Get Down In That Hole And Dig

            Tonight 60 Minutes ran a segment on NYC commercial real estate. There is a lot of empty office space; whole buildings are empty. As evidenced by the recent Trump fraud trial, commercial real estate is a game of inside baseball with regards the symbiotic relationship of the commercial lenders, the landlords, developers, tenants, etc. The bank certainly doesn’t want to own an old empty office building. Residential property rents are high in NYC, as in most of the US. Some commercial NYC real estate is being snatched up on the cheap and developed into residential housing where zoning permits it. That is not a money maker. Various reasons are given for the dearth of business office occupancy: high interest rates, the loss of the attraction of having the office be in the city itself, the post pandemic hybridity of work from home efficiency, etc. Work from home looms disproportionately large in the business equation as it saves companies in terms of real estate cost requirements. Many in the know say it is here to stay. In a tight job market, workers can securely say they like and prefer it. As mentioned with the inside baseball analogy, the actual commercial real estate situation of any given area is not readily made known. Here in Licking County Ohio, commercial real estate is usually associated with the big box warehouses, distribution centers and manufacturing facilities located on previously farmed land. It has been decades since anyone built an office tower in Newark. Intel is the current dominant commercial real estate development in Licking County. Its financing is an even more convoluted and obscure case of inside baseball. We are told that it projects employment of around 10,000 workers. The job market has been historically tight during the Biden Presidency resulting in workers having some leverage on wages, working conditions, working from home, etc. Given that, where are these future Intel chip manufacturers going to come from? Even if, ideally, minimum wage employees (fast food, health care, education, etc.) filled any potential existing employment disparity, who would fill the void left by this upward mobility? The three GOP candidates for Ohio’s next senator are deadly serious about it certainly not being people of color migrating from the southern hemisphere. No, the same Ohio GOP leaders who played the inside baseball of creating the commercial real estate known as Intel also are creating the propaganda that this manufacturing process will create high paying “Jobs!” for Ohioans. Now these Ohioans, who fill these technical manufacturing positions, must be fundamentally different from their fellow American co workers who, when possible, would prefer to work from home. After all, working at Intel is not at all like working for OSU Hospitals (or any other central Ohio medical industrial health complex). Unlike health care, chip makers must perform their tasks while donning a bunny suit and staying in one place all day, everyday (no moving around or social interaction). No work from home option here. Analysis finds what’s needed for the success of this commercial real estate venture called Intel to be reminiscent of what took place in the eastern half of the US during the late 1800’s. The coal, ore, manufacturing barons of the time didn’t care much about the welfare of the whites, blacks and immigrant workers they projected as essential for their prosperity. Just get down in that hole and dig!

New Life For An Old Structure (Again)

[With the breaking of the latest news by the Newark Advocate’s Kent Mallett (Longaberger basket building won’t become hotel, on market for $6.5 million, 1-15-21) Analysis chose to rerun this oldie (but goodie) from 4 years ago (2-12-17). For those of you keeping score at home, this line from Mallett’s recent reporting is most telling: “The best use for the building will be its original purpose as office space, which will not require much interior work, [Brandon] Hess said. The remodeling to convert into a hotel had not begun, he said.”]

Remember the basket building at the edge of town? Of course you do. Commuters driving by rubber neck daily for signs of decline, never admitting any morbid interest, but looking just the same. After a visit to the place by “business leaders”, and an assessment of futures value by Cheri Hottinger of what a great place it is (would make a terrific office of tourism), nothing else has been heard. But the tax bill increases, even as the City of Newark elides taking responsibility (or ownership). How about turning it into a state wide immigration reception and processing center? The Ellis Island of Ohio, right here in the heart of the heartland, downtown, er, town’s edge Newark! Think of the jobs it would create with the various state and federal agencies dealing with immigration, the requisite housing for new arrivals in a controlled centralized location, as well as the conference facilities for immigration related events, maybe even a living immigration museum, telling the story of where it all began (for some) (for most). The tour busses would return! A tourism center? Fuggetaboutit. Besides, immigration and the big basket share a lot in common. Cincy may have an underground railroad museum, but the interdependent story of African Americans and Euro Americans is not that of the immigrant. As Hegel pointed out, the master/slave relationship is a weird dialectic of power, need and reliance, both spoken and unspoken. The story of the immigrant, like that of the basket building, is one of uselessness, not being needed or wanted, being totally powerless (Will the building eventually disappear? Will the immigrant do likewise?). The alien architecture of the basket building is not located amongst the church spires and bank buildings of downtown Newark. Rather, like the alien immigrant, it is relegated to a specially annexed borderland of the city, out of sight, out of mind. The only company this alien construct has is the long distance relationship with the giant chair across the road. The immigrant shares a similar heritage with the building that bears the Longaberger nameplate hearkening an inspirational past of thriving and belonging, one that is forever lost, never to be revisited or regained. Ever present mourning, nostalgia and angst is an integral part of the immigrant life; something experienced only occasionally by Heisey, or Longaberger enthusiasts. The entire work ethic and skill that spawned the immigrant and the basket building is still looked upon with skepticism and suspicion in today’s America. Hand making baskets is akin to speaking another language. Unlike the basket building, most immigrants do not stay useless for long (or all arrive useless for that matter). Like Arnold Schwarzenegger, or Rupert Murdoch, most quickly assimilate into the conservative mainstream. But that’s a whole other story, one that the current administration might do well to consider (City, County, State, as well as Federal). So call your city council representative, the mayor, and county commissioners to tell them Newark needs immigrants. Better yet, call the folks with their hand on the handles of the basket building, Cheri or her husband, and tell them Newark needs an immigration reception and processing center. Like them, most immigrants come with one or both hands gripping the handles of their belongings. And the basket building even has those. What better place than the vacant basket building? What could be more perfect?

Half The Story – But Which Half?

Ohio’s Lieutenant Governor swung by Licking County to talk to some folks about some things near and dear to his heart. You remember John Husted. The same John Husted who as an elected representative was caught in a bizarre court case regarding being a representative of his district in Dayton all the while living with his family in a home in Upper Arlington; except that his “residence” in Dayton was unoccupied. Paying the water bill satisfied the courts that he was a lawful “resident.” Apologies for the digression but it was irresistible. No, John didn’t talk about affordable housing with the Newark Homeless Outreach at City Council. Nor did he speak about state initiatives to deal with methamphetamine abuse at a Newark Think Tank on Poverty meeting. No, Republican Lieutenant Governor (and wannabe future Governor) Husted’s heart embraced “Workforce development is the most important issue the state faces, Lt. Gov. John Husted told a Grow Licking County investor’s breakfast crowd Tuesday at The Granville Inn.” (Lt. Gov. Husted: Workforce development is Ohio’s most important issue Kent Mallet for the Newark Advocate, 4-2-19) Mallett is rather succinct: “”It is, by far, the most important issue we face,” Husted said. “Everywhere we go, this is the No. 1 issue. What we have to do is be a magnet for talent. The people, the communities, the states that get this right, will see greater prosperity. “Talent can mean a lot of things to a lot of people. For some, it’s someone who can pass a drug test and show up for work five days a week.” For others, he said, it could be someone with a doctoral degree. Adding to the challenge, he said, is the reality that more Ohioans will turn 65 years old than 18 years old during the next decade, dwindling the workforce further. Employers need mechanical engineers and electrical engineers, for example, Husted said.” Curious how the recent announcement of a new building to be constructed at OSUN COTC fits right in to that. Another digression, mea culpa. The next day the NY Times headlined “Short of Workers, U.S. Builders and Farmers Crave More Immigrants As a tight labor market raises costs, employers say the need for low-wage help can’t be met by the declining ranks of the native-born.” (Eduardo Porter, 4-3-19). Gasp! Significant numbers from the article: “The tightest labor market in more than half a century is finally lifting the wages of the least-skilled workers on the bottom rung of the labor force, bucking years of stagnation.” Not exactly mechanical or electrical engineers. “But to hear builders tell it, the rising cost of their crews reflects a demographic reality that could hamstring industries besides their own: Their labor force is shrinking. President Trump’s threat to close the Mexican border, a move that would cause damage to both economies, only adds to the pressure. Immigration — often illegal — has long acted as a supply line for low-skilled workers. Even before Mr. Trump ratcheted up border enforcement, economic growth in Mexico and the aging of the country’s population were reducing the flow of Mexican workers into the United States. The number of undocumented immigrants in America declined to 10.7 million at the end of 2017 from a peak of over 12 million at the height of the housing bubble in 2008, according to the Center for Migration Studies.” “The problem for builders is that the recovery in home building has outpaced the growth of the construction labor force. Housing starts have picked up to a pace of 1.2 million a month, more than twice as many as at their trough in April 2009. The number of nonsupervisory workers in residential construction, by contrast, has increased by only 40 percent since hitting bottom in 2011, to about 530,000.” “Were it not for immigrants, the labor crunch would be even more intense. In 2016, immigrants accounted for one in four construction workers, according to a study by Natalia Siniavskaia of the home builders’ association, up from about one in five in 2004. In some of the least-skilled jobs — like plastering, roofing and hanging drywall, for which workers rarely have more than a high school education — the share of immigrants hovers around half.” “For all the fears of robots taking over jobs, some economists are worrying about the broader economic fallout from a lack of low-skilled workers. And businesses across the economy are complaining that without immigration they will be left without a work force. “It is good for wages to go up, but if labor is at a point where employers can’t hire, it is reducing growth,” said Pia Orrenius, an economist with the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas. “There’s also considerable wage pressure in small towns and cities that are depopulating, but that is a sign of distress, not of rising productivity.” The labor crunch is likely to persist for some time. The Pew Research Center projects very little growth in the working-age population over the next two decades. If the United States were to cut off the flow of new immigrants, Pew noted, its working population would shrink to 166 million in 2035 from 173 million in 2015.” Double Gasp! Work force development may be near and dear to Mr. Husted’s heart as the most important issue facing the state, but this is only half the story. In disguise, the Republican in Mr. Husted is promulgating a white power movement theme, since we don’t have to address what historically really made America great – immigrants. The vitriol, diatribes and lies (some just call it hate) directed at immigrants defies their underlying value to the country as well as Licking County. Velvet Ice Cream (poster child of Grow Licking County) was an immigrant contribution. “Many of the high school students who would replenish the pipeline of carpenters, plumbers and electricians are undocumented immigrants. “Half of the kids in the high school carpentry programs are DACA kids,” said Mr. Hoffmann, the Dallas builder, referring to a program that allows unauthorized minors to stay in the United States. “They are not documented, so we can’t work with them.”” (Porter, NY Times) “”You get what you reward,” Husted said. “Whatever society celebrates, it gets more of. I’ll do signing days at tech schools.”” (Mallett, Newark Advocate) Triple Gasp!

New Life For An Old Structure

Remember the basket building at the edge of town? Of course you do. Commuters driving by rubber neck daily for signs of decline, never admitting any morbid interest, but looking just the same. After a visit to the place by “business leaders”, and an assessment of futures value by Cheri Hottinger of what a great place it is (would make a terrific office of tourism), nothing else has been heard. But the tax bill increases, even as the City of Newark elides taking responsibility (or ownership). How about turning it into a state wide immigration reception and processing center? The Ellis Island of Ohio, right here in the heart of the heartland, downtown, er, town’s edge Newark! Think of the jobs it would create with the various state and federal agencies dealing with immigration, the requisite housing for new arrivals in a controlled centralized location, as well as the conference facilities for immigration related events, maybe even a living immigration museum, telling the story of where it all began (for some) (for most). The tour busses would return! A tourism center? Fuggetaboutit. Besides, immigration and the big basket share a lot in common. Cincy may have an underground railroad museum, but the interdependent story of African Americans and Euro Americans is not that of the immigrant. As Hegel pointed out, the master/slave relationship is a weird dialectic of power, need and reliance, both spoken and unspoken. The story of the immigrant, like that of the basket building, is one of uselessness, not being needed or wanted, being totally powerless (Will the building eventually disappear? Will the immigrant do likewise?). The alien architecture of the basket building is not located amongst the church spires and bank buildings of downtown Newark. Rather, like the alien immigrant, it is relegated to a specially annexed borderland of the city, out of sight, out of mind. The only company this alien construct has is the long distance relationship with the giant chair across the road. The immigrant shares a similar heritage with the building that bears the Longaberger nameplate hearkening an inspirational past of thriving and belonging, one that is forever lost, never to be revisited or regained. Ever present mourning, nostalgia and angst is an integral part of the immigrant life; something experienced only occasionally by Heisey, or Longaberger enthusiasts. The entire work ethic and skill that spawned the immigrant and the basket building is still looked upon with skepticism and suspicion in today’s America. Hand making baskets is akin to speaking another language. Unlike the basket building, most immigrants do not stay useless for long (or all arrive useless for that matter). Like Arnold Schwarzenegger, or Rupert Murdoch, most quickly assimilate into the conservative mainstream. But that’s a whole other story, one that the current administration might do well to consider (City, County, State, as well as Federal). So call your city council representative, the mayor, and county commissioners to tell them Newark needs immigrants. Better yet, call the folks with their hand on the handles of the basket building, Cheri or her husband, and tell them Newark needs an immigration reception and processing center. Like them, most immigrants come with one or both hands gripping the handles of their belongings. And the basket building even has those. What better place than the vacant basket building? What could be more perfect?