The Wolverine State
KALAMAZOO, MICH. -- So this is Michigan.
I didn't really know what to expect as I took the 20 flight over the Great Lake between Chicago and the nation's biggest producer of cherries. I've heard a lot about the dearth of jobs in the state from people that moved to Wyoming in search of steady work. I flew with some apprehension, not knowing what to expect.
Then I got to Kalamazoo. Wow. Things here are as depressed as one might expect from reading the news. The Detroit Free Press screamed headlines about the UAW's deal with the devil
that will make health care more limited and expensive for 414,000 GM workers. The streets were filled with potholes, lined with businesses that looked like they'd seen better days a half-century ago. The Pfizer plant reigned over it all. It seems like it's one of the last industrial stalwarts left in this once proud railroad stopover between the business barons of Chicago and Detroit.
But amongst it all, not unlike Gillette, there is an educated class, people that are well off, who have time to mingle during the monthly Art Hop that has the 'zoo's burgeoning downtown businesses and various boutiques fling open their doors with pricy prints and elongated, abstract, lines that twist their way into faces that delight the crowds sipping wine, munching on hor'dourves, mingling, chattering, enjoying life and all its good things.
That's the odd thing about Kalamazoo, so many American cities right now. Amidst what many people would see as bad economic factors, there is still a segment of the population that is clearly doing well, has time to think about things beyond getting the next meal on the table. Gross Domestic Product chugs along to the delight of economists but it seems so many pockets have rising unemployment. The art people Friday didn't have to worry quite so much about August's 5.7 percent unemployment rate in the Kalamazoo-Portage MSA, though. The downtown here, at least for the night of the Art Hop, which I've been told really livens up the city, made downtown look downright lively. Then you go to the supermarket to buy beer and all of a sudden it seems to just come crashing down. Yes, it was late, but the emptinees was almost tangible.
I guess it's the same everywhere. Maybe I was just projecting my expectations on this place.
In any case, I'm in Michigan, my 41st state.
I didn't really know what to expect as I took the 20 flight over the Great Lake between Chicago and the nation's biggest producer of cherries. I've heard a lot about the dearth of jobs in the state from people that moved to Wyoming in search of steady work. I flew with some apprehension, not knowing what to expect.
Then I got to Kalamazoo. Wow. Things here are as depressed as one might expect from reading the news. The Detroit Free Press screamed headlines about the UAW's deal with the devil
that will make health care more limited and expensive for 414,000 GM workers. The streets were filled with potholes, lined with businesses that looked like they'd seen better days a half-century ago. The Pfizer plant reigned over it all. It seems like it's one of the last industrial stalwarts left in this once proud railroad stopover between the business barons of Chicago and Detroit.But amongst it all, not unlike Gillette, there is an educated class, people that are well off, who have time to mingle during the monthly Art Hop that has the 'zoo's burgeoning downtown businesses and various boutiques fling open their doors with pricy prints and elongated, abstract, lines that twist their way into faces that delight the crowds sipping wine, munching on hor'dourves, mingling, chattering, enjoying life and all its good things.
That's the odd thing about Kalamazoo, so many American cities right now. Amidst what many people would see as bad economic factors, there is still a segment of the population that is clearly doing well, has time to think about things beyond getting the next meal on the table. Gross Domestic Product chugs along to the delight of economists but it seems so many pockets have rising unemployment. The art people Friday didn't have to worry quite so much about August's 5.7 percent unemployment rate in the Kalamazoo-Portage MSA, though. The downtown here, at least for the night of the Art Hop, which I've been told really livens up the city, made downtown look downright lively. Then you go to the supermarket to buy beer and all of a sudden it seems to just come crashing down. Yes, it was late, but the emptinees was almost tangible.
I guess it's the same everywhere. Maybe I was just projecting my expectations on this place.
In any case, I'm in Michigan, my 41st state.
posted by Pedro_in_Wyoming at 10:10 AM
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