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Post by west-texan on Apr 21, 2008 22:07:09 GMT -5
About the AEDC...
The AEDC has helped some local businesses with funding...and of course...those businesses will say they are pleased with the AEDC.
But...the fact of the matter is...
That since the Bell Helicopter deal...years ago...
The AEDC has brought NO NEW significant corporate business or large industry to Amarillo...except some call centers.
Amarillo has seen no new large industry since Bell Helicopter...and the only new corporate business...has been a few call centers.
In recent years...the only significant new industry they've brought to the region...has been the cheese operation in Dalhart.
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Post by petiepanzer on Apr 22, 2008 10:10:01 GMT -5
Didn't the AEDC give some company a real sweet relocation package worth several million dollars, only to have them move to town, keep the money, file bankruptcy, and then shut down operations?
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Post by petiepanzer on Apr 22, 2008 10:54:01 GMT -5
From the looks of construction activity going on in SW and NW Amarillo I would argue with the notion that Amarillo isn't growing. Anything I've read recently says that Amarillo's population is growing slowly, but the upside to that is it a sustainable rate of growth, as opposed to the boom and bust cycles of larger cities. Is the vehicle inspection at the airport a City of Amarillo mandate or one mandated by the Federal TSA? Amarillo's airport appears to be able to handle the volume of passenger traffic. I find it welcoming to come back after fighting with the crowds at ORD, DIA, LAX, DFW, IAH, AFL, CIO, WTF etc. to be back in a surroundings on a more manageable scale. There are advantages and drawbacks to living in any city, the beauty of AMA is you can get on Southwest for a weekend in the bright lights and then come back to our little town and leave the rat race behind. AMA will grow to accomodate the needs of the flying public as Amarillo grows. Sure, Amarillo is growing...a little bit. Heck, every state in the country is growing, except for Rhode Island and Michigan. But, let's take a little deeper look at Amarillo's growth rate versus the national average, shall we? When I graduated from high school, Amarillo was still one of the 100 largest cicites in the United States, at #97. That is no longer the case. That means several cities have managed to leap frog Amarillo in that period of time and knock it out of the top 100. That's not good. It means that Amarillo has not experienced the same rate of growth as the rest of the country. To drive this point home just a little deeper, one only has to look at the various schools in the area to realize that the area is not keeping up with growth in the rest of the state. Every time there is a new UIL realignment, various schools in the area are downgraded to lower divisions, while only a handful are ever upgraded. Caprock, Palo Duro, Plainview, Canyon, Borger and River Road immediately come to mind, but there are countless others that continue to have various levels of A's knocked off of their schools classification. This has been happening consistently for many, many years now. In addition, the Panhandle region continues to get carved up into increasingly larger gerrymandered districts every time they reapportion the various districts for political representation. This is not good: it means the Panhandle is continually having its political influence and potential power minimized. www.city-data.com/top1.htmlThe problem with Southwest is that most business travellers don't like to fly on them. This is because Southwest crams people into their planes like sardines under general seating. Business travellers don't want to deal with a screaming baby in the aisle directly in front of them while sitting in a cramped seat next to the morbidly obese white trash buffoon sporting a rat tail and an OU sooners sweat shirt. In addition, there is the overall appearance of the airport to consider. The tacky aggregate flooring, the lack of any vendors in airport booths, the peeling posters of cattle and airplanes that are at least a decade old and the luggage carousel don't send a message of a town that is prospering. It sends a message of a town that is in a state of decline. If you want to see another example of this phenomena taking place, I would encourage you to take a trip out to Westgate Mall some time within the next few days. I went out there for the first time in several years a few weeks ago and was shocked at the appearance of the place. That is really the land that time forgot. |
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Post by west-texan on Apr 22, 2008 21:18:54 GMT -5
Didn't the AEDC give some company a real sweet relocation package worth several million dollars, only to have them move to town, keep the money, file bankruptcy, and then shut down operations? OMG! I remember that...Stempel. An absolute and complete screw-up by the AEDC...and a prescription for failure from the very start.  A little common sense from the AEDC would have prevented that from ever happening...but they let the failure happen. www.amarillo.com/stories/100597/aedc.htmlwww.google.com/search?num=20&hl=en&lr=&newwindow=1&suggon=0&safe=off&as_qdr=all&q=stempel+amarillo+site%3Aamarillo.com&btnG=SearchThe entire episode was doomed from the start...because of the following problems... 1. Stempel was a very small privately-held corporation...a small mom-and-pop company just squeaking by. 2. Stempel was moderately successful in Coleman...a small town close to Abilene...but a complete move to Amarillo was too much for them to handle. 3. Would have been better for them to try to move to nearby Abilene...rather than to Amarillo...because they were having to go with all new employees...except for the management team. 4. Stempel had pre-exisiting debt that was not fully analyzed by the AEDC. 5. Were moderately successful in Coleman...but no had real clear-cut reason to move to Amarillo. 6. Stempel made office products...and was so small...that they really did not even qualify as new industry for Amarillo. 7. Stempel was moving into the old Maywood facility...another mom-and-pop corporation that had just gone bankrupt itself. 8. Moving an entire small company...is usually not successful...unless the company is making a LOT more money than Stempel was in it's original location. ************************************************************** The AEDC needs to be working on getting more heavy industry from big corporations...like Bell Helicopter to Amarillo. For moving to Amarillo...the AEDC needs to be dealing with mid to large size publicly held corporations...that are not moving completely...but are just needing to open another plant/factory location. If the AEDC wants to deal with small companies...it should stick to those already in Amarillo. Don't try to move companies to Amarillo...but get large corporations to open an additional facility in Amarillo. Bell Helicopter did not move to Amarillo...but just opened an additional facility in Amarillo. We need more high tech and aerospace companies to open additional facilities in Amarillo. Also...we have ASARCO...the world's largest copper refinery...that has to send all it's processed copper elsewhere to be used. Would make a lot of sense for a company that uses ASARCO copper to open an extra factory in Amarillo...to use the ASARCO copper...without having to pay to shipping to another location far away. The AEDC board is essentially controlled by the Amarillo old-rich establishment...and I don't think they really want new big industry in Amarillo. |
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Post by Old Rip on Apr 23, 2008 22:12:54 GMT -5
If you want to see another example of this phenomena taking place, I would encourage you to take a trip out to Westgate Mall some time within the next few days. I went out there for the first time in several years a few weeks ago and was shocked at the appearance of the place. That is really the land that time forgot. There hasn't been a new mall constructed since the late 80's or early 90's. Western Plaza notwithstanding, I would call that a shopping center and not a mall. Certainly nothing on the scale of Westgate Plaza. Every town I have lived in in the last 20 years has had at least one mall that is in financial distress. For the ultimate mall experience, if you are in to that, visit the west Edmonton Mall in Edmonton, Alberta. Mall of America in Minneapolis ranks a distant 2nd. |
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Post by west-texan on Apr 24, 2008 6:34:44 GMT -5
As far as getting the AEDC run as it should...for the benefit of everyone in Amarillo...and not just the old rich establishment...
It may actually be a good thing when the last large family owned businesses in Amarillo have been bought up by outsiders.
Then Amarillo's old rich establishment will have lost control of the city council and the AEDC...
Amarillo National Bank still exists under local control...and maybe a couple of large new auto dealerships.
But I've noticed in recent years...some auto dealerships being bought up...along with business such as Trafton Printing and Crouse Hinds and Clowe-Cowan...which is a supply shipping company...and Western National Bank...which was owned by the Whittenburgs...went away.
Trafton is now owned by Cenvio and Clowe-Cowan is now owned by Border States and Crouse-Hinds is like Boots & Jeans...with a division of...after their name.
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Post by petiepanzer on Apr 25, 2008 10:58:42 GMT -5
Getting back to WT, don't you think it would be wise for them to look into a satellite campus fairly quickly? Here is my thinking on the subject.
With gas prices at $4 a gallon, which is most likely going to happen this summer, that is going to hurt WT. If you figure that it is 20 miles down there and 20 miles back through both street and highway driving, that means the average automobile is going to use about 2 gallons of gas every day. That translates to about $8 a day and $40 a week. And, that is not taking into account the many people who have classes in the morning and then must return to Canyon for a night class in the same day, or the extra trips to Canyon on the weekend. When you factor in fuel costs, that easily adds another $500 a semester to the cost of tuition. Under said conditions, it is not all that unlikely that WT would see some drops in enrollment if conditions continue to persist(which they will). Many students that would normally be enrolled full-time would drop to part-time and would only take classes 2 or 3 days a week. Still others would decide to take more of their basic classes at AC, which is already less expensive and only 2 to 3 miles from home, instead of 20. Still others may decide to just stay at AC completely, as a 2 year nursing degree provides a stronger income stream than a 4 year education degree, which WT was originally created as a Teacher's college.
I picked up a course catalog from WT about a year ago, as well as 1 from AC. What I noticed was that WT was loaded up on classes in the morning and at night, but they offered very few in the afternoon. I can only assume this was done to cater to the commuters and also to non-traditional students who also have to keep a full-time job while attending school. I would think it would benefit WT a great deal if they would start offering some of these night courses at some location in Amarillo instead of in Canyon. I know there are a lot of WT faculty members that live in Amarillo and they would probably appreciate not having to commute back and forth to Canyon. I also think more people would be inclined to enroll in classes if they were offered in Amarillo. Perhaps they could work something out with AC where they could teach courses at night in some of their facilities. I think some type of partnership between the 2 schools would probably be beneficial for both of them.
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scheissekopf
Full Member
Doing the chicken dance!
Posts: 159
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Post by scheissekopf on Apr 29, 2008 2:52:00 GMT -5
Getting back to WT, don't you think it would be wise for them to look into a satellite campus fairly quickly? Here is my thinking on the subject. With gas prices at $4 a gallon, which is most likely going to happen this summer, that is going to hurt WT. If you figure that it is 20 miles down there and 20 miles back through both street and highway driving, that means the average automobile is going to use about 2 gallons of gas every day. That translates to about $8 a day and $40 a week. And, that is not taking into account the many people who have classes in the morning and then must return to Canyon for a night class in the same day, or the extra trips to Canyon on the weekend. When you factor in fuel costs, that easily adds another $500 a semester to the cost of tuition. Under said conditions, it is not all that unlikely that WT would see some drops in enrollment if conditions continue to persist(which they will). Many students that would normally be enrolled full-time would drop to part-time and would only take classes 2 or 3 days a week. Still others would decide to take more of their basic classes at AC, which is already less expensive and only 2 to 3 miles from home, instead of 20. Still others may decide to just stay at AC completely, as a 2 year nursing degree provides a stronger income stream than a 4 year education degree, which WT was originally created as a Teacher's college. I picked up a course catalog from WT about a year ago, as well as 1 from AC. What I noticed was that WT was loaded up on classes in the morning and at night, but they offered very few in the afternoon. I can only assume this was done to cater to the commuters and also to non-traditional students who also have to keep a full-time job while attending school. I would think it would benefit WT a great deal if they would start offering some of these night courses at some location in Amarillo instead of in Canyon. I know there are a lot of WT faculty members that live in Amarillo and they would probably appreciate not having to commute back and forth to Canyon. I also think more people would be inclined to enroll in classes if they were offered in Amarillo. Perhaps they could work something out with AC where they could teach courses at night in some of their facilities. I think some type of partnership between the 2 schools would probably be beneficial for both of them. Cliff Notes version please |
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