Across U.S., the Recovery Is Indeed Uneven
In the Golden Triangle of southeastern Texas, where the piney woods give way to erector-set petrochemical complexes, help is definitely wanted. Mobil, Chevron and other big companies are on a building binge and good times are back in the oil patch.
Half a continent away in Connecticut’s Fairfax County, retailers in downtown Stamford are quizzical when asked about the recovery. Business is bad--in jewelry stores, in shoe shops and at the lunch counters--as big employers downsize to cope with the stubborn Northeast slump.
Not so in blue-collar Duluth, the rough-hewn Minnesota manufacturing center on Lake Superior, where things have been up so long that residents no longer talk about down. The shine of the remade Rust Belt glows in its steel mills, shopping centers and bustling port.
These are the snapshots of a U.S. economic recovery that the Federal Reserve Board says “continues to be uneven across the country.” As some areas are still in recession, particularly the Northeast, New England and Southern California, others are enjoying a revival, particularly in the Midwest.
The manufacturing sector is the bright spot. Some of the areas now booming were on the bottom a couple of years ago, as they struggled to retool their aging factories to compete with tough international competitors.
Problems persist nationwide in retail sales, real estate and financial services. Consumers are still wary of the economy’s strength, keeping a lid on spending and further restraining the rebound.
What follows is the economic view, as reported by Times staff writers, from three cities in different regions of the United States.
Stamford, Conn.
The recession is far from over in this city of 108,000. That mirrors the situation in much of the Northeast and especially in New York, a city that Stamford continues to serve as a bedroom community while it redefines itself as a headquarters city in its own right.
Stamford’s unemployment rate in July, the most recent month for which statistics are available, was the highest in more than a decade at 5.6%, up from 4.3% a year earlier and 3.9% at the beginning of 1990, according to the Connecticut Department of Labor.
“We think the effects of the recession are even greater than the unemployment numbers indicate,” said Joseph Ercolano, vice president for economic development of the Southwestern Area Commerce & Industry Assn. of Connecticut, a regional business group. “A lot of the unemployed here are white-collar, upper- and middle-management types who may not file claims for unemployment insurance.”
Stamford, one of the principal beneficiaries of the two-decades-long corporate outflow from New York, now houses the corporate headquarters of such well-known firms as Xerox Corp., GTE Corp., Champion International, Pitney Bowes and General Re.
Many of these companies, to use the popular euphemism, have been “downsizing” their headquarters staffs. Stamford, like much of the Northeast and New England, has also been hurt by the depression in the real estate industry and the attendant bank and savings and loan woes.
Stamford’s office vacancy rate, for example, stands at a staggering 23%, and a raft of unsold condominiums continues to glut the housing market. Retail sales are down as jittery consumers keep a close eye on expenditures.
“Business is sluggish, and my honest opinion is it’s going to get worse,” said Johny Henderson, owner of a small jewelry store on Atlantic Street, Stamford’s main shopping thoroughfare.
“Basically, people are afraid. They’re holding onto their dollar and I don’t blame them. It’s not the freewheeling ‘80s anymore. The city’s laying off, Pitney Bowes is laying off, all the major corporations are laying off.”
Henderson said he has been especially hard hit by the recession because he deals in luxury goods. “Jewelry is the first thing to go in a downturn and the last thing to come back,” he said.
But the slump is by no means limited to upscale merchants.
“Our business is off about 25% to 30% from a year ago,” said Peter Psichopaidas, proprietor of Sikes Deli and Variety Store in downtown Stamford. “All of my suppliers say that their business is off too.”
Lunch customers who used to come in three or four times a week “now you’ll see once or twice,” Psichopaidas said. “If there is any improvement, it’s that for the last month or so we’ve been holding our own and not sliding any further.
“But almost everyone I talk to, especially the tradesmen who used to work construction, is looking for a side job, something to keep them going,” he added.
Herbert Garcia, manager of Drago’s Shoe Repair at the Stamford train station, said his business has witnessed occasional faint glimmers of recovery but that all the apparent advances have petered out.
“Some weeks, it’ll look like things are picking up, and then it stops,” he said. “This store has been here five years and for the first time I am only barely making my rent.”
Working to combat the slump, business leaders in Fairfield County, of which Stamford serves as hub, on Tuesday launched a new marketing campaign designed to bring new jobs to the region.
“This is new for us,” Ercolano said. “Historically, Stanford and the surrounding towns basically opened their arms and caught all these companies coming in.”
Looking forward, he said, Stamford will probably be hurt “as a result of the continuing shake-outs in real estate and banking.” Stamford will also be buffeted by crosscurrents resulting from New York City’s deepening economic troubles.
