This is an interesting article in which The Associated Press draws parallels between the near-demise of the American steel makers and the current plight of The Big Three.
Like Steel, Detroit automakers are beset by foreign competition, high labor costs, a huge number of retirees and union rules that work to place the company at a competitive disadvantage to the Japenese, The AP reports.
Steel makers negotiated major concessions from workers under bankruptcy, the article says. At the time of its restructuring, the steel industry was paying health care costs for nine …

Senator Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) and Congressmen Tim Ryan (D-Ohio) and Brian Higgins (D-New York) have introduced legislation to provide $350 million for community development to 30 shrinking cities including Youngstown.
The program would make available funds to demolish abandoned properties, find innovative uses for old structures, create green space and new city planning, according to Brown’s Web site.
“It will help communities across Ohio that have been hit by the housing crisis and economic downturn,” Sen. Brown said. “Together, we can revitalize neighborhoods and bring new economic growth.”
The bill was written in …

I’m always skeptical when local governments – or gaming proponents - try to sell gambling as the cure for our region’s ills. Ohio voters have rejected casino proposals several times, but there are casinos in Detroit, and also in my hometown of Erie, Pa.
But this article from the Erie Times-News details how revenues from the Presque Isle Downs & Casino is helping lower property tax bills for a number of area residents.
“The stock market can’t seem to recover. Manufacturers slash jobs. Gas prices inch upward.  In these trying economic times, thank goodness …

I enjoyed this blog post by a Detroit blogger about how he gave a brief tour of his city to a reporter for Time Magazine. He unfortunately only had a brief period of time to show him an extremely interesting and complex city, but it sounds like he did the best he could.
http://www.sweet-juniper.com/2009/02/100-true-story-of-how-i-polluted-time.html
“But asking me to show you around Detroit is sort of like asking a devout Mormon to show you around Las Vegas: you’re not going to see what the convention bureau or the city boosters would prefer. I …

The Cleveland Diocese is planning to close 50 churches, leaving parishioners praying their spiritual home won’t be one of those that’s shuttered.
The diocese plans to close one-third of its churches. Most affected will be inner-city parishes in Cleveland, Akron and Elyria.
Membership in the catholic diocese reflects population patterns in Northeast Ohio and throughout the Rust Belt. Since 2006, the diocese’s membership has declined from 1 million to 800,000 and those that remain are more widely dispersed between the surrounding counties, The Plain Dealer reports.
“We’re just too big for the number of people that …

Cuyahoga County, home of Cleveland, will take advantage of a land bank program modeled after the one operating in Flint, Mich.
The program, approved by the Ohio House Wednesday, will allow the county government to take control of areas of blight and abandonment.
Using the legal privileges provided to land banks, greater Flint’s Genesee County Land Bank has transferred vacant land to adjacent homeowners, developed long and short-term green spaces, and assembled land for new housing and commercial development.
Cuyahoga will be the first Ohio county to adopt a land bank program, but …

President Obama’s $75 billion Homeowner Stability Initiative will help foreclosure-wracked Buffalo, The Buffalo News reports.
The plan will offer lenders incentives to cut mortgage rates to 31 percent of monthly income in an attempt to head-off foreclosure among vulnerable homeowners.
Aaron Bartley of PUSH Buffalo, a group active in housing issues, says Obama’s strategy is “a long time in coming” and represents sure progress.
Like many Rust Belt cities, abandoned buildings have plagued Buffalo since before the start of the housing crisis. As estimated 12-18,000 homes are abandoned in the city. In some …

No joke. NPR reporter Dan Bobkoff visited Youngstown to do a story about its thriving business incubator, which now employs about 300 in downtown. Here’s what he had to say:
“Youngstown has been down so long it’s become shorthand for the Rust Belt,” he said. “When I heard that a block of Youngstown is starting to look like a tiny Silicon Valley, I drove down there to check it out.”
Software start-ups at this “managed business cluster” get free rent and utilities courtesy of the state — and the investment appears to …

It may be down, but don’t count manufacturing out.
The Associated Press reports the U.S. still leads the world in manufacturing, in terms of the value of goods sold. In 2007, the U.S. produced a record $1.6 trillion in manufactured goods — mainly heavy manufacturing such as aircrafts, weapons, cars and other vehicles.
Lighter manufacturing is being shifted to cheaper production markets overseas.
However, about 8 percent of the U.S. workforce is still employed in manufacturing. Economists expect U.S. manufacturers to emerge from this recession more productive and efficient, The AP reports.
http://www.buffalonews.com/145/story/581639.html
Tweet

The New York Times writes that white-collar jobs are evaporating in Detroit nearly as fast as blue-collar. The bad news for designers, engineers and mid-level executives is that the housing market is defunct.
Upper-middle-class, suburban families are living on unemployment and weighing the merits of selling their houses at 60 percent of their purchase price, The Times reports. With each round of buyouts and layoffs, foreclosure rates are climbing.
“I know it’s not great everywhere, but this is probably the worst place to find a job,” said Doug Zupan, a designer who …