Springfield’s Death Is Greatly Exaggerated, but
Springfield, which had been doing somewhat better in the public-relations department of late, suffered a potentially significant setback recently, when it landed on one of those lists that no city wants to be on.
In this case, it was a compilation from Forbes.com of the nations fastest-dying cities. Springfield is right there, along with Buffalo, N.Y., Charleston, W.V., Scranton, Pa., Detroit and Flint, Mich., and no less than four cities from Ohio Canton, Cleveland, Dayton, and Youngstown. More than 150 cities were supposedly considered for this honor, and these are the ones that have struggled the worst of any areas in the nation in the 21st century, and they face even bleaker futures, including to the author.
In its quick summation of why Springfield is on the list, Forbes.com writes, the Western Mass. home to Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance and Smith & Wesson has suffered for a long time as the Northeast becomes less and less a destination for manufacturing. It goes on to note that the city has partnered with Hartford in an effort to stave off further decline.
There were a number of factors that went into gaining designation as one of the fastest-dying cities, including high unemployment, population loss, comparatively modest GDP, and others. List such as this one are subjective, arbitrary, completely unscientific, and somewhat sensational, but that doesnt stop publications from Forbes from doing them.
And now that Springfields on the list, it will be interesting to see and hear how it handles this and what the fallout might be.
Indeed, while the knee-jerk reaction is to discount this list and Springfields placement on it, or argue with its basic premise and thats what area leaders and some media outlets have done since it came out those closely involved with crafting Springfields future shouldnt dismiss the main point.
And that is that most all the cities on this list are once-thriving manufacturing centers most located in what is still known as the Rust Belt that have struggled, in some cases mightily, to build post-industrial economies. Springfield is still hard at work with this assignment, with limited progress to date.
The citys defenders say there are some positive things happening here and there are. But a new federal courthouse, Liberty Mutuals arrival (300 or so jobs), a few new hotels, some progress on the riverfront, and even Baystate Healths $250 million expansion in the form of the hospital of the future do not constitute re-invention, and thats what has to happen if Springfield is to truly get off the deathbed Forbes.com says its on.
Reinvention will come through the development of new sources of good, high-paying jobs (tourism and distribution positions dont qualify) to replace those lost due to the decline in manufacturing. There is some progress on this front in areas such as biotechnology, renewable energy, and green business development but still a very long way to go.
Meanwhile, true reinvention wont come until Springfield can do something substantial to lower an appalling 50% dropout rate in its high schools, a statistic that speaks volumes about why, with an unemployment rate at or slightly above the national average, many area companies in this region simply cant find qualified individuals to fill vacancies.
Does Springfield belong on the fastest-dying cities list? One could debate this question forever, and since this was a subjective exercise and we dont really know enough about the other 149 cities evaluated, there seems little point in doing so and that exercise only adds validity to the list.
A series of mayors from Flint have argued long and loudly that their community does not belong on worst places to live or fastest-dying cities lists, and it hasnt done much, if anything, to benefit that community. One year, people there burned copies of the magazine that compiled the worst places to live list, as if that would make the problem go away.
Springfield is on the fastest-dying list, and thus the assignment is to get off it. No one likes to hear that their city is dying, but perhaps, in this case, inclusion might just spark an even more vigorous effort to complete that reinvention process.
It was Mark Twain who said, the rumors of my death have been greatly exaggerated. Springfield cant just say the same; it has to prove it.-
