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Welcome to www.TheReminder.com archive for past articles!/Opinion/G. Michael Dobbs/With rail cars, manufacturing roots, jobs return to Valley
With rail cars, manufacturing roots, jobs return to Valley Date: 10/23/2014 I couldn’t think of better news for the city of Springfield and the rest of Hampden County than the announcement the Changchun Company will be building a rail car manufacturing plant on the former Westinghouse site on Page Boulevard.
This announcement goes counter to the many statement elected officials have made over the years that the kind of manufacturing that put Western Massachusetts on the map will never be seen again.
The reason we exist here is because of manufacturing. The establishment of the U.S. Armory at which guns were manufactured provided a workforce that over the decades grew and was the basis for other enterprises. Remember, Springfield, Westfield and Chicopee were centers for bicycle and automotive production as well as private arms companies.
This area was known for its high tech innovations: the first successful gasoline-powered automobile in America, the first successful motorcycle in America, the Springfield rifle and the machinery that made production of that weapon possible.
Manufacturing is at our roots and the biggest shame is that it was allowed to go away at first to Southern states and then overseas. It was our backbone.
This new facility will mean living wage jobs for people in the region. It might attract other companies to us. While I do wish the company were American, I’m willing to settle for a foreign company willing to make a huge investment in the area.
Now if the casino legislation is not repealed, Springfield and the region will see a huge uptick in construction jobs. While I’m still quite ambivalent about the long-term success and economic impact of a casino, I’m willing to admit in the short term the local economy will be booming in a way it hasn’t in decades.
Speaking of casinos, NoCasinoSpringfield has released three new short videos that provide people with reasons to vote for casino appeal. The videos as “The Whole Picture,” (www.youtube.com/watch?v=xWiGZl2nciY), “Doublespeak” (www.youtube.com/watch?v=zw-KlLojLPw) and “That Sour Taste” (www.youtube.com/watch?v=hb72PkNP9Ks).
Now if the anti-casino folks had any money, I’m sure these videos would be on television. They don’t though and the pro-casino forces are using their considerable resources to run carefully crafted commercial that emphasize economic development and job creation.
This is truly a tough choice for many voters. It doesn’t take much time searching the Internet to find plenty of stories about how a casino didn’t live up to its promise. Although MGM Springfield has much support in its target zero neighborhood of the South End, I know I wonder if those small businesses there will be able to survive the inconveniences posed by the two years of construction, followed by the impact of the casino itself.
I still intend to buy my vacuum bags at City Vacuum, my lottery tickets and the occasional cigar at Buckeye Brothers, and fruits and vegetables at AC Produce. I have to add that Milano’s sandwiches are great and what can beat a cannoli from La Fiorentina?
But will these businesses survive?
There is no doubt about it: MGM Springfield may be a bet that pays off big or it may not. We’re going to roll that dice on Nov. 4.
The announcement that the Hampden Country District Attorney’s Office will begin to request pre-trial detentions for people deemed to pose a danger to society is very welcomed news. Now that crimes involving guns are covered under the statue, the DA can ask for a person arrested for a crime to sit in jail awaiting trial instead of getting bail.
Too many people are being released back into Hampden County by a legal system that doesn’t seems to understand the nature of repeat offenders.
Agree? Disagree? Drop me a line at news@thereminder.com or at 280 N. Main St., East Longmeadow, MA 01028. As always, this column represents the opinion of its author and not the publishers or advertisers of this newspaper.
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