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DSMRE, for the record I appreciated our exchange and barely even registered that you used the term "outsider", but I just took it for how you intended it, as someone who lives outside of the Greenville SC region. Certainly wasn't offended by it as I do live outside of there and am indeed an outsider to that region.
Thank you. By outsider I clearly meant someone who has not lived in the area. Or who hasn't been to or lived in the area in a long time. I was clearly just trying to explain how the area has changed drastically from some of the past stereotypes and has become more diverse. Yes it still leans more one way, but it is adding other viewpoints too. As Mutiny said. I am of ethnic background and have no issue with living in the area. The serial poster just wants to argue and clearly has an issue with the area. Perhaps a really traumatizing experience? I don't know, but it's not my issue. It's been good to me. I like something in most cities for various reasons. No vendetta against any of them. They all have their perks.
Just because a municipality doesn't let the business community run ram shod over it doesn't mean it's "anti-business". Chapel Hill is a charming picturesque town, it didn't get that way or stay that way by accident. Businesses are free to set up shop elsewhere, Chapel Hill will eventually get the businesses that are the right fit for BOTH the business AND the community.
Of course, I understand why Chapel Hill is selective in what businesses it allows. Businesses hire workers and workers bring values. Chapel Hill wants businesses that will bring in workers that have Chapel Hill values. That's why you see projects like the Buc-ee's being sidelined but more medical or Google jobs are cheered on. They openly admitted they "didn't need" anymore gas station jobs but what they really meant to say is, we want to keep Orange County white collar and educated.
Money follows demand, businesses will do what they need to do to be where demand is, there is a big demand to be on Franklin Street...or basically anywhere in Chapel Hill.
Try to say that with a straight face while you walk past the boarded up and vacant businesses up and down Franklin Street. Everyone who has lived here knows that Franklin St. is a death sentence for most businesses because its expensive and has limited parking. The college student crowd doesn't generate the type of revenue that young and middle aged professionals would. Those people are driving to Durham or places on the outskirts of town.
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Notice all the highest priced areas in the country are left leaning....New York, Boston, San Francisco, DC....Chapel HIll. People and businesses want to be in an educated area with their high disposable incomes which generally tend to be left leaning.
Notice how the fastest growing states in the country are red states like Texas & Florida with low tax burdens & relatively high wages. People and businesses want to be in a tax friendly climate where local governments don't unnecessarily burden them with regulations. Why would I open a business in Chapel Hill for much more money when I could build it anywhere else in the Triangle?
All that to say, Chapel Hill is nothing like Greenville.
Notice how the fastest growing states in the country are red states like Texas & Florida with low tax burdens & relatively high wages. People and businesses want to be in a tax friendly climate where local governments don't unnecessarily burden them with regulations. Why would I open a business in Chapel Hill for much more money when I could build it anywhere else in the Triangle?
All that to say, Chapel Hill is nothing like Greenville.
Blue cities of those red states, to be precise. When it's convenient to Republicans they use the "red states are doing well". When it's time to fear mongering they go after "democrat-run-cities - cesspool of violence, rioting and looting". But facts, the actual math and numbers do not lie, do they? All these Blue voting cities (yes in Red States included) fuel 2/3 of the American economy, while red voting parts are unproductive. Additionally, the crime rates have been decreasing in big cities since Bill Clinton's administration. By 2017 they were at their historic lows.
Also, I am sure there are smart, educated people who oversee CH city planning. If they do not want a Bojangles in their town -- they are doing their due diligence, not just picking their noses, don't you think? I am sure they did their R&D to see if there is a demand for another gas station/Bojangles/Harris Teeter/whatever. They are dime a dozen everywhere, so why should they give that good location to Bojangles or another gas station, or a big box grocery store instead of a unique local small business or a service company?
Finally, CH actually does a very good job with bike lanes, sidewalks, etc. Had I lived in CH, I'd try to walk or bike everywhere. I actually did live in CH for about 6 months when I moved to this area, and that's exactly what I did most of the time. So maybe that's the point? Why keep building useless, environmentally unfriendly parking lots, instead you could have small stores with less parking and encourage people walk everywhere? They should have more park-and-ride or park-and-bike areas instead. That, I consider a better city planning. Why fill it with cars when you can fill it foot traffic? Good planning and design should change people's behavior to better, and if that's what they are doing, I am all for it.
Notice how the fastest growing states in the country are red states like Texas & Florida with low tax burdens & relatively high wages. People and businesses want to be in a tax friendly climate where local governments don't unnecessarily burden them with regulations. Why would I open a business in Chapel Hill for much more money when I could build it anywhere else in the Triangle?
All that to say, Chapel Hill is nothing like Greenville.
Wait till the growth catches up to these states and they are forced to raise their taxes. Then the businesses move on to states with low states/good incentives and the cycle starts over again. Low taxes don't mean anything if they aren't adequate to pay for at least the basic needs of the state/community to fund business operations/good quality of life for employees etc....
I'll have to dig up the story but I remember hearing about companies moving between both sides of Kansas City because each state would offer different incentives for companies to move there.
Wait till the growth catches up to these states and they are forced to raise their taxes. Then the businesses move on to states with low states/good incentives and the cycle starts over again. Low taxes don't mean anything if they aren't adequate to pay for at least the basic needs of the state/community to fund business operations/good quality of life for employees etc....
I'll have to dig up the story but I remember hearing about companies moving between both sides of Kansas City because each state would offer different incentives for companies to move there.
It was one of the largest income tax cuts in the state's history. The Kansas experiment has also been called the "Great Kansas Tax Cut Experiment," the "Red-state experiment," "the tax experiment in Kansas," and "one of the cleanest experiments for how tax cuts affect economic growth in the U.S."
However, by early 2017,Kansas had "nine rounds of budget cuts over four years, three credit downgrades, missed state payments", and what The Atlantic called "an ongoing atmosphere of fiscal crisis". To make up the budget shortfall, lawmakers tapped into state reserves set aside for future spending, postponed construction projects and pension contributions, and cut Medicaid benefits. Since approximately half of the state's budget went to school funding, education was particularly hard hit. In addition to budget problems, Kansas was lagging behind neighboring states with similar economies in "nearly every major category: job creation, unemployment, gross domestic product, taxes collected"
With economic growth remaining consistently below average, the Republican Legislature of Kansas voted to roll back the cuts; although Brownback vetoed the repeal, the legislature succeeded in overriding his veto.
There's gotta be some middle ground between paying zero taxes and paying a ton of taxes because the taxes collected for years were insufficient to keep up with maintenance of existing infrastructure or quality of life.
I don't think I've ever heard "Florida" and "high wages" in the same sentence before.
Nope, and you didn't hear it from me either because I deliberately prefaced it with the word "relatively". I knew someone just like yourself would come along to nitpick my comment and say "oh, wages aren't high in Florida because of California and New York," completely disregarding the disproportionate cost of living between the two.
Blue cities of those red states, to be precise. When it's convenient to Republicans they use the "red states are doing well". When it's time to fear mongering they go after "democrat-run-cities - cesspool of violence, rioting and looting". But facts, the actual math and numbers do not lie, do they? All these Blue voting cities (yes in Red States included) fuel 2/3 of the American economy, while red voting parts are unproductive. Additionally, the crime rates have been decreasing in big cities since Bill Clinton's administration. By 2017 they were at their historic lows.
Also, I am sure there are smart, educated people who oversee CH city planning. If they do not want a Bojangles in their town -- they are doing their due diligence, not just picking their noses, don't you think? I am sure they did their R&D to see if there is a demand for another gas station/Bojangles/Harris Teeter/whatever. They are dime a dozen everywhere, so why should they give that good location to Bojangles or another gas station, or a big box grocery store instead of a unique local small business or a service company?
Finally, CH actually does a very good job with bike lanes, sidewalks, etc. Had I lived in CH, I'd try to walk or bike everywhere. I actually did live in CH for about 6 months when I moved to this area, and that's exactly what I did most of the time. So maybe that's the point? Why keep building useless, environmentally unfriendly parking lots, instead you could have small stores with less parking and encourage people walk everywhere? They should have more park-and-ride or park-and-bike areas instead. That, I consider a better city planning. Why fill it with cars when you can fill it foot traffic? Good planning and design should change people's behavior to better, and if that's what they are doing, I am all for it.
Oh yeah, the planners are great because they're educated. Therefore they must be smart, and I shouldn't question any of their planning decisions. Why do you think I am on a website like City-Data in the first place? Do you not think that I have done some research myself, and combined with having lived here for over a decade, I understand the challenges that are unique to this area?
You should move here, it sounds like you would love it. I don't like to ride bicycles because its far too dangerous to ride them here. I personally witnessed a woman hit by a truck pulling out of Armadillo Grill and have had numerous close calls. I will stick to driving my car, which I have to have here, because as I mentioned earlier, there's nothing in downtown. I don't have the numbers but would love to know the vacancy rate right now for Franklin St. I bet at minimum 30-50% of the businesses have permanently closed.
There are a lot of people in Carrboro who work outside of Chapel Hill/Carrboro especially over in the lower income neighborhoods off of 54/Jones Ferry Rd. I was alluding to those people who have to commute into Durham to find blue collar work because there isn't much of it in Chapel Hill. A lot of immigrants especially that I know personally commute over to Durham & even Cary/Apex/Raleigh.
Oh yeah, the planners are great because they're educated. Therefore they must be smart, and I shouldn't question any of their planning decisions. Why do you think I am on a website like City-Data in the first place? Do you not think that I have done some research myself, and combined with having lived here for over a decade, I understand the challenges that are unique to this area?
You should move here, it sounds like you would love it. I don't like to ride bicycles because its far too dangerous to ride them here. I personally witnessed a woman hit by a truck pulling out of Armadillo Grill and have had numerous close calls. I will stick to driving my car, which I have to have here, because as I mentioned earlier, there's nothing in downtown. I don't have the numbers but would love to know the vacancy rate right now for Franklin St. I bet at minimum 30-50% of the businesses have permanently closed.
There are a lot of people in Carrboro who work outside of Chapel Hill/Carrboro especially over in the lower income neighborhoods off of 54/Jones Ferry Rd. I was alluding to those people who have to commute into Durham to find blue collar work because there isn't much of it in Chapel Hill. A lot of immigrants especially that I know personally commute over to Durham & even Cary/Apex/Raleigh.
Yeah, everyone is a critic. Maybe start attending you city meetings and voicing your opinion. Get involved in planning your city if you hate it this much. Everyone can offer an opinion about things that aren't working. But, totally ignore things that actual work. I am a part of the bicycle group in Durham. It is much worse than what they have in CH. But, hopefully my $$, advocating for bike lanes and volunteering will change things. What are you doing to make the needle move? Opining on public forum won't do anything.
Vacancies are everywhere. We are in pandemic. Bring it up in a year. Having a fast food restaurant where people won't eat isn't going work anyway. As I said I am sure they did the market research before denying these stores to open.
What are you trying to say about poverty and living in ****ty places? Like it is specific to this place only? It's a problem everywhere. We need to work on making public transportation real in this country. Not just big cities. If you think in other places poor people are living in prime downtown locations, you are kidding yourself. Again, voting/advocating to have dense towns/cities, voting and advocating to have better transportation helps. Being a NIMBY doesn't.
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Why do you think I am on a website like City-Data in the first place? Do you not think that I have done some research myself, and combined with having lived here for over a decade, I understand the challenges that are unique to this area?
