One mayor in this region uses a campfire analogy to describe his city’s approach to the looming metropolis of nearby Charlotte
You want to be close enough to stay warm, but not so close that you get burned.
That story was repeated last week at a journalists’ roundtable at the Cabarrus Arena with Neal Peirce and Curtis Johnson, principal authors of the 2008 Citistates Report: Green, Great and Global.
The roundtable was part of a series of seminars the Urban Institute at UNC Charlotte has sponsored over the past year, “Reporting on Growth and Open Space.”
Peirce said his first study of the region in 1995, The Peirce Report, was Charlotte-centric. This time, he and others participating in the regional study took a broader approach, including 14 counties and visiting several cities.
The 1995 report did not include Rowan County; this more recent one did, and the Post published the four-part “Green, Great and Global” report last fall.
In the report, the writers glowingly refer to Salisbury’s historic charm and strong public-private partnership ethic.
In person, they sounded just as impressed.
“You can’t visit Salisbury without being struck that it is an intact small city,” Johnson said. Competition from malls and big-box stores have not eaten away at the downtown district as voraciously it has in other places. Obviously, he said, someone has made a concerted effort to nurture and maintain the downtown.
(Take a bow, Randy Hemann and Downtown Salisbury Inc. supporters.)
Salisburians have obvious pride in their city and have a culture of civic involvement, he said.
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The Citistates Report had high regard for rural areas, too. “Farms in Iredell, Union and Rowan are a precious part of the region’s assets,” the report says, “and assets that shouldn’t be swept away for a few more subdivisions.”
The more people turn to local producers for their food, the more precious those acres will become.
Peirce and Johnson also talked about the impact of Kannapolis’ N.C. Research Campus across the region.
Johnson said eventually he believes the Research Campus will have a stronger impact on the region than NASCAR, with more spinoffs and more secondary and tertiary effects.
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Back to the campfire. Despite decades of talk about Charlotte growth coming this way, Rowan County has never gotten as much warmth as expected. Charlotte has grown more aggressively in other directions.
Now people are looking to the N.C. Research Campus to heat up the economy.
But there’s another burgeoning industry in the region with the potential to create jobs, one that does not get as much attention here: energy.
A forum on regional growth followed the roundtable luncheon. One person involved was Joel Olsen, director of business development for Sencera, a Charlotte-based company that makes thin solar panels. The coal-burning and nuclear power plants that serve the state are all several decades old, he said, and will need to be replaced as demand grows. Renewable energy will be come more important. Will people here wait for companies from Germany or New Jersey to serve this need, or will local entrepreneurs jump into the field, he asked.
Sencera, based in Charlotte, is not waiting. The company announced last year that it would invest $36.8 million in a new factory, creating 65 jobs over three years. Average salary: $73,462.
The region already has a cluster of solar-related businesses, and Duke has contracted with SunEdison to build a $173 million solar farm in Davidson County.
The Citistates Report says this region can become a leader in sustainable energy, making that a new leading economic sector.
Biotechnology, renewable energy and agriculture ó which word does not belong in that list?
None. Agriculture might not seem as cutting-edge as the others, but a strong local farming base is part and parcel of building a healthy, energy-efficient future for Rowan and the rest of the Charlotte region. It’s our most essential industry.
The “Green, Great and Global” report has “Citistates” in its name, but it underscores the pivotal role of areas outside the cities and far away from the Charlotte campfire.
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Elizabeth Cook is editor of the Salisbury Post.