I’m going to comment on a minor point, which is I still question the default assumption that “industrial decline” at least in the larger rust belt metros, eliminated many of the networks necessary for success in the globalized economy. My alternative narrative is that the Midwest manufacturing companies that survived (which is the vast majority of these companies) were forced to be among the earliest companies to adapt to the globalized economy, and that they not only survived, but in many instances thrived, with greatly expanded global networks. Johnson Controls operates in 150 countries. Harley Davidson operates in nearly 100 countries. Milwaukee Tools sells products in 150 countries. Generac operates in more than 150 countries. These companies have 10 to 100 times the revenue they had at the 1980 "peak" of manufacturing employment in the US. The global nerve center for all of these is in Milwaukee. There are 9,400 manufacturing companies in Wisconsin, and probably 2,000 or more in the Milwaukee area. I recall reading somewhere that there were over 400 companies in the Milwaukee area that manufactured products in China. Even Johnsonville Sausage sells its products in more than 45 countries.
As I noted a few weeks ago, even key technology companies have surprising and significant social connections to Milwaukee – with my example being Microsoft’s current president having been born in Milwaukee and its CEO having obtained his master’s degree in computer science from UW-Milwaukee, and both of these connections contributing to what will likely be a >$10 billion investment in SE Wisconsin. Another example is Dwight Dierks, senior VP of software engineering at NVIDIA, who went to school at the Milwaukee School of Engineering and recently donated $34 million to construct a computational science hall focused on AI, deep learning, and cybersecurity. John Morgridge, former CEO of Cisco Systems, and his wife were both from the Milwaukee area, and have given several hundred million dollars to technology and education initiatives in Wisconsin. Even though Milwaukee has no billionaires, there are probably 20 with significant connections to Milwaukee (John Morgridge being one).
Milwaukee (and other major Midwest metros) may never match the network of some of the key technology metros, but I would argue that “manufacturing decline” may have reduced the number of manufacturing jobs, but it resulted in thousands of these companies successfully adapting to the globalized economy and creating complex and extensive networks that extend throughout the globe, which are centered in these rust belt metros.
David, so much to respond to, but I'll keep this short. When I'm speaking of "networks" I'm not thinking about corporate networks across the globe, and the ability of corporations to expand their global footprint. I'm thinking more specifically of the interpersonal networks that become the catalyst for tech-based startups and the firms that sprouted up over the last 30 years. I don't think industrial decline "eliminated" the networks for success in the global economy. I do think our region's industrial hyper-focus caused us to miss opportunities to expand into those emerging sectors. That's all.
This post seems to represent a recent change in your thinking as I believe you stated a view within a recent post that cities are primarily economic entities. I wonder if you are still best described as an urbanist, but one who views social factors as the most important in understanding and evaluating differences between cities.
I tend to view urban challenges in a combined planning, economic, social, and environmental framework. Your comments remind me a little of Pope Francis’s encyclical Laudato Si’ where he noted the impossibility of successfully combating environmental degradational without addressing human and social degradation. The following quote was applied to solving environmental problems but it could as easily be applied to urbanists focused on solving urban problems without a social framework.
"This is due partly to the fact that many professionals, opinion makers, communications media and centres of power, being located in affluent urban areas, are far removed from the poor, with little direct contact with their problems. They live and reason from the comfortable position of a high level of development and a quality of life well beyond the reach of the majority of the world’s population. This lack of physical contact and encounter, encouraged at times by the disintegration of our cities, can lead to a numbing of conscience and to tendentious analyses which neglect parts of reality. At times this attitude exists side by side with a “green” rhetoric. Today, however, we have to realize that a true ecological approach always becomes a social approach; it must integrate questions of justice in debates on the environment, so as to hear both the cry of the earth and the cry of the poor."
Cincinnatians are breathtakingly defensive. Talking to a stranger in public is seen as a dangerous act. I've been threatened for saying hello to young women in public in Cincy.
I’m going to comment on a minor point, which is I still question the default assumption that “industrial decline” at least in the larger rust belt metros, eliminated many of the networks necessary for success in the globalized economy. My alternative narrative is that the Midwest manufacturing companies that survived (which is the vast majority of these companies) were forced to be among the earliest companies to adapt to the globalized economy, and that they not only survived, but in many instances thrived, with greatly expanded global networks. Johnson Controls operates in 150 countries. Harley Davidson operates in nearly 100 countries. Milwaukee Tools sells products in 150 countries. Generac operates in more than 150 countries. These companies have 10 to 100 times the revenue they had at the 1980 "peak" of manufacturing employment in the US. The global nerve center for all of these is in Milwaukee. There are 9,400 manufacturing companies in Wisconsin, and probably 2,000 or more in the Milwaukee area. I recall reading somewhere that there were over 400 companies in the Milwaukee area that manufactured products in China. Even Johnsonville Sausage sells its products in more than 45 countries.
As I noted a few weeks ago, even key technology companies have surprising and significant social connections to Milwaukee – with my example being Microsoft’s current president having been born in Milwaukee and its CEO having obtained his master’s degree in computer science from UW-Milwaukee, and both of these connections contributing to what will likely be a >$10 billion investment in SE Wisconsin. Another example is Dwight Dierks, senior VP of software engineering at NVIDIA, who went to school at the Milwaukee School of Engineering and recently donated $34 million to construct a computational science hall focused on AI, deep learning, and cybersecurity. John Morgridge, former CEO of Cisco Systems, and his wife were both from the Milwaukee area, and have given several hundred million dollars to technology and education initiatives in Wisconsin. Even though Milwaukee has no billionaires, there are probably 20 with significant connections to Milwaukee (John Morgridge being one).
Milwaukee (and other major Midwest metros) may never match the network of some of the key technology metros, but I would argue that “manufacturing decline” may have reduced the number of manufacturing jobs, but it resulted in thousands of these companies successfully adapting to the globalized economy and creating complex and extensive networks that extend throughout the globe, which are centered in these rust belt metros.
David, so much to respond to, but I'll keep this short. When I'm speaking of "networks" I'm not thinking about corporate networks across the globe, and the ability of corporations to expand their global footprint. I'm thinking more specifically of the interpersonal networks that become the catalyst for tech-based startups and the firms that sprouted up over the last 30 years. I don't think industrial decline "eliminated" the networks for success in the global economy. I do think our region's industrial hyper-focus caused us to miss opportunities to expand into those emerging sectors. That's all.
This post seems to represent a recent change in your thinking as I believe you stated a view within a recent post that cities are primarily economic entities. I wonder if you are still best described as an urbanist, but one who views social factors as the most important in understanding and evaluating differences between cities.
I tend to view urban challenges in a combined planning, economic, social, and environmental framework. Your comments remind me a little of Pope Francis’s encyclical Laudato Si’ where he noted the impossibility of successfully combating environmental degradational without addressing human and social degradation. The following quote was applied to solving environmental problems but it could as easily be applied to urbanists focused on solving urban problems without a social framework.
"This is due partly to the fact that many professionals, opinion makers, communications media and centres of power, being located in affluent urban areas, are far removed from the poor, with little direct contact with their problems. They live and reason from the comfortable position of a high level of development and a quality of life well beyond the reach of the majority of the world’s population. This lack of physical contact and encounter, encouraged at times by the disintegration of our cities, can lead to a numbing of conscience and to tendentious analyses which neglect parts of reality. At times this attitude exists side by side with a “green” rhetoric. Today, however, we have to realize that a true ecological approach always becomes a social approach; it must integrate questions of justice in debates on the environment, so as to hear both the cry of the earth and the cry of the poor."
Cincinnatians are breathtakingly defensive. Talking to a stranger in public is seen as a dangerous act. I've been threatened for saying hello to young women in public in Cincy.