Welcome to 2025. May it be the most boring year ever.
Over the holidays, I taped a segment of “New Hampshire’s Business” with WMUR veteran Fred Kocher and Business NH Magazine editor Matt Mowry. It was time for Fred’s annual “crystal ball” episode, so we were prepped to talk about the year ahead.
The morning of the taping, I looked up last year’s episode to make sure I didn’t wear the same tie again. I also wanted a refresher on what we talked about. Big surprise: lack of housing, lack of child care — challenges that follow us into 2025.
I was also reminded that I participated remotely via Zoom for the December 2023 episode: I was in quarantine with my second case of COVID-19, though I suffered no symptoms (unlike my wife).
This year marks the fifth anniversary of the coronavirus pandemic, a worldwide outbreak blamed for the deaths of more than 7 million people, including 1.2 million in the United States and about 3,000 in New Hampshire.
COVID-19 upended every aspect of our lives. It shut down many businesses for months and spiked unemployment in New Hampshire to nearly 17%. We became instant converts to Zoom, Microsoft Teams, Webex and Google Meet and dusted off Skype. Social distancing became our mantra. It seemed like every idle manufacturing plant started pumping out hand sanitizer.
We started working remotely from home and were distracted regularly by the sound of delivery trucks for Amazon, FedEx and UPS racing up and down our streets, dropping off important merchandise, like toilet paper and Lysol.
Fred, Matt and I didn’t have time to talk about the pandemic during the five-minute “New Hampshire’s Business” segment, a rapid-fire program where we try to pour a gallon of news into a tiny cup.
It’s been on my mind as USA 500, a business networking group I belong to, plans its annual ski day at Loon Mountain Resort. Five years ago this February, our group was gathered in a private meeting room during which the conversation was peppered with talk about a strange flu outbreak that was hitting nursing homes in the Pacific Northwest. It seemed so far away and hardly something for local concern.
COVID-19 never went away. We’ve just learned to live with it. Businesses, including restaurants, retailers and health care providers, are still grappling with a shortage of workers. Businesses and consumers are still battling high prices that spiked during the pandemic and are only now beginning to stabilize.
What will this year’s unknown factors be? Check out longtime columnist Brad Cook’s latest “Cook on Concord” column for a refresher on what President-elect Donald Trump has on his to-do list — any of which has the potential to have a major impact on the economy.
The issues we did touch upon during our TV talk included how new Gov. Kelly Ayotte and the Legislature will address state revenue shortfalls as they create the next two-year state budget, the state’s continuing battle with opioid addiction and homelessness, and business concerns about cybersecurity. On the upside, we noted the rise of New Hampshire’s life sciences industry and the importance of the state’s health care industry.
My wish for “the most boring year ever” means only one where we aren’t blindsided by world events. With two major wars that show no signs of ending and acts of terror becoming commonplace both abroad and in the Unites States, we know to brace ourselves for some level of chaos.
When I finished the first draft of this column, the L.A. fires that have destroyed more than 12,000 structures and killed at least 24 people had yet to ignite. Chaos, sadly, found California right away this year.
The challenges we face in New Hampshire are not easily solved but within reach if we keep trying. As the giant sign inside the Life is Good T-shirt production center in Hudson reminds me, they are, like most everything else, “figureoutable.”
Talking about housing
NeighborWorks Southern New Hampshire has invited me to speak at its annual breakfast, 7:30 to 9 a.m., March 27, at the Manchester Country Club in Bedford. (Check out nwsnh.org. for ticket information.)
So far, I have a title for my talk — “Homeward Bound: Housing — and lots of it — is key to NH’s future.”
NeighborWorks Southern New Hampshire has more than 500 apartments in its rental portfolio. The nonprofit serves 81 communities and has housed more than 1,600 people.
If you have some housing news or ideas you’d like to share, please send them along to mikecote@yankeepub.com.
