Is North Carolina a Poor State?

This question is prompted by this New York Times article. As usual with Times articles, they take a major national issue, in this case poverty and use one place to illustrate it, this time, Chattanooga, TN. It’s a place that’s on the urbanist radar too, as this year’s class of Next City Vanguards will be gathering there, and it’s the first Vanguard in the South. According to the Census 23% of its 171,279 are impoverished. What really stuck with me, was this quote from Chattanooga’s mayor Andy Berke:

“We don’t want the South to be a place where businesses go to find low-wage, low-education jobs. That’s a long-term problem that midsized cities in the South face.”

How does North Carolina fit into this? First of all,  1,6377,250  of  9,748,364 total North Carolinians are under the federal poverty line (assuming a household of four) and the median household income is $46,000. Our unemployment rate has dropped to 6.7% and that is inclusive of people who are still looking for work and haven’t quit. What does this mean for several major North Carolina cities? Click here to read more and see charts culled from the Census on where North Carolina stands.

The Pittsboro Board of Commissioners has voted to approve the Chatham Park development. This development will add 60,000 people to the town over the next several decade and is thought to be the largest single development project in North Carolina. At full buildout, Pitsboro will become a 100,000+ small city.

The Wilmington Housing Authority has hired the vice-president of the Winston-Salem Housing Authority as their new CEO.

Cumberland County has appointed Amy Cannon as manager, the first woman to hold the post.

The rumor that the First Family could move to Asheville post-presidency has spread throughout that area.

Asheville will be able to keep their water system, thanks to state judge Howard Manning.

Unfortunately, because too much time has passed between the first instance, the Asheville homeowners with the contaminated water thanks to the federally designated Superfund site cannot sue the company that used to own the site for damages. This also killed a groundwater contamination case at Camp Lejune.

Charlotte has passed their city budget and it does not include tax hikes.

Guilford County will put the consolidation of their health and human service departments on hold.

Greensboro is on the shortlist for the $29 million Stone Brewing Expansion.

The News & Observer rebuts the DC-Raleigh travel challenge taken by some Washington Post reporters a few weeks ago.

Protestors did get to meet with Sen. Berger over the issues around public education.

There is a Dan River cleanup deal now.