Cooper's corporate welfare tally for 2020 is jaw-dropping: $519.3 million pledged to just 48 corporations. Supposedly that would lead to 11,600 new jobs, which is only about one-nineteenth the number…
Raleigh City Council’s excessively wasteful pursuit of a white-tablecloth restaurant — that is, a white-tablecloth restaurant on Fayetteville Street, dagnabbit, not where risk-taking entrepreneurs paying attention to market trends chose to…
Two very interesting articles over the weekend about government’s role in the foodservice industry, albeit from very different angles. First up is my hometown N&O’s write-up on the City of…
Yesterday I saw signs being put up on Fayetteville Street in downtown Raleigh. There’s nothing unusual about that. They’re long, narrow banners that adorn the lamp posts, and there are…
Winston-Salem Journal takes us back in time to urban planning fad circa 1970s—the pedestrian mall: The initial Trade Street plan, unveiled in 1963, was grandiose. Everything in the blocks enclosed…
After more than a month of debate, Raleigh’s downtown bar and restaurant owners await the city council’s final vote on an outdoor dining proposal that would place curfews and seating…
Quick dispatch from Raleigh, which has been pushing the New Urbanist dream for years now: After months of rumblings, the Raleigh City Council has taken up the question of whether…
View in your browser. During the 2012-13 season, the National Hockey League had a prolonged lockout, which ended in January 2013 and led to an abbreviated season. The News &…
A city-subsidized restaurant in downtown Raleigh closes, costing taxpayers at least $400,000. Why was Raleigh offering a subsidy to a restaurant? Because city leaders decided after putting in a new…
It’s been nearly a week since the Triangle Business Journal reported that The Mint, a taxpayer subsidized eatery in downtown Raleigh, will close. And we are still waiting for the…
View in your browser. As we predicted when the doors opened in 2008, the city subsidized Mint restaurant has closed its doors after a net loss of $400,000. Here is…
Energy was a particular obsession of the president-elect’s, and therefore a particular source of frustration. Week after week, [White House economic adviser Christina] Romer would march in with an estimate…