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Thursday, July 9, 2009

Promises, Promises -- Hickory's Pipeline to Nowhere

Two years ago today I started writing an article to the Hickory Daily Record and I had doubts as to whether it would ever be published. I would like to thank the Hickory Daily Record for publishing that first article (on my 41st birthday, July 15, 2007) titled An All-American City Deserves First Class Leadership.

That first article basically laid the foundation for the what I saw as the reality of Hickory. There was a euphoria and elation about being awarded the All-American City title that overshadowed the systemic problems we were facing.
Hickory's old school manufacturing base consisting of textiles and furniture was built upon low skilled, low wage, intensive manual labor. The city has seen most of these jobs slowly dwindle as it has become more affordable for these companies to send these jobs overseas or south of the border....

Each city council member seems to have several pet projects that are laughable for a community of this size. This is not Mayberry R.F.D. This city is geographically at the heart of western North Carolina and we have well over a quarter of a million people living within a 25-mile radius of the heart of Hickory.

The high school clique mentalities of our city's leadership are the only thing that is holding this city back. They just don't seem to get it. They are more worried about elementary social issues that do not develop a community.
....

The people of this area care about jobs (real, meaningful jobs), not jobs working through a temp agency, not low paying jobs with no benefits, but jobs with a future, jobs we can be proud of. We want new economic development. We need to look to the future, not the past, to see how to do this.
(You can read the rest at the Link above)
My follow-up article (sent the following week) was promised to be published, but never was and I have my suspicions about the reasons why that never happened. That following week there was a great article about job expansion in the Unifour and Commscope was the feature of that story. How'd that one work out? I released the follow up in late August 2008, when I initiated this website. It was entitled Building the Bridge to Hickory's Future.

In this article, I laid out the case of Local Government officials unfriendly attitude towards business and the sad state commerce was in two years ago.
I went to the Internet and found a quote from our mayor. At BlackBoxVoting.org, look up "Oct. 11 election: Catawba County – Sleepy." You will find a quote from the last (2005) election.

The article states, "…he needs four more years to work on the city's economy and that he plans to campaign harder than he did against Pat Moss in 2001. 'I told people I was going to look for opportunities to put more people to work,' he said, 'and I've worked on that and I want to do more.'"

Two of our city councilors, Jill Patton and Sally Fox, did their best to keep Lowe's from building in Viewmont. In the same article quoted from earlier Mrs. Patton states, "I want to make sure everyone is included in government and has access and feels that they are heard. I don't believe (Watts – the former councilman) listens to his constituents."
(You can read the rest at the Link above)
Coming two years forward, we can see that I was pretty much on target in my summations at the time. Where I was wrong was on the major industry front. I still think we need to land a big business, but it cannot be the sole focus. Developing any and all business should be the focus. We can foster local start-ups that can grow into major businesses.

What we need is something to rebrand Hickory; some major projects that can be game changers. That is what I was addressing when I was talking about alternative transportation, alternative energy, biotech, and other future technological industries. Thank goodness the Future Economy Council has been established to bring together many forward thinkers in this community to facilitate vital discussions about our future. We are already making headway towards laying a foundation that will move us in a direction that will be highly beneficial in coming years. This isn't about "talking about it." It is about "being about it."

I remember the Monday after the first article came out, Mayor Wright was on Hal Row's show and a caller asked the Mayor and Hal if they saw the editorial over the weekend and they quickly said they didn't and moved on to the next caller. That truly did happen. Why not address what was said? Do you really think they just happened to not read the paper that particular Sunday, when WHKY is constantly reporting items from the Hickory Daily Record? All I have ever wanted is for the Mayor to honestly address legitimate concerns. Many times he does just that and then other times I have been frustrated when he goes and hides in the bunker.

I have never had a conversation with Mrs. Fox. I would be more than willing to sit down and discuss issues with her, but I get the feeling that she doesn't care for me too much. I don't really understand where she is coming from and I get the feeling that she could care less where I am coming from. I was never a member of a clique in school and people that personally know me will vouch for that. I think Mrs. Fox cares about this city in her own way, but I honestly don't think she understands what the average citizen of Hickory is living through at this time. In my opinion, she understands what she perceives are the needs of Downtown and that's just about it.

I have spoken with Mrs. Patton and I do like the lady. She is a very pleasant person to talk to and I think if she wasn't Mrs. Fox's protege that she would have a lot to offer this city. She attends all sorts of city meetings and functions and she does engage the public. The problem is that she marches in lockstep with Sally and she really has not presented a valid progressive agenda during her term. Along with Mrs. Fox, she has been very micro-managerial in her dealings with area business, she has been overly ambitious in championing Union Square issues versus the rest of the city, and she has been arbitrary in interests of business development. It was my hope that at some point she would step out from Sally's shadow, but the valid perception is that she is Sally's second.

The bottom line is that our city has continued to flounder under the guidance of the current city council. Unfortunately, Jill Patton's desire for everyone to be heard has not been followed through on. I believe that she has listened to people and I do commend her for that, but the people I have spoken to feel that things are just as bad as they have always been when it comes to local government attentiveness. In the end, it is not good intentions that matter, it is results, and the results show that she has been unable to persuade her counterparts to change course and be more open with the public. That is what has led to the disenfranchisement that I hear from so many people, out here in the public, that it isn't even funny.

I like Z. Anne Hoyle. I have spoken with her and I truly do believe that she cares and does pay attention to issues. I have witnessed the other Council members ignore (and besmirch) what she is saying on many occasions. I do believe that she represents her community very well and I understand her feelings when it comes to being the lone representative towards African-American issues. If you look at her track record involving business, you will see that she is very supportive of industry, while voicing valid questions about development during debate. I am only disappointed, if she buys into this scheme presented by whomever, that was in the Sunday Charlotte Observer a couple weeks ago, for all of the incumbents to run as a block.

Then, once again, there is the Mayor. In many ways I like the Mayor. He's a good guy. He has an amiable quality that many people in this community truly appreciate. But, the record shows that we have gone nowhere under his leadership. Admittedly, when he took office was in the middle of the dot.com bust and shortly after 9/11 had taken place. Those were difficult circumstances to assume office under. I really think Mayor Wright assumed that everything would come back by just making the City's budget efficient and waiting for the business cycle to turn around.

That did occur to a certain extent, but the City never dealt with the underlying systemic issues that put us in the 2001 predicament to start with. We actually saw unemployment hover in the 5% to 6% range from September 2005 to December 2007 and I know we would give our eye teeth to see those numbers right now, but during that period and thoughout this malaise we have been substantially behind the state and federal unemployment numbers. Folks, that should have been clue number one that we were suffering a major malfunction.

The bottom line is that we weren't changing. We were worried about social issues. The well-to-do weren't feeling it, so they told everyone it was all in their minds, get to work. When I wrote that first article, unemployment was 5.9% and a few months later it fell back to 5.3%. But, I saw the problem, because I saw very talented people, like my deceased uncle, having difficulty finding a decent job in this area and it sure seemed like no one in our local government cared. They were oblivious.

We don't need people in office that don't have a mission. The Mayor said he wanted to finish the job on Hal Row's show the other morning. Honestly, what has he started. He talks about the water issue. He lost that one. He talks about education. He wanted a UNC-Hickory and in the beginning argued against the Appalachian State partnership -- until it was made clear that there wasn't going to be a UNC-Hickory. He always cedes economic development issues to Scott Millar and Danny Hearn. In eight years, he has never had a tangible plan to create jobs. His Small Business Job Growth Team has met 1 time (for 1 1/2 hours) in the 66 days of its inception and looks to be more of an election year stunt than something that will prove fruitful.

The Hound Rounds it out:
Two years. Two long hard years since I wrote that first article. Was I way off base in your opinion? Eight years of negative momentum and elected officials telling us that there are jobs in the pipeline. That pipeline must run to Alaska by now. Nearly 14,000 jobs lost in Catawba County since 2000, nearly 10,000 in the last 3 years, and almost 6,000 in the last 12 months. Yep, that pipeline story isn't holding much of nothing.

It is time to put the subterfuge away and start telling us what you stand for and what you are going to do, because the economy is not going to get better before this election takes place. If the people of Hickory don't demand any answers and/or accountability for years of status quo and aimless direction, then they will surely deserve four more years of the exact same.

1 comment:

Cecil James said...

Hickory Daily Record+Hal Row+Rudy Wright= 0