Cary Development - The Last 25 Years

Google Earth has taken the Landsat satellite data to a new level with Earth Engine.  The last 25 years of satellite information is available for view anywhere on the earth.


Here is what the development of Cary looks like over the past 25 years.

Take some time to play with this tool as the visualization of change (consumption of land) is remarkable!

What's in a Number?

I'm starting to review the Town of Cary's 2014 Proposed Budget.  As I was reading through the History of Cary
page, I came across the following:

The 1990 Decennial Census reported the Town's population to be 44,276. The 2000 Decennial Census reported a population of 94,536, indicating a growth rate of 116% since 1990, which was an average of 11.6% per year. The 2010 Decennial Census reported the Town’s population to be 135,234, indicating a growth rate of 43% since 2000, which was an average of 4.3% per year.

Growth Rate Calculation Issues

So what is wrong with "...a growth rate of 116% since 1990, which was an average of 11.6% per year."?  Well you cannot just average the total growth over a decade to find the average growth rate per year.  This is a compounding problem, and you need to know the compounding rate to get an idea as to the average growth rate, or the growth you might read each year in reports of the year past.

From the Cary Census numbers:

• The 1990-2000 growth rate is really 7.88%
• The 2000-2010 growth rate is really 3.64%

Now these growth rates are still pretty big, but they give you more of a sense of how to compare them with the growth projections in the next few years.

The Rule of 72

You may remember this from school.  If you divide 72 by a growth rate (or interest rate on a bank account) you will get the period of time that your amount will double.  This is not exact, but it is good enough for mental math.  The rule used 72, 70 or 69 depending on where you learned it, but it is basically the same rule.

So a 1% growth rate will double the population in 72 years (about a lifetime).  A 10% growth rate will double in 7 years (think starting middle school and graduating high school).

There are lots of calculators that can perform compound growth calculations and that is what I used to calculate the above numbers.

The Takeaway:

You know the old saying "figures lie and liars figure".  I don't think that there was any intention to mislead the reader in this case, but you really need to use the correct numbers and use the proper calculations when you are performing analysis or you can come up with some unwanted results.  Be on your guard!

Cary-Raleigh Ranked 3rd in 2012 Best-Performing Cities

Cary-Raleigh (actually Raleigh-Cary, but I'm a little bias...) ranked 3rd in 2012 Best-Performing Cities by the Milken Institute.  See the report 2012 Best Performing Cities - Large Cities - Milken Institute.

Here is the data:

Raleigh-Cary, NC MSA
Overall Rank: 3

5-yr Job Growth (2006-2011)	Rank: 15
1-yr Job Growth (2010-2011)	Rank: 25
5-yr Wages & Salaries Growth (2005-2010)	Rank: 20
1-yr Wages & Salaries Growth (2009-2010)	Rank: 24
Job Growth (May 11 - May 12)	Rank: 51
5-yr Relative HT GDP Growth (2006-2011)	Rank: 94
1-yr Relative HT GDP Growth (2010-2011)	Rank: 66
High-Tech GDP LQ - 2011	Rank: 25
# of HT GDP LQs Over 1 - 2011	Rank: 17

I'll have to do some analysis, but how can you rank 3rd if your average rank is 37.4th...

NCSU Lulu E-games

$40,000 in prizes.

Major Sponsors:
Bob Young, Founder and CEO, Lulu
Bob Creeden, Director, Blackstone Entrepreneurs Network

Nothing like this existed when I was in Engineering School!

Entrepreneurship brings "the practical" to many of the classes we take in engineering.  Great ideas, but will anyone buy them...

I had a chance to talk to all of the teams.  I asked questions like "What problem are you trying to solve?", "Who is your market?", "What potential customers have you talked to and what did they think?" and many other typical questions.  I was impressed with the responses I received.  The ideas and state of the development of the projects spanned the spectrum.  Hopefully a few will have a chance in the market.

What struck me most was how well prepared these students were.  If I think back to the non-thesis project that got me through my Master's degree, all of these students are well ahead of where I was (and my project will remain shrouded in mystery to protect the innocent ;)

Kudos to NCSU, to their Entrepreneurship program and to all the students participating today!

Et Tu, QR?

"Et Tu, Brute?" is a quote from Julius Ceasar made famous by Shakespeare.  The quote has gained popularity as meaning an utmost betrayal.

With the ubiquitous mobile devices we now carry comes a very popular way of getting content - the QR code; short for Quick Response.  We are seeing QR codes everywhere, but is it safe to image just any QR code you come across?  The answer is NO.

Look at the QR code presented to the left.  Where does it go?  Is it safe to go where it wants to take you?  How would you know?

As with any new Technology, there are people who will use it for ill-gotten means.  QR codes can take you to sites that are infected, sites that want to steal your identity and other places you don't generally want to be.  Some QR codes have even been reported to send a text message to services that charge you for the text!


Now look to the QR code to the left.  This is the same QR as above, but in addition to the QR, there is information on where you should expect the QR code will take you.  This is a best practice for municipalities, merchants and all other organizations.  Make sure that people looking at your literature or posters know where the QR code will take them.

Also, use a QR reader application that shows you the URL - the destination where the QR code wants to take you.  If the destination is an SMS (text message), a site that wants your personal information or a site that does not make sense for the advertisement, don't go there!

What about URL's shortened with services like "bit.ly", "goo.gl" or "tinyurl.com" which are some of the most popular URL shortening services?  QR codes can encode up to 4,296 alphanumeric characters (numbers, letters, etc.) so there is no reason to show a shortened URL even for the longest web site names.

Be informed and be safe while imaging these very useful shortcuts.  Don't let something that has become very familiar betray you.  Don't be the one that says "Et tu, QR?"

Stocking Stuffer?

Ubislate 7Ci tablet.  Picture from the article by
ReadWrite Enterprises

"Can This $20 Tablet Really Change The World?" is an article published today by Fredric Paul in ReadWrite Enterprises.  The article details the promise of the Ubislate 7Ci tablet.

If this tablet can be mass produced at this price then it will change the lives of billions of people around the world.  In the US if this tablet was available at this price it would probably be a stocking stuffer this Christmas...

Well, the tablet is not really $20, it is actually $40 or is it really $60?  $20 is the subsidized price projected by the Indian government.  I'm not really going to pick on the price because it is low either way.  But has anyone foreseen the unintended consequences?

Millions and billions of poor people live in areas with little to no wifi coverage.  What will be the reaction of people who eagerly buy this tablet with their meager savings only to find out that they cannot get it to work anywhere?  Are the governments also planning huge infrastructure projects to bring vast pipes of wifi into disadvantaged areas?

Could the private sector come to the rescue to provide pay for access connections, and just what could you charge poor people for access anyway?  Lots to think about.

What do you think?

Attracting Foreign Born Entrepreneurs

Visa Struggle

It has been widely reported that Tech companies are struggling to get sufficient visas for their foreign employees and that many companies are moving their offices and labs out of the country to get away from visa issues completely.

Bills to add additional residency options for entrepreneurs have been stuck in Congress.

• "The StartUp Visa Act of 2011"
• "Startup Act 2.0" (Developed by the Kauffman Foundation)

Increased Emphasis

The Triangle Business Journal recently reported that the Government has an increased emphasis on attracting and keeping more foreign born entrepreneurs.  See that article: "Government steps up efforts to help foreign-born high tech entrepreneurs".

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service (USCIS) Director Alejandro Mayorkas says that increased training on business visa applications is helping to improve the responsiveness by USCIS.  USCIS has also created a new website Enrepreneur Pathways to enable foreign entrepreneurs to navigate through the different immigration options.

Fix for a Broken System?

Currently, the visa process for highly skilled foreign nationals that want to work or build a business in the US is badly broken.  It is not in the best interests of the US to allow this part of our immigration system to remain coupled with the highly politicized 'migration immigration' issue. Lets hope that the new efforts by USCIS will  begin to address the visa problems.

What are your thoughts?

New Asian Economic Alliance excludes the US

The Asia Times presents a disturbing picture in their recent article "Post-US world born in Phnom Penh"

In a November 20 announcement at a summit meeting in Phnom Penh, "15 Asian nations, comprising half the world's population, would form a Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership excluding the United States" (emphasis added)

The article clearly outlines trends that "America's relative importance is fading."

Quotes from the article that will give you a pause to reconsider what you think you know:

"Where does the United States have a competitive advantage? Apart from commercial aircraft, power-generating equipment, and agriculture, it has few areas of real industrial pre-eminence."

and

"The problem is that Americans have stopped investing in the sort of high-tech, high-value-added industries that produce the manufactures that Asia requires." 

We need to rethink our habits of continually borrowing excessively to support our budget deficits and begin to regain our leadership of investing in the future developments beneficial to all mankind.

NC Ranked 7th in Clean Energy

The Triangle Business Journal has reported that North Carolina is ranked as the 7th most active clean energy job creator in the third quarter of 2012 (article).  I'm remembering reading about quite a few solar and other clean energy projects coming on-line recently in the local area.

I'm sure that this number changes from quarter to quarter, but it is good for NC to have this ranking.

What do you think about clean energy in NC?

Citizen Diplomacy in Cary

If you are watching the Sister Cities Association of Cary (SCAC), you will note that there is rarely a time without lots of activity going on.

Citizen Diplomacy is a high visibility program started by the Sister Cities Commission in 2008 with an ambitious weekend-long program featuring Mary Jean Eisenhower*.  (This was before the Town Commission was dissolved into the Association.**)

Side note: Thursday night was our latest 5th Thursday Social held at Mahoney's Pub.  Several people showed up who had attended the last Citizen Diplomacy event at the Cary Arts Center on March 15, 2012 and want to get involved.  Citizen Diplomacy is a great development tool for SCAC.

The Citizen Diplomacy committee held our first planning meeting at Bocci's for lunch.  Lots of good ideas, decisions and planning.  This will be our 5th program in the series.

We only have ~4 months until the event which will be on March 21, 2013 from 6:30-9pm.  Normally groups take a year planning something like this, but SCAC has event planning down to a seat-of-the-pants science!  Some preliminary work was done to get the announcement in the Town's quarterly brochure so we are locked in on several details which may be constraining, but we will work with those.

SCAC will have a dinner program with a panel of 3 speakers; one from Business, one from International (State Department?) and one from the Non-Profit sector.

I'm looking forward to another great Cary program in the spring.  Cary has a long history of citizen diplomacy, but I will leave that for another blog posting.

-----
* Mary Jean Eisenhower is the Executive Director of People to People International and is the Grand Daughter of Dwight D. Eisenhower who got the whole citizen diplomacy movement started with his summit on September 11, 1956.

** At their April 14, 2011 meeting, the Cary Town Council voted to approve Staff Report PR11-32 which included the removal of the Sister Cities Commission from the Town Ordinance. At that time the responsibilities of the Commission were transferred to the Association.

P-TECH: Innovation in Education

This morning I attended a talk by Stan Litow, IBM Vice President of Corporate Citizenship, at the Wake Tech Center for Strategic Futures.  What had interested me to go was that the talk was billed as: "Join us as Stan Litow presents a compelling presentation on how computers can and will revolutionize our society."

The focus of the talk was different in that it dealt with how IBM is working in Corporate Citizenship / Socially Responsible Investing, or "whatever you call it," as Stan stated simply.  The majority of the talk was about a way to change the education system to prepare students to start filling the gap of jobs going unfilled due to a lack of available skills in the workforce.

P-TECH
IBM has become very involved with the initiative at the P-TECH High School in Brooklyn.  This is a 3-way partnership between IBM, the local College and the Department of Education.

What is P-TECH?  Their website shows:

Pathways in Technology Early College High School (P-TECH) is a new type of school that brings together the best elements of high school, college and the professional world.

P-TECH has an innovative grade structure of 9-14.  Students can begin taking college courses in 10th grade and they graduate with a High School Diploma, an Associates Degree and a qualified record of skills.

Each student is paired with an IBM mentor and is part of a 4-5 member team competing against the other teams on some project-based topic.  Curricula is taught more about how you can use it to bring value to a problem that you and/or your group is trying to solve.

Early College Model

The Early College Model is currently being looked at in North Carolina to solve the same skills gap.  

With another P-TECH school ordered up in NYC and 5 in Chicago, maybe the Wake County Schools, Wake Tech and some big employers in the area can look at the P-TECH model as well?

More Information

For more information about P-TECH and the issues Stan Litow discussed this morning, a good resource is this article in the US News and World Reports: "U.S. Needs New Educational Model for Economic Growth"

IBM released a playbook designed to outline "how to develop an innovative grades 9-14 school that connects education to economic development and good-paying jobs."

Cary Ranked #9 in Competiveness

Cary (actually the Raleigh-Cary MSA) just ranked #9 in competitiveness and job growth across the 100 most populous U.S. metros.

EMSI (Economic Modeling Specialists International) have just published an analysis using "a standard economic analysis method called shift share, focusing on overall job change from 2010 to 2012."

Richard Florida has also commented on this in his latest article "These Are the Cities That Can Show Us How to Create Jobs".

The hard work of Economic Development in the area is really paying off!

When is Technology Counterproductive?

This is a good question.  Is all Technology helpful?  Do you need a sledgehammer to swat a fly?

I'm troubled that the Technology Task Force (TTF) for the Town of Cary is suffering from a continuing onslaught of technology tools to assist us with our mission.  Each technology offering comes with its own adoption curve due to training and/or paradigm change.  The onslaught is self-inflicted to be sure.

It seems that the TTF has succumbed to the lure of technology tools to creatively tell our story rather than just telling our story.  We now have a hodge-podge of tools we should be using.  Time will tell, but we only have a few more meetings...

What is your experience with technology adoption?

NC Startup News

Exciting things are coming to North Carolina for startups!  The Startup America Partnership Program is coming to NC with the Startup NC Launch event at the RTP Foundation headquarters on Monday August 20!  On Tuesday August 21, the Council for Entrepreneurial Development (CED) will be hosting the Startup Resource Fair held again at the RTP Foundation headquarters.  Tickets are still available.

What a great place to network and find out what is going on with the startup environment in the area.  I will be there and will let you know what I found interesting at these 2 events.

A Change in Perspective and Back...

Tonight was one of those rare moments where you get to see another side of the story, especially another side of a story that up until now irked you.  A story that you had researched and could find no reason for why the story was playing out the way it was.

I sat in on the Information Services Advisory Board (ISAB) for the Town of Cary.  As the newly appointed Chair of the Technology Task Force, I wanted to find out why the Task Force was needed in the first place and why the recent social media channels rolled out by the Town seemed to be so primitive in their use of these new media channels (Note - These are my opinions only and I am the only one responsible for them...) See here, here, here and here.

I will mention that I was the only citizen sitting in on this open meeting.  My views had already been sent directly to the Town PIO, Susan Moran, and despite her claiming very bad vision, it is possible that all of Susan's comments in the meeting were skillfully directed at me.  After a quick thought about my relative self-importance, I must discount this possibility and realize that Susan's comments and the meeting in general was a normal ISAB meeting.

All that the ISAB discussed in the meeting was social media!

What I will quibble about is the amount of time that the group will devote to developing their annual report to Council...  Most of this ISAB meeting was devoted to brainstorming and trying to develop a "creative" way to deliver their report to Council.  Since they *cannot* discuss anything ISAB related outside of the meeting, this will mean they will spend their next meeting (which will be extended beyond their normal 1 hour meeting) to develop their scripted and produced presentation of the annual report that was approved within minutes of the start of tonight's meeting...

If the volunteers develop a creative way to report a decision that was made by the public body, and if they will not expand upon or change this information, why do they need to meet in public???  When staff is directed to develop a report do they have to do it in a public forum?  The presentation draft would have to be reviewed and approved at the next ISAB public meeting anyway so that it can be presented to Council...  What a waste of volunteer time with over ~1/6 or ~17% of their time developing a way to report on their activities to Council!

Now I know why the Technology Task Force is required.  How much time does the ISAB really have to advise?

Excited About Technology

I'm always excited about technology, but specifically today I am excited about the prospects of the Town of Cary Technology Task Force!  I have just come from a great short meeting to set our first agenda and I'm excited (can you tell that yet?).

Both Councilor Lori Bush and Asst. Town Manager Mike Bajorek are enthusiastic and passionate about this effort, so there should be no lack of support for this effort.  We have a lot to cover in a short time - only 8 meetings...

We are receptive to input, so let us know what you think we should be discussing as we develop the vision and details for how the Town’s use of technology services can better serve its citizens.

I'm Chair...

I've mentioned the Town of Cary Technology Task Force in a previous Blog. I was recommended for Chair of the Task Force by Lori Bush, but attended the council meeting (Agenda, YouTube) to see if this would be approved. After 3+ hours our topic finally came up and I was approved as the chair of the new Technology Task Force for the Town of Cary.

There are 9 meetings scheduled with a great group of very knowledgeable volunteers.  My job is now to craft an agenda and plan so that we (and the Town going forward) can be successful!

Technology Task Force News

Town of Cary Councilwoman Lori Bush has submitted her recommendations for the members of the Technology Task Force (TTF).  I am humbled to be singled out as the Chair of the task force as an additional member to the expected "up to 8" members as originally planned.  The issue still has to be formally discussed and approved by the Town Council at their July 26th meeting, so I guess I should not be counting chickens yet...

What a great group of people to be associated with!  They have a wealth of knowledge and experience on many, many technology tools.  My technology skills pale in comparison, but it looks like Lori selected me as more of a facilitator and one with knowledge of the Cary Boards and Commissions...

• Ian Cillay
• Laura Hamlyn
• Hal Goodtree (Hal received 6/6 council votes!)
• Eleanor Thorne
• Raymond Zeisz
• Eric Brown
• James Dixon (ISAB Member)
• Brandon Smith
• Ian Henshaw, Chair

Our mission:

Determine how the Town’s use of technology services can better serve its citizens. Specifically, the TTF shall review, evaluate, and prioritize new and emerging technologies that will facilitate better engagement, citizen outreach, and service delivery by increasing involvement and lowering costs, with the overall goal of making it easier for citizens to communicate with the Town and consume available information.

An important note from the formulation of the task force:

This review of the Towns technology services to external users would go hand in hand with staffs proposed development of a Strategic Information Technology (SIT) Plan. The SIT Plan, the development of which would be facilitated by Dr. Shannon Tufts of the UNC School of Government, will provide a framework for strategic IT investments and management for the next three years. Dr. Tufts efforts will mainly focus on the internal needs and challenges of the Town of Cary organization. 

Town of Cary - Social Media

The Town of Cary has dipped their toe into social media just a little more than the few twitter accounts they have had.  3 Facebook pages and a YouTube channel!  This got me thinking about the last Economic Development Committee meeting at the Town on June 6 where we were discussing social media:
http://ianhenshaw.blogspot.com/2012/06/economic-development-committee-mtg.html

There was still a reluctance from the group that social media was worth the effort.  There was some discussion about the Technology Task Force that was approved at the May 24th Council meeting.

I was going through some old e-mails and I remembered one thing that was going on during the meeting.  I had seen a tweet about a new Economic Development Partnership Website launch in Raleigh.  I pulled up the pages on my iPad and was showing this to Howard Johnson and Sandy Jordan during the meeting to see if it struck a chord with them that we were possibly being left in the dust and that Raleigh had found out that they could use social media for economic development.  I was disappointed in their reactions and after mulling it over after the meeting, I sent the following e-mail to the group:

FYI.  I saw this late today (tipped off by a Tweet...)

New Economic Development Partnership Website Launched (Raleigh)
http://content.govdelivery.com/bulletins/gd/NCRALEIGH-434a60 (Press Release)
http://www.investraleigh.com/ (Website)

Follow us:
http://www.facebook.com/RaleighPlanning (Facebook)
http://twitter.com/RalEconDev (Twitter)
http://www.youtube.com/cityofraleigh (You Tube)
http://www.flickr.com/photos/raleighgov/ (Flickr)

Sign up for Economic Development communications:
https://public.govdelivery.com/accounts/NCRALEIGH/subscriber/new?topic_id=NCRALEIGH_166
Sign in using your preferred social media account:

• Facebook
• Google
• Yahoo!

I am hoping that the push by Councilor Lori Bush on technology and the approval of the Technology Task Force has pushed the Town staff to realize that social media is a powerful tool to use to communicate with the citizens of the Town of Cary.  Hopefully the Cary Chamber will follow.

Student Power

Another in the fundraising annals of the Student Tuba section at Cary High.  I was not able to attend this car wash as we were busy moving our office, but one of the three student Tuba organizers was able to attend and quite ably "marshaled the troops".

My son Stephen was able to update the Heart of Cary Association (HoCA) with a flier as shown to the right on Thursday morning which might have helped....  An important factor this week was the announcement by Band President, Bob Murray, via the Cary Band e-mail lists of the fundraiser.  (Advertising to those most sensitive to your cause is very important.)

The new wrinkle for the car wash was a bake sale.  The end result was impressive:

• Car Wash - $463
• Bake Sale - $40
• Total for the morning = $503

One moral of the story is that car washes "make money" and bake sales "do not"...

The better moral of the story is that motivated students can make a huge difference!!!

My running total is:

• Student fundraising - $1,605
• Sponsorships - $1,225
• Total = $2,830

The last car washes are July 28 and 29, and then the students will be busy with their 2 week long band camp (8am - 9pm at Cary High in the parking lot in the summer heat...) and then school and marching season.  These students are on their way to great things so please help them to reach their goal.