20/20 in 2020

Sorry I haven't written much lately. My mother was in a car accident on Christmas Eve and severely broke her right leg to the extent that she had to have an external fixator. I have thus had a lot on my plate. She was taken to Wake Forest Baptist for a month. A superstar doctor was able to save her leg. The Fibula and Tibia were broken along with bones above and below the ankle. She had 14 fractures.

She was in Baptist for a month, then in rehab in Conover for a month, I took a leave of absence from my job and finally I brought her home on February 27th, but a couple of days later she took a turn for the worse and she had to be admitted to the Frye hospital with heart and other issues. I was able to bring her home again on March 9th. It was just a couple days after that when the Coronavirus Pandemic hit full force. We made 5 trips to Wake Forest Medical Center over the subsequent two months before we finally moved her to a hard cast and then a walking boot.

My life has been funky since all of that happened, but I know most people's lives have evolved over the past several months. Below I will place some thoughts that I have jotted down in various places over the past few months that I will relate to you.

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*** Television - The other day my mother was going to tell me about something related to what one of the talking heads on television said about Governor Roy Cooper's mandates about the Coronavirus and the lockdowns. I told her that I didn't care what they said on the TV, because their "news" is irrelevant. It has little to do with reality and more to do with their agenda. Like I told her, they like to manipulate the Dupes that are addicted to the television. There needs to the a Alcoholics Anonymous for TV addicts.  There are 12 step programs for about every addiction and Television can be very bad for those certain people in a vulnerable mental state.

***  Echo Chamber - an environment in which a person encounters only beliefs or opinions that coincide with their own, so that their existing views are reinforced and alternative ideas are not considered.

*** Virtue Signalling: (aka - Woke) - To take a conspicuous but essentially useless action ostensibly to support a popular cause but actually to show off how much more moral you are than everybody else... Advocating a political or philosophical position, and/or taking up a public cause, from a position of vanity, for the primary purpose of demonstrating your conformity with fashionable pop culture values.

***  Facebook - I'm just curious. Is facebook a place for the mentally ill or is it just a reflection of our current society, because there is no doubt in my mind that more than half of the place is Nucking Futz.

*** On Democrats blaming Trump for everything -  I know that Democrats like to blame Trump for everything. Actually they like to blame Republicans for everything, but let's look at who runs the Major Metropolitan cities. Basically Democrat-Socialist-Progressives run these cities from top to bottom. They are so large that they control who becomes governor of the State. They have the Mayorship, and control their town councils and appoint the Police Chief. Democrat-Socialist-Progressives control the whole thing from top to bottom, because minorities put them in these positions, but somehow it's Trump's fault. Give me a freakin break. The cancer in our society is the Democrat Party and how corrupt it is and run like a caste system. It's a Gilded Age system where they live fabulously wealthy lives in their compounds and everyone else deals with the messes they make.

*** Social Media Bias - Either Youtube, Twitter, Facebook and other social media forums are allowed to be public commons and open without bias or they should be forced into divestiture. End the high tech monopolies and tyranny...  There are Antitrust rules that come into play over how these companies have been operated. Capitalism isn't at play here. Crapitalism (Crony Capitalism) is at play here and these entities are not above such laws. These are the modern day Robber Barons... Of course it is Democrats that have always protected monopolies and have been against competition. Look at the largest tech companies, that have bought out competition and vertically integrated into behemoths. All Democrats protected by Democrats. That's why you have to laugh when Democrats pretend to be for the little guy. They love the Gilded Age type culture... I am in favor of the Social Media Behemoths being run and regulated as public utility infrastructure like the phone company, power company, and cable companies are run and regulated... Democrat-Socialists seem to be in favor of a public forum that attacks free expression and speech. These Social Media corporation's growth was built upon them operating as a public commons. If they are going to enjoy enormous growth based upon that principle then they can't arbitrarily disappear people and their expression, because they decide to pick one side over the other. We don't tolerate that with other industries and we aren't going to here. It is a violation of Civil Rights. It is the same as arbitrarily denying me the right to eat in your restaurant for (because of) some reason you don't like me.

*** Proverbs 13:9 - The light of the righteous shines brightly, but the lamp of the wicked is extinguished.

*** John 1: 5-9 - 5 This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all. 6 If we claim to have fellowship with him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live out the truth. 7 But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin. 8 If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. 9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.

Ode to the 2010s

It has been hard to sit down and focus and write about politics, culture, and society, but as we leave this decade, I feel it necessary to put out a message.

This decade started out on a sour note when it comes to economics. In 2010, we weren't yet really out of the Great Recession caused by the Economic crisis of 2008. In 2010, the National Unemployment (U-3) Rate was 9.6%. North Carolina's Unemployment rate was 11.4%, which was the worst we would see from the recession. 10 years later, we currently have a North Carolina Unemployment rate of 3.8%.

In Catawba County, back in 2010, it was about as bad as it could get. The unemployment rate was 14.9% and today it is 3.3%. We started out 2010 worse than the National Average and today we are better than the national average.

Does this tell the whole story. I don't believe that it really does. I don't think the issues that led to the 2008 Economic Crisis have truly been addressed, so we could find ourselves back in that mess again. The problem is that that isn't an economic issue as much as it is a social-cultural-political issue.

North Carolina's Legislature has been doing an excellent job of tightening its belt, while focusing on  endeavors that make the State more hospitable towards business than it was a decade ago. This isn't going to make people whose life focuses predominantly on social and cultural issues happy, but what they never seem to understand is that quality of life in our Monetized Society correlates completely with the Velocity of the economy. When the economy slows down, then those with little wealth will suffer the most. And even in Socialist Utopia, a slow economy means that those with lesser socio-economic circumstances will be the ones who suffer the most. It will just be more of them.

I think back to a decade ago. We were in the midst of the Obama administration pushing through Healthcare Reform. What is the focus of the current crop of Democrat Presidential candidates? The same garbage they were peddling and focusing on 10 years ago. They didn't solve anything and in many ways they made it worse. Healthcare costs continue to rise faster than wages. This article on The Middle Class Risks Consuming Itself says that the American Economy has become more and more dependent on Healthcare Services and its growth while the costs continue to become less affordable. In other words, the current model isn't sustainable.

2019 marks eighteen years since the event at the World Trade Center in New York. Subsequently, the United States went into Iraq and Afghanistan. President Bush 43 quickly claimed victory, but we are still involved in Afghanistan. This is the longest conflict in our nation's history.

From my personal experience and in my opinion, the Internet is a lot less freer today than it was 10 years ago. I think much of it has to do with "Smart" phones. The smart phone platform is dominating the computer technology market and it has become more and more monetized through Apps and Services. Personally, I have never been enamored with cell phones. I find them to be too tethered. While their size and purpose (portability) leads to independence of movement/travel, there is a lack of adaptability due to the dependence on the monetized apps that make them work and drives up their cost of usage.

When it comes to the Internet, one can't help but notice the controls that the Corporatocracy has placed on it. Yes, some of it is related to monetization of information by the Corporate Media, but you can taste the censorship, controlled content and narratives, and outright biases of the Leftist leaning Big Tech cronies out of Silicon Valley. I suspect that this is only going to get worse, because most of the public might use tech, but most of them don't understand it. They just want it convenient and user friendly. They could care less how it works.

The Big Tech big picture is that the companies who integrate these convenience based technologies are going to control more and more of your life experiences than they already currently do. They are going to push market you into buying their products or the products they approve of. The further you enter this Matrix, the harder it will become to extricate yourself from it. Most of you won't even care, because "It's Cool." You are putting your faith into the idea that you can trust these companies to have your best interest at heart. Are you ready for driverless cars and robot assistants and caregivers?

It might not seem like we have come all that far over the past decade, but were you really paying attention? I wonder what the advent of 5G technology is going to bring over the next few years. It is probably going to revolutionize the platform on which Information Technology is delivered and kick that Matrix I previously mentioned into another dimension.

These Are The Technologies That Will Transform The 2020s - From 5G To Vertical Farming - Forbes - Mike Scott - December 9, 2019

Foothills Digest - Fox & Hound Article - Summer 2019

The following is the 8th out of 8 Fox and Hound articles available from the Foothills Digest. It is the first collaboration that I have had with Sarah Everly. The current edition of the Foothills Digest is available on newstands and magazine racks in the area. I won't publish that article here until it comes out of general circulation. You should think about getting a subscription to the Foothills Digest. It is very artistic, has great literature related to our area, and it supports many of the entrepreneurs and creative people and their endeavors in our region.

In my mind, Sarah comes to this series with a bend that Gabriel got along too well with the Wascawee Weepubwican. We'll see. I'm not here for debate. I'm here for discussion. I have the thoughts of an Independent Liberated Free Man and I don't get stuck in Corporate Media Political Dogma and Rituals. If that is the altar from which you form your prism, then you will never understand a person like myself. Let's move forward in these discussions. My angle is to get as close to bringing a discussion of reality and realism to the public as possible. You won't see a list of Republican talking points in my discussions.


The following article is about "Quality of Life."

My personal reflection on the modern Democrat/Progressive/Liberal/Socialist of 2019. Everyone has ideas about how we move forward towards making people's everyday lives better. It's how we move from ideas to actions and then towards implementation that we differ. I like ideas that are Achievable/Doable and rooted in realistic principles. I'm into making your lives better as soon as possible. Pie in the sky, grandiose ideas lead to frustration and disruption and cause more harm than good. It wastes time, because people end up throwing their hands up in the air and having to start all over again. Feelings come and go like a whiff of air. Logic is steadfast and foundational. It is something we can build upon. We have to root our ideas in Logic and not Feelings.

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(The Hickory Hound: Thom Shell)

To open this dialogue with Sarah, the general topic is about what it would take to get Millennials to stay in our area. In a text, she says that her interpretation of past Fox-Hound articles: “mention “young people” and how our community needs to evolve to keep Millennials upward, but it is banter about Millennials instead of with them.”

I think some people may misunderstand where I am coming from, if they think that my main focus is just on attracting ‘Millennials.’ My focus is upon Science and the overall vitality of our community. Local officials, around 20 years ago, laser focused on attracting retiring ‘Baby Boomers’ because they thought the sheer numbers of that generation’s population would bring growth to our community. Unfortunately, retirees don’t create the economic velocity that young up and comers do and this most likely played a huge role in the economic malaise that we experienced in the first decade plus of this century. It threw our overall Ecosystem out of whack.

Chicken or Egg? Which comes first, the social dynamism of a community or its Economic Well-Being? My thoughts are in these articles, as well as on my website. Success is defined pretty simply, because “Quality of Life” correlates to economic growth, therefore our community’s overall “Quality of Life” is dependent upon growth in the largest workplace and consumer demographic -- Millennials. In other words, if young people aren’t living here or moving here, then we aren’t succeeding.

My thought process relates to not putting all of your eggs in one basket. We don’t need a certain generation. We don’t need a certain type of industry. We don’t need any certain category. What we need is balance. ‘If the chickens ain’t layin’ no eggs, and no eggs are hatchin’, then soon we ain’t gonna have no chickens.’

The reason why I have said that we need young people, and haven’t just said Millennials, is because of the demographic evidence -- lack of balance -- over the past twenty years. Besides, Millennials are now entering middle age. We have seen population stagnation for a generation and if we don’t stem the tide, then we are going to see population decline. Look at the Rust Belt areas of Western New York, Western Pennsylvania, Ohio, Northern Indiana, Michigan, if we don’t regenerate, then that is where we are headed.

I’m all about a call to action. That is how I got involved in civic engagement. At 52 years old, as a DeGeneration X’er, I have seen my family pass away and move away to the point that there are only 3 of us left here. I have put ideas on my website, in this magazine, and in the public. The only thing that politics and good government can successfully do is create an environment for people to participate. The Millennials and iGen are going to have to buy in.

What will it take for them to buy-in? Perceived opportunity. Do they like it here? Do they want to be here? Can they afford to stay here? Do they have a future if they stay?

I have never had a problem with listening. I’d love to hear what the younger people have to say. I’d love to know what would make them happy, because I know that attracting these people to stay home, or to move here, is the key to the vitality and viability of our community.

We have a lot of ingredients that make for community success, but we’re having trouble with the recipe. Is there something missing or are we just not putting it together right?


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(The Fox: Sarah Everly)

In 2001 my family moved to the Hickory area. I was 9 years old and to me Hickory was a wasteland. Empty buildings littered the roadsides, parking lots were cracked and overgrown with weeds trying desperately to reach the light. The town was stagnant. There was a lack of youth. The youth that was here was wildly underpaid and their children? wildly undereducated.

Eighteen years later my peers and I have grown up. In large part, the once empty buildings are now filled with businesses owned by the under forty population. Growing up in the recession taught our town’s youth to make their own prosperity, to make wealth out of barren land and broken buildings. All of this makes it appear that this area is a lively and prosperous place to settle. It makes us look like, as Hound phrased it, we have the perfect recipe, but there is so much that isn’t seen to outside eyes.

As our under forty populations put their hours, hands, and heart into stimulating prosperity in our towns, they are being repaid by housing markets that leave them in vicious cycles of predatory landlords and few options to find a home they can afford. Our Boomer populations are selling their homes for four times what they paid, and anything sold under 120k is going to investors and serving as a fifth or sixth rental property. In my own experience I have found housing to be more affordable outside of our immediate area. Time and time again I have seen my peers move their families to Morganton, Nebo, or Charlotte, often taking their businesses with them. Add the housing crisis to the insurmountable student debt crisis, and public school systems that are still lagging behind and you have a recipe that is forcing us out of the areas that we largely helped lift out of recession.

I have to earnestly agree that our ecosystem is out of whack, but it is also my belief that we are facing another economic collapse. If housing prices do not fall, the market will crash. If interest rates do not stabilize, businesses will waste away or leave entirely. If our younger residents continue to work so tirelessly and only the Boomers benefit, we will burn out. If wages continue to leave tradesmen rolling pennies at the end of the month, they will follow the cash flow elsewhere. Plainly put, this area will be facing a drought of youthful prosperity within the next five to ten years. Do we want to stay? Yes! This is our home. We pulled the weeds, we paved the parking lots, we filled the empty storefronts. We had the odd privilege of helping craft this wasteland into the beautiful and bountiful community it appears to be. The idea of leaving is heartbreaking for many of us, but many of us are left with no choice. Can we afford to stay? Perhaps some of us, for now, but I’m not sure how much longer. Our recipe is lacking sustenance.

This is not to say that millennials consider Boomers to be lazily benefiting from our hard work. Many of them will never have the chance to retire because they too are lacking opportunity and prosperity. While eighty five percent of our community is panic stricken over billing statements each month, the other fifteen percent sip from wine glasses at country clubs or stand around in circles discussing rounds of golf. Things that most of our community will never get to do. It is bewildering to me that a town that once sought out retirees, is being sustained and developed by a population that will never get to retire.

A call to action. In previous versions of this column the call to action has largely been to raise wages, lower cost of living, etc…

I have to agree with those sentiments, but those things do not happen quickly. They may take years to happen. What condition will our community be in by then? We need swift actions. Actions like stimulating, or even adding more nonprofits. Non profit Microlending has been proven to bring communities up and out of their stagnation. These institutions often focus on lending to minority populations such as People of color, women, LGBTQ+ individuals, those with credit challenges, and those who do not have an established business portfolio. Adding lenders who service people that would otherwise be rejected by traditional banks to our community gives every individual an opportunity to pull themselves up, succeed, and then allow their success to benefit our community’s ecosystem.

Creating affordable access to trade certifications, hiring people of color, shopping locally, opening affordable and safe daycares, pushing our school systems to deliver quality education to our children, all of these things are immediate actions that we, as a community, can do to keep our younger populations prosperous, and upward.

Boomers to Generation Z, we all work hard. We all deserve quality of life. We all deserve a stronger, more united community. To borrow from Gloria Steinem, humans should be linked. Not ranked. When we accomplish that, we’ll know we’ve created the perfect recipe.

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James Thomas Shell’s Question:

Sarah, I appreciate very much where you are coming from with your article. If you go back and read all of the articles that Gabriel and I corresponded on, then you will read about some of the very issues you elaborate on here. I have been a big proponent of microlending and small business generators since the inception of the Hickory Hound in 2008. Can you further elaborate on how we can bring this to fruition and maybe how it might help you or someone you know on a personal Level? I understand where you are coming from, but there are many who don’t understand and can’t relate.

I understand your angst related to housing. Many of the issues, related to housing in our area, stem from the financial crisis of 2008, which had a lot to do with lending to people who got in over their heads buying overvalued houses. What do you believe can be done to re-open the marketplace to lower- income home buyers without going back down that path again? Maybe, as you alluded to, the market will have to reset by allowing housing values to fall to a level of affordability that correlates with those lower income levels. Are you looking for a government solution?

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Sarah's response to Thom

While it may be tricky to seek out microlenders to settle here, it’s relatively easy to educate our nonprofits about the existence of Microlending. Institutions like Women’s Resource Center work closely with programs like Work First. Knowledge of Microlending and how it works could cultivate opportunity for the jobless and underpaid women they serve. The same goes for Safe Harbor, Christian Ministries, etc... The people nonprofits ore serving are people that would be quickly rejected by conventional lenders. I’ve been a housewife for seven years. I have eleven thousand in defaulted student loans, a sobering reality that affects a massive portion of our community. A woman with a seven year job history gap and defaulted federal loans isn’t seen as a promising candidate for living wage jobs. She’s also not a candidate for traditional financing. If I decided to run a business, t4icrolending would be my only hope. Being provided with a low interest loan from a non predatory lender would help me establish a business that provides the means to get my student loans out of default and begin a valid work history. The fact is that thousands of our citizens ore in the same boat. Those thousands of citizens would similarly benefit from access to Microlending.

As for my ideas on our housing crisis, my opinion is not favorable to investors. While having a rental property is a wonderful way to build financial security, having six of them is an action of greed. My husband and I hove been searching for a home since February. Every home within our price range is swept off the market within hours, only to be listed for rent within three weeks time. These homes would come with a mortgage that equals half of what they’re being rented for. I also believe Airbnb is contributing to our housing drought. While families are being forced out of the city, homes are sitting empty half the year because renting them nightly brings in more cash flow than renting them to our residents. Cities like New York and San Francisco have enacted regulations on Airbnb in response the the cities’ rising homeless population. These regulations include guidelines that require hosts to be residents of the city that their Airbnbs are located and nightly rentals cap out at 90 days a year. If we enacted similar regulations hundreds of homes would be available to citizens nine months a year. Investors and Airbnb hosts, these two populations are leaving hundreds of victims in their wake and roaming wit little to no regulation and in turn the citizens that make our community prosperous are being forced to pay twice as much for housing or being forced out of our community altogether.


Sarah Everly’s Question:

As an individual with a focus on science, what do you think could be done to harness this interest and use it to benefit the younger populations in our community?

You’ve mentioned that you’ve watched your family members pass away and leave. I’m very sorry that has been the case. I am interested to know what kept you here. What actions and/or options were available to you that made staying in this community worth it? Do you believe these actions and/or options are readily available to every demographic in our community?

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Thom's response to Sarah

Sarah, our area was in recession well before it was acknowledged nationally in 2008 and we have never truly recovered. What some have interpreted as a recovery has actually been settling into a new normal. The Economic Innovation Group still lists us as an 'At-Risk' Community. That is a lot of what you saw in your teenage years. That is a completely different experience than my own teen years.

In the 70s and early 80s, my mother was a top-notch job recruiter in the Hickory area. Manufacturing businesses were actually paying people bonuses and helping them with housing to locate here. The problem was that as time went on there was resistance from our community's hierarchy to recruit more highly skilled technical industries. Regarding technical industries, a local entrepreneur started Superior Cable Company. Corning Inc. invested and eventually took over. People flocked to those jobs because of the compensation offered. This led to a Telephony Industry cluster in our area, which flourished before Trade Treaties caused a major scale back in the early 2000s, which coincides to the era you allude to.

The housing issue that you have faced is a National issue. In an Associated Press article out this week, we learn that "In the seven years since the housing crash ended, home values in more than three-quarters of U.S. metro areas have climbed faster than incomes... Nationally, home prices since 2000 have climbed at an annual average rate of 3.8%, while average incomes have grown at an annual rate of 2.7%." So yes, your personal experience is validated.

My personal experience? I moved back here because I was more comfortable with the family connection. My income would definitely have been higher outside of this area, but can you put a price tag on the family experience? I had to get creative and make a ton of sacrifices to buy my house and keep making the payments. I'm making less than I made in 2005. I haven't been able to afford upgrades, but the good thing is I locked in at the 2005 monthly payment. Because of the economics of the area, the value hasn't risen much. You are correct about rental costs.

As far as my experience versus others? That is more complex than I can answer here. I will say that my life has been built upon plenty of blood, sweat, and tears and nothing I have was accumulated through some special privilege. I look forward to future discussions.

Economic Innovation Group - Distressed Communities - https://eig.org/dci

Young homebuyers scramble as prices rise faster than incomes - Associated Press - JOSH BOAK & LARRY FENN - May 25, 2019

Calling Irascible Crank

We haven't heard from you in quite some time. We are checking in on you. Would like to hear from you. Gotham needs you.

P.S. We have a specific request.

Foothills Digest - Fox & Hound Article - Spring 2019

The following is the 7th out of 8 Fox and Hound articles available from the Foothills Digest.  It is the sixth and final collaboration with Gabriel Sherwood. I enjoyed those collaborations, because one can see that it was about our ideas relating to the Economic Development and Vitality of the area. We came to many of the same conclusions about the status of our area, but we had many different thoughts about how to achieve goals that would make things better for all.

The following article is about "How would we spend Government money to achieve our desired results of Economic, Social, and Cultural Vitality making for a better Quality of Life for the citizenry?"

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It's Spring again. The time for birth and rebirth. Time for Evolution and Revolution. Time for fresh starts and new beginnings. Gabriel and I finished up our series about Economic Development. When we discuss the Vitality of where we live, it is defined by Economics, Culture, and Politics. You just can't get away from those forces and the impact they have on our individual and collective lives.

Gabriel and I were thinking about where we wanted to take this seventh discussion. Seven's supposedly a lucky number. It is thought to be the number of perfection and completeness. Well Gabriel sent me a message and asked what we were going to talk about. I told him to choose. He was talking about the money local governments are spending trying to make things happen. He wants to talk about that and possibilities and most of all he wanted the focus to be positive.

Well, let's see how we did...

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(The Hickory Hound: Thom Shell)
In looking at the economics, culture, and politics of our community, what issue that involves all of those dynamics, is urgent and important to address, so we can advance our communities forward towards growth and well-being as we progress through this century.

What do we do about dead buildings, wasted space, and urban sprawl in our communities that creates the least intrusion in the rights of property owners, while maximizing the economic and cultural viability of our community?

In the last 15 years, we have seen our local communities have to come to grips with a transition towards a new economic reality. We saw many manufacturing facilities become defunct and close their doors. There was a negative impact on business owners, managers, and laborers that caused an overall lack of progress in our communities. In a world that constantly spins forward, our being stuck in a rut meant that we were actually falling behind. Property owners understand that maintaining property is a constant battle that costs money. Not maintaining property causes one to actually fall behind economically.

I am not new to this issue. 10 years ago, I made videos that are still on Youtube of vacant properties in our area that needed to be addressed. The Hollar Mill and Lyerly Mill buildings are two buildings that had sat empty for years that I videoed. Look at those buildings today compared to what they were then. I may not have been all on board, when it comes to how those buildings were redeveloped, but I wasn't the owner of those properties. At the end of the day, I am glad that those properties have become positive economic assets in Hickory

Most people alive today seem to think that "Big Box" stores have always existed as part of the country’s landscape, but they pretty much came into existence in the middle of the last century. They evolved when retailers decided to put most available goods on display in the store, instead of keeping the inventory sealed off in storage.

Walmart, Kmart, and Target all opened their first stores in the year 1962. Today, we take for granted the existence of these kinds of companies. These stores required huge, undivided space, with high ceilings to accommodate their voluminous inventories. They also required huge parking lots, centering their economic model around customer convenience. Their diversity of products meant that customers could one-stop shop, buying everything they needed. Their economies of scale enabled these companies to buy huge amounts of goods at lower wholesale prices and pass those savings along to customers.

With more marketplace evolution, the rise of online retail has further changed the landscape. Now customer convenience has progressed to where products are delivered to your doorstep without leaving home . Year after year, over the past generation, we have seen more and more of these "Big Box" stores go out of business, leaving communities littered with empty buildings.

How do we repurpose these buildings? In some cases, similar sized evolutionary companies are looking to fill these spots. Amazon Inc., largely responsible for the new retail reality, has decided to open some brick and mortar stores, but this type of repurposing will put a very small dent in this issue, because of the same reason that Amazon began dominating the retail sector to start with. The bottom line demand of customers are price and customer convenience.

The practical option, in many circumstances, is demolition. Many of these buildings were cheaply built with projected lifespans of 25 to 30 years. We have seen, through the "Big Box" era, where a building was demolished and the same (or a similar) retailer rebuilt in the same footprint. Demolition allows for land to be repurposed and building parts to be recycled.

The enormous size of these properties are adaptive to many functions. Such stores can be utilized for apartment housing within a mixed-use development. Aside from residential use, these shell buildings have been redeveloped into office space, civic accessibility, museums, and healthcare facilities. Many "Big Box" property owners are transforming these sites into mixed-use destinations with multiple restaurant pads, smaller shop spaces, and public plazas.

Mixed-use environments create dynamic community hubs of commerce. Restaurants, offices, and healthcare facilities can activate sidewalks and build foot-traffic. The housing is an excellent alternative in re-using a footprint, as opposed to creating more developmental sprawl.

In our communities, we have thought about ways to take our limited economic resources and leverage them to redevelop and enhance our landscape. I think it is vital to have a 21st century mindset in using public money to do what is best to improve our local ecosystem. The first step towards improving our community is to maintain the assets that already exist. The 21st Century approach means that it is imperative that we reduce, reuse, and recycle assets that are not performing as intended.

We must develop governmental policies that do not create roadblocks that hinder outside of the box ideas related to economic development. Policies and ordinances should be open to possibilities, not towards making transitions and evolution impossible to protect existing, antiquated business and cultural concepts.

In a city like Hickory, I would direct at least $10 million (total) of public funds towards developing a Mixed-Use Development node in each of the four quadrants of the city ($2.5 Million in each quadrant). The money could only be used on abandoned "Big Box" or Manufacturing properties.

The developer's proposed business plan would show the city why they need the money, how it benefits the public, and how they intend to develop their property as a centerpiece that can stimulate economic regeneration in that vicinity. The order of such projects would be ranked based upon economic enhancement of the proposed property versus the need of, and impact on, the immediate vicinity.

The above is just an overview of my thoughts. Yeah, details, details, details... but I think you can see this is how we take something negative and turn it positive.


References
Big box stores are dying. What do we do with all the bodies? - Popular Science - March 28, 2018
Innovative Uses for Vacant Big Boxes - GlobeSt.Com - December 13, 2017



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(The Fox: Gabriel Sherwood)
What would you do if you won the lottery? We have all thought about it I am sure, what we would do, how we would invest in the future. On the heels of our recent conversations about economic development in the area, let it be Hickory and surrounding communities who win. Imagine after a long process the Western Piedmont Council of Governments region … Alexander, Burke, Caldwell, and Catawba, Counties … are awarded a one hundred-million-dollar development grant. What could, what would we do with it to improve the region while being the most efficient and offering the most impact?

I advocate planning how much will be invested in transportation access, how much will be invested in communications access, and how much to help people who need a hand getting back up off the streets?We have jobs available, but we have a high poverty rates partly due partly to access to those jobs between communities that really aren’t that far from one another. Hickory’s success is inexorably linked to the success of the counties in which our city’s reach extends.Public funds are vital and should be invested to do the most good to the most people, as a rising tide lifts all.

Experience has taught me the trouble it can be getting to job centers, even if just across amunicipal line, as I regularly loaded up my old ’89 van to make the drive from Hickory’s public housing to Claremont and Conover factories to drop off neighbors. We can do that on a larger level with the capital to expand that idea as it is being spearheaded in Hickory now by certain public servants and potential employers. I would suggest we put that program on steroids and use Greenway’s existing structure to do it.We offer shift-based stops, neighborhood access far off main access lines, and along the way we ask the businesses being served to invest in the programs as well as the people gaining their access. With minimal investments by each entity being served, we could do years of good work.

8 more busses, 10vehicles that carry up to 15 people, and 10 that carry up to 8, and a few for special needs, would require an investment of a maximum of $7 million with alternative fueling options and maintenance warranties. Drivers and administration salaries would require an investment max of$4 million a year after all overhead and would put millions a year into the local economies. The plan would use busses to connect cities with hubsin each town. Then, smaller vehicles to move between communities and production centers in each county. With an investment of 25% of our purse including the operational budget, we can expand and maintain the organization for the first several years. After some time to read the need, we adjust the vehicle count according to the use and move forward to sustained viability and possibly growth to other communities.

Just as important as getting people to theproduction is getting information and education and commerce to them in their homes. There are areas of the four-county region that don’t have good cell phone reception, much less good highspeed internet access. In fact, in downtown areas in some of our towns there is no access while at the same time our students have received electronic equipment to do homework. That has caused some stress for some families, and despite our rural areas we can do something about it.

I believe investing 30 million in grants to communities and citizens to assist in gaining access would lead to a new burst of commerce and civic involvement. The funds would acquire land to build towers in partnership with providers, and negotiation between those providers and municipalities for public access would help drastically reduce the investment going forward.

Students would benefit with the access to their studies, online learning options, and general access to what’s happening in real time. Businesses benefit for obvious reasons and the increase in commerce brings more income for citizens and municipalities alike. The cycle of success often requires limited investments, but it’s the patience and willingness to invest in people that sometimes stops the wheels. I think if we treat people like the end instead of the means, the means takes care of itself as the tide goes up. This plan not only improves lives, but also provides a more proactive business culture. As James and I have spoken of many times in agreement, we have the land and the workforce but just need ways to connect them with the centers of production and commerce … and we can take a huge leap towards it with these investments.

Finally, with planning for supports for our people, we can’t forget those most in need. Holding ten for future needs, thirty million remains in our grant. There is a challenge our area faces, Hickory deals with it every day. Poverty at near 20% and the homeless that struggle around us are a reminder that without responsible growth, people get left behind. Like the opioid crisis, we can’t arrest or legislate ourselves out of this one … people require investment sometimes. I think if we continue the positive steps taken by our governmental and non-governmental forces, and adapt a more people first approach, our economic goals may lay along an easier path.

We have opportunities to take lessons from other places in how we respond to these challenges. Simple access to the internet and transportation will make a world of difference to folks that are kept from things by distance, but for those hiding in the woods around us every day … we need to think big. Thirty million dollars to buy a few unused buildings to transform into temporary housing to offer a bed, a shower, and an address, helps us offer that foothold needed to get started. With work and investment by our people, our business community, and our governments, a challenge can become a strength and a beacon of our investment in ourselves and others. That attracts businesses and younger workers that know their community will invest in them.

All these ideas feed off each other, and a system of self-supported citizens and communities is what we are all striving for. Often people trying to make a comeback are hindered by situations they don’t always control, as it’s expensive to be poor. We can help. We have our internet expansion provide application access, our transportation system gets them there on time, and we get to watch as some folks reenter the area as productive members of our communities.

With these plans we can make a real difference to a lot of people and still hold a quarter of our funds for unseen needs of the future as these programs develop, and perhaps some of it could go to grants to assist companies along the way that need space as our commerce expands. We can’t help everyone and there would be technicalities and conflicts and budgeting issues to overcome and work through, but with efficiency in mind and equality in purpose we can make a difference.

Hickory Hound - Hickory Daily Record - LttE October 20, 2019

The following is my Letter to the Editor that was in this morning (October 20, 2019) Hickory Daily Record. They did some minor editing, so here is the original as I sent in back on Thursday. The Letter relates to the candidates running for Hickory City Council during the 2019 municipal election cycle.

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Wash, rinse, and repeat, it’s election time in the City of Hickory. At least we see actual contests taking place for the Ward 1, 2, and 3 seats available during this cycle. But, once again we see the machinations of Hickory’s dubiously complicated electoral format with 845 votes out of 13,000 registered voters (6.5%) in those wards. 60 people voting in Ward 3 means barely 1 out of 100 voters voted in that Ward. Folks, that is proof positive of a broken system.

Even if the “Me Too” messages of the candidates running does little to inspire the electorate, more than 1 out of 100 could accidentally stumble into an election booth and cast a vote. It seems to me that this is symbolic of some sort of protest.

For years we have been told by community leaders that we all need to be positive, of like mind, just push “the Brand”, stick to the Message. That is the mindset of a Salesperson. Personally, I think we need to operate with the mindset of an Entrepreneur. That mindset is different.

Reminds me of the Breakfast Plate of Eggs and Bacon… The Chicken that provides the eggs is involved. The Hog that provides the bacon is committed.

The Entrepreneur has everything to lose. That makes them look for problems and identify solutions. Identifying problems is not being negative. It is being smart. Identifying problems is a money maker. It is figuring out what people want and need and creating it. That is how product development and evolution takes place. The Salesman can claim perfection (no problems) all day long, but reality sells or doesn’t sell products. If the salesman fails, they just move on to the next job. It isn’t their product. The Entrepreneur can lose everything. They are committed.

We live in a new economy. An economy defined by Creativity. Hickory has been Generic for far too long. We can’t copy our way to progress and prosperity. We have to have unique assets that set us apart from our competition. We need new ideas.

So, it isn’t about the message. In the end it is about your reality… your Identity. How good is your product and will the target consumers buy it?

Hey candidates, what are you selling? Do you have any fresh ideas… anything innovative? If people want Generic, they can get that at Walmart.

Foothills Digest - Fox & Hound Article - Winter 2019

OK, it took a week to get this out. I had work, a 35th Class Reunion, and Church Homecoming slow me down... Forgive me and I'll owe you one. This is the 6th out of 8 available. After I get these out, I intend to write something epic and relevant in the present tense, not that these aren't. The following is the sixth Fox and Hound Article from the Foothills Digest. It is the fifth article in which I collaborated with Gabriel Sherwood. The topic focuses on 'How do we connect with people to get them to move here and do business here.'

Preparation -  Prepare - make (something) ready for use or consideration.

Plan - a scheme or method of acting, doing, proceeding, making, etc., developed in advance: a design or scheme of arrangement: a specific project or definite purpose:

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This is the sixth, and the finale, in this series, about economic development in our area. We have discussed vision, aligning to the marketplace, leveraging unique strengths, and inspiring people to innovate, and change. Now we finish up by articulating how we connect with and influence people to move here and do business in our area.

In summary, I think that we can all see that Gabriel and I agree on more than we disagree on when it comes to the issues of Economic Growth. I think we all understand it’s difficult to sustain a successful economy over a long period of time. We are at the mercy of external forces, including, but not limited to, the overall business cycle, culture, and politics. Our fortunes will ebb and flow with the times, but a proactive approach is necessary to ward off stagnation. This is about action versus inaction, which is completely different than the modern political paradigms deemed Conservative-Progressive.

The bottom line is that growth necessitates a clear understanding of where you want to be in the future. If you don't have goals, then what is your endgame? You’re just winging it through life. Winging it isn’t a formula for success. The Roman Philosopher Seneca said, “Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity.” Good fortune isn't just about being at the right place at the right time, but also about being open to and ready for new opportunities. That is what this series has been about… Preparing for Success!

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(The Hickory Hound: Thom Shell Intro)
Over the past year I have discussed, in this forum, how I believe we should economically develop our area by cultivating the most impactful demographics in the current era. We have seen a stagnation in our population growth and it is directly correlated to the lack of economic growth of the area. It is a chicken or egg situation, because it relates to jobs and job quality. Have young people left, because of the lack of good paying jobs –or- are the good paying industries not locating here, because there is a lack of qualified young working aged folks to fill the positions?

Once again, I will point to where South Carolina economic development officials said that they didn’t need pre-trained individuals for Upstate South Carolina’s BMW plant. They trained the initial workers at the plant and then later created specific technical programs to train workers for future jobs in the automotive industry.

There must be a multi-faceted approach in creating an environment to benefit from people who are in the sweet-spot of their productive working lives. People who are 40 years and younger are better able to adapt to economic change than those 40 years and older. By the time you hit 40, you are ready to settle into some form of routine. Many 40 year olds have established family structures. By and large, middle aged folks aren’t looking (and can’t afford) to change jobs on a whim or move here, there, and everywhere.

Let’s look at a good reality, presently Millennials and their younger compatriots iGen are the future of economic development and productivity in our modern world. They are now the largest demographic in the workforce and in the consumer marketplace. Success will be defined pretty simply, because “Quality of Life” correlates to economic growth, therefore our community’s overall “Quality of Life” is dependent upon growth in the largest workplace and consumer demographic. In other words, if the young people aren’t living here or moving here, then we aren’t succeeding.

I have a saying, ‘Smart people make things simple. Stupid people make things complicated.’ Think about talented athletes, chefs, artists, whatever… don’t they make whatever they are doing look easy? Think about procrastinators always doing mental gymnastics, always ‘studying’ something, always doing busy work, but never seeming to get anything accomplished… wasting time… wasting away.

As I have already discussed, local leadership has to have a plan. We have to engage all of the components of this economic equation. We must be effective listeners. We must develop our ability to be nimble about understanding and diagnosing problems and responding with effective solutions.

Develop a system that allows engagement across multiple platforms of government and private industry. Cut the red tape and have open engagement between elected officials, government administration, business leaders, and the citizenry. How do we create, acknowledge, and engage opportunity? Do you recognize opportunity when it is staring you in the face? We cannot afford to dismiss opportunity!

Growth is positive change from Time A to Time B. To direct growth, you have to have an intelligent plan about where you are at, where you want to go, and how you are going to get there. In identifying the there, you have to identify and engage your Vision, which is the first step in creating your plan. The growth we desire requires defined goals and benchmarks of where we want to be at a time certain in the future. That measurable vision defines success or failure and develops accountability.

That accountability helps motivate the drivers of the plan to make necessary adjustments (tweaks or wholesale changes) that can get to the successful goal. The thing about this exercise is that it is never over. You cannot rest on your laurels. Like one of my teachers from the past would tell us, when he caught us looking at the clock, “Time will pass… Will you?”


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(The Fox: Gabriel Sherwood Intro)
Maintaining a steady growth pattern is an important part of a healthy economy and society and to us the need for working age newcomers is critical in building on what we have going. We know steps must be taken to actively attract the people we need, but is it just the responsibility of our leaders, government and/or business, to keep us growing? As far as business health, our local leadership has done well. So much so that Hickory was just proclaimed as having the “lowest costs for business” by Forbes.

This is an honor that will perhaps bring us interest from companies looking to invest, and that is something we all celebrate, as it will bring not only dollars but perhaps more youthful talent into our communities. In addition to our drive to expand we must also have pause and measure, as our goals must be mitigated by the need for responsible growth and must be focused on increasing the value of our people as it compares with the interests of businesses we offer a home.

A USA Today article from December, 2017 covered some reasons younger professionals touted as critical to invest in a location. Jobs is always number one, but increasingly the addition of “good paying” is finding its way into the discussions. According to Data USA, Hickory’s median household income declined in recent years by 4.61%. Payscale.com says wages continued to drop another 1.1% in the 2nd quarter of 2018, and average income in Hickory is $5,ooo less than average in NC and $14,000 less than average for the nation. One reason the area is good for business is because overhead is low … and that includes payroll.

Another trend in modern families is the more educated woman being the highest earner while the man may be a tradesman or in the service industry or manufacturing. Those are couples we could use, as our trade markets need young blood to replace aging service techs and our manufacturing resurgence needs workers. But, as the Convention Center prepares for a Professional Women’s event that will bring several hundred guests, the average working woman in Hickory earns $16,000 a year less an average man. I personally can say I know a young professional woman with young children who is looking North for better pay in her field, even as it compares to cost of living.

Our last conversation included my suggestion of focusing on bringing in educators … there are college level instructors at CVCC making less than 40K a year. The teaching profession is by in large still female, and I recently heard from a former coordinator of superintendents that the teaching college at UNC Charlotte had over 900 students when he began his tenure there 9 years ago and last year when he left there were less than 100. These are professional jobs that are a backbone of local economies, and they are not heading here.

Now I don’t want this to be a pouncing session on our local drive to improve, because there is a drive to improve that includes everyone, but as the USA Today article pointed out some of the most effective means of bringing people in is bringing them home and focusing on the demographics. We have a lot of folks who have left for the cities around us and we can work hard to market the area to them along with a push for the young professional woman, and we may attract attention. But, I fear it won’t do a thing if they look for a comparable job in a different area and take a massive pay cut to come here.

We are all responsible for our community’s growth, each and everyone one of us. We entrust our leadership with the guidance of our societies and we expect responsible growth in opportunity in return, but in the end it is the civic engagement of citizens that leads any municipality or region or state. First we must teach people to give their best but also to expect better than to have basic fears that a good salary alleviates. A desperate salesperson is seen a mile away, one that is secure sells more.

That’s one thing that can get folks past the transportation issues we face here and we can create the market for better education access with and movement in the green in income growth instead of the red as we have seen for years here. Like Lenoir-Rhyne offered locals half tuition, let’s offer returning citizens a promise of tax breaks for companies that offer better than living wages. After that, we can boost and boast a great image that is backed up in the numbers that matter, and get some of our state’s best educators and public servants, and that’s a recipe for Responsible Growth to last a generation or two.

2018 Forbes Best Places for Business and Careers – October 24, 2018 - https://www.forbes.com/sites/kurtbadenhausen/2018/10/24/the-best-places-for-business-and-careers-2018-seattle-leads-the-way/#7062ac47447e

Millennials to small cities: Ready or not here we come! – USA Today - November 5, 2017 -
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2017/11/05/millennials-small-cities-ready-not-here-we-come/830955001/

https://datausa.io/profile/geo/hickory-nc/#intro

https://www.payscale.com/research/US/Location=Hickory-NC/Salary


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Thom's response to Gabriel

Gabriel, in the overall outlook of the Forbes’ article ‘2018 Best Places for Business and Careers’ that you allude to, we see that Raleigh (#2), Charlotte (#5), Durham (#13), and Asheville (#15) did extremely well, but Hickory was listed as #172 out of 200 cities in that list. That fits in with our second article (Winter 2018) where I address what I surmise to be the Tale of Two States here in North Carolina.

I am glad that you are encouraged by the North Carolina’s positioning in the marketplace as a whole and I am also hopeful that we are taking some steps in our region to move forward. I would however like to see an emphasis placed upon the more Rural and Suburban areas of the State that have been hurt by the rapidly changing dynamics of modern industry and the post modern “free-trade” economy.

I agree with what you state about young people wanting good paying jobs. On my blog, though I haven’t really added articles over the past year, in the past I have constantly talked about the underemployment issue and this “Low Cost of doing Business” certainly seems to correlate to that. Hickory, in that 2018 Forbes list that you interjected into this conversation, ranks #1 in the nation as the least expensive place to do business. 21 places in the bottom 50 of that overall list rank as the cheapest places to do business. Maybe it’s less expensive, because there’s a lot less economic activity taking place here than in the more successful cities in that list.

I do agree that people need to take charge and be leaders, but that doesn’t forego those who have asked and are being paid to assume the forefront of leadership positions in our communities. In the end, they are in charge of the decision making process, including setting policies and making plans for the direction of the community. We can only make suggestions and hold them accountable to a certain extent. They are in charge!


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Gabriel's response to Thom
As often is the case, we agree on much. A multi-faceted plan is needed and we have some facets of it in place or on the way and it must be strategic and a decade ahead of itself. Over the past year we have agreed that we need to work on access and transportation options to connect us to the economic powerhouse of the Charlotte market. The 16 extension is well underway and the double lane access will decrease travel time between the ever expanding suburbs of Charlotte and our area. The expansion of 150 across the bridge into the Mooresville area as part of the development of the Eastern parts of Catawba County I think would be a great investment in having some of Mecklenburg's commerce and professionals jumping the lake.

More land at a lower price in a growing area is an attraction we can utilize with proper marketing and valuation of our attributes, while at the same time checking several boxes on our goal sheet for responsible growth.

We have spoken on inclusion of all citizens and municipalities and businesses and NGO’s, as the more ideas at the table mean a better chance for good government and working solutions. We have the Hickory Young Professionals, who just celebrated their 10th Anniversary, working to engage the younger population alongside other similar service and networking organizations across the area. The Rotary Club of Hickory is currently hosting Students of Distinction from each high school in the area who have shown leadership skills and merit in study and extracurricular activities. We should collectively be hoping to keep in touch and either keep these students at CVCC or LR or the App State Campus, or work to lead them back to the area after their education elsewhere.

Reaching out and engaging people where they are now while showing them a vision of where they could be with us can be a path to our goals, and with the right coordination and direction we can see great success.

We also have spoken about how we can utilize our attributes, and one we already see being used is … well, the Sun above us. How much could we save our taxpayers, our business owners, our citizens, if we simply put a couple solar panels on every government building, business, or home that can accomodate one, in the area? We have great recycling systems and expanding public parks and services, we are close to nature and the city, we have access to an international airport, and we have local flare and food options, which are all good additions to our regional brochure … but we would make the national news with a commitment like that.

If we can save money by using the free fusion reactor we circle and allocate that to offering incentives for companies that agree to provide above average salaries and wages in exchange for forward thinking leadership and investment, I believe we will see a good return.

Know your enemy and know yourself and you will never know defeat in a hundred battles” - Sun Tzu. You are correct that dawdlers will dawdle and complainers will offer plenty observations with few solutions behind them, but those who research the root of a problem and have the courage and acumen to act decisively will often be successful. Fortune favors the bold “they” also say and if we are bold in our requirement for our people to be valued and seen as an investment, if we expand access while reaching out to engage the people we want to be here with us with what we can offer … those who care about such things will notice.

People who care about such things care about responsible growth.