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Southern jealousy


krazeeboi

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To change gears some from the "sprawl" and "quality of construction" them this thread has taken, there was a news article on the local FOX affiliate here in the Triad about the projected growth in our counties. The main counties in our region are projected to grow upwards to 13.5%. Not amazing growth but solid. However, one adjoining county should grow by 22.7%. This county, Davie, is to the SW of Forsyth (the county where Winston-Salem is located.) It is experiencing rapid growth in the eastern half where it borders Forsyth. They interview a lady who has moved to the area from Miami and brought her business with her.

The one thing they focus on is the "costs" of living here and doing business here being much significantly cheaper than other parts of the country and how it benefits there business. And as the representative from the Chamber of Commerce says, there are many people moving there small businesses here from NY, CA, and FL. (I personally know 3 separate families who owned a Insurance Payment Processing business in San Diego. They mainly dealt with ex-military, and moved here purely because of the cost of living and running there business.)

FOX 8 WGHP Report about Piedmont Triad growth.

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I honestly don't know what there is to be jealous about. If you go to another country, say in Europe and Asia, and ask them what cities do you want to visit in America, and I can bet you there won't be one city in the South mentioned. Our economic growth is based on the exploitation of cheap land, cheap labor, and laws that put the needs of business ahead of the individual. The endless sprawl of Walmarts, fast food, and big box retails surrounded by cheap cul de sac housing is nothing to brag about and that is in the good parts. Get 50 miles off of an interstate and you find some of the worst economic despair in the modern world and it is getting worse. It's a land populated by Mrs Mini Van and Mr Redneck who look down on each other and are clueless about everyone else.

Someone mentioned that Atlanta is the largest city, which when one examines the facts, one finds that only 10% of that metro actually lives in the city and everyone else lives around the vast endless sprawl of that metro area that spreads over 10,000 sq miles. This is a small town surrounded by a disaster in sustainability.

Sure there are pockets where it is good in the South, but there is so much bad it is far far drowned out. Most Southerners won't listen to this as they travel to the next newest mall or gawk at the next tallest unneeded skyscraper choosing instead to believe they live in the best part of the world. UrbanPlanet is one of the few places where you will be presented with thoughts such as this.

BTW, UrbanPlanet is owned and operated by Southerners.

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from the US Census website:

City populations(estimates as of 7/1/04. rankings are national)

4. Houston, TX 2,012,626

8. San Antonio, TX 1,236,249

9. Dallas, TX 1,210,393

13. Jacksonville, FL 777,704

16. Austin, TX 681,804

17. Memphis, TN 671,929

19. Fort Worth, TX 603,337

20. Charlotte, NC 594,359

21. El Paso, TX 592,099

26. Louisville, KY 556,332 (combined w/Jefferson Co.)

28. Nashville, TN 546,719 (combined w/Davidson Co.)

35. New Orleans, LA 462,269

40. Virginia Beach, VA 440,098

42. Atlanta, GA 419,122

As you can see, Atlanta is not the biggest Southern city.

Metro populations from the 2000 census.

9. Dallas-Fort Worth, TX CMSA 5,221,801

10. Houston-Galveston-Brazoria, TX CMSA 4,669,571

11. Atlanta, GA MSA 4,112,198

So, if you include TX in your definition of "Southern", Atlanta doesn't make the biggest metro either. However, it's ranking is much higher. Besides, this isn't a pop thread so let's get back to Southern Jealousy!

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I don't know if this was already posted somewhere else, but on the news the other evening the announced that the U.S census bureau reported the ATL MSA surpassing 5million in 2006. From 2000-2006 they experienced around 160k increase from normal growth and 84k from katrina evacuees.... speaking of the Katrina evacuees, does anyone have any recent official numbers to see how many people went to what cities? I just would like to know how many stayed in Houston after the 200k people they recieved in the beginning.
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If there is any such thing known as "Southern jealousy" then it is more amongst the Southern states themselves than other regions. Most of our states except maybe North Carolina spend most of their time enticing industry and business to move to their state through massive tax incentatives rather than just improving its current infastructure (through improving education, fixing the tax structure, ect.).

As Marc said, most of our growth in this region has been sprawl even in our largest cities. Other than Miami, Atlanta, and Charlotte (but only to a certain extent), very little of our cities have had actual growth through infill or urban redevelopment. Although some other cities have started to join this trend like Greenville & Norfolk (which according to US Census 2005 estimate, it has actual grown in the past 5 years).

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If there is any such thing known as "Southern jealousy" then it is more amongst the Southern states themselves than other regions. Most of our states except maybe North Carolina spend most of their time enticing industry and business to move to their state through massive tax incentatives rather than just improving its current infastructure (through improving education, fixing the tax structure, ect.).
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See post #42 (for starters). I think you're looking for some type of detailed study or something, but of course that doesn't exist. For some, it's perceived and for some it's not. That's why I decided to initiate a discussion about it in the first place.

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See post #42 (for starters). I think you're looking for some type of detailed study or something, but of course that doesn't exist. For some, it's perceived and for some it's not. That's why I decided to initiate a discussion about it in the first place.
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So I don't understand why you dismiss others' personal experience that does not support the jealousy hypothesis, which you base on message board postings, which you said you didn't want to do, but give as the only basis for your theory in post #42.
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