Search results for: “amazon”
-
How to Build Strong, Resilient Cities and Towns
Cities and counties across the United States are experiencing chronic fiscal stress, and the reason has nothing to do with Republicans or Democrats and everything to do with what Chuck Marohn calls the “growth Ponzi scheme.” “Why are cities going broke?” he asked at a forum hosted by the Partnership for Smarter Growth, Coalition for…
-
Chesterfield Debates Matoaca Mega-Site
In August Governor Terry McAuliffe joined legislators and local government officials to announce plans to build an industrial “mega-site” in the Matoaca area of Chesterfield County. The county anticipates spending $9 million for preliminary engineering and right-of-way-acquisition and $70 million on road improvements, according to the Progress-Index, and that’s just the expenditures noted in the…
-
Dear Virginia, Higher-Ed Promotes Economic Development
W. Taylor Revely IV, president of Longwood University, posts a shrew op-ed in the Richmond Times-Dispatch today. I say “shrewd” because the op-ed takes the form of an open letter to Jeff Bezos, CEO of Amazon, which is seeking a site for a second headquarters employing 50,000 people and paying average salaries in the six…
-
Uh, Oh, Metro Needs Another $9.5 Billion
Washington Metro General Manager Paul J. Wiedefeld has been pushing for $15.5 billion in additional contributions from participating states and localities over the next 10 years, including $500 million in dedicated funding, to make the ailing commuter rail system safe and reliable. That request has set off serious jockeying between Maryland, Washington, D.C., and Virginia…
-
Be Careful What You Wish For, Loudoun
Loudoun County is going for it. An ad hoc committee has come together in the hope of landing the economic development deal of the decade: HQ2, Amazon’s second headquarter complex. “We will be very aggressive in going after this,” said Buddy Rizer, director of Loudoun’s Department of Economic Development. “I truly believe that we’re a…
-
Corporations Tapping Virginia’s Under-Employed Labor Market
A fascinating trend in the national job markets appears to be benefiting Virginia. A front-page Wall Street Journal article today is date-lined Richmond, Va.: Pressed for workers, a New Jersey-based software company went hunting for a U.S. city with a surplus of talented employees stuck in dead-end jobs. Brian Brown, chief operating officer at AvePoint, Inc.,…
-
Dreaming the Impossible Dream
Amazon’s announcement of its intention to build a second headquarters complex somewhere in the United States, generating $5 billion in investment and up to 50,000 jobs, sparked some lively punditry around Virginia. Reactions varied widely. Central Virginia would be an ideal location, opined the Richmond Times-Dispatch. The region meets the threshold population of one million,…
-
Rogue Board
In “Climate of Capitulation,” former Air Board member Vivian Thomson argues unpersuasively that state government favors energy over the environment. In 2005 Mirant Corporation operated a 482-megawatt coal-fired power plant in Alexandria. The facility was 60 years old, and it was dirty, emitting almost twice the allowed limits of nitrogen oxide (NOx). Due to its…
-
The Surge in Prince William Data Storage
Data centers continue to be the biggest economic development game in Virginia. The sector is dominated by Loudoun County, which spotted the potential earlier than anyone else and moved quickly to gain competitive advantage. Now Loudoun’s next-door-neighbor, Prince William County, is coming on strong. The data center industry has brought 31 projects to the county to date,…
-
Northam’s Affordable, Not-So-Ambitious Plan for Reviving Rural Virginia
Ralph Northam, Democratic Party candidate for governor, grew up on the Eastern Shore, so it’s not surprising that he has given considerable thought to the challenges of economic development in Virginia’s small towns and rural communities. Earlier this week, he unveiled his plan for economic growth in rural Virginia. If you’re looking for a “Marshall…
-
Fairfax Snags AWS Corporate Center, 1,500 Jobs
Governor Terry McAuliffe announced a major economic-development coup yesterday: Amazon Web Services (AWS) will locate its new East Coast corporate campus in Fairfax County, creating up to 1,500 jobs. AWS, which already operates several data centers in Northern Virginia and distribution centers downstate, will provide cloud computing services from the new campus. “When one of…
-
Building on Virginia’s Data-Center Boom
Data centers are the hottest trend in Virginia economic development these days. But the state is only beginning to think through the implications. Loudoun County, home to 75 facilities, has developed the largest cluster of data centers in the country (and perhaps the world), and next-door-neighbor Prince William County is rising fast. Rural Mecklenburg County…
-
Rappahannock Water Quality Endangered by Fracking?
American Rivers has listed the Rappahannock River as the fifth “most endangered” river in the United States. The environmental group claims the river is threatened by industry interest in hydraulic fracturing (fracking) operations in the Taylorsville Basin lying thousands of feet beneath the river. The quality of drinking water of three million people in eastern Virginia are…
-
Peninsula Still Needs Surry-Skiffes Project, Says PJM
PJM Interconnection may have lowered its forecasts for peak electricity load on the Virginia Peninsula, but the regional transmission organization still contends that the proposed Surry-Skiffes Creek high-voltage transmission line is still needed to avoid the risk of blackouts. “It is PJM’s determination that the current Skiffes Creek 500 kV project remains the most effective and…
-
For-Profit Colleges and the Student Debt Apocalypse
Tressie McMillan Cottom worked as an enrollment officer at two for-profit technical colleges before she went on to earn a PhD., join the faculty of Virginia Commonwealth University, and write a book, “Lower Ed: The Troubling Rise of For-Profit Colleges in the New Economy.” Cottom says that for-profit colleges get one important thing right: They invest…