Growth is hard
Growth is hard. Ask anyone. People want to grow. They want to have more, be able to do more closer to home. But they don’t want to lose anything to accomplish that feat.
Stanly County is in the midst of a growth spurt even though the housing numbers are down. You can see it when you drive down Hwy. 24/27 and see all the signs and buildings going up.
You know it’s true when you take your child to school and have to wait an hour to pick them up.
Cabarrus County is growing too, even Midland, though it seems to be sitting still at times. All of us are going to have to think about what we’re willing to give up to accomodate that growth. What are our children going to have to give up and will there be a place for them here.
Growth is more than just Walmart deciding to open. It’s dealing with what happens after Walmart opens.
What will Stanly and Cabarrus Counties be like in 10 or 20 years?
Comments feed
Ah yes! Growth! The bandwagon that local politicians promote to the citizenry as being so necessary to survival!
At the same time, local politicians give a lot of empty lip service to preserving the “rural feel” of the area.
Here is what I have seen of local politicians “leadership” vis a vis growth:
The train station in Midland was going to be a tourist destination for evening train tours. The developer and county decided to make it an ethanol transfer point. All in the name of “growth”.
By the way, that spill? I live within a half mile of the site. I learned about the “evacuation of everyone” in the paper!
Bethel School was moved, the county citing “growth” as the reason. I have friends who live in Harrisburg whose children attend the new Bethel School, driving by Harrisburg schools to get there. Good planning, Cabarrus County Schools!
The old Bethel School would have made a great community center, but the county refused, preferring to watch it be vandalized and decay into an unsafe hulk.
Midland now wants to start involuntary annexations in order to get more property tazes. Please keep your grabby hands out of my pockets! The county has already TRIPLED my property taxes recently, giving that my property is “undeveloped” open land as the reason. Yes, I get punished for trying to preserve that “rural feel” they keep honking about.
Yes, times are tough, resulting in lower tax “revenues”. So local “leaders” decide to make things even tougher on people who try to actually earn a living.
And Midland, while you slaver over the millions you think you’ll get from Corning, think about this: Cabarrus County starts collecting property taxes, then Midland does likewise. How soon do you think the town and county will have yet another large parcel of abandoned property on their hands?
You want to attract people to the area? Try this, local “leaders”: take care of the people, all of them, not just the wealthy, who are already here.
And by “take care” I mean in the sense that you are supposed to not in the sense you would take care of a rabid dog.