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regarding the Arlington Blvd improvements, Arlington between Hooker and Evans is to be completed by Aug 2019, and between Evans and Greenville Blvd by Dec 2019
Additional road construction, expanded partnerships, continued small investments in the workforce are among what was listed in this article. Frankly, and I’m sure I’m in the minority here, but I don’t find any of this to be impressive. None of it. As I’ve said countless times, we haven’t seen any real growth or haven’t had any “real job announcements in years and it’s embarrassing. We can install, what PJ joked about, “pardon our progress signs”, but until I actually seem so real progress towards, frankly anything, then I do not applaud this article nor PJ.
This should not be approved, nor annexed. We need density and infill development, not hundreds of single-family homes that are so far from city limits.
Additional road construction, expanded partnerships, continued small investments in the workforce are among what was listed in this article. Frankly, and I’m sure I’m in the minority here, but I don’t find any of this to be impressive. None of it. As I’ve said countless times, we haven’t seen any real growth or haven’t had any “real job announcements in years and it’s embarrassing. We can install, what PJ joked about, “pardon our progress signsâ€, but until I actually seem so real progress towards, frankly anything, then I do not applaud this article nor PJ.
I wouldn't say there hasn't been *any* real progress. No, there haven't been large scale job announcements, but those are hard to come by for most cities Greenville's size.
However, I believe there is value in the progress that has been made by local/ regional businesses. The infill on Dickinson Ave has been good to see, and is light years beyond what most thought it would be back in 2014/2015. I think the continued local/regional development will be key to sustaining and keeping the development momentum going.
I there is value and a validity, if you will, that the state is spending so much time and moneywith improvements to the roads in and around Greenville. When you see the future that Greenville will ultimately be connected to 3 separate interstates (587, 87, 42), that is a positive. The Highway 11 corridor will eventually become interstate quality between all 3 interstates and may even get it's own designation. That's important for the future of Greenville.
Quote:
Originally Posted by KingCorg
So what is all the doom and gloom about ECU I have been hearing? Enrollment rates are low, graduation rates are declining as well, etc.
As far as I can tell, the headlines may have fluffed this story up. Last fall, ECU did have a 1.4% decrease from the previous year's enrollment. This equates to about 400 less students. There will always be an ebb & flow to this and one "down" year after several years of record growth is nothing to be afraid of. Also count the 3 UNC system schools that now have $500/semester and you probably had more students go to those 3 schools instead of ECU & others.
I wouldn't say there hasn't been *any* real progress. No, there haven't been large scale job announcements, but those are hard to come by for most cities Greenville's size.
However, I believe there is value in the progress that has been made by local/ regional businesses. The infill on Dickinson Ave has been good to see, and is light years beyond what most thought it would be back in 2014/2015. I think the continued local/regional development will be key to sustaining and keeping the development momentum going.
I there is value and a validity, if you will, that the state is spending so much time and moneywith improvements to the roads in and around Greenville. When you see the future that Greenville will ultimately be connected to 3 separate interstates (587, 87, 42), that is a positive. The Highway 11 corridor will eventually become interstate quality between all 3 interstates and may even get it's own designation. That's important for the future of Greenville.
As far as I can tell, the headlines may have fluffed this story up. Last fall, ECU did have a 1.4% decrease from the previous year's enrollment. This equates to about 400 less students. There will always be an ebb & flow to this and one "down" year after several years of record growth is nothing to be afraid of. Also count the 3 UNC system schools that now have $500/semester and you probably had more students go to those 3 schools instead of ECU & others.
Again, in the minority here, but I don’t believe interstates will be as important as they once were to development. Of course companies want to be near interstates, so they won’t be rendered obsolete, but at this juncture in time, more interstates nearby may not be the saving grace they once were. Our focus has to be on growing business here on multiple fronts; that isn’t simple diversification of the economy either.
Rather, the City of Greenville should be bolstering funds towards additional training programs, developing plans for the community to accommodate increased AI as opposed to being blind-sided by it. Having a “city-owned incubator” where the city could request ideas for projects across the city (eg, soliciting proposals bus shelters for a cheap price from individuals in our city) then doing our best to grow those individuals ideas into homegrown businesses would be a great step for us. We need to be announcing that we are taking steps to reduce our carbon footprint collectively to gain some national press for the city, all while attempting to woe innovators and creatives. Instead of leaving hate bikes all around the city, we need to be building a comprehensive plan to reduce poverty.
Essentially, we could be better using our existing assets, instead of relying on Raleigh and the Federal government to pay more attention to us. Our *progress* seems to be *catch-up* at the moment, and frankly, we’re putting ourselves into a position where we’ll remain behind other cities across the State as we haven’t changed our mentality for the realities of the 21st Century.
I skimmed a document a few weeks ago about Circular Charlotte where Charlotte intends on dramatically reducing their poverty rate, increase innovation/creativity across their city via recyclables and ultimately reducing their impact in the Climate Crisis we're currently facing. I'll post a link below to the document and also a brief Medium post of what its intended to do:
We need to be thinking like this, not what other stores we can get to feel as if we're much more superior to the cities around us, not how many more interstates we're going to have, not how much more student housing we need in Uptown. Maybe I'm a dreamer here, but I want us thinking of replacements to plastic here, I want us thinking outside the box to increase bus usage and in-return, spreading our knowledge of how we did it to other cities our size, I want us thinking "our third largest industry, retail, is in jeopardy of being dramatically changed over the next 10 years and it will have pronounced affects across our city, what can we do not to slow such change, but rather what policy can we create to provide additional work opportunities?"
Hell, if those ideas are too big, at least lets take a look at Winston-Salem and their ideas to reduce poverty -- we need these type of ideas happening here. Instead, we place bait bikes around impoverished neighborhoods and think that is a great idea to reduce crime.
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