Columbia Economic Notes

[krazeeboi]

The location will be at Sumter and Taylor, not the Vista. But I like that tentative design as well. I think they should build it in such a way that an office building could be built atop it in the future.

[Spartan]

ah. Well another parking deck on Sumter certainly won't make it worse. Hopefully the retail fronts Taylor as well as Sumter.

[mr. chips]

I wrote to all the City Council members, and have heard back from several now. I would suggest that you also write to them and promote the idea of having retail in the parking garage in order to create a more "people-friendly" downtown. I pointed out that if you look at the parking garages on Lincoln street across from the Convention Center, you see a cold and sterile environment, with no human activity at the street level. If we create that scenario in the heart of the downtown we won't have a vibrant Columbia for pedestrians. Even if the retail space is not filled for a few years, it ultimately will be - we must take the longer view in building the city. I asked them not to build a parking garage that is dead to the street.

Here are all their emails, if you want to write. I would suggest that you ask your friends to write also if you agree with this!

[email protected]

[email protected]

[email protected]

[email protected]

[email protected]

[email protected]

[email protected]

[krazeeboi]

^I'd like to think so, but judging by the rendering, I doubt it.

[Spartan]

I wrote to all the City Council members, and have heard back from several now. I would suggest that you also write to them and promote the idea of having retail in the parking garage in order to create a more "people-friendly" downtown. I pointed out that if you look at the parking garages on Lincoln street across from the Convention Center, you see a cold and sterile environment, with no human activity at the street level. If we create that scenario in the heart of the downtown we won't have a vibrant Columbia for pedestrians. Even if the retail space is not filled for a few years, it ultimately will be - we must take the longer view in building the city. I asked them not to build a parking garage that is dead to the street.

Here are all their emails, if you want to write. I would suggest that you ask your friends to write also if you agree with this!

[email protected]

[email protected]

[email protected]

[email protected]

[email protected]

[email protected]

[email protected]

What kind of feedback have you received?

[mr. chips]

What kind of feedback have you received?

So far Gergel and Cromartie wrote back in support of having stores/restaurants/retail at the sidewalk level. Mayor Bob is out of town, but his secretary wrote that he would see my email and respond when he returns. I would suggest that you write to all the other Council members and show your support for having shops as part of this project. Apparently Mayor Riley insists on having new parking garages with street-level shops in Charleston - and it certainly helps to make Charleston a "people-friendly" walking city.

[Spartan]

True. You can hardly tell that the newer decks are even there.

[krazeeboi]

Columbia has also done this quite well also. The Lincoln Street garage technically has space that fronts the convention center, but there's no retail there so it doesn't draw people. It would have been better to have it on the Park Street side anyway. But look at the other garages around town, and it has been done quite well. That's why I don't understand the opposition to it here.

[BrasilnSC]

I wrote to all of city council a couple of days ago in support of the retail space. Cromartie said he fully supports it, but Rickermann said while he doesn't want some ordinary parking garage, he also does not want space that would eventually turn into city offices.

[Firefox]

Rickermann said while he doesn't want some ordinary parking garage, he also does not want space that would eventually turn into city offices.

If he doesnt want to see city offices to find ways into parking decks, have him find money and build a new city hall or some Government Center to share with Richland County if the city cant foot the whole bill.....oh the budget issues I forgot.

[CorgiMatt]

Columbia's arts scene is flourishing despite or maybe because of the recession. It seems Columbians have stopped gassing up their cars and leaving Columbia for the beach on weekends and instead are playing in their own back yard, taking advantage of the Capital City's many attractions. (BTW, EdVenture recently was the recipient of the largest grant any SC museum has ever received. It will be used for new science exhibits. The addition to the museum on the canal is coming along as well.)

http://www.thestate.com/local/story/1123618.html

[CorgiMatt]

I had no idea AgFirst Bank was so huge. It has over $30 billion in assets, more than 2 1/2 times the size of the second largest South Carolina-based bank. It's structured like most commercial banks, although it doesn't deal directly with most of its customers. It does a lot more for Columbia, and the state, than sit in a stately old building.

http://www.columbiabusinessreport.com/news/33013-agfirst-farm-credit-bank-a-quiet-no-1

[krazeeboi]

Wow, I didn't know it was quite that large either. That makes it the largest state-based bank. Interesting.

[Spartan]

That's interesting. Columbia needs to do a better job of selling itself on these types of companies. People are quick to forget that Columbia is a lot more than a government city.

[krazeeboi]

As if on cue, The State's cover story today is about the potential economic future of Columbia in areas like IT, healthcare, and energy, and it mentions that Columbia has the nation's fourth-highest concentration of professionals who specialize in insurance technology. I'd expect it to be the highest in the state with companies like BCBS and Colonial Life, but I wouldn't think it would be the fourth-largest nationally. I wonder if they mean this in raw numbers or as a percentage. Either way, that's a really good thing for Columbia. That needs to be built upon.

[CorgiMatt]

The article today is the second in a series. Pat and Leyla Mason, demographers who publish Carolina Living magazine and run a website called carolinaliving.com, give the region some advice in an accompanying article: try a little tourism.

http://www.thestate.com/2010/03/21/1210007/couples-advice-to-midlands-try.html

Edited March 21, 2010 by CorgiMatt

[Jael]

it mentions that Columbia has the nation's fourth-highest concentration of professionals who specialize in insurance technology. I'd expect it to be the highest in the state with companies like BCBS and Colonial Life, but I wouldn't think it would be the fourth-largest nationally. I wonder if they mean this in raw numbers or as a percentage.

That is good for Columbia and South Carolina as a whole if it's true, but I do find it a little surprising. I would think that the Greenville-Spartanburg area would have equally as many insurance technology professionals what with the likes of Benefitfocus, MetLife, QS/1 and UnitedHealth Group, and when I think about areas like Hartford, Central NJ, Minneapolis, Louisville, etc that are insurance hubs, I can't quite see how it ranks fourth in the country. I could be wrong, though.

[krazeeboi]

Read the article; the statistic comes from a reputable source. Like I said, I'm not sure if it refers to raw numbers or a percentage of the overall workforce. Looking at the most recent figures from bea.gov, I do see that Columbia does have a higher GDP in finance and insurance than Greenville and Spartanburg combined. It doesn't give a figure for the GDP for IT in any of the metros though.

[Jael]

Read the article; the statistic comes from a reputable source.

Yeah, thanks, I had read the article, but I didn't know whether or not the source was reputable. Wonder where they got their nationwide numbers from? It would be interesting to see who all is on the list and what their placement is.

[krazeeboi]

The article says the source is Lonnie Emard, executive director of the Consortium for Enterprise Systems Management. I, too, would like to see a list of cities where these types of IT jobs are concentrated.

[Jael]

Thanks for the link!

[waccamatt]

The article today is the second in a series. Pat and Leyla Mason, demographers who publish Carolina Living magazine and run a website called carolinaliving.com, give the region some advice in an accompanying article: try a little tourism.

http://www.thestate.com/2010/03/21/1210007/couples-advice-to-midlands-try.html

A "little" bit of tourism is ok, but tourism brings mediocre jobs for the most part and that is not the way to build an economy - why do you think South Carolina is so poor?

As far as insurance technology jobs are concerned - Columbia has a large number of insurance companies based here, plus Policy Management Systems, Inc. was based here before MYND bought them out. BCBS of SC is one of the largest in BCBS' in the country and they own Palmetto GBA. Colonial Life and Seibels Bruce are also based here.

[CorgiMatt]

I agree that "a little tourism" is all we need, not only because of the wages but because of the tourists.

[gamecoxfan1]

Why is no one talking on this site about Columbia anymore?

[krazeeboi]

Probably because there's not a whole lot going on right now in terms of urban developments or new construction.