Money Magazine

The nice thing about having a fringe blog is that I don't get a lot of hate mail when I post something controversial, or when the N&O prints one of my letters. Here's what the N&O said today about the Money Magazine writing campaign:

OVERRATED: Cary resident Joe Ciulla has a gripe with Money Magazine's calling his town one of the best places to live.

So he's trying to spark a letter writing campaign to try to get the magazine to "take another look" at his hometown.

His gripe: A school system that shuffles kids around and will force some to attend year-round schools.

"I believe my letter to Money Magazine was one of the first," he wrote in recent e-mail. "I have spoken with several others who thought this initiative was gaining momentum, but can't tell you who started it or how many people have participated."

Cary is a bedroom community to Research Triangle Park, and that's ok. We do not need to become a 'player' in international commerce. Under the former administration, Cary showed that impact fees can slow growth, that's ok too. All growth is not good growth. When our families suffer because of school turmoil, when our utility bills triple because infrastructure is not there, and when we spend our mornings snarled in traffic, how can we think the runaway growth rate is good for citizens? Apart from the sense of pride we as Cary residents have had in our Money Magazine ranking, the major beneficiaries of reduced impact fees are builders and developers (Who have been making a nice living these days). The fees need to go up. A scaled approach is best, minimizing the impact to first-time home buyers. Every year the gap between Cary general budget revenues and expenses is shrinking, raising fees may help stem the tide. Please consider writing a letter to Money Magazine, contact information is in my earlier post on this subject.