Yet Another Reason North Carolina Will never Get That Auto Factory

Today the Wall Street Journal tells us of the death of the port at Portland, Oregon long known for shipping far more tonnage than North Carolina has ever shipped as ships grow ever larger and can no longer sail up the 43' deep channel to the port.

Meanwhile, in Charleston, South Carolina where Volvo recently announced plans to build their newest auto factory:

"Over the next 10 years, the South Carolina Ports Authority and the State of South Carolina plan to spend a combined $2 billion at the Port of Charleston to build a container terminal, deepen its channel and expand road and rail access."

So how deep are the channels leading to North Carolina's 2 ports?

Wilmington:

• Ocean bar channel depth of 44 ft. M.L.L.W. and width of 500 ft.
• Inside harbor channel depth of 42 ft. M.L.L.W. and width of 500 ft. 
• Anchorage/turning basin depth of 42 ft. M.L.L.W. and diameter of 1,200 ft. 
• Depth of 38 ft. M.L.L.W. at berths 1 and 2; 42 ft. M.L.L.W. at berths 3 through 9 
• Minimum air draft in channel of 164 ft.

Morehead City:

• Ocean bar channel depth of 47 ft. M.L.L.W. and width of 450 ft.
• Inside harbor channel depth of 45 ft. M.L.L.W. and widths of 400, 600, 775 and 820 ft.
• East turning basin depth of 45 ft. M.L.L.W. and diameter of 1,350 ft.; West turning basin depth of 35 ft. M.L.L.W. and 1,100 ft. radius
• Depth of 45 ft. M.L.L.W. at berths 1, 2 and 3; 35 ft. M.L.L.W. at berths 4 through 9
• No air draft restriction in channel 

Get it, our ports are tiny, we can't ship cars and other things requiring mega ships to and from megasites as we don't have the infrastructure in place to do so. Our political "leaders" are lying to you as they take their kickbacks from developers and divert taxpayer dollars to build fields of dreams making themselves and their developer cronies rich in the process. Like I've written before, North Carolina is 20-40 years from having the necessary rails and ports in place to support an automobile factory.

And as always, please share this article with everyone you know.

Oh, and I hope to see you all Thursday night 6:00 PM at the Guilford County Agricultural Extension Center at a community forum hosted by North Carolina State University to discuss the economic benefits of Aquasponic farming in rural and urban areas. Click here to see the press release and join in real grass roots economic development that isn't padding the pockets of the elites.

What If Cindy Hayworth Is Or Isn't Lying?

And Why It Doesn't Really Matter

Remember when Ben Holder blew the lid on the Mel's Pressure Washing scandal only to find out later that Ben had been promised the City's pressure washing business by none other than Mike Barber? Ben ended up getting his contract to do mercenary code enforcement to appease him and another scandal, Heritage House, came about.

How did  Cyndy Hayworth​ get the job at DGI? Was she promised the top slot by Mike Barber?

It's no secret that Zack Matheny started making noise that he wanted DGI's top job before Jason Cannon was hired but Zack was passed over. There is no way in hell Zack, who has never gotten along with Cindy, would have ever supported her for the job he wanted. The two of them despise each other. You only need watch them both in the same room to know I'm right. So who pushed DGI's board to hire Cindy? Who controls the $1.2 Million in taxpayer dollars the city gives DGI?

So as Mike Barber looks to 2015 and needs corporate welfare for his own projects like continued free use of not one but 2 Greensboro golf courses for his day job at First Tee of the Triad he is forced to deal with Zack for need of a vote.

And being that Zack wants a job and Mike needs City resources to keep his job... Well it just could be at that point Mike decided to double cross Cindy just like he double crossed Ben Holder. Only Cindy didn't kiss Mike's ass like Ben did. Cindy went for the throat.

Is Cindy lying about wanting the job or what Mike Barber said? Doesn't matter, Barber wanted Cindy to work under Zack, a man he knows she despises, a man who would go to any means to make her life miserable. If Cindy is lying it just might be more about survival than an actual desire to remain at the top.

I mean, can you imaging having to work for an egotistical psychopath like Zack Methany?

Greensboro Approves Greensboro-Randolph Megasite Without Public Input

While the media was talking about it, the decision had already been made. I give you Resolution Approving The Extension of Water and Sewer Utilities.

This was a done deal in 2012.

So when you look at the agenda (Item 34) for next Tuesday night's Greensboro City Council meeting keep in mind that Greensboro has already approved the building of the megasite, the money they are about to spend is just more they're giving away to the rich while poor Greensboro communities beg to open a grocery store the Greensboro City Council worked to stop us from having.

Randolph County Approves Greensboro-Randolph Megasite

This morning the News & Record reports on the vote to approve the Greensboro-Randolph Megasite:

"The deal with Randolph County is the first test of the partnership’s strategy to buy or control land, sell it and then reuse the money to buy more.

Keith Debbage, a professor of urban geography at UNCG, said his research shows an auto plant can have a dramatic impact on a community’s economy.

Debbage, who was hired by the Joseph M. Bryan Foundation to do a study, reported that, based on examples of other communities with auto plants, Randolph County’s workforce, poverty rate and industrial economy would improve not only with new jobs at a plant, but with jobs created by businesses related to the car industry.

Since 1999, Debbage said, a total of 7,706 jobs have been lost in Randolph County.

In his 25-slide presentation, Debbage charted the impact of BMW in Greenville, S.C., and Volkswagen in Chattanooga, Tenn.

Between 1993 and 2001 alone, BMW created 4,400 jobs in South Carolina, and BMW’s suppliers added another 6,700 jobs to the region, he said.

In Chattanooga, Tenn., where Volkswagen opened its plant in 2008, Debbage reported the company employed 1,200 workers by 2012. He said businesses related to the factory added another 10,000 jobs."

Professor Debbage misses a few major points, Greenville and Chatanooga both had major steel shredding and steel manufacturing operations in place before the auto plants located there. Every auto plant in the world is located in close proximity to a steel mill as steel is the heaviest and most expensive part of an automobile to ship.

There exists in North Carolina already 12 to 18 empty megasites depending on whose count you believe all vying for the same auto plant. Nationally there are 180 empty megasites all vying for the same auto plant according to Site Selection Magazine, a publication owned and operated by the world's only company allowed to certify megasites.

Besides the Chatham County megasite currently being built by DH Griffin, Mr Griffin is also developing a megasite in Ridgeway, Virginia just 45 minutes north of Greensboro where water is already in place via take your pick, Martinsville, Ridgeway or Eden, all from the almost inexhaustible Dan River upstream of the coal ash spill. The City of Greensboro will have to spend in excess of $20 Million Dollars to put water and sewer into the Greensboro-Randolph Megasite.

Both the Chatam County megasite and the Ridgeway megasite are built along existing railroads. Autoplants ship most of their production via rail, not truck. The Greensboro-Randolph megasite has no railroad tracks. Correction: As a commenter below has pointed out there is a railroad track going through the northern end of the proposed Greensboro-Randolph Megasite but as the railroads are already a major investor in the existing Montgomery County Megasite I doubt they'll be interested in investing and creating competition for their own empty megasite.

DH Griffin owns his own paving, utility, construction, real estate, grading, scrap metal, electrical... You name it, he owns a company that can do every aspect of construction of a megasite. And if he runs up against something his people don't know how to do he buys a successful company that can. Mr Griffin owns a port facility in Wilmington, has decades of experience operating numerous rail sidings owns a port and even owns substantial interest in a steel mill-- the man is brilliant and his employees love him-- who do you think will get the auto plant if it comes?

And quite frankly DH Griffin is responsible for putting more people to work than all our local Triad politicians and economic development "gurus" combined.

Asheboro needs jobs in Asheboro where people live, not 20 miles away on the county line where people will move to if those jobs ever come, thereby draining the Asheboro tax-base leaving only the poor behind. Same goes for Greensboro, you're contributing to your own cities' eventual demise and destroying much needed farm lands necessary to our future survival.

Then there's the e-mail I got from Greensboro attorney and Randolph County resident Alan Fergison just this morning titled, Field of Dreams Vote:

"Good Morning, Everyone!

               Last night was a late one, for all of you at the Board of County Commissioners meeting, wasn’t it.  Thanking every one of you who was there is the most important thing I have to do today.

               And I do thank you, from the bottom of my heart!  You turned out and expressed yourselves over and over again in the face of the entire establishment and against what seemed to be every “pillar of the community” in Asheboro.  You told them repeatedly why you believe Randolph County should stay out of the property development business.

               And we lost. Four to one, with Commissioner Allen, the lone commissioner standing up to this public misadventure and saying “No”.  Once again, we all owe David our thanks for standing up for us when he is being pushed by the powers-that-be to betray the voters.  He was not about to do that. Commissioner Haywood asked the speakers favoring the project some pointed and largely unanswered questions, but, in the end, he too voted to proceed. Times like these provide a test of who will stand up for the things they say they believe--and who will not.

               I don’t  recall Commissioners Lanier, Kemp, or Frye asking a single question during the course of a six hour hearing.  Near the end of the meeting, Mr. Lanier made some comments that betrayed his paticular hostility to every concern we have.  Mr. Kemp has never shown us the slightest sympathy over the many months of this controversy.  You need to remember these three names come election time in the future.

               Last night, we produced twenty speakers, each of whom offered compelling reasons why our tax dollars should stay out of the real estate development business.  Commissioner Allen stated during the hearing that messages to him were running about eight to one against the Field Of Dreams.  In the end, we had the arguments, but we didn’t have the political power.

               And that’s what you saw last night—a real example of what political power in Randolph County looks like.  I lost count of the number of “suits” parading up there to speak in favor of their publicly-fiananced Field Of Dreams.  Even the mayor of Asheboro trudged up to the lecturn to read in his support!

               I am delighted that I could be your own “suit” last night!  In all of my years of practicing law, I have never done anything more gratifying than speaking up for us and then turning round at the end of the meager ten minutes Chairman Frye allowed me and seeing that sea of red filling the room.

               I am sorry that I couldn’t carry the day for us.

               Do not despair!  This is certainly not the end of this road. As you heard last night, there is still no money for this project (other than that provided by our suddenly enthusiastically freely spending Commissioners Lanier, Frye and Kemp).  As heard last night, the proponents are mining for tax dollars in our state legislature asking for the rest of what they need for their project. 

               After we’ve all rested up, we’ll meet again and discuss it all in more detail. I AM NOT GOING AWAY!

               Until then, with affectionate and best regards,

Alan "

So in closing I can only ask, did the 4 Randolph County Commissioners and Mayor of Asheboro not know the things I have just told you, did they simply not do their homework? Or were they bought and paid for by Jim Melvin, the Bryan Foundation and the rest of Greensboro's elites in another display of corporate welfare?

What The Hell Happened To Greensboro?

In 1982 Greensboro, North Carolina was rated as the #1 best place to live in America. In the years following everything went to hell. For 2015, Liveability.com ranked Greensboro at #91 but in 2008 CNN Money rated Greensboro at #50-- what happened? 41 places in 7 years-- how could any city fall so quickly? Our corrupt and inept "leaders" will tell you it was a result of the Recession but the Recession was nationwide, worldwide even.

Saying Greensboro fell 41 places in national rankings because of a worldwide recession just doesn't cut it. Greensboro fell 41 places because our "leaders" and economic development "gurus" failed to look for new ways to survive a changing economy. Greensboro now ranks #4 for empty industrial parks nationwide and our "leaders" believe we need to continue building new industrial parks using taxpayer dollars.

And rather than put those industrial parks in the parts of the city where unemployment is highest they want to build them on the county lines in other cities. They know it won't work and they don't care.

They're building a downtown performing arts center that will net zero new jobs for Greensboro. They know it won't work and they don't care.

Corruption is what happened to Greensboro. Banks won't lend money to build new homes so developers and contractors are lining up with their hands out to Greensboro City Government with project after project to be paid for by the taxpayers. It's nothing new, the fact that so many of our older projects are empty simply shows it's been going on for years.

Take the Nanoschool on East Lee for instance: There was supposed to be 180 full time students attending labs there. 10 students are registered for the next class. $60 Million Dollars for what? So we can spend $90 Million more on a downtown campus that will never be filled.

Now you know what happened to Greensboro.

I have a plan, do they?

Crony Capitalism/Crony Socialism, Corporate Welfare and the Very Visible Hand of Politics

Upon the next occasion in which local politicos bestow corporate welfare, disguised as “economic development“, upon some firm wanting to relocate to the locale or threatening to leave the locale, one would be well served to consider the following regarding the accompanying “economic impact study” (guess) that outlines all the wonderful things that will happen when such corporate welfare is bestowed.


Yes, that rosy picture (guess) that comes in tandem with the corporate welfare handout:


“The Government spenders forget that they are taking the money from A in order to pay it to B. Or rather, they know this very well; but while they dilate upon all the benefits of the process to B, and all the wonderful things he will have which he would not have had if the money had not been transferred to him, they forget the effects of the transaction on A. B is seen, A is forgotten.” - Henry Hazlitt

Branding the City State

One might consider that branding a city state, such as Greensboro, NC, by advertising the same city state brand locally, at the price of $35,000, year after year, to the same residents of said city state, is quite ridiculous. That observation would be the “seen”. What about the “unseen”?

Branding the city state is an extension of a zero sum game. A zero sum game, known to power purveyors within the city state and advertised to the same residents of the city state as: “Economic development”.

Economic development, as deployed by directing politicos, through local and state economic development authorities, ends as a zero sum game as locality X merely wins while locality Z loses. The economic pie does not grow, rather one locale gains at the expense of another locale with the economic pie, the size thereof, remaining the same. For instance, building airplanes doesn’t occur in Seattle, Washington, it merely occurs in South Carolina. The same airplane is built, merely in a different locale. Seattle loses and South Carolina wins. But in the aggregate, the economic pie does not grow, rather one locale gains at the expense of another locale.

Moreover, the political exercise of “economic development” is an exercise of picking winners and losers as the exercise favors firm A over firms B - Z within, say, the widget industry. Hence firm A receives special treatment within the universe of widget producers, putting the remaining widget producers at a competitive disadvantage as they did not receive such special benefit. Firms B - Z, the losers, now at a competitive disadvantage to firm A may have to reduce output and consequently reduce inputs such as labor and capital. Firm A, the winner, now at a competitive advantage increases output and consequently inputs such as labor and capital due to their new artificially competitive position, with such increases, occurring at the expense of firms B - Z within the widget industry. Once again the economic pie does not grow, rather, winners gain at the expense of losers.

“Economic” incentives directed by politicos through their quazi-political branch known as economic development authorities must have resources to bestow upon the winners. Since government creates nothing, the resources bestowed must come from the private sector in the form of taxes. Therefore an incremental tax is levied against existing firms and households within locale L, that in turn, after bureaucratic overhead expense, is bestowed upon the winner.

The entire political process of this zero sum game of picking winners and losers through taxpayer funded prizes is framed as a cost/benefit winner. Enter political dupery and nitwitery. The sponsoring politicos through their quazi-political branch known as economic development authorities fashion an economic impact study. An economic impact study, the results thereof, better known to James and Jane Goodfellow as: A wild guess.

The wild guess aka economic impact study is based upon predictive economics which makes many, many assumptions about trends and patterns, none of which may occur. The predictive economics is then dipped in normative economics (the way things ought to be), then a miracle occurs, and the wild guess becomes framed as fact. Positive economics (if this, then these possible outcomes) is thrown out the window as the vast majority of economic impact studies fail to present the counterfactual. The counterfactual being: If the incremental tax levied, which represents the prize bestowed, never occurred, would the now non-taxed firms and households with additional resources available have created as much or more “economic impact”?

Returning to the proposition of branding the city state as an extension of a zero sum game: Is the branding merely an attempt to brand the city state’s economic development activity as a positive game? Stated alternatively, one takes a zero sum game, paints a smiley face on such, in a grand attempt to present the zero sum game as a happy little positive exploit. Hence the “brand” is no more than the city state’s particular brand of zero sum. One’s happy face “brand” might be that of aviation, internet service providers, biotech, green energy and so on. But in the end corporate welfare is not a happy face.