NC snares Google equals Googlina

I am not exactly sure where I stand on government incentives for large corporations.  On the one hand, you needs some large  well respected corporations to give credibility to your development efforts.  On the other hand, there are lots of small businesses that make it just on their own grit.

Today the Raleigh  News & Observer confirmed that  Google will be locating a server farm in Lenoir, NC and investing $600M with the goal of creating 200 jobs in four years.  Tax incentives equaled $100M.

Would the money spent on capturing Google and Dell be better spent on helping small business deal with health care costs and other challenges?  I don't know.  What I do know is that I would rather spend money on Google than on a grocery store.  I think North Carolina's strategy works.  They will eventually get enough synergistic companies to make a difference in their situation.  The combination of their low cost higher education, state wide higher education system, a large work force and name brand corporations is hard to beat.

They have some geographic advantages over Virginia and perhaps some governmental ones also.  It's obviously a very complex situation.  I've written about it before most recently in "The chicken and egg equation for jobs in SW Virginia."

Development in southwest Virginia is disjointed.  If there is an overall strategy I haven't managed to grasp it.  There are some very good small companies, but all you have to do is drive south to North Carolina to see where real development is taking place.

Maybe there are people who want to preserve the Roanoke Valley as it is,  but many professionals in the area will tell you that there is little mobility in the  area between companies.  What that means is that people  often move to the valley with a job.  If they lose the job, they move away from the  area.  They might come back when they retire, but  replacing a  well paying job in the Roanoke  Valley is very hard.

One of the most entrepreneurial people that I know recently moved to Raleigh from Blacksburg.  I know another CEO who moved to Richmond to chase additional business.  I am now spending a good part of my time on the North Carolina coast as a Realtor® with Bluewater GMAC in Cape Carteret, NC. (http://coastalnc.org/realtor/)  I certainly haven't abandoned the Roanoke area, but in a sense I'm like the others I mentioned  who are hasing what have become better opportunities.  I'm glad that I have a multi-faceted career that allows me to continue to enjoy Roanoke and the friends we have made here.

Someone once told me that if you were lucky enough to make it up the ladder in corporate America, you could afford to live in the Roanoke Valley as long as you kept your corporate job. 

I was born in North Carolina and have lots of family in the state so in a sense, going to North Carolina is going home to me.  I recently got to attend a meeting in Emerald Isle, NC and listen to their town manager.  I haven't heard anything as sensible as I heard in that meeting in a long time.  Perhaps some Roanoke Valley government folks should send some representative to the next Emerald Isle meeting.  They might learn something about cooperation.

Maybe I'm wrong, but I think the Roanoke & New River Valley needs some visionary leadership before the area's fate is sealed as a transportation corridor that just watches the traffic zoom on to another state.

On another note, I don't find the extra ten to fifteen cents per gallon in gasoline prices in North Carolina too much of a burden to pay for some better highways.   I hate to beat a dead horse but it sure is nice to drive on some Interstates where every third vehicle isn't a giant truck.  I'm glad my route back and forth between Roanoke and Cape Carteret doesn't get near Interstate 81.  A trip to Blacksburg once in a while on Interstate 81 is all the truck excitement I need.