A sister capital in turmoil

On the surface, Raleigh, N.C., and Columbia, S.C., could not be anymore similar.

Good-sized southern metropolis? Check.

State capital? Check.

The state as a major employer? Check.

Major university? Check.

Hospitals and banks as major employers? Check.

Sometimes described as the "hottest place on Earth" during the summer? Double-check.

But in a lot of ways, that's where the similarities end. At this point in time, Columbia has unfortunately been dubbed THE microcosm of the national economic crisis, at least according to Moody's Economy.com's indicators.

"In South Carolina, a government panel is predicting that the state’s unemployment rate could reach 14 percent by the middle of next year," says the Star-News.

North Carolina's unemployment rate is not all that great -- unless you consider breaking records great -- at just under 8 percent, while the Palmetto State's is currently 8.4. (Nationally the rate was 6.7 for last month.)

Yet economic indicators expect North Carolina -- and particularly urban areas like Raleigh and Charlotte -- to weather the storm much better than, say, Columbia.

No speculative real estate bubble can explain what is happening in this metropolitan area [of Columbia] of roughly 700,000 people. Neither the brick Georgian homes in the city’s core nor the ranch-style houses on the suburban fringes rose or fell much in value. The financial wizards of Wall Street seem far from the palmetto-dotted campus of the University of South Carolina and the domed state capitol downtown.

Yet as the toll continues to mount from an era of financial recklessness — as banks cut credit from households and businesses, reinforcing austerity — the damage has spread here, choking economic activity at places ranging from shopping malls to factories. ...

President-elect Barack Obama has pledged to spend as much as $775 billion on his economic plan, including infrastructure projects like bridges, roads and classrooms, to put people back to work.

Columbia’s mayor, Bob Coble, is consumed with capturing some of those dollars for his city. He has assembled a list of ready-to-go projects totaling $140 million that he said could generate construction jobs and propel further economic development.

Mr. Coble, a Democrat who has been mayor for 18 years, has in mind the redevelopment of North Main Street, a bedraggled corridor of hard-luck retailers that lacks sidewalks in many spots, with exposed power lines dipping down to cracked pavement. That project is already under way, putting down sidewalks and burying power lines in a $19 million first phase. An additional $54 million could complete it.

Similar projects have restored shine to Columbia’s downtown, which was in a similar state of decay a decade ago, and nurtured the Vista neighborhood, a collection of brick warehouses transformed into trendy eateries.

The mayor has also been focused on expanding the so-called Innovista project, a campus developed by the university centered on research in areas like hydrogen-powered fuel cells and biotechnology. The aim is to cluster research labs, private companies and condominiums.

“This will be a once in a generation opportunity to transform a city with projects that have been on the books,” the mayor said over breakfast at a newly opened downtown Sheraton hotel set in an old bank whose original vault has become a cozy martini bar. “These are not bridges to nowhere.” ...

Despite the attractiveness of Main Street, new sidewalks have drawn few retailers. North Main Street runs through a largely poor area, making it even less likely that improvements will attract business. ...

There is no way to predict that this type of despair and gloom won't happen in Raleigh. I would suggest that a certain municipal tool that rhymes with 'shmanixation' will perhaps go farther than we might believe in actually preventing Raleigh and other N.C. cities from going the Columbia route. In fact, experts in South Carolina can attest to what this long-standing tool could've done for their cities. (If you read betweeen the lines and quotes of this article, you can't help but decipher that Columbia lacks a silver bullet.) But, if opponents get their wish, this tool will perhaps be taken away from North Carolina's cities for good.

"Over the years, it’s been frustrating to watch local governments and communities in Lexington and Richland counties struggle to find identity, affirmation and affluence. If the energy, effort and resources that sometimes divided this community had been directed toward supporting one unified city, Columbia’s good story would be a superb one," wrote The (Columbia) State just this past summer. (Bold is my emphasis.)

Imagine if the real city — the economic city — were allowed to be. No matter what side of the river you live on or the city or town you call home, there’s only one economic footprint for this community. ...

Want to know why Columbia is looking for a new slogan, a new marketing plan, a new identity every few years? It’s unable to find itself. How can it when it is fractured into multiple towns and cities and overlayed by special purpose and school districts?

Much of the problem is caused by South Carolina’s archaic annexation law. It tramples on the fact there’s only one real city in Lexington and Richland counties. ...

But, what if the real Columbia existed? A city whose boundaries were determined by the extent of urban development and not city limits or county lines. Our region would be so far ahead economically, politically, culturally.

Columbia isn’t supposed to be a city whose population hovers barely above 100,000. This is a metropolitan area of well over 700,000. There are significant urbanized pockets in both counties, some incorporated and some not, that should be within the city.

Columbia isn’t alone. Other S.C. cities know its pain, to varying degrees. As successful as Greenville and Charleston are, they too have suffered from not being able to grow without regard to city limits and boundaries.

Consider this: In 1950, Charlotte and Columbia were about the same size. Today, Charlotte has five times the population of Columbia because of North Carolina’s annexation laws. North Carolina wisely recognized it makes sense for an area to develop under an urban strategy that encourages unified growth and not divisiveness. As urban areas grew up around Charlotte, it annexed them. No tiny towns, no fights, no fragmentation.

So, as Charlotte prospered economically, Columbia found it nearly impossible to grow, even slipping in population for a period of years as people opted to move out to the suburbs. The worst part is that while Columbia and other sizable cities strained to grow under state law, tiny paper towns were allowed to form. That limited progress, splintered communities and hampered their ability to attract new businesses and jobs. ...

So, in short, Columbia wishes it had this wonderful tool that Raleigh and other N.C. cities have. It would perhaps be suicide to do away with it. True, "schmanixation" is not an easy or pain-free thing to do. But the alternative -- dying and decaying cities; the vast loss of jobs; the loss of cultural amenities or downtown cores -- are far worse.

(Historical map of Columbia from Epodunk.com; downtown scene from city-data.com)