The Good News Report

[grodney]

5 hours ago, ricky_davis_fan_21 said:

Is this Cranes in the Metro Area or Cranes in the CBD? because Charlotte has way more than 10 in the Metro. 

Charlotte Crane Count is at 12 in the Off Topic thread:

Collaborate here:

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1stPo4OgYelaaEDP5Ceyg1rTxajE&usp=sharing

or here:

https://www.google.com/maps/d/edit?mid=1stPo4OgYelaaEDP5Ceyg1rTxajE&ll=35.14600459437733%2C-80.8449152&z=12

 

[CarolinaDaydreamin]

31 minutes ago, ah59396 said:

This isn't uptown, but the view would be solid if oriented correctly.

 

Imagine wedging Camden Yards into Camp North End and developing a baseball village.  Could keep all the cool brick work buildings a la Camden, integrate in the Red line down the road, great views of uptown, help further revitalize North Tryon.  Here's my exceptionally crappy representation:  (someone with more skill can probably actually make this work since i'm using SNIPIT and MSPAINT)

Memorial Stadium site would be great. 

 

[SouthEndCLT811]

Ah my favorite past time of stadium map making in paint   I did Camden at Crosland site at Scaleybark.  Light rail access, Pappas can use his side and turn into office/residential and entertainment like outside of the park in St. Louis.  Change the configuration to close off right field from how Camden is set up to try and provide a wall toward the residential (me included) and open left and left/center to a great Uptown view.

[Hunted]

An alternate location from my original proposal:

My initial proposal was for either the vacant grass parcels to the left of 277 in my image below, or for it to be SLIGHTLY more to the west at the Pipe and Foundry's annex site (see parking lot and structures in bottom left of image), but an alternative site could be the main Pipe and Foundry site on the right side of 277. Obviously, this is all contingent upon the relocation of the Pipe & Foundry company (which should totally happen anyway). Still gives just as good Uptown views as my original proposal with close proximity to amenities for game-goers, as well as it being next to the tracks for a potential future Lynx light rail stop for the stadium(s).

Edited July 13, 2017 by Hunted
Edited

[Popsickle]

1 hour ago, ah59396 said:

This isn't uptown, but the view would be solid if oriented correctly.

 

Imagine wedging Camden Yards into Camp North End and developing a baseball village.  Could keep all the cool brick work buildings a la Camden, integrate in the Red line down the road, great views of uptown, help further revitalize North Tryon.  Here's my exceptionally crappy representation:  (someone with more skill can probably actually make this work since i'm using SNIPIT and MSPAINT)

That would be really cool! Two thumbs up! 

[AP3]

I'd love to see something like this get developed in the old intermodal yard - that could WILL also help spur development in North End.  I'd love a baseball stadium and new large pavilion to replace or supplement PNC, or a large outdoor park for festivals.

 

Edited July 13, 2017 by AP3

[Wookie]

Just one Charlottean opinion but I am in no hurry to see an MLB team in Charlotte. I go to Knights games several times a year, but never go to Panthers or Hornets games.  It just feels so much more approachable than top tier pro sports. Maybe in ten years I'll feel different but the Knights are the perfect fit for Charlotte right now. 

[caterpillar2]

23 minutes ago, Wookie said:

Just one Charlottean opinion but I am in no hurry to see an MLB team in Charlotte. I go to Knights games several times a year, but never go to Panthers or Hornets games.  It just feels so much more approachable than top tier pro sports. Maybe in ten years I'll feel different but the Knights are the perfect fit for Charlotte right now. 

And as another Charlottean voicing an opinion, there are  thousands of Hispanics, Asians, and Europeans that are part of taxpaying Charlotte and would love to have their home sport represented. It is time to open our eyes and consider that all citizens aren't white and black American born.I too am not a soccer fan, but I see a big lack of representation in all walks of Charlotte politics in regards to people from other nations that wish to assimilate. Soccer is not a girls sport in most of the world. 

[Guest]

6 minutes ago, caterpillar2 said:

And as another Charlottean voicing an opinion, there are  thousands of Hispanics, Asians, and Europeans that are part of taxpaying Charlotte and would love to have their home sport represented. It is time to open our eyes and consider that all citizens aren't white and black American born.I too am not a soccer fan, but I see a big lack of representation in all walks of Charlotte politics in regards to people from other nations that wish to assimilate. Soccer is not a girls sport in most of the world. 

I don't consider it a girls sport here either. Soccer was pretty big when I was a child, and I believe it is. The rest of this I agree with 100%. 

[caterpillar2]

2 hours ago, ricky_davis_fan_21 said:

I don't consider it a girls sport here either. Soccer was pretty big when I was a child, and I believe it is. The rest of this I agree with 100%. 

I shouldn't have said that. What I should have explained what I meant by saying that soccer isn't popular with girls in most overseas countries like it is here as it  is predominantly a guys sport.  In any case, we should have MLS, in my Charlottean opinion. 

[Guest]

4 minutes ago, caterpillar2 said:

I shouldn't have said that. What I should have explained what I meant by saying that soccer isn't popular with girls in most overseas countries like it is here as it  is predominantly a guys sport.  In any case, we should have MLS, in my Charlottean opinion. 

gotcha, and I agree. 

[caterpillar2]

Just now, ricky_davis_fan_21 said:

gotcha, and I agree. 

I should have proofed my previous statement.  I sort of ran two sentences together. 

[Guest]

Just now, caterpillar2 said:

I should have proofed my previous statement.  I sort of ran two sentences together. 

I wrote an, under the influence of french wine, five paragraph run on rant about Charlotte PED last night, who am I to judge?

[JoshuaDrown]

I suppose we need to think about what kind of city we want to be. If we want to be one of the metropolitan gems of the Southeast, and perhaps, of the entire East-coast or the country, then we should have the kind of city and civic amenities that great and diverse cities have.

So, the answer is yes: to better greenways, to MLS, to transit, to MLB.

Truly great cities have the amenities that appeal to a wide group of multi-cultural citizens. None of us are better than another because we prefer biking on a greenway to standing and chanting in a member's section of a soccer stadium, or taking our family to the relative calm of a baseball game instead of the frenzy of a football game.

Timing, of course, and financial responsibility are another discussion. We don't have an owner lined up for the billions that are required for MLB, but we do have one that is ready to bring MLS to CLT. It is our responsibility to listen, and to do everything we can to make this happen, but it needs to work for the city, work for the county, and work for ownership. 

I'm not sure the current deal is the right deal, but the conversation is the right conversation to be having.

Edited July 15, 2017 by JoshuaDrown

[KJHburg]

Charlotte tech firm to hire 100 more in Charlotte. Curvature is based in Charlotte and Santa Barbara CA and they do server maintenance around the world. https://www.bizjournals.com/charlotte/news/2017/07/17/digital-infrastructure-company-curvature-to-grow.html?ana=e_ae_set1&s=scroll&ed=2017-07-17&u=oAaDx%2B74FoP4qOJ%2By4AU6dhJPpc&t=1500319295&j=78561331  

[KJHburg]

IT tech jobs growing fastest in NC in the past few years and this could accelerate with Infosys 2000 jobs in RTP and Credit Suisse adding 1200 jobs in RTP. Locally many smaller companies ramping up and hiring in Charlotte and AvidXchange and Lendingtree.com  really growing as well. Vanguard reported that most of their hires in Charlotte are IT as well. 

https://edpnc.com/report-north-carolina-overtakes-utah-national-leader-job-growth/

[elrodvt]

This is good news although it's been bugging me for a while now that the headlines are very misleading. Being a leader in PCT growth can only be done by states with few jobs in the area. Not a great metric. 

[CLT2014]

14 minutes ago, elrodvt said:

This is good news although it's been bugging me for a while now that the headlines are very misleading. Being a leader in PCT growth can only be done by states with few jobs in the area. Not a great metric. 

North Carolina ranks 14th in the country for the number of people working in the tech industry:

https://www.comptia.org/docs/default-source/advocacydocs/cyberstates/comptia-cyberstates-2016-vfinal-v2.pdf?sfvrsn=2

1st: California, 1.15 million people, 8.2% of private sector workers are in tech
2nd: Texas, 585k people, 6% of private sector in tech
3rd: New York, 370k people, 4.8% of private sector in tech
4th: Florida, 311k people, 4.5% of private sector in tech
5th: Massachusetts, 294k people, 9.8% of private sector in tech
6th: Virginia, 284k people, 9.5% of private sector in tech
7th: Illinois, 234k people, 4.7% of private sector in tech
8th: Pennsylvania, 228k people, 4.6% of private sector in tech
9th: Washington, 214k people, 8.2% of private sector in tech
10th: New Jersey, 208k people, 6.3% of private sector in tech
11th: Georgia, 205k people, 5.9% of private sector in tech
12th: Michigan, 202k people, 5.6% of private sector in tech
13th: Colorado, 187k people, 9.0% of private sector in tech
14th: North Carolina, 185k people, 5.3% of private sector in tech

[elrodvt]

Wealth of information there! I was surprised there are so many what they call development jobs here. Not sure about the data quality as a lot of the announcements I see are lower wage support type jobs. NC 19'th in average wage. I wonder where it is in median wage? That might prove or disprove the point. I might be unfairly jaded about Infosys as well. Whenever I run into them it's non technical project managers who lead low wage development teams based in India. Not IT developers per se.

In any case without knowing the employment base presenting % growth is misleading and those articles need to show both to be relevant. 

[kermit]

^ I agree. As discussed before I don't think all 'good news' is actually good news in the sense that not all job growth improves living conditions for North Carolinians. If you look at our per capita income levels relative to national average income North Carolina is actually worse off now (85% of the national average) than it was in 1990 (88% of the national average).

Incomes in Charlotte are more volatile by this measure, we were doing great in the bubble era (our incomes were nearly 110% of the national average thanks mostly to the growth of investment banking at BoA and Wachovia) but by 2016 we are marginally worse off than we were in 1990 (90% vs 92% in 1990).

These data suggest to me that our current economic development strategies (incentives for relatively low-paying jobs) are creating jobs, but not development. Why do we want to continue on this path if its literally making us poorer than the rest of America?

data: https://www.bea.gov/regional/index.htm

 

Edited July 19, 2017 by kermit

[GeauxCLT]

If someone is here and is willing to take the job, isn't any new job - regardless of pay - a good thing? Lower unemployment will drive wage growth. 

 

Is your argument that we are attracting population from other places by having an abundance of these lower paying jobs? If so, I guess I look at it from the personal side and assume the person moving is acting rationally and sees the job as a positive for them. So even then, I don't see how job announcements are a bad thing. 

[kermit]

50 minutes ago, GeauxCLT said:

If someone is here and is willing to take the job, isn't any new job - regardless of pay - a good thing? Lower unemployment will drive wage growth. 

.... I don't see how job announcements are a bad thing.

Unemployment in Charlotte has been on the decline since 2009. Why have wages not grown during that period?

Unemployment in Charlotte has been quite low since the 1990s (other than the bubble bursting) yet no wage growth has occurred in that time frame either. Why not?

The DATA (not me) show that job announcements are certainly not a net positive for income in Charlotte or NC. So the DATA suggest that job growth is not unambiguously good. The DATA indicate that the assumption that a rising tide lifts all boats may need to be reevaluated.

Edited July 19, 2017 by kermit

[KJHburg]

I guess I look at everything differently. I see that our tech jobs in our state growing very fast is a POSITIVE . I see the addition of 1200 jobs with Credit Suisse in RTP with average pay of $100,000 as a POSITIVE https://www.bizjournals.com/triangle/news/2017/05/09/credit-suisse-adding-1-200-jobs-in-rtp.html   as do I see the addition of 2000 jobs with Infosys  also in RTP with an average pay of $72,000 as a POSITIVE https://www.bizjournals.com/triangle/news/2017/07/06/infosys-to-bring-2-000-jobs-to-wake-county.html as would I see the addition of 550 jobs with AXA in Charlotte average pay $110,000 as a POSITIVE https://www.bizjournals.com/triangle/news/2017/07/06/infosys-to-bring-2-000-jobs-to-wake-county.html   

Our population is surging here in the Charlotte and Triangle areas so we do need jobs for masses moving here. Nationally wages are stagnant that is not a NC specific problem. I am sure many states around the country would love to have our "problems" with growing population, growing job base.   I have said this before we need jobs at all pay ranges in all various skills. Wonder how much your favorite coffee shop or brewery employee makes?  

I guess I am just a positive peroson who loves my home state and wants it to grow and prosper.  

I will leave you with this from the great Martin Luther King Jr. 

“If a man is called to be a street sweeper, he should sweep streets even as a Michelangelo painted, or Beethoven composed music or Shakespeare wrote poetry. He should sweep streets so well that all the hosts of heaven and earth will pause to say, ‘Here lived a great street sweeper who did his job well.”

“No work is insignificant. All labor that uplifts humanity has dignity and importance and should be undertaken with painstaking excellence.”

 

 

[kermit]

24 minutes ago, KJHburg said:

I guess I look at everything differently. I see that our tech jobs in our state growing very fast is a POSITIVE . I see the addition of 1200 jobs with Credit Suisse in RTP with average pay of $100,000 as a POSITIVE https://www.bizjournals.com/triangle/news/2017/05/09/credit-suisse-adding-1-200-jobs-in-rtp.html   as do I see the addition of 2000 jobs with Infosys  also in RTP with an average pay of $72,000 as a POSITIVE https://www.bizjournals.com/triangle/news/2017/07/06/infosys-to-bring-2-000-jobs-to-wake-county.html as would I see the addition of 550 jobs with AXA in Charlotte average pay $110,000 as a POSITIVE https://www.bizjournals.com/triangle/news/2017/07/06/infosys-to-bring-2-000-jobs-to-wake-county.html   

Our population is surging here in the Charlotte and Triangle areas so we do need jobs for masses moving here. Nationally wages are stagnant that is not a NC specific problem. I am sure many states around the country would love to have our "problems" with growing population, growing job base.   I have said this before we need jobs at all pay ranges in all various skills. Wonder how much your favorite coffee shop or brewery employee makes?  

I guess I am just a positive peroson who loves my home state and wants it to grow and prosper. 

I agree, high wage job growth is a big positive for the state. I also agree that we need jobs for all stratas of our community. I also want my home state to be successful.

However, while wages have been stagnant nationally the data presented above are relative income change -- so it shows that our average incomes have been _falling_ relative to the stagnant national wages. Our current mode of growth is making us poorer than the average American.

The data indicate that our economic development process is no linger creating "development" (measured here by increasing incomes) -- something is not working. The data tell us that continuing to focus on job growth we are dooming our economy to reduced incomes moving forward. IMHO we should be trying to understanding what causes these income declines (and correct those problems) rather than simply cheerleading the next call center announcement.  

Edited July 19, 2017 by kermit

[CLT2014]

29 minutes ago, kermit said:

I agree, high wage job growth is a big positive for the state. I also agree that we need jobs for all stratas of our community. I also want my home state to be successful.

However, while wages have been stagnant nationally the data presented above are relative income change -- so it shows that our average incomes have been _falling_ relative to the stagnant national wages. Our current mode of growth is making us poorer than the average American.

The data indicate that our economic development process is no linger creating "development" (measured here by increasing incomes) -- something is not working. The data tell us that continuing to focus on job growth we are dooming our economy to reduced incomes moving forward. IMHO we should be trying to understanding what causes these income declines rather than simply cheerleading the next call center announcement.  

We probably don't have as many super-wealthy people as states with cities that attract the rich (CA, TX, NY, MD, MA, etc...) and thus are falling further behind on a simple average. 

We rank 44th for millionaires per capita. With per capita personal income, it is a simple average. Rich people control the majority of the wealth and thus per capita income fluctuates with the wealthy. Thus in other states their rich folks have benefited more from the economic recovery than our middle class people and we have less millionaires so our income "per capita" isn't going to rise as fast. Their middle class people then move here which drives up their per capita personal income even more because they got rid of a middle class person, but the rich person never left.

San Francisco is a great example - middle class people move out, more very rich people move in. It isn't like the middle class people had wage growth - they just got priced out and moved elsewhere and were replaced by a person that could afford $2,000 a month rent. If you were middle class, you still got screwed.

Places like North Carolina are attracting MIDDLE class people, folks making $40,000 - $120,000 especially, that leave a more expensive place where their income isn't rising and they can't afford the cost of living. This benefits the state they leave because very rarely do millionaires relocate here, but the millionaires back in the other state have less middle class people the per capita income is spread over.

 

This link has data on the top 1% and bottom 99% in each state. Per capita growth among a cohort is just as important across the state. In New York, the top 1% has an average income of $2,006,032. The bottom 99% have an average income of $44,163. The top 1% are making 47 times the income as the bottom 99% in NY, inflating per capita income.

In North Carolina, our top 1% only have an average income of $747,686. Our bottom 99% have an average income of $42,162. So our top 1% is much "poorer" than New York's top 1%. This is the most impactful thing on our per capita income being lower than a state like NY where their rich are far richer than the rest of citizens. NC's richest are only making 17 times as much as the bottom 99%, so we will never compete on a per capita statistic unless our richest get richer on NY level - it isn't going to happen with the middle class getting wage growth.

http://www.epi.org/publication/income-inequality-in-the-us/

 

The ideal is to be a state like Alaska where their top 1% make around $800k on average, but the bottom 99% are making $63k on average for the smallest delta between classes.

 

Edited July 19, 2017 by CLT2014