Forbes: Jacksonville in "Economic Free Fall"

[finehoe]

Jacksonville, Fl.
Net Population Change, 2006-2009: 3.83%
Per Capita Gross Domestic Product: $16,035.65
Change in New Building Permits, February 2007-February 2010: -66.09%
Change in Unemployment, January 2007-January 2010: 227.03%
Change in New Jobs Added, February 2007 - February 2010: -7.74%
Change in Median Home Price from Market Peak: -23%

http://www.forbes.com/2010/04/09/cities-top-ten-lifestyle-real-estate-unemployment-home-prices.html

[buckethead]

React to the news, or drive the news.

The choice is our own to make.

[JaxNative68]

an open mouth catches no feet

[St. Auggie]

So basically anywhere where people wanted to move to, but due to a slowed economy cannot or willnot move there as fast as before.  Shocking.

[CS Foltz]

Is it just me or is that stating the obvious?

[Dog Walker]

A century ago the turpentine industry was one of the economic mainstays of this city.  It went away and we kept on prospering.  For the last twenty years, construction has been a mainstay of our economy.  It has gone away too.  We didn't have to revive the turpentine industry to regain our economic security and we don't have to revive the construction industry to do so either.

Time to retool, re-educate and move on to other things.

[Captain Zissou]

A century ago the turpentine industry was one of the economic mainstays of this city.  It went away and we kept on prospering.  For the last twenty years, construction has been a mainstay of our economy.  It has gone away too.  We didn't have to revive the turpentine industry to regain our economic security and we don't have to revive the construction industry to do so either.

Time to retool, re-educate and move on to other things.

+2. Golf Clap. 

[BridgeTroll]

Found this cool article...

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,795013-1,00.html

Monday, Apr. 29, 1940
FORESTRY: Troubled Turpentiners

To the easygoing town of Valdosta on the edge of Georgia's great Okefenokee swamp one day last week went some 2,000 uneasy turpentiners & friends for the annual gathering of the American Turpentine Farmers Association Cooperative. Munching barbecued chicken carefully nurtured for the occasion, they saw Mary Newton, 17, a redheaded, brown-eyed Georgia Peach, crowned Miss Turpentine of 1940, stood by for the cutting of a virgin pineâ€"symbol that a new turpentine year was on.

Because Englishmen in the 17th Century first exploited Southern pine forests for pine tar & pitch (for calking ships' hulls, tarring rope), pine products are called naval stores. Three hundred years later the same timberlands (from North Carolina to Texas) yielded 80% of the world's turpentine (for thinning paint) and rosin (for soap, paper making, varnishes), still called naval stores. By 1900 this industry was turning out annually 600,000 bbl. of turpentine, 2,000,000 bbl. of rosin, hit $63,500,000 in 1921. Of that lush business, some 60% was in exports. In all those years turpentiners had but one worry: to keep ahead of the logging crews. Cheap Negro labor ($4-$6 a week today) slit the trees, drew the sap. Hundreds of individual distillers boiled it down, sold turpentine and rosin to factors who stored them until purchasers came to buy. It was almost too good to be true.

Depression I put an end to the halcyon days. Turpentine prices slumped from better than 50¢ a gallon to 31¢ in 1931, rosin from $8.50 a barrel to $2.95. By 1933 the housing collapse and a shrunken export market reduced the naval stores industry to a pauperish $13,792,000. In March 1936 producers met at Jacksonville, formed the American Turpentine Farmers Association Cooperative to cut excess production, get rid of surplus stocks, undertake conservation.

Chosen to drag the industry out of the woods was a big, burly, hardheaded, quail-hunting Valdosta judge named Harley Langdale. No. 1 U. S. turpentiner, he and his associates grossed better than $500,000 last year from 70,000 owned, 300,000 leased acres of Southern pine. As president and manager of A. T. F. A. he has: 1) borrowed $21,500,000 (1938-39) to tide member producers (over 90% of production) over the industry's rehabilitation; 2) encouraged the building of central stills; 3) produced a standard product, to be marketed in uniform turpentine cans bearing the A. T. F. A. seal and pine tree symbol; 4) cut gum turpentine production 25%; 5) sought new uses for turpentine and rosin.

But the naval stores industry was still worried last week. On its chief market (Savannah, Ga.) turpentine was selling for 29¢ a gallon, rosin from $4-$6.10 a barrel. World War II had crimped exports to a point where factors figured they would be lucky to ship 250,000 bbl. of rosin (50% of '39), 7.000,000 gallons of turpentine (75% of '39) abroad this year. Although surplus stocks of turpentine are down, warehouses groaned with a staggering 1,200,000 bbl. of rosin. Main hope is for a better market in the U. S.

A. T. F. A. also, worried last week over a rival coop, Gum Turpentine Farmers Cooperative Association, formed last year at Vidalia, Ga., by small Georgia producers, to buck the influence of factors in the A. T. F. A. Headed by mild, sandy-haired William Capers Rice, 38, mayor of Vidalia, Gum Turp. last year won an estimated $1,000,000 reduction in factorage interest rates and handling charges. It aims now to get rid of small stills dependent on factors, pool output in a central still system.

[Dog Walker]

Great find!  None of those efforts worked either.  German chemists had developed methods of extracting solvents from natural gas and oil during the war and welded ships hulls were developed then too.  No more turpentine industry.

Go through the woods at Cary State or Osceola State Forests and you can still find the clay pots that were used to catch the tree sap.  Talk to some of the older African-Americans in rural towns in the South and ask them to tell you the stories of the turpentine camps, frequently called "turpentine hells" in those days.

[stjr]

Nice article on turpentine.  Love these sidebars.

[sheclown]

It's a great time to be a building contractor in Florida!  New permits down 66%.  I wonder what these numbers mean if the bubble is taken out of the equation.  It was a frenzy here in 2006/2007.  You couldn't even find anyone to sell drywall, much less deliver.  Demand was insane.  Material prices skyrocketed.  You couldn't keep a carpenter around, all they had to do was walk down the sidewalk and a khaki-wearing white truck driving contractor would run over a pretty blonde to get him.

So trying to find some sort of normal to compare to today doesn't work much.

[MusicMan]

Yeah, I went out in San Marco last night, after going to the Symphony. The symphony was almost sold out, as
was the otherr event at the T-U PAC. Then there was a fun and crazy scene at TAVERNA, one of the newer restaurants that has opened recently. The article about Jacksonville being in "Free fall" is total B.S.!!!!!!!
I dont know about Southside and the beaches, but the Historic Districs are buslting with economic activity.
Also, last time I visited St Johns Town Center, it was packed.  These publications also like to tout up and coming areas like Cedar Rapids, Iowa and similar places. I don't think there is a mass migration from Florida to Iowa.
While foreclosures are one piece of the puzzle, you never see headlines these days about the million dollar transactions that are still going on. IF we have 10% unemployment, then we also have 90% employment,
and those folks are still out there spending. Dozens of new businesses open every day here, while many close.
Whenever there is a down trend the poorer areas do suffer while the more affluent seem to dim somewhat, but not the total collapse portrayed in this article. Now DETROIT, that's a free fall.

[tufsu1]

agreed MusicMan...especially when we just saw a decrease in unemplyment figurs for the Jax. area

[mtraininjax]

I believe all you really need to do is observe the traffic on our local roads. Yes, sure the evil mouse is bringing in tourists, but I have seen a dramatic increase in the number of vehicles on the road, and they are not all here for the mouse. I think things are getting better, we are seeing so in our services business. My wife who is a realtor said prices are beginning to firm and they have been on fire selling houses of late. As the TU pointed out, 200,000 buys a lot more house than it did in 2006, and we still have the river, the jags, and a great town. I think we're on the way back up.

[Dog Walker]

Stephen, It's like the inflation figures.  They pull out housing, fuel costs and food cost because they are "volatile".  Yeah, and they also make up a very significant portion of every individuals spending.  

What the devil are they measuring, the rise and fall of the price of concrete pipe?  If the price of that started rising rapidly, they would probably throw out that figure too.