Virginia Postrel posts regarding an article that was in today's LAT Business section. The article is regarding the number of folks who followed Nissan USA headquarters in their move from the LA area to Tennessee.
She makes excellent points, as always. Her analysis of the story is far more worthy a read than the original story itself. She quotes the story extensively, then she quotes her own book to make her point, I'll just quote the summation of her post
When big cities no longer have a monopoly on amenities and niche retailing, whether because of chains or the Internet, they have to worry about quality of life issues they've previously ignored. Los Angeles discourages new housing and road construction, while the rest of the Sunbelt generally encourages both. People will move. The weather is great in L.A., but Nashville and Dallas aren't Buffalo.
Nissan will survive without being headquartered in SoCal, and SoCal will survive losing another large company to massive incentives and tax breaks by states that have the political will to do so. Gov. Schwarzenegger helped staunch the bleeding a little, but what was once an alarming torrent of companies and the commercial life's blood they bring fleeing California, is now down to a mere steady stream. If Phil Angelides takes over as Governer, expect the exodus to begin again in earnest. Arnold was able to enact a few business friendly measures because of the way he came into office, but if a liberal Democrat beats him for the office, you can expect the climate for business within California to get chillier than anyone could ever imagine.
No comments:
Post a Comment