This was in today’s Star Tribune. It’s an economic story that points out how the Iron Range “boom and bust” cycle we’re used to around here is happening much faster than the old days.
Iron Range’s fast fall follows boom
The mining industry faces sudden shutdowns, but many see a silver lining in the long run.By LARRY OAKES, Star Tribune
December 22, 2008
DULUTH – After years of prosperity that crescendoed to a boom for much of 2008, the world economic crisis has brought hard times back to the Iron Range with stunning speed.
“It was like we were on top of a Ferris wheel in the third quarter of ’08, and suddenly we’re on a decline,” said Sandy Layman, commissioner of the state agency Iron Range Resources. “We’re rewriting the history books because of the speed of this.”
However, Layman and others say they take solace in predictions that this time the plant shutdowns are expected to last months rather than years and that several major projects remain on track.
Read the whole story; it’s worthwhile. The comments also belie the age-old statewide debate about the Iron Range, with some recognizing the area’s cultural and economic importance and others just telling us to lay down and die already. Naturally, I’ve entered the fray and engaged in self-promotion. Iron Range blogs don’t naturally attract statewide attention.
Thanks to Lee for the tip.
It’s always interesting to see the comments of city folk when it comes to the Range. It seems such a divisive area amongst them. Most of them seem to see it as a place sucking funds from the rest of the state, a place that should be abandoned.
I say let the city folk see it that way, it preserves the heritage and way of life on the Range. Compare Grand Rapids to Hibbing, which one feels more like a metro suburb? Would the rest of the Range want their hub cities to be like Grand Rapids? Nothing against Rapids, but it is starting to feel like many other homogenized micropolitan areas near the Cities, and I don’t see that as a good thing.
On a totally separate and unrelated and probably irrelevant note I saw a musician, Charlie Roth, the other weekend at a bar in Spicer, MN. He happened to have wrote a song about the Star Motel in Hibbing, which I found interesting, having lived in Hibbing, (not the Star Motel), for over three years. I must say I never expected to see a song written about it, it even references the Lucky 7!
Here is a link to the song if anyone is interested.
http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendID=165222507
The song is titled, “Star Motel”, song number 3…
Same old song and dance of all these Jobs are going to come to the Iron Range, sure they give that “hope” of a better future economic time; they’ve been plugging that line for decades. Get off the sauce folks.