Regrowth

From RealClear, an article with hopeful signs.

The article misses the former strength of smaller cities. It mocks the NYC bigotry but basically agrees with NYC that the universe ends at the Hudson River.

The term “flyover country” was not just a snobbish put-down but a reality as a handful of core cities – New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, and San Francisco – exerted oversized influence over America’s culture, politics, and economy, with rural communities and smaller cities playing a relatively marginal role in the national drama.

Well, they may have been marginal in the NYC drama, but they weren’t marginal in the real world of industry and agriculture. They lost their strength in the 1980s when offshoring and bankerizing stole the national-scale industries and research labs formerly found in smaller cities. Enid formerly had the headquarters of Champlin, WABCO, Speedstar, and Union Equity. Ponca formerly had Conoco. Each was a world-scale company in its field. Each had significant research and development facilities along with refineries or factories or elevators. All are gone or reduced to a shell now.

The article points to regrowth of headquarters in places like Springfield and Pittsburgh. Tech has been regrowing in Pittsburgh for quite a while, and US Steel is expanding its Clairton coking plant.

All is not lost, even in steel!