RE: (erielack) Former EL Cities on This Sad List

[Jim Guthrie <jguthrie_@_pipeline.com>]

>(http://www.forbes.com/business/2008/08/04/economy-ohio-michigan-biz_cx_jz_0
>805dying.html)  
>
>Wow, this is astonishing! Scranton is on there, too?  Of that large list,
>only Springfield, MA, Flint and Detroit, MI, and Charleston, WV were NOT on
>the EL! YIKES!

There are lots of clear economic reasons for this -- especially in Ohio and Michigan and maybe Buffalo. 

Scranton/Willkes Barre is different, having plummetted  with anthracite and no leadership generation to replace those with the vision to build those cities. Next time you're in Scranton, think about that grand Masonic Temple, note the year on the cornerstone,, and remember that the argument among a few voices in the wilderness was that the civic effort could better be spent planning the city's future with anthracite going away as fast as the remaining pillars could be mined. Scranton itself was the 39th largest city in the early part of the Twentieth Century, after all.

As for the E-L "What Ifs" -- how about the John Kneiling "What If" of the Erie becoming a TOFC/Unit train thruway, while the competitors were still losing money hand over fist picking at the [fast drying] bones of the Rust Belt. Heck, even CR was asleep when Walter Rich found a niche for NYS&W.

Cheers,
Jim

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