At 8:30 Saturday morning, just under
1,000 new graduates of Coastal
Carolina University
will march across the stage in Brooks Stadium and turn their tassels from right
to left. On Monday evening, hundreds more from Horry-Georgetown
Technical College
will follow suit at the Myrtle
Beach Convention Center.
Many of those graduates will be
hoping to head into the workforce, looking to land their first professional job
in the post-college adult world. And many of them may be in for a rude
awakening.
A hundred new jobs and another
company headquarters in the county? Yes, please.
News this week that gunmaker PTR
Industries is considering Horry County as it gets ready to leave Connecticut is exciting news for our area,
which is recovering from the recession, but not as quickly as we would like.
Dozens of new well-paying jobs (averaging $20-21 an hour) would be a noticeable
and welcome boost to our area.
Is the area poised for a comeback?
Sunday’s editorial sure hopes so:
Spring is nearly here. Blooms are
starting to peek out and pollen will soon fill the air. It’s an optimistic time
of year as the world wakes from its wintry slumber, and this year we’ve got
even more reason for optimism: building signs are popping up around town, and
construction sites are buzzing once more.
The national jobless report released
Friday morning held good news for all of us concerned about the economy, but
particularly good news for our region, as many of our main industries were
among the top job creators. Construction businesses added 48,000 jobs. Leisure
and hospitality added 24,000. And retailers added 23,700. All three are major
drivers of our local employment situation, and after years of attempting to
claw our way out of the hole dug in the recession, it’s encouraging to see some
daylight at last.
Friday’s second editorial explains
why local folks should be paying attention to the ongoing debate over raising
the minimum wage:
When the president unveiled his plan
to raise the minimum wage from $7.25 to $9 an hour during his State of the
Union address earlier this month, we sat up and paid attention. After all, the Myrtle Beach metro area,
with its emphasis on tourism and hospitality industries, consistently ranks
right at the bottom of the nation when it comes to hourly and annual earnings
for local workers.
Friday’s editorial, on this most consumerist
of days, urges shoppers to not forget the little guys in their frenzy to spend
that hard-earned cash:
So you’ve got your Black Friday all
mapped out, from the early morning wait at Best Buy to the mid-morning scramble
through Wal-Mart to the afternoon marathon at the mall. Before you wrap up the
weekend, however, save some time -- and money -- for Saturday.
Once again, smaller retailers across
the nation will be marking Small Business Saturday, a chance for shoppers to
support the local, smaller entities that drive our economy. It’s a worthy
cause, as many of these less gargantuan organizations can struggle to compete
this time of year with the marketing budgets of nationwide big box stores and
chains.
Thursday’s editorial gets in on the
holiday spirit:
Today, we as a nation set apart a
time specifically for giving thanks, a day for looking back upon the gifts of
the past year and reflecting on all the good that we have borne witness to.
Rooted in our country’s harsh Puritan heritage and made official in 1863 by
Abraham Lincoln in the midst of our worst trial as a nation, the holiday is
more than just a time to gather with family and friends and loosen our belts a
notch or two.
Sunday’s editorial offers the
editorial board’s thoughts on the presidential election:
Few things about this presidential
election have lent themselves to unambiguous, clear decisions, despite what the
campaigns and their diehard supporters might like us to believe. Neither of the
major candidates is a miraculous savior or unmitigated fiend. Both stand before
U.S.
voters with significant high and low points, and nobody has managed to leap to
the fore as the obviously better choice.
For proof, you need look no further
than the latest polling data. We give our fellow Americans credit for being
fairly smart and invested in the future of this nation, and as such, if the
decision on picking our next leader were an easy one, we wouldn’t be coming
down to the wire with two candidates that are still neck and neck.
Saturday’s editorial shares our
recommendation for who should be the first representative from our new 7th
Congressional District:
Color us frustrated, exasperated and
disappointed.
After having high hopes for Democrat
Gloria Bromell Tinubu, who has many of the qualities necessary to succeed in
Congress, her recent behavior has revealed enough of her character to sour us
on her campaign.
How does a tourist destination like Myrtle Beach remain
appealing to the millions of visitors who come into town each year, not to
mention the thousands of us who call the city home? It does its best to spruce
itself up from time to time and keep its image fresh and inviting. That’s what’s
a variety of local committees are tackling these days in noteworthy projects
throughout the city.
We’re getting tired of waiting for
updated coastal policies. Especially as development picks up again after the
recession, it’s time to get moving, as Thursday’s editorial explains:
Few things in government move
particularly quickly. We’ve accepted the reailty that delays in public
initiatives are inevitable and progress is painfully slow. But South Carolina’s
plodding efforts to prepare new guidelines for managing the state’s shoreline
are trying our patience.
Five years after the state’s
Department of Health and Environmental Control began its Shoreline Change
Initiative to update coastal policy, the policies are still being developed,
discussed and haggled over. Meanwhile, the coast continues to require
expensive, regular renourishment, development rules are still fairly lax and
misunderstood, and instead of the state’s hoped for retreat from the coast, builders
have continued to erect or redevelop property seaward of the line drawn in the
sand 25 years ago.
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