Talking Danville

Often here there have been comments about Danville, Virginia. This is not meant as a replay of past comments about both the town's attractiveness and its economic and societal challenges. What's new is how fast this national and global economic downturn, or catastrophe, is impacting Danville. It was just eight months ago that the unemployment rate in the Danville area was reported at 8.5%. Two weeks ago in the RegisterBee(local newspaper) it was reported at 13.9%. Today Goodyear, the one real wage manufacturing employer left in the town, suggested that it was laying off 400 workers, and those are $25 to $30 an hour folks, a really good wage in Danville. Another firm that's unfamiliar, Engineering Design and Sales which is a small manufacturer, announced that it was shutting down its Danville operations. That Danville has somehow received international attention on BBC for its 150 jobs at a new highly automated IKEA plant, jobs that pay $13 an hour, is almost an ironic joke. Not that those jobs aren't welcome, but the town seems exploitable now, no local industry with the demise of textiles and tobacco, declining national industry in the layoffs at Goodyear and the loss of Dan River, Disston and others, and despite all of the laudable civic efforts there could be a 20% unemployment rate by the end of 2009.

It would be nice to feel any confidence that this is an exaggeration. I'm not sure it is, and it of course means a probable escalation of social problems that could further stigmatize the community.

From what I hear and read this is not isolated. Former rural industrial towns across the country could be in the same rapid retraction. Danville and communities like it may not have the underpinnings to recover, regardless of any rescue package and some projected recovery a few years out. Or maybe these towns will be the beneficiaries of a forced reverse migration of former sons and daughters, reinvigorating the towns with money that no longer works in urban communities. All of this is happening at a pace that is jaw dropping.