Economic Issues concerning Some Southern and Western US Cities

From: Lance (Economic City Report Service Sector Part I)
Date: 27 May 2003
Time: 00:15:32
Remote Name: 66.82.50.55

Comments

The economy in the US as it relates to the services business. Many issues out side of the service sector effect the industry ours is included by those outside economic forces. First Warren Buffet is incorrect in his chastising of the Bush Administrations economic policy and with regards to his comments about Alan Greenspan’s direction with the Fed. He obviously makes more money in a down economy where he can buy businesses on the cheap and even said so in a recent interview tonight. As I watch things throughout the country I see businesses doing business, small businesses scrambling and some surviving. I see the tax cut as a major excellent way to take our money back from spend thrift government of the past. Construction doing well, yes even in CA, can you believe it? Of course the game has changed and the ROI there has also changed. Cities are fighting the state for their rights to make deals and tax, the state going after closed businesses for unpaid taxes. Obviously that is a dead grab for fresh air by the governors political and propaganda machine. Nashville is in the soup still un recovered after 9-11 travel to the Grand Ole’ Oprey. They had just lost too many manufacturing jobs in everything from trucking to travel, from energy to corporate HQ, from technology to farming. Outside of town the growth has reached saturation and urban flight has taken it’s toll once you travel away from the skyline sector into the University and medical side of things. Suburbs South doing well and construction for new homes still attracts middle class and upper middle class there. San Antonio doing excellent with Industrial Space with Wal-Mart projects, NAFTA influences and trucking and with the latest Toyota Factory expecting an increase to 500,000 new square feet per year needed through 2006, we took a look and agree. If you look at the new Laredo over passes and high speed entries all leading to the new transportation hub of Dallas, anything in the way is all good. Austin getting smart and considering incentives to build South of town and completing the traffic problem situation. Dell holding their own for now. Also with their Nashville Telemarketing inbound center helping inner strength of down town from further and ultimate decay. Dallas is getting a jump from the Joint Force Strike Fighter building and residential growth good. OKC is gaining on other areas of the country such as Little Rock, Amarillo, KS City and Witchita with problems from Aerospace Private Sector and small corporate jets being built in other cities such as Denver, Albuquerque, etc. Boeing maybe the answer there if they build the 7E7 there. Atlanta is good and still some growth between crime and water situation is over for now. Still there will be water fights south in the Florida Pan handle gulf coasts. Atlanta with Coke, UPS, CarMax (new), HomeDepot and other huge anchors makes things still good with many high paying jobs even though tech sector and Internet companies are hammered. Subs growing good in Atlanta, but jobs, good ones are not so good still. Small business holding their own, leave Atlanta any direction and once you get 70 plus miles away you start to see the death of small businesses. Jacksonville FL is much better after Insurance Stocks, Railroad, Travel, Airlines, Banking stocks all took hits. CSX and other major Modal employers making a rebound now and they stand to gain big time from the recovery. The research Triangle is not all that great now, but the fluff is gone and has been accounted for. No more high-tech games there, and you know what their attitude has been much more mellow these days. Surprising how that works. Florida is working hard to keep Cruise lines and tourism alive although they have had a tough time, but made the best of it, things could have been a lot worse. Farming has been tough with water supply and this years Hurricane season could be a bad one says NOAA. Naples, New Tampa, North West Orlando, Pontre Vedra, East of Miami, Naples, Sarasota, all growing well. Tallahasee okay for now, good growth almost too much in the Gulf Areas South West of Tallahassee. Good flow, great restaurants, lots of gated higher end communities and lots more half year residents. Houston took major hits from consolidation of Oil Companies, Continental Airlines lay offs, HP-Compact Merger, Arthur Anderson demise, Enron and several other large employer layoffs. Of course growth in Katy, Clear Lake, Sugarland side of town, Woodlands growing and holding. But so many areas have had a problem with used home sales. Many bankruptcies. Houston is a cyclical town and they can handle it and are doing better than expected due to the growth, maybe they will not need that ten lanes each way on the I-10 project after all? College Station, Bryan etc, doing nicely enrollment up. Traffic is a tough issue with all those Zero-Zero cars sold in TX last year. Memphis is rebounding and growing in German Town, Bartlett and Collierville new home building and shopping centers. West Memphis on the AR side growing okay with Transportation hub needs. From Trucking to Railroad to FedEx themselves it is all good and jobs are available if you have the ethic of work in your blood and care to use it. Looking North in Springfield they need another Freeway connection which would also assist KY, KS, IL and add to TN, MS and AR flow of goods and assist in problems of transportation. Also a direct all the way into Indiannapolis would not be a bad idea for the rest of the country and increased efficiency of trucking, travel, tourism and component manufacturing sectors. Chicago down town is in need of more office jobs, because it is looking like Boston (18%-22% off), SF (26% vacant office space) and many other down town sectors. Crime still and issue, and the suburbs are going nuts with property values and high end growth.. Seattle, Portland and SF all in the shit house, proving liberalism and attacking business will destroy the best of intentions. Just really bad horrible policy, if it were not for Starbucks and Microsoft there would be no reason other than freight to go there. SeaTac slow, joblessness throughout state horrible. Still an area with an attitude and drug city starting from downtown, through subs and permeating well into rural Washington. Something must be done, half the state is on drugs. Highest in the nation of suicide, rains half the year and dangerous regulatory policies and self righteousness abound even the most cynical, church going, know it all, PhD aristocrat. Spokane is trying to shape itself, Coure D Alene ID ditched the Nazis but cannot seem to get the border crossing to allow for tourism being untrustworthy, perhaps Canada ought to forget about the Beef stoppage until Oct 16, 2003, first projected day of wintery weather in WA. 33% of the kids between 18-28 use drugs, crystal meth grown homegrown there. Banana Belt is seeing problems getting wheat to market and snake river has it’s own problems, Salmon Lovers helping Indian truck load harvests for sushi in CA, not doing any good there. Typical reality of the market place VS linear decision making. Missoula having a war between those who have moved in from somewhere else and telling the locals how to live. Tourism in MT seems to be off to a good start but water drought situation is dangerously bad and fire season could be a big deal. Boise has taken a hit but continues to grow from the drain of job losses from Farming, Timber, fishing, steel, trucking, etc in WA and OR. Good place to retire too, but rural areas are a bust for jobs. Boise has not done well from the Micron job lay offs after failed merger last year with a bogus books run Korean Company, aren’t they all? Don’t answer that, Daewoo, Hyundia, etc. DOE assisting many areas with research and growth. In Southeast ID. But water issues are bad everywhere and the Cherry Crop between UT, WY, ID is worried as the lakes are way down. Mountain Home ID military Air Force Base is bringing in some monies and people coming back now, so things are not too awfully bad. ID is okay but not out of the woods yet. Butte, MT, they refuse to give up, total troopers perhaps gold prices may get the mine running again? Elko, NV they are taking advantage of gold prices there in the mines. Idaho Falls has influx of research scientists and economic development leaders and Chamber heads from IL are quite aggressive in bringing in the bacon. Done very well. Bozeman, Big Sky are okay lots of serious growth and moving out the residents who work cheap but hurting the standard of living with middle class suburb and metro people from CA, WA, OR all moving in and staking claim to higher end real estate. University has constant and lots of enrollment. But the University in Butte has not helped much and enrollment is not enough to help the devestation there and the arsenic in the ground water all natural is an issue for many moving in, negative growth there. Billings terrible drug problems and harsh standard of living is tough, but they do have jobs for most willing to bust ass. Sheridan is not breaking any speed records but is okay, Gillette WY fine with Coal prices and energy increased costs and cold winters in many parts of US last year. Casper WY, bad situation with water supplies but Natural gas prices are going to be high with shortage this year and in to next. ND, SD, NE all negative growth losing people and water is an issue in Ogalla Underground Aquifers, WY, NE, Co borders are basically out of water, Big issues for Cheyenne, Northern CO above Denver and everywhere in between. Colorado Springs okay for now, growth in Aurora, Castle Rock, Highlands Ranch, Boulder subs, all the way up into Vail unsurpassed even with water restrictions. Ring roads appearing to alleviate some traffic, but South of Denver on I-25 a total disaster. Pueblo not good West Pueblo nice looking but the water issues are still going to be something they will be dealing with. Grand Junction okay now for water but Montrose and other areas are not breaking any records for economic prosperity. Flagstaff hurt still and not recovering. Albuquerque needs a special look from the Fed Bank and perhaps a sub chairman to handle that and Las Crusas and other NM cities. Las Vegas NM is in for trouble this summer again water issues. Kansas City in trouble with job losses hurting from Sprint, down tough break for the growing areas of KS Missouri as well as Overland Park, Olathe and ring road subs. Rural KS living day to day with droughts hurting farmers, cattle ranchers and weather unpredictable in parts. Swinging back down to the border of Mexico we see Brownsville growing but not consistently, Corpus having issues, poverty along the borders with Mexico some of the worst in the Nation. Rio Grande not reaching the Gulf for the seventh year in a row, billionaires buying up water rights, Dupont in Victoria is fighting for water to employ 1000 people and floods in San Marcos up river filling the river back up and over twice three times in two years. El Paso holding her own and growing middle class on the Northwest side for execs working in Mexico traveling back and forth each day some 60,000 crossings. Las Crusas really trying hard but still people are going to El Paso top shop and buy cars. Nice people there. Pheonix growing big time and needs a water policy now. Glendale, Goodyear, Queen Creek, Anthem, Peoria, Scottsdale area. Same with Las Vegas in Seven Hills, Summerlin, GreenValley, and new areas near BLM and Northwest areas as you hit no man’s land on your way to area 51 and alien underground homes. Desert areas of CA same thing, lots of growth low desert areas of Palm Desert, Springs, Indio, etc. even Barstow is growing and the prison populations outside of Blythe. Northeast of San Diego growing fiercely with no sustainable freeways all the way into Riverside counties, what was once rural is no longer. San Bernadino Counties also growing on remaining areas of free space. LA is LA, what do you say, 3600 square miles of concrete and traffic, cars to wash etc. Movie Industry is doing well and there is a silent majority of conservatism there as the subs fill up all the way into Newhall Land and Farming’s Valencia area and up into the Tejon Pass. Palmdale and Lancaster over built and the traffic to commute undoable, other desert cities such as Mojave are filling up with unused Airlines but not any more significant number of people. Los Angeles is similar to Houston but nearly 5 times the size. Like a giant Atlanta. Sacramento growing for now, seems to be doing well from silicon valley refugees as well as middle class Hispanic growth and corporate HQ moving to save money from the Bay Area. Central valley as well, many middle class commuters to the bay are no longer commuting, wonder where the jobs will come from, looks like a possible Palmdale scenario brewing. Bakersfield has had a recent good fortune with oil prices on the rise, but not quite enough to get her through into the glory days. Fresno crime is way up, farmers are having issues with water quality and supply. Clovis and East Fresno is growing middle class with lots of retail. San Jose is a disaster economically for most, good for others, maybe housing can right itself and the market can justify the situation over time, although those who bought at the top are going to have to pay forever on those notes. BART is dead and no way to pay its way while the budget seems to be untouchable. CalTrain is showing negative rider ship numbers for 15 straight months. Ouch, so much for public transportation in the 21 Century. Administrators are trying many things, none are working. They are about out of quarters. South San Francisco is not what it was United has laid off like the others, telecom took a hit as it did in Jackson, KS City, Dallas, D.C., Boston and Atlanta. East Bay is having crime issues and the ethnic diversity did not take hold like it was suppose to and melting the pot is not working, some harsh thoughts on either side but nothing being said. Kept at bay from the truth by Berkley mentality rather than addressing the issues. Black population having problems finding work, enrollment is up at all city colleges, still something needs to give. End of Part I. By now you car is dirty again, http://www.ewashguy.com .

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