Below is the question I was going to ask the Mayor, in full. The question was messed up by the phones:
The other day I was fortunate to be present and hear a presentation made by Taylor Dellinger of the Council of Governments and I also received a Newsletter that has his studies in it.
The stats in that Newsletter show that this decade, the 18 to 44 year old population in our metro grew by just 45 people, while the population older than that grew by 18,589. The population of 0 to 4 year olds has actually fallen by nearly 8%. To me, that shows that people of child bearing age have left the area.
Statistics show that this area has the worst personal income level of any area in the state and wage growth is in the bottom 5% in the nation.
People talk about our educational attainment levels being so low, but those stats only factor people 25 and older that have a four year degree, not anything about drop outs. I don’t condone dropping out, but it doesn’t factor into the equation.
We get stuck in this notion about Education, Education, Education. Test scores amongst high schoolers are actually pretty good in this area. As a person with two college degrees that is having a really hard time finding a job around here to match his skill set, I can tell you that without jobs, no level of education matters and that is the reason why we can’t retain our best and brightest and attract other young college educated people to the area. Because of Job Quality.
Mr. Mayor what are we going to do to attract industries to this area that will encourage the younger generations to take part in this community?
Here is the Audio Link of My Conversation with the Mayor on Hal Row's show
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Monday, August 31, 2009
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8 comments:
I think the Catawba Co. Chamber of Commerce would be able to answer this question better than Mayor Wright, since THAT is where the WORK is being done. Also, the Hickory Metro Center and the County (under Tom Lundy) work constantly on bringing new businesses to our area. I think that right now that is one of their primary reasons for existance...and they're working HARD to do it.
I believe the Chamber of Commerce is a place that should address this question. But you must remember, Mayor's are talking heads. He should be able to answer this question appropriately without a second thought. Everyone has a game plan, let's hear Rudy's.
Thanks for the contribution Julia.
As a member of the Future Economy Council, I can assure you that this issue has been fully vetted by the Chamber and the Western Piedmont Council of Governments. The COG is where the data came from and they are closely associated with the EDC and the Chamber.
I have already previously had a conversation with the Mayor on Hal Row about our areas emphasis toward marketing to seniors and our de-emphasis towards opportunity for the younger generations. Link (http://www.mediafire.com/?yjzjtdox1jm)
Hal Row's show presents an opportunity to open up issues that the public may not even be thinking about. It is a way for me to ask and talk about an issue outside of the box.
Hickory is the heart of the metro and we need to know what The Mayor and Council Members think when it comes to issues of economic development. They hire the city leadership members, so the mayor and council are supposed to be captains of the ship.
It is all about accountability. You can't be in a leadership position in this city and say that it is everyone else's responsibility. No, it is the Mayor and Council's responsibility. In the end if they don't like the direction of the city, they have the ability to hire and fire people. I am not saying people should be fired. I am just pointing to logical accountability issues. That is the reason why I bring this up.
So, in the end, can you see why I asked the question? I want to see if the Mayor understands my premise. If we are going to get back to positive economic growth, we are going to have to turn that 18-44 age demographic around.
agreed.
I listened to that clip that you provided, and some words he said stuck in my head.
"We are working hard so more of our young people can get their education, right here in Catawba County."
I hope we are not bringing up the rumors of a UNC-Hickory again. I have illustrated to the Vice-President of Lenoir-Rhyne University in the Spring that we need to open more to the Hickory-Metro Area. I believe with Lenoir-Rhyne's price, and the lack of wealth around in this area, we are only providing to certain catagories of people. Thus in return not helping the city in which our University sits upon. So many issues to deal with this one Mr. Mayor.
Their are even rumors of LR's tuition to jump another 10% next year from the already $24,000. I do not believe a technical college is the answer as well..we need more economic turn up, and looking for the "daddy" support of the national government isn't always the answer. I do believe we have small governments installed for reasons other than checking out the young, and installing the old. This system has to go, we need some visionaries!
If you expect 'us' (students at Lenoir-Rhyne) to stay, then the City really needs to appeal to us. The only thing I have ever seen the City do for us students is giving the Freshman a miniture size pen of the "key to city hall."
We don't need a UNC Hickory. The partnership with Hickory and ASU will yield opportunities for a higher education here. It would require investment of many millions at a time when more classes are being offered on the internet, making location less critical. The question is: what would people with degrees do in Hickory? Currently, most leave. In the vernacular of most of the students I talk to " get the hell out of Hickory".
We have to attract jobs in emerging areas like new energy, medical, I T, etc. or we will continue to have a "brain drain". We have a great number of assets, climate, location, the lake, etc, but without economic opportunity few will stay here. Economic development is the lynchpin to success.
I did make a misstatement this morning and i want to correct the record. Apple was started in a Garage. (http://www.cicorp.com/Apple/garage/index.htm)
The first 50 Apple 1s were built in Jobs' parents' spare bedroom (at 11161 Crist Drive in Los Altos, the house number changed to 2066 when the land was annexed from the county to the city in late 1983). That consignment of Apple 1s were sold to Paul Jay Terrell's Byte Shop for $500 each. The partners had to take out loans in order to meet the Byte Shop order. Just a few months later Apple moved upscale – in to Jobs' parents' garage. - from http://www.macworld.co.uk
Bill Gates (Microsoft) does not have a college degree. He went to Harvard, dropped out, went to work with Paul Allen at Honeywell, from there they went on to form Microsoft.
Apple being started in a garage makes the story even more intriguing, because Apple is here. I'd love to see our city foster this kind of entrepreneurial activity.
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