Articles About the Economy
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2013 may be a year historians look back on as the time local leaders hit the “reset” button on issues that had been at the forefront of public policy discussions before the 2008 economic meltdown. Will leaders revisit these issues following the same assumptions and conventional strategies as before? Or will lessons learned in the […]
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For at least the last 50 years, polling organizations have been using two simple questions to get respondents to describe how the last year treated them from an economic viewpoint and how they think the next one will be: Compared to this time last year, would you say your current economic situation is better, about […]
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Just like F. Scott Fitzgerald’s character Nick Carraway, who went “East, permanently, I thought,” in 1922 in The Great Gatsby, people today are on the move and looking for a place to rent. Fitzgerald’s Carraway – a recent college graduate, returning war veteran and single – hopes to start his career in the bond business. […]
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Many people are surprised to learn that agriculture is the No. 1 industry in the state. However, North Carolina is losing farmland faster than any other state – and the number of dairy farms is down dramatically. Agriculture is estimated to be worth more than $70 billion annually to North Carolina’s economy. Agriculture and agribusiness […]
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The fourth quarter 2012 Charlotte Business Confidence Index report, released Sept. 28, shows Mecklenburg County business leaders’ optimism about economic prospects declined compared to their expectations for the third quarter. The overall index value of 52.3, a decrease of 3.1 points compared to the third quarter, remains positive on business confidence, with the index above […]
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Welcome, Democrats! You have received loads of material on restaurants, sights and the strange habits of the locals. Here is a primer quick enough for you to digest while you spoon through your breakfast grits. First and most important, Charlotte is not some other city. It is not by the sea (that’s Charleston), it does […]
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Grand stone gates give way to woodlands. Fire hydrants stand amid overgrown fields. Roads and sidewalks, some with weeds poking through the pavement, wind past expanses of empty lots. Wildflowers bloom inside brick foundations within sight of finished houses. In the wake of the recession, many real estate developments appear frozen in various stages of […]
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The third quarter 2012 Charlotte Business Confidence Index report, released July 2, shows Mecklenburg County business leaders’ optimism about economic prospects declined compared to their expectations for the second quarter of 2012. The overall index value of 55.4, a decrease of 3.4 points compared to the second quarter, remains positive on business confidence overall, with […]
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In the McEniry building at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, students moved out the chairs on a recent afternoon to clear the room for guests and presentations. Pizza boxes, soft drinks and ice arrived for a reception for students in Janni Sorensen’s social inequality and planning class. It was time for a celebration. […]
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The second quarter 2012 Charlotte Business Confidence Index report, released April 2, shows Mecklenburg County business leaders’ optimism about economic prospects in the second quarter improved compared to their expectations for the first quarter 2012. The overall index value of 58.8, an increase of 4.2 points compared to the first quarter, continues an upswing of […]
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Smart cities around the world use two secret weapons to form leadership and stay ahead of the pack in planning and economic development. One mechanism is internal, an informal, diverse but cohesive planning elite. Another is external, an outward-looking and systematic search for new knowledge, often by visiting other cities. I use “planning” in a […]
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Around the Charlotte region, many downtowns share similar histories: A long-ago heyday followed by decay as dollars and foot traffic flowed to suburban malls and interstate eateries. A growing list of those places, however, are fighting back, seeking to revive their economies and preserve their histories by joining North Carolina’s Main Street and Small Town […]