The announcement of the new airplane plant for Mobile has some of my peers turning metaphorical somersaults, but my outlook is decidedly more guarded.
I think it could possibly be good for Mobile’s arts world. Some industries like Degussa have a decent track record of investing in Mobile’s cultural scene, ponying up funds for various endeavors and institutions. Others come in and treat us like the “demi-Third World region ripe for exploitation” that the state government claims we are in their attempts to woo new industry. We’ll see into which camp the new players fall.
But true to my reputation at Lagniappe Central, I remain skeptical as to the depth and length of any impact. Why? Because I’m a history buff–it was my major in college–and I’m well familiar with Mobile’s backstory.
For centuries, Mobilians have always awaited the intervention of outside forces to save the city’s fortunes like some benevolent hurricane showering good fortune on all. There is a distinct complacency here that keeps folks from realizing their true power.
Following the rise and fall of the Cotton Boom, Mobile has hung its hopes on project after project.
“Well, when the feds fix the shipping channel, we’ll really take off.”
“Well, when the state builds new docks, we’ll really take off.”
“Well, when the shipyards are improved, we’ll really take off.”
“Well, when the Department of Defense finishes that air base, we’ll really take off.”
“Well, when the federal government finishes the Tenn-Tom Waterway, we’ll really take off.”
“Well, when they open that naval homeport, we’ll really take off.”
“Well, when the convention center opens, we’ll really take off.”
“Well, when the cruise terminal gets opened, we’ll really take off.”
The latest projects to start the mantra again have been the RSA Tower, Thyssen-Krupp and now EADS.
The RSA Tower sits mostly dormant. We keep hearing new tenants are coming, but it’s been almost a year since the big unveiling and most of the floors are obviously vacant as evidenced by the nighttime views into the windows. And I’m still trying to figure out why all these new tourists David Bronner foresees are suddenly going to be headed for Mobile. To go to Bellingrath Gardens?
Thyssen-Krupp hasn’t opened yet, but its distance from town puts its impact in doubt. A few decades ago, a host of chemical plants opened just south of Tillman’s Corner and their combined employment opportunities and economic impact was comparable to what is boasted for the T-K project. They were much closer to town yet they in no way “reshaped” Mobile. When one factors in the rapidly escalating cost of gasoline, it becomes even more doubtful residents on the Mobile-Washington county line will be coming into town with any daily frequency. I mean, we currently see West Mobilians who think going six miles into downtown is somehow arduous so think about those who live 50 miles away.
Granted, Brookley Air Base impacted Mobile but basically in population numbers. It provided the impetus for expanding city limits but not much else. Sure there are many who try and paint a picture of Mobile as an effete oasis prior to its contamination from the hinterland hordes who worked at Brookley, but that is little more than myth and perspective. If you asked the great majority of poor blacks and white citizens who provided the grist for Mobile’s economic mills whether Mobile was more “civilized” in those days, their answers would likely be less rosy.
Essentially, those emigres didn’t change Mobile culturally. Did they eradicate the trappings of Mobile’s Creole roots? The Catholic archdiocese is still here and just as powerful. Mardi Gras is bigger than ever. Lord knows, the racial and socio-economic divisions of the past still haunt us.
Let’s face it, the only way Mobile is going to intrinsically change will be if the residents alter the most mysterious frontier: the one between their ears. The very thing that keeps Mobile a backwater is the perspective of many of its residents. Not everyone here is provincial, but a vast majority are. Until Mobile can become more than a suburban rookery, a place where people withdraw to raise children in isolation from outside influence and cosmopolitan mindsets, where those that are “different” feel estranged and alienated, where criticism is eschewed instead of digested and defensiveness is reflexive, no change of value will ever come to Mobile. That Mobile needs to go the way of malaria epidemics and paddle-wheelers.
The days where a cloistered group of Mobilians “kept it small and kept it all” should pass into the dusty bin of history.
I know so many people who would have made this a far more interesting place to live but opted to move over the last few decades. They went on to form successful recording labels, work for international entertainment entities, record hit songs, succeed in the film industry, just on and on and on.
That’s why despite my expectations, my actual hope for this town-that-is-almost-a-city is that these new projects not only flourish but succeed in bringing in many, many thousands of new residents who don’t hold the prejudices and predilections common to native Mobilians. The mindset that has marked this place for the last three hundred years HAS TO CHANGE or nothing ever will. The best, brightest and most creative will continue to leave for more vibrant environs otherwise.
Boeing cheerleader and Kansas congressman Todd Tiahrt (Republican) appeared on CNN’s “Lou Dobbs Tonight” this week to further politicize the GAO decision.