Shutting Detroit Down

In the recent news, stories of Detroit and the economic pressures that are facing the workers and companies of the nations car companies should invoke a sense of nostalgia for residents of Johnstown. A new country song by John Rich entitled Shuttin' Detroit Down has a passage in its lyrics that though intended to illustrate the feelings of the worker in the car factories, could have very well been pertinent 30 years ago when the mills left Johnstown. "Well that old man’s been workin’ in that plant most all of his life / Now his pension plan’s been cut in half and he can’t afford to die / And it’s a crying shame, ‘cause he ain’t the one to blame/ When I look down and see his caloused hands, Let me tell you friend it gets me fightin’ mad".


With the closing of the mills in Johnstown, and the highest unemployment rating of the region to date, the companies of Bethlehem Steel and its conglomerates signed the death certificate of Johnstown. Where now those mills are simply ghost like buildings that only serve as a reminder of better times when the store fronts on Main Street were filled with businesses rather than for rent signs. Though the population of Detroit is greater than Johnstown, will the dissolution of the auto industry in that town have similar repercussions thirty years from now?

Present economic arguments of the Wall Street vs Main Street dichotomy fail to illustrate the fate of cities such as Detroit and many others if such industries are allowed to pull out. The chorus of the song definitely hits home the point of corruption within our society and the impacts that the financial recession is having on a local level. "Cause in the real world there shutting Detroit down While the boss man takes his bonus pay and jets out of town/And DC’s bailing out the bankers as the farmers auction ground, Yeah while they’re living it up on Wall Street in that New York City town, Here in the real world there shuttin’ Detroit down" (http://www.roughstock.com/cowpie/songs/J/john-rich/shuttin-detroit-down)

A 300 year Fight for Johnstown

In the early 1700's my great-great-great grandfather purchased one hundred acres of land for $4 and built a homestead that is still standing to this day. My family based its future in Johnstown and like them I stand against the economic downturns in hope of better times in a town they helped build.

My great-grandfather Charles Livingston was a school teacher. Educated and a prominent figure in the community he found that at the turn of the 20th century employment with Bethlehem Steel would be a financial upturn for the family. Thus for the remainder of his life he left behind the books of a one room school house to be an accountant for the steel giant. His position there enabled the family to be economically sound enough to send my grandmother to nursing school.

Victor Saylor was a remarkable man, my grandfather, and though I never was given the chance to meet him, the research I have done illustrates this point. He was a miner, a carpenter, a laborer, a painter, and a father. His lungs were blackened by the coal dust that he inhaled deep within the mines that provided coal to fuel the fires of the mills. The callouses on his hands were from building houses, such as the Pasquerilla mansion and Joseph Johns many buildings.

My ancestors played an integral role in the foundation and life that Johnstown has seen for many years. Their fight and strength led them through difficult times such as the Great Depression. It is now left to me to carry that torch of courage in times that now seem bleak and hopeless. Johnstown may face extinction, economic turmoil and recession, but it is not in me to lay down and quit. Soon to be a college graduate, I may not find a position where my degree will be pertinent. But if this ship of Johnstown is sinking then I am along for the ride, and I hope I can live up to the strength my ancestors have taught me.

Is CTC a savior for Johnstown?

A local company that has expanded to national proportions is Concurrent Technology Corporation, CTC. Based out of Johnstown CTC prides itself on the "research and development professional services organization providing innovative management and technology-based solutions to a wide array of clients representing federal and state agencies and the private sector" (www.ctc.com). The company employs about 1,400 people in their various locations and is the closest thing to hope that a college graduate wishing to stay in Johnstown has. The majority of their workforce has at least a Bachelors degree, 45%, while only 10% have an Associates and a mere 1% with a technical degree. (http://www.ctc.com/learnaboutctc/staff.cfm).

This would seem to be the last remaining solid business within the region that could provide opportunities for high-paid educated jobs. The company takes pride in their staff and their status in an uncertain economic time period. However, in a conversation with Professor Sandro Marchegiani from the University of Pittsburgh at Johnstown it was revealed that CTC had eliminated several internship positions that were granted to Computer Science majors from campus. Does this cut of interns illustrate a foreboding downturn of a prominent Johnstown employer?

Without the presence of CTC and its new competitor Lockheed Martin, the arena of jobs for college graduates gets increasingly smaller. Johnstown made the shift from a dominant labor intensive workforce to attempts at a technological educated work force through economic downturns in the late 80's. But now with grim news of reduced opportunities at those technologically focused organizations is it still possible for Johnstown to survive with top employers such as Wal-Mart and Sheetz?

Where have all the jobs gone?

In the previous post it is noted that the steel industry in Johnstown once employed over 13,000 full time positions. As Johnstown moves toward the verge of economic downfall with increasing unemployment the strength of the town will be tested once more. The Chamber of Commerce for the city of Johnstown has on their website a list of the top fifty employers within the region. (http://www.johnstownchamber.com/region/top50employers.asp) It is of interest that with the lack of manufacturing jobs, the top employer thirty plus years after the fall of the mills is Conemaugh Health Systems.

College graduates find themselves faced with a bleak market nationwide but how can one possibly find a way to make ends meet and stay in Johnstown? The government, local, state and federal, make up the next three prominent employers and the fifth should scare the population of Johnstown. Wal-Mart is the fifth largest employer of the area. One of the ways that Johnstown could possibly stave off the economic death that is standing at its door is to attract college graduates and entice them to stay. If this does not happen and the "next generation" flees from Johnstown as quickly as the flood waters, the town, with a median age of 41.5 years of age as of the 2000 census, will surely fall from the teetering brink it is now on into a grim ghost town. (http://www.hellojohnstown.com/Census.Cfm)

A Johnstown resident from birth, I have witnessed nearly thirty years of economic ups and downs. It is however sad to say that with the national economy fighting to survive that towns struggling before Wall Street vs. Main Street argument will be left to struggle alone. How can Johnstown fight odds that are insurmountable? How does the city brave on without a glimmer of hope? Will Wal-mart and Sheetz climb the list of prominent employers or is it possible for the city to push the boulder of technology further up the mountain and carve out a niche that keeps the younger population in town. The skeletal hand of death awaits to see what fight the small town has left within its population, will they fight for their future?

Johnstown's Past Struggles

A hundred years ago the reputation of Johnstown would have preceded it. Though today in 2009 it is hardly known for any large accomplishments. The passing of time has washed away the memory that Johnstown has faced harder times than those of the present economic decline. It is not financial wealth that has ever defined Johnstown, but rather an integral ideal of survival and hope.

The history of Johnstown is pertinent and imperative to understand its teetering ability to remain on the rims of survival through the Wall Street vs. Main Street ordeals. In the very beginning Johnstown was not started as a small settlement that grew over time, but claimed its strength and worth very early on. By the late 1800's Johnstown's steel industry outproduced both Cleveland and Pittsburgh, but that strength would soon be tested. Most familiar with Johnstown's history have heard all too much of the "Great Flood" however it is important to illustrate a parallel. On May 31st, 1889, waters from a dam fourteen miles from Johnstown raged through the valley destroying everything in its path. The destruction was catastrophic, over two thousand people lost their lives in the natural disaster, but it was not the death of Johnstown. At the turn of the 20th century Johnstown found itself with a population nearing one hundred thousand citizens and steel mills that manufactured a majority of the barbed wire for the nation. This success was short lived as yet another flood in 1936 due to rain and heavy runoff from melting snow forced Johnstown to the brink of destruction for the second time in fifty years. Fighting to rebuild through the Great Depression, the economy of Johnstown was aided by the post WWII need for steel once more. The industry was successful and at its peak provided employment for 13,000 full-time well paying jobs, but as the years passed foreign competition and distance from raw materials forced a slow economic decline for the industry. The 1977 flood sealed the fate of the once industrious and productive industry that could no longer rebuild in an area so far from resources and remain competitive.

The mills remain thirty-two years after the last flood waters breached their walls but long has it

been since they housed the massive workforce of years gone by. In those same years the city has struggled to carve out a niche for itself in the world of technology. Aided by companies such as Lockheed Martin and CTC the economy of the small town carries with it the torch of an indestructible fire and hope.