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Links to online articles (or PDFs for articles) related to Bay Area Industry.
Railroads feel economic pinch - shift from trucks to trains?
By JIM KINNEY Business writer, The Republican (MassLive.com)
August 26, 2008
WESTFIELD - Engineer Al B. Massey slowly let off on the brake and pushed forward
on the throttle. With that, the low rumble in the 16-cylinder diesel engine
becomes an earthquake underfoot, and the 249,000-pound locomotive built in 1949
starts rolling out of the Pioneer Valley Railroad's warehouse facilities at the
Savage Arms plant down through Westfield to the rail yard on Elm Street.
It had
been a busy day on a railroad that is getting busier as the costs of trucking
goes up. Michael L. Rennicke, vice president and general manager for Pioneer
Valley Railroad, says he expects to handle 5,000 to 6,000 railroad cars loaded
with freight this year. That's compared with 4,200 the year before and 3,300
railroad cars in 2006...
City
industries feel squeeze with rezoning attracting developers
BY JESS WISLOSKI AND JOHN LAUINGER, DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITERS
August 25th 2008
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In the battle for buildable land in New York City, factories and warehouses are
losing out to glitzy residential towers and commercial developments - and city
policies are tipping the scales. When Mayor Bloomberg took office in 2002, there
were 12,542 acres in the city where manufacturers could set up shop. If the
latest round of proposed zoning changes goes through, the Bloomberg
administration will have rezoned 20% of that factory-friendly land, according to
a study by the
Pratt
Center for Community Development obtained exclusively by the Daily News.
Skilled Trades Seek Workers
By Anton Troianovski, Wall Street Journal
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Even as the economy slumps and unemployment rises, strong demand for power plants,
oil refineries and export goods has many manufacturers and construction contractors
scrambling to find enough skilled workers to plug current and future holes.
With the shortage of welders, pipe fitters and other high-demand workers likely to get
worse as more of them reach retirement age, unions, construction contractors and other
businesses are trying to figure out how to attract more young people to those fields.
Export Boom Helps Farms, but Not American Factories
By Louis Uchitelle, The New York Times, August 18, 2008
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Exports are the bright spot this year in an otherwise bleak economy. But the
world is not suddenly snapping up made-in-America goods like aircraft,
machinery and staplers. The great attraction is decidedly low-luster commodities
like corn, wheat, ore and scrap metal.
This helps explain why manufacturing jobs are continuing to disappear by the
tens of thousands and factories are closing even during a miniboom in exports.
While the surge in commodities is a welcome relief, it is an unreliable prop for an
industrial power.
Forget Coffeehouses- Businesses Want Freeways, Labor, Energy
By Paul Shigley, Planetizen, August 14, 2008
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Manufacturing still matters, and what manufacturers want hasn't
changed much. The question is whether a "new economy" state like
California can compete in the old economy.
Manufacturing companies say they want highway access, skilled and
low-cost labor, cheap energy, land and low construction costs.
Considering this criteria, you might think a crowded, high-cost
state like California couldn't compete.
In Slow Times, Rezoning Appeals to Developers
By Alison Gregor, The New York Times, August 12, 2008
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Property developers generally earn their money by putting up new
buildings, but when the real estate market cools, making it
difficult to obtain financing, they often look for other ways to
help turn a profit.
Some developers — and their real estate lawyers — say that rezoning
property is one of them. Juan D. Reyes III, a partner in the law
firm of Riker, Danzig, Scherer, Hyland & Peretti, said he had
clients seeking zoning changes with hopes of developing or selling
the property once the market improves. This particularly applies in
areas zoned for manufacturing.
2.3 Million Jobs
Lost to China since 2001, Study Shows
Industry Week,
July 30, 2008
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Manufacturing lost 200,000 scientists and engineers, a 10.7% drop
according to a study by the Economic Policy Institute.
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The increasing U.S. trade deficit with China has cost 2.3 million
American jobs between 2001 and 2007, including 366,000 last year
alone, according to a study released on July 30 by the Economic
Policy Institute (EPI). These displaced workers lost an average of
$8,146 last year, a total of $19.4 billion, as they moved to
lower-paying jobs.
Export
Boom Fuels Factory Town's Revival
By Timothy Aeppel, Wall Street Journal,
July 18, 2008
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MANITOWOC, Wis. -- This is a town manufacturing once deserted -- and
is now reviving. On a blustery January afternoon in 2003, nearly 900
workers at the town's second-largest manufacturer, a cookware
factory, switched off their machines and were told the company was
moving operations to Mexico.
Today, many of those workers are back
at the same plant making pots and pans for new bosses. At a factory
next door, workers are churning out energy-efficient industrial
light fixtures. Across town, one company is using a former shipyard
to produce 250-foot-tall steel towers used for wind turbines.
Sons
and daughters who ...
Sugar Bowl Bakery is a family affair
By Ilana DeBare, Chronicle Staff Writer, Sunday, July 6, 2008
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When Vietnamese immigrant Andrew Ly and his brothers bought a San
Francisco neighborhood doughnut shop in 1979, they were looking for
a small business that could support their families. Today the five
Ly brothers still own the Sugar Bowl Bakery. Seven of their children
and two of their children's spouses work there.
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Click here for a PDF of article.
The World Was Flat
By Sam Sherraden,
Global Economic Snapshot, June 30, 2008
AMB Property to sell prime sites, reap millions
By J.K. Dineen, San Francisco Business Times, June 9, 2008
- As a REIT specializing in urban industrial infill next to ports and
airports,
AMB Property Corp. has often found its blue-collar distribution
centers smack in the development path of decidedly white-collar office
parks and condominiums.
Industrial Land
Preservation: Key to Green Jobs Growth
By Margot Lederer Prado, Urban Habitat/Race, Poverty and the Environment,
Who Owns Our Cities? Spring 2008 Issue
- The most important issue facing Oakland today,” is how former Planning
Commission Chair Mark McClure describes the debate over the conversion
of Oakland’s approximately 33.8 million square feet of industrial land
(and potential job-generating space) for residential use.
The
Murder of US Manufacturing
By Martin Hutchinson, The Bear's Lair, Asia Times,
June 18, 2008
- The sad story of GE Appliances is a paradigm of what has gone wrong in
the US economy since 1980. No, manufacturing did not need to leave the
United States; US manufacturing was killed by a multitude of foolish
short-term-profit motivated decisions by inept and overpaid US
management. The other questions can also be answered. Manufacturing is
not intrinsically a low-skill and uninteresting operation. It involves
skills at the highest possible level and can readily employ high-wage
workers - after all LG's workforce in South Korea are these days very
far from being subsistence-level Third World proletariat. Finally, the
US cannot survive through financial services and tech startups alone; it
needs to reinvest in manufacturing or it will find itself unable to
support an advanced-economy living standard for the mass of its
population.
Stung by Soaring Transport Costs, Factories Bring Jobs Home Again
By Timothy Aeppel, Wall Street Journal, June 13, 2008
- The rising cost of shipping everything from industrial-pump parts to
lawn-mower batteries to living-room sofas is forcing some manufacturers
to bring production back to North America and freeze plans to send even
more work overseas.
Suddenly, a bright future for old-economy companies
By Peter G. Gosselin Los Angeles Times Staff Writer, May 24, 2008
- WASHINGTON — This is not your economy. It's not even your
parents' economy. To a surprising degree, this is your
great-grandparents' economy.
Protect Oakland's Industrial Base
Sharon Cornu and Josepth J. Haraburda, ContraCostaTimes.com, March 1, 2008
- Guest Commentary in the Contra Costa Times
Steel Pipe Factory Breaks Ground
ContraCostaTimes.com,
March 1, 2008
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The $137 million United Spiral Pipe plant in Pittsburg will produce big steel pipes ... of the United Spiral Pipe firm that will operate the new factory.
THE FAST T(R)ACK / For Bay Area Design Students
Zahid Sardar, Chronicle Design Editor,
February 27, 2008
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For Bay Area design students, the real world of manufacturing begins at school
Report: Midwage jobs vanish in Silicon Valley
Tom Abate, Chronicle Staff Writer, February 19, 2008
- Midwage jobs vanish in Silicon Valley
Shop class retooled at S.F. high school
Jill Tucker, Chronicle Staff Writer
February 18, 2008
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