Exile

Is there a published explanation of why this thing has gone south so (apparently) quickly? Or would anyone care to bullet-point one here? It wasn't that long ago that everybody seemed to be singing the Beach Company's praises, and now they're not paying a measly $146,000 tax bill? With their portfolio?

Ah. Got it.

C. F. Sauer, mentioned in the article linked above, is HQ'd in Richmond. They've owned Duke's Mayo since 1929. The food service has been separate ever since then, and the article doesn't mention any VA connections for that business.

That's not necessarily true. The stagflation of the 70's is an example of bad economy, high inflation. Some putative authorities think we may be heading into something like that again. I'm not endorsing that view, but it is a thing. The real problem here, though, is the debt, which has become essentially unpayable absent inflation in that other, more critical meaning of the term: government money creation by fiat. They're doing that all the time, of course (e.g., the money supply doubled between 2000 and 2012; it increased 36% between 2007 and 2012, pretty much all "quantitativ easing"). Bad economic leadership. Peter Boettke said it best: "Economics puts parameters on people's utopias." He was of course speaking of rational economics, something that nobody in power seems to give a flip about.

You seem to think that putting money in a savings account or a CD parks the money in a vault somewhere. How do you think the bank can afford to pay you 4.75%? It's capital. They loan it out and earn a higher rate, which makes them happy and you happy. Some of that money will find its way into the hands of intelligent, skilled, experienced developers who will eventually build some of those skyscrapers you want. In this environment, incompetents need not apply. Liberty Square 1 was built when 30-year mortgage rates were 13-14%. I had CD's then that were paying well over 10%. The market can adjust to just about any set of conditions. Some of this stuff will get built, provided demand is there. I do have my doubts about Beach and Gateway happening concurrently, though.

Greensboro Coliseum has been expanded four times, twice before the BSWA built. Hopefully the latter was designed with an eventual expansion in mind. Didn't Clemson essentially dismantle the shell of Littlejohn? And that yielded reduced capacity. If they can't feasibly expand the Well to compete regionally, then shame on somebody.

A quick circle around the tower site on Google Earth reveals terrain anywhere from 50 to 90 feet higher. Add an average of, say, 40 feet for trees, and there's a 90 to 130 foot barrier around the tower. And of course, there are a few trees in S.C. that are taller than the tower itself. Anyway, I guess it depends on what sights they want you to see. The park itself, skyline, Paris Mountain, maybe the tops of the highest Blue Ridge that are visible. Not much else, it seems. But if that's all that matters, OK.

I don't know anything about living in Portland, but I've stayed in Timberline Lodge and skied on the first day of summer on Mt. Hood. An absolutely beautiful place. And volcanoes are cool (until they erupt, of course).

That tower/pavilion must be a nod to the old train station?

"Greenville Theater". Is it no longer the "Little Theater"?

Just based on its appearance from above, and not any other considerations, my first thought is hospital campus.

When we lived in Orlando, we used to fly Allegiant out of Orlando to go on vacations in other places, e.g., skiing in the northeast. I don't know if that's a significant market for Allegiant or not, but LV has over 2 million people, so it wouldn't surprise me if there's a market for cheap flights out of LV to places like Kville and Chattanooga, etc., which are bigger tourist draws than GSP.

Winyah Bay is the official southern boundary of the Grand Strand. I put Litchfield, Pawley's & "Debbuh Doo" up against any residential beach that isn't at the foot of a mountain. As for Hunting Island, I've never been there, but I imagine it's gorgeous, at sunrise especially.

Bocelli is a big deal, but I imagine he draws more women than men.

It was gimmicky from the beginning, because all (as far as I know) First Federal branches were built in the same shape. As if there were no other way to know you were at a 1st Federal branch. I worked in that building for a time, and it was a bit toward the claustrophobic, especially compared to American Federal-now-Prisma, which was (still is?) open and spacious. Idle speculation, but I wonder if they did go for a gutting, if you could cost-effectively build the "missing" superstructure to make it rectangular? Truist across from Haywood Mall is one of those buildings, whose shape has been corrected (note the mismatched brick). But that's just one floor, of course.