How's the economy in your area? (page 2)

little1

I like it a lot-4 seasons and none of them too extreme, although summer does overstay it's welcome at times. We have it all-beach, mountains...hey, maybe I should work for the board of tourism...!

L1

little1

Sorry Y,

I've been busy as hell at work and haven't read my stack of Wall Street Journals in weeks....

little witch

Yeru,

There are pockets of industry and profit.

Get real... Do you equate the economics of rural Indiana with Atlanta?

This was not a post about Bush,,,, relax...

I live amoungst corn fields, Little1 lives in a thriving urban mecca...See the difference?

She asked about our LOCAL economy dear.

Your stats on the national economic factors has nothing to do with the question at hand.

The city I live in is destitute. Of the 34,000 homes in this city, 4000 of them are either boarded up, condemned, or burned out. Thousands were thrown out of work when the steel mills closed. Crime and drugs are rampant, with an accompanying high murder rate. Every night I sit on my porch and hear gunshots. You can buy real estate here for next to nothing because property values have plummeted. This is attracting more and more poverty-level people from surrounding major cities (New York and Philadelphia). Slum lords are scooping up these properties and renting them out to anyone who can come up with a security deposit. Crack houses are everywhere.

I was raised here, and have recently returned after a 25 year absence. To have seen this city degenerate from a thriving metropolis into a crime and poverty-ridden tenement is disgusting and saddening.

We just elected a new mayor whose plans are to revive the economy by trying to attract new industry to the city, cracking down on the slum lords by tightening rental property requirements, and more agressive enforcement of drug laws. He has his work cut out for him.

National economic figures are meaningless here.

little witch

How awful!

Many of our cities here in Indiana are the same. Bloomington has managed to hang on due to medical manufacturing (It is a college town and thus attracts the educated).

But to be a family there, employed by the service industry, forget it. Rents are outlandish, dumps for 600 per month...

Very sad...

Yerusalyim

I realize this isn't an anti-Bush post...I'm just saying...here where I'm at the economy is booming along quite nicely...back home in rural Illinois it's humming along, but it is moving forward. I'm sure there are areas that really suck...and specific industry that is down...but as a whole the nation is on the rise.

Hapgood

In the next month or so the area that I live in, there is going to be two Walmarts opening that are only about 10 miles apart from each other and a Lowe's hardware store. Already a hardware store that had been in business for over 30 has closed. So far none of the business (that were left after the mall opened) in the downtown area have closed. I hope that our downtown areas survives Walmart. As for the economy it's so-so. Some people must have really good jobs because there a lot of really big houses being built in the area. We still have coal mines and a few steel mills here, but with the tariffs being lifted, I don't know if the steel mills that are left will survive.

Hapgood

DanTheMan

Columbus seems to have fared the economic downturn pretty well. The Ohio State University is the city's largest employer. They are facing some budget deficits but no layoffs that I know of. Lucent Technologies was another biggie around here up until 2 or 3 years ago, but they've really tanked and have layed off just about everybody.

Many banks and insurance companies are headquartered here. Most of them are doing well, though my uncle just got laid off from Bank One.

I'm a little nervous about the company I work for. The textbook publishing industry is very competitive and with schools slashing budgets, the future is not looking spectacular, though I'm sure we'll survive. But by no means do I count on having employment at my current place of work indefinitely. Things can change so fast, you're on your own in today's economy.

The downtown area is becoming increasingly uninhabited. You would never know what a large city Columbus is by visiting our downtown, the office-space vacancy rate is at an all-time high, and many office buildings are being converted to condominiums. There are countless office parks in the suburbs though, that seems to be the trend.

Sadie5

Thanks everyone for their comments. It's good to know that there are areas out there where things are better. Hope it keeps growing.

Worked with my new co-worker again last night. She worked at her gift shop through the day and got one customer during the whole time. And this is Holiday time, at a gift shop.

We worked with just a scant crew at Wal-mart last night. guess they are trying to cut back on payroll. We had no greeter, no stockman, 2 checkers and just a handful of people on the floor. but we managed to catch 3 shoplifters that the cops took away. Wonder how many we didn't catch.

Got to do some family stuff and then it's off to another Wal-mart adventure.

Sadie

SanFranciscoJim

....but we managed to catch 3 shoplifters that the cops took away. Wonder how many we didn't catch.

Remember..... only 18 more shoplifting days till Christmas!

How's the economy in your area?

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