Hammer time: in a state filled with jewels like Lanier's hardware, more respect and less sniping would be nice.

• Author: Mudenberg, David
• Position: Up Front

Stopping in Lexington seemed like a good way to break up a recent Saturday morning drive from Charlotte to Greensboro, given our magazine's recent focus on the Piedmont city. Last month's cover story described how the state's biggest Ponzi scheme took shape there, and this month's profiles a developer with deep family roots in Davidson County. One quickly learns on a stroll down Main Street that there is a lot more to Lexington than barbecue, bamboozlers and shuttered furniture factories. The jewel of the city is Lanier's Hardware, a 75-year-old general store selling baseball cleats, chowchow, potting soil and every tool, bolt and home-improvement product known to humankind. The family-owned business covers most of a city block, feels more like the 1960s than 2015, and is filled with friendly staffers who could teach Nordstrom or Disney something about customer service.

As Lexington's world-class hardware store shows, every town, city and state has distinct attributes that deserve appreciation. This month's issue includes commentaries from the mayors of Asheville and Blowing Rock attesting to the strengths of their communities. But talk can be cheap. Unfortunately, the more common impulse seems to be a back-stabbing rivalry between states and regions, and between urban, suburban and rural areas.

Our new columnist, Ken Otterbourg, makes that point in discussing the North Carolina vs. South Carolina donnybrook over attracting jobs. (Fortunately, he backs our state, else we wouldn't let him write.) Separately, Senior Contributing Editor Ed Martin tackles the thorny issue of regional cooperation in the Triad, which at times features regional dysfunction.

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