by Tom Looney
During White House talks this week on the deep economic problems being faced by millions of Americans, the Carolinas and Detroit were singled out as being particularly “hard hit areas.” To be lumped with Detroit for our economic ineptness should be a source of great frustration to all residents, taxpayers, and hard working business owners. As well, the prognosis should be an embarrassment and wake-up call to state & local elected officials, as well as the various visible and invisible economic development and jobs creation actors in the Region.
Detroit is a trail of tears, suffering the cumulative corrosive effects of Big Labor, repeated government bail-outs of the U.S. auto industry, and the fat-cat corporate bureaucracy which helped doom their competitiveness years ago. And then there is Detroit’s city government! The reign of their last mayor just ended. He served time in jail, with $8.4 million in city funds used to settle a sexual misconduct lawsuit. This was just one of several scandals which gutted both the city’s budget and its reputation.
The comparison of the Carolinas to Detroit might not be completely fair. But let’s be honest. In addition to the nearly cartoonish bad behavior of several South Carolina state and federal office holders during the past year, North Carolina has its own rogues gallery of elected officials who have been every bit as embarrassing! John Edwards, R.C Soles, Governor Easley and others from his tainted team, a recently jailed sheriff, and other unfolding local stories demonstrate how arrogance and cronyism hold back our collective regional identity as a viable participant in the 21st century national and global economy.
We’ve also seen Wilmington banks fail (bailed out with taxpayer money), and any number of commercial and residential developers (and their bankers) in deep financial trouble, remnants of the region being overbuilt and over-leveraged. Despite the known mistakes and bad dealings of so many of these ruling entities, it is all too rare for their questionable dealings and policies to be forcefully and publicly challenged by other so-called leaders in the business community.
This gang is interconnected, and in some circles considered too politically powerful to fail, making it very difficult to promote and then implement new ideas and solutions. For example, all official/tax-payer supported Greater Wilmington economic development endeavors are dedicated to recruiting heavy industry and its related industrial site development. Delusional state and local government and business officials are presently colluding with heavy industry lobbyists and other local special interests to bring forth Big Cement as their solution for jobs creation in 21st century Wilmington. So like Detroit indeed!
Operatives from within these various camps try to impose a collective group-think around such regional projects and initiatives, which are so closely tied to the economic and jobs creation future for all of us. Silence in the face of such incompetence is bad enough, let alone be drawn into their self-serving Amen chorus. The otherwise dull ABC affair was likely the tipping point of a sustained local movement of productive public opposition against failed local officials and their ineffective policies. We need to desperately enhance our economic vitality and regional identity---from the web, to the state house, and all the way to the White House!
