South By North Strategies, Ltd.

The latest issue of Carolina Context, a publication of the UNC Program on Public Life,  summarizes the findings of a two-year study into how the future of North Carolina’s Eastern Region can be viewed “as a metropolitan opportunity rather than a rural problem.”  From the report’s conclusion …

As identified in our inquiry and interviews, the region has significant assets—miles and miles of coastline and riverfront property, 11 community colleges, two military installations and related communities, and East Carolina University, the state’s third-largest public university by total student head-count, second-ranked in undergraduate enrollment. The challenge that emerges from our study is how to take fuller advantage of these assets to expand business opportunities, to provide more jobs for residents, to lift personal income and to enhance the quality of life.
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And yet, we found that barriers anchored in history continue to inhibit economic vitality and progress. Barriers include lingering racial attitudes and intra-community rivalries. Still, we found residents of the region eager to talk about their aspirations and the course of their communities.

The report continues …

The region can no longer count on tobacco and small-shop manufacturing as its economic foundation. Likewise, Eastern North Carolina can no longer count on its current crop of long-time leaders of the baby-boom generation, many of whom will surely age out of their leadership roles after many years of service. Discussions of the region’s future often turn to the need for fresh leadership. Young professionals in the East appear less invested in old rivalries between towns and more concerned with building communities that work for themselves and their children. Thus, local and regional governments, businesses, nonprofits and schools should create mechanisms to engage young adults in informed conversations on the future of the region.