Economic Development in South Carolina

[krazeeboi]

So the gist of the article is, does the Sanford affair/scandal hurt business recruitment efforts in the state. I say that temporarily, it may, but in the long run, not as much.

[GvilleSC]

Fluor plans to add 100 more jobs in Greenville. The company already employs about 2,500 at its Greenville operations.

Fluor Adding Jobs

This is definitely good news.

The local hiring will include positions in project control, project management, finance, procurement, estimating, subcontracting, human resources, but not engineering, he said.

Edited July 9, 2009 by GvilleSC

[krazeeboi]

^Definitely good news, but it would have been even better had it included more engineers.

[CorgiMatt]

I posted this in this forum yesterday and someone moved it or deleted it altogether. If you moved it or move again, can you say where you moved it to, and if you deleted it or delete again can you say why, as it definitely has to do with economic development in SC, although it could be put in a new forum or under highways if there is such a forum for SC. I am re-posting it for discussion. Hint: We have often discussed on here that SC government and too many South Carolinians have something against cities.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/09/us/09projects.html?hpw

[monsoon]

^If it got deleted, then it was because it broke our rule on link posts. If you feel that you have to post a news link, then you are required to explain why it is relevant here. I have not deleted anything from here in a while, but these endless posts from news rags that go, "oh so and so has "promised" some jobs", followed by "oh that's wonderful", rinse repeat, means this is a pretty worthless topic. UrbanPlanet was not meant to be a news clipping site. If this sort of thing is your cup of tea, it's easy enough to setup news.google.com to automatically send you links to the same sort of thing.

Just looking that this post, you have a link to the NY Times. There is absolutely no explaination on why you posted it here, why it is important to us, and what you want to discuss about it. Many times the links, especially at the NYT, will go unavailable unless you are a subscriber. The best discussions on this site, by far, have no links in them to elsewhere. If someone on the staff deletes one of these, it is unreasonable to expect a nice PM informing you as to the reason why. It takes a lot more time. Everyone that registers here is required to read and understand our rules.

[CorgiMatt]

I'm not an elephant and therefore I can't remember everything, but thank you for the reminder.

[GvilleSC]

I'm not an elephant and therefore I can't remember everything, but thank you for the reminder.

It just got moved over here, if I'm not mistaken: http://www.urbanplanet.org/forums/index.ph...t&p=1078124

[CorgiMatt]

Oh, thank you! Usually when someone moves something they take the time to say it has been moved to such and such a topic or that a new topic has been started. Thanks again.

[Spartan]

Yeah its my fault. I moved it. Sorry for not posting its new location, but that article/issue should be discussed int he SC Roads thread that GvilleSC linked to.

[CorgiMatt]

South Carolina has slipped further into an economic abyss according to this ranking of the best states in which to do business in 2009. Someone has had their head buried in the sand (or somewhere else) for too long.

http://www.cnbc.com/id/31765926

[krazeeboi]

Sorry, but Sanford isn't to blame for this one.

[Spartan]

Its just another list. Considering that South Carolina normally ranks very high on 'great places to do business' lists, I question their methodology. You'll note that nowhere is their methodology explained. In many cases, data is either not measured in the same way from state to state or there are other factors influencing it. For example, what makes the quality of life in South Dakota so much better than the quality of life in South Carolina? I defy anyone to give me an example that I won't laugh at.

The general state of the economy doesn't help anything right now, but for discussion purposes I place blame squarely on the heads of the legislature. Rather than make laws to help create progress in terms of education, quality of life, and other key factors that businesses look for, they consistently work in the opposite direction.

[Greenville]

The general state of the economy doesn't help anything right now, but for discussion purposes I place blame squarely on the heads of the legislature. Rather than make laws to help create progress in terms of education, quality of life, and other key factors that businesses look for, they consistently work in the opposite direction.

Well said. Instead of working on the things that matter, they waste time and money on stupid stuff like the H.L. Hunley submarine. Maybe that would be a worthwhile project if things were perfect, but as usual our state is near the bottom in good rankings and near the top in bad rankings. I don't think our government should be blamed for these problems (many are cultural/generations-long issues), but I would at least like to see someone in our state government trying to discuss these issues.

It's the same way with Sanford. I don't expect him to fix our problems, but it would be nice to see him giving the appearance that he cares (instead of taking a two week vacation to Europe).

[Spartan]

Well, the Hunley is something I consider a good thing since it involves knowledge-based jobs. It also will contribute to our state's history and the understanding of civil-war era technology. My vision (aka pie-in-the-sky wish) is that the Hunley will be used as an example/means to establish a better museum system in South Carolina. The State Museum in Columbia is OK, but it's intended for school field trips. I want something that benefits everyone. We have such a unique history an cultural heritage that an investment in our education system from this angle would be extremely beneficial to all Carolinians.

When I made my statement, I was thinking of examples like the general lack of funding for education- both k-12 and high education (and how they are the first to get axed when times are rough), the lack of effort to preemptively modernize the Charleston ports as opposed to being reactive, the restrictive laws on annexation and planning, and the lack of vision to put some money aside for a rainy day. Talk about Sanford all you want, but he was right about that. We should have saved when times were good.

[krazeeboi]

When I made my statement, I was thinking of examples like the general lack of funding for education- both k-12 and high education (and how they are the first to get axed when times are rough), the lack of effort to preemptively modernize the Charleston ports as opposed to being reactive, the restrictive laws on annexation and planning, and the lack of vision to put some money aside for a rainy day. Talk about Sanford all you want, but he was right about that. We should have saved when times were good.

Co-sign.

[GvilleSC]

Well, the Hunley is something I consider a good thing since it involves knowledge-based jobs. It also will contribute to our state's history and the understanding of civil-war era technology. My vision (aka pie-in-the-sky wish) is that the Hunley will be used as an example/means to establish a better museum system in South Carolina. The State Museum in Columbia is OK, but it's intended for school field trips. I want something that benefits everyone. We have such a unique history an cultural heritage that an investment in our education system from this angle would be extremely beneficial to all Carolinians.

What exactly do you mean by "museum system"?

[krazeeboi]

What exactly do you mean by "museum system"?

I think he means something similar NC's setup. Instead of just having a general state museum, NC has a museum of natural sciences, a museum of history, a museum of art, etc.

[GvilleSC]

I think he means something similar NC's setup. Instead of just having a general state museum, NC has a museum of natural sciences, a museum of history, a museum of art, etc.

Interesting! Are they located in a complex together, or scattered across a city, or the state?

[Spartan]

North Carolina's museums are excellent, but I'll admit I don't fully understand how they are set up/funded. The three "big" ones (Museum of Art, Museum of Natural Sciences, Museum of History) are all in Raleigh.

I don't want South Carolina to copy North Carolina though. My my point is more that the museum in South Carolina is sub-par considering the history that we have. I'd like to see more than the one floor of the State Museum in Columbia (and the Relic-room) dedicated to this subject.

[GvilleSC]

^Thanks for the information. Sounds pretty nice.

If the State Museum could become a history only facility, its central location would make sense for its contents and educational benefits. I think it'd be nice to offer a state museum of concentrated natures also in Charleston and Greenville. An art museum or natural history museum would both makes sense for Greenville based on facilities and programs already here. Charleston does have the aquarium, maybe something that compliments that could serve the population of South Carolina well...?

If the State of South Carolina is serious about expanding tourism and capitalizing on the Upstate's natural offerings, as well as municipal successes, I think some attractions (such as museums) would be well worth the money. Otherwise turning those day trips to weekend stays are going to be more difficult to accomplish.

[CorgiMatt]

Here's an article that could partly explain SC's high unemployment rate, assuming newly transplanted homeless people are looking for jobs in their new communities.

http://www.wltx.com/news/story.aspx?storyi...658&catid=2

[Spartan]

They throw some spin in there to make it sound as though they're sending everyone here, then there are 23 other states that are receivers too. I'd like to see all the facts about this program. Where in SC are they going? Who qualifies? If its "families" then its most likely an entirely different problem than the bums on the street. In fact, a lot of the homeless in this recession are not the panhandlers we stereotypically think of.

[GvilleSC]

50 temp jobs are available at BMW. They'll being in August and last for two to three months. The jobs are in industrial cleaning for the newly constructed addition.

It's not much, but it's got the possibility to get 50 people off the unemployment list for several months. Every little bit helps. Hopefully those who need the jobs most will be able to land one...

Edited July 29, 2009 by GvilleSC

[CorgiMatt]

Your post is probably the most telling of these times that I have seen in these forums.

[GvilleSC]

Your post is probably the most telling of these times that I have seen in these forums.

I should probably add that BMW also says there is a possibility that many of the jobs may come permanent. More importantly, the opening of the $750 million expansion to the plant means the hiring of significant numbers to work the assembly lines. We should see those coming on line before too long...