Happy New Year 2008 !

Greetings and salutations!

Well, the calander has finally flipped and 2008 is well upon us now. FutureGen took the easy way out and went to Illinois. (*sigh*) Oh well. With as much work has been done on this already, I have no doubt that progress will now step forward to something even bigger and better than a government funded project anyway.

The Permian Basin has officially seen $100/barrell oil! History has been made. Sucks for us at the gas pump, but it foretells a productive year for Midland and the oil industry.

Other things to look forward to in Midland 2008:

Real Estate development.
"The Palms" apartment complex is very near completion and will be the first of many new apartment complexes for Midland in a long time. Nice too.
Shopping centers. Development around the new Wal-Mart on I-20 is still going like gangbusters. Holiday Inn Express, Complex Community FCU and many others are either out of the ground or getting ready to break ground. There is also a new shopping center going in north of ClayDesta along Big Spring. Looks good!
And how many new housing additions do we have now? A baker's dozen or so? I can't even keep up. Between new apartments and new housing developments going up, I think 2008 will be the year we can kiss our "housing shortage" goodbye.

Now where's all the people?
Unemployment in Midland keeps hitting record lows. I e-mailed MONEY magazine and told one their writers about Midland. I had read an article recently about "Prosperous Cities" despite the housing downturn around the nation and was surprised to see Midland was not mentioned. Well, I moved to correct that rather quickly. But will I get credit for turning that idea over to a national publication? NOOOOooooooooooo........... (Cue the Steve Martin impersonation) Ah well, maybe Midland will get a blurb or two. Who knows.

New Politicians. Joy?
OH... the drama! Midland has a new Mayor now, and new city council members. I'll be at the Midland Center Monday for their swaring in. It was a very dramatic election for many reasons, but we made it through and now... we have new people coming in. I wish them all well and hope for good things. We'll soon see if it was a good thing or not.

There's plenty more to talk about, but the clock is ticking.
Y'all have a good one and I'll be back again soon.

Ciao!