Manufacturing can't do it alone

Josh Welton loves welding and his arc is burning brighter than it ever has.

But this flame isn’t fueled by a passion for the craft—at least not in recent weeks. He’s burning red because the scene that he wanted to be a part of so badly has turned out to be a sham. The Detroit being pushed by the marketers and civic leaders is not the reality being lived by its inhabitants. It’s a dangerous place.

Welton has contributed to thefabricator.com’s blog since early 2014. Vicki Bell, the site’s web content manager, made his acquaintance via Twitter, and she thought he would be an excellent addition to the site’s writers. She was correct. He loves welding, the people who weld, and the creations made by those welders. He’s a proponent of the craft and the manufacturers that support it. He has thousands of followers via his social media channels (Instagram: @welderassassin, Twitter: @BrownDogWelding, and Facebook: www.facebook.com/Browndogwelding) because he is authentic and talented. People like what they see and like the individual behind the craft.

Unfortunately, that online reputation doesn’t mean much on the streets of Detroit. Welton looked long and hard to find the perfect home and workspace arrangement in Detroit, finding the latter less than a year ago. He and his wife wanted to be a part of Detroit’s comeback, but the city didn’t necessarily show up with the welcome wagon in 2016. Since moving to Detroit, he has had two new Dodge Challengers stolen—from a fenced-in lot near his city home—only to later find the car’s shells completely and professionally stripped. (Let’s just say that Welton did not get the help he was expecting from the local police force.) Then his shop was wiped out. Pretty much everything was taken out of a workspace he leased in the Corktown neighborhood of Detroit. Tools of all shapes and sizes, a full-sized argon bottle, boxes of 2 percent thoriated tungsten—stuff that probably can’t be replaced.

Welton explains his situation much more honestly in his gut-wrenching recap in “Detroit versus Detroit” on his personal page on http://oppositelock.kinja.com. He’s not sticking around. He gets the hint.

It’s truly a shame. A welder with passion for making is unable to make his way in a city made famous by its manufacturing might. But his case is only one small example of what plagues the urban cores of many U.S. cities. Manufacturing companies that once provided the stepping stone to a middle-class existence for so many in major U.S. cities simply don’t exist—and likely won’t ever come back despite the best intentions of community leaders and politicians.

Of course, these manufacturing jobs didn’t simply disappear into the ether. Many moved to the suburbs. Others moved to more labor-friendly states. Some moved overseas and returned only when a robot or some sort of automation could do the job just as well and more cost-effectively than the cheapest of labor. As those jobs dwindled, neighborhood businesses folded, and families sought better surroundings. Enterprises of a nefarious variety filled the vacuum of economic activities. People with no means and little hope hunkered down—literally the last link to the days when kids roamed city streets, free to play without fear of assault or death.

This isn’t meant to be a eulogy for the death of urban America. It’s meant to be a warning that manufacturing won’t fuel the transformation of U.S. cities on its own.

Politicians love manufacturing because typically a lot of jobs are connected to these types of companies. A lot of jobs mean a lot of voters, who are related to other voters. If the multiplier effect can be used to make the case for a manufacturing job’s impact on a local community, it also can be applied to potential voters. And if it’s one thing we all know, politicians are always concerned about re-election.

Along with the tax breaks and other economic enticements for manufacturing companies, leaders need to put on their collective thinking caps if they truly want to revitalize these areas and not wait for the next wave of gentrification that might never come. We’re talking about ideas like infrastructure investment, public transportation improvement, and more effective law enforcement and criminal prosecution. This recent presidential election proved that people feel left behind and ignored by their leaders, and they want some sort of change.

You don’t change the dynamic of a city from a $700,000 flat overlooking a downtown skyline. It’s the people who built the flat, finished the floors, painted the walls, and delivered the furniture that give a city life. Welton was part of that foundation for Detroit.

I want manufacturing to succeed in the U.S. I want it to play an important role in the revitalization of this country’s urban areas. I want the makers to be at the forefront of the next great economic expansion. I just hope they get the support they need—individually and collectively.