My wife and I traveled to Oklahoma and Missouri a couple of weeks ago.  We arrived in the St. Louis area the day after the Ferguson, Missouri ( an urban suburb of St. Louis) riots began following the shooting of a young black man by a white police officer.  During our two days of visiting the city of St. Louis we had an opportunity to drive around some of the less desirable residential neighborhoods of the city and see some of the abandoned industrial areas.  The city of St. Louis has a population of about 300,000 compared to its peak population of 856,000 in 1950.  Like Detroit and many other US cities the maximum population and operating industrial capacity peaked in the early 1950s.  Since the post World War II period many changes have occurred in the economies of US cities.  Much of the abandoned property looks as if it has been existing in a war zone.  The reduction of property values in all cities impacted by the reduced population and industrial activity has created large areas of poverty with no hope for revitalization.

The time has come for all Americans to make a major investment in the redevelopment of abandoned urban land and recycling of building materials that are salvageable.  Small scale programs of this type have been initiated in Detroit and Cleveland.  It is time for the US government to launch a major program that cleans up a significant percentage of the abandoned property over the next 10 years.  I don't know how much it would cost but an investment of $100B over the next 5 years would be a good start.  I see the federal government issuing grants to US cities and counties to execute specific proposals to clean-up blighted areas.  The contractors hired to do the work must commit to hiring workers from the impacted areas so that skills can be learned and money injected into the local economies.  Once the land has been cleared the land must be returned  to natural state with trees, grasses or other natural covering.  After clearing the land the ownership would remain with the city or country administering the program.  It would be hoped that at some time in the future the land could be returned to productive use.  All funds generated from the sale of recycled materials would remain with the city or country administering the program.  In the mean time the land would be green space within the urban area, not a blighted area.

I would prefer for this program to be funded through the transfer of budget dollars from entitlement programs.  However, if necessary, I would be willing to transfer spending from other budget areas to fund this program.  I would even be willing to include this program in a overall budget deal that is developed consistent with the Simpson-Bowles fiscal responsibility recommendations. 

We all need to help redevelop and recycle blighted portions of US cities where many of our parents and grandparents grew up and the businesses that helped make the US a great country got started.  We can also help some of the people living in these areas do some productive work and gain some marketable skills.  We can also help our large urban areas improve their competitiveness in attracting new business and residents,  Recycling materials is also a good thing.

The time has come to redevelop and recycle major US cities.

TPM

Sometimes interesting books appear completely unexpectedly.  I recently received Haunted Empire - Apple After Steve Jobs by Yukari Iwatani Kane as a gift.  This book is essentially a sequel to Walter Isaacson's Steve Jobs with respect to the future direction of Apple Inc. and the lasting influence of Steve Jobs on the direction of the company.  I highly recommend this book to anyone that is interested in understanding how Apple has evolved over the past couple of years.  The manuscript was completed late last year so it is very current on all of the issues that Apple and its Chief Executive Officer, Tim Cook, have faced since the death of Steve Jobs.

It is clear the author believes that Apple is a company that has peaked in terms of its overall market influence and is now in a long term decline.  Apple has performed fairly well financially since Jobs death but the market (high tech, investors, users, media) continues to express concerns that Apple has not revealed its next blockbuster product area (wearable tech, Apple TV, or something else).  As I read the book I could almost hear Ms. Kane laughing at Apple's recent PR efforts to convince the market that their minor product upgrades are a big deal.  From the author's perspective Apple has passed its technology leadership position to other companies like Samsung and Google.

The book includes interesting discussions of many of Apples big issues that they have had to address over the past few years such as:  labor issues at its supplier factories in China; intellectual property battle with Samsung in courts all over the world; its international corporate structure designed to minimize US taxes and its legal problems related to its e-book business plan. Apple in one of the largest, if not the largest, publicly traded company in the world in terms of market capitalization.  It is no longer the small technology company trying to beat the big guys.  It is the biggest of the big guys.

We will see if the author is correct in her assessment.  Will Apple develop a sensational  new product line?  Can Apple keep growing the company and maintain its profit margins?  Will Apple's major legal issues finally get resolved?  Stay tuned.  I am sure there will be many more books about the legacy of Steve Jobs and the history of Apple in the years to come.

TPM