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And link the article from after the school year ended/right before this school year, and tell me what % of teachers left that was "dramatically" and "concerningly higher" than previous years.
You can't be serious? When school systems openly recruit our teachers that's a problem. Holding jobs fairs to recruit them for jobs in Texas. Also Virginia if I'm not mistaken. If my facts are off please let me know. But I'm pretty sure they are not.
I'm no expert, just a former local news/politics blogger, and have lived in a bunch of places. On the local government level -- and even state level, in some ways -- there are lots of things we do RIGHT in NC:
1) Council-Manager form of government in cities. You don't elect a strong-mayor, like big cities do. Instead, the City/Town Manager is the CEO who runs the city, and they're professional, well-compensated, and know their stuff. (This is the role of the County Manager for county government.) The City Councils, Town Councils, and County Commissioners can hire, discipline, motivate, and fire their manager, along with two other employees (the city/county attorney and city/county clerk), and that's it. Cuts down on patronage, meddling, you-name-it.
2) NC Local Government Commission. The most important agency you have never heard of. City or county wants to borrow money? Float a bond? Refinance something? The LGC has to review/approve it. Created in the 1930s (IIRC) after cities like Asheville got in ginormous trouble with debt. North Carolina is one of very few states to traditionally be AAA-rated (highest rated) by all the major agencies for debt issues, and Raleigh, Durham and other major cities are typically also AAA-rated. That means we spend less on interest for major civic projects, meaning we can have lower taxes and/or get more bang for the buck. Also, we don't get bamboozled into crap deals by Wall Street like Detroit and Birmingham, Ala. did.
3) Annexation (well, previously.) In the 1950s, Columbia S.C. and Raleigh N.C. were the same size. Today, Columbia is a small, poor Southern city surrounded by suburbs and is not on anyone's Best-Anything list. Raleigh is, well, the Raleigh we and listmakers all know and love. The difference? Raleigh and other NC cities could liberally annex surrounding developments into The City, keeping cities healthy. When cities are ghettoized by 'burb-droids who want low taxes and (let's face it) racial homogeneity, they strangle the tax base and success of the city. And sorry, nobody is attracted to move here because of Fuquay-freakin'-Varina, even if that's where they ultimately live. They move here because *Raleigh*, and other cities, are strong communities with good jobs, high employment opportunities, etc. The same is true of Durham, Charlotte and other NC cities. Annexation rules have changed but the legacy of large city growth has really helped us be successful. (For a counter example, see my hometown of Orlando, a sub-200k city in a 2m person region, and see how UN-successful they've been on a wide range of fronts.)
4) Civic investment. We built UNC in the 18th century. In the 1930s, we listened to Capt. Eddie Rickenbacker and built RDU, instead of competing Raleigh and Durham airports. We have a state railroad where the state (not the long-term lessor, Norfolk Southern) owns and controls the rail corridor; while regulatory capture is a risk, we have a state owned asset connecting the Morehead City port, major cities, and the CLT airport's new intermodal freight destination. In the mid-20th century, visionary leaders arranged to buy up land for a research park. (In my hometown, Disney secretly bought up land for a theme park, creating a vast wasteland of low-wage jobs and social ills for locals.) Simply put: we invested smart, in smart assets, people, education, and places, and weren't dummies falling for low-tax/low-investment humdrum.
Isn't Raleigh a Weak-Mayor-Council city, with some elements from council-manager government? Totally agree with all of your points though.
I'm no expert, just a former local news/politics blogger, and have lived in a bunch of places. On the local government level -- and even state level, in some ways -- there are lots of things we do RIGHT in NC:
1) Council-Manager form of government in cities. You don't elect a strong-mayor, like big cities do. Instead, the City/Town Manager is the CEO who runs the city, and they're professional, well-compensated, and know their stuff. (This is the role of the County Manager for county government.) The City Councils, Town Councils, and County Commissioners can hire, discipline, motivate, and fire their manager, along with two other employees (the city/county attorney and city/county clerk), and that's it. Cuts down on patronage, meddling, you-name-it.
2) NC Local Government Commission. The most important agency you have never heard of. City or county wants to borrow money? Float a bond? Refinance something? The LGC has to review/approve it. Created in the 1930s (IIRC) after cities like Asheville got in ginormous trouble with debt. North Carolina is one of very few states to traditionally be AAA-rated (highest rated) by all the major agencies for debt issues, and Raleigh, Durham and other major cities are typically also AAA-rated. That means we spend less on interest for major civic projects, meaning we can have lower taxes and/or get more bang for the buck. Also, we don't get bamboozled into crap deals by Wall Street like Detroit and Birmingham, Ala. did.
3) Annexation (well, previously.) In the 1950s, Columbia S.C. and Raleigh N.C. were the same size. Today, Columbia is a small, poor Southern city surrounded by suburbs and is not on anyone's Best-Anything list. Raleigh is, well, the Raleigh we and listmakers all know and love. The difference? Raleigh and other NC cities could liberally annex surrounding developments into The City, keeping cities healthy. When cities are ghettoized by 'burb-droids who want low taxes and (let's face it) racial homogeneity, they strangle the tax base and success of the city. And sorry, nobody is attracted to move here because of Fuquay-freakin'-Varina, even if that's where they ultimately live. They move here because *Raleigh*, and other cities, are strong communities with good jobs, high employment opportunities, etc. The same is true of Durham, Charlotte and other NC cities. Annexation rules have changed but the legacy of large city growth has really helped us be successful. (For a counter example, see my hometown of Orlando, a sub-200k city in a 2m person region, and see how UN-successful they've been on a wide range of fronts.)
4) Civic investment. We built UNC in the 18th century. In the 1930s, we listened to Capt. Eddie Rickenbacker and built RDU, instead of competing Raleigh and Durham airports. We have a state railroad where the state (not the long-term lessor, Norfolk Southern) owns and controls the rail corridor; while regulatory capture is a risk, we have a state owned asset connecting the Morehead City port, major cities, and the CLT airport's new intermodal freight destination. In the mid-20th century, visionary leaders arranged to buy up land for a research park. (In my hometown, Disney secretly bought up land for a theme park, creating a vast wasteland of low-wage jobs and social ills for locals.) Simply put: we invested smart, in smart assets, people, education, and places, and weren't dummies falling for low-tax/low-investment humdrum.
I definitely agree there are several things that are done right, and others not so much. And I'm sure that's in most places. :-)
I was just kind of thinking out loud with and "I wonder...." statement. Just to compare.
I've only been here a year and a half and I am not complaining by any means... this is 324897923057435 times better than where I came from, the state, and the local government and how things are run. Schools systems, everything is way better. So I'm more than happy! And still learning how things are done down here, I'm used to completely screwed up.
Really, you have to exaggerate like that? That's what's causing the explosion in population here.
Folks who are considering moving here - know that in reality this area is no more than 324897923057316 times better than where you are.
LOL! You are right... my apologies. I certainly don't want people who think that I wasn't purposefully over exaggerating coming here. ;-)
The only reason I exaggerate is because where I came from exceptionally sucked not that this place his heaven on earth. There are still plenty of issues, where ever you go. And different people have different preferences. There is nothing, and I mean NOTHING more annoying than people, moving to a new place because they think they will like it, and then trying to change the new place, into being just like the place they came from.
I suppose we could improve transit by loading everyone into those CAT busses that are running around empty!
Exactly. Other than trying to get bus ridership up, the Raleigh/Durham area in no way, shape or form needs or is ready for mass transit. No sense wasting people's income on that now or anytime in the near future. The traffic and layout there simply does not warrant it, no matter how much the very minority of people want it.
Wake County Holds First Transit Session Monday December 8th 6:00pm- Open to Public: Wake County is moving ahead with transit planning in hopes of crafting a strategy by next summer in time to hold a fall 2015 referendum on a tax increase to pay for improvements. The public will get a chance to hear about the process at a Dec. 8 meeting at the Raleigh Convention Center, County Manager Jim Hartmann said at a Board of County Commissioners meeting Monday. On Dec. 8, Kimley-Horn & Associates Inc., a consulting firm, will talk about what it has done so far and what comes next in local-transit planning. The County, with the City of Raleigh, Triangle Transit, Cary Transit, RDU, RTP and N.C. State University, hired Kimley-Horn to help guide a long-term plan for transit improvements.
The traffic and layout there simply does not warrant it, no matter how much the very minority of people want it.
Yeah, let's wait until the traffic is 2 or 3 times as bad as it is now, then push through a half-assed solution for the smallest possible price.
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