Halftime in America

A little heavy handed, perhaps, but I found this a lot more compelling than the actual game.

The Auto Town Ambassador

Louis Uchitelle of The New York Times profiles Edward B. Montgomery today. The executive director of the White House Council on Automotive Communities and Workers has made several trips to Flint, and Mayor Dayne Walling is quoted in the article:

On his travels he has helped to channel millions of dollars from the stimulus package and other government pools. He does not know, he says, just how many millions. At many of the stops, particularly in Ohio, which went for George W. Bush in 2004 and just barely for Obama in the last presidential election, there is an implicit political message in this largess. It goes something like this: Stick with the president and the Democratic Party, and while we cannot bring back mass production with its large-scale employment, we can help you in the transition to other sources of income and jobs.

“What they are doing is all well and good,” said Daniel Luria, research director of the Michigan Manufacturing Technology Center. “But if you are one of the people in distress, what you really want is a national manufacturing strategy that insures that the share of what is made here does not continue to fall.”

Mr. Montgomery describes that thinking as unwarranted interference in the private sector, and counterproductive. “The question of whether you should order private companies to locate in these communities; that is not a prescription for success,” he said.

His approach has produced results that are hard to measure. He has visited Flint, Mich., for example, three times in the last year, and the unemployment rate remains above 25 percent. On the other hand, several hundred additional people are enrolled in job training as a result of stimulus money that Mr. Montgomery steered to Flint, according to the mayor, Dayne Walling. In addition, the Environmental Protection Agency is moving more quickly than it otherwise would have, the mayor said, to clear former factory sites for other commercial use.

“That was a thicket that Montgomery’s people helped us to navigate,” the mayor said.

Unhappy Zip Codes

For all the talk of the overheated real estate markets in places like California and Florida, CNNMoney's list of the top 500 foreclosure zip codes is littered with rust belt locations, including Detroit and Flint. Overall, Michigan has 34 zip codes in the list. Detroit has four in the top ten. And 48504 — my old zip code encompassing Bassett Park — has the most foreclosures in Flint.

Bleakonomics

Can a famous economist show us the way? Metromode has an interview with Freakonomics author Steven D. Levitt discussing Michigan's battered economy and the prospects for improvement:

"The problems of the rustbelt are just some incredibly difficult problems. I wish I had some magic bullet to offer but it's just tough. In terms of the economy it all comes down to, essentially, workforce productivity. Can you make things people want cheaper than other people can make them?"

Flint Rises Again?

How often do you hear good news about Flint in the media? A recent piece in The Economist claims that the rust belt, including Flint, just may be coming back from the dead.

"But there are glints of progress, and not just because GM is building a new factory. Construction workers are beginning to transform the downtown area. There is a heated contest for mayor: Dayne Walling, a Flint-born Rhodes scholar brimming with good ideas, is challenging Don Williamson, the incumbent, in November's election. Flint is trying to chart its own course. And it is not alone. A faint spirit of change is wafting through some of the rustbelt's grimmest streets."