letter from TOLEDO, OHIO Of the original seven Fortune 500 companies,
Labor historians count this as one of the three most important strikes in U.S. history. Although harmony and productivity at the new Jeep plant, and elsewhere, indicate that Toledo’s labor force has come a long way from 1934, the tough “Union Town” reputation lingers. Toledo’s population peaked at just under 400,000 in 1969. Then began a steady decline as people headed for the suburbs and beyond. It’s estimated that between 50,000 and 105,000 people left the metropolitan region every year between 2007 and 2014. The U.S. Census Bureau estimated that by 2016, there were just 278,000 folks left in the City of Toledo. Median income was $34,548 per household. Median value of owner- occupied homes was $77,800 – which would rent you a parking space next to a dumpster in Cupertino, California. In Cupertino, a median-value house costs $1,214,000, almost 16 times what it costs in Toledo. True, Cupertino’s median income is $147,929, but that’s only four times the Toledo median income. Four times the income for 16 times the housing cost... You do the math. Toledo’s slogan in the 1900s was, “You will do
only Jeep – now owned by Fiat Chrysler Automobiles – remains as a significant manufacturer. But the new Jeep plant is the very model of modern manufacturing. Jeep’s Toledo assembly complex is 3.64 million square feet on 312 acres of land. It employs just under 6,000 people and just over 600 robots. The former home of Jeep administration and manufacturing – where 4,000 Toledoans gathered to watch the facility’s implosion in 1979 – has recently evolved from a brown field to Dana Incorporated’s newest 300,000-square-foot plant, manufacturing axles for the Jeep Wrangler. Dana also has built its new headquarters in the Toledo area. Toledo’s top manufacturers include some familiar names – GM Powertrain, Libbey, and Owens- Illinois. We’re still in the glass and car businesses, even as we transform to a service economy. In 1906, the Ice House Quartette sang our theme song: We’re strong for Toledo, T-O-L-E-D-O
The girls are the fairest, The boys are the squarest Of any old town that we know. We’re strong for Toledo, The place where the Maumee flows, We’ll all join together In all types of weather for Toledo T-O-L-E-D-O
better in Toledo.” And you still will.
The commute from your $77,000 home to your $34,000 job only takes 19.6 minutes on average – less time than it takes to pick up from Starbucks, even if you use the app.
American Consequences 35
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