Check out what ran in the Sarasota Herald-Tribune on Thurday, June 28: North Port is growing rapidly, Census Bureau says
I've always thought it was interesting the dispute about North Port's population. The world uses the Census Bureau as its primary gage. But according to the city of North Port, we'd surpassed 50,000 people in early 2006. A private study by a local developer predicted we were beyond 50,000 people in 2005. That same developer brought us Wal-Mart, Home Depot and Applebees. He also is bringing us another Publix and Walgreens.
One thing is for sure. North Port isn't growing fast now. In fact, I was just teasing the city's building director, Scott Williams, the other day about whether or not cobwebs are growing in his department. I hadn't seen him him a while. He smiled at me and said it was eerie, how quiet everything has been. For the last two years, his department has been averaging 300 or more building permits a month. I recently heard that number is down to 30.
So, what does that mean?
On the positive side, it means North Port isn't on track to get 250,000 people in less than 10 years - predictions the city first came up with when we were traveling at full speed ahead. A sigh of relief can be heard from those who didn't want their small town lifestyle to transform into that of a huge metropolis.
But I would argue the negative side to this is critical. When you are the fastest growing city - in one of the fastest growing regions of the Sunshine State - many people have built their lives around that growth. Cabinet makers, house painters, furniture store owners, blind store owners... You wouldn't believe the amount of businesses there are inside North Port's industrial parks - all serving the building community.
This is especially true in North Port. Because of this city's affordability, many of the cabinet workers, concrete layers and drywall hangers own their homes here. (As opposed to some of the more affluent neighborhoods in this Southwest Florida region like the city of Sarasota or Lakewood Ranch in Manatee County - workers drive in and drive out each day).
But with the slow down... Many of these people are out of work. People are struggling.
And the few jobs that are available are getting sometimes 10 times the number of applicants they would normally get.
Meanwhile, people that are finding work are often taking huge pay cuts. It's simply supply and demand. Employers know they don't have to pay much because an employee is easily replaceable.
I hope building starts again soon. I've heard recently that predictions are saying it won't be until 2009.
When I read the Thursday article, it reminded me: Those truly were the days.
Saturday, June 30, 2007
Saturday, June 23, 2007
The Discount Giant
So speaking of Wal-Mart... I've already brought up the subject in my official welcome-to-my-blog post... I spent three hours inside the nation's Discount Giant today. Mainly because I took my car there for an oil change. It's sad, isn't it? I feel like I'm admitting that to a support group.
So let me start at the beginning. I can honestly say, for the first three years that I lived inside the city of North Port (I've been here four now), I could count on one hand the number of times I'd stepped through the front sliding glass doors of Wal-Mart.
It had absolutely nothing to do with Wal-Mart being considered a corporate monster that cheats people out of fair wages and closes mom-and-pops - all arguments I've heard over and over from my more worldly friends.
No, this small-town girl has nothing against Wal-Mart. I never shopped there simply because the only Wal-Mart closest to my house was in Port Charlotte - a city next door to North Port.
But that changed when North Port got its own Wal-Mart.
There's something to say about a city that went for so long without a box store.
In general, people here felt the Discount Giant helped put them on the map. Maybe that's because Florida's towns and cities have always been defined by Wal-Mart. Take a Sunday drive through the center of the state on U.S. 27 or State Road 17 and you know you're driving through another town because there's another Wal-Mart.
In addition, city officials and economic development forecasters said because Wal-Mart was now here, other elements of Corporate America would follow. So far, they were right. Home Depot opened shortly after. We now have an Applebees, Beef O'Brady's, Taco Bell and three Quiznos. Meanwhile, we are set to get a Perkins by November, a Buffalo Wild Wings and Grill and a third Walgreens. A Super Target is rumored to be popping up at the corner of Sumter and Price boulevards, but that has been unconfirmed by Target's corporate folks.
But there was something else tied to that Wal-Mart when it opened. Something I was never expecting: a sense of ownership.
I know I felt it. So did others that I've talked to. It isn't just another Wal-Mart. It's OUR Wal-Mart.
And that's strange to admit, considering that I'm a journalist who has written story after story about communities fighting the mere suggestion that a Wal-Mart might be moving near their neighborhood. I'm naturally skeptical and question most everything.
But, indeed, there I was, for the first time, standing in the middle of North Port's Wal-Mart just after it opened. My heart was singing praise.
I'm now a Wal-Mart shopper. Most of my clothes come from the Discount Giant. Why? It's cheap. The sales racks are under three dollars. And they have a nice professional brand George that does well for my work attire.
Best of all, I now grocery shop at Wal-Mart. Just today I got a pound of red seedless grapes for a $1 less than at Publix. It's not just fruit and veggies (although I have to say that's really what I'm after most). The same is true for several of the other name-brand goods at Wal-Mart. Soup costs less. Cereal costs less.
Yes, my worldly friends cringe. You might be cringing, too.
But Wal-Mart offers something you can't see elsewhere: a glimpse at North Port. I truly believe a store like that reflects all of the different faces and cultures of a city. Most shoppers there are exactly what the statistics are telling us: they are young, families, middle to low income, and looking for a great deal just like me. It's no wonder Wal-Mart didn't open sooner.
I think that's why I didn't mind spending three hours in Wal-Mart today. I spent three hours being out and about in my community.
So let me start at the beginning. I can honestly say, for the first three years that I lived inside the city of North Port (I've been here four now), I could count on one hand the number of times I'd stepped through the front sliding glass doors of Wal-Mart.
It had absolutely nothing to do with Wal-Mart being considered a corporate monster that cheats people out of fair wages and closes mom-and-pops - all arguments I've heard over and over from my more worldly friends.
No, this small-town girl has nothing against Wal-Mart. I never shopped there simply because the only Wal-Mart closest to my house was in Port Charlotte - a city next door to North Port.
But that changed when North Port got its own Wal-Mart.
There's something to say about a city that went for so long without a box store.
In general, people here felt the Discount Giant helped put them on the map. Maybe that's because Florida's towns and cities have always been defined by Wal-Mart. Take a Sunday drive through the center of the state on U.S. 27 or State Road 17 and you know you're driving through another town because there's another Wal-Mart.
In addition, city officials and economic development forecasters said because Wal-Mart was now here, other elements of Corporate America would follow. So far, they were right. Home Depot opened shortly after. We now have an Applebees, Beef O'Brady's, Taco Bell and three Quiznos. Meanwhile, we are set to get a Perkins by November, a Buffalo Wild Wings and Grill and a third Walgreens. A Super Target is rumored to be popping up at the corner of Sumter and Price boulevards, but that has been unconfirmed by Target's corporate folks.
But there was something else tied to that Wal-Mart when it opened. Something I was never expecting: a sense of ownership.
I know I felt it. So did others that I've talked to. It isn't just another Wal-Mart. It's OUR Wal-Mart.
And that's strange to admit, considering that I'm a journalist who has written story after story about communities fighting the mere suggestion that a Wal-Mart might be moving near their neighborhood. I'm naturally skeptical and question most everything.
But, indeed, there I was, for the first time, standing in the middle of North Port's Wal-Mart just after it opened. My heart was singing praise.
I'm now a Wal-Mart shopper. Most of my clothes come from the Discount Giant. Why? It's cheap. The sales racks are under three dollars. And they have a nice professional brand George that does well for my work attire.
Best of all, I now grocery shop at Wal-Mart. Just today I got a pound of red seedless grapes for a $1 less than at Publix. It's not just fruit and veggies (although I have to say that's really what I'm after most). The same is true for several of the other name-brand goods at Wal-Mart. Soup costs less. Cereal costs less.
Yes, my worldly friends cringe. You might be cringing, too.
But Wal-Mart offers something you can't see elsewhere: a glimpse at North Port. I truly believe a store like that reflects all of the different faces and cultures of a city. Most shoppers there are exactly what the statistics are telling us: they are young, families, middle to low income, and looking for a great deal just like me. It's no wonder Wal-Mart didn't open sooner.
I think that's why I didn't mind spending three hours in Wal-Mart today. I spent three hours being out and about in my community.
Friday, June 22, 2007
Welcome to my blog
Life is changing inside this 103-square-mile city.
North Port has more than doubled its population in the last four years, surpassing 50,000 residents. The median age dropped to 38, making it the youngest community in Southwest Florida (to compare, the median age of our neighbors, Port Charlotte to the south and Venice to the north, are somewhere in the high 60s and low 70s). North Port also has more than 9,000 school students. We are getting our second middle schoool. We already have four elementary schools and a high school. District officials are discussing when to build the city's fifth elementary school.
But with dozens of new rooftops, lagging behind is the needed commercial space, parks, road repaving projects and sidewalks and bicycle lanes.
This city is in the midst of transitioning from a sleepy retirement town to a metropolis. And I happen to live right here in the center of it.
So, the focus of this blog will be on life in North Port and the rest of Southwest Florida, based primarily on the idea of a "placeblog" (a term conceived by Lisa Williams, creator of Placeblogger.com and one of the experts in the citizen journalism). I likely will not be following City Commission meetings, lecturing about what I think this city should be doing or not doing or getting heavily involved in the politics of this town. Instead, my blog will be about my life - as just an example of what life is like inside North Port... a sort of first-person account of what walking into the Wal-Mart here is like. What do I see, what do I smell, what do I hear? And is Wal-Mart a reflection of what the people of North Port are like?
But I also might delve into the topic of our changing media. Afterall, the industry is changing at a rapid pace. Is that good or bad? Newspapers are either selling to the highest bidder, undergoing massive staff layoffs or completely shutting down. And, seeing that my career happens to be impacted by that new trend, this will be place that those types of issues may also come up.
I hope you enjoy reading this as much as I will writing. Feel free to comment. Tell me your stories about North Port. Do you live here? Have you ever been to Southwest Florida? Or maybe your town is growing and changing a lot like this city. I look forward to hearing your feedback and being a part of that conversation with you.
-Flawritergrl
North Port has more than doubled its population in the last four years, surpassing 50,000 residents. The median age dropped to 38, making it the youngest community in Southwest Florida (to compare, the median age of our neighbors, Port Charlotte to the south and Venice to the north, are somewhere in the high 60s and low 70s). North Port also has more than 9,000 school students. We are getting our second middle schoool. We already have four elementary schools and a high school. District officials are discussing when to build the city's fifth elementary school.
But with dozens of new rooftops, lagging behind is the needed commercial space, parks, road repaving projects and sidewalks and bicycle lanes.
This city is in the midst of transitioning from a sleepy retirement town to a metropolis. And I happen to live right here in the center of it.
So, the focus of this blog will be on life in North Port and the rest of Southwest Florida, based primarily on the idea of a "placeblog" (a term conceived by Lisa Williams, creator of Placeblogger.com and one of the experts in the citizen journalism). I likely will not be following City Commission meetings, lecturing about what I think this city should be doing or not doing or getting heavily involved in the politics of this town. Instead, my blog will be about my life - as just an example of what life is like inside North Port... a sort of first-person account of what walking into the Wal-Mart here is like. What do I see, what do I smell, what do I hear? And is Wal-Mart a reflection of what the people of North Port are like?
But I also might delve into the topic of our changing media. Afterall, the industry is changing at a rapid pace. Is that good or bad? Newspapers are either selling to the highest bidder, undergoing massive staff layoffs or completely shutting down. And, seeing that my career happens to be impacted by that new trend, this will be place that those types of issues may also come up.
I hope you enjoy reading this as much as I will writing. Feel free to comment. Tell me your stories about North Port. Do you live here? Have you ever been to Southwest Florida? Or maybe your town is growing and changing a lot like this city. I look forward to hearing your feedback and being a part of that conversation with you.
-Flawritergrl
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