When I was eight years old, my family moved to Statesville for my dad’s work. Compared to Taylorsville, where I’d spent my life so far, the beating heart of Iredell County might as well have been downtown Manhattan. It was an exciting place to be—if Taylorsville was an example of a community getting left behind, Statesville showcased what happened when a community received investment.
You see, although Statesville and Taylorsville were both practically right next door to one another, although they were both old railroad towns, there was one key difference that cemented their fortunes: the interstate highway system.
When the Federal Highway Act passed in 1956, our government got to work, leveraging a massive investment in infrastructure to connect our country. The history of America’s highway system can be a mixed bag, but the economic benefits to the communities along the new interstates were undeniable: and over the decades, I-40 and I-77 put Statesville on the map.
Even today, at a time when communities across our state have seen blue collar jobs evaporate throughout the last few decades, many of Statesville’s top employers are manufacturing companies, and they’re in Statesville because our transportation infrastructure gives them easy access to workers and shipping. Over the time I was growing up there, the city’s population grew by nearly 40%—meanwhile, Taylorsville hardly changed at all.
Because here’s the thing, John: Statesville was mostly lucky. By the simple luck of geography, it happened to be a more convenient way to get between Winston-Salem and Asheville than Taylorsville would have been, so I-40 runs through it. Where Taylorsville—and countless other communities in the area—stagnated, Statesville has continued to grow, and today, it’s a city of almost 30,000 people.
That might not seem like much compared to Raleigh or Charlotte, but it showcases that Statesville is a place people are moving into rather than out of. In short, it’s a place where people feel like they can find opportunity.
One of the most important things our Treasurer does is help our state and its municipalities invest in critical infrastructure projects—highways, railroads, ports, airports, public transportation, and more. We need a Treasurer who’s going to see the value in every part of our state, someone who’ll understand that a community like Taylorsville could succeed the way Statesville has if we believe in the potential of its people and invest in them.
