Tuesday, May 25, 2010
 
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Logan County Economic Master Plan re-visioning the future

Part 2: Author Longworth speaks of need to reinvent our economy

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[May 25, 2010]  Participants in the first Lincoln and Logan County Economic Development Master Plan capped last week's work with a treat. Everyone, including the consultants, gathered for a luncheon featuring noted author Richard Longworth.

Longworth is part of the Vandewalle & Associates consulting firm team that was hired to write the master plan, and he is the author of "Caught in the Middle." In his book he addresses the economic fall of the Midwest, the mindset of the people and what changes need to be made for the Midwest to once again prosper.

He stays current and active in moving the Midwest forward as a senior fellow at the Chicago Council of Global Affairs, a former distinguished visiting scholar at DePaul University, and as author and host of the blog "The Midwesterner" on the website of the Chicago Council of the Global Midwest Initiative. He joined the council in 2003 as the executive director of the Global Chicago Center.

Additionally, he's a retired journalist who was with the Chicago Tribune for 20 years as a foreign correspondent.

Longworth began by saying that he was not going to pretend to tell the group about their county, as those in the room were much more informed on that subject than he was at the moment.

Instead he planned on discussing discoveries he had made in his 40,000-mile journey across the Midwest as he conducted research for his book.

Over a span of the next 20 minutes, Longworth touched on several topics that he discusses in detail in his book. He told the audience that while none of them were specific to Logan County, there were many similarities that the audience would be able to relate to.

Historically the Midwest -- which Longworth characterized as being Ohio, Indiana, the northern two-thirds of Illinois, portions of Missouri, Iowa, Kansas and Nebraska -- has always been a leader in the nation in industry and agriculture.

In his book, Longworth wrote that whatever happens in America happens in the Midwest first.

"The mills of Chicago and the factories of Detroit powered America's Industrial revolution. Here commerce boomed and labor wars first raged. The great reformers -- Debs and Dewey, Bryan and La Follette, Jane Addams and Betty Friedan -- sprang from Midwestern soil. The Great Depression began on Midwestern farms, ten years before the Crash. When the nation recovered in the 1940's, the Midwest recovered first, and most spectacularly. When American industry declined twenty years later, the decline started in the Rust Belt of the Midwest, along with the textile towns of New England. Midwestern steel mills, Midwestern auto factories, and Midwestern television makers felt the first sting of foreign competition, especially from Japan, as world markets began to open, long before globalization appeared."

Today it is the latter part of the statement that is of great concern to Longworth.

Modern technology has made industry and agriculture more efficient, but not without cost. While industry and agriculture are still the greatest source of revenue for the Midwest, production has been streamlined and manpower has been reduced.

Longworth noted that farms are growing larger, but the number of farmers is actually declining. Manufacturing has become so efficient that fewer workers are needed to produce the same volume of goods as in the past.

The result is that jobs are at a premium, and communities are losing their populations as people leave the area in search of better opportunities.

Longworth said that what has to happen is that communities must reinvent themselves in order to survive. He said that Midwesterners don't like change on the whole, but change is what is necessary.

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In the end, the master plan will be the blueprint for change in Logan County. Joel Smiley, executive director of the Lincoln & Logan County Development Partnership, said that the plan will outline specifically what business and industries can be drawn to the area, based on the assets of the communities.

Once it is completed, Smiley suggested that the master plan be the beginning of a three- to five-year process that will ultimately provide jobs to Logan County residents, increase the overall population of the county and improve the economic stability of its citizens as well as local governments.

[By NILA SMITH]

Past related articles

Information to help you understand the who, what, how, when and why of Logan County’s economic growth planning:

Logan County Regional Planning Commission FAQ sheet

  • Comprehensive Plan

  • GIS: Geographic Information System

  • CEDS: Comprehensive Economic Development Strategy

The Lincoln & Logan County Development Partnership received a $50,000 grant award from the U.S. Department of Agriculture to develop the Logan County Economic Master Plan.

The Logan County Economic Development Master Plan will use the Logan County Comprehensive Plan completed in 2006. (See Logan County Comprehensive Plan.)

How the plan was developed:

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