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This magazine article brings awareness to Cadillac's financial struggles. Many businesses are closing and families are leaving. It was designed to fit into Dwell magazine's Detour section which highlights different cities across the United States.
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Re-Build Your Struggling Small Town
DETOUR
DWELL
Cadillac, Michigan is home to around 10,000 people
and is considered one of the largest industrial and
commercial cities in northern Michigan. Now, with
the struggling economy Cadillac is losing many of
its once thriving businesses and its families. Leaving
behind empty rundown buildings.
LOWER INCOME FAMILIES STRUGGLE THE MOST.
71
DWELL
JUNE/JULY 2012
SPACE FOR LEASE
DETOUR
DWELL
73
NEARLY NEW BUILDINGS SIT EMPTY SINCE THE BUSINESSES COULD NOT SURVIVE.
These are hard times for most every city, as our
nation experiences an economic recession. Many cities
struggle to maintain their roads and schools and
also to keep tourism and locals interested in the city.
There have been many local campaigns and statewide
campaigns to regain interest in certain areas and
states. Many families must move around to find work
and as people leave an area so must the business.
This turns into a vicious cycle until almost nothing is
left to sustain a city or town. Most often bigger cities
are not affected by this type of situation. It is the
small towns such as Cadillac, Michigan that are most
affected and torn apart by the results of these difficult
economic times.
CADILLAC FALLING
It is a disheartening event to witness the decline
of something that was once a thriving and living
place. Watching one’s city fade into nothing more
than a memory of a good place is hard. Unfortunately
that has been the fate for many of the citizens
of Cadillac, Michigan. There are many locals who
have lived there for years and now experience the
displeasure of watching it turn from a quiet, yet
thriving destination city, into nothing more than a
stop for gas in between here and there. Many of the
businesses and activities that once drew people to the
inviting city are either struggling to stay afloat or no
longer in existence. Small town family owned stores
are a thing of the past.
HOW IT ALL STARTED
First it would only be fair to tell about Cadillac in
its better days. It was once a thriving logging town,
processing mostly pine timbers and the birthplace of
Shay Locomotives, invented by Ephriam Shay in 1878.
The Shay locomotive was the first one of its kind to be
able to carry logs around sharp corners, up steep hills
and on uneven terrain. They were actually used all over
the United States between 1880 and 1945. Currently
Cadillac has a Shay Locomotive on display in their city
park in honor of Ephriam Shay and the technology
and industry he brought to Cadillac. After World War II
Caberfae Ski Resort began to grow rapidly, increasing
the numbers of tourists that ventured to Cadillac.
There were many new businesses coming to the town
and many families began to call Cadillac their home.
Eventually such businesses as Avon Automotive, Four
Winns and Clark Foods were operating in Cadillac and
things were going well. Perhaps everyone in the quiet
little, prospering town of Cadillac got too comfortable
because eventually things started to decline.
THE ECONOMY PLUMMETS
Around 2007 when the United States Economy began
to fall so did Cadillac’s. There probably was not one
state in the whole country that was not affected by
the hard times, and many still are. However it is the
small towns like Cadillac who suffer the most when
times are bad. In these small towns is does not take
very many businesses closing or families moving away
to make quite a large dent in the once stable economy.
Plus once things start declining it is very hard to keep
up the image of the town or eventually bring things
back up.
EMPTY SPACES
There are countless numbers of buildings sitting
wwaround the city and the outskirts of Cadillac that it
really is quite sad. Large facilities like Clark foods now
sit completely empty. Clark foods had a huge shipping
and receiving dock, and employed many people.
They were the leading food services and commercial
food supplier in the surrounding area for many years.
Other places such as Bill Oliver’s restaurant and resort
were huge tourist attractions and very successful
businesses. Now after being bought, sold renamed
and downsized more than once, it sits on its corner
property operating only about half of its services
and space as before, and barely managing to fill the
parking lot half full. Still other places have downsized
or closed. Many of the automotive businesses that
once operated at full capacity have had to cut jobs
in both assembly line workers and management and
some have even began working only four or even
three day work weeks. Many employees have lost
vacation time, and experienced a decrease in benefits
and overtime. Since these are some of the biggest
businesses in Cadillac when they suffer, everyone
suffers. There are many small businesses that end up
only lasting a year or two as well, as a result of the
poor economy. Some places start out new and do well
for a while. When prices must go up to compete with
other local stores offering the same things, and when
people have no money, and aren’t buying things, then
these places close and leave a brand new building
standing there empty. It becomes very apparent that
times are tough when even brand new buildings are
standing all over Cadillac with no businesses in them.
Another problem that arises from the whole situation
is the loss of families.
DWELL
JUNE/JULY 2012
I LOST MY JOB
Many families have had to leave Cadillac because
they lost their job or their company is downsizing and
moving them to a different facility. Everywhere one
goes you can hear a story about someone’s son who
had to move for his job, or someone’s mother who lost
her job after 20 years and is now working two jobs
just to make ends meet. There are places even in the
nicer neighborhoods where every other house is for
sale. The number of foreclosed homes and families
who had to downsize because of foreclosure has sky
rocketed. It creates a very vicious cycle when business
close causing people to leave and the town to shrink
with no hope of recovering any time soon. Then what
do you get? A town filled with various empty houses,
but even worse, empty businesses. These businesses
sit for years and with the owners unable to pay for
them or sell them, they quickly become run down
and unsightly.
KEEPING UP APPEARANCES
As a result of the low economy buildings sit around
Cadillac in shambles. Things start to fall apart, grass
becomes overgrown and the area becomes very
sad and lonely. This creates a town that is not very
pleasant to drive through as a tourist or on a Sunday
afternoon drive. If the town looks run down and
empty it is easy to see that it will be hard to convince
people to come back. It also creates a very depressing
lifestyle for those who saw Cadillac in its better times.
Many people have said Cadillac was once a growing
city, now there is nothing left. They worry about how
far their children will have to go to find jobs and
whether or not they will be able to survive much
longer themselves.
NOT FAR FROM THE TREE
It’s no surprise that small cities like Cadillac struggle
when you look at the overall health and stability of
Michigan itself. To put the struggles of Cadillac into
better context consider this analysis by Kurt Metzger.
“While Michiganians, or Michiganders as our new
Governor prefers, knew that the first decade of the
21st Century had been hard on the state, the first
2010 Census results, released on December 21, truly
“brought it home.” With a 2010 population count
of 9,883,644, Michigan was the ONLY state to lose
population over the decade, dropping 54,800 or 0.6
percent. The last time the state experienced such loss
was in the first half of the 1980s, though population
gains in the second half of the decade outstripped the
losses. The past decade reversed this scenario as gains
over the first five years were more than wiped out
by five straight years of population loss. Population
change is the result of: Natural Increase, the difference
between births and deaths, and Net Migration, the
combination of Immigration and Domestic Migration
(movement within the 50 states). With the exception
of immigration, Michigan’s numbers went the wrong
way on all fronts. The number of births decreased by
11 percent between 2000 and 2008, while the number
of deaths increased by 1.5 percent. The birth rate of
12.1 live births per 1,000 population was down by
12.3 percent over the decade and placed Michigan
in the bottom 10 states. While this decrease has been
driven, in part, by economic uncertainties that have
caused couples to postpone parenthood, the more
important factor has been the loss of residents in
their childbearing years, the younger singles and
couples who have both the education and the
flexibility to move.
While the labor force has remained relatively steady,
dropping by 5.8 percent, the number of employed
decreased by 760,000, or 15.3 percent, while the
number of unemployed increased by 460,000, or
242 percent! While all industries suffered, it was
manufacturing, Michigan’s bread and butter, that
took the largest hit. Manufacturing jobs in Michigan
fell by almost half, 48 percent, dropping from just
under 900,000 in 2000 to about 463,000 in 2009.
While there has been some good news on the
manufacturing front in recent months, the number in
October 2010 is still about 470,000. The last thing to
address in this brief decade overview is the economic
well-being of Michigan and its households. While this
analysis will focus on per capita personal income
and median household income, let us not forget the
foreclosure crisis that has kept Michigan in the Top 5
states since its inception in 2005.
The Bureau of Economic Analysis measures per
capita personal income (PCPI) for the nation, states,
metropolitan areas and counties. While Michigan’s
income well surpassed the national average during
the 1970s, the recession of the early 1980s pushed it
below average, where it stayed until a brief rebound
in 1994 and 1995. By 2000, however, Michigan’s
PCPI had fallen to just less than 97 percent of the
national average. Losses in 2001 and 2003 were
followed by a brief rally in 2003. However, the next
four years brought a steady decrease to 86.8 percent
in 2007, and a low of 86.6 percent in 2009. While
income losses can be directly tied to the loss of jobs,
particularly manufacturing, we must remember that
Michigan’s income has remained artificially high due
to those highly paid auto-related manufacturing jobs,
jobs that did not require high levels of education. The
restructuring of the nation’s economy has made the
need for post-secondary education more critical than
ever, and Michigan’s low level of college graduates has
resulted in its rapid income drop.
One last income number really drives home the story
of Michigan’s decade decline. The median household
income for Michigan dropped by 21.3 percent between
2000 and 2009, while the national average fell by
one-third of that -7.1 percent. When translated to 2009
dollars, we find that every Michigan household, on
average, lost over $12,000 in buying power. Such a
loss ripples through the entire economy and decreases
the need for all the retail, service and construction jobs
that feed off of our disposable income.
Well, here we are at the beginning of a new decade.
We have a new Governor and the forecast for
both the nation and Michigan is a slow, but steady,
recovery. The message for Michigan, in addition to
YOU DON’T HAVE TO GO FAR TO FIND BUILDING FOR SALE OR LEASE.
DETOUR
DWELL
75
“transformation” and “innovation,” must be education,
education, education! Unless we decide to focus our
resources on the education of our residents, from
birth to career, Michigan will continue to experience
decreasing population, employment and income. The
future is ours to decide.”
With Michigan itself struggling to survive, it’s difficult
for small cities like Cadillac to survive. Small cities rely
on the people in the city to sustain businesses. When
all the people begin to leave, so must the business,
until slowly there is nothing left.
Many People live day to day wondering
if their job or their business will be next.
DWELL
JUNE/JULY 2012
DWELL
DETOUR
Cadillac is filled with empty buildings, rundown businesses and various spaces to lease.
DWELL
JUNE/JULY 2012
77
THE FUTURE
In the future, when the economy recovers, Cadillac
will have a decent chance of recovering as well. It is
still a quiet city with a lot to offer. Hopefully the
families that have held out this long will be able to
stay in their hometown of Cadillac and the businesses
that remain can manage to survive in these tough
times. In the future Cadillac will be able to regain some
of its former glory or at the very least shed its layer of
empty, run-down buildings and homes.