π Title:
Dear Rachel: Life is Wonderful – August 19, 2025 – Ep 4
π Link: https://youtu.be/-MK7hnQYOJQ
π SEO Summary:
Episode 4 of Dear Rachel brings Norman Harcourt into the studio for a candid, spirited exchange on wealth, progress, and the widening divide between those who have and those who do not. Rachel challenges Norm’s optimism with the realities facing our city today — inequality, affordability, and civic decline — in a conversation that captures both generational wisdom and the tensions of the present.
π Key Topics:
Norman Harcourt’s philosophy: “Life is wonderful if you plan”
Stock market resilience vs. community realities
The meaning of wealth and privilege in Our City
Rachel’s questions on inequality and fairness
Economic change, jobs lost, and promises of progress
(Rachel Says) - "This week on Dear Rachel, Norman Harcourt joins me in the studio. He says life is wonderful if you plan — but can optimism alone carry a community when so many are being left behind? We talk about wealth, inequality, and the future of our city. It’s a candid conversation you won’t want to miss."
Comment.
Send a letter you'd like me to post. Like the Hickory Hound on my
various platforms. Subscribe. Share it on your personal platforms. Share
your ideas with me. Tell me where you think I am wrong. If you'd like
to comment, but don't want your comments publicized, then they won't be.
I am here to engage you.
Get in touch: hickoryhoundfeedback@gmail.com
π§ Opening Reflection:
To the Ones Still Out There
This is for those who have never quite felt at home in the world as it has become. For those who step into a room and, without a word, sense the distance between themselves and everyone else. Not because they are uncertain or unprepared, but because they see more than they are expected to see. They remember what things once meant, and they recognize what is quietly being lost—even when no one else will speak of it.
If you have ever sat through a meeting and wondered, Am I the only one who notices how shallow and performative this is?—then this is meant for you. If you have watched people pursue prestige at the expense of purpose, or repackage dysfunction as progress, you are not mistaken. You are simply ahead of the moment. You are one of the few who have not traded instinct for acceptance.
The world does not reward those who stay fully awake. It calls them difficult, or bitter, or unyielding. Yet the truth is that such people were made for something different—not for performance, not for obedience, but for discernment. For signal. For the kind of clarity that is earned only by living close to pain and still choosing to build.
That has been my aim with this work—not merely to describe events, but to signal to others that they are not alone. The feeling of dislocation, of not belonging, of being unseen—these are not failures. They are evidence of awareness. Of conscience. Of a refusal to be bent into the prevailing shape.
When I write about the decay of civic institutions, about economic trends or cultural decline, it is not out of superiority. It is because the work must be done, and because I know there are others who feel it too—people who have not stopped caring, even when caring has become exhausting; people who keep showing up, even when it seems to make no difference.
It does make a difference.
Even if you are never celebrated. Even if your presence goes unnoticed. Even if you are pushed aside, dismissed, or quietly written off. What you carry—the weight, the awareness, the ability to name what others avoid—is not a burden. It is a compass. And we need every compass we can find.
I do not write for the crowd. I write for those who choose to live with integrity. For those who work quietly, mend what they can, and refuse to bend truth for the sake of ease. If you are one of them, this belongs to you as much as it belongs to me.
There is still time to shape what comes next—but only if we stop waiting for someone else to act. Only if we refuse to bury what we know in order to fit in. The world may not understand you. It may never reward you. That does not mean you are wrong.
It means you are still awake... And you are not alone
(Tuesday) Dear Rachel: Carrying the Weight – August 12, 2025
π https://thehickoryhound.blogspot.com/2025/08/dear-rachel-carrying-weight-august-12.html - This episode explores the burden of returning to a struggling hometown, balancing love for place against the cost of trying to save it. Through letters from a returner, a displaced factory worker, and a contented local, Rachel offers candid counsel: protect your energy, choose your battles, and remember that awareness is not the same as obligation.
(Thursday) Disconnected Commutes: The Transportation Divide in Catawba County - August 14, 2025
π https://thehickoryhound.blogspot.com/2025/08/disconnected-commutes-transportation.html - Catawba County’s reliance on private vehicles and underdeveloped transit leaves seniors, students, and low-wage workers stranded in “transit deserts.” This analysis exposes how decades of car-centric planning deepen economic and civic divides, and calls for integrated, equitable transportation reform that connects housing, jobs, healthcare, and education to restore mobility, opportunity, and community trust.
(Friday) The Foothills Corridor: Chapter 2 – Parallel Declines
π https://thehoundssignal.substack.com/p/the-foothills-corridor-chapter-2-parallel-declines - This chapter draws sharp parallels between the Foothills Corridor’s industrial collapse and the Rust Belt’s decades-long decline. It examines shared causes—globalization, automation, and policy neglect—while contrasting recovery strategies in peer cities. The piece argues that Hickory still holds structural advantages, but only decisive diversification, cultural investment, and unified leadership can prevent it from repeating the Rust Belt’s mistakes.
When national and regional studies place Hickory and Catawba County near the bottom in obesity, well‑being, and access to health resources, it’s not anecdotal—it’s evidence that civic health is suffering. If wellness is a community's pulse, then Hickory’s is faint. How do we revive it? Here’s a breakdown of six vital dimensions, each essential to individual and civic resilience.
1. Physical Environment: Active, Safe, Walkable
Catawba County’s recent Community Health Assessment highlights a nagging shortfall: many neighborhoods lack access to safe, engaging, active spaces (ClearImpact). Parks, sidewalks, and recreational areas aren’t equitably dispersed—particularly in neighborhoods like Ridgeview and Southeast Hickory, which also bear high rates of obesity, hypertension, and diabetes (Catawba County). Health isn’t just personal; it’s shaped by streets and greenways—or their absence. If your walk to the clinic or the corner store is unsafe, your health choices shrink. Civic vitality demands infrastructure that invites movement as much as it allows it.
2. Nutrition & Food Access
Despite farmland surrounding Hickory, many residents live in “food-access deserts.” Catawba ranks poorly against state averages in access to healthy, affordable groceries (Catawba County . With lower‑income households especially vulnerable, the disconnect between local agriculture and accessible nutrition speaks to broader structural failure. Food access isn’t a retail issue—it’s a health equity issue. Encouraging local markets, mobile produce units, and partnerships with farmers’ networks isn’t charity—it’s civic commons.
3. Obesity & Chronic Disease
Obesity remains a deep concern across western North Carolina. In 2021, 35.4% of adults in WNC were obese—and half of those had high blood pressure; nearly a quarter had diabetesWNC Health Network. Within Catawba County, some neighborhoods have obesity rates nearing 50%, hypertension at 45%, and diabetes at nearly 20% (Catawba County). These conditions don’t appear overnight—they’re the compounded effects of sedentary design, poor diets, and fragmented healthcare access. Civic health suffers when a third or more of the population lives with chronic, preventable illness.
4. Brain Health & Mental Well-Being
The County’s health plan has reframed behavioral health as “brain health”—a move toward destigmatization and long-term resilience(Catawba County). Post‑pandemic, mental well‑being matters more than ever. But services remain unevenly distributed; access still hinges on geography, awareness, and infrastructure. Long waits, limited clinics, and stigma mean many go untreated. A healthy person must be able to find help when minds fray—not just bodies.
5. Demographic Pressures & Health Equity
Catawba County’s population is growing more diverse: Whites account for ~72%, Black residents for 8%, and Hispanic or Latino reach nearly 11% (Wikipedia). Health disparities follow uneven lines: low-income, Black, and Indigenous residents in WNC report significantly higher obesity and hypertension rates (WNC Health Network). Equitable civic health can’t ignore these disparities. Designing health programs without an explicit equity lens is complacency masquerading as benevolence.
6. Civic Metrics & Accountability
Echoing your Platform for 21st Century Hickory, we must not ignore independent ranking systems. Hickory’s metro area has long scored in the bottom tier on Gallup Well‑Being, obesity, and economic vitality indices (Gallup.com)(communityclinicalconnections.com). These metrics aren’t curses—they’re a clear call to action. We should proactively study how these rankings are constructed, engage with their authors, and track annual progress with honest accountability. Without data-driven correction, civic health regresses faster than it improves.
Conclusion: Toward a Healthier Civic Body
A healthy person is more than an absence of disease—they are shaped by how neighborhoods move, eat, connect, and support each other. Hickory still carries many structural advantages—accessible geography, civic institutions, and cultural identity—but metrics remind us we’re underperforming. The path forward demands infrastructural equity, cultural investment, and candid accountability. Let’s use The Dynamics of a Healthy Person not as a final diagnosis, but as a launch point for seasonal deep dives—into recreation access, food equity, healthcare deserts, mental health, youth wellness, and the ties between civic design and physical vitality. We owe ourselves nothing less.
Hickory’s health, economy, and livability are not the products of chance—they are the outcome of decades of choices that have shaped our daily lives. National and regional rankings make this plain. They are not meant to shame, but to give us a factual baseline from which progress can be measured.
Health is more than medicine. It is built into our streets, sidewalks, food access, and the opportunities to work and live with dignity. It is found in the connections that bind our community and in the infrastructure that sustains them.
The Hickory Hound exists to keep an unvarnished record of where we stand, why we are here, and how we can change course. This week’s focus, The Dynamics of a Healthy Person, is a call to shared responsibility. If we face the truth, we can build a community that thrives by intent—not by accident.
------------------------
π°️In Closing:
Haiku:
Silent streets reveal,
Truth measured in hard numbers—
We choose rise or fall.
Catawba County’s transportation system tells a story far deeper than average commute times and road use. On the surface, a mean travel-to-work time of approximately 22.7 minutes suggests a region where jobs and homes align in relative balance1. Beneath that smooth veneer, however, lies a fractured network that leaves too many residents behind.
For more than six percent of workers, the daily trip exceeds one hour each way2—a reality that reflects “super-commutes” rather than suburban comfort. The region’s reliance on private vehicles is near total: over 80 percent of workers drive alone, 7.7 percent carpool, just 0.5 percent use public transit, and roughly 4.3 percent work from home3.
Public transit is provided by Greenway Public Transportation, which operates fixed bus routes through Hickory, Conover, and Newton, supplemented by countywide demand-response vans4. While the fixed routes serve select urban corridors, demand-response service requires at least three business days’ notice for in-county travel, and even longer for out-of-county trips5. Same-day requests are not accommodated, and many rural and low-income neighborhoods remain unserved.
The geography of these “transit deserts” often overlaps with areas of higher vulnerability—seniors on fixed incomes, students without reliable transport, and low-wage workers6. This is not the result of chance. Decades of planning assumed universal car ownership, with public transit treated as a marginal service7. The result is a quiet but measurable loss in access: missed job interviews, delayed medical care, and forgone educational opportunities8.
The pandemic exposed these weaknesses with clarity. In small-scale transit systems like Greenway, reduced routes, irregular schedules, and unpredictable service changes fell hardest on those least able to adapt9.
The stakes are both economic and civic. A community that cannot move freely begins to fragment. Parents miss school functions. Nurses arrive late to shifts. Students drop out of extracurricular programs. Over time, trust erodes, opportunity narrows, and shared belonging frays.
Models from Charlotte and Chattanooga demonstrate viable alternatives: aligning transit with housing and job corridors, expanding service hours and coverage, and integrating flexible, on-demand services10. For Catawba County, transit must be treated not as a welfare amenity but as essential infrastructure—an enabler of workforce participation, healthcare access, and community stability. Strategic planning must integrate transportation with housing, healthcare, and education investments11.
Without such reforms, Catawba County is becoming a two-tiered county: one where opportunity drives toward those with access, and drifts away from those without12. The physical roads may still connect towns—but the social roads lie in disrepair. Rebuilding transit with intent, and aligning it with where people live and work, will not just shorten commutes; it will reconnect people to possibility and close the widening gap between the well-served and the underserved. Disconnected Commutes References, Citations, and Footnotes
Responsibility can inspire—or it can crush you.
In towns like ours, the line between caring and carrying is paper-thin.
One caller came home to help, but feels like they’re shouting into the wind.
Another knows what it’s like to fight for something already slipping away.
The last? They’re perfectly content—and can’t see what the fuss is about.
This isn’t a story about decline.
It’s about limits, obligation, and who gets to decide when enough is enough.
π§ Featured Calls:
Call #1 – The Young Returner
They left for a decade, then came back with skills, optimism, and a willingness to pitch in.
But the doors they knock on stay closed, and the old guard doesn’t budge.
Now they’re asking: "If I don’t fight for this place, who will—and how much of that is really my job?"
Call #2 – The Laid-Off Millworker
They built their life around a steady job—until it vanished without warning.
Tried to rally, to save the plant, to show their worth.
But the decisions were made far away, long before they could speak. "You can still care without killing yourself trying to fix what others let die."
Call #3 – The Comfortable Resident
They see the same streets, the same storefronts, and call it “normal.”
They point to coffee shops, parks, and new houses as proof everything’s fine. "We can’t expect one person to fix everything—why worry about what’s not here?"
π§ Rachel’s Response:
Not everyone measures decline the same way.
Some feel it as a weight pressing them down.
Some carry scars from losing the fight before it began.
Some don’t feel it at all—because for them, life hasn’t changed enough to hurt.
But obligation is a dangerous currency.
Spend too much of yourself trying to hold a place together, and you won’t have enough left to live here.
Rachel doesn’t say walk away.
She says know your limits.
Because survival isn’t just about staying—it’s about not letting the place hollow you out.
Comment.
Send a letter you'd like me to post. Like the Hickory Hound on my
various platforms. Subscribe. Share it on your personal platforms. Share
your ideas with me. Tell me where you think I am wrong. If you'd like
to comment, but don't want your comments publicized, then they won't be.
I am here to engage you.
Get in touch: hickoryhoundfeedback@gmail.com
π§ Opening Reflection:
A Platform Shares. An Intelligence System Endures.
It is common now to call
anything that publishes content a “platform.” The term has become a catch-all,
used so broadly that it doesn’t define the purpose of the mission. This
platform is an “Intelligence” system designed to document, decode, propose, and
eventually take action.
The
difference matters. A platform transmits; an intelligence system operates in multiple
sustainable dimensions. A platform measures success in clicks and followers; an
intelligence system measures its worth in the strength of the frameworks it
builds and the permanence of the work it leaves behind. Most platforms today
are designed to entertain, distract, or stir reaction. That was never the
purpose here. This was built to endure.
The
Hickory Hound did not emerge from marketing strategies or growth campaigns. It
came from watching a community’s foundations weaken—schools in decline, local
government slipping into self-preservation, and economic warning signs buried
under hopeful optimism. At first, it was simply a record: someone had to
document what was unfolding. But the work evolved. What began as observation
became a kind of infrastructure—a living map of our community’s reality and a
system for naming what others refused to acknowledge.
Its
function is what some might describe counter-establishment. Established institutions
teach, preserve, and create pathways of performative action. This is repetitive
reinforcement to justify what already exists. It is what Civic programs like Hickory’s
Neighborhood College and the Chamber’s Leadership Catawba are to reinforce and
justify what already exists.
My work is similar, but its
purpose is different. Each article becomes part of a historical and chronological
working archive. The articles, series, and videos are built teach from the
outside looking inward without vested interest. We are storing knowledge, so that
when the reinvent the narrative to circumvent reality, then we don’t have to go
along for the ride unwittingly. The goal is not to tattletale. The goal is vigilance.
In
my lifetime, the hierarchical establishment has failed people like me. They
dismissed those who did not conform to their status, ignored those without the
right credentials, and left behind those unwilling to flatter the system. But
outside of their walls, a different kind of builder is emerging—people who
learned by necessity, not by favor; who created substance without grants,
titles, or safety nets. My platforms are endorsements of them. They are the
true survivors.
There
are no ad campaigns here. I haven’t been overtly popular. Celebrities don’t
endorse this. It isn’t hallow npop culture. It wasn’t developed for shallow branding,
promotion, and marketing.. What exists here is a framework—quietly constructed,
tested, and refined for longevity. It is a structure for those who were locked
out of the old order and no longer seek its approval. The work here is full of
timeless classics.
Call
it journalism, strategic intelligence, or the new multimedia. Do not mistake it
for a blog, and do not reduce it to “content.” This is a working node in an
overarching public realignment. The legacy institutions we inherited are faltering
under debt, disconnection, and a loss of adaptive capacity. The difference now
is that some of us have stopped waiting for their revival. We are building
parallel systems—not to overthrow the old world, but to take over as they succumb
to their self-inflicted demise.
This
is not destruction. It is construction of a different kind—creating something
that works better, that is grounded, and that can survive the storm that
surrounds us by acknowledging its existence. What is coming will not be met by
polished press releases or the rhetoric of well-branded nonprofits and NGOs. .
It
will be met by structure. Real structure. Reality. That is what this is: a counter-balance, built
in the shadow of decline and prepared for what is next to come.
Tuesday, August 5, 2025 - The Hickory Hound: A Platform of Structural Realism and Community Renewal- Catawba’s hope is more than surface growth. Since 2008, the author has recorded what others overlook—decline masked by boosterism, the collapse of industry and community, and institutions that failed the common good. This is not a cheer-driven platform. It is a lasting archive, diagnosis, and call to structural renewal—rooted in local insight and aimed at guiding real, durable recovery.
Thursday, August 7, 2025 - Under the Surface: Catawba County’s Economic Crossroads - lays bare the gap between the county’s economic reputation and the lived reality of its neighborhoods. Beneath surface success, stark disparities in race, income, and infrastructure hollow out community institutions. The piece calls for honest civic reckoning—and long-term, inclusive investment in the social foundation of hope, not just appearances.
---------------------------------
⭐️ Feature Story ⭐️
Executive Summary: Catawba County at the Crossroads – The CommScope CCS Sale and Our Industrial Future
In early August 2025, CommScope made a decision that will reverberate far beyond the financial pages. The company’s $10.5 billion agreement to sell its Connectivity and Cable Solutions (CCS) division to Amphenol Corporation is not simply a change of ownership—it is a strategic realignment that places Catawba County, and the town of Claremont in particular, at a crossroads. The transaction includes the Claremont manufacturing facility, a cornerstone of the region’s industrial base and a link to decades of technical expertise in high-performance connectivity systems. The question now is whether this will be a moment of renewal, continuity, or gradual erosion.
CommScope’s rationale is clear. The sale frees the company from a crippling debt load, allows redemption of preferred equity held by Carlyle Group, and positions the remaining business—focused on Access Network Solutions and the Ruckus brand—for greater agility in rapidly evolving technology markets. CCS, in turn, is a natural fit for Amphenol’s strategy, providing products at the heart of global data, broadband, and AI infrastructure. For 2025, the unit is expected to generate $3.6 billion in sales with EBITDA margins near 26 percent—a portfolio that would be attractive to any serious player in the high-bandwidth, low-latency market.
For Catawba County, the path forward rests on how Amphenol integrates this acquisition into its global operations. The region faces three plausible trajectories.
Best Case Scenario: Regional Renaissance(Full Document)
In the most optimistic view, Amphenol sees the Claremont facility not merely as an inherited asset, but as a strategic East Coast manufacturing hub. Recognizing the facility’s skilled workforce, supplier networks, and proximity to key markets, the company invests in upgrading production lines for next-generation data-center cabling, fiber-optic systems, and AI-ready infrastructure components. Capital improvements are matched with commitments to workforce development, undertaken in partnership with local technical colleges and economic development agencies.
In this scenario, local leaders act decisively. Incentives are crafted to secure Amphenol’s long-term presence. Infrastructure reliability agreements—particularly around power redundancy and high-capacity logistics—are formalized. The plant becomes a centerpiece in attracting additional AI, cloud services, and robotics-related suppliers to the region. The data-center boom, fueled by projections such as Eric Schmidt’s estimate of 90 gigawatts of additional U.S. power demand within a decade, becomes a tailwind rather than a distant trend. Catawba County leverages this position to brand itself as a critical node in the nation’s digital backbone, securing jobs, capital investment, and renewed industrial prestige.
Base Case Scenario: Steady Continuity(Full Document)
The base case is a more measured outcome. Amphenol maintains current operations in Claremont largely as they are, preserving existing product lines and staffing levels without significant expansion or contraction. Integration into Amphenol’s global structure proceeds smoothly, but without a surge of new investment. The facility retains its role as a stable producer for established customers, while more ambitious projects are allocated to other sites in the company’s portfolio.
In this scenario, local leaders focus on retention rather than transformation. Incentives and engagement keep Claremont in the conversation, but the plant does not pivot aggressively into new product segments. The workforce remains intact, and the community experiences neither dramatic growth nor sharp decline. It is a dignified outcome: continuity without reinvention, stability without the leap toward becoming a flagship facility. While this path avoids the dislocation of closure, it also risks missing the larger wave of growth tied to AI, cloud infrastructure, and advanced connectivity demand.
Worst Case Scenario: Gradual Erosion (Full Document)
The most damaging outcome unfolds quietly. Amphenol views Claremont as non-essential in the long term, retaining operations only until contracts and customer transitions allow for consolidation. Production of high-volume or technologically advanced products migrates to other facilities—whether in lower-cost global locations or U.S. sites already marked for expansion. Claremont is left handling legacy or low-margin work, which in turn erodes its profitability and strategic standing.
The workforce declines through attrition rather than mass layoffs, with skilled employees leaving for more secure positions. Without new investment, the plant falls behind technological benchmarks, making it even harder to argue for its preservation. Local officials, hesitant to challenge corporate narratives, fail to secure binding commitments. The data-center and AI infrastructure boom bypasses the facility, as capabilities and certifications are not upgraded to meet the needs of that market.
By the third year post-acquisition, Claremont’s role is diminished to the point where further investment is not just unlikely, but economically irrational. Supplier networks shrink, industrial confidence erodes, and the region loses another pillar of its manufacturing identity. The plant never formally “closes”—it simply fades from relevance, leaving behind a cautionary example of what happens when engagement is reactive rather than strategic.
The Stakes for Catawba County
These three scenarios are not speculative abstractions—they are direct consequences of decisions made in the next 18 months by both Amphenol and local leadership. The difference between renaissance, continuity, and erosion will depend on the degree to which the region can assert its value in Amphenol’s global calculus.
Catawba County possesses distinct advantages: a deep-rooted manufacturing culture, an existing skilled labor pool, and a location within reach of major Eastern markets. Yet these advantages must be actively leveraged. Without a coordinated push—combining economic incentives, infrastructure assurances, and workforce training—there is no guarantee they will outweigh the corporate efficiencies of consolidation elsewhere.
The CommScope CCS sale to Amphenol is more than a financial transaction. It is a pivot point for the community’s industrial future. In the best case, it is the foundation for a new chapter of growth; in the base case, it is a holding pattern; in the worst case, it is the first step toward quiet decline. The outcome will not be decided by market forces alone—it will be shaped by the readiness, will, and vision of those who call Catawba County home.
π°️In Closing:
The story of the Foothills is not a relic of the past—it’s the ground we’re still standing on. This week marks the beginning of something I’ve been working toward for years: the public release of The Foothills Corridor in serial form on The Hound’s Signal. Every Monday and Friday, a new chapter will go live. This is not entertainment. It’s not nostalgia. It’s a strategic manual built from hard history, designed to challenge how we think about where we are and where we’re going.
If you’ve been following the work here, you already know the stakes. We are living with the fallout of decisions made far from here, and too often without us in mind. But we are not without leverage. This book puts the pieces on the table—how we fell, what we still have, and the moves we can make before the board is cleared entirely.
If the material resonates, I ask for your help. Share it. Support it. Use it in your conversations, your planning, and your decision-making. This is not just my project—it’s a tool for anyone who refuses to let the Foothills be written off as a cautionary tale. The future won’t arrive fully formed. We will have to build it, together, one deliberate step at a time.
The work starts Monday. Let’s not waste the opportunity.
-----------------------------------
The Foothills Corridor is a hard, unflinching account of how a 20-county stretch of western North Carolina rose to national industrial prominence, fell into economic and civic decline, and now stands at a crossroads between further erosion and deliberate reinvention. Written in concise, tactical chapters, the book serves less as a nostalgic chronicle and more as a strategic intelligence report for anyone invested in the region’s future.
The work is divided into six parts:
The Collapse – A clear-eyed autopsy of the region’s industrial base, from the heyday of furniture, textiles, and fiber optics to the long, slow bleed of globalization, automation, and political neglect. These chapters chronicle the loss of jobs, civic cohesion, and youth retention, framing the decline as a result of deliberate economic and policy choices rather than inevitable fate.
Signals in the Smoke – A framework for detecting early indicators of revival—what the author calls “woo, faint, and weak signals.” Through real-world examples, this section teaches readers to distinguish between cosmetic activity and structural change.
Foundations of Revival – A close look at existing assets and projects—broadband expansion, Microsoft’s Valley Datacenter Academy, Hickory’s City Walk and Riverwalk, and local food hubs—that could be scaled into anchors of a modernized regional economy.
Weak Signals with Strong Potential – Examination of emerging opportunities in craft brewing, tourism, heritage reimagining, renewable energy, and youth retention—paired with a realistic assessment of what it will take to turn them into sustainable industries.
Scaling and Strategy – A blueprint for regional coordination, governance reform, and shared procurement systems. This section emphasizes metrics that matter and strategies for revitalizing rural areas without sacrificing authenticity.
Rewriting the Regional Narrative – A call to reclaim the region’s brand around grit, craftsmanship, and resilience, while building the political and economic autonomy needed to avoid becoming an appendage of larger metro areas.
Each part is anchored in first-hand observation, historical data, and comparisons to peer regions such as the Rust Belt and other North Carolina metros. The prose is plain-spoken but substantive—designed to be read by both civic leaders and ordinary residents who want to understand why the region looks the way it does and what it will take to change it.
