An item that blew my mind came across one of my news feeds.  It’s an interview with Rick Weddle, the president and CEO of Research Triangle Park, that he gave after a presentation to Detroit’s TechTown
leaders.  Here’s the part that grabbed my attention:

mm:  RTP is famous for bringing together
government, university and business leaders from across the state. How
did North Carolina’s leaders get so many competing factions on the same
page?

Weddle:   First, they were really in the tank and
they realized they had to do something differently. They realized the
existing industrial base was failing, was not sustainable and wouldn’t
be creating the kind of jobs they needed going forward…

…In North Carolina they were able to get the captains of
industry to support and call for support for these research
universities and the collaborative aspects of the park. We were
capitalized in 1959 by private fund drives. More money was raised from Forsyth County  near Winston-Salem
than in the Triangle. That is fascinating when you think about it.
Money was raised all across the state and more money was raised outside
of our region to capitalize the RTP. And that was the richest region at
the time. Now it’s the poorest region because they hung onto their
industrialism. Interestingly enough those captains of industry found it
easier to do RTP in another region while they still milked their cash
cow in their home area. (Emphasis mine)

This reminded me of a conversation I had with my Mom when we first moved here from DC.  Mom had grown up in Winston-Salem and she said that when she was growing up in the 50s and when she left town after graduating Wake Forest, Winston-Salem and Charlotte were essentially the same size and if you had asked anyone to bet on which city would go on to become the larger city most people would have bet on Winston-Salem.  Goes to show what happens when leaders don’t read the tea leaves right.

By the way, Winston-Salem’s current leaders are doing the kinds of things that Weddle recommends.  They’re working with Wake Forest to develop a world class bio-tech center and they are trying to cooperate regionally with Greensboro and High Point to build a new industry base to replace the decimated textile and furniture industries.  So while this region might have suffered over the last 20-30 years there are good signs that the future will be brighter.