Margaret Cowell - Dealing With Deindustrialization: Adaptive Resilience in American Midwestern Regions

The late 1970s and 1980s saw a process of mass factory closures in cities and regions across the Midwest of the United States. What happened next as leaders reacted to the news of each plant closure and to the broader deindustrialization trend that emerged during this time period is the main subject of this book.

It shows how leaders in eight metropolitan areas facing deindustrialization strived for adaptive resilience by using economic development policy. The unique attributes of each region asset bases, modes of governance, civic capacity, leadership qualities, and external factors influenced the responses employed and the outcomes achieved. Using adaptive resilience as a lens, Margaret Cowell provides a thorough understanding of how and why regions varied in their abilities to respond to deindustrialization.

Margaret Cowell, Assistant Professor of Urban Affairs and Planning, Virginia Tech.

Series editor: Peter Ache

Routledge Research in Planning and Urban Design is a series of academic monographs for scholars working in these disciplines and the overlaps between them. Building on Routledges history of academic rigour and cutting-edge research, the series contributes to the rapidly expanding literature in all areas of planning and urban design.

The Empty Place
Democracy and public space
Teresa Hoskyns

Public Space and Relational Perspectives
New challenges for architecture and planning
Chiara Tornaghi and Sabine Knierbein

Dealing with Deindustrialization
Adaptive resilience in american midwestern regions
Margaret Cowell

Dealing with Deindustrialization

Adaptive resilience in american midwestern regions

Margaret Cowell

First published 2015
by Routledge
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and by Routledge
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2015 Margaret Cowell

The right of Margaret Cowell to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by him/her in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.

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British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Cowell, Margaret.
Dealing with deindustrialization: adaptive resilience in American
Midwestern regions/Margaret Cowell.
pages cm.(Routledge research in planning and urban design)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. Economic developmentMiddle West. 2. Deindustrialization
Middle West. 3. Middle WestEconomic conditions.
4. Middle WestEconomic Policy. I. Title.
HC107.A14C69 2014
338.0977dc23
2014013867

ISBN: 978-1-138-79136-7 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-315-76270-8 (ebk)

Typeset in Sabon
by Swales and Willis Ltd, Exeter, Devon, UK

To David and Mary-Jane Cowell and to Joseph Murray

My interest in regional responses to economic challenges began long before this particular body of research commenced. Although I might not have always known it, I have been thinking about places and economies for decades. I spent most of my childhood in a very small city in Upstate New York. If you have heard of Oswego, NY, it is probably only because of its record snowfall or maybe because of the small college that is located there, the State University of New York (SUNY) at Oswego. The city is less well known for its main economic driver, a two-unit nuclear power plant called Nine Mile Point Nuclear Station. In 2006, when both units were being considered for re-licensing, there was great uncertainty amongst Oswegonians; local newspapers covered the re-licensing extensively and discussions surrounding this uncertainty were a main topic of conversation at many a retiree coffee klatch. Twenty-year license extensions were ultimately granted to both units and discussions then turned to whether or not a third unit would gain approval. Though that third unit would ultimately not be approved, the fate of the city and the surrounding economy, which have suffered greatly during recent economic downturns, now rests in the continued success of the two original power plants. Oswegonians have long known that jobs, taxes, and housing prices are all intertwined with the fate of the nuclear plants. Just like the Rust Belt leaders interviewed for this study, leaders in Oswego also find it difficult to ignore the possibility that the local economy will suffer greatly if the economic base is compromised.

While the challenges I observed in Oswego remain largely in the present or very near future, the difficulties discussed in this study unfolded many years ago. Nevertheless, my experiences in Oswego, and later on as an economist at the Buffalo Branch of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, seem oddly reminiscent of the historical tensions I encountered in this research project. Rather than looking forward, this body of research looks back in history to examine industrial Midwestern metropolitan regions as they struggled with deindustrialization, which began to unravel regional economies during the late 1970s and early 1980s.

Though the broader goal of this research has always been to make relevant and increase our understanding of why some regions perform better than others in the wake of a crisis, I had little idea just how applicable this historical analysis would become. When I began this research in late 2007, the United States economy was performing relatively well and many regions across the country were reaping the benefits of that solid performance. A short while later, particularly in the fall of 2008, metropolitan areas began to struggle as our national economy experienced a marked deceleration of economic activity. Suddenly, the difficulty that places like Detroit and Pittsburgh experienced in the 1970s and 1980s became relevant again as other regions began to grapple with their own problems of widespread unemployment, paralyzing foreclosures, and general economic and fiscal instability. Though this recession and its aftermath did not play out in exactly the same way as those that occurred in the early 1980s, there are still many valuable lessons to be learned about how regions responded to these same challenges nearly three decades ago.

The book that follows is based on the idea that talking with decision makers of the past is one of the best ways to learn about successes and failures. In all, 96 individuals provided in-depth interviews. Though they were promised anonymity in exchange for their honest assessment of how things played out in their respective regions, I sincerely hope that their voices, in addition to mine, shine through in this historical narrative. I thank them for their anonymous contributions and am honored to have their participation in this important work. Any mistakes or misrepresentations are my own.