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.

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SPACE FOR LEASE

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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.

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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.

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“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.

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Cadillac is filled with empty buildings, rundown businesses and various spaces to lease.

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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.