Economy & Downtown
Chapel Hill's downtown has long benefited from its proximity to a captive audience of University students without cars. While downtowns around the country have been failing, ours has survived fairly well. However, we have seen an increase in the number of chain stores locating downtown, and instability in the Downtown Economic Development Corporation. In the near future, we will see new Town-directed development on two major parking lots have a big impact.
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Carrboro's downtown has also done better than many towns of comparable size, thanks largely to the presence of Weaver Street Market and progressive shoppers from the rest of the county. The Board of Aldermen has been addressing the evolution of the downtown, and have established a number of community resources in the downtown area including free wireless Internet access, and a low-power radio station.
A
workshop on the current
US financial crisis/crisis in democratic
governance, with the noted economist Robert G. Williams, John K.
Voehringer Jr. Professor of Economics, and Chair, Department of
Economics, Guilford College, and author of the Money Changers: A Guided
Tour through Global Currency Markets (Zed Books, 2006).
Sponsored by: Department of Anthropology, UNC Chapel Hill
Date:
Monday, September 29, 2008 - 11:30am to 1:00pm
Location:
Gardner 105, UNC Chapel Hill
My favorite absentee landlord, Joe Riddle, has found a tenant for the vacant Gap/Carolina Theater space* at the corner of Franklin and Columbia Streets. However, he's being very tight-lipped about what is going in there. This makes me hopeful, but also nervous. This should be an improvement over the other vacant Franklin Street storefronts and lots that Riddle owns, but then again he doesn't exactly have a record of being terribly concerned about the well-being of our downtown.
The Daily Tar Heel reports that Riddle has signed a lease and begun demolition inside, but hasn't applied for any permits that might offer a clue as to at least what type of use this will be nor who the tenant is. Anyone want to guess?
I was fortunate enough to be a scholarship participant on the Inter-City Visits to Madison and Ann Arbor. I thoroughly enjoyed both experiences, but I found that I am unable to stop comparing the Madison experience to the Ann Arbor experience.
This exercise, of course, is completely unfair. Mainly because, in my opinion, Madison wins. In everything. Hands down. Period. Ann Arbor doesn't stand a chance.
Madison has an abundance of natural beauty. It had a really great downtown that seemed accessable to both students and other people. It has the Overture Center, which always takes my breath away, and Madision is a hotbed for creativity and technology. It is so much what I want for Chapel Hill.
But Ann Arbor is different (duh). I didn't see anything particularly beautiful or extrodinary about it. Ann Arbor seems much more into function, rather than form. It ain't Madison, but it has its good parts.
Ann Arbor has fantastic elected leadership. Their mayor is dynamic and charismatic, and he seems to be the agent for getting a lot of really great stuff done in Ann Arbor. He has spearheaded Ann Arbor's environmental movement.
He has
The question is simple to state but probably very complex to answer.
What are the possible ramifications to the County and the Towns from the current financial crisis including but not at all exclusively budgets, taxes, development plans, services, credit, bonds, etc....?
A secondary question is are there any actions our local governments should be taking now to reduce negative risks?
Certainly the personal suffering of residents is likely, including potential loss of jobs, shrinking investments, sinking home values (maybe). If this gets worse the consequences will be felt by local governments.
Maybe there are skills on this blog that can provide some insights.
During our tours and discussion of Ann Arbor, which were expertly organized by the staff of our Chamber of Commerce, I kept feeling like I wanted to get another two or three sides to the story. We heard from some business, nonprofit, and government leaders - ones that were recommended to us by the Ann Arbor Chamber. All of the panelists were knowledgeable and informative.
But missing were voices of residents, students and faculty, community advocates, downtown boosters, bloggers and that much-vaunted "creative class." Interestingly, I returned home to get several messages by e-mail and twitter from some of the very folks who felt left out of our visit! The Ann Arbor Chronicle, a new local news website not unlike the Carrboro Citizen, wrote about our visit. And Ann Arbor consultant Bill Tozier tweeted about it and shared some local frustrations on his blog:
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