Fears of a recession are rising after stocks plummeted this week. If a recession comes, how will Charlotte handle it? The Charlotte Ledger Business Newsletter asked a well-known economist in the region.
Joining me now to talk more about it and other business stories is the Ledger’s Tony Mecia for our segment BizWorthy.
Marshall Terry: OK, Tony — so you found good news and bad news. Let’s start with the bad news.
Tony Mecia: I talked with Mark Vitner, who's an economist with Piedmont Crescent Capital, probably the best-known regional economist in Charlotte. Just after this series of troubles and concerns — you know, the stock market, you have international conflicts, you have what looks to be a competitive national election. And all of these things are sort of weighing on the economy. The bad news, he said, is that there are some industries in Charlotte that are large that are not doing so well. He pointed to trucking and warehousing — those have traditionally been Charlotte powerhouses. He also says real estate. There's been a lot of apartments and warehouses built. He says that during recessions, Charlotte tends not to do so well when it has overbuilt real estate, and that there might be a reckoning coming here.
Terry: And the good news?
Mecia: Yes, the good news is that, as I think we all know, Charlotte, I think, is a desirable place to live. He said it’s on top of a lot of these lists of most desirable places for young people and to retire. We continue, of course, growing, attracting people from other places. Our economy is diversified and we're continuing to add jobs.
Terry: All right. Shifting gears now. The city of Charlotte last week bulldozed a historic house near the airport despite a recommendation from preservationists to keep the building. What house? And what’s the reason behind tearing it down?
Mecia: Yes, this involves the Steele Creek Presbyterian Church manse, which is a house built in the 1910s that housed the church’s pastors. It's one of the oldest churches in Charlotte. The airport bought the property in 2017, it says it has been clear and transparent all along that it has intended to knock that building down.
The airport has expansion plans — it would like this area south of the airport to eventually become a warehousing and industrial space, which it says is much more appropriate for airport development. Now, those plans might not have been well known among neighbors and preservationists, some of whom were objecting to that plan. So the airport got into a little bit of a tiff with the Historic Landmarks Commission, which wanted to declare a historic landmark. But that recommendation never made it to the City Council, and some City Council members have said they've felt in the dark about the demolition of this house.
Terry: Charlotte has a reputation for tearing historic buildings down — but it’s not usually the city doing it, like in this case, right?
Mecia: No. Typically when you think of these sorts of preservation battles, it's usually private developers against preservationists. They try to reach some sort of accommodation or some settlement where they build around the structure or they move the historic structure. Some do get knocked down and the city does approve a lot of landmark designations for private developers, things like old mill buildings. Millhouses tend to be fairly common. This is unusual because it's city-owned land coming up against the recommendation from the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Historic Landmarks Commission, which is also a government panel.
Terry: Finally, you report several Charlotte-area colleges are starting or growing nursing programs, so I guess demand is up in that line of work. Is this pandemic-related?
Mecia: Yes, nurses are in high demand. They have been for a number of years. It's a shortage that has grown more acute during the pandemic. You had people leaving the profession. Now you have Central Piedmont, Johnson C. Smith, UNC Charlotte — all of those are expanding their nursing programs, particularly in the area of taking people who already have bachelor's degrees and training them to be nurses in a shorter period of time. So the good news is: More nurses on the way, but there's still a shortage of nurses in the health care industry.
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