Dave, Contrary to what you may believe, I am quite concerned for the plight of states and areas such as yours that are so dependent on a single industry. In particular, I find myself quite concerned with your particular plight. I've done quite a bit of interviewing, reading and asking folks in these parts about their perceptions of the situation in Michigan and other areas. Now I am not sure if you know this, but there is not a whole lot of sympathy for northern auto-industry in these parts.. Historically, there is some bad blood. When Henry Ford made his bid to purchase the Wilson Dam, he famously said “I will employ one million workers at Muscle Shoals and I will build a city 75 miles long at Muscle Shoals.” Given the cheap steel that could have been generated in Birmingham... Rubber in the Northeast and central part of the state..this really could have worked. Everything they could have needed for an Auto Industry all within 100 mile radius. Surely, you can see the potential. There are still this eerie parts of Muscle Shoals that have driveways, sidewalks, streets and housing foundations.... but there are no homes. Never has there been a home on it. They are mostly grown over known but the locals call them "Ford cities"... Developments built on the promises of Henry Ford so many years ago... only to go unfulfilled. Thankfully, they are fast vanishing. New homes are being built over them by the day now. Still, it is kind of neat.. A ghost of something that never was if you will... You can read a 1922 New York Times article covering part of it here. Anyway, Congress wouldn't sell it to him and it eventually led to the creation of the TVA.. The two men who planned to turn the Shoals area into a Metropolis (Henry Ford and Thomas Edison), packed up and took history elsewhere... because Congress, not Alabama or the people of the Shoals, said so.. Mind you, that 'federal' land in which the dam and its projects were built were virtually stolen *ahem* I mean purchased from the people who lived there.. So eventually, the area reinvented itself... taking advantage of its other resource... cotton. The area specialized in textile and apparel industry. It grew, not on the scale that the auto motive industry would have grown, but it still slowly grew and produced profits.. And then along came NAFTA... I recently found out that the city of Florence shrank from the 90s to the 00s and only recently began to grow again... There are 11 former mills and factories on the outside of town that are either vacant, or going to be plowed to make new industry... The business is long gone... there was a decade in which many speculated this town would die as a result of NAFTA. Yet when I read the NAFTA reports for this state, by and large, they are positive. The reason? Because the cities adapted and changed their industries. While the area I live in now was shrinking, others were growing because they actively sought other industries.. Now the Shoals is catching up.. 2 huge new factories... one a box car company and I forget what the other is.. But they figure to change the face of the community once again and the growth is most certainly seen on a daily basis in this area... So I ask... why the lack of compassion for Detroit? Why don't more people here (the Shoals is HUGELY pro-Democrat) support the bailouts... Their answers seem to be consistent regardless of age or background.... Twice the economy of this area has been torpedoed by acts of Congress, or members of Congress... and there's no bailout for the Shoals. This is an area that is still exploited via the TVA to this day. The people have had the control of their land and destiny stripped from them. They want to know... why can't Detroit diversify? Why can't they change? So I ask you (or gip or anyone else who wants to dive in here) why doesn't the area explore new business? And please don't take this as me 'calling you out' or 'my area is better than your area'.. I am genuinely seeking knowledge and background on your area and why it seems to have sold its soul to being a one industry town.
Well that was made pretty evident by the actions and words of your Senator. Very interesting background story that I was completely unaware of and I am surprised that with as much written here about this back in December that no one brought it up. WRT to how this area diversifies.....I think they are so broke tax revenue wise around here there isn't much in the way of tax incentives to give other industries. It appears to me that is the real key to getting other industry in the state. They have created incentives for the motion picture industry so there has been a spate of movies made here like Gran Torino and a few others. Can't see Detroit as a mini-Hollywood however.
That's interesting Dave. Thanks. I have more of a reply for ya, but I've got a full plate at work. Just wanted to drop a thanks.
Dave, I think I brought this up years ago, but we've been gabbing on here for so long who knows how far back it was. There is an overall feeling in this state that it has tremendous potential that continually gets passed over due to a variety of reasons. Starting with the screw over of the Birmingham steel industry by the TR administration.. and then the loss of what appears to have been the Ford portion of the entire automotive industry right on up to NAFTA, the folks in this state don't have a lot of faith in Washington. While I do not hold their contempt for Michigan, because lets be honest... it could well be them in this position if history takes a different twist, I do understand where it comes from. This state is rich in raw material and resource but it has been squandered over the years. I had taken a course for my teaching credential and was first exposed to this concept by a Dr King (white guy, don't get excited lol). He had broken down the automotive industry as it is today, or was during its hay day... Iron from the Iron Range in MN, PA Steel, production and mills in MI etc..rubbers and plastics etc throughout the midwest. He then broke down how that same entire process could be replicated here between a triangular area from Birmingham, AL out to some spot in MS up to Southern, TN with the Shoals area in the heart of it.. You could literally produce the whole show right in this tiny area. All of the resources needed (iron, steel, rubber, plastics, nitro and electricity) all produced right in this area en masse. I've sat thru lectures at UCLA from Nobel Prize winners that weren't that fascinating... but such is the twists of life I suppose. So what, exactly, is the reason for the lack of tax revenue in your guy's area? In terms of tax incentives... why not do what the South does and offer tax exemptions to major corporations to move there? Lord knows you guys have production facilities and work force.. Do you think the Union factor scares companies away?
ps What do you do, sales? You got sales experience? You can fire me a PM for my email if you don't wanna get all into that in the public forum.
And I used to think that they held grudged down there a long time. Nice to see that they've gotten past the Civil War. Now were talking recent history .....86YEARS AGO!!!
LOL I think it is one part of the bigger picture, but point taken. It would be weird trying to imagine an America in which the auto industry, at least the Ford portion of it, would be centered in Muscle Shoals, AL.
Since Henry Ford was from the Detroit area I guess it makes sense that Detroit wound up as the car capital. At some point the Great Lakes shipping channel and the ability to bring in iron ore and other car making materials had to have an influence as well. Check out this article on Ford and some pretty savvy friends: http://apps.detnews.com/apps/history/index.php?id=105
Nope, the breaking point was the Dam. Congress wouldn't sell it. You don't need the Great Lakes shipping in North Alabama, you have the steel and iron in Birmingham... Maybe a 2 hour drive down the road. That was a great article, thanks for sharing! I can't imagine someone of that 'celebrity' in today's world being able to pull that off.