Route to Recovery
A trip through the epicenters of the recession
America’s Route to Recovery: Part Two – A New Revolution
For the Reuters multimedia project Route to Recovery, a team of journalists toured America to examine the impact of the recession and posted their reports on reuters.com. For the last installment in the series, reporter Nick Carey has written an extended overview of the challenges and opportunities facing the country. The second part of this three-part report is below. Click here for part one.
Leslie Taito is executive director of Rhode Island Manufacturing Extension Services (RIMES), a nonprofit that provides consultation for small and medium-sized manufacturers in Rhode Island, a state of 1 million people.
Rhode Island was the home of America’s first mechanized cotton mill, but since Taito arrived 16 years ago, the number of manufacturers here has fallen to 1,945 from 2,800. Still, she believes that all of those that are left can be helped to survive and thrive — and the best way is to get smart and not try to compete with low-cost Chinese producers.
“Manufacturers have to specialize and find a niche where they develop high-end goods that are not sold just based on cost,” Taito said. “Sure, China can make it cheaper than we can,” she said, while weaving in and out of traffic en route through the heart of Providence. “But what they don’t have is the design or engineering capabilities that we do.”
Imperial Valley strives to be small-scale renewable energy capital
EL CENTRO, California – At a time when alternative energy and “green jobs” have become a significant talking point under the administration of Barack Obama, Imperial Valley is pushing to make it a reality.
The Valley –- which locals in this part of southern California also call Imperial County — already has 10 geothermal plants in operation with a combined capacity of around 330 megawatts. Geothermal energy, extracting power from underground heat, is a constant and sustainable form of generating electricity.
“This is going to be a great opportunity for the Imperial Valley,” which has a high unemployment rate, said Mark Gran, vice president of community relations at CalEnergy. “We’re going to be the renewable energy capital of the world.”
Potential geothermal or other renewable energy projects need to go through a lengthy approval process. But Imperial County officials have streamlined that process to help companies get permits far quicker, in particular for power plants under 50 megawatts. The state of California has more say in larger projects and has a reputation for being a stickler for due process.
I like this “Amtrak- road to recovery” feature. It is a clever, useful and integral way for Amtrak to get the word out about its services while providing useful news and interesting stories. I wish Verizon and its ilk were that clever and willing to participate in a more up-to-date pluralistic fashion.
Strains of downturn lead to rising domestic abuse
EL CENTRO, California – During tough economic times in California’s Imperial Valley the staff members at the Center for Family Solutions, dedicated to helping domestic violence victims, have as much work as they can handle.
The center is struggling to deal with a rising number of domestic abuse cases and trying to help women – and occasionally men – escape from violent partners. Lgal services director Judith Klein-Pritchard said the surge was a direct result of rising unemployment in the area and the long recession that has battered the U.S. economy.
“Abusive people are often abusive by nature, but there has to be a trigger for them to become violent,” she said. “Perhaps it’s the tension of joblessness that triggers abusive behavior because all of a sudden they don’t know how to control themselves.”
It is too bad there is not an automatic counseling mechanism resource as part of unemployment benefits to help families obtain the expensive counseling that can probably serve as pro-active preventitive maintenance in avoidance of the related increases in domestic violence corresponding with increased pressures of high-unemployment.
My marriage did not survive my financial collapse after unemployment but I’m happy that my positive relationship with my ex-wife and daughter did. It wasn’t easy and there was no fault. I let go of everything I had built and made sure I provided the best I could for my daughter on the long way down. Though the ex still divorced me, I think my ex-wife respected that I selflessly bit the bullet everytime I had to.
Unemployed men have to be prepared for any weakness in their relationship to become increased under financial distress and the best thing men can do, is be the first to seek counseling to cope with loss. Not every man seeking to cope with employment and financial loss will be able to salvage their marriage but seeking counseling will help them to cope with the many changes to their relationships and social status.
It takes a lot out of a man to go from a being a successful employed person, to the often times degrading governmental processes, and there really is no bottom.
So it is very important for unemployed men to keep in perspective the importance of their family.
Every couple confronted with adversity deals with it differently and men get plenty of blame when an important job, money and status are lost.
You can’t always expect a marriage to survive this.
But don’t let the hopelessness and helplessness turn into anger that destroys the things you truly love.
Staying strong means keeping your cool under fire.
Don’t ever let a job loss come between you and your child. A good parent is a good parent, for richer or for poorer, wife or no. You might have to go from a position of power to stacking wood and cleaning toilets but it makes you more of a man when you do it without blaming those you love.
Accept the relationship changes job loss brings and build your base for a comeback.
It’s not your fault and it is also not theirs.
Do your best.
Crossing the border loses some of its allure
CALEXICO, California – The American Dream’s promise of prosperity for hard work has long drawn illegal immigrants, but that pull appears to have faded during the long, deep U.S. recession.
The number of people apprehended while attempting to illegally cross the U.S. border from Mexico fell to 800,000 in 2008, down more than half from an all-time high of 1.8 million in 2000.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection, part of the Department of Homeland Security, attributes the decline to increased manpower, surveillance cameras, sensors and fences along the 2,000 mile border the country shares with Mexico.
The most unemployed town in America — or is it?
If you’re looking for ground zero in America’s longest and deepest recession, El Centro in southern California appears on first glance to fit the bill.
The unemployment rate here and for the whole of Imperial County hit 30.1 percent in September, the highest rate in the United States. Locals say there is no denying that El Centro has suffered as a result of the recession and that jobs are more scarce in an area where agriculture is the backbone of the community and forms 25 percent of the local economy.
“We’ve always had high unemployment, but nothing like this,” said Judith Klein-Pritchard, director of the Center for Family Solutions of Imperial Valley, which provides intervention for domestic violence and shelter services in the area.
However, officials like El Centro city manager Ruben Duran say the jobless numbers don’t tell the full story.
i think the numbers are certainly skewed. but overall it does seem like an unfortunate situation. the government has lots of other things on it’s plate to deal with and I think if they want help, they’re going to have to be loud about getting government help. the loudest usually get their way in this world, and with a long queue of things-to-do for the federal government, i think dealing with this county is fairly low down on this list.
Water rights make El Centro an oasis
If you head east to El Centro from San Diego, Interstate 8 takes you through arid scenery, climbing to 4,000 feet through barren mountains so fast that your ears pop. Then comes the oasis.
As you head down rapidly out of the mountains once more toward El Centro you hit a sign that tells you that you have reached sea level. Green fields and palm trees, stacks of hay drying in the fierce sun — 90 degrees Fahrenheit even in November — surrounded on all sides by rocky hills and the desert.
We knew before coming here that this was an agricultural region, but the lush greenery amid such a scorched landscape took us by surprise. This is where much of America’s lettuce, spinach and other vegetables come from in the winter. There are also large cattle feed lots here too, which launch a frontal assault on your olfactory system long before you see them.
Beginning at El Centro
When planning for a trip across America that would both take in a broad swath of territory and also highlight some of the worst and best spots in the U.S. economy today, El Centro in southern California was a no-brainer.
Not only is El Centro located in one of the states worst affected by the housing crisis and the recession – California faces a major fiscal crisis and was reduced earlier this year to paying its bills with IOUs – but it is in Imperial County, which has the country’s highest unemployment rate.
As of September, the jobless rate in this county down by the Mexican border stood at 30.1 percent. Even taking into account the fact that much of the workforce here is seasonally employed in the agricultural sector, that is an astounding number.
At least you can get good huevos rancheros and chile rellanos in El Centro while you see Cher’s birthplace.
But, Imperial Cty, which is in the Desert therefore dependent on irrigation water drawn from the Colorrado River, has had to “give” much of it’s Colorado water allocation to San Diego Cty, which is on the Pacific. This has forced many farms in the Nation’s “Salad Bowl” to go fallow (stop planting). And, cost factors and explosive golf course growth in the Desert have caused the grape growers and others to “off-shore” their farming operations into Baja California Norte (Mexico). Where they’re getting the water is a guess because We (the US) have stolen Mexico’s Colorado River water allocation ‘fair n’ square’.
What’s in your mouth, America?
I’ll take “illegal immigration”, thank you very much.
I read one comment saying that their 2 children on graduation will have $100K in education debts.
Here in Sweden we can study right thru university completely free of charge, and even get a very generous monthly allowance to help with books and food etc etc