Sunday, September 25, 2005

The N&R turns Taft Wireback loose on the subject of economic incentives for corporations, and the results are impressive. Smart, targeted incentives make sense. This doesn't: "North Carolina's job-recruitment policies have developed significant flaws that threaten to squander millions of taxpayer dollars." Read the whole thing. Reporting of this quality, like the work done by Margaret Banks on Fortress Re, is what I'm asking for when I bitch about a lack of serious business news in the N&R. The talent is there. The stories are there, and not just negative ones. Couldn't we see it more often? 6:00:23 PM   permalink   comment []

Wharton points to an NYT article about Raleigh's success in educating all manner of kids in its public schools. 5:51:38 PM   permalink   comment []

A look at the Forbes 400 in the NYT, by Forbes vet Nina Munk. Working on that project was one of the most fun jobs I've ever had. It was a year-long assignment, and we were our own little team with our own little HQ on the second floor of the Forbes building, and the bosses pretty much left us alone. Mr. Forbes, as we called the late Malcolm to his face, would pop in from time to time to see how things were going. The issue was on its way to becoming a cultural touchstone -- they put our pictures on the front of the business section of USA Today the year I did it (1887, no wait, 1987) -- and the three reporters who put it out were the closest of friends. And one day, a highly cute new reporter came down the stairs to our little frat house and asked if she could borrow a particular list of Penn alums; two kids and a dog later, we are still having a fine old time... 5:36:49 PM   permalink   comment []

People are requesting press passes for Converge. A press pass is meaningless at a blog conference that's free to begin with, and where everyone in attendance has the potential to cover the thing... 10:51:32 AM   permalink   comment []

Private property owners can use their land as they see fit. But I feel a little betrayed by Starmount's decision to put a MongoTeeter on the site of the former Burlington Industries building. Sue's right: we could have had something nice and unique there, instead we'll get another few acres of parking lot. Last year, Preservation Greensboro's Benjamin Briggs said of the doomed Burlington HQ, "We'll look back at that building some day and remember those external beams that represented the weaving of textiles, and we'll say, 'Now all we have is another Old Navy.'" Worse than that, I'm afraid. (I also sympathize with Lorraine Ahearn on the topic of shopping as social occasion. I once went took an out-of-town friend to the Golden Gate HT and warned him that I always -- always -- saw someone I knew there. When we left without speaking to anyone, he said that I must have been wrong, I hadn't seen anyone I knew. Not true, I said -- I just saw them before they saw me...) 10:46:33 AM   permalink   comment []

My newspaper column is about the Converge conferences. "We're having a party, hope you can come." Read the whole thing. 9:12:55 AM   permalink   comment []