To give local economic developers and entrepreneurs a vast advantage when working to bring 21st century jobs and prosperity to our area, our local government and economic development partners should research building a 20 megabit-1 gigabit (symmetrical) public broadband network.   

— Bob Page, chairman and  CEO, Replacements Ltd., in this morning's N&R feature on big ideas for the local economy (the article is hidden from prying eyes in the GPV).

Education at various levels was mentioned a few times, perhaps most interestingly by Action Greensboro's April Harris, who talked about a town/gown partnership called Opportunity Greensboro: "Imagine the vibrancy that a downtown university district with 1,000 or more graduate students could bring to our city."

Hard to argue with Cone Health System CEO Tim Rice that health care is Kind of a Big Deal. Good to see native son Jeb Brooks mention quality of life as an econ-dev tool; I wish someone had developed that idea in terms of sustaining and marketing a green, livable city.

And it's a blogging professor for the win! David Wharton:

I have no idea what the Next Big Thing will be, but whatever it is, I predict that its boosters will claim that it will “revitalize ” something [...] and its detractors will claim that it is a dark plot led by a former Greensboro mayor, nefarious members of government staff, and the devil....I hope that instead of a Next Big Thing, we get a hundred Next Small Things — another neighborhood watch formed, an historic landmark preserved, better police protection in rough neighborhoods, new small businesses launched — that you will probably never read about.

Comments

[Andrew Brod]

I also thought David's was the best of the bunch.

And we know his prediction will turn out to be right.

[Billy Jones]

Ditto Andrew.

I, for one, am so tired of the "next big thing" hype and a complete lack of understanding by local leaders that the next big thing was once one of hundreds of little things. Shoot enough flack and eventually you shoot down a plane, shoot enough hype and eventually you bring down a city. Throw enough little things into the air and eventually one of them will take flight.

What will it take-- I can't say. But I know full well that nothing this city has bet on in the past will work.

[glenwoodobserver]

It's not that David isn't right, but it also isn't visionary. (I realize the article specifically asked about the NBT.) I get the cynicism, but do we want to be lead by cynics or people who have a vision and pursue it? Maybe what we need are people who can be visionary while at the same time keeping their feet on the ground and being practical.

[Ed Cone]

A hundred small things could be a visionary approach.

Part of the vision might lie in recognizing, nurturing, and coordinating good projects, helping them to grow into bigger things that work together.

And a rueful laugh at local politics is not the same thing as cynicism.

[glenwoodobserver]

You're right about a hundred small things...it's the cynicism, even tongue in cheek, that gets old. While jobs are important and obvious, I hope we can get past that narrow focus and think more long-term. Equally as important as jobs, and in my perception, more important, is a focus on quality of life issues. It's not an either/or proposition, but our local leaders and government can have much more control over quality of life issues than they can playing the corporate recruitment sweepstakes. I want to hear our leaders talk about livability, walkability, bikability, mixed-use/compact development, controlling costs of outward growth, sustainability in addition to nurturing the arts and our universities and small businesses. And, as far as incentives...if we can structure incentives for companies to build on the fringe of city limits, we most certainly can create more incentives to direct the location of business to existing structures and facilities. The sooner the better...completing the eastern loop before aggressively focusing and directing economic growth in east Greensboro will only serve to continue to decimate that area of the city as the growth leapfrogs to the loop in the form of big box retail (a la Alamance Crossing) rather than infilling the existing neighborhoods with small grocery stores, restaurants and independent, locally-owned small businesses. Tom McCall, Republican governor of Oregon and author of Oregon's Senate Bill 100 creating the country's first growth management program was visionary, and look what it did to the economy and livability of that little city of Portland, OR

[Ryan Shell]

Hey, I hope everyone is doing great.

I know Greensboro is "different" than other cities in the state, but it probably wouldn't hurt to take a look and see what others are doing from an ED standpoint. It would be quite interesting to see a chart of what "they" are doing versus what Greensboro is doing.

Ryan Shell