This article in the Las Vegas Sun seems to think that city’s era of unbridled growth has definitely ended.
The article cites U.S. Census Bureau data showing:
-its slowest rate of population growth since 1967,
-for the first time in a long time, the state experience out-migration (more people left the state than came there).
“The new numbers contrast strikingly with the rest of this decade when an average of 45,000 people moved here every year from other states,” according to the story. “Analysts both here and nationally cited the weak economy of Nevada …

The state of Ohio lost population overall for the first time in nearly a decade, according to a study by Community Research Partners.

90.3 WCPN in Cleveland reports that the state lost 35,000 residents. In-migration and birth rates were not able to offset the decline.
Experts believe the out-migration can be traced to job loss. Ohio has a tendency to lose residents during a recession, experts report.
Franklin County, home to Columbus, managed to avoid the decline and gained residents. Cleveland’s Cuyahoga County and Cincinnati’s Hamilton County both lost residents overall.

We’ve written before on this blog that we were encouraged by Time Magazine’s declaration that it intended to devote resources to covering what is happening in Detroit.
Writes Time publisher John Huey,
“we believe that Detroit right now is a great American story. No city has had more influence on the country’s economic and social evolution. Detroit was the birthplace of both the industrial age and the nation’s middle class, and the city’s rise and fall — and struggle to rise again — are a window into the challenges facing all of …

I know we’ve had a lot on this blog about the current recession and how hard it has hit the auto industry and Michigan.
So, I apologize if you’re sick of reading about it, but I’m posting a link to this sobering Wall Street Journal Story about laid-off white collar workers.
“Mr. Barr, 46 years old, was the type of well-educated, white-collar ‘knowledge’ worker that Michigan hoped would help offset a decline in auto-assembly jobs. But Detroit’s Big Three car makers have aggressively thinned these ranks in the past two years, perhaps …

Freelance reporter Daniel Denvir has taken some interesting travels recently - places like Cleveland - on his “Rust Beltroad trip.”
Here, he highlights an employee-owned company in Cleveland.
I had never heard of Evergreen Laundry, the company he profiles, but it sounds like they are doing a good job of putting people to work.
I like posting stories like this - ones about our cities as innovators, not just victims of de-industrialization and decline.

In honor of his 100th day in office, NPR ran a story yesterday on Detroit Mayor Dave Bing.
The former NBA star is contesting with a $275 million deficit, a potential municipal strike, school and transportation systems that are tetering on collapse.

According to NPR some are questioning whether Bing, a political novice who replaced Kwame Kilpatrick, is up to the job.
Bing won a recent primary with 70 percent of the vote. But his opponent Tom Barrow, a C.P.A., says Bing is in over his head.
“He just doesn’t understand how municipal finance …

It’s easy to forget sometimes, but the United States and Canada aren’t the only places that have suffered from factory shutdowns and a loss of manufacturing jobs.
This article details how the current recession is hurting the steel industry in Hungary. This more in-depth story from Reuters also explores the same issue.
Some of the quotes in this story are striking in that they sound like they could easily be about workers or regions here in the U.S.:
“In its heyday in the 1980s. the city of Miskolc had more than 200,000 residents, …

 
Why is Pennsylvania faring better than Ohio in this economic downturn?
“[A]lthough the recession has hit both states hard, the troubles in Ohio are clearly much worse,” this Associated Press story reports, citing an index of unemployment, foreclosures and bankruptcies in more than 3,000 U.S. counties.
This story attributes the difference to PA’s more diversified economy, especially its education and health-care sectors.

But, parts of Ohio have invested heavily in these fields as well. I’m not sure what the reason is but the numbers cited in this story do show a pretty stark …

As this story points out, it seems like cities in our region suffer more in a recession.
This story focuses on Milwaukee, but I know the same thing seemed to be true when I worked in Lorain, and Toledo.
Sadly, it seems like gains that take a long time to build up can be wiped away so quickly.
-KG

The New York Times asked a number of economists to respond to the question, “do we need a domestic auto industry? Many American manufacturing industries, like textiles and electronics, long ago moved to other producing countries. Why is the auto industry different?”

I know this is a few weeks old, but it took me awhile to get through it all.