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I'm interested in thoughts from this board on the following comments regarding UpTown. This was posted by bluewaterpirate who is the parent of Bianca (who heads the UpTown organization).
"My daughter is the director of UpTown Greenville she spends a great deal of time trying to bring business to the downtown ares it's a difficult sell. The first question I can ask is why not cater to the older Greenville crowd downtown living has a lot to offer but it seems that most of developers local ones especially view the students as the motherload. Parking is the number 1 issue along with the river front area. If that area could be developed in a tasteful wsy while perserving the green space it would be a win win situation for all. But the way we was crowd will never agree to it. The other real issue is ECU owns a lot of the downtown area so without state funding to develop it it does nothing but gather dust. Greenville is at a crossroads when it comes to the uptown area." https://247sports.com/college/east-c...cts-121154902/
Sticking to teh development topic of this thread (and not the "how I'd feel about my parent inserting himself into my business") I'd say the downtown area is doing better since I came her 9 years ago. However, and this is not throwing shade on Bianca, I think a lot of areas in Greenville could be improved if they had the financial backing of taxpayer money in the way of grants and advertising that has been given to improve the downtown area. The remarks above are purely opinion and personal preference. The same could even be said of any downtown development. I mean why not use those small business grants for areas outside of downtown. There are tons of other commercial areas that are empty. Why does the downtown area get tax money to improve the area and help the surrounding business and others do not? It all comes down to opinion. There is no objectively right way to develop the city.
Personally, I'm not a fan of stealing, I mean taxing, so that we can give that money so that only certain people have better opportunities to make more money. At the end of the day there is always some group whose money was spent in a way they don't like. Baby boomers often want that money to go back to the "older Greenville crowd". Since it's obvious they're not giving the taxes back to the people I would prefer that it be used as wisely as possible. e.g. attracting young professionals and investing in those groups that are growing faster and spending more (more taxes) and will reinvest in the area seems a decent option. Catering to the "older crowd" isn't profitable and thus not sustainable. Businesses see students as the "mother load" because they can make money off of them. I'm not exactly sure how they want to cater to the older crowd other than making parking easier but people don't go places for the parking. They go for new and unique services/goods.
For the love of god I hope the first proposal is to put a huge mural on the walls of the parklet opposite Uptown Brewing.
On certain moments I like the exposed wall at that parklet, other times I don’t. The problem I have with that area in general is the lack of trees and overall landscape manicuring. What idea I truly would like the city to explore is the possibility of an Outdoor Museum of Modern Art. I can imagine setting most of the Uptown District up with art, some revolving, others permanent.
When the economy is up, there is less incentive for people to enroll in higher education. For Greenville, this is part of the reason economic downturns are softer (a minimal part of the reason however). Long-term it may be necessary for larger universities to require online students to attend at least part of their early classes in person. Also, this shows that nothing is permanent. Greenville has for too long rested on the economic shoulders of ECU. With NC still a leading growth state, city leaders should have been much more aggressive on the economic development side. There are job announcements almost daily across our state, even in eastern NC. It seems that we are behind the curve on some of that.
When the economy is up, there is less incentive for people to enroll in higher education. For Greenville, this is part of the reason economic downturns are softer (a minimal part of the reason however). Long-term it may be necessary for larger universities to require online students to attend at least part of their early classes in person. Also, this shows that nothing is permanent. Greenville has for too long rested on the economic shoulders of ECU. With NC still a leading growth state, city leaders should have been much more aggressive on the economic development side. There are job announcements almost daily across our state, even in eastern NC. It seems that we are behind the curve on some of that.
Absolutely agree with these sentiments. Quite frankly, it’s embarrasing to hear surrounding counties consistently having relatively major job announcements, while all I hear from our city is a new ice cream shop, a gym or perhaps a new student housing complex. Former Mayor Allen Thomas, by accepting his position at the GTP, has gained incredible perspective and insight on the regional problems but more importantly the problems having Greenville-Pitt. I’ve long stated that Greenville and surrounding counties need a regional government akin to the Metropolitan Government of Portland Oregon to coordinate and facilitate growth at a regional level — such ideas have been put off by officials.
We can keep branding ourselves as the Capital of East Carolina, but such a phrase is negated with an overall lack of leadership regarding growth outside of ECU. We are too afraid to be bold, too afraid to be different. We don’t want to invest in actually improving life in our city, but rather fascinated in looking as if progress is happening. Perhaps I’m too critical of Greenville, but I do geninuely see a tremendous amount of potential here that goes untapped because we’d rather be generic than something unique.
A 4% drop in incoming freshmen is not really a problem, especially as pointed out that you increased for the past five years. I am more concerned about the quality of student than the quantity.
I have to wonder how the new tuition plan at UNC Pembroke, ECSU, and Western Carolina affected ECU. Those schools are now significantly cheaper (at least $4k a year) than ECU and some students may be going there because of the price.
Were there student enrollment drops at App, UNCW, Charlotte, UNCG? If so, that tells a bigger picture, especially in a growing State. Not much info in that article except that enrollment at ECU dropped by 4%. No info on incoming SAT scores, GPA, ect...
Were there student enrollment drops at App, UNCW, Charlotte, UNCG? If so, that tells a bigger picture, especially in a growing State. Not much info in that article except that enrollment at ECU dropped by 4%. No info on incoming SAT scores, GPA, ect...
Appalachian had its largest freshman class ever this year.
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