Attractive, Unattractive or Mediocre?

When businesses move in or out of an area it is due to a combination of factors.  If they are pushed out, these days it is rarely due to a loss of manufacturing or production materials (like the old days).  It's usually because of overregulation, high costs, declining quality of life, or a combination of these and other factors.  So how does the Greeley area stack up in attracting business and solid jobs to this region?  Are they attractive, unattractive, or simply mediocre?

• Greeley has Aims and the University of Northern Colorado, which both turn out graduates in various fields and industries.  However, many locales around us also have colleges.  Greeley is neither at an advantage or disadvantage.

• Greeley has affordable housing, perhaps moreso than Loveland or Ft. Collins, due to the collapse of the housing market.  However, Greeley also lacks proximity to the mountains, which is a drawing card for the other cities.  Greeley's rental market is also tight at this point, so this washes out some advantages.

• Greeley shopping seems to remain fairly strong, at least on the West side of town and near the UNC campus.  The mall continues to struggle due to high rent, smaller-sized stores, and loss of tenants.  Many Greeley residents flow further west for more shoping opportunities, especially to the Loveland area.  Advantage:  Loveland.

• Greeley seems to enjoy the same regulations and codes as the cities around her.  Fees continue to remain high, and permanent roll-backs in regulations and fees will not be forthcoming under the current administration.  Meanwhile Loveland and Ft. Collins (as well as others) have lured away some existing businesses with waivers.  Some businesses in the area have simply shut down and moved away in frustration.  Although a certain ebb and flow exists in this area, Greeley seems to have been hit harder by small business departures.  Advantage:  Others.

Conclusion:  Greeley seems to want to maintain a semblance of business as usual, while lip-syncing the mantra of innovation and creativity.  It cannot be both ways.  Greeley must find a way to out-create, over-innovate, become attractive, and retain businesses in the area.  When this happens Greeley will become something more than mediocre or declining.  Until then, you might as well expect more of the same.

Comments

[Bobby J.]

Today the Fibune says "It’s time for us all to start thinking about what we are willing to do and what we are willing to give up on a personal level in order to reduce the national debt."

The Fibune should give up publishing articles and opinions that encourage MORE government spending. They should stop endorsing statist canidates.

Just more George Orwell double speak.

[Powerball]

In that article the FibTrib writes:
"And the money can’t come from slashing city budgets or tightening belts. After years of large budget cuts, there just isn’t enough discretionary money left in the city coffers."

Well of course not FibTrib! That would cut into the good-o-boy network now wouldn't it.

Have you noticed how the FibTrb has stopped blogging on their site? During the Obama campain there were lots of people blogging for the progressive-leftist agenda. This year, as we see those policies failing, the FibTrib has stopped blogging. --The tide has changed and people see that socialist liberal ideas don't work. Never in the history of the world have they ever worked. Their just pie in the sky ideas that wealthy liberals use so they can remain in government with tenure and huge retirement packages for themselves. But they can't make those ideas work!

The FibTrib is the place that these communists target to get their word out. They think if you read it in the local paper you will believe it's good for you. It never ceases to amaze me how these people think. They never see that they are their own worst enemy. That what they ask for will bring their own demise. Yet history is full of such stories.

I think people think that revolution and unrest in America will happen back east in Washington and New York and on the west coast. They will wakeup some morning and be surprised because once the economy fails it will affect everyone across America and around the world. It will happen locally here just like everywhere else. It won't radiate from the east and west coast to Greeley. It will radiate from Greeley and every other city and town outward. People will attack at a local level at what immediately affects them her, now, and today! Ever see the video of pingpon balls set on mouse traps? One small thing dropped on one will set the whole lot of them off. And that's what it will look like.

No, you cannot solve the problem by only cutting budgets, but you also can't solve it by just moving horizontally and spending in other areas like usual. A part of the solution lies with each and everyone of us. And there's the rub. We have become so spoiled we don't care about ourselves, our kids, or our country. We won't understand until it's all gone.

[Bobby J.]

Trib wants more illegal taxes. http://www.greeleytribune.com/article/20110614/OPINION/706149955/1029&ParentProfile=1025

A street fee assessed to every resident is as bold of Tabor violation as a person could imagine. The water fee is kind of okay because every resident purchases water and the water fund is an enterprise fund.

Faster is kind of okay because the fee is assessed to your vehicle registration although they made Faster an enterprise after the fact. Oddly enough the CDOT enterprise is the same people and same board as CDOT. Clearly a Tabor work-a-round.

The Tribune needs to realize that moist road maintenance revenue has been stolen and used for NEW roads such as the giant 4 lane north of town, heading to Windsor.

Stop building new roads and start repairing old roads. Growth should pay for new roads such as North 10th expansion.

The Tribune is advocating the destruction of the Colorado Constitution. This same documents prohibits murder.

Greeley residents sit by and watch Brett Reese,lol. In the meantime, you are getting led to the slaughter.

Where is the organized resistance?

http://www.greeleytribune.com/article/20110614/OPINION/706149955/1029&ParentProfile=1025

[Powerball]

Greeley has always been a town run by a good-o-boy network.
It always has been run for that groups benefit and it always will.
That's what the Tribune is all about. It's just a megaphone so Hispanics think it all about them, but they're wrong. It's about the good-o-boy's yet again. They don't care what the town looks like; they all live in Aspen and other rich areas. The cheaper the labor is here the better it is for them! Middle class church goers use to be their labor force, but the good-o-boys found a cheaper way when illegal immigration began to happen. So the Tribune pumped it and the the middle class moved away.
Greeley is nothing more now than a cheap whore for these guys. Look at her cheap cloths, painted face that runs in the rain, and her failing health. Soon she will be treated like a leper by surrounding cities. Just last year a bar and resturant in Fort Collins was turning away patrons if they were from Greeley.

[Brian]

CuppaJoe - so I guess you don't want this site to be held to a higher standard? Besides - I don't read the Tribune.

[greeleygirl]

This is the same old stuff I have been hearing since I moved here.. What's new?

[Dennis]

When I had my business one of my customers was Buck Knives. They were in San Diego California for over 60 years. California increased its regulations, increasing worker's compensation rates to unmanageable levels. They moved to Post Falls Idaho 5 or 6 years ago. That was no small feat for them. We need look no farther than California to see what liberals will do to our country.

Why can't we lower the unemployment rate?

[CuppaJoe]

Brian. Whenever you read an article like this in the Tribune it's fine. Shut up.

[Brian]

Must be a slow news day... another generalized speculative post with no reference points.

[Bobby J.]

You also have to pay for infrastructure. These costs are phenomenal. Who knew paving a road with illegal labor and substandard materials could be so costly and require so much maintenance.