Top 10 Forecasts for 2050

I got the Kiplinger Letter to publish the top 10 forecasts for the year, which appeared every January. It is still continuing, as far as I know. I wrote a few months ago that I don’t believe in forecasts, but, hey, this is a new year! Here are my Southside forecasts for 2025:

1.  The Prizery will continue as a successful artistic center in South Boston, despite a change of board and management. Halifax County Little Theater will carry most of the weight of the county’s live musicals

2.  The University of North Carolina football team will have a record year for attendance because of the greatest coach in the history of pro football, Bill Belichick. He’ll have trouble adjusting to college football at first, but his experience with the New England Patriots dynasty will eventually carry him to success.

3.  The Clarksville Community Players will have another blockbuster season in their 52nd  year. “Fiddler on the Roof” on March 28-29 and April 4-6  will be a big hit.

4.  Now that all of those businesses moved out of Riverdale, it won’t flood. (After we had to shovel deep snow at our house in Arlington, we moved to an apartment. It never snowed like that again.)

5.  Despite their misgivings, more people will turn to AI to get information, threatening Google’s search engine. News media and other content providers will fight it to no avail. They’ll eventually join, as musicians and writers did to iTunes and Spotify.

6.  The public will reduce its resistance to self-driving cars, just as they stopped worrying so much about  ordering online with a credit card. Tesla’s early breakthrough will catch on with other vehicles, especially among older people when the car can see and think better than they can.

7.  Danville’s new casino will have a great year, drawing tourists from all over. But expectations of its impact on the city’s economy may be too optimistic.

8.  The new Halifax County High School will open this summer with a lot of fanfare.

9.  Cable and network TV audiences will keep dwindling as streaming grows. More shows will be on a la carte services rather than free or than all-you-can-watch networks. And expect more ads.

10. The sun will come up on Jan. 1, 2026, and we will survive the ups and downs of government and politics regardless of our feelings. I expect to be here in full health, and I hope you are too.