Author:
Ned Depew
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Date Posted: 10:34:38 11/05/05 Sat
Gene -
North Carolina is an active participant in "the race to the bottom." By lax standards for everything from worker safety to environmental responsibility and by making unionzation nearly impossible, the state has managed to supress wages and the costs of doing business (in the short run - the long term costs of this policy will be paid for by future generations).
Businesses have flocked there in droves to maximize profits on the backs of citizens and workers - and workers have moved there because they need to eat, no matter how comparatively low their standard of living may be. That is a model for the downfall of the US economy - not prosperity and positive development.
Rejecting SLC's poorly-planned, out-of-scale, selfish and costly (in terms of health and quality of life) proposal didn't "close the door" on anything.
Quite the contrary, it opened the door to planning for "smart-growth" and showed the need for Hudson to be active in attracting and developing new businesses rather than waiting passively for whomever comes along to try to exploit our resources for their own profit.
The planned expansion of H.A.V.E. - a locally-grown, sustainable, clean business that has grown to employ more than 75 workers, many in well-paying, skilled jobs - that was threatened by the SLC proposal will now presumably go ahead.
Other "smarth-growth" businesses will be able to see our region's positive attitude and commitment to toward their work and not have to worry about relocating in an area that will subsequently allow dirty, heavy-industrial development (sort of like buying a house lot across from a pristine 500 acre farm, only to have the farm developed into an oil refinery!)
Just as you have a right to choose your neighborhood and develop such tools as zoning and public regulation (speed limits, regulations on commercial zoning, bars and X-rated businesses, for instance) to keep your family safe and preserve the quality of life you desire, so Hudson has the right to make choices - which has had important consequences. Even Dan Grandinetti in his platform statement embraces "smart-growth," a term with which he would probably not be familar if it weren't for the SLC fight.
Once again it seems all you want to do is complain, without looking to the future to see what good can be made of the present situation. Even if the rejection of SLC (a decision made by the NY Department of State - not by me or Sam Pratt or FoH) were a bad thing, it is still the reality we face and it is a waste of our time and energy to endlessly whine about it instead of working on alternative ways of achieving our goals of prosperity and improvement for our City.
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