Category Archives: Piedmont-Triad

Silver Tunas

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Recently I offered the Winston-Salem Journal some free advice (remember, it’s worth what you paid for it) and while I hope it was constructive, much of it was criticism.  So I’d like to take this opportunity to highlight what I think is a good blog post for a newspaper.

Managing Editor Ken Otterbourg has been hosting a blog for the Journal for a while now and I think it’s beginning to show.  His post today, How to bag an auto plant, is a great example of bringing a personal voice to his blog while staying on topic in regards to his blog’s mission and informing his readers beyond the pages of the "paper."  Here’s an excerpt to help me explain what I mean:

When it comes to car factories, North Carolina appears to be a
perennial bridesmaid. As we noted today, Toyota chose Tupelo, Miss.
(yes, it’s the whole Elvis thing) over a bunch of other places,
including a site in Davidson County.

Despite Detroit’s problems, car factories are still silver tunas, especially Toyota plants. One of my favorite sites, the Rural Blog,
which is run out of the University of Kentucky journalism school has an
interesting piece on the role the newspaper in Northeast Mississippi
played in the recruitment effort. The paper is called the Northeast
Mississippi Daily Journal, and it’s goal for the past 50 years has been
to tie that corner of the state together into a viable region for
growth…

The news pages of newspapers (as opposed to the opinion pages) have
always done a balancing act when it comes to being a part of economic
recruitment. I look at the Journal’s coverage of Dell’s move here, or
more recently, The Charlotte Observer’s reporting on the Google
incentives. We certainly understand that growth means—or has the
potential to mean—more readers and the like, but being a cheerleader is
a difficult role for many of us.

What I really like about this post is that Ken isn’t afraid to share his opinion, he shares a little background re. his favorite blog, he writes about something he’s obviously very interested in (the role of newspapers in the community and the future of newspapers), and he ties it to events that are of interest to his audience (economic development in the region).  On top of all that he gives me a great title to this post, although when I think of "silver tunas" I get this disturbing image of a silver plated statue of Bill "The Big Tuna" Parcells in "The Thinker" pose.  WAY too much coffee today.

Sometimes the Grass is Browner

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While I was at the Frost & Sullivan conference last week in Anaheim I met a guy who had worked in Greensboro years ago, moved to DC and then moved on to Michigan.  The conversation was particularly interesting to me because he knew the two housing markets I had dealt with, DC and the Piedmont Triad, and while he agreed that it was a very positive move my family made from DC to NC (sold in a sellers market and bought in a buyers market) his move from DC to Michigan was even stronger.  In fact he said he almost feels guilty because the market in Michigan is so depressed that the deal he got on his house was almost "criminal".

To give me a taste of how bad the economy is in Michigan he told me that the unemployment rate in Michigan is the highest in the country. I just checked and it’s 7.1% which makes Michigan second to last, in front of only Mississippi’s 7.5%.  That makes North Carolina’s  4.9% (36th in the nation) seem not so bad by comparison. 

By the way Virginia is tied with Montana for third lowest unemployment rate in the country at 2.9%.  The job market in Northern Virginia is so strong that they actually worry about finding enough workers and finding a place to house them.  That equates to high salaries that are eaten up by astronomical housing prices, over-crowded schools, world-class traffic congestion and the flight of at least one family to the embrace of the Piedmont Triad.

Worse for Michigan is that things seem to be continuing downhill after Chrysler announced today that they’re eliminating another 13,000 jobs.  Here in NC there aren’t a whole lot of manufacturing jobs left to lose and the service, biotech, tech and financial sectors seem to be gearing up for growth.  In addition NC is becoming a retiree destination, which isn’t something I think you’ll see happen in Michigan until global warming really kicks into gear.

 

Just goes to show that while the grass often seems greener on the other side of the fence you can be certain that someone in the neighborhood has a lawn with more weeds than yours.

Triad Tennis Nirvana

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Today’s a big day for tennis lovers in the Piedmont Triad and Winston-Salem in particular.  Andy Roddick beat Tomas Berdych to clinch a win for the US over the Czech Republic in the first round of the 2007 Davis Cup.  That means the US team will be playing its quarterfinal Davis Cup tie against Spain at the Lawrence Joel Veterans Memorial Coliseum from April 6-8, 2007 in Winston-Salem.   Tickets go on sale Thursday, February 15 at 10 a.m. for US Tennis Association members and on February 19 for the general public.

For those of you not familiar with the Davis Cup, it is similar to the Ryder Cup for golf except that it doesn’t pit America against a European team, it’s played every year and it’s the US vs. the rest of the world.  In other words it’s a big deal.

Even if you’re not a big tennis fan you should look into getting tickets for this one.  It’s the best chance you’ll have to see some great American players (most likely Andy Roddick, James Blake, and the Bryan Brothers) and some very impressive Spanish players (Rafael Nadal, David Ferrer, Fernando Verdasco, Feliciano Lopez).  On top of that you really have to see professional tennis live to appreciate what these guys are doing.  The ball is hit harder and the players move faster than you can imagine until you see it up close and personal.

I’m a tennis fanatic so this is about as exciting as it gets for me.

Out of NoVA by the Skin of our Teeth

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As I’ve written many times before I grew up in Northern Virginia.  My family moved there in ’72 when I was in first grade and I lived there until we moved here in ’04.  Celeste’s family moved to Northern Virginia in ’79 and she lived there until we moved.  We both went to college at George Mason University in the heart of Fairfax County so we didn’t even leave the area for school. (Well I spent my freshman year in Nebraska at Concordia College-Seward, but that was really like an extended vacation).

We had several reasons for moving, but probably the most prominent was that we just couldn’t stomach the craziness anymore.  What had once been semi-rural suburbs had been fully developed and it seemed that just about every open space had been paved over and rush hour had grown to an all-day affair.  Hell, there were even traffic jams on Saturday.  If Northern Virginia had remained as it was when we first got out of college we probably would have stayed, but we just couldn’t take what it had become.  We could see first hand that growth in the area was out of control, and each year it seemed the NoVa counties were announcing astounding population growth.  So we got out.

Today I came across this article on WashingtonPost.com that makes me even happier that we left when we did.  Let me give you some numbers and excerpts from the article:

  • Loudoun County has added more than 100,000 people since 2000, increasing its population by 59 percent
  • Prince William County, where Celeste and I lived from ’96-’04 has added 88,000 people since 2000
  • "Fairfax County, the state’s largest jurisdiction, has packed in nearly
    47,000 more residents. The next fastest-growing counties — Stafford,
    Spotsylvania and Culpeper — are on the edges of the expanding region."
  • Overall, the state’s population has grown by 560,000 since 2000
  • "The study also found that 33 cities and counties have lost residents in
    the past six years — older urban areas such as Richmond, Petersburg
    and Roanoke, as well as rural counties in Southside and southwestern
    Virginia. Many of those residents seem to have migrated north, along
    with workers from other parts of the United States and the world who
    have been lured by the Washington job market."

That last item doesn’t surprise me.  Southwestern Virginia, along with northwestern NC, is actually served by many of the media outlets here in Winston-Salem and they are suffering the same economic fate as the rest of the region, with huge chunks of jobs in the furniture and textile industries going overseas.  It shouldn’t surprise anyone that they’re heading to places like Northern Virginia for jobs.

Speaking of jobs, here’s another tidbit from the article:

No other region in the country, however, has created as many jobs in
recent years as the Washington metropolitan area. Between 2000 and
2005, the region added 359,000 new jobs, said Stephen S. Fuller,
director of the Center for Regional Analysis at George Mason
University, citing Labor Department statistics. That was 75,000 more
jobs than the nation’s No. 2 job engine, Miami.

"We’ve been
adding jobs faster than we’ve been able to add resident workers," he
said. "Had we been able to produce more housing, we could have added
more people." The Washington region is the eighth most-populous in the
United States, Fuller said, but is fourth in the number of total jobs,
trailing only New York, Los Angeles and Chicago.

The imbalance
probably means more congestion on Northern Virginia’s already-choked
roads. "The downside [to growth] is pretty clear," said Corey A.
Stewart (R-Occoquan), chairman of the Prince William Board of County
Supervisors, who was elected last year on a pledge to curb residential
development. "Increased tax bills. Crowded schools. Public services
stretched and overwhelmed."

I can’t argue that the job market in the DC area is great.  The problem is that housing is so expensive that all but the highest earners end up moving to the outer counties in order to afford a decent place to live.  Public transportation is expanding, but it can’t keep up with the pace of growth so that puts more people on the road and makes an already bad traffic situation almost impossible.

Now that things are getting ugly in places like Prince William and Loudoun the local politicians are starting to tighten up on development.  Unfortunately they didn’t listen to their constituents who were shouting for limits ten years ago.  Instead they gave the developers free reign and now they’ve got a mess.

The leaders here in the Piedmont Triad are pushing hard for more economic development, and in the wake of the exodus of all the textile and furniture business it’s hard to blame them.  I hope, though, that they take a long hard look at what happened in Northern Virginia and control growth from the beginning with a comprehensive growth plan.

I’ve always loved tilting at windmills.

Traffic in the Triad

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What passes for traffic here in the Piedmont Triad of North Carolina would be considered a great traffic day back in DC (or in NYC, LA, Chicago, etc.).  Yet we do have traffic reporters and since they usually have one accident a morning to talk about they have to fill the time somehow.  WXII’s traffic reporter, Jenny, has had some memorable moments.  Here’s her most famous, the Traffic Rap:

Well I’d rather have a traffic reporter with time on her hands than to have actual traffic. I think.

Are We Living in the New Appalachia?

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Dana Blankenhorn has written an interesting piece called "The New Appalachia" in which he argues that the abject poverty we used to associate with Appalachia has shifted to the areas between the mountains and the coast.  From his post:

Appalachia had resisted all attempts to bring it prosperity. Places
last western Virginia, West Virginia, eastern Tennessee and western
North Carolina were as poor as they had ever been. There seemed to be
no solution.

But there was a solution, right around the corner. These are now
"the mountains," that fabled far-away magical land where lowlanders
dream of retiring to. This is now the east’s vacationland, an
alternative to the beach, where rafting and hiking and mountain biking
rule the summers, and skiing the winters. The resort and retirement
economies have transformed these areas into, if not greater prosperity
spheres, at least something resembling the rest of America.

But a new Appalachia has developed in our time. It’s the river
bottoms, the swamplands, the vast middle between the mountains and the
seacoast. Millions of people live there, in grinding lives of poverty
or of faded wealth. And it’s getting worse.

The farm economy that once sustained these areas has collapsed. The
factories that once dotted the landscape have moved overseas. Much of
the land now consists of tree farms, and the people who are left are
steadily losing ground.

The biggest difference between today’s Appalachia and yesterday’s is
more stark, however. It’s the color of the victims. (That’s the point of the chart at left, from the Knight Foundation.)  Because in the
South, the new Appalachia is often the "black belt," land share-cropped
for some generations, then lost to the trees.

This hit home because Winston-Salem and the Piedmont Triad are situated to the east of the mountains and have been hit hard by the meltdown of the furniture and textile industries.  My first inclination was to disagree with Dana’s assertion that this is a disproportionately black phenomenon since at least in this area the hit has been taken be people of all colors, but if you think of it in comparison to Appalachia, which was predominately white, then I guess it makes sense.

The good news here is that the local leadership has been very proactive in trying to convert the local economy from a manufacturing base to a more "intellectual" base of biotechnology and design services.  The success has been mixed but it looks promising for the future.  To me the question that remains is "Will the jobs be filled by re-trained locals or by outsiders who follow the jobs here?".

And Dana’s bigger point about the lowlands is a good one.  While the Piedmont seems to be on the upswing all you have to do is drive to the beach through literally hundreds of dying or dead small towns to realize that your seeing an economic wasteland of immense proportions.

Finally, let’s not forget that the evolution of Appalachia to the "fabled far-away magical land" has not come without some negative effects within the mountain communities.  For instance in this article in the Raleigh News & Observer we see that while local leaders in the western North Carolina mountains welcome the influx of tax dollars and service jobs that come with the development of luxury second-home communities local residents worry about how their going to pay the taxes on their suddenly soaring property valuations.  And of course some people aren’t going to be happy with the influx of carpetbaggers no matter how many jobs it creates.

For the most part, though, I agree with Dana’s post.

Esbee Hits the Bigs

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Fellow Winston-Salem blogger Esbee has hit the mainstream by being Piedmont Parent’s first blogger.  I haven’t talked to her so I don’t know if this is a paid gig, but either way she’s now part of the hated MSM (mainstream media). Lucky for us she’s going to keep up her personal blog.

Personally I’m holding out for the really big time, waiting on an offer from one of the big MSM players.  My first choice would be the membership newsletter for the undertakers’ association;  I think my sensibilities are perfect for their publication.

Congrats Esbee.

Can Someone Explain Airfares to Me?

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I’ve been flying a lot the last couple of weeks and will be flying again next week.  By some miracle I haven’t been cursed with significant delays or cancellations this time around (knock on wood), but I’m more than a little confused by the airfares I’m seeing.  For example:

  • Flying from Greensboro to New York (Sunday), New York to Chicago (Tuesday morning) and then Chicago to Greensboro (Tuesday evening) would have cost $1,500 (coach or 1st class, which is in itself weird).  By booking the trip through Charlotte the airfare went to $750.
  • Flying one way from DC to Charleston the Tuesday before Thanksgiving cost $320.
  • Flying from Greensboro to San Francisco cost $220 round trip.

That last one really floored me.  Why is it cheaper to fly to San Francisco from Greensboro than it is to fly to New York or Chicago (I checked for the same dates and times)?  And to top it off I connect to San Francisco in Chicago, so it would be cheaper to fly through Chicago to San Francisco than to fly to Chicago and back even though I’m on the same planes.

Some other observations about my recent flying experience:

  • I love flying out of National, which some people insist on referring to as Reagan National.
  • LaGuardia is a hole.  It is quickly becoming my least favorite airport.
  • Getting in and out of Charlotte is easier than I thought it would be, and it takes no more time than it used to take me to get in and out of Dulles when I was living in DC.  If Greensboro isn’t careful they’re going to lose another regular passenger.
  • The big differentiator between airports, to me, is the food service available in the gate area.  All of them seem to have places to sit and eat outside of security, but the problem with LaGuardia and Greensboro is that they only have crappy food stands or hole-in-the-wall joints that serve tepid coffee and day-old sandwiches inside of security.  Blah.

Opening Ye Olde Kimono in Greensboro

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One of the hardest things for any business to do is admit weakness.  The same is true for people and since all businesses are run by people, except maybe Wal Mart, so that statement should come as no surprise.  Over in Greensboro the News & Record is admitting that it can’t keep up technologically so they’re going to enlist the help of their community.  Check out this post from Lex Alexander to see what I’m talking about.  Excerpt:

We understand the value of what we are being offered, we understand that the offer is for a limited time only, and we’re going to take you up on it.

I spoke today about how to do so with John Robinson, with News &
Record Interactive head Kathy Lambeth, and with a number of other key
people who work for one or the other.

Long story short, in January we plan to hold a meeting here at the
paper of key N&R news and technology staffers and anyone in the
community interested in working with us to address some of these
specific technological problems.

My hat’s off to them for even taking one step on this endeavor because it takes true guts to admit weakness or need.  I’m sure some skeptics would say that desperation sows all kinds of brave acts, but I’d counter with the argument that there are many people/businesses who don’t even take the first step. Hopefully this works out for the N&R and the folks working there.

Cross posted on lowderenterprises.com

Eats in Greensboro

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Greensboro, NC is about a half hour east of where I (and my lovely family) live in Lewisville, NC.  Since we’re right outside of Winston-Salem we usually spend our time there, but we’ve had some opportunities to go to Greensboro and we’d like to go more. So I thought I’d pick the brains of Greensboro’s bloggers for places to eat.  Following are recommendations mined from some blogs and comments on those blogs about eating in Greensboro.  These aren’t in any particular order, just a random sampling of what I found while browsing the blogs of Greensboro’s finest.  I’ll update this as I come across more.

Monk’s Cheese Steaks and Cheeseburgers
1030 Summit Avenue
275-1105
Recommendations from David Wharton’s and Ed Cone’s blogs.
Quote from Wharton: "Monk’s Cheese Steaks and Cheeseburgers in the Northeast Shopping Center knows exactly
how to make them. Visiting Monk’s is like taking a little trip to an
everyday New York eatery, complete with an airbrushed mural on the wall
featuring the Twin Towers. The staff is friendly in that New York kind
of way, the place is immaculate, and the cheese steaks … oh, yes.

The
meat comes handsomely piled on the soft bun, laced with just the right
amount of gooey cheese, onions, peppers, and seasoning. The fries were
hot and delicious and the service was fast. The only complaint comes
from my cardiologist."

Ganache
403 N Elm St
Greensboro, NC 27401
(336) 230-2253
Quote from Sean Coon in the comments on Cone’s blog: "by far the best cheesecake i’ve had in town to date is the chocolate chip cheesecake at ganache"

Ghassan’s
3 Locations in Greensboro
Battleground: (336) 273-2266
State Street: (336) 378-1000
Coliseum(336) 294-4060
Quote from Jerry Bledsoe on Cone’s blog: "Damn, all these Blogsboro soft-bread Cheez-Whiz (it ain’t even food)lemmings. Try a real cheese steak. Go to Ghassan’s."  And another quote from Wharton in the same post comments: "Yes, Ghassan’s fries are special. From the taste, they’re not fried in vegetable oil. Probably beef tallow."

Solaris Tapas Restaurant & Bar
125 Summit Ave.
Greensboro, NC, 27401
(336)-378-0198
Quote from Potato Stew: "We’ve been to Solaris twice, and we enjoyed it quite a bit. Very tasty tapas. We’ll be going back there more…"

Cafe Europa
200 N Davie St
Greensboro, NC 27401
(336) 389-1010
Quote from Roch101 on Plead the First: "The food is good, the wine list extensive and dining on the terrace this time of year is a treat."

Undercurrent
600 South Elm Street
Greensboro, NC 27406
(336) 370-1266
Quote from Patrick Eakes on Plead the First: "It is on the more expensive side, but provides plenty of coziness and a romantic setting."

223 South Elm Restaurant
223 South Elm Street
Greensboro, NC 27401
(336) 272-3331
Quote from Potato Stew: "It was great! Very interesting menu. I had the trout which had a black
pepper goat cheese on top that was amazing. I would defenitely
recommend the restaurant."

Bistro Sofia
616 Dolley Madison Rd.
Greensboro, NC 27410
(336) 855-1313
Quote from, well, me: "Celeste and I had dinner there a couple of months ago and I can tell you it is one of the two or three best meals we’ve had since we moved to NC.  Can’t recommend it highly enough."

Update: Ed Cone has posted a list of restaurant recommendations here.  I’m going to shamelessly steal his list which you’ll find below…thanks Ed:

My personal list would start out something like this:

Best Indian food in Greensboro: Saffron

Best sushi in Greensboro: Sushi Republic (formerly Sushi 101)

Best fine dining in Greensboro: Undercurrent

Best cheesesteak in Greensboro: Monk’s Cheesesteaks and Cheeseburgers

Best pizza in Greensboro: Vito’s (traditional); PieWorks

Best soul food in Greensboro: Madison Kitchen/UHoP

Best low-key seafood in Greensboro: Bert’s

Best Vietnamese food in Greensboro: Saigon (mentioned by Astro Boy in the comments, I concur)

Best wings in Greensboro: Minj (via Wharton)

Best carniverous experience in Greensboro: Leblon churrascaria (the usual suspects, such as Ruth’s Chris, are available for traditional steakhouse experience).

Best barbecue? Tough call. I will vote for the Brunswick Stew at Stamey’s.