isn't for the weak or the scared but at least I won't be taking long vacations where no one can get in touch with me-- it's simply not in my nature.
The current Mayor's office will be converted to working spaces for city employees.
I've
been thinking about the plaza outside the Melvin Municipal Building. To
me it seems that plaza goes horribly underutilized. Especially on the
weekends and at night.
I'm thinking there should be shows, bands,
and exhibitions there. Yes, the plaza will still be available for
political purposes but why not allow other uses there as well?
Personally I'd like to see a custom motorcycle show in the plaza but
everyone might not agree. What if our local breweries did some sort of
event there? Or a temporary runway was installed and a fashion show was
held there?
Anyway,
I'm open to all kinds of downtown events being hosted in the plaza as
downtown business owners often complain that closed streets actually
hurt their business rather than bring in more business.
Why Zack
Matheny and Downtown Greensboro Inc. never thought of that is simply
beyond me. I mean, some people will have to park all the way over on Elm
St, they might drop in a downtown shop or restaurant as they pass buy.
Look,
here's reality, folks, marketing downtown Greensboro, just like
marketing the rest of Greensboro, is the job of the people who run this
city. And the fact that our current leaders must subcontract this job to
Zack Matheny and DGI simply proves that our current leadership is
incapable of doing their jobs. I mean seriously, is this the best we can
get for Millions of dollars per year? From the front page of the DGI website as of June 28, 2016:
They might as well be posting Zack's DWI mug shot for the results you got.
Does it really take $Millions of Dollars a year to operate the DGI website? I pay about $15.oo a year for the domain name EzGreensboro.com and this website is free. There's probably a better option somewhere in-between.
Legally the City of Greensboro cannot close DGI as DGI has non profit status under State and Federal laws. But nowhere in State or Federal laws are there any regulations that require the City of Greensboro actually fund DGI.
What I am proposing is the following:
1. Stop all funding to DGI.
2. Have the City of Greensboro take over the responsibilities the City should have been doing all along.
The following is optional and certainly open for discussion but I don't think you can best it:
3. Cut the Business Improvement District tax in half.
4. Eliminate private residences from having to pay the BID tax even if they are located in the BID.
5. Vastly increase the size of the BID. Perhaps 2 to 3 times it's current size to include areas such as Uptown Greensboro to the north and east, South Elm, MLK and others.
My opinion is that Greensboro's downtown will always be doomed to failure as long as it remains small enough that a handful of people can control every aspect of what goes on there. Even the largest empires in the history of the world have all failed once they overextended their grasp. Let's make the BID large enough so that Greensboro's wannabe emperors, czars and tyrants can't keep a handle on it. Besides, our downtown is puny.
And while we're at it let's spread that economic development stimulus throughout a much larger portion of the city.
All controlled by a City Council who discusses city business in front of the television cameras and a Mayor who has his meetings right out in the open where anyone can see.
And while we're at it let's discuss who gets the economic stimulus money provided by the BID tax and how they are picked.
Under the current system the DGI board picks who gets it. Usually they give the money to DGI board members with the rest of downtown's merchants and property owners getting left out despite having to pay in year after year.
In my system the decision is twofold. First is proof of need. Then all who prove need will enter a lottery. Previous winners will not be eligible to win again as long as there is a deserving contestant still waiting to win.
It's not perfect. Nothing is.
Or do you prefer the good ol' boy system we have in place now?
That aggregate measure, however, obscures the radically different experiences of specific retail industries. Here, for example, is what happened to employment at electronic and appliance stores (one of the hardest-hit retail categories):
And here’s employment at “clothing and clothing accessories” stores, another retail category that’s been struggling of late:
E-Commerce Is Up, Up, Up
A 
