Here's the upside of a down business year
In a year of rising gas prices, falling home prices, a deflated dollar and growing signs of economic deterioration, it's easy to get discouraged.
By Jeff Harrington, Times Deputy Business Editor
Published December 31, 2007
In a year of rising gas prices, falling home prices, a deflated dollar and growing signs of economic deterioration, it's easy to get discouraged. The ol' insurance crisis isn't quite fixed and the debate over a dysfunctional property tax system is dividing Floridians. No wonder consumer confidence hovers at the lowest levels since Katrina struck and a recent Leadership Florida survey detects an upswing in pessimists. Take heart: 2007 wasn't all mortgage meltdowns and credit crunches. Here's a look at 10 of the most encouraging business stories of the year:
1 The Markets Keep Rebounding Neither rising oil prices nor subprime mortgage shakeouts can derail the Dow. After all the turbulence, the Dow Jones is on pace to end the year up about 8 percent.
2 Florida's Growth Slows A well-needed respite to Florida's meteoric growth is good news to let planners of roadways, bridges and other projects catch up. Not to mention letting more school children avoid portable classrooms.
3 Trump Tower Isn't Built Though disappointing to a cadre of local developers, those who had plopped down deposits for the proposed Tampa skyscraper and The Donald himself, this could be a good thing. The high-end condo market didn't need more competition.
4 Chamber Embraces Youth Movement Emerge Tampa, a chamber spin-off for young professionals, expands to include Clearwater and morphs into Emerge Tampa Bay while Largo launches HYPE Pinellas (a.k.a. Helping Young Professionals Emerge)
5 Florida Gets on the Green Bandwagon Biomass, e-grass and solar, oh my! Florida utilities and regulators shift away from carbon-emitting coal plants in favor of greener energy-producing alternatives.
6 SRI starts strong As part of its big biotech push, the state lured California-based SRI International to open a St. Petersburg campus. In less than a year, SRI said it wanted to expand its scope beyond marine research, maritime security and nanotechnology.
7 St. Pete-Clearwater Airport Gets a Lift After peaking at 1.3-million in 2004, passenger numbers plummeted to less than 400,000 in 2006. But it jumped up about 200,000 this year thanks to the arrival of fast-growing discounter Allegiant Air.
8 Exporters Have a Reason to Cheer As the value of the U.S. dollar falls, the glass is half-full if you're a Florida company peddling your products overseas.
9 We have Jobs Florida's unemployment has ticked up a percentage point over the year, but we're still stronger than the national average. The growth industries: health care, education and leisure.
10 NO HURRICANES! A few more seasons like this to bolster the state's catastrophe fund and the reserves of Citizens Property Insurance and homeowners may actually see some substantive insurance rate cuts. We can hope.