Just got a note from AMR via Twitter saying that a new YMCA is opening in January in the old Peak Fitness location on Robinhood Road. Once you're done working out you can just pop down the road aways and splurge on a burger at Five Guys!
A couple of years back Jeff Jarvis, author of What Would Google Do?, blogged about a very negative experience he had with Dell and he dubbed it Dell Hell. After yesterday's news that Dell is closing down their desktop plant here in Winston-Salem I'd say we're having our own version of Dell Hell.
Yesterday I wrote that Dell's move couldn't possibly have been a surprise to anyone who's been awake the last 18 months. Ed Cone quoted me on his blog and since at least one of his commenters suggested that it is a surprise to a lot of people I felt compelled to explain myself in the comments:
The reason I wrote that it shouldn't be a surprise was really an observation that given the overall economic environment of the last 18 months, the fact that the plant was built to produce desktops, that the market has been moving strongly towards laptops and Dell didn't seem to be interested in re-tooling the plant to produce laptops and that Dell has been reducing it's workforce at the plant, then it shouldn't really be seen as very surprising that this has happened. Abrupt? Sure, but these things tend to be.
As for Winston-Salem getting back its incentive money I heard an interview on WXII this morning in which the Dell rep said that the incentives were based on job creation and the Dell had met those conditions, so maybe Dell is planning on fighting the return of those incentive dollars.
In addition to my points in that comment I'd also like to put forward the following thoughts:
"Vacancy rates climbed higher across office, industrial, and retail space in most District markets, while the amount of available office sublease space remained fairly steady since our last report. On the sales side, very little activity was reported in recent weeks."
Maybe we can re-purpose it as a fabulous new indoor soccer park.
News that cannot possibly be a surprise to anyone who's been conscious for the last 18 months:
Dell Inc. announced today that it will close its plant in Forsyth County by the end of January, cutting 905 jobs overall, including 600 in November.
Just in time for the holidays. Nice.
Look, I have no problem with anyone disagreeing with the Democrats' reform proposals, but comparing the Democrats to Nazis is beyond the pale.
It's the political equivalent of slipping a 747 through a toll booth, but Foxx told 1240 3WC, "Hometown Christian Radio," in Wilkesboro that she thinks Democrats will put health care reform inside another piece of legislation that lawmakers would find difficult to oppose."
Just in time too because I’m ready to send them to whichever farm bad dogs are taken to.
Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry
The quote of the day comes from Dennis Leyden's blog on the subject of macroeconomics: "As Stiglitz says, 'If you don’t measure the right thing, you don’t do the right thing.'” He then links toan article in the NY Times about how we measure our economy. From that article comes this:
In a provocative new study, a pair of Nobel prize-winning economists, Joseph E. Stiglitz and Amartya Sen, urge the adoption of new assessment tools that incorporate a broader concern for human welfare than just economic growth. By their reckoning, much of the contemporary economic disaster owes to the misbegotten assumption that policy makers simply had to focus on nurturing growth, trusting that this would maximize prosperity for all.
About damn time.
The Holts prepared the food for the 10:50 p.m. delivery. Debbie Holt and her 14-year-old daughter, Ashley, delivered the food to U2's private jet at Raleigh-Durham International Airport, receiving $300 cash."
But while Simmons now faces an uncertain future, Mr. Eitel was a winner in The Great Game of Life. As chief executive, he enjoyed country club memberships, personal use of the corporate jet and thousands of dollars a year in free mattresses. Before stepping down last fall, he earned more than $40 million in compensation, bonuses and perks, according to an analysis by Brian Foley, an independent compensation consultant in White Plains. He earned the bulk of his money when Simmons was sold to Thomas H. Lee Partners."
h/t to Cone for the link.
The Holts prepared the food for the 10:50 p.m. delivery. Debbie Holt and her 14-year-old daughter, Ashley, delivered the food to U2's private jet at Raleigh-Durham International Airport, receiving $300 cash."
But while Simmons now faces an uncertain future, Mr. Eitel was a winner in The Great Game of Life. As chief executive, he enjoyed country club memberships, personal use of the corporate jet and thousands of dollars a year in free mattresses. Before stepping down last fall, he earned more than $40 million in compensation, bonuses and perks, according to an analysis by Brian Foley, an independent compensation consultant in White Plains. He earned the bulk of his money when Simmons was sold to Thomas H. Lee Partners."
h/t to Cone for the link.
Befuddled 