Growth

This artincle on new census data requires no comment, but I will state the obvious fact that those who still see North Carolina as a sleepy country state with no need for serious mass transit and other planninf solutions are living in a past decade:

Led by Raleigh and Myrtle Beach, 10 metropolitan areas in North Carolina and South Carolina were among the country's 100 fastest-growing cities and towns between 2000 and 2005.
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The Raleigh-Cary region, counted as a single Metropolitan Statistical Area by the federal government and including most of the Triangle, grew by 19.1 percent to a population of almost 950,000, the 18th-largest rate of growth.

I came back from a week long tour of Florida yesterday thinking that the cities in Florida were so much better than those in our great state. Sure our cities are nice, but there were many more pieces of public art, more exciting and vibrant downtowns, and more people actually out at night in downtown in Florida's cities. Also, Florida has at least 9 major-league professional teams while North Carolina has 3.

Apparently, Raleigh's actions in the Plensa plaza affair, where Raleigh is about to turn down a plaza designed by an internationally known artist and paid for with private funds, convinced the N&O that it was time to attack Raleigh for creating a boring city. The Q section of Sunday's N&O contained four articles on how boring the city is and how the boringness is created by reactionary "No-it-alls". The articles:

The big economic development news today was that Fidelity is building a regional center in RTP to house a total of over 3,000 workers, which will include adding 2,000 jobs to their total workforce in the Triangle. These jobs pay an average of over $58,000 per year plus benefits. The reasons Fidelity gave for choosing the site in North Carolina were the education level, quality of life, and the fact that the state is providing $69 million in incentives.

Now I am typically for incentives aimed at bringing good jobs to the state, but the $69 million price tag seems a bit much to me. Granted some of the grants require the company to contribute a certain amount back to the state, the figure I heard for Fidelity was $12 million, and the deal is much smaller than the $318 million given to Dell for creating only 1,500 less highly paid positions.

Some areas of North Carolina have seen tremendous growth recently. And the response seems to be that the local governments are simply relying on traditional zoning schemes to place development. The problem is that zoning tends to be too weak of an instrument to control this rapid growth and still preserve the natural heritage of the state and working farmlands. Many other areas facing similar problems have turned to a "new" tool called Urban Growth Districts to both allow planned growth and prevent some of the negative consequences of sprawl. My proposition for this post is that North Carolina should begin implementing urban growth districts before the sprawl permanently ruins the state.

I am really rushed this morning, but I got this alert from Molly Diggins of the North Carolina Sierra Club and wanted to pass it along. The meeting on the bill will be at noon today (Wednesday). And if anyone does go to support the moratorium, please let them know that you heard about it on BlueNC so that in the future they will think to keep the netroots informed.

From Molly Diggins:

All,

The NC Senate will take up a bill to place a moratorium on new landfills in NC. This is the same measure they attempted to move through a special provision in the budget but the House took a position this year that it would not accept any special provisions in the budget.

What happens when you move into a sprawling area of Raleigh? You get a big go-cart track built right next to you:

Residents said they moved into the neighborhood because of the peace and quiet. However, they say that changed about a year ago when Frankie's Fun Park opened off Alexander Drive. Homeowners claim the sound from the go-karts and the loudspeakers can be heard well into the night.

I am sure that the homeowners complaining thought that the woods next to their newly leveled and developed areas were going to stay clear forever, but they learned the hard way that if the developer who tore down the woods formally covering their lots, there is nothing preventing another developer from the same to the lot next to you.

http://carolinademline.blogspot.com

When becoming President in 1933, Franklin Delano Roosevelt understood the importance of re-building America's infrastructure so that economic growth would be made possible. The programs made sense, people needed work, and America needed new buildings, bridges, etc. This overhaul of America's infrastructure paved the way for the economic expansion America saw after World War II and allowed the United States to become the leader of the industiralized world.

In 1933, a major infrastrucure improvement was to deliver electric power to rural areas of our country. President Roosevelt made this goal a major part of his New Deal package of reforms and created the Rural Electric Authority. This agency was responsible for bringing electric power to farms and small cities across America, allowing these areas to grow economically as well.

I brought this over from my Vet's blog and re-worded it to work here. Dan Why do active Democrats drop out completely or become inactive members of the Party?? What happens is a dirty 6 letter word - APATHY. APATHY means a lack of emotion, a lack of interest, i.e. "I don't care, I'm not interested, I really don't give a !@#$%^&*%." We have all heard the excuses: * "I do not know any one old enough to go to try & register, so I'm not interested. " * "I only care about baseball. " * "I have no children at home; I don't care to work with children and youth." * "I don't like to voluenteer! I don't care about the serving on a Committee." * "I don't like to work outside; I won't help with the fund raiser." * "I'm still mad about (something) that happened (sometime ago) caused by (some current or past member of this Party or some other District) so I'm not going to do anything! APATHY spreads likes a cancer, and is what kills a party.

One of the biggest enemies of the environment, AAA, has come out with its estimate of the cost to drive a car in North Carolina. Of course, AAA forgot to include the cost of time lost sitting in traffic and the cost to environment, but their data shows that automobiles are very expensive to operate, even though their numbers are greatly skewed.

They estimate that the average car in North Carolina costs $5,711 a year or 53.68 cents/mile. Of this cost, only 10 cents/mile comes from gasoline. And by extension the 2.8 cents/gallon gas tax that Right has been complaining about would account for less than .1 cents/mile.

(Cross-posted at the new Appalachian Voices blog)

Don't always agree with Governor Easley. Not always impressed with him. But he has been kicking ass on the environment, first with his opposition to the sale of the National Forests. Now this.

There is an offshore drilling moratorium for the Pacific and Atlantic Coasts that isn't set to expire until 2012. However, there are some special interests in Virginia that want to see that overturned much sooner. Like...now.

The new Appalachian Voices blog is shoving off today across the great Southern American blogosphere!

As we embark on this journey I invite you to join us for Mountain Oyesters and barbeque, sweet tea and moonshine, Smokey Mountains and Clean Smokestacks!

The Appalachian region has traditionally been more in need of Democrats and progressive leaders than any region in the country. We are victims of some of the highest poverty in the country, some of the worst air and water quality, some of the highest unemployment, lowest median family incomes, and highest mortality rates during wartime.

The tax breaks that state and local governments give to businesses have been highly controversial but also highly successful in creating new jobs in North Carolina. After this week, the tax breaks may also be a thing of the past. The Supreme Court is hearing a case that argues the tax incentives are unconstitutional. If the Court agrees, it would be a big blow to North Carolina, who has used the incentives to lure growth to the area. In fact, the new growth is one reason that the state has been able to recover from the downfall of the textile, manufacturing, and tobacco industries. There is a good article about the issue on CNN, but everything that know up to this point can become moot once the Court hears the case this week.

WakePol describes Micheal Luther's first e-mail to kick off his campaign for Wake County Commissioner here:

This Luther only has three [theses]:

1. Stop busing. He opposes the school board's policy of shifting a small percentage of students in order to maintain economic diversity. "This busing has to stop......." he writes.

2. Stop the TTA. He believes the Triangle Transit Authority's $810 million commuter rail project should be ended. "The train commission needs to be shut down."

Welcome to the new port. Southport in Brunswick county is moving ahead. Picture of the site below.

I have been super busy today. I was negotiating to buy a house, and just when we thought that we were just down to money and closing date the owner decided that she wants to rip up the yard because a bush has been in the family for generations (which I do not even think is possible by the way). Anyway, I wanted to pass on this quick link to a new site dedicated to bring better public transportation to the Triangle, including a regional rail.

The site is here. It evens includes a petition to sign for those of us into action (I did it). I cannot go into all the reasons that we need more public transportation right now, so I will just leave you with three: reasonable commutes, reducing pollution, and getting poor people to work without wasting all the money that they earn on gas. If you need more, check some of my earlier posts here.