Ah, but was it due to a) new jobs, b) summer temporary employment, c) the "improving economy", or d) unemployment benefits running out/people not being counted in the unemployment demographic?
My bets are on b) and d).
posted by anonymouscoward at 11:41 P.M. EST on Sun Aug 21, 2005 #
I agree with anonymouscoward, Cedar Point, Six Flaggs...etc., and the rest of them ran out of Unemployment Compensation.
Keep in mind this is for JULY, let's see what October brings!
posted by MARIELORA at 11:49 P.M. EST on Sun Aug 21, 2005 #
Fine examination of the job-creation statistics for the last several years for the nation have demonstrated that government and low-paying service jobs were the primary generators of employment ... while professional and factory jobs fled. Government jobs represent negative GNP, and the service jobs are not going to help you make your housing payment once the IO period expires.
The free-marketeer freaks continue to worship this kind of thing by sacrificing another worker lamb upon their globalism altar. The new forms of business require wage slaves, and places like Toledo are being transformed in order to provide that.
At any rate, Nov 2005 will eventually arrive, either Ford or Carty will become mayor, tax abatements will continue to be handed out like candy, and the city will continue losing population. The solution? Why, increase taxes and fees, of course! All those gainfully employed service people can always fork out a couple more percentage points of income for taxes, fees, gasoline, natural gas, food, insurance rates, car repairs ... ah, why bother listing it all?
I am seeing some serious efforts to (very deceitfully) keep the lid on Toledo's immense social and financial problems, in order to lead up to an artificially calm election. That just means 2006 is the Year of the Hammer ... where we working class are all just some glass beads strewn upon the anvil of the city of Toledo. It'll be like that game of "Whack-A-Mole" but with a bit more horror, since the people being financially destroyed will be PEOPLE YOU KNOW.
posted by GuestZero at 01:56 A.M. EST on Mon Aug 22, 2005 #
I hereby declare GuestZero to be one of the most intelligent people here. :D
posted by Foolkiller at 03:31 A.M. EST on Mon Aug 22, 2005 #
GuestZero wrote (among other things):
"At any rate, Nov 2005 will eventually arrive, either Ford or Carty will become mayor, tax abatements will continue to be handed out like candy, and the city will continue losing population."
All things remaining fairly stable, you are correct. The reason being that sheeple tend to remain being sheeple, just as puppet masters remain to be puppet masters.
JRB hasn't finished tearing Toledo down quite yet, so the rebuilding (in his own image/vision) can begin.
It could be worse, this could be Detroit... :-(
posted by Hooda_Thunkit at 06:24 A.M. EST on Mon Aug 22, 2005 #
Well, as is the case for us all, JRB can only live so long. It's inevitable that we all have a date with destiny, we just never know when.
If we (Toledo's citizens) can manage to outlast him, then we might have a chance....
posted by DoknowDocare at 04:19 P.M. EST on Mon Aug 22, 2005 #
Yes, but Blocks breed. Like the many-headed hydra, there will always be two Blocks emerging every time one is chopped off.
May as well change the name of the town to Blockville ®, Ohio. (I think I just coined a phrase; that's why I put the ® there)
posted by historymike at 04:43 P.M. EST on Mon Aug 22, 2005 #
You're correct, historymike. But keep this in mind....every time they breed the gene pool becomes a little more diluted! ;-)
posted by DoknowDocare at 07:29 P.M. EST on Mon Aug 22, 2005 #
Sorry man...stole your idea .
http://toledotales.blogspot.com/2005/08/proposal-to-rename-toledo-as.html
posted by Subcomandante_bob at 08:27 P.M. EST on Mon Aug 22, 2005 #
DoknowDocare
Ahem... Sorry to break the news to you about the Typo in your last post,
"You're correct, historymike. But keep this in mind....every time they breed the gene pool becomes a little more diluted!"
For everyones gratification and edification, I'm pretty sure that the last word is supposed to have been spelled as:
POLLUTED!
Correct?
:-)
posted by Hooda_Thunkit at 08:48 P.M. EST on Mon Aug 22, 2005 #
Hooda: How shallow is that Block pool?
Bob: I want royalties - $.50 per page hit from now until Friday. PayPal can handle the business end.
DoknowDocare: Let's hope so. Maybe the genetic effects will work in this city's favor.
posted by historymike at 09:06 P.M. EST on Mon Aug 22, 2005 #
I have to admit, Bob makes me smile.
:-)
posted by psyche777 at 09:08 P.M. EST on Mon Aug 22, 2005 #
Mike,
"How shallow is that Block pool?"
Well I heard that JRB had to leave town to spawn...
:-)
posted by Hooda_Thunkit at 11:36 A.M. EST on Tue Aug 23, 2005 #
Frank Szollosi said on his blog:
"Mayor Ford's Toledo and our suburbs have had it tough under the Bush recession."
Third rule of government, always blame someone else for your mistakes. Here are the first two rules.
Bush inherited a recession. The slide started in 2000. The July 2005 national unemployment is 5.0% and that's a recession? Frank must be under the influence of modern math.
"Demand for permanent workers is so great that Hentschel predicts Indianapolis-area unemployment rates will approach the 2 percent levels of the late '90s within two years. The rate in July was 4.5 percent."
Unigov fans will look at Indy as a reason why we need that for Lucas County. Yeah, well, what kind of industry dominates in Indy?
Let's look at central Ohio.
"Unemployment fell in the seven-county Central Ohio region in July to 4.9 percent in July. "City of Columbus: 5 percent in July, from 5.7 percent in June and 5.6 percent in July 2004. Delaware County: 3.8 percent in July."
National ave. 5.0%, Indy 4.5%, Columbus 5.0%, and Toledo 7.6%. And that's Bush's fault, according to Rhodes Scholar candidate Frank Szollosi. What happened to "all government is local?"
posted by jr at 06:54 A.M. EST on Fri Aug 26, 2005 #
Agreed, jr.
People forget the chronology of the recession, and want to blame the sitting president. Recessions and depressions, however, have a cyclical component, and have little to do with the politics of the occupant of Pennsylvania Avenue.
Toledo's higher unemployment has more to do with an inability to attract employers, especially high-tech firms, than it does with politics. The city was built around manufacturing, and continues to over-rely on industrial production for its job base.
We can opine all day about globalization, but that's like standing on the beach and shouting at the waves to get them to stop: ain't gonna change a thing.
It seems to boil down to two approaches:
1. We make the city business-friendly, thus attracting employers, residents, and filling the city and county coffers with the tax revenues to improve life for everyone; or
2. We focus on improving the quality of life in the area by making schools, safety, and public services exemplary, thus making Toledo an attractive place to relocate on its own merits.
I think we do not have the resources to focus (initially) on both approaches. In an era of intense competition between municipalities and between regions, old methods have failed, and it is time to try new approaches in Toledo.
Want to jump-start the process? Pay people to find businesses willing to relocate in Toledo, and create commission-based compensation for development officials. If you have to compete to survive, you may as well jump into the process wholeheartedly. Take a person with business experience like Bill Carroll and pay him to aggressively recruit businesses to the area.
RGP and Lake Erie West are nice starts, but you need some serious money to get the process moving. Imagine traveling to every Fortune 500 company and knocking on the doors, looking for an hour to pitch Toledo. Eventually someone will like what they hear, and will relocate.
posted by historymike at 07:34 A.M. EST on Fri Aug 26, 2005 #
The Aug 26 Blade has a front-page story titled:
"Top-paying jobs flee Lucas Co., Census reports. 5-year loss: 1,140 positions."
Can't link to the story right now because the Blade's CMS is busted or something. The five-year period is from 1998-2003.
"Toledo's home county, Lucas, is the only one of Ohio's major urban counties to lose private-sector professional, scientific, and technical services jobs over the latest five-year period."
Blade stats for each county and the % change in employment in these types of jobs:
Summit (Akron) 45%
Montgomery (Dayton) 16%
Franklin (Columbus) 15%
Hamilton (Cincinnati) 14%
Cuyahoga (Cleveland) 2%
Lucas (Toledo) -11%
Don't local politicians get at least some of the blame for these numbers? How does Szollosi explain this? Looks like Bush's recession is targeted specifically at Toledo. Actually, since the numbers are from 1998-2003, and if you wanted to blame a mayor, wouldn't most of the blame go to Carty?
And what in the hell is Akron doing? Toledo and Lucas County officials need to study that city.
More from the story:
"Some of the losses clearly involve shifts within metro Toledo. The claim seems to be supported by Census Bureau data showing that such employment in neighboring Wood County grew by 23.5 percent, or 470 jobs, between 1998 and 2003. Those jobs in the once-sleepy rural community generate wages of $101 million, or slightly more than a fourth of the total of Lucas and nearly double the amount of five years earlier."
Boom times in Wood County.
"Lucas lost almost as much as the other 18 northwest Ohio and southeast Michigan counties in the region gained during the five-year period."
Horrible news for Lucas County. How is this possible?
More stats from the Blade on gains and losses of "engineering, advertising, and other high-paying professional positions":
Hillsdale 70%
Putnam 70%
Monroe 45%
Erie 44%
Hancock 40%
Van Wert 26.5%
Wood 23.5%
Seneca 10%
Lenawee 9%
Defiance 5%
Allen 4%
Henry 4%
Ottawa unchanged
Huron -3%
Lucas -11%
Paulding -12%
Sandusky -17%
Fulton -20%
Williams -49%
Another example of how bad it is in Lucas County when compared to other areas: Youngstown, which used to be the armpit of Ohio. That title could move a little westward.
"In Youngstown's Mahoning County, professionl, scientific, and technical employment grew 30 percent over the five-year period."
"Statewide, the category grew by 15 percent."
"Tom Brady, a local entrepreneur who has worked to promote high-tech jobs in Toledo, conceded that the area's efforts to attract jobs and diversify the economy must improve."
That's an understatement.
posted by jr at 08:13 A.M. EST on Fri Aug 26, 2005 #
Even though it's county-wide numbers, Lucas (Toledo) -11%, I predict a Blade op-ed writer within the next few days will comment about this story, and blame Carty. And I would probably agree with that.
1998-2003, if it's a five-year period, then the data cannot include 2003, right? It' data from years 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, and 2002. Ford took office in January of 2002 and inherited a recession.
Carty, eight years of mayor during the supposed rip-roaring economy days of the 90's should have set down the framework for Toledo to grow in the areas of professional, scientific, and technical services.
I don't see how the 11% loss occurred in Ford's first 11 months. The rate of loss may have increased in 2002, but that would have had more to do with the national recession at that time.
It would be nice if the stats were broken down by the major communities in Lucas County. Still, Toledo probably was the key city that dragged down the county's numbers.
How can Toledo lose these types of jobs during Carty's final four yeas of office when at least two of those years were strong economic years? Eight years of mayor, where was Carty's long-term strategy to bring these jobs to Toledo? And he's leading in the polls, eh? Get used to the minus sign.
posted by jr at 08:33 A.M. EST on Fri Aug 26, 2005 #
I think that local pols get some of the blame, at least for not being forward-thinking and aggressively seeking out firms to relocate. Would I single out Carty? Probably not. One mayor should not shoulder the blame for socioeconomic forces that have been sweeping the globe since at least the 1960s, when Japan's economy began to experience rapid growth.
Multinational ompanies have an entire world from which to choose for relocation. Toledo and NWO need to do more than pay lip service to attracting businesses to the region, and needs to dedicate more money and personnel to make this happen.
Tax abatements are a necessary evil at the moment, but they are not the only component of the equation. The firms that are currently located here could be tapped as potential sales vehicles. What if we offered some incentives to existing NWO firms who used their network of contacts to bring their business partners to Toledo and relocate?
posted by historymike at 08:56 A.M. EST on Fri Aug 26, 2005 #
"One mayor should not shoulder the blame for socioeconomic forces that have been sweeping the globe since at least the 1960s."
I agree. My comment about blaming Carty was a preemptive strike against those who will no doubt blame Ford for these losses, even though he wasn't in office for most of the data's reporting period.
posted by jr at 09:35 A.M. EST on Fri Aug 26, 2005 #
historymike wrote: "RGP and Lake Erie West are nice starts, but you need some serious money to get the process moving."
RGP and the Toledo Chamber have raised over $8 million for doing just that! And they've done it without government donations of tax dollars.
posted by intrepid at 11:00 A.M. EST on Fri Aug 26, 2005 #
How far will $8 million go in a global marketplace? I am not qualified to answer that question, but in a global economy of some $32 trillion (2002 figures), that may not be enough to make an impact.
How much are successful communities spending on self-promotion and luring new businesses?
Have other cities been successful with a commission-based approach?
posted by historymike at 11:51 A.M. EST on Fri Aug 26, 2005 #
Historymike - when was the last time you saw the Toledo-area community raise $8 million for marketing, promotion and economic development/ advancement of this area???
It may not be much right now, but it's certainly more than what's been spent in the past - and it isn't government or tax dollars, for which I'm grateful, because that means it will be spent (hopefully) wisely and not following directions of a government bureaucracy.
Please don't fall into the trap of belittling this progress - at least it's progress and not regression. I believe it's a step in the right direction!
posted by intrepid at 01:36 P.M. EST on Fri Aug 26, 2005 #
Don't get me wrong, intrepid, I am pleased that anything is being done. For far too long we, collectively, have sat around waiting for something to happen.
I know that people like the HBA and Toledo Realtors have generously kicked in monies to jump start this. I just don't want to see this momentum fade after a few months.
Agreed on the private dollars; the private sector will do a better job of manging these resources, and getting us some mileage.
I am still struck with the idea of paying people to promote Toledo based on results; must be the ex-entrepreneur in me.
posted by historymike at 02:13 P.M. EST on Fri Aug 26, 2005 #
A recession is defined as zero or negative GDP growth. This only happened for 2-3 quarters in 2001. The economy has grown by an amount comparable to the average for 1980-2000 for the years 2002-present. There was hardly any recession. The rest of the country is experiencing massive growth. The rest of the Midwest is getting good growth. Southern Ohio (outside of Dayton) continues to boom. NE Ohio is turning it around. Youngstown is back.
Toledo sinks further into the crapper each day with a low IQ mayor not fit to run a McDonald's let alone a city of some 300,000. If it wasn't for the Blade covering his worst mistakes, no one would even take the boob seriously.
posted by paddington at 04:04 P.M. EST on Fri Aug 26, 2005 #
Look, Historymike, I've gone over this kind of thing before. If tax abatements worked, companies wouldn't be fleeing Toledo in droves in the face of them. O-I is willing to move 10 MILES just to flee Toledo. Which abatement scheme worked to retain them?
Tax abatements don't work except to reduce the costs of running increasingly predatory corporations. They were never "necessary" since a municipality in fiscal trouble is morally obligated to reduce their expenses in order to reduce ALL levels of taxes in response.
Municipal officials need to get out of the "economic development" game since it's obviously turning into a race to the bottom. To wit: they suck at it. The only moral duty of these officials is to see that the roads are paved, the water is pumped, and the law is enforced. If they cannot do this then they need to reduce all other expenses (in Toledo's case, like paying this Carroll character). And if that still doesn't balance the budget, then extraneous services will have to be cut, like pervasive leaf collection.
Cheap government that performs the minimum services USED to be a great attractor for the businessman. But businesses now want much, much more than that. They want to get PAID to exist somewhere. That's bribery, which is not only immoral, but leads to increased costs to the public since bribes always grow without bound.
posted by GuestZero at 12:32 A.M. EST on Sat Aug 27, 2005 #
What I don't get is why don't they just set low tax rates in the first place? That way everyone pays the same tax rate. Under the current system, each business has an incentive to threaten to leave Toledo so that they can get some relief from the confiscatory rates.
But of course any talk of lower corporate taxes in a socialist-union town like Toledo will be political suicide. "He's in favor of businesses, that bastard! What about the people?" That's the only line that will go down, along with whoever's political career that proposes it.
posted by paddington at 09:40 A.M. EST on Sat Aug 27, 2005 #
"Jobless rates in Toledo and all of northwest Ohio’s 16 counties fell last month, a positive economic sign as the state’s rate rose."
"Toledo’s unemployment rate dropped to 7.1 percent last month, but Lucas County has the highest rate in northwest Ohio at 6.5 percent."
posted by jr at 11:10 A.M. EST on Sun Sep 18, 2005 #
Well said Paddington.
The thought that just completely blows my mind is that Toledo must be so unfriendly to business that a company like OI finds it worthwhile to spend millions of dollars in construction and moving expenses just to get out of Toledo.
Isn't that crazy???
posted by lloyd at 04:21 P.M. EST on Sun Sep 18, 2005 #
I don't want to say Toledo is unfriendly to business. I think Toledo is unfriendly to any business it doesn't understand. We don't know how to do anything but Jeep.
I told Carty at a fundraiser long ago that Toledo would rather spend its money on new businesses rather than the ones that have stuck around. It's always more fun to start something.
posted by thinkingwoman at 07:26 P.M. EST on Sun Sep 18, 2005 #
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