I just came back from TN, and up and down the state, from Nashville to eastern TN, it’s like a literal boom town. New businesses (from mom-and-pop shops to large corporations) are everywhere. Shopping malls (massive ones) every few exits off I 40, and not an empty parking space to be found.
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Every restaurant we visited, from chains to one-off family-owned joints, was packed with people. New housing areas (NOT multifamily housing, but traditional single-family home neighborhoods) are being built everywhere you turn. There was a lively, positive vibe throughout the state. The roads and highways are packed with people every hour of the day — commerce, income, and opportunity.
Look around you in NH. Do you see a thriving economy? If someone claims that, perhaps they need to get out more. Go to the capital city, Concord, and half of every strip mall or office building is empty, boarded up, for lease. The mall in Concord, which used to be a happening place when I moved to the area in the late 2000s, is a frigging ghost town, with tumbleweeds blowing through the completely empty and dust-filled parking lot. Go inside the mall, and the only people you will see are senior citizens taking their daily constitutional — from a thriving driver of the local economy and job provider to a covered walking track for people that don’t have or won’t spend a spare dime there.
And yet there’s Sununu for years, gaslighting us all, repeating his tired talking points about the resilient and strong NH economy. “We have one of the lowest unemployment rates in the country!” No sh!t, Sherlock — that’s not difficult to do when you only have 1.4 M people in the entire state. There are more things that need to be done than people. But there are not enough of the types of jobs that create wealth. In fact, NH is losing those types of jobs. (As you well know.)
Part of the reason is New Hampshire’s inexplicably myopic and downright stupid business tax regulations and policies. New Hampshire is not business-friendly. When was the last time a major corporation announced they were moving their HQ to NH? Hahahaha, right? Tesla? Amazon? We can’t even get frigging Hardees.
And when confronted with the reality of the situation here, the apologists trot out the lame-ass “It’s all Covid’s fault, wah!” bullish!t. If that’s the case, why are so many other states (RED states, keep in mind) thriving now? It’s because of their POLICIES. Period.
Am I saying let’s turn NH into an overpopulated copy of a different state? Of course not. But the only way to get things back on the right track in NH is to face reality and admit the state is in a crisis. No, not for elites with big money like Sununu, but for normal, hard-working citizens trying to do the right thing, support their families, and stay off the government dole.
By the way, I have a good friend who lives in the Columbus area of Ohio. He says the same thing is happening there. Expansion, opportunity, growth. All missing from Sununu’s magic “thriving” New Hampshire. Good riddance to Sununu. He can’t leave soon enough.