Wake County boom - 35 births a day

You can almost feel the population growing in Wake County and North Carolina. The rapid growth is fueled by people moving to the area and a surge in new births - up to 35 each day.

According to the report, "nearly 13,000 babies were born last year to Wake residents -- an average of about 35 a day". This adds greatly to the pressure for new schools, health care, day care and other services. The report also notes that "Wake's birth rate ranked third in the nation among fast-growing counties over 500,000, according to the latest census data from July 2006".

News and Observer
July 29, 2007
Todd Silberman, Staff Writer

Baby boom: 35 births in Wake each day
A boom in births,13,000 a year, is a big part of the surge in Wake County population. Hospitals, day-care centers, schools and pediatrics practices strain to keep up.

For every two people who move to Wake County, another arrives as the ultimate newcomer -- a newborn.

In all, nearly 13,000 babies were born last year to Wake residents -- an average of about 35 a day. No other Triangle county averages more than a dozen births daily.

"It's been tough to keep up with," said Deb Friberg, chief operating officer of WakeMed, which includes two of the three hospitals in the county where babies are delivered.

"The demand for services has grown much faster than we expected," Friberg said. "We expected increases in births of 2 to 3 percent a year. What we've seen instead is 5 to 6 percent growth."

It's not uncommon for either WakeMed Raleigh Campus or Rex Hospital to see the arrival of more than 20 babies in a day -- enough from one maternity ward to fill a future kindergarten class.

Long before those children reach school age, their numbers are being felt. Parents are often left scrambling for day care unless they reserve a spot at least a year in advance. Pediatricians' offices are jammed. Read more...

NC Health Care for Women Gets Mixed Grades

NC Women's health care gets mixed grades in new report from the Center for Women's Health Research at UNC-Chapel Hill.

The good news...

• Fewer women are smoking and dying from heart disease and stroke, and more are getting screenings for cancer

The bad news...

• Social barriers are worsening. More than 16 percent of all North Carolina women have no health insurance
• Diabetes, obesity and high cholesterol are rapidly increasing in women
• mental health trends show a growing population of women depressed after giving birth, and depressed in general, especially among African-Americans

This continues an alarming number of declining or mixed trends reflecting poor progress in many areas during the administration of Governor Mike Easley and Lt. Governor Beverly Perdue.

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News and Observer
July 26, 2007
Carolina Astigarraga, Staff Writer

Report: NC Lags in care for women
UNC center gives "F" grades on diabetes, health insurance

RALEIGH - When Pam Dickens found a lump in her breast two years ago, she was confronted with some bad news.

It was not that the lump was necessarily malignant -- it was that because she was in a wheelchair, she could not even take a mammogram to find out.

Dickens, women's health coordinator for the N.C. Office on Disability and Health, hopes the 2007 North Carolina Women's Health Report Card will help more handicapped women get the care they need. Nearly one in three women in North Carolina have some disability, according to the report. Read more...

Preserving disappearing farmland

Time is short to preserve farmland in North Carolina. Open land is disappearing quickly and by the 2025 time frame driving through the scenic countryside will be a thing of the past unless something is done soon to save farms from the onslaught of developers greedy to turn fields into homes and shops.

The Perry family has taken a small step to preserve 50 acres of their farm and he is trying to get other area farmers to do the same. This is a small step that could help save at least a small portion of open land that farmers and land owners could easily take.

News and Observer
July 24, 2007
Peggy Lin, Staff Writer

Time short for farmland preservation
Development puts a premium on land in Wake, other urban counties

Larry Perry and his brother never want to see subdivisions on farmland that has been in their family since before the Civil War.

Last year, they gave up the right to put houses on 50 acres of their farm in exchange for $475,000 from Wake County and the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Perry tries to persuade other farmers to do something similar. He gives talks in Wake and Johnston counties and welcomes visitors to his farm near Zebulon.

"People say I wish we would have done this or that," Perry said. "But it's too late after it's got asphalt on it."

As farming has ebbed following the 2004 tobacco buyout, conservationists hope to catch the wave of aging or retiring farmers looking for other uses for their land. It's a race against developers who are swooping into previously rural areas, such as eastern Wake County. Read more...

North Carolina losing road battle

North Carolina simply can't keep up with highway maintenance and cannot provide needed roads according to David Hartgen, a transportation expert in Charlotte.

A report in the July 9, 2007, Greensboro News-Record quotes Mr. Hartgen's study as ranking North Carolina "ninth worst in the nation for poor pavement conditions on all rural roads and 11th worst for deficient bridges (nearly a third subpar) and for poor pavement conditions on urban interstates.

According to Mr. Hartgen "We're actually losing ground. We have lost the initiative. We have lost the leadership."

In recent comments about the NC DOT and the state of our roads I have said several times that this is a top-down problem in the state and the problem is not going to improve as long as the current administration is in office. Neither the Governor or DOT leaders seem to have any solutions that will produce or find enough funding to solve N.C.'s road problems. We will continue to drive through potholes, see frequent news articles about insufficient funds for road projects and live with serious traffic congestion in all areas of the state for the next few years.

Greensboro News-Record
Jul 9, 2007
Taft Wireback, Staff Writer

N.C. losing speed as roadwork stalls

North Carolina is evolving from the "Good Roads State" to the "Good God State" as it lags behind other parts of the nation in improving urban freeways, rural roads and bridges, said David Hartgen, a transportation expert in Charlotte.

The state simply is not keeping up with others — particularly Texas — that have made stronger commitments to combat congestion and upgrade maintenance, said Hartgen, whose recent national study showed that 72 percent of the Tar Heel state's urban interstates are congested.

"We're actually losing ground," Hartgen said. "We have lost the initiative. We have lost the leadership."

Hartgen, an emeritus professor of transportation studies at UNC-Charlotte, prepared a recently released study for the Reason Foundation, a nonprofit, conservative think tank based in California.

The study found that North Carolina has the most state-maintained miles of highway among all states, a total of almost 80,000 miles, which puts it slightly ahead of former frontrunner Texas.

But Texas is improving its road network with a massive effort to virtually eliminate congestion, while North Carolina is lagging with urban freeways that have the nation's fourth-worst problems with congestion, Hartgen found.

In addition, Hartgen's study ranked North Carolina ninth worst in the nation for poor pavement conditions on all rural roads and 11th worst for deficient bridges (nearly a third subpar) and for poor pavement conditions on urban interstates.

Money is key to the differing approaches in North Carolina and Texas, the numbers in Hartgen's detailed study suggest, with North Carolina raising about $3.5 billion per year to maintain and improve its gigantic system.

By contrast, Texas nets more than $8.6 billion yearly, a significant amount from toll roads, Hartgen said.

The good news for residents of the Greensboro area, Hartgen says, is that it stands out for generally being in better shape than the rest of the state.

New sections of the Urban Loop will be opened this year, routing Interstate 40 around the city and linking the airport area more effectively with Interstate 85.

And unlike most others in North Carolina, the Greensboro-area Metropolitan Planning Organization has a solid, well-thought-out plan for combatting gridlock, Hartgen said.

"Greensboro gets good marks, although they have a too-high percentage of money set aside for public transit," said Hartgen, who said he thinks cities need serviceable systems — but not elaborate ones — for those who have no other way of getting around.

Hartgen is particularly dismissive of regional transit proposals aimed at forging a commuter rail link between Greensboro and Winston-Salem.

"It's just silly talk," he said. "The feds simply aren't going to fund it."

Hartgen said the reality is that people drive cars most places, and alternative modes of travel rank a distant second for the majority of residents.

That means lots of people in lots of cars — which, Hartgen said, is a pretty good definition of congestion in places where roads are not wide enough for traffic volumes or are not effectively maintained.

"We are creating a culture of congestion," he said. "If you ask 100 people what's the biggest transportation problem, 90 say congestion. Yet there is no serious plan to reduce congestion in any of our cities."

Copyright © 2007, The News & Record and Landmark Communications, Inc. Original article...

Smoke Free At Last

At last - a North Carolina public facility takes charge and goes smoke free!

After years of public debate and tolerance of smoke clouding the entrances of most public places, NC hospitals have taken a step to be a leader in community health and has banned "use of tobacco products anywhere on hospital property for employees, patients and visitors".

Granted this may be difficult to enforce but it is a major step to help all of us have clean air to breath and avoid constant exposure to second hand smoke when we go in public places.

Now if only state Legislators would be responsible and have the courage to take the same step for all state facilities instead of giving in to pressure from tobacco lobbyists and big business, the trend could move forward to help everyone have clean air to breath.

July 4, 2007
NBC-17 - Health and Fitness

Area hospitals go smoke free

RALEIGH, N.C. -- This July Fourth, Duke University Health System, UNC Healthcare and WakeMed Health and Hospitals are celebrating their independence from tobacco.

In Raleigh, WakeMed is clearing the air by declaring a 100 percent tobacco-free campus.

While hospitals have banned the use of tobacco products inside their buildings for years, this new policy prohibits the use of tobacco products anywhere on hospital property for employees, patients and visitors.

"Hundreds of people die per year as a result of tobacco use and the effects that it's had on their health, and so for us, with leaders in health, we just felt it very important that we take a step forward and make our campuses all tobacco-free," WakeMed RN Barbara Bisset said.

WakeMed officials said they'll approach violators courteously and will offer them sugar-free chewing gum instead.

The hospitals have also asked for help from employees to help enforce the new policy.

NC traffic among worst in nation

More bad news about trends in NC during Governor Easley's administration. A new study places traffic in North Carolina among the worst in the nation.

On top of frequent news about problems and delays in major road projects and insufficient funds to build new roads and repair existing ones, NC can't seem to keep up with growth in traffic anywhere in the state. This may be just a sign of the times but it is likely the DOT organization simply doesn't have the knowledge and leadership to properly plan for growth or find ways to produce funding for what is needed. It is most likely a top down issue and is consistent throughout the state. News articles frequently place blame for problems and construction delays on lower level staffers and never suggest that leadership is at fault.

Poor roads, sloppy maintenance and heavy traffic are visible all around the state. The quality of roads in neighboring states generally seems to be better than in NC and it seems that this trend continues to worsen.

The following AP article from the Winston-Salem Journal compares the best and worst state locations and indicates traffic in NC continues to worsen.

June 28, 2007
Associated Press

Study ranks NC traffic among worst in nation

WASHINGTON - Motorists in California, Minnesota, New Jersey and North Carolina have been stuck in some of the worst traffic in the United States, according to a study released today.

North Dakota and South Carolina roads rated highest in the study's overall rankings, while New Jersey roads ranked the lowest. The study ranked Montana highways as the deadliest in the nation.

The study, based on data from 1984 through 2005, found that while road conditions have improved in recent years, traffic congestion and highway fatalities have increased slightly.

The state-by-state evaluation of highways was conducted by UNC Charlotte and financed by the Reason Foundation, a libertarian think tank based in Los Angeles.

With the federal highway fund running short of money for major highway projects, state governments are faced with having to pick up a greater share of the cost of building and maintaining highways.

Dr. David T. Hartgen, the highway study's lead author, says the results show that states need to prioritize, directing their transportation money to projects specifically designed to reduce congestion.

"Gridlock isn't going away," Hartgen said.

The study ranked highway systems in each state according to their cost-effectiveness, which was determined with several factors including traffic fatalities, congestion, pavement condition, bridge condition, highway maintenance and administrative costs. Evaluations were done on highways and all state-owned roads.

The five states with the most cost-effective roads, according to the study, are North Dakota, South Carolina, Kansas, New Mexico and Montana. The bottom five states are New Jersey, Alaska, New York, Rhode Island and Hawaii.

The study found that traffic fatalities rose by less than 1 percent between 2004 and 2005. Montana had the deadliest roads, with 2.3 fatalities per 100 million vehicle miles traveled. Massachusetts roads were the safest, with 0.8 deaths per 100 million vehicle miles.

Congestion rose by a similar amount. According the study, almost 52 percent of the nation's urban interstate highways were regularly congested in 2005, the last year included in the evaluation.

In a statement, Transportation Secretary Mary Peters said that congestion has nearly tripled in metropolitan areas during the past 25 years despite increases in spending over that period. Resolving the issue has been a priority for the department, which last year announced a plan to combat gridlock through long-terms investments in key corridors.

"It's so important to get our transportation policies headed in the right direction - away from the federal government and back to the states and localities where innovation in America has always originated," she said.

Congress will have to find new sources of revenue if it wants to tackle the problems, said Matt Jeanneret, spokesman for American Road and Transportation Builders Association. His group estimates that Americans spend 47 hours a year stuck in traffic.

"This illustrates the capacity crisis that is facing this country, which is only going to get worse if trends stay the same," Jeanneret said. "We are bursting at the seams with motor vehicles and we're not adding capacity to that."

Janet Kavinoky, who works on transportation issues at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, says the nation's traffic woes are at crisis levels. "There's more bad news coming," she said. "You hate holiday traffic? Pretty soon it's going to be business as usual."