BCR's Daily Fishwrap Report for April 17, 2009

• Pres. Obama's announcement of plans to encourage high-speed rail corridors' development throughout the U.S. -- including $8 billion in the ARRA stimulus package, and $1 billion/year expected for the next five years -- has NCDOT officials very bullish that projects in the state will get significant funding. N.C.'s been planning for its portion of the southeast high-speed rail corridor for years, and is likely to apply for funds to double-track 26 miles of rail between Charlotte and Greensboro; improvements to the tracks through RTP and at-grade separations, including one planned for Hopson Rd., are also potential recipients. The SE high-speed rail corridor is expected to drop travel times from the Triangle to Charlotte to just over 2 hours. (N&O)
• Skanska and a subcontractor working on the Horton School's transformation to a community, vo-tech and health center in East Durham are at loggerheads on whether the sub's employees are being paid -- a dispute that has led Skanska to hold on to its most recent payment to Bullock Building Co., and to Bullock's workers walking off the site yesterday and today (after not being paid on time). Total project impact at this point is about 2-5 days. (H-S)
• Foreclosure filings in the state are way down in the first quarter -- down 40% from 1Q'08, and ranking N.C. 36th in the country. (TBJ) One wonders whether N.C.-specific legislation on home foreclosures and lending practices has had a local effect?
• The County's 60,000 old unserved warrants -- a matter that attracted significant public attention in recent years -- have been whittled down by about a third, through a $1 million expense on an office devoted to tackling them. That covers warrants dating from the late 70s through 2003; work begins this summer on the newer stock. (H-S)
• Big pharmas Pfizer and GlaxoSmithKline are forming a joint venture to focus on HIV medication; the partnership will have its HQ in Research Triangle Park, where GSK has major operations. (H-S)
  
• Four County Commissioners yesterday toured some of Durham's agricultural farmland, a walk through farms and open spaces to hear more about Durham's natural inventory, the usefulness of conservation easements from a tax and nature-preservation perspective -- and, no doubt, to give a broader perspective on the half-million dollar open space and farmland protection budget, which was diverted to other uses in this budget crisis year. Becky Heron and Brenda Howerton are quoted in the story and thus were in attendance; we're curious which BOCC member didn't show. (H-S)
• RDU is changing the parking policies at its main downtown garage; daily maximums ($10 for daily parking, $24 for hourly) remain unchanged, but the per-hour rate for daily parking goes from $1 to $2/hour to discourage brief visitors to the terminal from taking up daily instead of hourly spaces. Also: Redbox DVD rental machines are coming to the terminal (sweet....) (H-S)
• GGP's bankruptcy might not have any issue on its Streets at Southpoint mall, the H-S muses, with a spokesperson for the mall industry noting that Southpoint -- which did not individually file for bankruptcy, unlike some 160 or so other GGP malls -- should have no problem meeting their $2m/year County tax obligation. (H-S)

Comments

[B]

$1 to $2/hour to discourage brief visitors to the terminal from taking up daily instead of hourly spaces.

That's a problem? Who does that? It isn't like you would get in or out any faster going into the daily portion of the deck, and there are always (at least in my experience) plenty of hourly spots available.

[AR]

A lot of people do it when they are on an large company expense account!

[NilssonSchmilsson]

We totally should get rail connecting the downtowns of Durham, Chapel Hill, and Raleigh, if possible...that might help spur growth in each of the downtowns, as more people would want to live near one of them so that they have easy, car-less access to all three, as well as greater competition/development in each downtown knowing that they have access to attract the populations of all three cities (more than they do now).

[Joan21]

Usually people do really know the correct way to compose the original essay. But if you’re not a professional paper writer, you would have to search for the good buy term paper service to order your essays with the purpose to have a success.

[skill games]

Yeah, I agree. This is quite a common thing actually.