Sherry Linkon and John Russo argue that jobs are not the only things lost when deindustrialization strikes a community such as Youngstown, Ohio. What are some other effects of deindustrialization on the community?
Week 5 Day 2 Discussion Question 3
April 7, 2016 | 1 Comment
March 13, 2019 at 2:10 pm
There are many effects of deindustrialization that strike a community.
One effect was that they were as seen as being desperate for bringing jobs to the community. In Youngstown, four prisons were built in the 1990’s which added over 1600 jobs. With the new prisons built in the area, the media continued to focus on how downturn of the former mills in Youngstown had contributed to them bringing in prisons with dangerous criminals. Youngstown was trying to stimulate the economy by any means necessary, and by bringing in prisons, they were making Youngstown look even worse and associating it with negative connotations.
One of the main effects that strikes Youngstown is that of high a crime rate. The per capita murder rate in Youngstown was in the top ten and Youngstown was compared to cities such as New York, Los Angeles and Chicago. There was never a mention, however, between the fact that there is correlation between high unemployment and per capita murder rate. In fact, many of the murders in Youngstown took place in the African American community and there was a large disparity between the murder rate of African American women and that of white women. This was ignored by the media. This image of a high crime rate can also be associated with the prisons that are in Youngstown, as well.
Lastly, another effect associated with deindustrialization was that of organized crime. The influence of the mob was prevalent throughout many branches of the local government including the police and judges. This even went up to the state representative. This put another negative spotlight on Youngstown.